Monday, October 17, 2016

Michael Hudson and Ahmet Öncü — The Legacy of Veblen in the Age of Post-Industrial Capitalism

An important book has just been published from a 2012 conference in Istanbul on Thorstein Veblen: Absentee Ownership and its Discontents, edited by Michael Hudson and Ahmet Öncü. It is published by ISLET and is available on Amazon.…
The present collection of essays trace how Thorstein Veblen described the way in which the mid-19th century’s industrial capitalism was becoming centered on what today is called the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector. Each author in this volume discusses the character of today’s capitalism, and how and why the capitalist class remains politically dominant despite the fact that it repeatedly fails to fulfill the requirements of economic leadership it claims to fulfill. Together, these papers contribute to a better understanding of “capital in the twenty first century,” to use the phrase that has become popular following Thomas Piketty’s best seller.…
Excellent post on Veblen's prescience about economic rent and financial rent-seeking by FIRE becoming the basis of late stage capitalism.

Counterpunch
The Legacy of Veblen in the Age of Post-Industrial Capitalism
Michael Hudson and Ahmet Öncü

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