Tag Archives: debt

Is Homo Economicus Dead?

Posted on December 7, 2017 by

by Peter Fleming* In Martin Scorsese’s film The Wolf of Wall Street the narcissistic, egotistical and money hungry investment banker Jordan Belford memorably summed up his attitude to life: “Let me tell you something. There’s no nobility in poverty. I’ve been … Continue reading →

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The Burden of Nations: Debt and Compound Interest

Posted on March 21, 2017 by

The disappointing outcome of the G8 Okinawa summit regarding the initiative for debt relief for impoverished and indebted countries of the Global South, led President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo to proclaim in August 2000: “All that we had borrowed up to 1985 or … Continue reading →

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The debt crisis and austerity in the Eurozone: social and political impacts

Posted on April 1, 2016 by

During the past six years, the countries of the European periphery – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain – have been experiencing severe economic-financial crises. In the shadow of these drastic events, the EU institutions and the IMF initiated “bailout programs” for … Continue reading →

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Ethnographies of austerity

Posted on February 10, 2016 by

Austerity is not about numbers, economic data or amorphous macro-scale policies; Austerity is about people. Middle and working-class people, they are the ones who bear the brunt of oppressive neoliberalism and carry the depressing burdens of austerity in their everyday life: increasing unemployment, … Continue reading →

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Créditez-vous français? Credit as a relationship and a practice

Posted on October 29, 2015 by

I’m subscribed to “Gdr-economie-sociologie” – an academic mailing list of French and French-speaking economic sociologists and political economists. Receiving through this list announcements about new interesting and enlightening books and articles (in French), intellectually inviting conferences and seminars (conducted in French, … Continue reading →

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Listen to the Athenian Solon: “Our virtue sticks with us and makes us strong, but money changes owners all day long”

Posted on October 14, 2015 by

Solon (c. 638 – c. 558 BC) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker and poet, particularly known for ending exclusive aristocratic control of the government and his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in archaic Athens, whose elite was obsessed with wealth, power, and prestige. His first … Continue reading →

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Get free from the dogmas of the apostles of austerity: Fifteen Fatal Fallacies of Financial Fundamentalism

Posted on August 15, 2015 by

Just three days before he passed away, a notable Columbia University professor of economics William Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for fundamental contribution to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information. Throughout his prolific career, Vickrey … Continue reading →

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Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism

Posted on June 30, 2015 by

Miranda Joseph‘s important and interesting book Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism is a timely scholarly endeavour to understand, what I once termed Neoliberal Pauperism. Joseph’s research focuses on one of the key practices related to debt’ control – accounting and quantification. It studies modes … Continue reading →

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Money is a mode of governance in a material world of capitalism

Posted on May 3, 2015 by

Money travels the modern world in disguise. It looks like a convention of human exchange – a commodity like gold or a medium like language. But its history reveals that money is a very different matter. It is an institution … Continue reading →

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Debt Matters: Inequality and Foregone Medical Care

Posted on April 1, 2015 by

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”- Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars have long observed disparities in health, health behaviors and stress by socioeconomic position. But there is a limited understanding of … Continue reading →

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The “responsible”, the “irresponsible” and the Political Economy of the Sovereign Debt Crisis

Posted on March 25, 2015 by

There are “irresponsible” countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain) which caused the current crisis; and there are “responsible” governments (Germany), which for some reason are asked to repay others’ debts and have the right to refuse to bail “irresponsibles” out and to insist the … Continue reading →

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Credit makes you free! Neoliberalism, politics of debt and the subjugation of the working poor

Posted on February 22, 2015 by

Under the rubric of ‘financial inclusion’, lending to the poor – in both the global North and global South – has become a highly lucrative and rapidly expanding industry since the 1990s. A key inquiry of Susanne Soederberg’s penetrating and … Continue reading →

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From Socialism to Neoliberalism: the case of Central Eastern European countries

Posted on February 17, 2015 by

The transition from communism or socialism to capitalism has proved to be a rockier road than many in the West (think of Fukuyama as an example) anticipated. The degree and character of challenges that countries faced during the transition depended … Continue reading →

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The incredible collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger: corporatism, neoliberalism and globalization run amok

Posted on January 25, 2015 by

In 2008 Ireland experienced one of the most dramatic economic crises of any economy in the world. It remains at the heart of the international crisis, sitting uneasily between the US and European economies. Not long ago, however, Ireland was … Continue reading →

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What is money? Can we grasp the current state of the economy as a crisis of money itself?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by

The latest crisis has incited substantial conversation about debt, banking, financialization, and the commodification of everyday life. All these issues are inherently related to money. But what exactly is money?  Where does it come from? Who does make our money … Continue reading →

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