The primacy of the dollar is considered one of the pillars of American might, conferring exorbitant financial privileges and coercive power. But what maintains the global dollar system is in fact inseparable from what’s driving American domestic decline.
AI Doomsaying Is an Aggressive Sales Pitch
When AI insiders warn that their products could wipe out humanity, they mean that their own work is maximally important and demands unprecedented investment. This extinction fantasy distracts from the real damage AI is already doing.
Donald Trump’s Imperialism of Decline Is a Global Menace
US leaders have generally sought to cloak their imperialism with euphemistic rhetoric, but Trump has dropped any pretense about his shameless resource grabs. As the US grows weaker on the world stage, it’s also becoming more brazen and more dangerous.
The Jewish Socialists Who Fought the Tsar and Zionism
Molly Crabapple tells the story of the Jewish Labor Bund, which built a mass socialist movement in the Russian Empire and interwar Poland — fighting pogroms, rejecting Zionism, and insisting that Jewish liberation was inseparable from everyone else’s.
The Call for Working-Class Liberalism Is Coming From Inside the House
Economist Daron Acemoglu wants liberal democracy to connect with working people’s material interests and political power. His case for institutional renewal should be taken seriously, but it needs a fuller account of class, war, and worker organization.
The real choice is not between globalization and deglobalization, free trade and tariff walls, but between empowering capital and empowering workers.
The Fate of the Rohingyas Is Crucial for Myanmar’s Future
The military dictatorship in Myanmar has lost control over much of the country to rebel forces. The status of the Rohingya people, victims of genocide, will be a crucial test of the new political order that appears to be taking shape.
The Rise of Germany’s Far Right Reflects a Systemic Crisis
Pundits have widely explained the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland in terms of cultural backlash or the eastern German psyche. Yet its rise is no passing disturbance but a symptom of a much deeper crisis in Europe’s social model.
Report: The Working-Class Vote Is Not Lost
In an extensive new study supported by Jacobin, more than 40,000 voters evaluated nearly 800,000 candidate profiles. The results show how progressives could rebuild their working-class support.
How Amazon Busts Unions, in Its Own Words
Internal documents disclosed in a British Columbia labor case give us an incredibly detailed look into how exactly Amazon carries out its union-busting operations.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.
Sweden’s Far Right: Faltering but Not Defeated
Sunday’s Swedish election saw the center-left bloc narrowly defeat the outgoing right-wing government. While the Social Democrats are set to lead a new coalition, the once-mighty party has continued to lose its historic base.
Russian Elites Are Fighting for Unchecked Power
Talk of defending civilizational values looms large in the thinking of Vladimir Putin and his allies. Russia’s elites both define themselves against the West and imitate US conservatives’ culture-warrior assumptions.
Economics Needs a New Approach to Inflation
The question isn’t whether the mainstream economic consensus on inflation is right or wrong. It’s clearly wrong. The question is, can we do anything about it?
Americans Are Turning Against School Vouchers
Americans across the partisan divide seem increasingly fed up with school voucher schemes, which funnel public funds to unaccountable private entities. Even Betsy DeVos’s lobbying group is getting nervous about the voucher backlash.