At the end of the twentieth century, while financial economists satisfied their intellectual pretensions to useful knowledge by conjuring up visions of a world peopled with materialistic consumer-investors optimizing rationally in accordance with their willingness to hazard their wealth, the propertied classes themselves were succumbing to new delusions fostered by the financial markets. The reasoned response of propertied individuals to their experience of the world of speculative finance More
In response to the current crisis, European Union (EU) institutions and Eurozone governments have adopted a range of regulatory and treaty-based measures to ensure fiscal discipline through limiting the capacity of Eurozone governments running budget deficits and accumulating sovereign debt. In addition, almost all Eurozone governments have taken measures to deregulate labour laws, such as easing employee dismissals, reducing minimum wages, More
In general, peripheral countries have been affected much more strongly by the crisis than those considered central. This has increased the visibility of asymmetries and dependency within Europe, and hence processes of peripherialization. Experiences of the Latin American periphery and theoretical approaches produced in that context therefore provide a useful framework of analysis for the analysis of European peripheries. In addition, in order to deal with the different types of peripheral development and asymmetries within Europe, the regulation approach represents a complementary theoretical framework. Weiterlesen
This paper analyzes the origin and causes of the recent economic and financial crises, mainly for the countries located in the periphery of the European Union (EU), as well as their evolution and transformation into social, political, and institutional crises.
After explaining the differential impact of the crises on EU member economies mand critically analysing the unsuccessful orthodox neoclassical policies more
The New York Monthly Review established by Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman in 1949 represents a unique venture in disseminating Marxist ideas in a way that has been informed by serious economic analysis. In particular it has benefited from the close relationship that Paul Sweezy had with his PhD supervisor at Harvard, Joseph Schumpeter; Sweezy’s own personal knowledge of finance through his father, who was one of five vice-presidents of the New York-based First National Bank (which eventually became Citibank); More
For the first EU experts’s discussion in 2011 Frieder Otto Wolf had elaborated a text on the „Gemeinschaftsmethode“ (Community method) and on the „Unionsmethode“ (Union method). His English text helps to understand the problems and the context as the societal consequences of the ESM treaty and of the Fiscal compact. It helps also to understand what the document „A Fundamental Law“ of the Spinelli group and the Bertelsmann foundation means and should. Please find Frieder Otto Wolfs paper here.
1. A short introduction
We have used and use our international RLF Conference on Rosa Luxemburgs “Accumulation of Capital” http://kapacc.blog.rosalux.de/2013/05/19/100th-anniversary-of-the-accumulation-of-capital-a-contribution-to-an-economic-explanation-of-imperialism-a-century-old-work-remains-current-provocative-and-eminal/ for the preparation process of the 4th EU experts’ discussion. More
According to a recent report published by the European Commission (2013:14), the global financial crisis has only temporarily stopped the economic growth of the United States (US). In fact, the average per-capita income in this country will return to pre-crisis levels during the period 2014-2023. These figures contrast strikingly with the dim forecast concerning European economies. More
Starting by reminding you on our „First Thoughts“ from December 2013 we should like to repeat (or to explain) the following points:
1. The workshop in October 2014 will be the fourth in a series of EU experts’ discussions oriented towards elaborating political-economic analyzes which can help us to understand current societal reality More
After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the elimination of the system of fixed exchange rates, global finance made new inroads into the world economy, while the deregulation of financial services marked the beginning of the era of financialisation. Inequality in the distribution of income and wealth feeds the process of financialisation and is fed by it. It is a two-way relationship, which has favoured the meteoric rise of the More