Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

How one of the hardcore defenders of the capitalist system becomes very critical of governments and "leaders." He provides sound advice to get out of the crisis. " The world has come into this moment with divisions among its great powers and incompetence at the highest levels of government of terrifying proportions. We will pass through this, but into what? "A microbe has overthrown all our arrogance"? Whose arrogance? "The world economy is now collapsing" Related:  The post-pandemic slump

"The expropriators constitute a tiny percentage of the population, and they control what happens with that surplus value. It is this relationship of production, Wolff insists, that has thwarted the democratic promises of the American, French, and other bourgeois revolutions. And this system of minority rule over ownership of assets and people’s labour power is also the cause of the staggering inequality that afflicts the world now." Understanding socialism Related: The works of Eric Olin Wright

Breaking news The BBC: "On Tuesday,  the UK raised the threat to British shipping in Iranian waters in the Gulf to the highest level." Iranian boats in Iranian waters were threatening a British ship. The Iranian navy claims that the British ship was carrying weapons of mass destruction that could hit Tehran in 45 minutes. The Iranian supreme leader, in a speech broadcast on state TV, said: " I strongly believe that the British ship was carrying WMD. I do believe that the British developed them with the knowledge of the 'international community', and they pose a threat to the whole region. We will defend our people and our land with whatever means possible..." No one was able to very the claim that the British ship was carrying any WMD. Jeremy Hunt, a would-leader of the free world, was open about it: "We are desparate for a war and we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our American, Saudi and Emirati allies against the Mullahs and their way...

Davos and the ‘liberal order’

An admission that this one of the inherent aspects of capitalism In Tooze’s view,  “These crises are hard to predict or define in advance,”  and, short of more regulation, there is nothing we can do. In a way, as long as capitalism continues as the dominant mode of production globally, that is pretty much right.  That reminds me of what Greenspan said in his final summation of the crisis: “ I doubt that stability is achievable in capitalist economies, given the always turbulent competitive markets continuously being drawn toward but never quite achieving  equilibrium” . He went on,  “unless there is a societal choice to abandon dynamic markets and leverage for some form of central planning, I fear that preventing bubbles will in the end turn out to be infeasible. Assuaging the aftermath is all we can hope for.” Crashed: more the how than the why

The political economy of a long depression