economics
The euro on a knife edge: Are the Greeks to blame? What is the left position on the euro crisis?
On October 19 and 20, 2011, Greece will be stopped by the latest in a series of general strikes against austerity. Above and below: Workers march on October 19.
By Lee Sustar
Martin Hart-Landsberg: Troubling economic trends for US workers
By Martin Hart-Landsberg
John Bellamy Foster: The ecology of Marxian political economy
[This article is an extended version of a talk delivered at the Marxism 2011 Conference, University College of London, July 3, 2011.
Martin Hart-Landsberg: The troubled US economy means a shaky world economy
By Martin Hart-Landsberg
August 15, 2011 -- Reports from the Economic Front, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Martin Hart-Landsberg's permission -- The US economy is in trouble and that means trouble for the world economy. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Trade and Development Report, 2010, “Buoyant consumer demand in the United States was the main driver of global economic growth for many years in the run-up to the current global economic crisis.”
Before the crisis, US household consumption accounted for approximately 16 per cent of total global output, with imports comprising a significant share and playing a critical role in supporting growth in other countries. In fact, “as a result of global production sharing, United States consumer spending increas[ed] global economic activities in many indirect ways as well (e.g. business investments in countries such as Germany and Japan to produce machinery for export to China and its use there for the manufacture of exports to the United States)”.
Iceland’s loud 'No!': Can't pay, won't pay
By Silla Sigurgeirsdóttir and Robert H. Wade
United States: The deficit deal -- We got taken
By Martin Hart-Landsberg
August 2, 2011 -- Reports from the Economic Front, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Martin Hart-Landsberg's permission -- The US Congress has finally agreed on a deficit reduction plan that President Barack Obama supports.As a result, the debt ceiling is being lifted, which means that the Treasury can once again borrow to meet its financial obligations.
Avoiding a debt default is a good thing.However, the agreement is bad and even more importantly the debate itself has reinforced understandings of the US economy that are destructive of majority interests.
United States: Debt crisis -- the issue is the war machine, not welfare
Source: “Graphic: Who pays the taxes?" What Went Wrong: The Betrayal of the American Dream. February 7, 2011.
By Paul Kellogg
July 27, 2011 -- PolEconAnalysis, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission -- As July came to an end, the United States central government had come up
against its congressionally mandated debt ceiling. Without an agreement
to raise that debt ceiling – last set at US$14.3 trillion – the US
central government will be unable to borrow money to pay its bills. The
consequences could be extremely serious – soaring interest rates, a
collapse of the US dollar, not to speak of social security stipends,
pensions and salaries going unpaid.