“The struggle for life is taking new and interesting twists in Puerto Rico. The last few months have seen an escalation in the confrontation between those that want to preserve the status quo and those that wanted to explore alternative roads with the November 5th election. And contrary to what some might believe, this is not necessarily about most people’s preferences changing regarding the colonial relationship with the United States. It turns out that some important elements have been mutating while others critically endure in the crisis-ridden 126 year old colony of the United States.”
Full article at New Politics.
Uncategorized
Professor Lygia Sabbag-Fares presents on “Capitalismo Dependente E Gênero”
Lygia Sabbag-Fares participates in a panel on ” Value Theory and Social Reproduction of Capital” at the 3rd International Conference of Marxist Researchers at the Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, Campo Grande, Brazil.
How Left Economists Have Challenged Economic “Common Sense”
Andrej Markovčič (John Jay MA alumnus) interviewed Arthur MacEwan and Zoe Sherman, editors of Dollars & Sense magazine on the history of “popular economics” for Jacobin Magazine.
As things currently stand, we are not doing very well in the United States at meeting even foundational needs to keep people alive and healthy: housing, food, medical care. And those things that we have in reasonable abundance, like clothing, are often produced in ways that involve unacceptable environmental costs and terrible labor conditions. (Things are, of course, better in some other parts of the world and much worse in many others.) And the extremes of income inequality we have reached distort every aspect of economic and political life. But there are plenty of good ideas about how to expand access to people’s basic needs, such as rent stabilization and public housing policies, and a public option or a straight-up single-payer system for medical insurance.
Read the full interview at Jacobin.
Professor Mason on Federal Reserve Policy in Barron’s
Not long ago, there was widespread agreement on how to think about monetary policy. When the Federal Reserve hikes, this story went, it makes credit more expensive, reducing spending on new housing and other forms of capital expenditure. Less spending means less demand for labor, which means higher unemployment. With unemployment higher, workers accept smaller wage gains, and slower wage growth is in turn passed on as slower growth in prices — that is, lower inflation.
...
The worldwide financial crisis of 2007-2009 unsettled the conversation. The crisis, and, even more, the glacial recovery that followed it, opened the door to alternative perspectives on monetary policy and inflation.
Professor Zhun Xu: “China as a Socialist Inter-National Project”
Professor Zhun Xu presented his research at the 14th International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) Conference in Istanbul.
Isabella Weber. Prices, Inflation, and Survival in an Age of Emergencies: Why We Need a New Paradigm (Sept. 11, 7-9 PM)
Part of our Economic Justice Speaker Series.
Isabella M. Weber is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center, Harvard University, and a Fellow of the OSF Ideas Workshop. Her next book, ESSENTIAL: Inflation, Profits and Survival in an Age of Emergencies, will be published in 2026 by Penguin Allen Lane in the UK and University of Chicago Press in the US, and will be translated into seven languages.