Prediction and caution after COVID-19 crisis: The ecological and epidemiological risks of financial speculation

2021 ◽  
pp. 030981682110615
Author(s):  
Guilherme Leite Gonçalves ◽  
Bruno H. P. Rosado

Since the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, optimistic ecological and economic analyses have arisen. On one hand, the lockdowns that have taken place are pointed out as a means of reducing gas emissions, environmental exploitation, and consequently, factors that reduce the risk of zoonoses. On the other hand, macroeconomic policies that support state intervention in the economy and social benefits are seen as a signal for a more social and eco-friendly organized capitalism. The objective of our article is to call for caution on these predictions, indicating a post-pandemic countertrend according to which the relationship between economy and environment might be even more unstable and conflictual after the pandemic. Here, we discuss the relevance of Karl Marx’s fictitious capital concept as a fundamental key to thinking about financial market pressures on the environment. Hereby, we aim to raise the concern that the financial policies adopted in the course of the crisis have encouraged speculative instruments that lead to the overaccumulation of fictitious capital. This, in turn, requires the increased exploitation and expropriation of the environment in order to realize the overaccumulated rights and claims on future surplus value. Thus, we argue that the risk of environmental destruction will not be reduced as claimed by optimistic assumptions, but on the contrary will increase in the next few years. Such a risk does not dismiss, but rather suggests that new zoonoses may also arise.

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Paulo Nakatani ◽  
Helder Gomes

O artigo estuda o desenvolvimento do capital fictício e suas implicações dentro do sistema de crédito internacional. Pretende mostrar que a dominância da lógica do capital especulativo e parasitário conseguiu fazer com que a crise fosse praticamente solucionada para essa fração do capital, através da intervenção estatal. Mas, aguçou ainda mais as contradições, apontando para um aprofundamento da crise ou estagnação econômica. Trata, ainda, do papel do FED e do dólar no sistema e das gigantescas assimetrias criadas no interior do sistema capitalista mundial e as enormes transferências de valor e mais-valia da periferia para o centro do sistema.Palavras chave: Crise, capital fictício, capital especulativo parasitário.THE NATURE AND CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALIST CRISISAbstract: The article studies the development of fictitious capital and its implications within the international credit system. It intends to show that the dominance of the logic of speculative and parasitical capital, managed to make the crisis was praticly resolved for that part of capital, through State intervention. But,further sharpened the contradictions, pointing toa deepening crisis or an economic stagnation. It still deals and studies the role of the FED and the dollar in the system and asymmetries created within the world capitalist system and the huge transfers of value and surplus value from the periphery to the center of the system.Keywords: Crisis, ficticious capital, parasitical speculative capital.


2009 ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
V. Manevich

The paper considers the monetary dynamic model developed by J. Tobin, the leader of Keynesian economic thought in 1970-1990. Particularly, the author examines q-theory of investment proposed by Tobin which allows to expose the relationship between supply of monetary assets and investment in real capital. Application of various tools of monetary and financial policies is also considered in its different forms. The author aspires to use Tobin's model for the analysis of processes existing in the Russian economy and to test theoretical propositions and relationships elaborated by Tobin on Russian statistics.


2016 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Mariana Giaretto ◽  
Victoria Naffa

ResumenEn este trabajo analizamos las relaciones entre tomas de tierras y Estado, en elAlto Valle de Río Negro en Argentina. En un contexto general de especulacióninmobiliaria, por la que se encarecen los precios de alquileres y terrenos, y depolíticas de vivienda selectivas y acotadas, los sectores populares acceden aun espacio en la ciudad mediante tomas de tierras. Frente a estos conflictos,el Estado, en sus diferentes niveles y poderes, despliega una forma deintervención basada en la criminalización de las luchas por tierra y vivienda.Al mismo tiempo, el poder ejecutivo nacional crea la Secretaría de Acceso alHábitat, para posibilitar la intervención política orientada a la regularizaciónde los asentamientos. Sin embargo, esta intervención tiende a reinscribir laproblemática habitacional en el campo político, para reducirla a un conflicto“entre partes”, eludiendo la responsabilidad estatal.Desde un enfoque metodológico cualitativo, seleccionamos como referenteempírico el caso del asentamiento de Villa Obrera en Fiske, Menuco (Gral.Roca), y las técnicas de recolección de datos se basan en fuentes secundarias,como expedientes judiciales y normativa, y en fuentes primarias como son losrelatos de los protagonistas mediante entrevistas individuales y colectivas.Palabras clave: tomas de tierras, Estado, criminalización de los conflictos.Conflicts caused by land occupation and modesof State intervention: analysis of an experience ofAlto Valle in Río Negro (Argentina)AbstractThis paper analyzes the relationship between State and land occupation,at Alto Valle in Río Negro, Argentina. In a general context of real estatespeculation, where rents and land prices are expensive, and a policy ofselective and limited housing, popular sectors can have access to a spacein the city through land occupation. In front of these conflicts, the Statein its different levels and powers, displays a form of intervention basedon the criminalization of struggles for land and housing. At the sametime, the national executive creates the Secretariat of Access to Habitat,oriented to allow political intervention for the regularization of settlements.However, this intervention tends to re-register the housing problems in thepolitical arena, reducing it to a conflict “between parties” and eluding theresponsibility of the State.From a qualitative methodological approach, we selected as empirical referencethe case of the settlement of Villa Obrera in Fiske, Menuco (GeneralRoca). The techniques of data collection are based on secondary sources, suchas policy and legal records, and primary sources as the stories of protagoniststhrough individual and collective interviews.Keywords: land occupation, State, criminalization of conflicts.Conflitos sobre ocupações de terras e modos deintervenção do estado: análise de uma experiênciado Alto Valle do Rio Preto (Argentina)ResumoEste trabalho analisa as relações entre a posse de terra e o Estado, no AltoValle do Rio Preto, na Argentina. Num contexto geral da especulaçãoimobiliária, por qual se encarecem os preços do aluguel e das terras, e depolíticas de habitação seletivas e limitadas, os setores populares acedem aum espaço na cidade através de ocupações de terras. Frente a estes conflitos,o Estado, em seus diferentes níveis e poderes, desenvolve uma forma deintervenção com base na criminalização das lutas pela terra e vivenda. Aomesmo tempo, o poder executivo nacional cria a Secretaria de Acesso àHabitat para possibilitar à intervenção política orientada a regularização dosassentamentos. No entanto, esta intervenção tende a registrar os problemasde habitação no campo político, para reduzi-la a um conflito “entre aspartes”, iludindo a responsabilidade do Estado.A partir de uma abordagem metodológica qualitativa, foi selecionado comoreferência empírica o caso do Assentamento de Villa Obrera em Fiske,Menuco (Gral. Roca), e as técnicas de recolecção de dados são baseados emfontes secundárias, como expedientes judiciais e normativos, e em fontes primárias como são as histórias dos protagonistas através de entrevistasindividuais e coletivas.Palavras-chave: tomada de terras, Estado, criminalização dos conflitos.


Author(s):  
Miguel D. Ramirez

This paper analyzes the very important notion of capital from a Marxian perspective as opposed to a neoclassical one. It is argued that when capital is viewed as a historically determined social process (relation), rather than as a thing or a col-lection of things, it tends to assume certain specific forms more often than others depending on the particular stage of economic history. Capital thus refers simulta-neously to social relations and to things. Given this frame of reference, notions such as money and property capital are more easily accommodated and conse-quently are not written off as financial or fictitious capital - not real capital because they produce nothing. The paper also focuses on Marx's important analy-sis of the time of production and the turnover of capital in terms of the production of surplus-value (profit). It then examines Marx's equally important and prescient analysis of how the turnover speed of capital is affected by the time of circulation of commodities (the realization of surplus-value) and the growing use of credit (in its various forms) in the capitalist system. Finally, the paper turns its attention to the economic role of time as it relates to interest - bearing capital - one whose clear comprehension rests on viewing capital as a social construct.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Eslami ◽  
Ali Akbar Baghestany

Background: One of the most fundamental objectives of the macroeconomic policies is to realize the relationship between economic growth and inflation. According to some monetary policy advisors, inflation reflects erosion in consumer’s purchasing power. Inflation as an important economic variable, affect the economic growth and its impact on economic growth has been proposed in various theories. Agriculture plays an important role in providing the food security in Iran. Methods: A Bivariate GARCH model was employed to investigate the relationship between inflation uncertainty and agricultural growth. Results: The Augmented Dickey Fuller and Phillips Perron tests indicated all variables were stationary. Estimated models were utilized to generate the conditional variances of inflation and agriculture growth as proxies of inflation and growth variability. During the entire period 1990-2012, Bivariate Granger Causality test indicated that inflation uncertainty was the cause of growth in agriculture. This finding was in line with the hypothesis presented by (Logue and Sweeney, 1981). Conclusion: Due to the causality relation of inflation uncertainty and growth in agriculture, macro policy decision-makers are recommended to consider the price policies for improving agricultural production.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Sevinç Alkan Özcan ◽  
Muhammed Hüzeyin Mercan

Regulations, measures and restrictions implemented by state authorities on public events and mass gatherings due to fear, anxiety, and panic caused by COVID-19 pandemic have made religious field more open to state intervention since the global pandemic started and religious practices underwent radical changes. Governments’ public health measures concerning the places of mass worship and religious gatherings to stop the spread of the pandemic and the reactions of religious groups against their orders and imposed restrictions emerged as a new dimension of the debates on state-religion and state-individual relations. In this regard, the main purpose of the study is to discuss the new global religious trends that emerged with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, which reshapes state-religion relations through the regulations and measure for containing the virus, in light of the experiences in different regions and religious traditions, and to analyze the relationship between the religion and the state in the Middle East, specifically the cases of Israel and Iran as religious character is dominant and orthodox religious groups play a significant role within the social and political structure in both countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 540-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Mattoni ◽  
Diego Ceccobelli

The relationship between media and politics today is deeply entrenched in the wide use of information and communication technologies to the point that scholars speak about the emergence of hybrid media systems in which older and newer media logics combine. However, it is still unclear how the configuration of hybrid media systems changes across countries today, especially with regard to the interconnection between media and politics. In the article, we aim to develop a theoretical framework to capture such national differences. In so doing, we want to develop a heuristic device to understand whether the transformations brought about by information and communication technologies in the media and political realm also contribute to reshaping national media systems and to what extent. After outlining the main scope of the article in the ‘Introduction’ section, we discuss the theoretical framework that Hallin and Mancini developed to compare media systems across countries, and we present this framework’s main strengths and weaknesses when used as a tool for understanding the relationship between media and politics in the digital era. We then argue for the need for an updated and expanded version of such a theoretical framework: first, we update its four original dimensions (structure of media market, political parallelism, state intervention and journalistic professionalism) transversely including information and communication technologies–related indicators; second, we expand the original theoretical framework with one new dimension (grassroots participation) and the related indicators. In the ‘Conclusion’ section, we summarize our theoretical proposal and present some indicators and potential comparative data sources to assess similarities and differences of national media systems across countries. Finally, we also note two limitations of the article.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Feder

AbstractThis article studies the socioeconomics of government public expenditure for the arts and the normative foundations of state intervention in the arts. I pose two interrelated research questions: (a) what is the relationship between the public funding of the arts and their consumption? and (b) what mode of justification and what perception of the place of art in society is reflected in this relationship? Based on the philosophical work of Alan Badiou, I develop a novel conceptual framework to delineate three types of normative justifications for the public funding of arts organizations: romantic, didactic and classical. Using data from the public funding of 92 orchestras, theaters and dance troupes in Israel between 1999 and 2011, I estimate a cross-lagged panel data model to study how arts funding both affects and is affected by the levels of consumption of the organizations’ productions. The results of the study show a complex pattern of different relationships between funding and consumption that accord with the three types of normative justifications for public arts funding.


2020 ◽  
pp. 434-450
Author(s):  
Simon J. Potter

This chapter examines the twentieth-century British press in its imperial and transnational contexts. It demonstrates how Britain's imperial press system, which developed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to allow news to flow around the British empire, increasingly failed to serve British geopolitical interests from the mid-twentieth century onwards. It considers the relationship between the British government and the news agency Reuters, and the role of the Empire Press Union. It argues that although contemporary journalists often emphasised the importance of the ideal of press freedom when talking about their profession, state intervention in the affairs of news agencies represents a significant thread in the history of the twentieth-century British press.


2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 3107-3111
Author(s):  
Zhong An Jiang ◽  
Lan Jiang

In order to explore the effect of macroeconomic policies on mine safety, selecting data of 36 economic and social indicators and occupational safety indicators in mining industry in recent 15 years. Then, based on the analysis of the traditional growth rate, processing dimensionless and benchmark correlation of data, the Average weights rank of economic and social indicators relative to the mining safety could finally be got. The advantage of gradient analysis is dropping the dimension interference of data, and using three progressive connective gradients to get the relationship between occupational safety indexes and economic and social indicators. Results of the analysis were also provided some references for the improvement of macroeconomic policy.


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