The cooperation between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-OPEC oil exporters, including oil-major Russia, to limit production and supply of oil and help hold oil prices has collapsed. In a dramatic post-Coronavirus-pandemic turn, discussions to extend…
Class struggle occurs in the realm of concepts too. The World Bank for instance systematically counters Left concepts by employing a novel tactic: it uses the very same concepts as are used by the Left, but gives them a wholly…
These notes are meant to clarify a point made earlier (Peoples’ Democracy, June 30, 2018) about the erstwhile socialist economies not having over-production crises as capitalist economies do. It is in the nature of capitalism to have “over-production crises”, i.e.…
Marxism teaches us that every totality is composed of elements which are different and hence among whom there are contradictions. Even when the totality is conceptualized as a totality, there must be an implicit awareness of these contradictions. This injunction…
An interview with Jayati Ghosh (by G. Sampath - The Hindu) The leading development economist speaks out on the predicted global recession this year and why the extremely adverse environment for small and medium enterprises is likely to continue Jayati…
The idea is an old one, but the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai clearly conceptualized it, by drawing a distinction between a “demand-constrained system” and a “resource-constrained system”. A demand-constrained system is one where employment and output in the system are…
The news that India’s rank in 2019 according to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) was 102nd among the 117 countries for whom this index was calculated (it is not calculated for countries where hunger is not a problem), instead of…
The Modi government has an unerring instinct for bungling in economic matters. It has come out with a “fiscal stimulus” for tackling the current economic slowdown that will actually make matters worse. After successive interest rate cuts which were predictably…
In another instance of lack of clarity in economic decision making, the NDA government seems to be drifting into signing on to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement potentially involving 16 Asia-Pacific partners. Under discussion for 7 years now,…
I am often asked: why has the Left, so powerful less than a decade ago, suddenly got eclipsed? The question is pertinent. True, the eclipse of the Left is mainly in the electoral arena, and the Left’s strength has to…
