BARBARA MACLEAN—Even before I became a socialist, I never bought that the US went into other countries to bring them the fruits of civilization. But I didn’t understand how US foreign policy was connected to the workings of capitalism. When capitalists have a unionized working class and they must compete with other capitalists for land, both of these conditions limit the rate of profit for capitalists. Capitalists are also constrained by the natural resources in their home territory. All three of these limitations are overcome when capitalists become imperialists, seizing cheap land and non-unionized cheap labor abroad.
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MoA—False allegations over the security of TikTok user data were used to threaten the prohibition of the video app in its U.S. market. In the U.S. alone the app is used by more than 80 million people. It plays an important part in the youth culture and music business. Faced with a potential close down of its prime business in one of its most profitable markets ByteDance had no choice but to agree to negotiate about a sale.
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Geopolitical analyst Matthew Ehret takes aim at the recent Beirut blast, as horrific as it remains mysterious in origin. In the absence of hard evidence, conjectures and conspiracies are flying about, but, at least for the time being, a reasoned response is the best path out of this calamity. Soon, we hope, we may know the exact cause or author(s) of this tragedy.
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The Covid-19-sparked global economic depression is “a singular event in the history of world capitalism,” said Duboisian scholar Anthony Monteiro. “It might be the crisis that so disabled the world capitalist system that it will never be the same.” What’s different from previous crises is, this time, “there is no capitalist nation that can save capitalism the way the US did after World War Two,” said Monteiro. “This is like a crisis unto death.”
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CALEB MAUPIN—Caleb’s discussion in this episode focuses on the evilness of imperialism, the natural spawn of capitalism; the rise of the Sino-Russian alliance in Eurasia, the ugliness of Jim Crow, and the importance of doing the right thing at all times. And much more.
