Economy
As Inflation Rises, Workers Have Options for Struggle
As inflation courses through the U.S. economy, the ruling class is responding with higher interest rates and other steps aimed at keeping wages lower for the workers who bear the brunt of price hikes. What demands should workers raise to fight the latest capitalist attacks on our standard of living?
Scott Cooper
January 5, 2022Capitalist Bonanza: Share Buybacks Reached Record High in 2021
Share buybacks hit a record high in 2021, enriching investors and executives at the expense of the working class.
Otto Fors
January 4, 2022The Democratic Party and Capitalism’s Economic Contradictions
The Democratic Party is promising that its spending packages will rejuvenate the economy. And that has helped the party bewitch the Left and dampen mass struggle in the United States. But the economic situation today — riven by fundamental, explosive contradictions — shows that those promises are built on sand, and that we need to reject the Democrats and organize for an independent, revolutionary struggle.
Jason Koslowski
November 27, 2021Tariffs to Fight Climate Change? It’s a Capitalist Ruse
At COP26, the leading capitalist countries are pushing the idea of tariffs on certain exports as a way to reduce emissions. But these proposals are really about shoring up Western capitalism’s ability to compete with China.
Scott Cooper
November 6, 2021Job Growth or Job Decline, It’s All About Capitalist Exploitation
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial affords a look into the argument the capitalists are having within their class about the most recent Labor Department jobs numbers.
Scott Cooper
October 11, 2021Snap Canadian Elections Change Nothing
Prime Minister Trudeau achieved nothing with his snap election and faces the same problems in getting Canada’s capitalist economy going as before.
Michael Roberts
September 22, 2021Competition, Monopoly, and Exploitation under Capitalism
While signing an executive order to expand competition and crack down on monopolistic practices, Joe Biden said that “capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.” His statement reflects a long-standing assumption among both classical and more left-leaning economists alike that increasing monopolization is the source of increasing exploitation under capitalism. What do they get wrong? Economist Michael Roberts explains.
Michael Roberts
July 17, 2021Inflation, Interest Rates, and Debt
Accelerating inflation may be an issue right now in the U.S. and other recovering capitalist economies. But for capitalism, profitability is the real benchmark and that can be hit by wage rises on the one hand and interest rises on the other.
Michael Roberts
July 9, 2021The Productivity Crisis
In his latest piece, Michael Roberts takes a look at the crisis in productivity and the failures of Keynesian economics over nearly a hundred years.
Michael Roberts
June 2, 2021New Unemployment Numbers Reveal the Truth about Economic Recovery
Skeptical about capitalist claims that we will soon be “flush with cash” and out boosting the economy? The latest weekly increase in claims for unemployment benefits shows the real truth about the system of exploitation the working class confronts every day.
Scott Cooper
March 18, 2021