Economics

Greensill—corruption at the heart of the system

The scandal of former prime ministers joining with top civil servants to lobby the government for private sector gains grows hotter by the day. Sadie Robinson gathers what we know so far, and concludes that the problem is deeply rooted in capitalism

Financial institutions are funding climate destruction

Extinction Rebellion targeted banks last week as part of a campaign against their funding for fossil fuels. Sam Ord looks at global banks’ climate failures

Suez crisis driven by pursuit of profit

The Ever Given container ship was refloated on Monday. But the temporary closure of the Suez Canal showed a lot about world trade.

Secret lobbyists for rich

Top politicians have conspired to help firms drain cash from government Covid-19 loan schemes—and tried to keep it secret.

Debt is rising but the rich won’t be paying

Everyone is talking about debt. This is mainly because of the enormous amounts governments are borrowing to cover extra spending in responding to the pandemic.

Sunak’s budget will bring cuts, poverty and unemployment

The Tories are preparing to plunge many more working class people into poverty and despair. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is under pressure to keep measures that support ordinary people in this week’s budget.

Rosa Luxemburg—reform is not enough

27 February 2021
Rosa Luxemburg, born 150 years ago this week, fought reformist ideas to argue for revolution. Isabel Ringrose looks at what her economic writings contributed to Marxist ideas

The Tories put lives at risk to boost economy

23 February 2021
At least 30,000 more people will have died from Covid-19 because of the end of lockdown measures—and that’s if everything goes better than expected.

Unions must fight for pay as inflation threat looms

19 February 2021
Working class people’s living standards could take a further hit with warnings that inflation could rise above 2 percent.

Keir Starmer speech shows he has not broken with the bosses

18 February 2021
Labour leader Keir Starmer seemed to offer a change from “business as usual” in a speech on Thursday billed as a significant break from Tory politics.

Is the City losing its financial domination?

16 February 2021
Is world history going into reverse? The great historian Fernand Braudel argued that the modern capitalist world economy always has had a city at its centre, starting in the later Middle Ages with Venice.

GameStop—war on Wall Street or more capitalist profiteering?

01 February 2021
Fat cats lost out after Reddit users bought up shares in a failing firm, but gambling on the stock market offers nothing to ordinary people, say Isabel Ringrose and Simon Basketter

Jobs slaughter shows up the chaos of capitalism

26 January 2021
Unemployment figures on Tuesday showed the continuing jobs slaughter.

Stock market booms as economy suffers

19 January 2021
The most bizarre single feature of capitalism is probably the stock market. It seems to have the ability to defy mere economic reality.

Covid-19 hasn’t stopped capitalism from changing

05 January 2021
For many of us—especially those lucky enough not to have caught Covid-19—the past year has been as if our lives have been put on hold.

Bosses enjoy soaring salaries while workers scrape by on paltry pay, new report shows

17 December 2020
It found bosses at top companies earn on average 100 times that of their lowest-paid workers.

A wealth tax could generate billions but the Tories attack working people instead

10 December 2020
Instead of attacking working class people and key services, vast amounts of money could be raised by taxing the rich.

The pandemic, debt and economic power

01 December 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an enormous jolt to the world economy. We are in the midst of the biggest global slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Rich rats deserting sinking yachts for sealed bunkers

16 November 2020
Not content with hiding away on private islands, the super-rich are now buying exclusive services to rescue them from pandemics, protests and climate catastrophes.