Has China really reached the end of its economic boom?
The US economy grew 2.5 percent in 2023 over 2022, according to the first estimate of real GDP for Q4 released this week. This was greeted with rapture by Western…
Michael Roberts
BRICS: Getting bigger, but is it any stronger?
From left, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pose…
Reconstructing Ukraine: Private capital floods in
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the first day of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, June 21, 2023. Photo courtesy AP. The 2023 Ukraine…
SVB: From the valley to the chasm
Last Friday, Californian bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. In a sudden collapse that shocked financial markets, it left billions…
Russia-Ukraine: the economics of one year of war
Illustration by Ziniu Chen. Photo courtesy the US Department of State. It’s just a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am not going to discuss the politics of…
Keynes and the left
Street art depicting John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) in Lisbon. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. “The theories of John Maynard Keynes provide the sound intellectual framework for the views which trade unionists…
Central banks are applying ‘shock therapy’ to quell rising global inflation
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Photo by Sharon Farmer/Flickr. Shock therapy was the term used to describe the drastic switch from a planned publicly owned economy in the Soviet Union…
Italy: Lurching to the right
Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) party look set to win the upcoming Italian general election over a deeply divided centre-left coalition. Photo by Vox España/Wikimedia Commons.…
Will global inflation subside?
Photo by Christopher Hollis/Wikimedia Commons Is the global inflationary spiral peaking? And if it is and inflation is set to fall over the next year, then has the inflation scare…
The Inflation Reduction Act and the four horsemen of the climate apocalypse
Mystic Generating Station, a gas and oil-fired power plant, located on the Mystic River in Everett, Massachusetts. Photo by Fletcher6/Wikimedia Commons. The announcement that US President’s Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act…
Is China headed for a crash?
Once again, Western ‘experts’ are predicting a financial crash in China. “China is flailing,” says one commentator; another says “a debt bomb is about to explode.” These would-be Cassandras reckon…
A tightening world
Supply bottlenecks generated during the COVID slump globally have now been compounded by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, particularly in energy and food, resulting in rising inflation. Photo by Atoms/Unsplash. It’s been…
Australia: Turning for the worse?
Photo by Thomas White/Reuters If you agree that there is an imperialist bloc of countries that dominates and controls the world, then Australia should be included. It may be a…
Inflation: Wages versus profits
Illustration by American labour cartoonist Fred Wright, updated to reflect increases in corporate profits, prices and wages over the past two years. Image from Wikimedia Commons. The Governor of the…
The great inflation debate rages on
If the major economies slow down sharply or even enter a slump by the end of this year, inflation too will eventually subside—to be replaced by rising unemployment and falling…
The end of dollar dominance?
The shift in international currency strength after the Ukraine war will not form into some West-East bloc, but instead towards a fragmentation of currency reserves, argues Michael Roberts. Image by…
Korea: From Moon to Yoon
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. Photo from Facebook. In South Korea’s presidential election, held every five years, the conservative candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party gained a narrow…
Russia: From sanctions to slump?
Russia’s central bank in Moscow. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. The economic war between the US-led NATO alliance and Russia is heating up alongside the real war in Ukraine itself. In…
Views on China
How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate Isabella M. Weber Routledge, 2021 China’s Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices John Ross Praxis Press, 2021 China’s…
COVID vaccines: Calling the shots
The public-private development of a vaccine for COVID-19 is not designed to prioritize global access. It is designed to maximize profits. Photo by Prasesh Shiwakoti/Unsplash. Before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed…