This essay is about the polycrisis, whereby the global order is afflicted by simultaneous crises impacting economics, politics, societal relations, geopolitics, and nature. The essay uses the metaphor of “bad apples” versus “bad barrel” to explain the argument. The “bad apples” explanation views the polycrisis as a series of idiosyncratic crises, and it leaves the free market ideal intact and absolves capitalism. The “bad barrel” explanation sees the polycrisis as being systemically produced, and it contests the free market ideal and identifies capitalism as the driving cause. The Neoliberal era (1980 – present) has surfaced the polycrisis, and the crisis openly revives Luxemburg’s question of “socialism or barbarism?” There is much to be done if society is to avoid a repeat of barbarism. That includes persuasively explaining capitalism’s flaws, articulating the future of socialism, and breaking the chokehold on politics that blocks surfacing these issues. The Chinese proverb is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That is true, but we should also seek to ensure the first step is in the right direction. Acknowledging the polycrisis and recognizing it is a product of capitalism’s “bad barrel” does both.
Archive for the ‘Globalization’ Category
Capitalism and the polycrisis: bad apples or bad barrel?
Saturday, July 11th, 2026Argentina’s labor reform: back to the past
Friday, January 30th, 2026The research note below is by my friend, Argentine economist Rubén Lo Vuolo. There are two features I especially value about it: (1) It shows it is a myth that the era of Neoliberalism is over and retreating. (2) Lo Vuolo’s “language” is analytically accurate and powerful, and it is strikingly different from that of progressive advocates and economists here (in the US & Europe).
“Warren Buffett, one of the most renowned billionaire financiers in the world, is well known: “Of course there is a class struggle, but it is my class – the class of the rich – that is waging this war. And we are winning it.” The labor reform project promoted by the Argentine Executive Branch is proof of this. It is not something new, much less something modern as it is claimed, but one more link in a process that seeks to take labor relations back to the nineteenth century to submit the labor force to the designs of the capitalist class.”
How the IMF and US helped loot and entrap Argentina with debt
Monday, October 13th, 2025Argentina is back in the news with renewed financial turmoil spurred by President Milei’s poor political standing. That poor standing is the product of anger with Argentina’s dire economic performance and massive corruption within Milei’s administration, and it augurs poorly for his party’s performance in the forthcoming October 2025 election.
In response, the IMF and US have jumped into action to save Milei’s government. The IMF had already provided a $20 billion bailout in April 2025. Now, the US government has provided another $20 billion (in the form of a central bank currency swap line). Furthermore, the US has expressed willingness to provide additional stand-by credit and even purchase Argentine government debt.
The media has focused on Argentina’s long troubled financial history, the difficult inflation situation President Milei inherited, and President Trump’s political affinity with Milei. However, that fails to explain why the IMF and US have provided such huge assistance to Argentina, given its lack of credit worthiness.
The support for Milei should be understood as a continuation of past lending to Presidents Macri (2015-2019), and Menem (1989-1999). The purpose is to entrench Neoliberalism in Argentina and entrap it with dollar debt. It is supported by local elites because they are the beneficiaries of Neoliberalism, and they also get to loot the Argentine state via the process of debt entrapment.
(more…)Causes of the Ukraine War & the case for Georgian non-alignment — An interview I gave in Tbilisi, Georgia
Thursday, October 31st, 2024The corruption of US foreign policy & weaponization of antisemitism
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024Below are three brilliant articles and one interview that help understand geopolitics at the beginning of 2024. In my view, they should be read by anyone interested in the geopolitical situation & should be required reading for students of international relations and international political economy:
US Foreign Policy is a Scam Built on Corruption, Jeffrey Sachs, Common Dreams, December 26, 2023.
Two Cheers for Isolationism, Jeff Faux, The Nation, November 17, 2023.
Please share (or even tweet) these items.
The menace of the myth of General Pinochet’s Chilean economic miracle
Saturday, September 9th, 2023September 11, 2023, marks the fiftieth anniversary of General Pinochet’s military coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende. While it is now widely recognized that Pinochet authorized large-scale human rights abuses, there is an accompanying narrative that he also unleashed an economic miracle via embrace of Milton Friedman’s “Chicago Boys” vision of a market economy.
The “Pinochet economic miracle” narrative is profoundly misleading. Worse yet, it is a political menace for two reasons. First, it risks tacitly promoting the notion that dictatorship may be legitimate to the extent it offers a road to prosperity. Second, the Pinochet regime embraced Neoliberalism which promotes anti-democratic tendencies by fracturing society. The claim of a Pinochet economic miracle lends support to Neoliberalism, thereby encouraging acceptance of Neoliberalism despite its anti-democratic proclivities.
For those reasons, debate over Pinochet’s economic policy remains of vital importance. The fiftieth anniversary of Pinochet’s coup is an opportunity to challenge the pernicious miracle myth which is increasingly part of the conventional wisdom.
(more…)World Cup, RT CrossTalk, and US domestic censorship
Saturday, December 17th, 2022Most of the time I write dense blogs & research papers. I sent the e-mail below to someone close to me. Afterward, I realized it tacitly says a lot about the state of our society (liberals included). Sometimes, mixing things and writing about them in a different way can be revealing.
(more…)Deglobalization, conflict, & the self-inflicted threat to democracy: consequences of US imperial over-reach
Wednesday, December 14th, 2022Because of the seriousness of the world situation, I have decided to get back in the business of doing interviews (which I do not enjoy doing). Here is a link to my interview (13/12/2022) on RT CrossTalk discussing “New Globalization?”
In that connection, here is a link to a paper (written in 2018) titled “The Fracturing of Globalization: Implications of Economic Resentments and Geopolitical Contradictions”. It significantly anticipated and predicted recent global political economic developments.
Theorizing dollar hegemony, Part 1: the political economic foundations of exorbitant privilege
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022This paper explores dollar hegemony, emphasizing it is a fundamentally political economic phenomenon. Dollar hegemony rests on the economic, military, and international political power of the US and is manifested through market forces. The paper argues there have been two eras of dollar hegemony which were marked by different models. Dollar hegemony 1.0 corresponded to the Bretton Woods era (1946-1971). Dollar hegemony 2.0 corresponds to the Neoliberal era (1980-Today). The 1970s were an in-between decade of dollar distress during which dollar hegemony was reseeded. The deep foundation of both models is US power, but the two models have completely different economic operating systems. Dollar hegemony 1.0 rested on the trade and manufacturing dominance of the US after World War II. Dollar hegemony 2.0 rests on the Neoliberal reconstruction of the US and global economies which have made the US the center of global capitalism and the most attractive place to hold capital. It is a financial model and intrinsically connected to Neoliberalism. Consideration of dollar hegemony leads to two further questions. One is whether there is a better way of organizing the world monetary order, which is associated with debate about the possibility of a new Bretton Woods. The other is what is the future of dollar hegemony?
Neoliberalism and the Road to Inequality and Stagnation: A Chronicle Foretold
Friday, April 29th, 2022My latest book has recently been published by Edward Elgar.
The book explores the impact of neoliberal policies on the US, Europe, and the global economy. It shows how the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession were predictable outcomes of the neoliberal policy experiment, as is the emergence of global “race to the bottom” competition. It also explains how Europe’s economic fragility is connected to the neoliberal design of the euro. Neoliberalism creates a particular variety of capitalism and is a political choice. That means society is tacitly engaged in a “war of ideas”, the outcome of which will influence our future political economic trajectory.
The book is available HERE. The cheapest option is the e-book purchased via Googleplay (price = $13.11).