Capital As Power – Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism

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The Productivity of Bullshit Jobs
by Blair Fix on July 25, 2020 at 1:11 pm
Originally published on Economics from the Top Down. I recently read David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. If you’re not familiar, David Graeber is the anthropologist who wrote Debt: The First 5000 Years, a seminal book on the history of money and credit. In Bullshit Jobs, […]
The Power Ethos in the US Military
by Blair Fix on July 19, 2020 at 10:57 pm
Originally published on Economics from the Top Down. In How Hierarchy Can Mediate the Returns to Education I examined the pay structure of the US military. I found that hierarchical rank is (by far) the strongest determinant of military pay. Here I want to show you that there is a regularity to […]
How Hierarchy Can Mediate the Returns to Education
by Blair Fix on July 12, 2020 at 10:56 am
Originally published on Economics from the Top Down. In The Social Environment as a Cause in Economics I argued that human behavior has two parts: Individual variation An environment that acts on this variation To illustrate these two parts, I used the example of the peppered moth. This species […]

Selling Hollywood to China
on August 4, 2020 at 1:32 am
Selling Hollywood to China McMahon, James. (2020). Forum for Social Economics. August. pp. 1-27. (Article - Journal; English).
Neoclassical Political Economy -- Skating on Thin Ice (Video Presentation)
on July 29, 2020 at 9:26 pm
Neoclassical Political Economy -- Skating on Thin Ice (Video Presentation) Nitzan, Jonathan. (2020). 28 July. (Lecture / Presentation; English).
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
on July 12, 2020 at 6:54 pm
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources? Fix, Blair. (2020). Working Papers on Capital as Power. No. 2020/05. July. pp. 1-22. (Article - Working Paper; English).

Bichler and Nitzan, ‘Growing through Sabotage: Energizing Hierarchical Power’
by James McMahon on June 1, 2020 at 9:35 pm
ABSTRACT: According to the theory of capital as power, capitalism, like any other mode of power, is born through sabotage and lives in chains – and yet everywhere we look we see it grow and expand. What explains this apparent puzzle of ‘growth in the midst of sabotage’? The […]
Hager and Baines: ‘The Tax Advantage of Big Business’
by Blair Fix on February 10, 2020 at 9:10 am
ABSTRACT Corporate concentration in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, sparking a heated debate about its causes, consequences, and potential remedies. In this study, we examine a facet of public policy that has been largely neglected in current debates about concentration: […]
Bichler and Nitzan, 'Making America Great Again'
by Blair Fix on December 11, 2019 at 4:49 pm
ABSTRACT Trump has promised to Make America Great Again. As a self-proclaimed expert on everything of import, he knows exactly how to increase domestic investment and consumption, boost exports, reduce the country’s trade deficit, expand employment and bolster wages. And as America’s […]

Research • Still in the Danger Zone
by Jonathan Nitzan on January 14, 2020 at 7:58 pm
Statistics: Posted by Jonathan Nitzan — Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:58 pm
Political Economy • Re: Monthly Review cites Fix
by uma on January 8, 2020 at 12:30 pm
A summary of Kolakowski's critique of Marxism can be found in his article , in: First Things, Oct. 2002.You will note that he holds up the distinction of politics and economics and generally argues from a conservative point of view. But this does not invalidate his criticism of Marxism.Statistics: Posted by uma — Wed Jan 08, 2020 7:30 am
Political Economy • Re: Monthly Review cites Fix
by uma on January 8, 2020 at 10:25 am
Having read the three volumes now, I can very much recommend Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism. Apart from its stylistic excellence as the author "distills thought until he can state it in broad terms and accessible language and with almost no qualifiers" (to quote Daniel) this is your one-stop reading about all of Marxism from "The Founders" […]

2020/05: Fix, ‘Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?’
by Blair Fix on July 12, 2020 at 10:31 am
ABSTRACT Neoclassical economists fundamentally misunderstand the role of natural resources in the economy. I discuss here the source of this misunderstanding, and the ways we can better understand the role of energy to human societies. Download PDF […]
2020/04: McMahon, ‘Reconsidering Systemic Fear and the Stock Market: A Reply to Baines and Hager’
by James McMahon on July 1, 2020 at 5:57 pm
ABSTRACT A recent New Political Economy article by Baines and Hager (2020) critiqued Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan’s capital-as-power (CasP) model of the stock market (Bichler & Nitzan, 2016). Bichler and Nitzan’s model of the […]
2020/03: Bichler and Nitzan, ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’
by Blair Fix on June 2, 2020 at 10:09 pm
ABSTRACT The French Revolution changed the world. In the new order, the masters no longer need Monsieur Fouche and the thought police. They don’t need guillotines to clip brains and scissors to censor pamphlets. They don’t need […]

The Autocatalytic Sprawl of Pseudorational Mastery
by Blair Fix on October 8, 2019 at 6:04 pm
Vol 1, No. 4, 2019 Martin, Ulf (2019), ‘The Autocatalytic Sprawl of Pseudorational Mastery‘ (PDF), Review of Capital as Power, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 1-30.
Propertization: The Process by which Financial Corporate Power has Risen and Collapsed
by Blair Fix on October 8, 2018 at 6:02 pm
Vol 1, No. 3, 2018 Kim, Jongchul, (2018), ‘Propertization: The Process by which Financial Corporate Power has Risen and Collapsed‘ (PDF), Review of Capital as Power, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 58‐82.
Theory and Praxis, Theory and Practice, Practical Theory
by Blair Fix on October 8, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Debailleul, Corentin, Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan (2018), ‘Theory and Praxis, Theory and Practice, Practical Theory‘ (PDF), Review of Capital as Power, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 40-57.