Top-rated
Thu, Oct 16, 2014
Karl Polanyi's life's work was to reintegrate society and economy - with the latter serving the former. Taking us on a journey from ancient Sumeria to the towers of Frankfurt, this episode of CAPITALISM argues that commercial transactions have always been embedded in social norms, and that a self-regulating market economy is in no way a natural state of human affairs. The thought of political economist Karl Polanyi, author of The Great Transformation, is central to this exploration. Polanyi said that industrialization and the first wave of globalized economy had led to labor, money and nature being treated like commodities, with potentially disastrous results - the kind being played out on the streets of Athens, where unemployment is over 20%, neo-fascism is on the rise, and rioters face down police over harsh austerity measures that benefit foreign bankers. Debt levels around the world are rising, and the webs of who owns whose debt are becoming ever more complex. Could the commodification of money ultimately be as disastrous - both for individuals and businesses - as floods, drought and earthquakes?
Wed, Oct 15, 2014
In Flint, Michigan, a weed-strewn lot is all that's left of a factory that once employed over 10,000 people. In Haiti, cheap subsidized American rice has flooded the market, forcing local producers out of business and into the capital, Port-au-Prince, where they struggle to find work. In Ghana, the International Monetary Fund's "structural adjustment" has meant selling public assets to foreign investors and a market flooded with cheap imports. All of these events can be traced back to the thinking of two men born in the 18th century: David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. Ricardo was a stockbroker who developed the notion of comparative advantage: that countries should specialize and meet each other's needs through trade. Malthus was the demographer who feared a population explosion would cause the world to run out of food by 1890, and worked with Ricardo to eliminate public assistance for the poor in order to create a mobile and motivated workforce. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market. But the origins of international trade are far from free. They involved heavy subsidies, market protection, and the barrels of guns pointed at recalcitrant nations.
Wed, Oct 15, 2014
For nearly a century, most economic debate in capitalist societies has come down to a battle royal between two camps: those following John Maynard Keynes and those whose allegiance lies with Friedrich Hayek. Or, in other words, the ideological divide between those who see the need for economic policy to serve social cohesion and stability, and those for whom price - as set by the free market - is the only guide to rational economic decisions. KEYNES VS HAYEK: A FAKE DEBATE? Delves deeply into the origins of both schools of thought, and how they were shaped by post-WWI German reparations, the Depression, and the need to rebuild industrial economies after World War II. Keynesians ruled the day in the post-war economic expansion, but the soaring crime rates and economic stagnation of the 1970s rekindled interest in the idea that the government could not successfully guide the economy. This was the moment at which uber-Hayekian economist Milton Friedman emerged from obscurity, influencing the neo-conservative governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and leading to an economic revolution whose hallmarks - privatization and deregulation - continue to be felt today. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond the dualism of Keynes vs Hayek?