Article Subjects and Geography: Capitalism
The Puzzle of Financialization
March 1, 2023
In this reprise from October 1993, Henry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy ask: "Isn't there anyone around here who understands how this capitalist system works?"
Crypto Convulsions, Digital Delusions, and the Inexorable Logic of Finance Capitalism
December 1, 2022
The crypto winter, Ramaa Vasudevan writes, is here. Cryptocurrency, far from being a democratizing force in finance, has led to only further concentrations of wealth and power and increased precarity within the financial sector. The recent fall of Sam Bankman-Fried is only the beginning.
Mining Capital and the Indonesian State
December 1, 2022
Arianto Sangadji traces the relationship between the state and mining capital in Indonesia throughout the historical capitalist development of the country from Dutch colonialism to the contemporary practices of multinational mining corporations. While these powerful firms have generated significant profits, they are also associated with dispossession, environmental degradation, and ruthless labor exploitation, spurring resistance from the local populations.
Anthropocene, Capitalocene, and Other “-Cenes”: Why a Correct Understanding of Marx’s Theory of Value Is Necessary to Leave the Planetary Crisis
November 1, 2022
The perception that we are living in a critical historical period regarding the conditions of habitability on Earth—not only for humans but for many other living organisms too—is gaining more and more adepts among common people, academics, politicians, and social movements. This critical period has been typified as the planetary crisis of the Anthropocene Epoch and studies undertaken in the present century show that habitability on Earth is progressively deteriorating.
End of Cold War Illusions
November 1, 2022
In this reprint of the February 1994 "Notes from the Editors," former MR editors Harry Magdoff and Paul M. Sweezy ask: "The United States could not have won a more decisive victory in the Cold War. Why, then, does it continue to act as though the Cold War is still on?"
Strategies for Degrowth
November 1, 2022
Mariko Frame reviews The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to the World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Andrea Vetter, and Aaron Vansintjan (Verso, 2022) and its explorations of the policies, vision, and strategies for social change required for the burgeoning movement.
Intelligence Under Racial Capitalism: From Eugenics to Standardized Testing and Online Learning
September 1, 2022
From the era of overt eugenic research to the present-day education system, the attempts to categorize and rank individuals' "intelligence" through testing and statistics reflects and reinforces the power of racist, capitalist, and imperialist institutions.
Socialism and Ecological Survival: An Introduction
July 1, 2022
Time is running out for humanity to avoid a catastrophic planetary tipping point. Widespread mass mobilizations of populations worldwide must fight to bring about revolutionary societal changes and dismantle neoliberal monopoly capitalism, with its reliance on extractive exploitation of our planet's resources and communities.
Climate Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century
July 1, 2022
Climate imperialism has emerged as a new—and potentially even the most lethal—form of imperialism in the world economy today. Confronting it requires recognizing and dealing with all its different aspects. But it also requires addressing the monopolies of knowledge created by the global regime of intellectual property rights that has been instituted and cemented by hegemonic world powers.