Joseph Conrad.
"Heart of Darkness" and "The Secret Sharer".
Introduction by Albert J. Guerard.
New York: Signet Classic / New American Library / Penguin Books USA Inc., 1983.
Since these stories are easily available in many editions, I will not provide links for the particular edition (now out-of-print) that I read.
Joseph Conrad, Wikipedia.
Heart of Darkness (1899), Wikipedia.
"The Secret Sharer" (1910), Wikipedia.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Ferguson & Rogers, Right Turn (1986)
Thomas Ferguson & Joel Rogers.
Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics.
New York: Hill & Wang, 1986.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
Investment theory of party competition, Wikipedia.
In the following excerpt from Right Turn, pages 44-46, Ferguson & Rogers explain their investment theory of party competition:
Prior to Right Turn, Ferguson and Rogers collaborated on other articles and books including:
Thomas Ferguson & Joel Rogers, editors. The Hidden Election: Politics and Economics in the 1980 Presidential Campaign. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Thomas Ferguson & Joel Rogers, editors. The Political Economy: Readings in the Politics and Economics of American Public Policy. M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1984.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
The themes and analysis presented in Right Turn continue with further elaboration in Ferguson's next major book, Golden Rule:
Thomas Ferguson. Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems. University of Chicago Press, 1995.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
A 2011 paper by Ferguson on the U.S. Congress:
Thomas Ferguson, "Legislators Never Bowl Alone: Big Money, Mass Media, and the Polarization of Congress," INET Conference, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, April 2011.
Links for Thomas Ferguson:
Thomas Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Thomas Ferguson, Wikipedia.
Thomas Ferguson at The Nation.
Stories by Thomas Ferguson at AlterNet.
Thomas Ferguson, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Tom Ferguson, Next New Deal, The Blog of the Roosevelt Institute (but most recent post dated August 2011).
Links for Joel Rogers:
Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin Law School.
Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Sociology.
Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS).
Joel Rogers Publications, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (note that many of Rogers' papers can be downloaded from this webpage, including many articles with Ferguson from the 1980s).
Joel Rogers, Wikipedia.
Erik Olin Wright & Joel Rogers. American Society: How It Really Works. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Video of Joel Rogers speaking at the Occupy Los Angeles Teach-In, 05 November 2011:
My post with all the November 2011 Occupy Los Angeles Teach-In talks is here.
Joel Rogers speaking in 1996:
Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics.
New York: Hill & Wang, 1986.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
Investment theory of party competition, Wikipedia.
In the following excerpt from Right Turn, pages 44-46, Ferguson & Rogers explain their investment theory of party competition:
. . . Many analysts of American voting behavior have concluded that the whole realignment approach must be jettisoned; but this conclusion is even less satisfying than the original theory. Whatever its defects, the theory of critical realignment does have the immense virtue of focusing attention on the problem of qualitative change in U.S. politics. Work done withing the framework of the theory has also made a number of illuminating suggestions about the ways in which policy changes relate to institutional transformations in American society. Rejecting the theory altogether risks neglect of these problems and insights, and other analysts have therefore sought different approaches to the question of party systems and realignment.
This study follows one of them -- the suggestion that what properly defines American party systems is not blocs of voters but patterns of interest-group alignment and coalitions among major investors.
In sharp contrast to the voter-centered analysis that lies behind older realignment theories, this "investment" approach to the analysis of partisan conflict attempts to incorporate into social-science theory a fact most election analysis only rarely comes to grips with -- that efforts to control the state, by voters or anyone else, cost heavily in time and money. Merely developing views about major issues of public policy, and evaluating the candidates who compete for electoral affections, costs a great deal. Formulating and implementing particular policy initiatives costs even more. Given the background inequalities in wealth, income, information, and access to key decision-makers characteristic of most advanced industrial states, as well as the host of "collection action" problems that proliferate within them, these costs weigh particularly heavily on those with modest means. And while organization can compensate for background material inequalities, it itself requires major investments of time and money, and cannot be presumed. As a result, voter control of the state, while not zero, is likely to be uncertain and variable.
In the United States such control is even more problematic. By constitutional design, the U.S. political system is intensely fragmented, and its structure poses great obstacles to the aggregation and coordination of voter demands. The major parties, which are among the oldest in the world, are relatively undisciplined "constituency" organizations, rather than programmatic vehicles for defined ideologies. Particularly given the absence of proportional representation, barriers to third-party entry into the political system are high. Popular secondary institutions, such as unions and cooperatives, claim a relatively small share of the population as active members. The low-involvement political system imposes many costs on voters that other countries do not, and voter turnout is among the lowest and most decisively class-skewed in the industrialized world. These many different aspects of the American case both reflect and prolong its "exceptionalism." Voters here, by comparison to most other advanced industrial states, are especially disorganized, and this disorganization further raises the costs to individual voters of attempting to control the state.
As a practical matter, then, the fundamental "market" for political parties in the United States is not individual voters. The real market for political parties is defined by major "investors" -- groups of business firms, industrial sectors, or in some (rare) cases, groups of voters organized collectively. In contrast to most individual voters, such investors generally have good and clear reasons for investing to control the state, and the resources necessary to sustain the costs of such an effort. These major investors define the core of the major parties, and are responsible for sending most of the signals to which the rest of the electorate responds.
From the standpoint of such an "investment" theory, the rise and fall of American party systems is best analyzed by examining the rise and fall of investor blocs. In considering the rise and fall of the New Deal, for example, the approach does not recommend spending time, as do so many revisionists and the older generation of liberal historians, speculating endlessly (and usually unverifiably) on the mysteries of charasmatic domination by great Democratic Presidents. Rather, it recommends first identifying the investors that originally constituted the New Deal coalition, then tracing how and why they left the coalition, and where they went.
This is what we shall attempt to do in this and the next chapter, in a discussion that ranges from the origins of the New Deal to the election of Ronald Reagan. . . .
Prior to Right Turn, Ferguson and Rogers collaborated on other articles and books including:
Thomas Ferguson & Joel Rogers, editors. The Hidden Election: Politics and Economics in the 1980 Presidential Campaign. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Thomas Ferguson & Joel Rogers, editors. The Political Economy: Readings in the Politics and Economics of American Public Policy. M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1984.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
The themes and analysis presented in Right Turn continue with further elaboration in Ferguson's next major book, Golden Rule:
Thomas Ferguson. Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems. University of Chicago Press, 1995.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
A 2011 paper by Ferguson on the U.S. Congress:
Thomas Ferguson, "Legislators Never Bowl Alone: Big Money, Mass Media, and the Polarization of Congress," INET Conference, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, April 2011.
Links for Thomas Ferguson:
Thomas Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Thomas Ferguson, Wikipedia.
Thomas Ferguson at The Nation.
Stories by Thomas Ferguson at AlterNet.
Thomas Ferguson, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Tom Ferguson, Next New Deal, The Blog of the Roosevelt Institute (but most recent post dated August 2011).
Links for Joel Rogers:
Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin Law School.
Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Sociology.
Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS).
Joel Rogers Publications, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (note that many of Rogers' papers can be downloaded from this webpage, including many articles with Ferguson from the 1980s).
Joel Rogers, Wikipedia.
Erik Olin Wright & Joel Rogers. American Society: How It Really Works. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Video of Joel Rogers speaking at the Occupy Los Angeles Teach-In, 05 November 2011:
My post with all the November 2011 Occupy Los Angeles Teach-In talks is here.
Joel Rogers speaking in 1996:
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Chait, The Big Con (2007)
Jonathan Chait.
The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America.
alternate subtitle: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.
Boston & New York: Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007; paperback reprint 2008.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
The Big Con discusses the interaction of politics and economic policy in the USA. Recall what should by now be well know economic history: the economic policies of the U.S. government over the last 40 years have resulted in the greatest income inequality since the 1920s, intensified boom-bust business cycles, huge trade deficits, and the largest government debt ever. Further, public opinion polls conducted over that same period (as reported in Chait's The Big Con and Ferguson & Rogers' Right Turn) have consistently show that large majorities of the public oppose the economic policies of the Republican Party, and yet the Republicans have dominated economic policy making. Why and how did this happen?
The Big Con covers the period from the 1970s with the Lewis Powell Memo and the introduction of the crackpot ideas of supply-side economics to the 2000s with the unashamed full-blown corruption of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. Chait provides an informative discussion of the Republicans' K Street Project in Chapter 2.
After introducing the Republicans' economic policies (the plutocratic agenda: tax cuts for upper income groups instead of using government revenue for education, health care, reducing government debt; financial deregulation; deregulation or non-enforcement of previously established law in areas of environment, health, safety, union organizing, worker rights) Chait explains and documents various factors that eased their implementation. (1) Deception: Republicans lie about their intentions. (2) Media: political journalists lack the training, patience, and intellectual capacity to adequately analyze and report on economic policy and are consequently easy to manipulate. (3) Political culture/circus: political campaigns, especially at the national level, are conducted based upon candidates' spurious "character" traits and ignore substantive policy issues; the Republicans especially have mastered this technique which fits in well with a media press corps it finds easy to manipulate. The tactics Republicans use to exert the power they have aquired through elections Chait calls an "abuse of power"; in this I think Chait is excusing the Democrats' astonishingly weak and ineffectual response to the Republican onslaught. Chait notabley ignores the action and inaction of the Republicans' partners in corruption (the Democrats) whose acquiescence and collaboration with the Republicans' misguided policies has smoothed the path to today. That blindness aside, this is an excellent book.
Some Jonathan Chait links:
Jonathan Chait, Wikipedia.
Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.
Jonathan Chait at BloggingHeads.TV.
Jonathan Chait at The New Republic.
Jonathan Chait Blog at The New Republic.
The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America.
alternate subtitle: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.
Boston & New York: Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007; paperback reprint 2008.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
The Big Con discusses the interaction of politics and economic policy in the USA. Recall what should by now be well know economic history: the economic policies of the U.S. government over the last 40 years have resulted in the greatest income inequality since the 1920s, intensified boom-bust business cycles, huge trade deficits, and the largest government debt ever. Further, public opinion polls conducted over that same period (as reported in Chait's The Big Con and Ferguson & Rogers' Right Turn) have consistently show that large majorities of the public oppose the economic policies of the Republican Party, and yet the Republicans have dominated economic policy making. Why and how did this happen?
The Big Con covers the period from the 1970s with the Lewis Powell Memo and the introduction of the crackpot ideas of supply-side economics to the 2000s with the unashamed full-blown corruption of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. Chait provides an informative discussion of the Republicans' K Street Project in Chapter 2.
After introducing the Republicans' economic policies (the plutocratic agenda: tax cuts for upper income groups instead of using government revenue for education, health care, reducing government debt; financial deregulation; deregulation or non-enforcement of previously established law in areas of environment, health, safety, union organizing, worker rights) Chait explains and documents various factors that eased their implementation. (1) Deception: Republicans lie about their intentions. (2) Media: political journalists lack the training, patience, and intellectual capacity to adequately analyze and report on economic policy and are consequently easy to manipulate. (3) Political culture/circus: political campaigns, especially at the national level, are conducted based upon candidates' spurious "character" traits and ignore substantive policy issues; the Republicans especially have mastered this technique which fits in well with a media press corps it finds easy to manipulate. The tactics Republicans use to exert the power they have aquired through elections Chait calls an "abuse of power"; in this I think Chait is excusing the Democrats' astonishingly weak and ineffectual response to the Republican onslaught. Chait notabley ignores the action and inaction of the Republicans' partners in corruption (the Democrats) whose acquiescence and collaboration with the Republicans' misguided policies has smoothed the path to today. That blindness aside, this is an excellent book.
Some Jonathan Chait links:
Jonathan Chait, Wikipedia.
Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.
Jonathan Chait at BloggingHeads.TV.
Jonathan Chait at The New Republic.
Jonathan Chait Blog at The New Republic.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Hugh Hendry, 25 October 2012
Hugh Hendry at The Economist's Buttonwood Gathering on 25 October 2012:
via Naked Capitalism.
Hugh Hendry, Wikipedia.
via Naked Capitalism.
Hugh Hendry, Wikipedia.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Wolff, Capitalism Hits the Fan (2009)
Capitalism Hits the Fan - Richard Wolff
(video length: 1 hour, 45 minutes)
Note that during the Q&A session after his talk that Wolff states that he advises corporations. (I had previously observed that capitalists can learn much about how capitalism operates by listeding to marxists; this confirms that some do indeed listen.)
(video length: 1 hour, 45 minutes)
Note that during the Q&A session after his talk that Wolff states that he advises corporations. (I had previously observed that capitalists can learn much about how capitalism operates by listeding to marxists; this confirms that some do indeed listen.)
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
George Orwell.
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story.
New York: Signet Classics / The New American Library, Inc. / Times Mirror Company, no date (1970s).
First U.S. edition: New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1946.
First edition: London: Secker & Warburg, 1945.
Some items related to Animal Farm:
While I usually provide links either for the edition of a book I've read or for the currently in-print edition, most of the books I read having only a few editions, in the case of Animal Farm there are so many editions so readily available that I will omit links to specific editions. Also, it is not clear to me which editions contain Orwell's prefaces (lacking in the Signet Classics edition).
Animal Farm, Wikipedia (many useful External links here)
Animal Farm in popular culture, Wikipedia
Orwell's Preface to Animal Farm
Animal Farm research guide, George Orwell Novels
Louis Menand, "Honest, Decent, Wrong: The Invention of George Orwell," The New Yorker, 27 January 2003. A copy of this essay is here (about three quarters of the way down the page).
Margaret Atwood, Orwell and me, The Guardian, 16 June 2003. A copy of this essay is also available here (about one third of the way down the page).
D.J. Taylor, "Another piece of the puzzle: Letters throw new light on Orwell's first wife," The Guardian, 10 December 2005. A copy of this essay is also available here. The recently found letters by Orwell's wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy indicate that her sensibility had great influence on Animal Farm.
Some George Orwell links:
George Orwell, Wikipedia
George Orwell bibliography, Wikipedia
The Orwell Prize
Orwell, George, Open Directory Project
Charles' George Orwell Links
George Orwell Novels, website subtitle: "The books, essays and letters of author George Orwell" (so, despite website name, not just about his novels; website has many of Orwell's texts)
George Orwell, The Guardian
Search for George Orwell at the London Review of Books
Terry Eagleton, Reach-Me-Down Romantic, London Review of Books, Vol. 25, No. 12, 19 June 2003. A copy of this essay is also available here (about one third of the way down the page).
A semi-organized collection of webpages with much material related to George Orwell collected by Arlindo Correia:
Orwell Biographies and Criticism:
Tanya Agathocleous. George Orwell: Battling Big Brother. Oxford University Press USA, 2000.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Battling-Brother-Portraits/dp/0195121856/
Gordon Bowker. George Orwell. Little, Brown Book Group, 2003.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Gordon-Bowker/dp/0349115516/
Bernard Crick. George Orwell: A Life. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1981.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Life-Bernard-Crick/dp/0436114518/
Christopher Hitchens. Why Orwell Matters. Basic Books, 2002.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Orwell-Matters-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0465030505/
Jeffrey Meyers. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-Conscience-Generation-Jeffrey-Meyers/dp/0393322637/
Jeffrey Meyers. Orwell: Life and Art. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-Life-Art-Jeffrey-Meyers/dp/0252077466/
John Rodden, editor. The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-George-Companions-Literature/dp/0521675073/
John Rodden. The Unexamined Orwell. University of Texas Press, 2011.
http://www.amazon.com/Unexamined-Orwell-Literary-Modernism-Series/dp/0292725582/
John Rodden and John Rossi. The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Introduction-George-Introductions-Literature/dp/052113255X/
D.J. Taylor. Orwell: The Life. Chatto & Windus, 2003.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-D-J-Taylor/dp/0701169192/
John Thompson. Orwell's London. Fourth Estate, 1984; Schocken, 1985.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwells-London-John-Thompson/dp/0805239650/
George Woodcock. The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell. Little, Brown, 1966; reprint Black Rose Books, 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Crystal-Spirit-George-Orwell/dp/1551642689/
Several of the webpages by Arlindo Correia contain reviews of Orwell biographies.
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story.
New York: Signet Classics / The New American Library, Inc. / Times Mirror Company, no date (1970s).
First U.S. edition: New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1946.
First edition: London: Secker & Warburg, 1945.
Some items related to Animal Farm:
While I usually provide links either for the edition of a book I've read or for the currently in-print edition, most of the books I read having only a few editions, in the case of Animal Farm there are so many editions so readily available that I will omit links to specific editions. Also, it is not clear to me which editions contain Orwell's prefaces (lacking in the Signet Classics edition).
Animal Farm, Wikipedia (many useful External links here)
Animal Farm in popular culture, Wikipedia
Orwell's Preface to Animal Farm
Animal Farm research guide, George Orwell Novels
Louis Menand, "Honest, Decent, Wrong: The Invention of George Orwell," The New Yorker, 27 January 2003. A copy of this essay is here (about three quarters of the way down the page).
Margaret Atwood, Orwell and me, The Guardian, 16 June 2003. A copy of this essay is also available here (about one third of the way down the page).
D.J. Taylor, "Another piece of the puzzle: Letters throw new light on Orwell's first wife," The Guardian, 10 December 2005. A copy of this essay is also available here. The recently found letters by Orwell's wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy indicate that her sensibility had great influence on Animal Farm.
Some George Orwell links:
George Orwell, Wikipedia
George Orwell bibliography, Wikipedia
The Orwell Prize
Orwell, George, Open Directory Project
Charles' George Orwell Links
George Orwell Novels, website subtitle: "The books, essays and letters of author George Orwell" (so, despite website name, not just about his novels; website has many of Orwell's texts)
George Orwell, The Guardian
Search for George Orwell at the London Review of Books
Terry Eagleton, Reach-Me-Down Romantic, London Review of Books, Vol. 25, No. 12, 19 June 2003. A copy of this essay is also available here (about one third of the way down the page).
A semi-organized collection of webpages with much material related to George Orwell collected by Arlindo Correia:
Orwell Biographies and Criticism:
Tanya Agathocleous. George Orwell: Battling Big Brother. Oxford University Press USA, 2000.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Battling-Brother-Portraits/dp/0195121856/
Gordon Bowker. George Orwell. Little, Brown Book Group, 2003.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Gordon-Bowker/dp/0349115516/
Bernard Crick. George Orwell: A Life. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1981.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Life-Bernard-Crick/dp/0436114518/
Christopher Hitchens. Why Orwell Matters. Basic Books, 2002.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Orwell-Matters-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0465030505/
Jeffrey Meyers. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-Conscience-Generation-Jeffrey-Meyers/dp/0393322637/
Jeffrey Meyers. Orwell: Life and Art. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-Life-Art-Jeffrey-Meyers/dp/0252077466/
John Rodden, editor. The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-George-Companions-Literature/dp/0521675073/
John Rodden. The Unexamined Orwell. University of Texas Press, 2011.
http://www.amazon.com/Unexamined-Orwell-Literary-Modernism-Series/dp/0292725582/
John Rodden and John Rossi. The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Introduction-George-Introductions-Literature/dp/052113255X/
D.J. Taylor. Orwell: The Life. Chatto & Windus, 2003.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwell-D-J-Taylor/dp/0701169192/
John Thompson. Orwell's London. Fourth Estate, 1984; Schocken, 1985.
http://www.amazon.com/Orwells-London-John-Thompson/dp/0805239650/
George Woodcock. The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell. Little, Brown, 1966; reprint Black Rose Books, 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Crystal-Spirit-George-Orwell/dp/1551642689/
Several of the webpages by Arlindo Correia contain reviews of Orwell biographies.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Parramore, "An Inconvenient Truth about Lincoln," 22 Nov 2012
Lynn Parramore, "An Inconvenient Truth About Lincoln (That You Won’t Hear from Hollywood)," Naked Capitalism, 22 November 2012.
See some of the comments following the article too.
The "inconvenient truth" is that Loncoln was a lawyer for the railroads, the mega-corporations of his day. I think only people ignorant of history, or of the realities of U.S. politics then and now, would find this unexpected. I have to wonder what kind of myths and illusions the new film is promoting.
For Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx, not an actual series of correspondence, see:
An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. Robin Blackburn, editor. London: Verso, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
See some of the comments following the article too.
The "inconvenient truth" is that Loncoln was a lawyer for the railroads, the mega-corporations of his day. I think only people ignorant of history, or of the realities of U.S. politics then and now, would find this unexpected. I have to wonder what kind of myths and illusions the new film is promoting.
For Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx, not an actual series of correspondence, see:
An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. Robin Blackburn, editor. London: Verso, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Wolff, "Global Capitalism," November 2012
Global Capitalism - November 2012 - Professor Richard D. Wolff
(video length: 1 hour, 51 minutes)
Some Richard D. Wolff links:
Professor Richard D. Wolff | Economics Professor, his website
Richard D. Wolff, Wikipedia
Richard D Wolff, YouTube channel
Democracy at Work .info, website mentioned in Wolff's talk
Miscellaneous comments: Wolff presents the compelling case for keeping one's wealth/property in the form of stocks and bonds as those are the property forms least subject to taxation (as long as the powers that be can keep them from becoming a target for taxation). The Capitalist can learn much about how Capitalism operates by listening to Marxists! I often find that the Marxists' indifference to offending the sensibilities of capitalists makes Marxists clearer expositors of how a capitalist economy operates, especially in contrast to the obfuscatory work of apologists for capitalism whether economists, journalists, whoever. Wolff mentions that the suppression of criticism of the economic system in the USA contributes to weakening it, a very good point. Wolff also makes pertinent comments on the failure of the U.S. political system due to its domination by the Democratic and Republican Parties which collaborate in avoiding public discussion of economic issues.
(video length: 1 hour, 51 minutes)
Some Richard D. Wolff links:
Professor Richard D. Wolff | Economics Professor, his website
Richard D. Wolff, Wikipedia
Richard D Wolff, YouTube channel
Democracy at Work .info, website mentioned in Wolff's talk
Miscellaneous comments: Wolff presents the compelling case for keeping one's wealth/property in the form of stocks and bonds as those are the property forms least subject to taxation (as long as the powers that be can keep them from becoming a target for taxation). The Capitalist can learn much about how Capitalism operates by listening to Marxists! I often find that the Marxists' indifference to offending the sensibilities of capitalists makes Marxists clearer expositors of how a capitalist economy operates, especially in contrast to the obfuscatory work of apologists for capitalism whether economists, journalists, whoever. Wolff mentions that the suppression of criticism of the economic system in the USA contributes to weakening it, a very good point. Wolff also makes pertinent comments on the failure of the U.S. political system due to its domination by the Democratic and Republican Parties which collaborate in avoiding public discussion of economic issues.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Fusfeld, "The Rise of the Corporate State in America" (1972)
Daniel R. Fusfeld, "The Rise of the Corporate State in America," Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 1972), pp. 1-22. JSTOR link.
Fusfeld's paper also appears as Chapter 8 in this collection of papers originally published in the Journal of Economic Issues:
The Economy as a System of Power, second edition, edited by Marc R. Tool and Warren J. Samuels, Transaction Publishers, 1989.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com]
(By carefully scrolling through the Preview on the Publisher's page or searching the book on Google Books one can read Fusfeld's article without an institutional JSTOR subscription.)
An earlier version of Fusfeld's paper was: "Fascist Democracy in the United States," Conference Papers, Union for Radical Political Economists, Philadelphia, December 1968; Reprint No. 2, URPE, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
My comments: I cannot recommend this article to others. The title promises far more than this short article can deliver and Fusfeld speaks in generalities, makes sweeping generalizations. I think this important topic of big business-government relations requires a more detailed historical and empirical approach, much like Fusfeld used in his longer essay "The Rise and Repression of Radical Labor in the United States 1877-1918" (my post on that essay is here, which also lists most of Fusfeld's books), an essay which I do recommend and which had motivated me to read the article currently under discussion. Further, in the 40 years since this article was published there has been a significant evolution of the big business-government relationship which deserves our attention. However, I think the lack of detail in Fusfeld's article detracts from its suitability as starting point from which the student can begin to explore and understand the subsequent evolution. I suggest one instead consider the work of Thomas Ferguson.
Fusfeld's paper also appears as Chapter 8 in this collection of papers originally published in the Journal of Economic Issues:
The Economy as a System of Power, second edition, edited by Marc R. Tool and Warren J. Samuels, Transaction Publishers, 1989.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com]
(By carefully scrolling through the Preview on the Publisher's page or searching the book on Google Books one can read Fusfeld's article without an institutional JSTOR subscription.)
An earlier version of Fusfeld's paper was: "Fascist Democracy in the United States," Conference Papers, Union for Radical Political Economists, Philadelphia, December 1968; Reprint No. 2, URPE, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
My comments: I cannot recommend this article to others. The title promises far more than this short article can deliver and Fusfeld speaks in generalities, makes sweeping generalizations. I think this important topic of big business-government relations requires a more detailed historical and empirical approach, much like Fusfeld used in his longer essay "The Rise and Repression of Radical Labor in the United States 1877-1918" (my post on that essay is here, which also lists most of Fusfeld's books), an essay which I do recommend and which had motivated me to read the article currently under discussion. Further, in the 40 years since this article was published there has been a significant evolution of the big business-government relationship which deserves our attention. However, I think the lack of detail in Fusfeld's article detracts from its suitability as starting point from which the student can begin to explore and understand the subsequent evolution. I suggest one instead consider the work of Thomas Ferguson.
Monday, November 19, 2012
"Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation," 05 November 2012
Ullrich Fichtner, Hans Hoyng, Marc Hujer and Gregor Peter Schmitz, "Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation," Der Spiegel, 05 November 2012.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life (1957; 2009)
Richard Hoggart.
The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life.
London: Penguin Books, 2009.
Originally published by Chatto & Windus, 1957.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk; Wikipedia.
Another edition is available from Transaction Publishers, 1998: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
Richard Hoggart (1918-2014), Wikipedia.
The Uses of Literacy is a description and discussion of English working-class culture, particularly in northern England during the 1920s through 1950s.
One can get a glimpse of the people and culture Hoggart discusses in the recent BBC series Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture (2012) which surveys the English working class, middle class, and upper class during the 20th century.
Nicholas Wroe, Profile: Richard Hoggart, The Guardian, 06 February 2004.
The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life.
London: Penguin Books, 2009.
Originally published by Chatto & Windus, 1957.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk; Wikipedia.
Another edition is available from Transaction Publishers, 1998: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
Richard Hoggart (1918-2014), Wikipedia.
The Uses of Literacy is a description and discussion of English working-class culture, particularly in northern England during the 1920s through 1950s.
One can get a glimpse of the people and culture Hoggart discusses in the recent BBC series Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture (2012) which surveys the English working class, middle class, and upper class during the 20th century.
Nicholas Wroe, Profile: Richard Hoggart, The Guardian, 06 February 2004.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Adam Curtis
His major film series:
Pandora’s Box (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3gwyHNo7MI (episode 1 of 6, page has links to following episodes)
The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past (1995) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheLivingDead, http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-living-dead/
The Mayfair Set (1999) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheMayfairSet
The Century of the Self (2002) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis-TheCenturyOfTheSelf
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2003) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheTrap
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
His blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/
Pandora’s Box (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3gwyHNo7MI (episode 1 of 6, page has links to following episodes)
The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past (1995) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheLivingDead, http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-living-dead/
The Mayfair Set (1999) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheMayfairSet
The Century of the Self (2002) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis-TheCenturyOfTheSelf
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2003) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheTrap
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
His blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Blustein, The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF (2001)
Paul Blustein.
The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2001; paperback reprint 2003.
Book information: Publisher, PublicAffairs; Publisher, Perseus Books Group; Google Books; Amazon.com; C-SPAN Video, 24 Sept 2001.
1997 Asian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
1998 Russian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
Long-Term Capital Management, Wikipedia.
Samba effect (Brazil 1999), Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund, Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund.
Blustein has also written a book on the role of the IMF in the Argentine economic crisis of 1999-2002:
And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina. New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2005.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002). Wikipedia.
The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2001; paperback reprint 2003.
Book information: Publisher, PublicAffairs; Publisher, Perseus Books Group; Google Books; Amazon.com; C-SPAN Video, 24 Sept 2001.
1997 Asian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
1998 Russian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
Long-Term Capital Management, Wikipedia.
Samba effect (Brazil 1999), Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund, Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund.
Blustein has also written a book on the role of the IMF in the Argentine economic crisis of 1999-2002:
And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina. New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2005.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002). Wikipedia.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Moynihan, "The continued economic decline of the West" (2012)
Update: Newer, 2013 version of this talk
Jon Moynihan, "Reflecting on the Continuing Economic Decline of the West," Bristol Distinguished Executives Address, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, PA Consulting Group, 9 October 2013.
Jon Moynihan, Wikipedia.
Original post:
Jon Moynihan, "The continued economic decline of the West: Diagnosis and prognosis," London School of Economics, 23 February 2012.
Video of the talk at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-y2aqYwOQ0
Slides at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-moynihan-decline-of-the-west-2012-8#-1
Further reading slide:
(The "Further reading" slide flashes by quickly at the end of the talk video. A version of the slide is available at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-moynihan-decline-of-the-west-2012-8#-95
However, the items listed in the slide at businessinsider.com differ slightly from the slide in the talk video. I've listed all items in both slide versions here.)
Michael C. Jensen, "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Finance, pages 831-880, July 1993.
Correlli Barnett. The Lost Victory: British Dreams, British Realities, 1945-1950. Faber & Faber, 2011.
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Victory-British-Realities-1945-1950/dp/0571282652/
Carmen Reinhart & Ken Rogoff. This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press, 2009.
http://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Different-Centuries-Financial/dp/0691152640/
John Brooks. Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1928. Originally published in 1969; more recent reprints available.
http://www.amazon.com/Once-Golconda-Drama-Street-1920-1928/dp/0471357529/
Michael Lewis. The Big Short. Norton, 2010.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Short-Inside-Doomsday-Machine/dp/0393338827/
Amy Chua. World on Fire. Doubleday, 2002.
http://www.amazon.com/World-Fire-Exporting-Democracy-Instability/dp/0385721862/
Eric Kaufmann. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Profile Books, 2011.
http://www.amazon.com/Shall-Religious-Inherit-Earth-Twenty-First/dp/1846681448/
Daniel Gilbert. Stumbling on Happiness. Knopf, 2006.
http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427/
Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Crown Business, 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/dp/0307719219/
Charles Gasparino. The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System. HarperBusiness, 2009.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sellout-Government-Mismanagement-Destroyed/dp/0061697176/
Matt Ridley. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. Harper, 2010.
http://www.amazon.com/Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves-P-S/dp/0061452068/
Moynihan's talks from 2009:
"The Future of the Economy," 22 January 2009
http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/2127
"Economic decline of the West," 10 October 2009
http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/4736
Note that Moynihan's 2012 talk reflects the realization of the issues
warned by James Goldsmith in this 1994 Charlie Rose interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmOkaKh3-s
Goldsmith's arguments are somewhat paradoxical since he was instrumental in the de-industrialization of Britain during the 1970s (and of the USA during the 1980s) from which he profited greatly. If you haven't seen this Goldsmith interview yet, I strongly recommend it.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (2002)
Joseph Stiglitz.
Globalization and Its Discontents.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002; paperback reprint 2003.
Book information:
Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book; Joseph Stiglitz, Wikipedia; Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University.
Stiglitz's book is not about Globalization itself. For readers interested in an introductory survey of economic Globalization I strongly recommend the book by Peter Dicken described below. Stigllitz's book is about a side-effect of Globalization, namely the global flows of financial capital which can have very short-term investment horizons and the financial panics that occur when short-term speculative ("hot") money abandons a country. More particularly, Stiglitz's topic is the inability of international financial regulatory organizations to control or ameliorate the financial damages caused by short-term speculative finance, especially the International Monetary Fund. Stiglitz's book focuses on IMF policy failures during the financial crises of 1997-1998. For a narrative history of the financial crises of 1997-1998 see the Wikipedia articles below and the book by Paul Blustein described below.
1997 Asian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
1998 Russian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
Long-Term Capital Management, Wikipedia.
Samba effect (Brazil 1999), Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund, Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund.
Peter Dicken. Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, sixth edition. New York: The Guilford Press, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Peter Dicken, Wikipedia; Peter Dicken, The University of Manchester.]
Paul Blustein. The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF. New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2001; paperback reprint 2003.
[Publisher, PublicAffairs; Publisher, Perseus Books Group; Google Books; Amazon.com; C-SPAN Video, 24 Sept 2001.]
Globalization and Its Discontents.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002; paperback reprint 2003.
Book information:
Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book; Joseph Stiglitz, Wikipedia; Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University.
Stiglitz's book is not about Globalization itself. For readers interested in an introductory survey of economic Globalization I strongly recommend the book by Peter Dicken described below. Stigllitz's book is about a side-effect of Globalization, namely the global flows of financial capital which can have very short-term investment horizons and the financial panics that occur when short-term speculative ("hot") money abandons a country. More particularly, Stiglitz's topic is the inability of international financial regulatory organizations to control or ameliorate the financial damages caused by short-term speculative finance, especially the International Monetary Fund. Stiglitz's book focuses on IMF policy failures during the financial crises of 1997-1998. For a narrative history of the financial crises of 1997-1998 see the Wikipedia articles below and the book by Paul Blustein described below.
1997 Asian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
1998 Russian financial crisis, Wikipedia.
Long-Term Capital Management, Wikipedia.
Samba effect (Brazil 1999), Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund, Wikipedia.
International Monetary Fund.
Peter Dicken. Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, sixth edition. New York: The Guilford Press, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Peter Dicken, Wikipedia; Peter Dicken, The University of Manchester.]
Paul Blustein. The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF. New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2001; paperback reprint 2003.
[Publisher, PublicAffairs; Publisher, Perseus Books Group; Google Books; Amazon.com; C-SPAN Video, 24 Sept 2001.]
Monday, July 09, 2012
Spence, The Next Convergence (2011)
Michael Spence.
The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan, 2011.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
This book is an outgrowth of the author's work as chairman of the "Commission on Growth and Development" (Wikipedia; original website, archived; current website at the World Bank). The figues in The Next Convergence are poor black-and-white copies of the original color figues in the Commission's reports. Readers can download the Comission's reports for free from its website(s) (rather than purchasing Spence's book). Videos describing the Commission's findings also available.
Some Michael Spence links:
Michael Spence, Wikipedia
A. Michael Spence, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Michael Spence, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan, 2011.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
This book is an outgrowth of the author's work as chairman of the "Commission on Growth and Development" (Wikipedia; original website, archived; current website at the World Bank). The figues in The Next Convergence are poor black-and-white copies of the original color figues in the Commission's reports. Readers can download the Comission's reports for free from its website(s) (rather than purchasing Spence's book). Videos describing the Commission's findings also available.
Some Michael Spence links:
Michael Spence, Wikipedia
A. Michael Spence, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Michael Spence, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Wolf, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (2007)
Naomi Wolf.
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.
White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book; Naomi Wolf, Wikipedia.
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.
White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book; Naomi Wolf, Wikipedia.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
George Orwell.
Down and Out in Paris and London.
Orlando, Florida: A Harvest Book / Harcourt Inc., 1972.
Originally published in 1933, this was Orwell's first publication in book form and his first appearance under the name George Orwell.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book.
Some George Orwell links:
George Orwell, Wikipedia
George Orwell bibliography, Wikipedia
The Orwell Prize
Orwell, George, Open Directory Project
Charles' George Orwell Links
A semi-organized collection of webpages with much material related to George Orwell collected by Arlindo Correia:
Down and Out in Paris and London.
Orlando, Florida: A Harvest Book / Harcourt Inc., 1972.
Originally published in 1933, this was Orwell's first publication in book form and his first appearance under the name George Orwell.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Book.
Some George Orwell links:
George Orwell, Wikipedia
George Orwell bibliography, Wikipedia
The Orwell Prize
Orwell, George, Open Directory Project
Charles' George Orwell Links
A semi-organized collection of webpages with much material related to George Orwell collected by Arlindo Correia:
Friday, June 01, 2012
The USA's Descent into Fascism is Complete: Obama's Kill List
I'm not sure "fascism" is adequate to describe what the USA's once-constitutional government has changed into, but I don't know what else to call it. At least Bush had the moral insight (at some level) to recognize that torture is wrong and so he lied and denied he authorized it. But Obama is clearly a different kind of "leader."
Jo Becker and Scott Shane, "Secret 'Kill List' Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will," The New York Times, 29 May 2012.
Chris Floyd, "Hymns to the Violence: The NYT’s Love Letter to Obama's Murder Racket," Empire Burlesque, 29 May 2012.
katiebird, "Things that are worse than White House Blow Jobs Including Things that Actually Deserve Impeachment," The Confluence, 29 May 2012.
katiebird, "Wednesday: 'Kill List' Reading List," The Confluence, 30 May 2012.
katiebird, "What would Aquinas do? The Kill List Saga," The Confluence, 31 May 2012.
katiebird, "It Lives: The Kill List," The Confluence, 1 June 2012.
Glenn Greenwald, "Obama the Warrior," Salon.com, 29 May 2012.
Glenn Greenwald, "How extremism is normalized," Salon.com, 30 May 2012.
Ralph Nader, "Obama At Large: Where are the Lawyers?," CounterPunch, 31 May 2012.
Andrew P. Napolitano, "The Secret Kill List," AntiWar.com, 31 May 2012.
Alexander Cockburn, "There’s a Cancer on the Presidency, Called Barack Obama," CounterPunch, 2-3 June 2012.
Jo Becker and Scott Shane, "Secret 'Kill List' Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will," The New York Times, 29 May 2012.
Chris Floyd, "Hymns to the Violence: The NYT’s Love Letter to Obama's Murder Racket," Empire Burlesque, 29 May 2012.
katiebird, "Things that are worse than White House Blow Jobs Including Things that Actually Deserve Impeachment," The Confluence, 29 May 2012.
katiebird, "Wednesday: 'Kill List' Reading List," The Confluence, 30 May 2012.
katiebird, "What would Aquinas do? The Kill List Saga," The Confluence, 31 May 2012.
katiebird, "It Lives: The Kill List," The Confluence, 1 June 2012.
Glenn Greenwald, "Obama the Warrior," Salon.com, 29 May 2012.
Glenn Greenwald, "How extremism is normalized," Salon.com, 30 May 2012.
Ralph Nader, "Obama At Large: Where are the Lawyers?," CounterPunch, 31 May 2012.
Andrew P. Napolitano, "The Secret Kill List," AntiWar.com, 31 May 2012.
Alexander Cockburn, "There’s a Cancer on the Presidency, Called Barack Obama," CounterPunch, 2-3 June 2012.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wolff, Intro to Marxian Economics (2009)
Richard D. Wolff, Intro to Marxian Economics, Spring 2009:
These lectures are also available via this link at Wolff's website:
Marxian Economics: An Intensive Introduction.
(I haven't watched the lectures through this link, which is for Vimeo videos that don't have the interruptions of the broken up YouTube videos. These one piece uninterrupted Vimeo videos may be a preferable viewing experience.)
Richard D. Wolff Links:
Professor Richard D. Wolff, his official website, which has an abundance of links to his works in various media.
Richard D. Wolff YouTube playlists
Richard D. Wolff, Wikipedia.
- Session 1 (YouTube playlist)
- Session 2 (YouTube playlist)
- Session 3 (YouTube playlist)
- Session 4 (YouTube playlist)
These lectures are also available via this link at Wolff's website:
Marxian Economics: An Intensive Introduction.
(I haven't watched the lectures through this link, which is for Vimeo videos that don't have the interruptions of the broken up YouTube videos. These one piece uninterrupted Vimeo videos may be a preferable viewing experience.)
Richard D. Wolff Links:
Professor Richard D. Wolff, his official website, which has an abundance of links to his works in various media.
Richard D. Wolff YouTube playlists
Richard D. Wolff, Wikipedia.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Leonard, Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century (2005)
Mark Leonard.
Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2005; paperback reprint 2006.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website.
This book provides an excellent explanation of the motivations and goals of the European Union project. On the other hand, it was published before the economic weaknesses of the European Monetary Union became apparent after the various financial crises that began in 2008.
Some Mark Leonard links:
Mark Leonard .net, author's website.
Mark Leonard, Wikipedia.
Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Books Group, 2005; paperback reprint 2006.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website.
This book provides an excellent explanation of the motivations and goals of the European Union project. On the other hand, it was published before the economic weaknesses of the European Monetary Union became apparent after the various financial crises that began in 2008.
Some Mark Leonard links:
Mark Leonard .net, author's website.
Mark Leonard, Wikipedia.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Laqueur, After the Fall (2012)
Walter Laqueur.
After the Fall: The End of the European Dream and the Decline of a Continent.
New York: Thomas Dunne Books (an imprint of St. Martin's Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group), 2012.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Author's website; Walter Laqueur, Wikipedia.
I do not recommend this book. The book contains absolutely no economic analysis, something Laqueur ignores completely. Instead, Laqueur attributes European nations' problems to the European Union and his anxieties about the presence of too many Muslim and brown-skined people. Only readers interested in superficial Euroskeptic and Islamophobic analysis should consider this book; it does contain an extensive bibliography of the Islamophobic literature of several countries and in several languages.
After the Fall: The End of the European Dream and the Decline of a Continent.
New York: Thomas Dunne Books (an imprint of St. Martin's Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group), 2012.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Author's website; Walter Laqueur, Wikipedia.
I do not recommend this book. The book contains absolutely no economic analysis, something Laqueur ignores completely. Instead, Laqueur attributes European nations' problems to the European Union and his anxieties about the presence of too many Muslim and brown-skined people. Only readers interested in superficial Euroskeptic and Islamophobic analysis should consider this book; it does contain an extensive bibliography of the Islamophobic literature of several countries and in several languages.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Varoufakis, The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy (2011)
Yanis Varoufakis.
The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy.
London: Zed Books, 2011.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website; Author's website; Wikipedia on the Author.
Varoufakis says The Global Minotaur popularizes an analysis presented in greater detail in Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World:
Yanis Varoufakis, Joseph Halevi and Nicholas J. Theocarakis.
Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World.
London: Routledge, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website.]
Euro Crisis, Yanis Varoufakis.
The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy.
London: Zed Books, 2011.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website; Author's website; Wikipedia on the Author.
Varoufakis says The Global Minotaur popularizes an analysis presented in greater detail in Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World:
Yanis Varoufakis, Joseph Halevi and Nicholas J. Theocarakis.
Modern Political Economics: Making Sense of the Post-2008 World.
London: Routledge, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at author's website.]
Euro Crisis, Yanis Varoufakis.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Frieden, Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (2006)
Jeffry A. Frieden.
Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006; reprint 2007.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at Jeff Frieden's website.
Jeffry A. Frieden, Harvard University.
Some other books by Jeffry A. Frieden:
Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffry A. Frieden. Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at Menzie Chinn's website; Book webpage at Jeff Frieden's website.]
The authors Chinn & Frieden summarize Lost Decades: IMF Videos, 14 October 2011.
The authors' presentation is followed by comments and discussion by Diane Lim Rogers, Gail Cohen, and Simon Johnson.
This video is also posted at Econbrowser, a blog edited by Menzie Chinn.
Jeffry A. Frieden, David A. Lake, J. Lawrence Broz. International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth, fifth edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Other Links:
Long Depression, Wikipedia (last quarter of the Nineteenth Century; the first era of Globalization was a period of falling prices which was associated with persistent economic depression).
Panic of 1873, Wikipedia (initiated the Long Depression of the Nineteenth Century).
Gold standard, Wikipedia (monetary system that notably dictated the terms of international trade during the period 1870-1914).
Great Depression, Wikipedia (1930s).
Autarky, Wikipedia (as the first era of Globalization ended many national economies turned inward).
Import substitution industrialization, Wikipedia (pursued by some countries as a path to economic development as an alternative to a global division of labor based on international trade, but in all cases has resulted in poor long-term economic outcomes).
Bretton Woods system, Wikipedia (the monetary system that ordered the terms of international trade following World War II until the early 1970s).
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Wikipedia (ordered the terms of international trade following World War II until 1993).
World Trade Organization, Wikipedia (has ordered the terms of international trade since 1995).
International trade, Wikipedia.
Globalization, Wikipedia.
Free trade, Wikipedia.
Comparative advantage, Wikipedia.
Neoliberalism, Wikipedia.
Washington Consensus, Wikipedia.
Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006; reprint 2007.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at Jeff Frieden's website.
Jeffry A. Frieden, Harvard University.
Some other books by Jeffry A. Frieden:
Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffry A. Frieden. Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Book webpage at Menzie Chinn's website; Book webpage at Jeff Frieden's website.]
The authors Chinn & Frieden summarize Lost Decades: IMF Videos, 14 October 2011.
The authors' presentation is followed by comments and discussion by Diane Lim Rogers, Gail Cohen, and Simon Johnson.
This video is also posted at Econbrowser, a blog edited by Menzie Chinn.
Jeffry A. Frieden, David A. Lake, J. Lawrence Broz. International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth, fifth edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Other Links:
Long Depression, Wikipedia (last quarter of the Nineteenth Century; the first era of Globalization was a period of falling prices which was associated with persistent economic depression).
Panic of 1873, Wikipedia (initiated the Long Depression of the Nineteenth Century).
Gold standard, Wikipedia (monetary system that notably dictated the terms of international trade during the period 1870-1914).
Great Depression, Wikipedia (1930s).
Autarky, Wikipedia (as the first era of Globalization ended many national economies turned inward).
Import substitution industrialization, Wikipedia (pursued by some countries as a path to economic development as an alternative to a global division of labor based on international trade, but in all cases has resulted in poor long-term economic outcomes).
Bretton Woods system, Wikipedia (the monetary system that ordered the terms of international trade following World War II until the early 1970s).
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Wikipedia (ordered the terms of international trade following World War II until 1993).
World Trade Organization, Wikipedia (has ordered the terms of international trade since 1995).
International trade, Wikipedia.
Globalization, Wikipedia.
Free trade, Wikipedia.
Comparative advantage, Wikipedia.
Neoliberalism, Wikipedia.
Washington Consensus, Wikipedia.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, 2e (2002)
Richard Clogg.
A Concise History of Greece, second edition.
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Author.
A volume in the series Cambridge Concise Histories.
This book consists mostly of political history of modern Greece (i.e., since Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire during the 1820s) with occasional mentions of economic and cultural history. The book has many illustrations, the lengthy captions to which contain most of the book's cultural history content. The book is relatively weak in economic history.
Links:
Greece, Wikipedia.
History of modern Greece, Wikipedia.
Greek culture, Wikipedia.
Economy of Greece, Wikipedia.
Western Europe, Wikipedia.
Balkans, Wikipedia.
See also my recent post on the book by Jason Manolopoulos,
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community: link.
Addition, 10 Feb 2012:
The following table offers a summary of some major cultural, political and economic differences between Greece and western Europe. This may be obvious information for people well versed in History but for myself I think it's a useful tool to remind ourselves of the major differences between two very distinct regions. I find that too often in contemporary reporting on Greece's current government debt crisis these deeply ingrained cultural differences are not often mentioned and consequently most discussions fail to adequately explain why Greece's economic performance has been so different from that of western, and especially northwestern, Europe.
A Concise History of Greece, second edition.
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Author.
A volume in the series Cambridge Concise Histories.
This book consists mostly of political history of modern Greece (i.e., since Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire during the 1820s) with occasional mentions of economic and cultural history. The book has many illustrations, the lengthy captions to which contain most of the book's cultural history content. The book is relatively weak in economic history.
Links:
Greece, Wikipedia.
History of modern Greece, Wikipedia.
Greek culture, Wikipedia.
Economy of Greece, Wikipedia.
Western Europe, Wikipedia.
Balkans, Wikipedia.
See also my recent post on the book by Jason Manolopoulos,
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community: link.
Addition, 10 Feb 2012:
The following table offers a summary of some major cultural, political and economic differences between Greece and western Europe. This may be obvious information for people well versed in History but for myself I think it's a useful tool to remind ourselves of the major differences between two very distinct regions. I find that too often in contemporary reporting on Greece's current government debt crisis these deeply ingrained cultural differences are not often mentioned and consequently most discussions fail to adequately explain why Greece's economic performance has been so different from that of western, and especially northwestern, Europe.
| time period | western Europe | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd - 5th centuries | Split of Roman Empire: Western Roman Empire | Split of Roman Empire: Eastern Roman Empire = Byzantine Empire |
| 5th century | final collapse of Western Roman Empire | Byzantine Empire ascendant |
| 5th - 15th centuries | Middle Ages; regional kingdoms | Byzantine Empire; Byzantine Greece; Medieval Greece |
| 7th century | Latin language persists as the common language of western Europe until the 17th/18th centuries when French emerges as the lingua franca of western Europe | Medieval Greek language becomes the official language of Byzantine Empire during 7th century and persists through that empire's end |
| 11th - 15th centuries | East-West Schism: Roman Catholic Christianity | East-West Schism: Eastern Orthodox Christianity |
| 15th century | successful resistance to Ottoman Empire expansion throughout 15th, 16th & 17th centuries, e.g., Siege of Vienna | final collapse of Byzantine Empire and subjugation to Ottoman Empire; Fall of Constantinople; Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 14th - 17th centuries | Renaissance; humanism | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 16th - 17th centuries | Scientific Revolution | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 16th century | Protestant Reformation | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 18th century | Enlightenment | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| late 18th century | French Revolution | beginning of Greek independence movement |
| early 19th century | suppression of revolutionary France and beginning of rise of bourgeois modern nation states | following conclusion of Napoleonic wars the victorious / dominant western powers extend their gaze beyond western Europe and undertake support of Greek independence movement |
| early 19th century, 1820s - 1830s | Romanticism intellectual movement; fantasies of ancient Greece (Philhellenism) motivate intellectuals' propagandizing for Greek independence from Ottoman Empire; poet Byron dies in Greece 1824 | Greek independence from Ottoman Empire achieved during 1820s; First Hellenic Republic |
| 19th century | Industrial Revolution and economic development | fledgling Greek state underwritten by European "Protecting Powers" (Britain, France and Russia) as part of their long-term strategy against Ottoman Empire; Kingdom of Greece; Greco-Turkish relations; Megali Idea |
| late 19th century | continuing economic and industrial development | Megali Idea; Greco-Turkish War (1897), Greece defeated; Greco-Turkish relations |
| early 20th century | continuing economic and industrial development | Megali Idea; Balkan Wars (1912-1913); National Schism; Greco-Turkish relations |
| World War I aftermath | recovery from World War I | Megali Idea; National Schism; Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Greece defeated; domestic consequences of defeat shatter an already divided Greek society; expulsion of ethnic Greeks from Turkey; Second Hellenic Republic (1924-1935); Greco-Turkish relations |
| 1936 - 1941 | Fascism in western Europe (Spain, Italy, Germany) | "paternalist-authoritarian" Metaxas Regime (1936-1941) |
| World War II | World War II | Axis occupation of Greece during World War II |
| 1946 - 1949 | beginning of recovery from World War II; beginning of Cold War | Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the first Cold War conflict; results in another bitter division of Greek society that will lead to severe political dysfunction during 1960s |
| 1967 - 1974 | continuing robust economic growth | 1960s Greek political dysfunction leads to military dictatorship, 1967-1974; Metapolitefsi, period of post-junta restoration of civilian democratic government |
| 1974 - present | economic growth; Economy of the European Union; Eurozone | Third Hellenic Republic; Greco-Turkish relations |
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Rojas, The Sorrows of Carmencita: Argentina's Crisis in a Historical Perspective (2002)
Mauricio Rojas.
The Sorrows of Carmencita: Argentina's Crisis in a Historical Perspective.
Stockholm: Timbro, 2002.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
I found this short book an excellent introduction to the economic history of Argentina and recommend it to anyone interested in that country.
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002). Wikipedia.
Economy of Argentina. Wikipedia.
The Sorrows of Carmencita: Argentina's Crisis in a Historical Perspective.
Stockholm: Timbro, 2002.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
I found this short book an excellent introduction to the economic history of Argentina and recommend it to anyone interested in that country.
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002). Wikipedia.
Economy of Argentina. Wikipedia.
Monday, January 02, 2012
Blustein, And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina (2005)
Paul Blustein.
And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Publishing Group, 2005.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina.
New York: PublicAffairs / Perseus Publishing Group, 2005.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
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