Dive into the archives.

• Keynes vs. Hayek

  Circulating in the attention economy of the internets is this Austrian appropriation of the hiphop vernacular.

  Moralist tone of the Hayekian critique of excessive borrowing aside, I find it quite interesting how the liberatory tinge of Hayek’s “I want to free the markets!” is made to contrast with Keynes’ “I want to steer the market”. [...]

  Written by Saint ymM

  Posted on Feb 02.10 to Capitalism, Choice, Class Analysis, Friedrich von Hayek, John Maynard Keynes, Neoliberalism, Political Economy   

• Beyond “commodity fetishism”: the Wire and the political economy of drugs

  HBO series, the Wire, entered its fifth, and, unfortunately, the last season. Although I’ve wholeheartedly agreed that “the best thing ever happened to TV is Twin Peaks,” since I became an addict of the Wire, I felt the need to reconsider my allegiance. There are so many things to say about the Wire [...]

  Written by C-Blok

  Posted on Mar 13.08 to Camp, Capitalism, Class Analysis, Commodity Fetishism, Drug Trade, Feudalism, Identity, Neoliberalism, Political Economy, THE WIRE, Television   

• Iraq oil and its colonial pre-history

  I remembered some years ago talking in class about the US-led plans of privatization in Iraq at the beginning of the Occupation. From what I recall, Bremer even had a timeline for selling off the state-owned oil firm. At the time, it was roundly criticized by neighboring countries (surprise, surprise), and i think the plan [...]

  Written by maliha

  Posted on Apr 22.07 to , Capitalism, Class Analysis, Imperialism, Oil, Ottoman Empire, Political Economy, United States of America   

• A leader without a body?

  The following is a quote from Ernesto Laclau’s The Populist Reason (Verso, 2005: 60-1), but, as he explains, he himself is quoting in extenso from Sigmund Freud. I think it is important to read this passage in relation to “A commune with a leader?” and “No commune without a leader?” postings. [It is even possible [...]

  Written by Saint ymM

  Posted on Jan 03.07 to Capitalism, Class Analysis, Communism, Ernesto Laclau, Political Economy, Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, The Impossibility of Society   

• A commune with a leader?

  The following lenghty quote is an epic footnote (No. 112, pp. 373-375) from Jack Amariglio’s dissertation Economic History and the Theory of Primitive of Socio-Economic Development (University of Massachusetts, 1984) and it pertains to the theoretical status of the so-called Asiatic Mode of Production (AMoP). For Amariglio, the AMoP is not a distinct [...]

  Written by Saint ymM

  Posted on Dec 24.06 to Class Analysis, Communism, Jack Amariglio, Karl Marx, Political Economy   

• No commune without a leader?

  This is transcribed from a documentary included among the supplementary matter for the BDR Trilogy (comprising of The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, and Lola) DVD Box Set produced by those good people at the Criterion. The title of the documentary is I don’t just want you to love me and it is directed [...]

  Written by Saint ymM

  Posted on Dec 19.06 to Cinema, Class Analysis, Communism, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Impossibility of Society