Politics Theory Other

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new figures that signal positive news for the US economy (0:48), how good news for the US might be bad news for the rest of the globe (6:09) and the recent record-breaking profits made by fossil fuel producers (10:55). You can register here (https://bit.ly/3YAtp5J) for a free ticket for the launch of The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it), a vital book James has co-authored with Doug Nicholls and Professor Costas Lapavitsas.

Richard Seymour discusses his recent blogpost on the so-called lockdown sceptics, and in particular the work of Toby Green and his book 'The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left'. We talked about the straw man arguments, factual inaccuracies and conspiratorial thinking that characterise the book and the lockdown sceptic literature more generally. We also talked about why parts of the left have been receptive to some of this work and also what to make of the alliance between some self-styled anti-woke leftists and religious conservatives.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the UK’s recording-breaking wave of strikes (0:42), how these compare to other strike movements around the world (4:43), and a new report from the BBC that finds issues with the “impartiality” of its economics reporting (12:32).

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses the shift away from the dominance of the US dollar, implications for US economic power, and the need to tackle wealth inequality. The podcast explores the concept of Bretton Woods III, challenges to US economic dominance, and debates on implementing a global wealth tax and a 70% top rate of income tax.

Polly Smythe, the labour movement correspondent for Novara Media joins PTO to talk about how strikes achieve their aims and the importance - or otherwise - of public support. We also discussed the new anti-strike law being brought in by the Conservative government, what its consequences may be, and whether it will have the chilling effect on industrial action that the Sunak government hopes for. Finally, we talked about the prospects for the current public and private sector strikes in Britain and whether either the unions or the government have a path to victory.

On this week’s episode of Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down talk of a “poly crisis” at the World Economic Forum in Davos (00:50), the threat of default as the US breaches it’s debt ceiling (06:03), and a new report from the think tank Autonomy exploring the future of work in an era of climate breakdown (12:38).

James Meadway returns to discuss his predictions for the world economy in the year ahead, and why the notion of the polycrisis - while in some ways useful - fails to reckon with the fact that in a world of increasingly frequent severe weather events, climate disasters, and greater interstate rivalry, the notion of any kind of time-bounded crisis is increasingly at odds with reality. We talked about the prospect of debt defaults in the global south, why mainstream economics is failing to factor the deteriorating ecosphere into its modelling, and finally we talked about the UK and the question as to whether or not the country is now in a unique moment of economic decline.

In the latest episode of MACRODOSE, James Meadway breaks down a new IMF forecast that predicts China’s economic downturn, a set of predictions for our economic future from multinational asset manager Blackrock, and asks what’s happening to the wealth of the tech billionaires?

Jane Hayward returns to PTO to discuss the situation in China following the scaling back of the zero-covid measures and the resulting decline in public protests. We talked about the apparent scale of the covid-outbreak in the country, and the effects upon the Chinese health system. We also talked about the way in which Western media have, with little comment, dropped the prior narrative of the protests as representing a new Tiananmen square moment. Become a £5 supporter on patreon to access this and other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

On this week’s MACRODOSE James Meadway takes a look at a new House of Lord’s report on economic inactivity (0:52s), the financial waste of covid contracts (7:03) and an unexpected move by Japan’s central bank (12:16).