Review of Radical Political Economics recent issues

Introduction: The Political Economy of Financialization

Goldstein, J. P. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:35 PST

Financialization and Marx: Giving Labor and Capital a Financial Makeover

Bryan, D., Martin, R., Rafferty, M. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:35 PST

Financialization challenges some established ways of thinking within Marxist categories. We explore the way in which financialization is not simply shifting the balance of power between classes and generating economic volatility, but also re-constituting our understanding of class (as a formal economic category) and class relations. In particular, we examine how financialization is re-constituting labor as a form of capital, and giving capital a fluidity which serves to intensify competition. JEL classification: B51, G32

From the Gold Standard to the Floating Dollar Standard: An Appraisal in the Light of Marx's Theory of Money

Vasudevan, R. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

The paper explores the insights offered by Marx’s analysis of the emergence of "world money" into the workings of the international gold standard period and the post-Bretton Woods floating dollar standard. In a curious inversion of the traditional formulations drawing on Lenin, imperial hegemony in today’s context would seem to be associated with net capital imports (rather than exports) by the dominant country. In particular, I argue that in a context where the role of "world money" rests on the monetary liabilities of a dominant state, in the form of credit money — "fictitious capital" — rather than bullion, there is an easing of the external constraint on the advanced countries in the core with the impact of the debt-deflationary spiral and financial fragility being borne disproportionately by the periphery. The theorization of world money needs to address the relation between the state and the financial system: the asymmetric manner in which countries outside the core were incorporated into the monetary system, and the role that financialization plays in preserving the hegemony of the dominant currency. JEL classification: F33, F34, F59

Post-Keynesian Theories of the Firm under Financialization

Dallery, T. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Financialization is studied here from a microeconomic viewpoint. Following Stockhammer (2004a), the theory of the firm has been amended by introducing agency problems and class analysis between shareholders and managers. Further to that, I propose two alternative configurations for incorporation into the theory: the first views financialization as a constraint for the managerial firm, while the second discusses shareholders’ interests and integrates them as an end in itself for the finance-dominated firm. My conclusions focus on finance-oppressed accumulation, financial fragility, and potential macroeconomic instability.

JEL classification: D21, E12, G30

Islamic Alternatives to Purely Capitalist Modes of Finance: A Study of Malaysian Banks from 1999 to 2006

ElGindi, T., Said, M., Salevurakis, J. W. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Like Western financial markets, Islamic modes of finance offer services characterized by profit-and-loss sharing while also providing certain debt-based instruments. Unlike traditional capitalist modes of finance, however, Islamic finance places a unique emphasis upon the former, thus prompting many comparisons between the performance of Islamic banks and conventional ones. Given the mixed results of these studies, our paper analyzes eight banks in Malaysia offering both conventional and Islamic banking operations. Our comparison is conducted via discussions of profitability, liquidity, and asset quality. It is illustrated via this micro-level analysis that Islamic modes of finance may generally equal or surpass the quantitative measures of performance describing traditional capitalist finance systems and simultaneously encourage higher levels of social equity and economic stability in the era of financialization.

JEL classification: B25, D33, D63, E44, N25

Financialization and Changes in the Social Relations along Commodity Chains: The Case of Coffee

Newman, S. A. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

This article examines distributional implications of the restructuring of international coffee markets that has occurred since the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 and market liberalization in coffee producing countries under structural adjustment programs. It is argued that increased financial investment on international commodity exchanges, together with market liberalization, have given rise to opportunities and challenges for actors in the coffee industry. Given the heterogeneity of market actors, these tend to exacerbate inequalities already present in the structure of production and marketing of coffee.

JEL classification: L11, O13, G19

Book Review Essay: Heterodox Crisis Theory and the Current Global Financial Crisis: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash Charles R. Morris; New York: Public Affairs, 2008, 194 pp.,$22.95 (hardback). The Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation, and the Worldwide Economic Crisis Graham Turner; London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2008, 232pp., $27.95 (paperback). The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means George Soros; New York: Public Affairs, 2008, 162 pp.,$22.95 (hardback). Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism Kevin Phillips; New York: Penguin Group, 2008, 239 pp., $25.95 (hardback)

Goldstein, J. P. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Poverty & Inequality: An End to Poverty? A Historical Debate Gareth Stedman Jones, New York: Columbia University Press, 2005, 288 pp., $29.50 (hardcover). Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences James Lardner and David A. Smith, eds., New York: The New Press, 2006, 328 pp., $16.95 (paperback). The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America Michael J. Thompson, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 264 pp., $32.50 (hardcover)

Pimpare, S. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Through the lens of the three books under review, this essay documents the contemporary rise in income and wealth inequality in the United States, evaluates competing explanations for it, and then turns its attention to post efforts by economists and philosophers to understand the consequences of inequality and poverty upon the social and political well-being of democratic polities.

JEL classifications: B10, B20, H11, I30

Book Review: Poverty, Work, and Freedom: Political Economy and the Moral Order David P. Levine and S. Abu Turab Rizvi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 159 pp + bibliography and index. ISBN-13 978-0-521-84826-8 (hardback), ISBN-10 0-521-84826-1; $65 (US) or {pound}40, hardback. (hardback)

Davies, M. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: New Departures in Marxian Theory Stephen A. Resnick & Richard D. Wolff; Routledge, 2006, 418 pp

Seda-Irizarry, I. J. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Multinationals on Trial: Foreign Investment Matters James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer (2007), Aldershot Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, pp159; Price $89.95

Canterbury, D. C. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: International Migration: Prospects and Policies in a Global Market Douglas S. Massey and J. Edward Taylor, editors (Oxford University Press, 2004) Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium Douglas S, Massey, Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouchi, Adela Pellegrino and J. Edward Taylor (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Aguila, M. T. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants By Jorge G. Castaneda. New York: The New Press, 2007. 222 pp. $25.95 hardback

King, M. C. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Communities Without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration David Bacon (Forwards by Carlos Munoz Jr. and Douglas Harper), Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 2006 235pp $29.95. ISBN13 978 0 8014 7307 4

Leitch, R. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Rethinking Municipal Privatization By Oliver D. Cooke New York: Routledge, 2008. Hardcover ISBN 10: 0-415-96209-9

Angotti, T. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Solidarity Economy: Building Alternatives for People and Planet Jenna Allard, Carl Davidson, and Julie Matthaei (eds) Chicago, ChangeMaker Publications, 2008; 427 pages, 978-0-6151-9489-91 by Len Krimerman, GEO Newsletter and Director, Creative Community Building Program, University, of Connecticut

Krimerman, L. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health David Michaels, New York, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp372, ISBN 978-0-19-530067-3

Greenbaum, J. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Reviews: Labor-Environmental Coalitions: Lessons from a Louisiana Petrochemical Region By Thomas Estabrook. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing. 2007

Roberts, J. T. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Book Review: Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization Edited by Laura T. Raynolds, Douglas L. Murray, and John Wilkinson. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-77203-7. $29.95 Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival Daniel Jaffee. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. 331 pp. ISBN: 978-0-520-24959-2. $22.95

Enelow, N. H. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Books Received

Barkin, D. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:04:36 PST

Guns and Butter Once Again

Darity, W. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Dollar Hegemony, Financialization, and the Credit Crisis

Vasudevan, R. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Countercyclical private capital flows to emerging markets have acted as a safety valve mechanism preserving the international role of the dollar and at the same time exporting fragility to the periphery. The revival of flows to the developing countries since 2002 has been different in that inflows to the United States have also been increasing. This suggests the emergence of a pattern of recycling that draws from the surplus countries in the periphery and channels these capital flows increasingly towards U.S. markets. The exploding of the bubble with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market is in that sense a result of the same recycling mechanisms that led to the debt crisis in the eighties and the Tequila and Asian crises in the nineties.

The Financial and Economic Crisis of 2008: A Systemic Crisis of Neoliberal Capitalism

Kotz, D. M. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

This paper presents a case that the financial and economic crisis that began in the United States in 2008 indicates the start of a systemic crisis of neoliberal capitalism. The same institutional features of neoliberal capitalism that promoted a series of long economic expansions over several decades also created long-run trends that have led to a systemic crisis. Major economic restructuring is likely to follow.

The Global Securitized Subprime Market Crisis

O'Hara, P. A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

This paper examines the global securitized subprime crisis through the lens of core general principles of political economy. The principle of historical specificity is used to situate the crisis in cycles and historical time. The principle of circular and cumulative causation scrutinizes the role of multiple factors and how they cumulatively impact on the system. The principle of contradiction explores the relationship between finance and industry through deregulation and changing industrial leadership at the global level. The principles of financial innovation and heterogeneous agents link to the intricacies of the different roles of economic agents in the circuit of mortgages and securitization. And finally the principle of risk and uncertainty examines the contradictory role of complex institutions and calculative models of risk in the generation of high systemic uncertainty during booms in the cycle.

The Bush Business Cycle Profit Rate: Support in a Theoretical Debate and Implications for the Future

Bakir, E., Campbell, A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

This paper looks at the most recent aggregate profit rate data for the United States. It then makes five arguments. First, the new data reinforce the rejection of "neoliberalism as successful capitalist restructuring that could possibly restore or surpass the pre 1970s rate of profit." Second, when the new data are viewed together with the rest of the post-WWII data, it reinforces the appearance of the fall in the rate of profit as a one-step fall between an earlier and a later period. Third, this result argues against understanding the fall in the rate of profit in terms of an increasing organic composition of capital. Fourth, the one-step fall understanding is consistent with understanding profit rate dynamics in terms of the change of economic regimes between the "Keynesian compromise" period and the neoliberal period. These first four results are all consistent with, though certainly not broad enough to claim to be a proof of all of, the recently reformulated social structures of accumulation theory by Kotz and Wolfson. Finally, when the new data are considered together with several now widely held general beliefs about the near-term performance of the U.S. economy, this paper makes arguments about some likely characteristics of the behavior of the aggregate profit rate over the next business cycle.

Sources of Polarization of Income and Wealth: Offshore Financial Centers

Larudee, M. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

One cause of increasing polarization of income and wealth in the United States has been the shift in taxation, with corporate income tax revenues declining and individual income tax revenues rising as a share of total tax revenues. This change flows in part from a rise in the use of tax haven services by the wealthy and by corporations, as well as in innovation in the types of services tax havens provide. Available evidence shows that tax havens hold at least $10 trillion in assets, are used by a majority of large corporations, and account for lost tax revenue of hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Economic data are likely distorted by transfer pricing of activities related to tax havens, including exports and imports, value added, productivity, profit, current account balances, and the nature and size of investment flows across borders. This and other research questions should be near the top of the agenda for radical political economists.

Weirton Revisited: Finance, the Working Class, and Rustbelt Steel Restructuring

Goldstein, D. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

I met Dave Houston while researching an article on the 1983 employee buyout of Weirton Steel. This contact initiated a journey that led me to a PhD in economics and research on financially driven corporate restructuring in an era of troubled capital accumulation. Dave counseled and practiced a clear-eyed look at the conditions for "acceptable" surplus value extraction when analyzing viable avenues for worker resistance. With a quarter-century’s hindsight, this paper applies that approach to an assessment of what restructuring has meant for the industrial working class in steel and related sectors.

Leaving the Sphere of Exchange with David Houston, Karl Marx, and Even Adam Smith: Insights into the Debate about Sweatshops

Miller, J. A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Today most economists are critical of the antisweatshop movement. But that was not always the case. At times even the leaders of the economics establishment condemned sweatshop labor or its equivalent and lent their support to social movements intended to eradicate it. My paper traces the change in consciousness about sweatshops and antisweatshop movements among economists by examining what Smith, Marx, and earlier neoclassical economists actually wrote about sweatshop-like conditions and antisweatshop movements.

Betwixt and Between: The Spectrum of Formality Revealed in the Labor Market Experiences of Mexican Migrant Workers in the United States

Cobb, C. L., King, M. C., Rodriguez, L. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Interviews with Mexican migrant workers in Portland, Oregon, reveal the inadequacy of the conception of informality to capture the complexity of their labor market experiences in the United States. We propose the term "semi-formal" to describe the large gray area between formal and informal employment, and a spectrum of formality with which to think about the degree of formality present in any particular employment situation.

Principles for Constructing Alternative Socio-economic Organizations: Lessons Learned from Working Outside Institutional Structures

Barkin, D. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Ecological economics offers ethical and methodological principles for building alternative socio-economic organizations that can contribute to the design of strategies for local project implementation. The participatory design process incorporates normative criteria, including an emphasis on self-sufficiency while also guaranteeing a gradual process of diversification to generate surpluses than can be used for further investment and enrichment of productive, social, political, and environmental infrastructures. The projects in which these principles are being applied involve community networks for producing basic staples as well as new products or modifications of traditional goods that can readily find markets at "fair trade" prices or can contribute to building solidarity economies. The individual projects incorporate traditional and state of the art technologies, minimizing the use of non-renewable resources and contributing to improving the quality of the environment. Organizational concerns assure rotating systems for positions of political and social control and power, without encroaching upon traditional systems of authority that often temper modern paradigms with inherited mechanisms for making decisions and regulating change. This analysis suggests an important set of principles for guiding the future evolution of ecological economics; the sustainable management of regional resources requires: autonomy, self-sufficiency, productive diversification, and sustainable resource management.

Book Review Essay: Globalization as the New Imperialism

Munck, R. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Book Review: How Society Makes Itself: The Evolution of Political and Economic Institutions Howard J. Sherman; Armonk, NY & London, England. 2006. 236+xipp. ISBN 0-7656-1651-3 (hardcover), -7656-1652-1 (paper)

O'Hara, P. A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Book Review: The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics: The Core Contributions of the Pioneers G. C. Harcourt; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 205 pp., $88.00 (hardback)

Mongiovi, G. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Book Review: Socialism after Hayek Theodore A. Burczak, "Advances in Heterodox Economics" Series, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 2006, 171 pp. $60 HB $19.95 PB

Kramer, B. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Book Review: A Postcapitalist Politics J. K. Gibson-Graham, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, 316 pp., $75 hb, $25 pb

Emerson, B. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:58 PDT

Book Review: Capabilities, Freedom, and Equality: Amartya Sen's Work from a Gender Perspective Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries, and Ingrid Robeyns (eds.); Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006, 553pp, Rs 795.00 (cloth/hardback) -- for sale in South Asia only [Published for the rest of the world as Amartya Sen's Works & Ideas: A Gender Perspective, Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries and Ingrid Robeyns (eds); London & New York: Routledge, 2005, 350 pp, $ 150.00 (cloth/hardback); $ 43.95 (paperback)]

Ruwanpura, K. N. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities: A Feminist Nirvana Uncovered Kanchana Rwanpura, The University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2006

Todorova, Z. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Inequality and Prosperity: Social Europe versus Liberal America Jonas Pontusson, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005, 256 pp., $19.95

Heise, A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Russia's Path: From Gorbachev to Putin. The Demise of the Soviet System and the New Russia David Kotz and Fred Weir, London: Routledge, 2007

Buzgalin, A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter? Farhad Noamani and Sohrab Behdad, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2006. ISBN: 0815630948; 268 pages, $24.95

Farren, J., Kaboub, F. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Understanding Commodity Cultures: Explorations in Economic Anthropology with Case Studies from Mexico Scott Cook; New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004, 349 pp., $97 (hardcover), $37.95 (paperback)

Elardo, J. A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Reclaiming Marx's "Capital": A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency Andrew Kliman, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007, pp. 231

Wolff, R. D. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Reclaiming Marx's "Capital" A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency Andrew Kliman; Lanham: Lexington Books; 2007; pp. 230; Paperback

Sinha, A. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream Janice Fine; Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; 2006; 316 pages

Leitch, R. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Book Review: Reintroducing Macroeconomics: A Critical Approach Steven Mark Cohn (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe 2007)

Maier, M. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Books Received

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:49:59 PDT

Was IMF-Imposed Economic Regime Change in Korea Justified? The Political Economy of IMF Intervention

Crotty, J., Lee, K.-K. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

As late as October 1997 the IMF declared that the Korean economy was experiencing a temporary liquidity squeeze, not a solvency crisis. Yet in December 1997 Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer declared that Korea suffered from a systemic "breakdown of economic relations" so complete that only radical economic restructuring could restore prosperity. The IMF attached what it called "extreme structural conditionality" to its loan agreements with Korea, demanding a complete and rapid transition from Korea's traditional East Asian economic model to a globally integrated neoliberal model. We subject the IMF's assertion that the allocative efficiency of the Korean economy had collapsed by 1997 to a number of empirical tests. The evidence does not support the IMF's systemic breakdown claim. We conclude that the IMF's imposition of "extreme structural conditionality" on Korea is best understood as an illegitimate and antidemocratic exercise of power designed to meet the needs of the IMF's key constituents rather than those of the majority of Korea's people.

Bringing Energy Back into the Economy

Alam, M. S. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

This paper works out some of the basic properties of an economy where energy is the driving force behind all economic activities. The economy now consists of streams of energy conversions that direct energy to the production of goods and services. The focus on energy generates a variety of insights. It yields a new taxonomy of economies and economic activities; allows a better grasp of the tasks performed by labor and capital; raises the prospect of examining growth as the speeding up of machines; and identifies greater use of energy as an important independent source of growth. In addition, I use these results to explain the near stagnation in living standards in agrarian economies in the millennia before 1800, and the dramatic acceleration in growth since that date.

Economics and "Nature's Standard": Wes Jackson and The Land Institute

Richards, D. G. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

This essay introduces or re-acquaints readers with the work of Wes Jackson and The Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas. At the center of this work is an effort to develop perennial poly-culture as an alternative to industrial agriculture. The latter dominant model of food and fiber production is shown to involve severe problems in terms of short-run ecological costs and long-run sustainability. It is also argued that the perennial poly-culture model has much to recommend it to radical economists as a corrective to capitalist inefficiency. Finally, notwithstanding Jackson's facile criticism of Marx, it is argued that Marx's own writing actually anticipates Jackson's agro-ecological critique of capitalism.

Wither Business Ideology: Revisiting Veblen's Theory of Engineers as Revolutionary Actors

Oncu, A. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Each major work of Veblen is a theoretical step taken further towards the solution of the problem already posed in The Theory of the Leisure Class: the continuity of the habit of invidious comparison that renders humans self-centric agents. Veblen, by juxtaposing "engineers" to the pecuniary class, sought to illustrate a contingency for the negation of invidious comparison, which may eradicate the legitimacy of business ideology and its reckless and futile end of accumulation of personal wealth.

Interpretations of Marxian Value Theory in Terms of the Fundamental Marxian Theorem

Rieu, D.-M. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

This paper focuses on the theoretical status of the fundamental Marxian theorem in various interpretations of Marxian value theory, particularly with regard to the logical consistency rather than the analytical implication. It will be shown that each interpretation proves the fundamental Marxian theorem in its own way, and therefore the proof of the theorem is not a decidability criterion for the correct interpretation of Marxian value theory.

Book Review Essays: Familiar Refrains, Intractable Issues: The Radicalization of Class-Gender-Race: Approaches to Class Analysis Erik Olin Wright (ed.) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2005. 222pp. Hb $70 Pb $27.99. What's Class Got to Do with It? American Society in the Twenty-First Century Michael Zweig (ed.) Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 2004. 213pp. Pb $17.95. From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism Charles W. Mills. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2003. 307pp. Hb $75.00 Pb $27.95

Lafferty, G. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

This review essay addresses an apparent paradox of recent decades: the concurrence of diminishing academic and political interest in class issues alongside the polarization of class inequalities under the neo-liberal ascendancy. Both the departure from class and the occasional attempts to re-assert its theoretical and political significance have assumed diverse forms. This diversity is represented in the three books discussed here. The first comprises a collection of Marxist, non-Marxist and explicitly anti-Marxist chapters on class analysis, edited by Erik Olin Wright. The second is Michael Zweig's edited volume of Left-oriented interpretations of class in its various political, economic and social dimensions, with consistent reference to gender and race. Finally, there is Charles W. Mills's rejection of class and Marxism in favor of a black radicalism underpinned by the concept of white supremacy. The essay goes on to explore the possibilities for a reinvigoration of the radical potential of class, through its theoretical and political integration with other bases of difference and division, most notably gender and race.

Book Review: Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops Robert J. S. Ross; Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004, xii + 396 pp., $19.95 (paperback)

Weisskopf, T. E. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Fighting for a Living Wage Stephanie Luce. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2004, 266 pp., $18.95 pb

Fugiero, M. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Money and Liberation: The Micropolitics of Alternative Currency Movements Peter North, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007, 202pp. ISBN 978-081664963-1

Cato, M. S. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Macro-Economics: Making Gender Matter Gutierres, Martha (Ed.) (2003) London: Zed Books

Newman, S. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Racial Competition and Class Solidarity Terry Boswell, Cliff Brown. John Brueggemann, and T. Ralph Peters Jr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006, 25 pp

Wilson, T. D. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century Michael A. Lebowitz, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2006. 122 pp, ISBN 1-58367-145-5, paper, $14.95. The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela Eva Golinger, Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2006. 224 pp, ISBN 13: 978-1-56656-647-6, $17.95

Angotti, T. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Book Review: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2) by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

Musto, M. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Books Received

Barkin, D., Gunn, H. — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:19:48 PDT

Gramsci and the Labor-Managed Firm

Jossa, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

According to Antonio Gramsci, workers' councils were transitional institutions expected to carry on business in a market economy and thereby prepare the ground for the revolution. However, upon seizing power, workers were expected to establish a centrally planned system and, hence, to renounce autonomous firm management. Finding fault with this approach, the author upholds modern labor management theory, in which Vanek's LMF-type firms are looked upon as socialist firms operating in a market economy.

Individual Differences and the Potential Tradeoffs Between the Values of a Participatory Economy

Panayotakis, C. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

This paper argues that a closer attention to the variability of such subjective characteristics as preferences, life philosophies and attitudes towards work, individual talents, and levels of intelligence raises a number of issues of relevance to the literature on participatory economics (and, to a lesser extent, to that on market socialism). In particular, it is argued that a thoroughgoing integration of such subjective characteristics into the literature on participatory economics reveals a number of previously unrecognized tradeoffs between the values that a participatory economy would seek to promote.

How Should We Conceive the Continued Resilience of the U.S. Dollar as a Reserve Currency?

Morgan, J. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

In the following paper I explore the issue of the dollar as the unofficial reserve currency of the global finance system. I look at arguments for its "resilience" or continued use and how there is an inbuilt mechanism in liberalized capital that tends to reinforce the use of the dollar, and how this is to the advantage of the United States. I then look at the various ways in which the dollar has become increasingly vulnerable as a reserve currency because of the current constitution of the U.S. economy and because of its mutual dependency with China. I also set out how finance and other markets can go into sudden decline because of these vulnerabilities and how the constitution of the markets themselves can exacerbate this. Both of these factors, I argue, are problematic for the system, and provide the basis on which the dollar may ultimately cease to be the unofficial reserve currency.

Cuba and the "Battle of Ideas": A Jump Ahead

Mendes, A., Marques, R. M. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

This article describes the social and economic policies in the 2000s, the strategies chosen by the government to confront the economic crisis and the social programs which became part of the "Battle of Ideas." It is argued that the economic and social aspects were pursued in an integrated fashion in Cuba without the traditional submission of the latter to the former, as it has been done in other Latin American countries.

The 2001 Economic Crisis, Its Impacts and Evaluations: The Case of Workers and Small Employers in Ankara

Erbas, H., Turan, F. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

This article examines primarily the social impacts of the 2001 economic crisis on small employers and workers and their evaluation of the crisis in Ankara, Turkey. Besides this basic aim, it also provides an overview of the macroeconomic policies that have been implemented since 1980 and discusses the results of these policies. The fieldwork for this study was carried out in selected sectors in Ankara from February to April, 2002.

Book Review Essays: Turning to Reality? A Review Essay on Tony Lawson's Reorienting Economics

Lewis, P. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Book Review: Capitalism Victor Lippit; New York: Routledge, 2005, 188 pp., $170 (hardback), $39.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0-41527-394-3

Roosevelt, F. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Book Review: Reimagining Growth: Towards a Renewal of Development Theory. Edited by Silvana De Paula and Gary A. Dymski. London and New York: The Zed Books, 2005. 308 pp. $27.50 pb. Reviewed by Yan Liang University of Missouri-Kansas City and Simon's Rock College of Bard

Liang, Y. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Book Review: Amartya Sen's Work and Ideas. Edited by Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries and Ingrid Robeyns, Routledge 2003

Beneria, L. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Book Review: Gender Justice, Development, and Rights Maxine Molyneux and Shahra Razavi, eds.; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, xii + 492 pp., $39.95 (paperback)

Germann, J. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Book Review: Financial Crises: Socio-economic causes and institutional context Brenda Spotton Visano; London and New York: Routledge, 2006, 145pp. + index

Keaney, M. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Books Received

Barkin, D. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST

Union for Radical Political Economics

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:57:46 PST