fresh audio product: the European energy situation, the case for nationalizing the railroads
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 23, 2023 Jamie Webster of BCG on Western Europe’s energy situation • Kari Lydersen, author of this In These Times article, and Ron Kaminkow, locomotive engineer and organizer with Railroad Workers United, talk about the miseries of the industry and why it should be nationalized
Anatol Lieven: it’s not quite early 1914, but…
This is the edited transcript of an interview I did with with Anatol Lieven, Eurasia Program Director at the Quincy Institute, on Behind the News, February 16, 2023. I’ve seen people in the last week or so making analogies to early 1914. Do you get any of that feeling? Yes, to a degree. The Biden administration is still trying to keep America and NATO out of direct war with Russia, but clearly they’ve done a number of things which had they been done to the United States probably would have us in… Read More
Fresh audio product: Ukraine, Indian capitalism
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 16, 2023 Anatol Lieven on the slim prospects for peace in Ukraine and growing bellicosity towards China • Jairus Banaji, author of this Phenomenal World article, on the politicized structure of Indian capitalism generally, and the scandal surrounding Gautam Adani (Hindenburg report here)
Scattered speculations on the US ruling class
This is the text of a talk I gave at a virtual conference sponsored by the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice at the University of Wisconsin, February 13, 2023. The other panelists were Ho-fung Hung and Göran Therborn. It draws heavily on my Jacobin article on the ruling class and Harper’s magazine article on the WASPs but updates them to the lamentable present. In preparing these remarks, that old Gayatri Spivak title came to mind, “Scattered speculations on the question of value.” I don’t mean to cite any more of that article, something I haven’t… Read More
fresh audio product: behind the AI hype, Brazil as Lula returns
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 9, 2023 software engineer Dwayne Monroe on the reality behind the hype around ChatGPT (and the sinister implications of AI) • political economist Alfredo Saad-Filho on Brazil’s political landscape as Lula returns to the presidency
Fresh audio product: the war in Ethiopia, a common South American currency?
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 2, 2023 Ann Neumann, author of this article (sorry, probably paywalled), on the bloody war in Ethiopia • two views on a proposed South American currency arrangement launched by Brazilian president Lula, one from Andres Arauz, the other from Brian Mier
LBO News from Doug Henwood 