Economics

Neoliberalism – dead or only sleeping?

"Neoliberalism", sometimes called "market fundamentalism", i.e. the policy of non-intervention by the state in the economy, has been the dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie for close to three decades, involving widespread privatisation and all the other policies that go with it. The present economic meltdown, however, is forcing governments to intervene, regulate, and even nationalise firms because they have no choice. So is "neoliberalism" dead?

On nationalising the banks

For over a century Marxists have argued the need to take the banks and other financial institutions into public ownership as part of the socialist transformation of society. The founding document of scientific socialism, the 'Communist Manifesto', in 1848 called for, "Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly."

Arms expenditure and the 'Permanent Arms Economy'

Arms spending is vast. In 2008 global arms spending will be a record £561 billion. This is seventeen times as much as the world spends on famine relief (£32 billion). Obviously spending so much money has its effect on the world economy. A central plank of the theory of the Socialist Workers’ Party is the theory of the permanent arms economy. Mick Brooks looks at the view of classical Marxism on arms spending and assesses the SWP’s theory.

The secret of Surplus Value

125 years ago, on March 14th 1883, Karl Marx died. Marx was a revolutionary above all else. His most celebrated scientific discovery explains how the working class is exploited under capitalism. Where does profit come from? This is the central mystery of economics, a mystery that was solved by Marx in his most famous work, Capital.

A Short history of Inflation

The nineteenth century was an era of price stability. It was also the age of the gold standard. Inflation can have many triggers, but it always involves an increase in money emissions at some point in order to give expression to higher prices. It is difficult to increase the money supply quickly if you have to mine precious metals, so runaway inflation just didn’t happen back then. The government can’t really control inflation. Now it’s back!

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