Escape to Mars, upload to the cloud or retreat to the fallout shelter? How the super-rich are preparing for the apocalypse 27.11.2023 In 2017, social scientist and media theorist Douglas Mark Rushkoff received an offer he could hardly refuse. It was by far the highest fee he had been offered for a lecture to an […]
The exodus of the money people Weiterlesen »
21.08.2023 Germany: After years of rising prices, apartments and houses are becoming cheaper again in many major cities. The reason is higher borrowing costs for investors and homeowners. But this is not necessarily good news for renters. For a long time, real estate prices in many major German cities seemed to know only one direction:
Interest Rates Rise, Rents Too Weiterlesen »
01.08.2023 The BRICS countries want to create their own currency to end the hegemony of the U.S. dollar. China holds a dominant position in the alliance. In August, after several more or less concrete announcements since 2012, the time has finally come: At its upcoming summit in South Africa, the expanding group of BRICS countries
The Money of The Upstarts Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz, Originally published in jungle world on 06/01/2023 More and more countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia are over-indebted or even facing bankruptcy. As a lender, China is also affected by this crisis and has had to grant emergency loans to protect its own banks from payment defaults. The interest rate hikes by
The Multipolar Debt Crisis Weiterlesen »
22.06.2023, Tomasz KoniczCan state-capitalist China inherit the United States’ position as global hegemon? If the Russian-Chinese summit declarations and Western assessments are to be believed, the 21st century will be defined as an era of Chinese hegemony. At their Moscow war summit in mid-March, Putin and Xi advocated a “just multipolar world order” that would
New Old World Order? Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz, 17.06.2023. Originally published on oekumenisches-netz.de in 02/2023While many elements of Keynesian economic policy are used in the day-to-day crisis, post-Keynesianism is running wild as an ideology on the German left. Whether they are stock-conservative market disciples[1] or staid social-democratic trade unionists,[2] in times of crisis, they are all Keynesians. In every crisis episode
Keynesianism in Crisis Weiterlesen »
The current turmoil in the financial sphere is only the latest chapter in the late capitalist systemic crisis. Tomasz Konicz, 17.06.2023. Originally published on konicz.info on 03/20/2023 Here’s to a new one? The collapse of the IT industry’s house bank, California’s Silicon Valley Bank (SVB),[1] seems at first glance to herald a new financial crisis,
Silicon Valley Bank: The Weakest Link Weiterlesen »
konicz.info, 19.03,2023 Some reflections on the anti-fascist transformation struggle in the manifest systemic crisis. “It is indeed my opinion now that evil is never “radical,” that it is only extreme, and that it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a
Radicalism vs. Extremism Weiterlesen »
The threat of nuclear war is greater than it has been since the end of the Cold War konicz.info, 19.03.2023By now it should have dawned on even the last German Putin troll that the Kremlin’s war of aggression in Ukraine is not going according to plan. The best indication of this is Russia’s annexation of
Caught in The Spiral of Escalation Weiterlesen »
Why the state-capitalist People’s Republic will not be able to succeed the USA as a hegemonic power konicz.info, 19.03.2023 Launched in 2013, the New Silk Road, Beijing’s ambitious investment program in developing and emerging countries, was supposed to usher in an era of Chinese hegemony and make the 21st century a Chinese century – after
China: Multiple Crises Instead of Hegemony Weiterlesen »
konicz.info, 23.02.2023In the unfolding systemic crisis, a renewed plunge into barbarism seems preordained. But this need not be the case. Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state
Emancipation in Crisis Weiterlesen »
January 23, 2023 It is becoming increasingly clear that the capitalist catastrophe is looming. The left should fight for an emancipatory outcome. Even before all the ideology, megalomania, and opportunism emerged, many left-wing contributions to the debate on Ukraine suffered from a fundamental logical misconception. Much has been written that assumes an easy way out
The Alternative Imperialists Weiterlesen »
JANUARY 23, 2023, Tomasz Konicz Who is to blame for the increasing contradictions and distortions of late capitalist societies – and what can be done about it?Who are the rulers in capitalism? Preliminary observations seem to confirm what is, for the most part, the core principle of leftist ideology or theory: it is the capitalist
The Subjectless Rule of Capital Weiterlesen »
konicz.info, 01/19/2023 By Tomasz Konicz A new turning point looms in the war over Ukraine – and further escalation with incalculable consequences In retrospect, the recapture of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson by the Ukrainian army in November 2022, is likely to be identified as the irretrievably lost moment when optimal conditions for serious
Kiev’s missed opportunity? Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz, January 3, 2023Over-indebtedness, inflation, the threat of recession and impotent politicians: the current wave of crises is likely to take full hold even in the western centers of the capitalist world system New decade, new crisis? In mid-June, the European currency area, which had already been on the verge of collapse in the
The Walking Debt Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz. January 4, 2023 Poor, surrounded by enemies, without allies: Armenia finds itself in a desperate geopolitical situation, as Azerbaijan’s renewed attack shows The timing of the large-scale attack launched in the evening hours of September 12 was perfect. At the same time that Russia’s army was suffering its biggest defeat since the implosion
Armenian Blood for Azerbaijani Natural Gas Weiterlesen »
January 4, 2023 A military disaster looms for Russia’s army in northeastern Ukraine There is movement in the war in the east – and it is the Ukrainian army that has apparently been able to seize the momentum. While the Western public, to the extent that it still follows the war in Ukraine, which has
Turning Point in Ukraine? Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz, 12.08.2022 The Climate Movement Needs Anti-Capitalist Guardrails for Its Coming Actions The climate movement should not be afraid of being accused of radicalism. Given the civilization-threatening dimensions of the climate crisis, solving this monstrous problem is a matter of sheer collective will to survive. It is obvious that global capitalism, in its unbridled
The Necessary Break Weiterlesen »
26.07.2022, Tomasz Konicz The cruel lobbying and business practices of the app-based transport service Uber are in line with its brutal business model. And they are an expression of the processes of barbarism in the centers caused by the crisis. Some 124,000 internal documents comprise the so-called Uber Files, leaked to the press by Mark
Embrace the Chaos Weiterlesen »
17.07.2022, Tomasz Konicz The invasion of Ukraine is a military disaster for the Kremlin. But in the economic showdown Russia seems to have the upper hand – for now. In the first weeks of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, when the Kremlin’s megalomania led to the humiliating Russian retreat from Kiev and northern Ukraine,
Russian Victory in The Economic War? Weiterlesen »
Tomasz Konicz, Originally published in konkret in 07/2022 The fact that parts of the world are facing a devastating famine cannot be attributed solely to the consequences of the Ukraine war. Putin did it! This exclamation, which the Kremlin ruler’s auburn-haired German fan base likes to use with a wink to ridicule any criticism of
Glory and an Ear of Corn Weiterlesen »
22.07.2021, Tomasz KoniczThe wonderful world of bond markets – currently far more exciting than many functionaries in the state and financial sector might like. Dull, dreary, mind-numbing – these are usually the words used to describe the bond markets of the core of the world system. When capital needs to be parked safely, when pension
Mountains of Debt on The Move Weiterlesen »
21.07.2022, Tomasz KoniczFor the first time in over 30 years, Germany recorded a negative trade balance. The export-fixated German economic model is facing a crisis. “Export world champion” is now a thing of the past: in May, the German trade balance recorded a deficit for the first time since 1991, albeit only to the tune
No More Trade Surplus Weiterlesen »
13.07.2022, Tomasz KoniczThe Republican-hijacked US judiciary is on the road to post-democracy. The smartphone is the best weapon against widespread police violence in the United States. The police killing of George Floyd,[1] which led to mass protests across the country in May of 2020 and reignited the Black Lives Matter movement, would not have been
Elections with Reservations? Weiterlesen »
11.06.2022, Tomasz Konicz A brief background on the aporias of bourgeois crisis politics in the transition of the world economy from pandemic to war-related crisis. From pandemic to war – the world economy is obviously not coming to rest. On its website, the Tagesschau sees the world economy threatened by “multiple crises.”[1] But when it
Fed and ECB in a Monetary Policy Impasse Weiterlesen »
24.05.2022, Tomasz Konicz Why There Will Be No Stable Post-War Order After the End of The War Over Ukraine Is this the big one? Is this the big crash that will overturn everything that has been established in global structures and dynamics since the breakthrough of neoliberalism in the 1980s? The war over Ukraine could
A New Quality of Crisis Weiterlesen »
The Rupture in German-Russian Relations and The Return of War as A Continuation of Imperialist Geopolitics in Europe 22.02.2022, Tomasz Konicz Shock and awe – that’s the denominator of the massive Russian attack on Ukraine, in which dozens of targets have been shelled in a very short time to paralyze Ukrainian forces and prevent coordinated
Attack on Ukraine: Struggle for World Order Weiterlesen »
blogs.mediapart.fr, 22.06.2022 The economic and ecological crises of capital have long been intertwined. This can be seen not least in the heat-induced mass deaths among poor and vulnerable sections of the population – and not only in the Global South, as Tomasz Konicz argues in his contribution to the BG text series “After Extractivism.” Link:
The Deadly Logics Of Capital In The Vicious Economic-Ecological Cycle Weiterlesen »
Berliner Gazette, 22.07.2022 Extreme debt is getting out of hand, especially in Africa and the Global South at large, where economic and climate crises are intertwined, fueling each other and making it clear that the inner and outer limits of capital have been reached, as Tomasz Konicz argues in his contribution to the BG text
The Politics of Extreme Debt and Climate Change Adaptation in the Global South Weiterlesen »
konicz.info, 14.01.2022 Why does capitalism fail to implement sustainable climate policies despite the escalating ecological crisis? For three decades, policymakers have promised to address the climate crisis. For three decades, global emissions of greenhouse gases have continued to climb, giving rise to the suspicion that the capitalist world system is incapable of reducing CO2 emissions
The Climate Crisis and the Outer Limits of Capital Weiterlesen »