Gaby Hinsliff A wave of industrial action affecting everything from the Christmas post to new year getaways, with border officials at some of the country’s busiest airports due to walk out later this month, means everyday life is about to get more difficult for most of us, and actively frightening for some. But, to put it bluntly,… Read More Britain is braced for a winter of strikes
In 1926, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) finance minister Rudolf Hilferding published an article in Die Gesellschaft which considered the significance of industrialist Paul Silverberg’s speech to the Dresden meeting of the country’s leading business association—the Reichsverband.1 Silverberg was the first industrialist to suggest that German capital could reconcile itself to the Weimar Republic instead of seeking… Read More Weimar Themes. By Jairus Banaji
After decades of spectacular “move fast and break things” growth, Zuckerberg’s empire is now looking a little fragile. Meta’s share price has fallen by more than 70% this year. Moneyspinners Facebook and Instagram are losing market share and Gen Z users to fresher rivals like TikTok and Snapchat. Apple’s changes to data privacy last year also decimated revenues – its introduction of an… Read More Is Facebook losing its $100bn gamble on virtual reality?
First posted July 10, 2013 Cracks in the Kremlin matrixPeter Pomerantsev enters the matrix of managed democracy that underpins postmodern dictatorship in Russia. A society of pure spectacle, with fake parties, fake opposition, fake scandals and fake action: this is the political technologists’ project, in which (almost) everything becomes PR. NB – the articles below provide insights… Read More Cracks in the Kremlin matrix. The Stalinist order, the Putinist order; Russia’s culture of bureaucratic corruption
Arafat Ara These days, Suman Mia works a power loom in a factory on the outskirts Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He stands 15 hours a day. “I go to work at 3pm, and come home at 7am,” he said. “I have very little time to sleep, but there is nothing I can do about… Read More Migrant workers still paying off debts that brought them to Qatar
Jeremy Gilbert Alex Williams The Musk-Twitter apocalypse is a symptom of a much bigger crisis. To avoid a bleak future we have to bring the big platforms under our control Within the tech world, the most significant development of the past two years has been the collapse of the profit-making model described by Shoshana Zuboff… Read More Big Tech is failing. The future of democracy depends on what happens next
George Monbiot In every conflict over the living world, something is being protected. And most of the time, it’s the wrong thing. The world’s most destructive industries are fiercely protected by governments. The three sectors that appear to be most responsible for the collapse of ecosystems and erasure of wildlife are fossil fuels, fisheries and farming.… Read More From the Amazon to Australia, why is your money funding Earth’s destruction?
His projects were so reliant on public money for survival that in the days before he discovered the necessity of voting Republican to provide “balance” to American politics, conservatives derided the degree of state support for his ventures. Kenan Malik Trussonomics trashed within eight weeks. Donald Trump’s anointed candidates cut down in the US midterms. Sam… Read More Beware self-made ‘genius’ entrepreneurs promising the earth. Just look at Elon Musk
Clara Mattei Austerity, like trickle-down economics, has been relegated to the list of things economists don’t talk about anymore. Austerity’s core policies – hikes in interest rates, downward pressure of fiscal spending and wages – had their last stand with the European sovereign-debt crisis a decade ago, and the resulting public outcry made the “a-word”… Read More Don’t be fooled: policymakers are quietly invoking austerity by other names
Clara Mattei discusses her new book The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism “A must-read, with key lessons for the future.”—Thomas Piketty A groundbreaking examination of austerity’s dark intellectual origins. For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to the economic policies of austerity—cuts to wages,… Read More Clara Mattei: How Economists Invented Austerity / Anwar Shaikh: What Happens When Economics Doesn’t Reflect the Real World?
After the truth-shower 