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The world economy can appear to be operating quite well but can be hiding a major problem that causes it to be fragile. My presentation The World’s Fragile Economic Condition (PDF) explains why we should expect financial problems if energy consumption stops growing sufficiently rapidly. In fact, a global sell off in the equity markets, such as we have started to see[Read More…]
Where is the world economy heading? In my opinion, a large portion of the story that we usually hear about how the world economy operates and the role energy plays is not really correct. In this post (to be continued in Part 2 in the near future), I explain how some of the major elements of the world economy seem to[Read More…]
There is a ‘new normal’ in cyclical recessions, namely, that the recovery cycle is itself recessionary for the vast majority of the population, not just in periphery countries that invariably suffer much more during contracting economic cycles, but in core countries as well. One of the biggest myths about the contracting cycles is the underlying assumption that they have an[Read More…]
Neoliberal Totalitarianism and the Social Contract Abstract Analyzing aspects of the rightwing populist tide arising largely in reaction to the pluralistic-diversity model of neoliberalism, this essay examines the evolving social contract that normalizes systemic exploitation and repression in the name of capitalist growth. Amid incessant indoctrination by the media representing big capital, people try to make sense of whether their[Read More…]
“Our society has become so unequal. The wealthy need to be taxed more” -Rohini Nilekani In an information saturated age such as ours corporate spin is sine qua non of business reporting where the narrative is controlled by the few to the detriment of the many. None is more evident than in the dominant narrative leading to the resignation of[Read More…]
Once upon a time, we worried about oil and other energy. Now, a song from 1930 seems to be appropriate: Today, we have a surplus of oil, which we are trying to use up. That never happened before, or did it? Well, actually, it did, back around 1930. As most of us remember, that was not a pleasant time. It[Read More…]
The inaugural World Inequality Report published on Thursday by economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, Facundo Alvaredo and Lucas Chancel documents the rise in global income and wealth inequality since 1980. The report covers up to 2016, leaving out the last year, in which the stock market has soared on the expectation that the US will enact massive tax[Read More…]
According to the official scenario, the world economy is enjoying its best period of growth since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, which ushered in the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. According to a report issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development last month: “The global economy is now growing at its fastest pace[Read More…]
20 years ago this month, a run on the Thai currency triggered a financial crisis that quickly devastated the economy of the entire region, sinking the currencies of Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea and ultimately spreading as far as Russia and Brazil. Far from ‘lessons being learned’, however, history looks worryingly set to repeat itself. On 2nd July 1997, Thailand’s[Read More…]
An excellent review of global debt in the Economic and Political Weekly last month concludes that capitalism is probably insolvent. The article by T Sabri Öncü is entitled Debts That Cannot Be Paid Will Not Be. The author makes the excellent observation that whilst total global debt has increased to USD 217 trillion or about 327% of global GDP,[Read More…]
The BJP’s new Bankruptcy and Insolvency Rules 2016 in India bluntly provide that individuals with debts over Rupees one thousand will lose their assets to a resolution professional if declared bankrupt or insolvent. The only excluded assets under fresh start rules are tools, books, vehicles and other equipment as are necessary to the debtor or bankrupt for his personal[Read More…]
Resistance to the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, climate change policy, and economic fairness has been fierce. But alongside these efforts—from flooding representatives’ phone lines to packing town hall meetings to marching in protest—it’s also important to begin the work of building alternatives to the systems that underlie the exploitation of people and planet. The understandable focus on Trump—with his[Read More…]
Recently, a Spanish group called “Ecologist in Action” asked me to give them a presentation on what kind of financial crisis we should expect. They wanted to know when it would be and how it would take place. The answer I had for the group is that we should expect financial collapse quite soon–perhaps as soon as the next few[Read More…]
Introduction In an article in The Hindu of 14.5.2016, C. Rangarajan, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India had said: “The “potential” to grow at 8 to 9 per cent at least for a decade exists. We have to make it happen.” The successive governments in the country have been focusing on such a high GDP growth rate,[Read More…]
Here is my suggestion for a Single Point Anti-Incumbency Manifesto for 2019 against the BJP for the Grand Coalition of Socialist and Communist Parties. 95% of Indians are agricultural labourers, cultivators and other landless labourers in the informal economy, and outside of the tax regime in India. We depend above all for our survival with dignity on the availability[Read More…]
Every day in the papers we are reading about the impacts of the starvation politics of demonetisation by the BJP on agricultual labourers, cultivators and other agricultural workers. During my years long study of the social, political and economic implications of man-made climate change, I found obviously that economists looked into the economic implications, politicians study the political implications,[Read More…]
Economic, Ecological and Agricultural Science Illiteracy of Elites Having already been investigated by the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate, we now get news that NDTV, one of the most viewed nation-wide news channels of India, is again being investigated, this time by the Central Bureau of Investigation. A First Information Report has been filed by or on[Read More…]
Most working people think of the buck as the way they pay their bills. But its use goes far beyond the USA’s borders. The greenback is the major world currency for trade and finance. This international role bestows vast power on the U.S. government and the rich. But its status doesn’t help ordinary people much. Fundamentally, the exchange[Read More…]
I see a lot of books presuming to explain what’s wrong with the economy and what to do about it. Rarely do I come across one with the consistent new paradigm frame, historical depth, practical sensibility, systemic analysis, and readability of Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. Especially unique and valuable is her carefully reasoned, illustrated, and documented debunking of the[Read More…]
At the stroke of midnight November 9, 2016, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi imposed an undeclared economic emergency on India. With a stroke of pen he wiped out Rs 15 lakh crores in cash from the system. What prompted this drastic step? What will be the fall out of the action for Indian economy is a billion dollar question.
“History shows that the United States has benefited politically and economically from wars in Europe. The huge outflow of capital from Europe following the First and Second World Wars, transformed the U.S. into a superpower … Today, faced with economic decline, the US is trying to precipitate another European war to achieve the same objective.”… Sergey Glazyev, Russian politician and[Read More…]
For a long time, a common assumption has been that the world will eventually “run out” of oil and other non-renewable resources. Instead, we seem to be running into surpluses and low prices. What is going on that was missed by M. King Hubbert, Harold Hotelling, and by the popular understanding of supply and demand? The underlying assumption in these[Read More…]
I approach the subject of the physics of energy and the economy with some trepidation. An economy seems to be a dissipative system, but what does this really mean? There are not many people who understand dissipative systems, and very few who understand how an economy operates. The combination leads to an awfully lot of false beliefs about the energy[Read More…]
The traditional understanding of supply and demand works in some limited cases–will a manufacturer make red dresses or blue dresses? The manufacturer’s choice doesn’t make much difference to the economic system as a whole, except perhaps in the amount of red and blue dye sold, so it is easy to accommodate. Figure 1. From Wikipedia: The price P of a[Read More…]
Usually, we don’t stop to think about how the whole economy works together. A major reason is that we have been lacking data to see long-term relationships. In this post, I show some longer-term time series relating to energy growth, GDP growth, and debt growth–going back to 1820 in some cases–that help us understand our situation better. When examining these[Read More…]
The US-Led Genocide and Destruction of Yemen 
The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 2 
Climate without Borders: putting changing climate into a new perspective 
Can President-elect Lopez Obrador pull Mexico out of slumber? 
Agents of Chaos: Trump, the Federal Reserve and Andrew Jackson 
New avenues for visually impaired women 
Third International Marxist Feminist Conference Participants Express Solidarity To Arrested Activists In India 
Initiation into a Living Planet 
Gianni Agnelli—The Grand Contradiction 
Feminists Denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Traditional Balinese Ritual 
IMF – WB – WTO – Scaremongering Threats on De-Globalization and Tariffs – The Return to Sovereign Nations 
Did U.S. and Allies Commit War Crime by Bombing Syria on April 14th? 
Act Now To Protect Our Right To Protest 
Still a Future for Indian Newspapers 
How is EVM against the fundamentals of democracy? 
Crore-Acre Magani in Telangana : Irrigation project that is too costly, unsustainable, and adding to environmental burden 
From GM Potatoes To Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency And Toxic Agriculture 
Unbridled Power 
Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight: A Quasi Review 
The State of Undeclared Emergency can only be fought with People’s coalitions 
This article is based on a talk delivered in Hyderabad on 7th October 2018 as part of the 9th memorial meeting of ‘Remembering Balagopal’, an annual event commemorating the late social activist K Balagopal It is a truly a great privilege for me to be here today to speak to all of you at this meeting to remember Prof.[Read More…]
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