What’s New
Originally published at dtcochrane.com DT Cochrane Commissioned and originally published by The Blackwood Art Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga. As I write this, disability justice advocates are rallying in opposition to Bill C-7, …
Originally published at Economics from the Top Down Blair Fix It was a bet heard around the world. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. It was a bet heard mostly by academics and sustainability buffs. But still, …
Originally published at joefrancis.info Joe Francis Following the Second World War, there was a worldwide dollar shortage due to the United States’ high level of self-sufficiency as an agro-industrial behemoth. Governments therefore imposed quantitative controls …
Originally published at ownlynch.org Owen Lynch Part A: Overview 1. A Need for Better Theory If you are a well-educated person in the 21st century, you probably have conflicted views. On the one hand, the …
Originally published at pluralistic.net Cory Doctorow In his 2019 book Dignity, Chris Arnade left his Wall Street job and traveled America, talking to poor, marginalized people, mostly at McDonald’s restaurants. Now, in a new essay …
Abstract This paper builds an empirical and theoretical model to analyze how the financial goal of risk reduction changed the insides of Hollywood’s star system. For the moviegoer looking at Hollywood cinema from the outside, …
Review of Capital as Power (RECASP)
Soft-wars A Capital-as-Power Analysis of Google’s Differential Power Trajectory CHRIS MOURÉ October 2021 Abstract The capital as power framework, developed by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, argues that the aim of business is not ‘profit …
Reconsidering Systemic Fear and the Stock Market A Reply to Baines and Hager JAMES MCMAHON August 2021 Abstract This article responds to Baines and Hager’s recent critique of the capital-as-power model of the stock market. …
From Commodities to Assets Capital as Power and the Ontology of Finance JESÚS SUASTE CHERIZOLA May 2021 Abstract Assets are a crucial concept of the practice and mindset of the capitalist class. Critical analyses of …
Growing Through Sabotage Energizing Hierarchical Power SHIMSHON BICHLER and JONATHAN NITZAN June 2020 Abstract According to the theory of capital as power, capitalism, like any other mode of power, is born through sabotage and lives …
The Autocatalytic Sprawl of Pseudorational Mastery ULF MARTIN May 2019 Abstract According to Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler (2009), capital is not an economic quantity, but a mode of power. Their fundamental thesis could be …
Propertization The Process by which Financial Corporate Power has Risen and Collapsed JONGCHUL KIM September 2018 Abstract Elsewhere I argue that the legal concept of property was created in the image of money in the …
Blog
Originally published at dtcochrane.com DT Cochrane Commissioned and originally published by The Blackwood Art Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga. As I write this, disability justice advocates are rallying in opposition to Bill C-7, …
Originally published at Economics from the Top Down Blair Fix It was a bet heard around the world. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. It was a bet heard mostly by academics and sustainability buffs. But still, …
Originally published at joefrancis.info Joe Francis Following the Second World War, there was a worldwide dollar shortage due to the United States’ high level of self-sufficiency as an agro-industrial behemoth. Governments therefore imposed quantitative controls …
Originally published at ownlynch.org Owen Lynch Part A: Overview 1. A Need for Better Theory If you are a well-educated person in the 21st century, you probably have conflicted views. On the one hand, the …
Originally published at pluralistic.net Cory Doctorow In his 2019 book Dignity, Chris Arnade left his Wall Street job and traveled America, talking to poor, marginalized people, mostly at McDonald’s restaurants. Now, in a new essay …
Originally published at notes on cinema James McMahon A survey of academic writing on the business of culture will show that authors seldomly restrain themselves from making predictions or giving recommendations to the hypothetical economic …
Publications
Abstract Although the determinants of income are complex, the results are surprisingly uniform. To a first approximation, top incomes follow a power-law distribution, and the redistribution of income corresponds to a change in the power-law …
Abstract We write this essay for both lay readers and scientists, though mainstream economists are welcome to enjoy it too. Our subject is the basic toolbox of mainstream economics. The most important tools in this …
Abstract This paper argues that the ability of dominant corporations in the fossil fuel and other polluting industries to shape government policy on climate change and energy issues is directly related to their financial interests …
Abstract For more than a century, political economists have sought to understand the nature of capital. The prevailing wisdom is that there must be something ‘real’ — some productive capacity — that underpins capitalized values. …
Abstract According to neoclassical economics, the most efficient way to organize human activity is to use the free market. By stoking self interest, the theory claims, individuals can benefit society. This idea, however, conflicts with …
Abstract Recent years have seen the convergence of industries that focus on higher protein foods, such as meat processing firms expanding into plant-based substitutes and/or cellular meat production, and fisheries firms expanding into aquaculture. A …
Working Papers on Capital as Power
Abstract This paper builds an empirical and theoretical model to analyze how the financial goal of risk reduction changed the insides of Hollywood’s star system. For the moviegoer looking at Hollywood cinema from the outside, …
Abstract Neoclassical economics is the official scientific underpinning of capitalism as well as its main ideological defence, and according to Keen, it fails in both tasks. Contrary to received opinion, neoclassicism cannot explain capitalism – …
Abstract This note offers some speculative ideas worth considering. One of the key features of all hierarchical civilizations is their rulers’ fear of death. This fear was famously narrated in the ancient myth of Gilgamesh …
Abstract The debate around public versus private health care often turns on cost – that is, on how to reduce costs, and particularly government expenditures, when it comes to health care. This paper examines the …
Abstract Although the determinants of income are complex, the results are surprisingly uniform. To a first approximation, top incomes follow a power-law distribution, and the redistribution of income corresponds to a change in the power-law …
Abstract We write this essay for both lay readers and scientists, though mainstream economists are welcome to enjoy it too. Our subject is the basic toolbox of mainstream economics. The most important tools in this …
Forum
Michael Alexander
I started this thread as a place to discuss the idea of capitalism as a cultural construct using material from my current manuscript (linked below). I find here at this site people who are interested …
Michael Alexander
I plotted out systemic fear and was looking at it. My understanding is system fear is associated with capital power. So I added labor power as proxied by strike frequency. I would expect the two series …
Michael Alexander
I looked over the stock market model paper. I also looks at the intro to the critique paper which provided a neat summary of the model: A ‘power index,’ calculated by dividing the S&P 500 …
jmc
The conversation between Scot, Michael and Jonathan has become its own thread, https://capitalaspower.com/casp-forum/topic/casp_finance_only_finance/
Jonathan Nitzan
Thank you Alexander for this interesting view. You might find CasP analyses of the stock market useful, even if you disagree with them: A CasP Model of the Stock Market (2016) https://bnarchives.yorku.ca/494/ Financial Crisis, Inequality, …
Michael Alexander
First point, I interpreted cumulative retained earnings divided by a price index to mean (cumulative nominal retained earnings) divided by a price index, whereas it is cumulative (nominal retained earnings divided by a price index) …
Bichler & Nitzan Archives
- Relative Oil Prices and Differential Oil Profitson January 11, 2022
Relative Oil Prices and Differential Oil Profits Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2021). Real-World Economics Review Blog. 30 December. (Article - Magazine; English).
- Star Power and Risk. A Political Economic Study of Casting Trends in Hollywoodon January 6, 2022
Star Power and Risk. A Political Economic Study of Casting Trends in Hollywood McMahon, James. (2022). Working Papers on Capital as Power. No. 2022/01. January. pp. 1-36. (Article - Working Paper; English).
- Book Review: Capital as Poweron December 25, 2021
Book Review: Capital as Power Lynch, Owen. (2021). Owenlynch.org. 13 September. pp. 1-21. (Review; English).
- Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, Covid-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debateon December 25, 2021
Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, Covid-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate Mouré, Christopher. (2021). Working Papers on Capital as Power. No. 2021/05. December. pp. 1-23. (Article - Working Paper; English).
- The Capitalist Degree of Immortalityon December 25, 2021
The Capitalist Degree of Immortality Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2021). Working Papers on Capital as Power. No. 2021/06. December. pp. 1-5. (Article - Working Paper; English).
- Steve Keen's The New Economics: A Manifestoon December 24, 2021
Steve Keen's The New Economics: A Manifesto Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2021). Working Papers on Capital as Power. No. 2021/07. December. pp. 1-8. (Review; English).