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Book part
Publication date: 13 December 2018

Franklin Obeng-Odoom

Transnational corporation (TNC)-led oil investments have been widely encouraged as a mechanism for the development of the Global South. Even though the sector is characterized by…

Abstract

Transnational corporation (TNC)-led oil investments have been widely encouraged as a mechanism for the development of the Global South. Even though the sector is characterized by major accidents, oil-based developmentalist narratives claim that such accidents are merely isolated incidents that can be administratively addressed, redressed behaviorally through education of certain individuals, or corrected through individually targeted post-event legislation. Adapting Harvey Molotch’s (1970) political economy methodology of “accident research”, this paper argues that such “accidents” are, in fact, routine in the entire value chain of the oil system dominated by, among others, military-backed TNCs which increasingly collaborate with national and local oil companies similarly wedded to the ideology of growth. Based on this analysis, existing policy focus on improving technology, instituting and enforcing more environmental regulations, and the pursuit of economic nationalism in the form of withdrawing from globalization are ineffective. In such a red-hot system, built on rapidly spinning wheels of accumulation, the pursuit of slow growth characterized by breaking the chains of monopoly and oligopoly, putting commonly generated rent to common uses, and freeing labor from regulations that rob it of its produce has more potency to address the enigma of petroleum accidents in the global south.

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Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-034-5

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Book part
Publication date: 31 July 2008

Warren J. Samuels

Duncan Foley, a leading heterodox economist, criticizes Adam Smith for narrowness in three respects: his definition of the economy, his notion of the central problem of economics…

Abstract

Duncan Foley, a leading heterodox economist, criticizes Adam Smith for narrowness in three respects: his definition of the economy, his notion of the central problem of economics, and his conception of correct policy making. For the most part, this is a misreading of Smith; the charge of fallacy should be attributed to mankind as a whole and especially the economists who followed him, not Smith himself. Yet, although Smith evidently did not feel that matters would work out as they did, he identified and emphasized both the causal mechanism for the narrowness and the motive behind it. The causal mechanism is the division of labor and the motive is status emulation—the quest for social recognition and moral approval, if not also power—achieved through the belief that more goods are better than fewer goods—all induced by the great deception that wealth is important, thereby leading people to frenetically better their condition. The genius of Smith was to have articulated the material and conceptual baggage accompanying the newly arrived commercial stage of Western civilization. Still, it is rather difficult to ascertain what of Smith's account is provided by his study of the stage itself and what is due to his own imagination.

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A Research Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84663-904-3

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Histories of Economic Thought
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-997-9

Book part
Publication date: 23 December 2010

Nigel F.B. Allington

One of the several claims that Seligman makes for Rooke is that he should be accorded priority in the discovery of the correct, that is Ricardian, doctrine of rent:there seems…

Abstract

One of the several claims that Seligman makes for Rooke is that he should be accorded priority in the discovery of the correct, that is Ricardian, doctrine of rent:there seems little doubt that the doctrine of rent was developed practically simultaneously by Malthus, West, Torrens and Rooke in 1814, but so far as the priority of actual publication is concerned, the above list should be reversed. And in the interests of historical accuracy, Rooke and Torrens must hereafter be accorded the position which they deserve. (Seligman, 1903, p. 512)1

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English, Irish and Subversives among the Dismal Scientists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-061-3

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Explaining Growth in the Middle East
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44452-240-5

Book part
Publication date: 5 July 2005

Mathew Forstater

In Volume One of Capital, Marx laid out what he called “The Secret of Capitalist Primitive Accumulation.” Capitalist accumulation must be preceded by some previous accumulation…

Abstract

In Volume One of Capital, Marx laid out what he called “The Secret of Capitalist Primitive Accumulation.” Capitalist accumulation must be preceded by some previous accumulation, “an accumulation which is not the result of the capitalist mode of production but its point of departure” (1990, p. 873). Marx, concentrating on European history, identified the “double-freedom” requirement necessary for capitalist production: workers must be “free” to sell their labor-power and they must be “free” from the means of production. But in this analysis, Marx not only was focusing his remarks on Europe, he actually states that the “classic” case is limited to England, while the “history of this expropriation assumes different aspects in different countries, and runs through its various phases in different successions, and at different historical epochs” (p. 876). In the European colonies, land expropriation and forced labor were used, but another important means of forcing indigenous populations to work as wage-laborers or produce cash crops was taxation and the requirement that taxes be paid in colonial currency. This paper provides an overview of this method, and documents its historical importance, concentrating on Africa. Taxation also played an important role in the monetization and commoditization of African economies, and in the rise of a peripheral capitalism. As the paper demonstrates, Marx was not unaware of money taxes functioning in this manner, and the phenomenon was in no way limited to Africa.

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The Capitalist State and Its Economy: Democracy in Socialism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-176-7

Abstract

The paper published below was prepared by Taylor Ostrander for Frank Knight’s course, Economic Theory, Economics 301, during the Fall 1933 quarter.

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Documents from F. Taylor Ostrander
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-165-1

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Rich Crime, Poor Crime: Inequality and the Rule of Law
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-822-2

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2021

Andy Higginbottom

This chapter investigates Marx’s Capital as a theoretical resource for analyzing both the form and content of the modern corporation. We assess two recent contributions critiquing…

Abstract

This chapter investigates Marx’s Capital as a theoretical resource for analyzing both the form and content of the modern corporation. We assess two recent contributions critiquing the corporation. The chapter argues that Marx advanced from his initial ambivalent comments on the form of the joint stock company and the credit system to a more categorical critique. We assess Marx’s concepts of the concentration and centralization of capital, fictitious capital and rent in analyzing the corporation. Next, we note Engels important contribution filling in from the early limited liability company to monopoly capital and modern imperialism. The chapter ends with two examples of how these concepts apply in concrete analysis. The work is highly preliminary and is intended to open a more theoretically informed approach to analysis and critique of the multinational corporation.

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Imperialism and Transitions to Socialism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-705-0

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Book part
Publication date: 12 November 2008

Peter Lewin

When understood as an inevitable inconsistency of individual plans, disequilibrium is not only a necessary condition for the existence, and hence understanding, of the market…

Abstract

When understood as an inevitable inconsistency of individual plans, disequilibrium is not only a necessary condition for the existence, and hence understanding, of the market process as we know it, it is also the glue connecting three other “Austrian” themes. In equilibrium heterogeneity of resources would have no strategic significance, specific and private knowledge would be much less problematic, and no profits net of contractual rent payments would be earned. In the real world of disequilibrium firm differences are not a mystery, rent is not an indication of inefficiency or monopoly power, and there is room to analyze, admire, reward, and consult about successful business strategy. Rent appropriation comes from ownership of valuable resources. And a successful strategy, one that earns enhanced rents, is one that acquires ownership of valuable and value-creating resources. Such a strategy is dependent for its success on superior vision (or luck), something which cannot exist in equilibrium.

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Explorations in Austrian Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-330-9

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