Monthly Archives: January 2021

Two Perry Anderson Quotes From His Recent London Review Of Books Articles

As mentioned in my previous post, Perry Anderson has three essays in London Review Of Books on Brexit, where he is quite critical of the EU.

Two quotes:

Everyone has an idea what a nation-state is, and many know that 27 countries (with the UK’s departure) are member states of the European Union. What is the conceptual difference between the two? Bickerton’s definition is succinct. ‘The concept of member state expresses a fundamental change in the political structure of the state, with horizontal ties between national executives taking precedence over vertical ties between governments and their own societies.’

and

After a referendum campaign of ten weeks, 58 per cent of Tory, 37 per cent of Labour and 96 per cent of Ukip voters opted for Leave, yielding an overall majority of 52 per cent for Brexit, rising to 64 per cent in the poorest three categories of the population, C2DE. The only socioeconomic group where a majority voted to Remain was the most affluent stratum of the population, composed of members of categories A and B. All others preferred Leave. But if voters were divided not by income but by age and education, the result looked very different. Of those between 18 and 24 who voted, 73 per cent chose Remain; between 25 and 34, 62 per cent; between 35 and 44, 52 per cent; the majority of those over 44 voted for Leave. Similarly, 57 per cent of those with university degrees opted to Remain, 64 per cent with higher degrees, and 81 per cent in full-time education. Geographically, in England it was in university towns alone that Remain won handsomely.

So the ‘Remain’ camp consisted of globalists trying to defend their interests!

Perry Anderson On Brexit, Again

The EU is based on the idea of laissez-faire. The official website of the European Union itself says on trade:

Free trade among its members was one of the EU’s founding principles, and it is committed to opening up world trade as well.

So it was initially shocking for me in early 2016 why UK leftists were supportive of the UK remaining in the EU. But over time I have come to realise that the left is just fake and is imperialist, manufacturing consent for the ruling class. Academia is so far ahead of the media in manufacturing consent.

Nicholas Kaldor was the most vocal among economists for not joining the EU in the ’70s and I am sure he would have been vocal about leaving the EU had he been alive.

Perry Anderson wrote recently on Brexit in New Left Review and has now written again for London Review Of Books. Not one but three!

Links:

  1. The European Coup,
  2. Ever Closer Union?,
  3. The Breakaway

Now, they’re criticisms of the EU but given that Perry Anderson has a lot of respects in many circles, it could have come much earlier when it was most needed. When personal costs are high, it’s brave. At any rate, better late than never!

45,746 words over three essays! Happy reading.

Link

ROPE: Development Economics: Aptly Or Wrongly Named?

Underdevelopment is rooted in a specific connexion, created in a particular historical setting, between an internal process of exploitation and an external process of dependence.

– Celso Furtado, 1973, republished in ROPE, Volume 33, 2021, Issue 1.

The latest issue of Review Of Political Economy is about how the idea of development economics to emulate the west has failed.

How can it work, as the liberal international order works for the “north” at the expense of the “south”.

The issue includes two articles by Celso Furtado from the 70s but unpublished before.

[The title is the link]

Link

Joan Robinson In NYT From 1976

This is an unbelievably good profile (thanks to Carolina Alves on Twitter) of Joan Robinson in The New York Times from 1976.

One of the best things in the article is about bastardisation of Keynes/Keynesian economics. Bastardisation is the process of intentionally misinterpreting a theory or an ideology to suit one’s political purposes. The economics profession largely bastardised Keynes to dilute his message. But the best thing is that Keynes himself allowed this bastardisation. He had it right but then said a lot of wrong things which allowed economists to do that. Like by doing: “what do you mean, Keynes himself said that”.

According to the article:

In essence, she concedes, “this was Keynes himself enunciating the Bastard Keynesian doctrine.” Clearly this side of Keynes frustrates her. “We, the younger chaps working with him, were to his left,” she remarked.