Will the Global Economy Stall?
ITHACA – The timing could hardly have been less propitious. Just as the world economy was showing signs of stabilizing, the odds of a policy-induced global recession have risen significantly.…
Economy
An Economics of Love
In early 2024, I offered an online 12-week course called “An Economics of Love” under the auspices of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. I hosted an introductory session to describe…
Plunge of Indian Rupee: Neocolonial Drain of Wealth being more Ruthless than under Colonialism
As Modi regime is continuing with its no holds barred rhetoric on “Amrit Kaal” and “Viksit Bharat”, IMF, the postwar neocolonial economic arm of US, and global corporate agencies like…
The Mystery And The Magic Of Growth
I find even popular writings by economists quite baffling.They begin beguilingly enough in brisk back-slapping language,but as you proceed with trust and hope they slip in some concept and term…
What does being on the top of the GDP table mean for the common man?
Recently, the IMF published a GDP forecast in which India appears to be on the top in growth of GDP. However, the IMF does not have its own data bank…
World Bank Warns – Global GDP Growth To Be Lowest For Decades
The World Bank (WB) in its latest ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report released on Tuesday has warned: The global economy is on track for its worst five-year period of growth in…
What Is to Be Done?
In 1863, the Russian social critic, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, published a novel entitled “What Is to Be Done?” Its story revolves around a central heroine, Vera Pavlovna, and her four dreams.…
Inflation And The Bulging Corporate Profit
Inflation has always been the intriguing topic for the consumers, the economists, the politicians and most importantly the corporates. Every one holds a different reason to be excited about this…
Why Unemployment Keeps Rising in India
About the top 10 to 20 percent of Indians have been happier with a more luxurious consumption basket made possible with partially or totally imported goods sustainable only with international…
Global Bankruptcies Exceed 2008 Level, Says Financial Times
Citing data from national statistics offices, the Financial Times reported on Monday: The world’s corporate sector has been hit by a wave of bankruptcies occurring at a double-digit pace unseen…
Global Economy Could Lose 5% of GDP If The World Splits Into Two Trading Blocks, Warns WTO
The global economy is showing signs of fragmentation, which could be “very costly” for all, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has warned. In an interview with Nikkei on Sunday, the…
The World Economy Is Changing—the People Know, but Their Leaders Don’t
The year 2020 marked parity between the total GDP of the G7 (the U.S. plus allies) and the total GDP of the BRICS group (China plus allies). Since then, the…
The Debt Ceiling Debate Is a Massive Deception Against the Public
Future historians will likely look back at the debt ceiling rituals being reenacted these days with a frustrated shaking of their heads. That otherwise reasonable people would be so readily…
Grim 2023 Forecast From Economists
The world economy will slide into a recession in 2023 as a number of economies will contract due to surging borrowing costs introduced to combat inflation, the UK-based Centre for…
French Growth Stalls In First Quarter While Germany May Face Recession
France's economy, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, growth unexpectedly ground to a halt in the first quarter while Germany, Europe's largest economy, faces possibility of tipping into recession. The war…
EU’s Economy Facing Stagnation, Says European Commissioner
European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni has admitted that the European Union's economy is facing stagnation. "The situation in Ukraine presents an uncertainty and unpredictability factor for Europe, economic growth…
Public Sector and The Pandemic: Why Government Interventions Are Essential
In an interview of Joseph Stiglitz that appeared in Investopedia on 23 April 2020 he said “Covid 19 reminds us that when we have a crisis we turn to collective…
IMF Downgrades its Growth Forecast for Asia, says Covid Still ‘Ravaging’ the Region
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday downgraded its 2021 economic growth forecast for Asia after the Covid-19 delta variant caused a spike in cases in parts of the region. The…
Global Debt Leaps to $226 Trillion, reports IMF
The global debt has jumped to a new high of $226 trillion, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 13, 2021. As reason of this leap in global debt, the IMF has cited…
Doughnut Economics Boots Capitalism Out!
The rapid rise of Covid-19 has spawned a renaissance in socio-economic thinking about the best way to face the future, as mayors of cities throughout the world search for answers…
GNP and the Tribal’s Flute
The senior official rose from his seat to welcome the visiting consultant from New York. This consultant had just submitted a report on stepping up GNP growth. After exchanging a…
System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy
Co-Written by Emily Kawano and Julie Matthaei The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world. It has laid bare the inequity, the limits, and the failures of capitalism. The door to…
COVID-19 Crisis: Understanding the State of Economy during and after the Lockdown
Nothing could have brought the global economy to a grinding halt like the COVID-19 pandemic in recent history. Barring essential goods, the production, sale, and consumption of all goods and…
The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 2
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…
The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 1
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…
The “New Normal” In Cyclical Recessions
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…
Neoliberal Totalitarianism And The Social Contract
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…
ESOPs Fables :Infosys Stock Buyback Bonanza
“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…
Will The World Economy Continue To “Roll Along” In 2018?
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…
World’s Richest One Percent Capture Twice As Much Income Growth As The Bottom Half
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…
Bitcoin Frenzy: The Fever Chart Of A Deepening Crisis
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…
20 Years After The Asian Financial Crisis: Is History Repeating Itself?
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…
Debts That Cannot Be Paid Will Not Be, T Sabri Öncü Argues
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…
Shortcomings of the BJP’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Rules 2016
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…
How We Can Transition To A “Bottom Up” Economy
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…
The Next Financial Crisis Is Not Far Away
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…
Can India’s High GDP Growth Rate Paradigm Lead To True Welfare Of Our Communities?
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…
A Suggestion For A Single Point Anti-Incumbency Manifesto For 2019 Against The BJP
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…
Democracy Means Controlling The Bank
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…
Anti-Corruption Is Not An Economic Policy Though The BJP And the INC Would Like You To Think So
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…
Explaining The Dollar: How It Became The Global Currency And What It Means For You
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…
Why A Just And Sustainable Economy Looks Like A Doughnut
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…
Economic Emergency In India And What Does That Mean For The Common People
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…
The New American Financial Model Has Failed Main Street
“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 Real Oil Limits Story; What Other Researchers Missed
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…
The Physics Of Energy And The Economy
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…
Why “Supply And Demand” Doesn’t Work For Oil
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…
How Our Energy Problem Leads To A Debt Collapse Problem
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,…
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