The Ruling Class Has No Answer – Does the Left?

<p>The Iran war has set off a cascade of crises working their way through the world economy. Oil reserves are at a twenty-year low, inflation is rising, bond yields are spiking, and the IMF is warning of a worldwide slump. But is there a way out on a capitalist basis?</p><p><br></p><p>In this week&#39;s Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Niklas Albin Svensson examine four of the proposed solutions for the crisis: the defence of liberal world order, protectionism and nationalism, Modern Monetary Theory, and a planned economy.</p><p><br></p><p>They explain why free trade and protectionism both lead to crises, why MMT cannot resolve a problem rooted in production by tweaking the circulation of money, and why a democratically planned economy is not utopia but the only rational way to organise the world&#39;s resources.</p><p><br></p><p>New episodes of Against the Stream every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.</p><p><br></p><p>📖 Recommended reading 📖</p><p>The economic consequences of the war in Iran – https://marxist.com/the-economic-consequences-of-the-war-in-iran.htm</p><p>Marxism vs Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – https://marxist.com/marxism-vs-modern-monetary-theory-mmt.htm</p><p>Draft of an Article on Friedrich List’s book: Das Nationale System der Politischen Oekonomie – ⁠http://hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1845/03/list.html</p><p>On the Question of Free Trade – https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1888/free-trade/index.htm</p><p><br></p><p>⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️</p><p>00:00:00 Intro</p><p>00:00:49 The status quo (post-WWII liberal world order)</p><p>00:27:05 Protectionism and nationalism</p><p>00:47:19 Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)</p><p>01:08:57 Socialism</p><p><br></p><p>🫵 Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm </p><p>📚 Marxist literature: https://wellred-books.com/</p><p>📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/</p><p>💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/</p>