Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Leave it to the market

Coronavirus and the Economic Crisis

"Developing", "underdeveloped" or "uneven development"? The following was written in 1973, but I think it is still something that should make us think of its argument and how (ir)/relevant it is today. "In some quarters, it has often been thought wise to substitute the term ‘developing’ for ‘underdeveloped’. One of the reasons for so doing is to avoid any unpleasantness which may be attached to the second term, which might be interpreted as meaning underdeveloped mentally, physically, morally or in any other respect. Actually, if ‘underdevelopment’ were related to anything other than comparing economies, then the most underdeveloped country in the world would be the U.S.A, which practices external oppression on a massive scale, while internally there is a blend of exploitation, brutality, and psychiatric disorder. However, on the economic level, it is best to remain with the word ‘underdeveloped’ rather than ‘developing’, because the latter creat...

Imperialism, globalisation and the profitability of labour

In 2015, researchers based in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Norway and the USA published  Financial flows and tax havens: combining to limit the lives of billions of people , which they fairly claim to be “the most comprehensive analysis of global financial flows impacting developing countries compiled to date.” Their report calculates ‘net resource transfers’ (NRT) between developed and developing countries, combining licit and illicit inflows and outflows—from development aid and remittances of wages to net trade receipts, debt servicing, new loans, FDI and portfolio investment and repatriated profits, along with capital flight and other forms of financial chicanery and outright theft. They found that in 2012, the most recent year for which they could obtain data, what they call ‘developing and emerging countries’ (which of course includes China) lost $2.0 trillion in net transfers to rich countries, equivalent to 8% of emerging nations’ GDP in that year—four times larger than t...

With a few rare exceptions, "most governments [of the developing countries] have not been willing to act counter to neoliberal policy. The links between the leaders of these countries and the hub of decision making in most industrial countries are multifarious. Some of the ruling presidents, in particular in Africa, were brought to power during the Cold War, or owe their positions to it. Some are in power because they helped the elimination of or allowed the overthrow of heads of states who, like Thomas Sankara, the President of Burkina Faso and assassinated in 1987, wanted to commit their country to alternative, locally generalised development and social justice. Others simply prefer to follow the neoliberal current for fear of being destabilized or overthrown. But there is another factor of conservatism that works in favour of large debt and should not be underestimated. Most governments, both left and right wing, try to gain the goodwill of the local capitalists who have eve...

"David Harvey denies imperialism"

"Development" Between 1970 and 2007, the external debt of the developing countries was multiplied by twenty-nine. During this time, they repaid the equivalent of ninety-four times the amount owed in 1970. Between 1985 and 2007, developing countries sent to their creditors the equivalent of 7.5 Marshall Plans*...with the local capitalist elite taking their commission on the way. It is a well-oiled mechanism, with part of the money coming back to the South in the form of new loans to ensure that the transfers continue. Thanks to the debt, the wealth of the citizens of the South is being transferred under our very eyes to the elite of the North, with the complicity of the elite of the South. * Marshall Plan cost around $100 billion in 2010 value. Toussaint and Millet, Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank,  2010