Capital As Power - Latest Comments

Re: Trump, US Public Debt, and the Future of Global Financial Power

Sajida Wasim — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 04:42:27 -0000

US debt being owned by 1% means they are asleep at wheel. US is heading for cliff as demographic catastrophe is underway, because elites were too selfish to help others (poor schooling for poor students-who will now be the majority-and impact whole economy)..

Meanwhile USD supported by petrodollar while Saudis are headed for crackup sooner than later because of own incompetence and demographic time bomb. .

Re: Protecting the Game from the Players

Sajida Wasim — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 04:39:02 -0000

Yes, while shareholders have benefitted, Munger recognizes this is temporary conditions. Over time financialization weakens companies (its worse in US and UK). Also see what Clayton Christensen has been saying.

Also check out the ProMarket blog of the Stigler Center at U of Chicago.

For UK, would recommend Tom Brown's book which also discusses how British companies have been weakened by "The City."

Re: Park, Hyeng-Joon, ‘Korea’s Post-1997 Restructuring’ Winner of the RRPE Annual Best Paper Award for 2016

Davi Jaehrig — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 23:25:23 -0000

Try this: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/...

Re: Park, Hyeng-Joon, ‘Korea’s Post-1997 Restructuring’ Winner of the RRPE Annual Best Paper Award for 2016

Davi Jaehrig — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 23:23:16 -0000

The download link is not working: "File not found"

Re: Video of Blair Fix’s Presentation – Economic Growth as a Power Process

James Harris — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 07:50:34 -0000

There may be a flaw in the biophysical approach contained in the quote "Energy consumption is the most meaningful way to measure economic scale". When it comes to biological organisms you can clearly see where one organism starts and stops, it has skin tissue or something of the like, this is not so easy when it comes to measuring an economic form. If a Swiss corporation is on Canadian soil, which economy is one measuring? This gets even more complicated if the company is on the border and uses a US power grid. Its difficult to say something is growing when you can't really state where or what it is. You could be placing a frog on a turtle and measuring some mix of energy from both. Perhaps it should be also rephrased "energy consumption is the most meaningful way to measure economic development/complexity" since scale implies distance which is a different physical entity entirely.

Re: Social Change and the Bottom Line

mrwho1990 — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 14:04:31 -0000

Check out the recent article in The Jacobin about the same issue:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/...

Re: Is Hollywood running out of risk?

Francisco Pacheco — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 09:49:44 -0000

Very pertinent to the study of the film industry from the post-institutionalist perspective of CasP
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: HMNY 2015 Call for Papers

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Re: The Oil Price: Differential Accumulation and Punishing One’s Rivals

FattyBattyBoy — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 13:24:19 -0000

Interesting video clip on this subject by RUSI https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: No. 2014/02: Fix, “Rethinking Profit: How Redistribution Drives Growth”

curatingsex — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:50:56 -0000

Very interesting, Blair. Lee here. A lot of people are starting to figure out that hierarchy is an issue. Have you seen this article?: - Crsipin Sartwell, "The Left-Right Political Spectrum Is Bogus”... and he talks of the coincidence of hierarchies which is also interesting. The problem with capital as a value, though, is that it's trumped by so-called 'sacred values' (don't offer money-type response/rewards to a committed terrorist -- he's willing to die for his value and your money offer enrages him and recommits him to his values and to dying for them). Scott Atran figured that out -- and even showed with colleagues that moral values/reasoning and cost-benefit values/reasoning have different neural centres in the brain. Once a majority understands that their moral values for survival trump the economic values for profit, the world will change. Its starting to happen. I've tried to summarize the big-picture argument for this in "Curating Sex, Briefly" which was just published in Kindle Select overnight. Keep up the good work!

Re: The Story of Machines vs. Labour

DT Cochrane — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:25:37 -0000

Blair,
This would assume that we cannot find renewable sources to replace and augment our current power demands.

That said, fossil fuels have definitely played an important role in the process. Energy intensity has always been discounted in our increased productivity in favour of self-congratulatory claims about human ingenuity. If fossil fuel use were not under-priced, as it externalizes costs associated with pollution, then the process would have been much slower and much different.

Re: The Story of Machines vs. Labour

Blair Fix — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 17:27:56 -0000

Great post!

Here's a question: how much longer can machines replace workers?

In my view, there are fundamental limits to this process, dictated primarily by energy resources.

All machine require energy for both their construction and operation. Replacing workers with machines requires an increase in energy consumption per labor hour. If energy supplies were infinite, this process could continue indefinitely. However, the vast majority (about 85%) of global energy comes from fossil fuels, and this is unlikely to change any-time soon. Fossil fuels are finite and exhaustible.

The peak in fossil fuel production, in my view, will likely coincide with the maximum extent of machine-worker replacement. After the peak, my prediction is that the trend will reverse.

Re: The Geopolitical Economy of the Ethanol Boom

DT Cochrane — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:33:36 -0000

It is interesting that we think of these two groups as sharing certain political ideals, identifying both regions with the Tea Party. Given the clear dependence of the corn farmers on government largesse of various forms, have we misunderstood where the Tea Party's appeal is? Do these farmers understand the source of their own recent fortunes? Do they believe it to be the product of their individual guile and hard work? Or, do they secretly fear a Tea Party victory that could put an end to the government programs from which they benefit?

Re: Kevin O’Leary, the Distillation of Capital

Tim DiMuzio — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:46:01 -0000

Great post Troy! I've been watching those shows for years now and get my students to watch a few clips when Kevin is at his most extreme. It's amazing how much one man's subjectivity has embraced accumulation as the end goal of human endeavors.

Re: No. 2014/01: McMahon, “Capitalist Power, Distribution and the Order of Cinema”

comma splice — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:05:56 -0000

A few days after this working paper was completed, Věra Chytilová passed away at the age of 85. Her film, Daisies, is referenced and is highly recommended.

Re: What Should I Read?

comma splice — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 13:17:06 -0000

Thanks for the recommendations!

Re: What Should I Read?

TheGreenBattalion — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 09:01:23 -0000

(Continued) ... of post-Keynesian, institutional economics with the libertarian socialist tradition.
Of particular note is his elaboration of the relationship of wage-labour coming about as a result of the disparity of bargaining power between labour and capital.

Re: What Should I Read?

TheGreenBattalion — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 07:59:59 -0000

Some excellent heterodox economic theory has been developed within the anarchist/left-libertarian tradition since the late 90s and 2000s.
First of note is Takis Fotopoulos' work with his International Journal of Inclusive Democracy; with all his economic, political, and philosophical ideas summed up in the book Towards an Inclusive Democracy.

Second in the revival of the market anarchist tradition attempted by Kevin Carson in his three main theoretical works, Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, Organisation Theory: A Libertarian Perspective, and Homebrew Industrial Revolution.

Fotopoulos and Carson both offer a similar but contrasting history of capitalism from an anarchist perspective. Fotopoulos focuses more on the autonomous nature of the market economy itself, while Carson focuses more on the state as a primary creator of economic relations, but read together I find they fill each other out and complement each other's visions.

Lastly is the work of Robin Hahnel, who's Economic Justice and Dmocracy and Green Economics aims at a sort of synthesis

Re: The Colour of the Sun: A Metaphor for Methodology?

DT Cochrane — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 15:58:18 -0000

Great points, James. We've been so long preoccupied with the 'true' perspective that we've mistaken our concepts for the thing we're trying to understand. Which of those filters shows us the 'true' sun? I'd say none, but that's not to say they aren't useful for different purposes.

I just read an article by a doctor on the need to abandon the term 'cancer.' He says it is misleading to apply the label to both a basal cell carcinoma, which, if caught early enough, can be removed with just local anesthetic, and advanced malignant tumours requiring radiation and chemotherapy. Words are powerful and play a role not only in how we see the world, but how we engage with the world. The dichotomy between 'words' and 'things' is not as definite as the division between the natural and the human sciences might have us believe. Theoretical concepts are among the most powerful words we have. As such, they demand constant reinvigoration.

Re: Video: Shrinking Universe: How Corporate Power Shapes Inequality

umbrarchist — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 12:29:14 -0000

So we have all if this talk about income but economists cannot suggest that double-entry accounting be mandatory in our schools. And how does Planned Obsolescence play a part? If people go into debt for junk designed to become obsolete then what happens to their Net Worth?

What is Demand Side Depreciation? It is not in economics books. But Supply Side Depreciation is in the Net Domestic Product equation, but economists don't mention or call it that. It is just Depreciation.

http://www.toxicdrums.com/e...

Re: Low Capex, High Market Cap: A New High for Corporate Sabotage?

DT Cochrane — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 08:50:32 -0000

This chart undermines the main argument in favour of low corporate taxes. We're told that keeping these taxes low will encourage investment, which creates jobs. However, if there are greater returns from not investing, then why would corporations invest in productive capacity?

Re: No. 2013/01: Bichler and Nitzan, “Can Capitalists Afford Recovery?”

comma splice — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:35:33 -0000

Thank you, Shimshon and Jonathan, for getting the working paper series started. I am excited to see this series promote and strengthen exciting, innovative research.

Re: The Price of Human Life

comma splice — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 15:52:30 -0000

With respect to the orientation of Planet Money in general, I certainly agree. Despite being a team of enthusiastic, smart journalists, and despite following interesting stories, Planet Money repeatedly runs into problems because it seeks to quickly fill the gaps of its theoretical knowledge with what is abundantly available: supply-demand, equilibrium, utility. There is no reason to do this, especially because Davidson and Bloomberg started Planet Money with no formal training in economics.

In a way, I like this piece above because Davidson is not trying to find a theoretical answer to all this. Instead, he appears to be surprised that the qualities of his life do not easily translate into a magnitude of utils.

Re: The Price of Human Life

DT Cochrane — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 14:41:34 -0000

While I'm a fan of Planet Money, listening to it demands some financial and media literacy. Although better than 99.9% of the mainstream financial reporting, it remains very liberal in its perspective. Its critical stance presumes the possibility of a well functioning market that will be just and efficient.