Stephen J. Collier: Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · anthropology, biopolitics, city, economy, modernity, neoliberalism, post-communism, russia
The Soviet Union created a unique form of urban modernity, developing institutions of social provisioning for hundreds of millions of people in small and medium-sized industrial cities spread across a vast territory. After the collapse of socialism these institutions were profoundly shaken–casualties, in the eyes of many observers, of market-oriented reforms associated with neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. In Post-Soviet Social, Stephen Collier examines reform in Russia beyond the Washington Consensus. He turns attention from the noisy battles over stabilization and privatization during the 1990s to subsequent reforms that grapple with the mundane details of pipes, wires, bureaucratic routines, and budgetary formulas that made up the Soviet social state.
Drawing on Michel Foucault’s lectures from the late 1970s, Post-Soviet Social uses the Russian case to examine neoliberalism as a central form of political rationality in contemporary societies. The book’s basic finding–that neoliberal reforms provide a justification for redistribution and social welfare, and may work to preserve the norms and forms of social modernity–lays the groundwork for a critical revision of conventional understandings of these topics.
Publisher Princeton University Press, 2011
ISBN 0691148317, 9780691148311
320 pages
Detlev S. Schlichter: Paper Money Collapse: The Folly of Elastic Money and the Coming Monetary Breakdown (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · banking, economics, economy, finance, money
The case for the inevitable failure of a paper money economy and what that means for the future
All paper money systems in history have ended in failure. Either they collapsed in chaos, or society returned to commodity money before that could happen. Drawing upon novel new research, Paper Money Collapse conclusively illustrates why paper money systems—those based on an elastic and constantly expanding supply of money as opposed to a system of commodity money of essentially fixed supply—are inherently unstable and why they must lead to economic disintegration.
These highly controversial conclusions clash with the present consensus, which holds that elastic state money is superior to inflexible commodity money (such as a gold standard), and that expanding money is harmless or even beneficial for as long as inflation stays low. Contradicting this, Paper Money Collapse shows that:
– The present crisis is the unavoidable result of continuously expanding fiat money
– The current policy of accelerated money production to “stimulate” the economy is counterproductive and could lead to a complete collapse of the monetary system
– Why many in financial markets, in media, and in the policy establishment are unable (and often unwilling) to fully appreciate the underlying problems with elastic money.
This compelling new book looks at the breakdown of modern economic theory and the fallacy of mathematical models. It is an analysis of the current financial crisis and shows in very stark terms that the solutions presented by paper money-enthusiasts around the world are misguided and inherently flawed.
Foreword by Addison Wiggin
Publisher John Wiley & Sons, 2011
ISBN 1118095751, 9781118095751
240 pages
David Harvey: The Enigma of Capital And the Crises of Capitalism (2010)
Filed under book | Tags: · capitalism, economy, financial crisis, labour, market, peak oil, politics
For over forty years, David Harvey has been one of the world’s most trenchant and critical analysts of capitalist development. In The Enigma of Capital, he delivers an impassioned account of how unchecked neoliberalism produced the system-wide crisis that now engulfs the world.
Beginning in the 1970s, profitability pressures led the capitalist class in advanced countries to shift away from investment in industrial production at home toward the higher returns that financial products promised. Accompanying this was a shift towards privatization, an absolute decline in the bargaining power of labor, and the dispersion of production throughout the developing world. The decades-long and ongoing decline in wages that accompanied this turn produced a dilemma: how can goods–especially real estate–sell at the same rate as before if workers are making less in relative terms? The answer was a huge expansion of credit that fueled the explosive growth of both the financial industry and the real estate market. When one key market collapsed–real estate–the other one did as well, and social devastation resulted.
Harvey places today’s crisis in the broadest possible context: the historical development of global capitalism itself from the industrial era onward. Moving deftly between this history and the unfolding of the current crisis, he concentrates on how such crises both devastate workers and create openings for challenging the system’s legitimacy. The battle now will be between the still-powerful forces that want to reconstitute the system of yesterday and those that want to replace it with one that prizes social justice and economic equality.
Publisher Oxford University Press, 2010
ISBN 0199758719, 9780199758715
296 pages
PDF (PDF)
PDF (EPUB)
PDF (MOBI)