Why Israel’s War Is Genocide — and Why Biden Is Culpable
Israel has made no secret of it: it has embarked on a genocidal plan to “create conditions where life in Gaza becomes unsustainable.” And Joe Biden is its accomplice.
122 Articles by: Seth Ackerman
Page 1 of 7 Next
Seth Ackerman is an editor at Jacobin.
There Was an Iron Wall in Gaza
Addicted to territorial aggrandizement and encircled by enemies of its own making, Israel has freed itself of all moral constraints.
The Welfare State Can Survive the Great Aging
Workers spend their whole lives producing wealth for society, only to be told that being provided for in old age is impossible. It’s not a rollback ordinary people should accept.
Is Capitalism Terminally Ill?
A debate between Seth Ackerman and Aaron Benanav on the prognosis for capitalism: Is it experiencing the kind of long-run stagnation that many Marxists have long regarded as its destiny? And what does the answer mean for socialist political strategy today?
Robert Brenner’s Unprofitable Theory of Global Stagnation
Robert Brenner’s theory of the post-1973 global economy — which depicts a long era of “stagnation” caused by chronic industrial overcapacity — is logically dubious and doesn’t fit the facts. But the theory’s biggest problem is its politics.
The Problem With YIMBY Economics
YIMBYs are right that the US needs a major expansion of its housing supply. Unfortunately, eliminating restrictions on private housing development won’t do much to get us there.
We Owe the French Revolution a Debt of Gratitude
On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris rose up to take history into their own hands. Because of the power of the Jacobin idea, and because enough of them lived on to fight another day, the revolution changed the world. We are all its beneficiaries.
The Forgotten Case Against Milton Friedman
In 1967, Milton Friedman launched a counterrevolution in economics that overturned the Keynesian theory of inflation. Three years later, economist James Tobin issued a powerful theoretical rebuttal — but in the economics mainstream, it’s been all but forgotten.
The Antiabortion Movement Could Tank the GOP
The end of Roe v. Wade has shaken up the decades-long bargain between the GOP and the antiabortion movement. As the movement radicalizes, the party faces a dilemma: Should it stand by a cause that threatens to become a disastrously unpopular albatross?
The Sources of Inflation Have Shifted. The Fed Needs to Take Note.
Over the past year, the sources of inflation have shifted dramatically: rather than rapid income growth, the main driver now is a lull in productivity growth — a problem the Fed’s interest rate hikes can’t do anything to solve and that is probably temporary anyway.
Karl Marx Knew That the Struggle for Reforms Was Part of the Struggle for Socialism
The tendency of some modern-day Marxists to pit reform against revolution is diametrically opposed to the vision of Karl Marx himself.
The Myth at the Heart of Modern Economics
A fabricated story about the causes of 1970s inflation — repeated in high school textbooks and the New York Times — plays a surprisingly important role in shaping economics today. It may well have helped spur the Fed’s ongoing campaign to engineer a recession.
Why Do We Even Need Private Banks?
Since Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, some commentators have been waking up to the need for a socialization of deposit-taking banking. They’re right — but the same logic leads to a more radical conclusion: a fully socialized capital market, with no private banks.
Key Inflation Measures Are Falling at Their Fastest Pace in 40 Years
After stripping out mismeasured housing prices, core inflation had its biggest 12-month drop since the massive disinflation of the early 1980s. Larry Summers continues to be wrong about inflation.
We Could Have Used Twitter Trolls in the Run-Up to the Iraq War
In the 2002–3 run-up to war, mainstream media outlets systematically suppressed evidence that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. They couldn’t have gotten away with it in the age of Twitter.
The Iraq War Was One of History’s Greatest Atrocities
The US invasion of Iraq was a crime, a calculated act of aggression that left immense destruction in its wake with almost no redeeming benefits to anyone — including its villainous architects.
Inflation Is Set to Fall. The Fed Should Back Off.
Wage growth has been experiencing a historic slowdown. If that trend holds up, inflation is on track to get within half a percentage point of the Fed’s 2% target level by this time next year. But will inflation hawks be willing to take yes for an answer?
The Latest Bout of Inflation Doom-Mongering Doesn’t Add Up
Last week’s inflation data prompted an outpouring of alarmism and calls for the Fed to squeeze the economy even harder. Here’s why the doomsaying is wrong.
Why Joan Robinson Blamed Unions for Inflation While Milton Friedman Did Not
During the ’50s-to-’70s debate on inflation, left Keynesians like Joan Robinson, who strongly supported trade unionism, saw it as a key cause of high inflation, while Milton Friedman and the monetarists, who hated unions, insisted they weren’t to blame for it.
How Inflation Became a Fact of Life
We tend to associate the inflation problem with the 1970s. But it was years earlier, in the era of Sputnik and Elvis, that the world first woke up to the reality of chronically rising prices. We’re still coping with that episode’s wrongheaded “lessons” today.