Tag Archives: power

Thorstein Veblen on Business Interests in Education and Media

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Oleg Komlik

Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904) is a superb political economy book in which this original economist, talented sociologist and influential intellectual analyzed the growing corporate domination of culture, society and the economy in the US at the dawn … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Oleg Komlik | Tagged capitalism, education, interest groups, media, power, Thorstein Veblen | 1 Comment

Corporate Bodies Have No Soul

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830) was an English essayist, writer, and social commentator. He is considered one of the greatest masters of the English language, but despite his very high standing among historians of literature and art, his work is … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged capitalism, corporations, ethics, power | Leave a comment

Political Economy After Neoliberalism: A Manifesto for New Thinking

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

by Neil Fligstein and Steven Vogel* If anything could have dislodged the neoliberal doctrine of freeing the market from the government, you might have expected the coronavirus pandemic to do the trick. Of course, the same was said about the global financial … Continue reading →

Posted in Community members posts | Tagged comparative political economy, corporate governance, COVID-19, Economic Sociology, embeddedness, markets, neoliberalism, Political economy, power, shareholder value, state, varieties of capitalism | 5 Comments

Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

As we are living in the present when tragedy and farce mix and make the past look oracular, a new history of Capitalism must be introduced for the sake of the future. The new year brought with it a much-needed … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged capitalism, economics, finance, history, power, slavery, taxation | Leave a comment

Is the United States the Champion of Global Finance or its Victim? A New Look at the Fed’s Low-inflation Policy

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Oleg Komlik

By Arie Krampf* My article “Monetary Power Reconsidered: The Struggle between the Bundesbank and the Fed over Monetary Leadership”, recently published in International Studies Quarterly, contributes to the burgeoning literature that challenges the US-hegemony hypothesis in the global financial sub-order. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Community members posts, Papers | Tagged Bundesbank, central banking, Fed, Germany, globalization, inflation, monetary policy, neoliberalism, power, United States | 7 Comments

Democratizing Finance: Reducing Inequalities of Income, Wealth and Power

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Oleg Komlik

Politics & Society has just published a thought-provoking special issue titled “Democratizing Finance”. This very interesting collection of papers resulted from a workshop organized in July 2018 by the late Erik Olin Wright as part of his inspiring Real Utopias Project. … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged central banking, democracy, Erik Olin Wright, finance, inequality, money, power, wealth | Leave a comment

Gramsci on the State, the Proprietorial Class, and the Sovereign Laws of Capitalism

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

“In the sphere of general capitalist activity, even the worker operates on the plane of free competition, is a citizen-individual. But the starting conditions of the struggle are not equal for all, at the same time: the existence of private … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged Antonio Gramsci, capitalism, class, power, state | 2 Comments

The Role of Money in Social Life: Morality and Power in the World of the Poor

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

by Ariel Wilkis* “Perhaps behind the coin is God.” — Jorge Luis Borges, The Zahir (1949) My book The Moral Power of Money: Morality and Economy in the Life of the Poor (Stanford University Press, 2017) offers a new focus for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Community members posts | Tagged Argentina, community, ethnography, money, morality, politics, poverty, power, social networks, sociology of money, welfare | 1 Comment

Framing Value of Things and Making Things Valuable

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Oleg Komlik

My experiences at Asian floating markets have included constant conversations between me and merchants, and thereafter between me and myself, such as: “How much is it?” — “How much do you want to give me?”, he replies. “How much was … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged accounting, Economic Sociology, economics, power, valuation | Leave a comment

What is Money?

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Oleg Komlik

“Money is not a “mere voucher for unspecified utilities”, which could be altered at will without any fundamental effect on the character of the price system as a struggle of man against man. “Money” is, rather, primarily a weapon in … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged class, Max Weber, money, power, price determination, sociology of money | Leave a comment

The Burden of Nations: Debt and Compound Interest

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Oleg Komlik

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 →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged debt, global political economy, power | 2 Comments

Global Political Economy and Its Discontents: Power, Politics and Investment Treaties in Developing Countries

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Oleg Komlik

There is a widely accepted opinion among a general public, policy makers and economists that investment treaties between the West and developing countries greatly benefit the latter. But is this view correct? Well, for sure the story is far more complex than it seems. An interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged global governance, global political economy, Global south, globalization, investment treaties, law, power | Leave a comment

The European corporate elite on trial: the foundation of the Eurozone and the navigation of its crisis

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Oleg Komlik

“Europe’s industrial bosses oscillate between fear, anger and disbelief…. Company bosses long to yell “You’re fired!” at any number of European politicians… But a majority of Europe’s businesspeople definitely wants politicians to do more to hold the euro zone together.” (The … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged corporations, elites, European integration, European Union, Eurozone crisis, fiscal policy, interest groups, monetary policy, power | Leave a comment

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

Remember the Golden Rule! Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

Remember the Golden Rule! Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!! *** This sharp cartoon is from The Wizard of Id – a classic daily newspaper comic strip created by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart in 1964 to satirize modern American culture … Continue reading →