Post Tagged with: "debt"

A Few Words on David Graeber’s Guardian Article

April 22, 2013 1:12 pm3 comments
A Few Words on David Graeber’s Guardian Article

David Graeber’s article in the Guardian, There’s no need for all this economic sadomasochism, is very disturbing because in it he adopts the argument of the MMT fascists. I want to state this clearly, although I am generally supportive of his activist work with Occupy, I think he is way [...]

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Guglielmo Carchedi’s bad advice for activists

December 16, 2012 11:18 am6 comments
Guglielmo Carchedi’s bad advice for activists

Keynesian economic policies don’t work, but fighting for these policies will? Guglielmo Carchedi’s essay on the so-called Marxist multiplier has me bugging. He is handing out bad advice to activists in the social movements and telling them this bad advice is based on Marx’s labor theory of value. The bad [...]

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How Did Antistatism Get Here?: A critique of David Graeber’s “Debt”

November 23, 2012 10:05 am0 comments
How Did Antistatism Get Here?: A critique of David Graeber’s “Debt”

In his book, “Debt: The First 5000 Years”, David Graeber levels the accusation against the Left, that it lacks imagination to see beyond present society. I think Graeber’s accusation is accurate and can be seen in his own antistatist (i.e., anti-political and anti-economic) argument. Contrary to Graeber’s argument that money [...]

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How Quantitative Easing really works: Occupy Wall Street Edition (2)

October 10, 2012 3:57 pm0 comments
How Quantitative Easing really works: Occupy Wall Street Edition (2)

As a contribution to Occupy Wall Street’s efforts against debt, I am continuing my reading of William White’s “Ultra Easy Monetary Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences” (PDF). I have covered sections A and B. In this last section I am looking at to section C of White’s paper [...]

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Making austerity work in Britain for Dummies (Anti-statist version)

October 8, 2012 11:02 am0 comments
Making austerity work in Britain for Dummies (Anti-statist version)

!Quelle Surprise! Like Greece and Spain before it, the UK finds austerity can only result in more austerity: U.K. Tories to Press Ahead With $16 Billion of Welfare Cuts The Conservative Party will press ahead with plans to cut 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) from the welfare budget and reduce [...]

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How Quantitative Easing really works: Occupy Wall Street Edition

September 23, 2012 4:40 pm2 comments
How Quantitative Easing really works: Occupy Wall Street Edition

Since Occupy Wall Street appears to be undertaking a concerted push toward addressing the growing debt servitude of the mass of working families to Wall Street banksters, I thought it might be interesting to understand how the Federal Reserve is now doubling down on a policy of manufacturing an even [...]

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Cat Brain at Work: How Chris Harman explains the “Marxist theory of stagnation”

April 6, 2012 7:32 am0 comments
Cat Brain at Work: How Chris Harman explains the “Marxist theory of stagnation”

As part of my continuing occupation of the Marxist Academy, I have been looking at various Marxist theories of the crisis of neoliberalism. I am now reading the late Chris Harman’s “The rate of profit and the world today”, written in 2007, just prior to the big crash. This is [...]

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Chasing Unicorns: Chris Harman and the “Marxist theory of stagnation”

April 4, 2012 8:33 am0 comments
"Friesian Unicorn" by Katrina Lasky

As part of my continuing occupation of the Marxist Academy, I have been looking at various Marxist theories of the crisis of neoliberalism. I am now reading the late Chris Harman’s “The rate of profit and the world today”, written in 2007, just prior to the big crash. ***** Harman [...]

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Marxist Academic Error 101: “A term is undefined and has no properties”

March 29, 2012 1:40 pm0 comments
Marxist Academic Error 101: “A term is undefined and has no properties”

As part of my continuing occupation of the Marxist Academy, I have been looking at various Marxist theories of the crisis of neoliberalism. This is the final part of my critique of Andrew Kliman’s “Neoliberalism, Financialization, and the Underlying Crisis of Capitalist Production” (PDF). ***** As can be seen in [...]

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Andrew Kliman and the curious case of the missing Capitalist Boom

March 27, 2012 1:22 pm0 comments
Andrew Kliman and the curious case of the missing Capitalist Boom

Next up in my survey of academic Marxist theories of the current crisis is Kliman’s “Neoliberalism, Financialization, and the Underlying Crisis of Capitalist Production” (PDF). Kliman’s argument is by far the most interesting explanation for the present crisis I have read so far. Far from seeking to merely explain the [...]

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Avoiding debt is easier said than done

January 17, 2012 7:21 am0 comments
Avoiding debt is easier said than done

Nothing wakes you up quicker than a letter from the debt collector. These bastards don’t mess around. If you don’t cough up the cash they will take everything you own and kick you out on the street. Some tend to miraculously find the exact amount owed before a debt is sold to [...]

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Why Rothbard was wrong on the Soviet Union, and why it matters now

August 15, 2011 11:52 am0 comments
Why Rothbard was wrong on the Soviet Union, and why it matters now

I am spurred to write this because, thanks to tweep @jdenigma, I was introduced to Murray Rothbard’s “plan for desocialization” of the Russian economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rothbard’s plan was first published in 1992, in the Review of Austrian Economics, and can be found at the [...]

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Theories of the current crisis: Closing thoughts on the hyperinflationists

June 8, 2011 8:47 am0 comments
Theories of the current crisis: Closing thoughts on the hyperinflationists

This is my final installment on the hyperinflationists section of theories of the current crisis for now. As I find in any good examination of a theory out there, I come away from this one with a better understanding of some of the problems of capitalism under conditions of absolute [...]

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Theories of the current crisis: Why non-dollar currencies are finished

June 6, 2011 9:05 am0 comments
Theories of the current crisis: Why non-dollar currencies are finished

In a recent post, Deflation or Hyperinflation, FOFOA begins the meat of his argument with investment adviser Rick Ackerman (who, until recently, predicted this present crisis will end in a debt deflation) by directly addressing Ackerman’s core deflationist argument, which originally was set forth in a 1976 book by C.V. [...]

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Theories of the current crisis: How FOFOA renders Williams more profound

June 2, 2011 12:58 pm0 comments
Theories of the current crisis: How FOFOA renders Williams more profound

I know I promised to examine John Williams’ argument that hyperinflation hinges on an exogenous political event: the rejection of the dollar as world reserve currency by other nations. I will return to this point. But, before I do, I want to respond to Neverfox, who asked me to evaluate [...]

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