Noted recall: The goal is to describe, in just a few words, what the article is about. Additionally, if I think the article is particularly note-worthy (good or bad), I will comment on that. Compare this to a small sticky note, something to jog your memory about the contents of an article. Of course, if I miss the point of an article, or fail to find anything remarkable, that is entirely the fault of the reviewer.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.14452/MR-071-03-2019-07
Late Imperialism - John Bellamy Foster
(read 2019/07/30)
Some background on the discussion about imperialism. Lots of info about Harry Magdoff. Brief summary of alternative views of imperialism on the left. Then discussion of finance capitalism; American empire and global military outreach; global North/South divide and profit extraction/exploitation of the South.
Neoliberal Capitalism at a Dead End - Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik
(read 2019/07/31)
I had some difficulty following this article but still wanted to note what I got out of it. Two reasons neoliberalism has run into a dead end: 1) tendency towards over production 2) only counter to that is price bubbles. Four implications of the dead end: 1) higher unemployment (labor participation rate and discouraged work force) 2) decline of export led growth in developing countries 3) developing countries will have problems paying external debts (think this was about government debt) and 4) the rise of fascism.
Labor-Value Commodity Chains - Intan Suwandi
(read 2019/08/01)
This was another difficult article. Focus on economic frameworks, all very abstract. The key point of the article was the need for an economic framework to discuss global supply chains and multinational companies from a perspective focused on labor.
Imperialism in the Anthropocene - John Bellamy Foster, Hannah Holleman, and Brett Clark
(read 2019/08/04)
Read this. Background on "anthropocene." Similar to "land grabbing" (paraphrase) claims, article discusses "ocean grabbing;" and similar exploitation of shared air resources. That the largest countries are generally in a much better position to deal with climate change than smaller ones, and generally less affected too. Combination of the above points to discuss imperialism. And some closing discussion about water scarcity and how it relates to United States security interests (this section alone is worth reading).