How free is the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Covering a region spanning 40 percent of the world’s GDP and 12 signatory states, an argument can be made that the process of its negotiations and its commercial nature serves the corporate rationale rather than the public interest. Its potential impacts in areas such as intellectual property, medicines, labour standards and the environment are potentially wide reaching.
The End of Europe (As We Know It?)
As the Eurozone is amid secular stagnation, its old fiscal, monetary and banking challenges are escalating, along with new threats, including the Brexit, demise of Schengen, anti-EU opposition and geopolitical friction. According to Dan Steinbock, Brussels can no longer avoid hard political decisions for or against an integrated Europe, with or without the euro.
Financial Oligarchy vs. Feudal Aristocracy
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh and Anthony A. Gabb
In this article the authors explore how modern capitalism mirrors the feudal system of centuries ago where today, the banks are the feudal lords, and the general public play the part of peasants.
Ancient Amazons: Warrior Women in Myth and History
By Adrienne Mayor
In Greek myth, Amazons were fierce women of exotic lands who gloried in hunting and war. The greatest Greek heroes, Heracles and Achilles, proved their valor by killing Amazon queens. But were Amazons mere fantasy? Thanks to archaeology, we now know they were modeled on real steppe nomads of Eurasia.
From Hyper-Finance to Secular Stagnation & Mass Unemployment
By Michel-Henry Bouchet and Robert Isaak
In this article, the authors advocate policies to counter the decoupling of finance from the real economy of productive job-creation resulting from short-term global hyperfinance and misguided government regulations: eg. future bank bailouts should be conditioned upon including ratios of new lending to start-ups and small firms with the greatest scaling up potential for employment.
Should Economists Care About Ethics?
Whether conscious of it or not, economists rely on ethical norms and principles to carry out research and to inform policy choices. Economic efficiency, for example, is a powerful ethical concept, yet can be misapplied, as Jonathan Wight explores in this article. Understanding the institutional and ethical frameworks for policymaking is key to using economic tools correctly.
How to Defeat Western Neo-Colonialism
The West managed to build its wealth, including the social nets, on plunder, deception, slavery and countless holocausts on all continents of the world. Its citizens are ignorant about these facts. Their standards of living are outrageously high, but they demand more. There is no “Left” in the West, anymore, because true left means internationalism and solidarity.
EDITOR'S PICK OF THE WEEK
China’s Challenging Search for a New Model of Economic Growth
By Danny Leipziger
China cannot continue to rely on exports to drive its growth, but what are the alternatives?
China ran a $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, and despite admonitions from the IMF to rely...
