Tag Archives: capital

Capital as power and class struggle explained by… Adam Smith?!

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In any given society, there is no freedom of contract between capitalist and worker, whose interests are essentially opposite. The power of a landlord, a manufacturer, a merchant resides in his wealth, explaining the inherent subjection of laborers, which lack almost any … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged Adam Smith, capital, capitalism, class, labor, power | 3 Comments

Democracy matters: the extension of the franchise and its impact on financial systems

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

For centuries, voting rights were limited to wealthy elites, aristocrats, and landlords. For instance, the electorate in England and Wales in 1780 consisted of less than 3% of the total population. Suffrage reforms, enacted during the late 19th and the 20th … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged banking system, capital, democracy, elites, financial system, institutional change, institutions, Political economy, varieties of capitalism | Leave a comment

International Political Economy scholars miss THE question of the 21st century: the rise of a global labor class living in poverty

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In the recent years, more and more International Political Economy (IPE) scholars are dissatisfied with the current state of this field of research and desire to identify the ‘Big Questions’ of the 21st century. In this (open access) article, Benjamin … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged academia, capital, capitalism, class, development, global political economy, globalization, labor, Marxism, social sciences | 1 Comment

The original email that started Occupy Wall Street

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

On September 17, 2011 thousands of women and men gathered in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City’s Wall Street financial district. It was a day when Occupy Wall Street (#OccupyWallStreet) movement was publicly born, gradually receiving global attention and spawning the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged capital, capitalism, crisis, democracy, inequality, neoliberalism, Occupy Wall Street, public sociology, social movements, United States | 10 Comments

History of Profit in the US: Corporations, Accounting and Capital

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

The case of The United Steel Workers of America v. The United States Steel Corporation (1980) concerned the closing of two steel mills in Ohio. The steelworkers claimed U.S. Steel had promised to keep the two mills open so long … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged accounting, capital, corporate governance, corporations, economic history, Economic Sociology, law, market evolution, profit, United States | 1 Comment

18 focused interpretative digests of each chapter from ‪‎Piketty‬’s “‪‎Capital‬ in the 21st Century”

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

Read this impressive interpretative review of Thomas ‪Piketty‬’s Capital‬ in the Twenty-First Century – 18 focused posts devoted to each chapter from the book, carefully wrote by Adam David Morton (University of Sydney). Professor Morton clearly summarises each chapter in just a few … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged capital, capitalism, economic history, growth, inequality, Political economy, state, taxation, Thomas Pikkety, wealth | Leave a comment

Noam Chomsky on neoliberal semantics: “working class” vs. “middle class”

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

“The business classes are very class-conscious—they’re constantly fighting a bitter class war to improve their power and diminish opposition. Occasionally this is recognized. We don’t use the term “working class” here [ in the U.S] because it’s a taboo term. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged capital, class, inequality, interest groups, Middle class, neoliberalism, Unions | Leave a comment

An interesting talk between David Graeber & Thomas Piketty on debt, capitalism, neoliberalism & inequality

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

Graeber: “Our feelings of helplessness stem from the fact that for thirty years the tools of persuasion and coercion have been mobilized to wage an ideological war for capitalism, rather than to create conditions for capitalism to remain viable. Neoliberalism … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged capital, capitalism, debt, inequality, neoliberalism, taxation | 1 Comment

Analyzing continuity and change in the economy: a double movement between the public and the private meta-ﬁelds in society

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

An interesting (open access) paper “Public and Private: Change and Continuity in Economy through Two Meta-fields in Society” offers a structural general framework to analyse continuity and change in the economy based on the idea that there is a double movement … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged capital, comparative political economy, institutional change, institutional continuity, rights | Leave a comment

‘Capital’ in the University of Chicago bookstore.. Too bad it’s by the wrong author ;-)

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

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Image | Posted on May 21, 2014 by Oleg Komlik | Tagged capital, economics, Karl Marx, neoliberalism, Thomas Pikkety, University of Chicago | Leave a comment

‪Piketty‬, ‎Krugman‬ & ‪‎Stiglitz‬ talk about Piketty’s ‪‎”Capital‬ in the 21st Century”

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

I always say that ‪‎economists‬’ duty for the ‪‎wealthy‬ is not ingrained in the genetic code of their profession. In general, I would say, these scholars embody this argument.

Posted in Video | Tagged capital, economics, inequality, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Thomas Pikkety | Leave a comment

“Inequality for All” – a documentary featuring Professor Robert Reich

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

Economic inequality affects every one of us. “Inequality for All” is a passionate argument on behalf of the poors and middle class in which Robert Reich- a political economist and Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton lucidly demonstrates how the … Continue reading →

Image | Posted on April 4, 2014 by Oleg Komlik | Tagged capital, inequality, neoliberalism, Political economy, power, United States | Leave a comment

Name and Shame: Columbia University fired two Public Intellectuals because they hadn’t brought in enough grants

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

This story should worry everyone who cares about democracy, society and wants academics to play a larger role in public debates. Anthropologists Carole Vance and Kim Hopper, longtime professors at Columbia University’s School of Public Health got fired without compensation after … Continue reading →

Posted in Name and Shame, Oleg Komlik | Tagged academia, capital, democracy, neoliberalism, Public Intellectuals | Leave a comment

Capital Ideas: The IMF and the Rise of Financial Liberalization

Economic sociologists and political economists must not stop their research at the stage of analyzing the policy and its implications, but rather must go deeper and examine how decisions are made within governance bodies and policy making organizations on national and … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on December 14, 2011 by Oleg Komlik | Tagged bureaucrats, capital, economics, financial liberalization, globalization, ideas, IMF, legitimacy | Leave a comment

Financial Centres and International Capital Flows in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Oleg Komlik

As interest in financial markets intensifies, stimulated by the financial crisis of the early 21st century, Financial Centres and International Capital Flows in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, a new volume edited by Laure Quennouëlle-Corre and Youssef Cassis, brings together leading authorities in … Continue reading →