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Ep 227 - Never Go Full Stancil w/ Jamie Merchant
🕑 Added 2023-10-11 10:00:04 +0000 UTCWith neo-Keynesian hacks like Will Stancil crowing about the alleged successes of Bidenomics, it seemed fitting to bring on Jamie Merchant, author of many incisive articles in Paul Mattick's Field Notes section of the Brooklyn Rail and elsewhere to discuss capital, finance and permanent crisis. Topics include the enduring legacy of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, the limits of 'financialization' discourse, the politics of crisis theory, the limits of industrial policy, the Brenner-Riley debate, anti-anti-globalization, so-called Political Capitalism and more.
In the bonus section we discuss the outlines of what a determinate negation of globalization might look like and how to turn global production into international proletarian power. Lastly, Sean, Andy and Jamie take a first pass at an internationalist perspective on fast-moving events in Palestine and what the outcome of resistance might be for the people of Gaza, the West Bank and the broader Middle East.
Articles by Jamie Merchant:
https://brooklynrail.org/2022/03/field-notes/Endgame-Finance-and-the-Close-of-the-Market-System
https://brooklynrail.org/2023/07/field-notes/The-Economic-Consequences-of-Neo-Keynesianism
Riley and Brenner’s 7 Theses on American Politics and further debate:
https://jacobin.com/2023/10/stagnation-productivity-profit-crisis-brenner-debate-1970s-economics
Song: Taylor Swift - End Game
Comments
Aidan Williamson
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/08/how-colonizers-weaponize-rape-reflections-from-the-palestinian-case/ When Sean mentioned the pervasiveness of the sexual assault element of the attack last week, it resonated with me because I reacted most strongly in an emotional way to the images of tge young kids being targeted for kidnapping. I think the white bodies thing is true and I also think that those kids at the rave are inhabiting their boundless/ divine feminine energy that dance parties catalyze right as "history begins" and they are completely, utterly objectified by forces they probably don't completely comprehend. The kids would probably be against the wall (nationalism et. all) if they were asked... Idk, my heart really sank when the photos of their misfortune appeared before me. Reading the article above, I see that history really can begin when the minister of information tells you so. There's this sentence somewhere on a MSM story about one of the victims, Noa?, where the father is asked by what means he wishes for her return and he says only by peaceful means, that there are many mothers crying in Palestine as well. Could you imagine? Having the grace to say that at that moment?
Isaac Suárez
Excellent discussion! The one thing I’d add is regarding Hezbollah’s willingness to duke it out with the IDF. Militarily, I think they have the capacity, but the bigger problem is the near total collapse of the Lebanese economy and crisis of the political state. Hezbollah doesn’t want to invite destruction into their own backyard when it’s likely they’ll lose a lot of support among domestic Lebanese coalition partners. It should be remembered that Hezbollah depends on the tacit acceptance of non-Shiite constituencies to shield itself from the US, Europe and Israel. If Hezbollah is isolated, and the populace of Lebanon turns against them, they’d lose a great deal. Total state failure, and a reshuffling of the political order in Lebanon would wipe out decades of political gains.
Stephen CM
I'm excited to listen to this. I've found Jamie's writing very illuminating.
