Alexander Anievas (UConn) and Kerem Nisancioglu (SOAS): Why Europe? Anti-Eurocentric Theory, History, and the Rise of Capitalism. The case against the collapse of capitalism: Martin Wolf reviews How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System by Wolfgang Streeck (and more and more); and on capitalism and democracy: The strain is showing (“To maintain legitimacy, economic policy must seek to promote the interests of the many not the few”). Labor and capital in the global economy: Kimberly Clausing on how three decades of technological change, globalization, and government policy made workers more at the mercy of concentrated capital.
Brad DeLong on missing the economic big picture: While it is important that we determine the best way to manage the global trade system, doing so cannot substitute for the much larger challenge of managing market capitalism itself. Led by a class of omnipotent central bankers, experts have gained extraordinary political power — will a populist backlash shatter their technocratic dream? While lack of sufficient national identity may play a role in the dislike of the meritocrats, there is a much simpler explanation: They have done a horrible job.
From Wonkblog, Max Ehrenfreund on what it would take to really rethink capitalism: Economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos are concerned that global economic progress has left some behind; and on the most awkward thing to talk about at a forum for global elites. Mark Thoma on what the Davos crowd needs to understand. CEOs: Worried about nationalism, less worried about their ability to make money.
