Tag Archives: Capitalism

Kate Pickett explains how to turn the vicious circle of inequality and social mistrust into a virtuous one. Kate Pickett* Holidaying on the island of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland, we came upon a geological site known as Hutton’s Unconformity. James Hutton, an 18th-century geologist, became curious about …

In the dusk of neoliberalism, a new narrative is needed to untangle the moral and political trade-offs of our times. Piergiuseppe Fortunato* On May 4th 1979, Margaret Thatcher entered 10 Downing Street in London as a British prime minister. The time had finally come to put into practice her political …

Unregulated capitalism has always tended to monopoly. But Big Tech represents a challenge antitrust tool can’t tame. Cédric Durand and Cecilia Rikap* Scientia potentia est—knowledge is power. The old adage has acquired a sinister connotation with the alarming dominance of Big Tech in the economy and society as a whole. …

As the ownership of firms becomes transferred to algorithmically controlled index funds, why not put their human employees in charge instead? Bo Rothstein* History shows us nothing is forever. Sooner or later, most social systems bite their tails. The saying that each system contains the seeds of its own downfall …

M. Ashraf Al-Bayoumi* First Encounter with America’s Racism: My first encounter with racism against people of color in the United States occurred 65 years ago. It was both a shocking and a funny experience. I was a 20-year-old young man who had just arrived from Alexandria, Egypt by ship, followed …

Economic inequality has burgeoned as income from capital has risen faster than growth. Time to change the owners of capital. Bo Rothstein  The economic system we used to call liberal market capitalism has changed dramatically. Since the early 1980s, this socio-economic model has engendered a huge increase in economic inequality. …

Sheri Berman warns that, however self-evident the crisis of this neoliberal phase of capitalism may appear, it will not automatically collapse. Sheri Berman  Over recent years, the negative consequences of neoliberal capitalism have become impossible to ignore. It contributed to such traumatic events as the 2008 financial crisis as well …

The solidly bourgeois Financial Times fears Labour could come to power with a potentially post-capitalist programme. Paul Mason   Thanks to the hubristic incompetence of the new UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, we could be about to see the first major economy in the developed world ruled by a party, or parties, …

The new capital promises a novel form of social mobility Samir Sobhi Ancient Egyptian workers used to utter a shout when carrying building materials and ascending scaffolding from one floor to the next in major construction projects. Today, their modern descendants do something similar as they build the country’s New …