ARE THE MARKETS INNOCULATED AGAINST THE FALL IN Q1 PROFITS?
May 31, 2020 1 Comment
A ZOOM DISCUSSION WITH MICHAEL ROBERTS ON THE PROSPECTS FOR THE WORLD ECONOMY post-LOCKDOWN.
May 7, 2020 10 Comments
This is a very topical discussion and one with which the Bank of England has engaged in. It projects a 14% fall in GDP this year (the most in 300 years) followed by a 15% jump next year. This means a net rise in GDP of 1% over two years. This bounce back could have been justified had the world economy been in good health, instead of suffering a severe underlying condition, chronically low profitability. In the face of a profit crisis, Brexit and a fracturing global economy, that projection of bounce back is the most optimistic since capital first deprived labourers of their instruments of production turning them into an industrial proletariat.
THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NEO-LIBERAL STATE.
May 2, 2020 6 Comments
In today’s Financial Times, an article titled “Consultants Under Fire Over Speed of Contracts” is critical of the UK government’s outsourcing of critical responses to controlling the pandemic. The lack of capacity in the state forced the cabinet to rely on the Big Four Accountancy firms and McKinsey for building hospitals and sourcing equipment. Call them intensive care accountants. None of these contracts were tendered, no value was put on them, nor was there any disclosure of the fees paid despite the 30 days disclosure period having elapsed. This pandemic has revealed the limitations of the neo-liberal state and its vulnerability to extortion.
In war and in sickness, there is always money to be made by the connected capitalists.
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