Economics

In the midst of the pandemic, some parts of the economy are booming. Speculative investments are continuing in a frenzied fashion. The latest celebrity-driven fads, NFTs and SPACs, are among the insane expressions of this whirlpool of speculation.

Organised on Reddit, a movement of amateur stock traders has taken on the big hedge funds, exposing how rigged and rotten the whole system is. Capitalism is a casino. We need socialism, not speculation.

The present crisis is a stark vindication of the ideas of Karl Marx, who long explained that capitalism produces an accumulation of wealth at one pole, and an accumulation of misery at the other. This rotten system must be overthrown.

Modern Monetary Theory has become in vogue on the left, as a supposed answer to the austerity agenda pursued by big business politicians. But the limits of a new book by a leading MMT proponent show why we need the ideas of Marxism.

Governments everywhere are pumping money into the world economy to keep it on life support. Subscribers to Keynesian economic ideas – of government stimulus and demand-side management – feel vindicated. But only Marxism offers a solution.

Labour-led Sheffield City Council recently announced that they would support a trial of Universal Basic Income. This is being championed as a victory for the left. But just how radical is the demand for a UBI?

MMT has created a buzz on the left recently, with its supporters citing it as an answer to all our economic woes. Instead of trendy new ideas, however, we need the clear scientific analysis of capitalism that Marxism provides.

Rob Sewell takes up some of the ‘new’ ideas that have been put forward on the left regarding alternative forms of ownership and control. What we need is a socialist plan of production and workers’ power.

Adam Booth looks at the speculative mania developing around Bitcoin and other digital currencies, which is a reflection of the general crisis of capitalism.