Marxism, populism, IP & MMT
November 18, 2018 7:11 AM Subscribe
- Reading _Capital_ - "Prices confront each individual price-taker as objective facts, but --- so goes the Walrasian myth --- they are in fact the outcome of a social process, reflecting at once the possibilities of production, the social facts of initial endowments, and the purely subjective wants of everyone."
- Populism and the New Oligarchy - "Political terms, as Pierre Bourdieu insisted, should be regarded not merely as tools but as stakes in the political struggle."
- The idea of intellectual property is nonsensical and pernicious - "Property is a legally constructed, historically contingent, social fact."
- Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) Critique - "The state has essentially outsourced money creation in our financial system to private banks."
also btw...
- How identity systems create financial power - "Over half of international payment flows by value are denominated in the US currency. All US dollar transactions ultimately cross the books of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. And if you wish to route a dollar payment via a bank that doesn't have an account at the Fed, your bank needs to have an account with a US bank that does. But US banks also have to comply with rules set by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control."
- Can China take a lesson from Estonia in using public data? - "Both China and Estonia have built digital public data systems that play a big role in everyday life. The major difference is China is exerting control and Estonia is fostering trust."
-Profits Now, Costs Later
-Clients Should Love Steve Cohen
-It's Good to Be Bad If You're a Bank
-Money – a true measure of achievement?
-How to Increase Global Wealth Inequality for Fun and Profit (via)
Towards the middle/end of the first 14k word article there is some complaining that this has largely not been done, with Marxists preferring to focus on scriptural exegesis and/or reenacting internecine feuds from the 1900s.
He does link to notes about people like John Roemer who tried to put Marxist ideas on a mathematical footing (and gave up on the labor theory of value in the process).
posted by vogon_poet at 7:48 AM on November 18, 2018
He does link to notes about people like John Roemer who tried to put Marxist ideas on a mathematical footing (and gave up on the labor theory of value in the process).
posted by vogon_poet at 7:48 AM on November 18, 2018
The piece on populism (2nd link in the op) is great. The article concludes with the following:
My own corner of the world is mentioned in D’Eramo’s piece. There was a Social Credit government in Alberta from 1935 to 1971. See Barry Pashak’s The Populist characteristics of the early Social Credit movement in Alberta (disclosure: Barry Pashak is my father).
Populism actually started in Alberta with the United Farmers government (1921-1935). This morphed into the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation that itself became the New Democratic Party. The NDP would be well-advised to rediscover and re-affirm its populist roots. Its political opponents have already staked out their ground in opposition to populism. Here is former Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper on the subject.
Harper’s roots are actually back to the populist Social Credit via his mentor Preston Manning, who’s father Ernest was the Social Credit premier of Alberta for decades. The Mannings effectively crushed the populist tendencies in Social Credit, creating a fundamentalist conservatism opposed to populism. This is the ground upon which the political battles of today are fought.
posted by No Robots at 8:23 AM on November 18, 2018 [9 favorites]
The inflated use of the term ‘populism’ by the optimates thus reveals a covert anxiety. Just as the adulterous spouse is always the one most suspicious of their own partner, so those who eviscerate democracy are the most inclined to see threats to it everywhere. Hence all the to-do about populism betrays a sense of uneasiness, smacks of overkill. The faintest murmur of dissent is turned into an alarming sign, heralding the ominous rumble of thunder that threatens to erupt into the hushed salons of the powerful, who believe themselves safe, but still anxiously peep out from behind the curtains for any signs that the people may be stirring: ‘Vade retro vulgus!’ Or as they say these days, ‘Get back in line!’D’Eramo’s piece is from 2013. A post-Trump corroboration is here.
My own corner of the world is mentioned in D’Eramo’s piece. There was a Social Credit government in Alberta from 1935 to 1971. See Barry Pashak’s The Populist characteristics of the early Social Credit movement in Alberta (disclosure: Barry Pashak is my father).
Populism actually started in Alberta with the United Farmers government (1921-1935). This morphed into the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation that itself became the New Democratic Party. The NDP would be well-advised to rediscover and re-affirm its populist roots. Its political opponents have already staked out their ground in opposition to populism. Here is former Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper on the subject.
Harper’s roots are actually back to the populist Social Credit via his mentor Preston Manning, who’s father Ernest was the Social Credit premier of Alberta for decades. The Mannings effectively crushed the populist tendencies in Social Credit, creating a fundamentalist conservatism opposed to populism. This is the ground upon which the political battles of today are fought.
posted by No Robots at 8:23 AM on November 18, 2018 [9 favorites]
I was excited to read a proper critique of modern monetary theory and was disappointed to find out the critiques were mostly challenging things I've never heard claimed and seem ridiculous on their face.
posted by Merus at 3:06 PM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Merus at 3:06 PM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
Material intelligence - "The chasm between producers and consumers leaves many of us estranged from beauty and a vital part of an ethical life."
H&M, Or, The Neutering Of Political Creativity By Modern Capitalism - "In addition to being a poet and designer, Morris was also a revolutionary and friend of Marx and Engels. He was an idealist who argued that craftwork and cooperation would make wage labour obsolete and, far from being simply the “iconic [nineteenth Century] British wallpaper and fabrics brand” which H&M proffers, Morris’s company was run on collective principles and managed by his daughter May at a time when women were rarely afforded such power."
posted by kliuless at 2:06 PM on December 1, 2018
H&M, Or, The Neutering Of Political Creativity By Modern Capitalism - "In addition to being a poet and designer, Morris was also a revolutionary and friend of Marx and Engels. He was an idealist who argued that craftwork and cooperation would make wage labour obsolete and, far from being simply the “iconic [nineteenth Century] British wallpaper and fabrics brand” which H&M proffers, Morris’s company was run on collective principles and managed by his daughter May at a time when women were rarely afforded such power."
posted by kliuless at 2:06 PM on December 1, 2018
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Has contemporary postmarxian theory addressed more recent mathematical observations of how scarce markets work? There is certainly lots more to getting turnips and bread to the proletariat but proven theorems are pretty useful tools.
posted by sammyo at 7:36 AM on November 18, 2018