Nick > Recent Status Updates

What underpinned the stagnation of real wages in the West? Was it financialization and credit; suppression of periphery wages; or a combination of both? If the latter, how does the mix operate? I have my ideas, but look forward to Selwyn's elaboration as the book progresses. The answers are very important for locating drivers of exploitation.

Selwyn provides a strong critique of List and subsequent "statist" economists (Chang, Grabel, Wade) as at best practitioners of "soft paternalism." On the positive side, this serves to highlight the negatives of "state capitalistm," whether Stalinist or South Korean. On the negative side, Selwyn paints "statist" economists with too broad a brush, missing nuances.

I may not finish this book. It usefully connects debt to post-colonial control, but spends almost no time relating the financial machinations of Europe to the human struggles in Latin America. I think I have gotten most of what I want out of this book, and will likely skim the remainder at most.

"African delegates, most of whom had attended the AAPC two months earlier, proposed a resolution to extend complete amnesty to political prisoners, to repeal the proscription of the UPC, and to organize new, UN-supervised parliamentary elections before independence. But the American delegation 'exerted every available form of pressure . . . to defeat the African resolution.'"

I find myself wondering at this point of the book, what if the UPC members had succeeded in their project? What might Cameroon look like today? Of course, the international hegemonic powers could not allow this kind of independence.

The entire first chapter is valuable, but particularly interesting is examination of the process whereby the invisible aspects of Grassfields institutions separated from the colonial figure of the fo (fon) as tax collector.

The entire first chapter is valuable, but particularly interesting is examination of the process whereby the invisible aspects of Grassfields institutions separated from the colonial figure of the fo (fon) as tax collector.

It was somewhat unexpected, and yet upon reflection unsurprising, that the Billionaires were strongly influenced by Situationists. The volume does not seem to delve into this very deeply, and it is worth examining this ethnography in the larger context of not only Debord but also Lefebvre (production of space) and de Certeau (everyday urban geographies).

It was somewhat unexpected, and yet upon reflection unsurprising, that the Billionaires were strongly influenced by Situationists. The volume does not seem to delve into this very deeply, and it is worth examining this ethnography in the larger context of not only Debord but also Lefebvre (production of space) and de Certeau (everyday urban geographies).

Valuable book for looking inside at the everyday spaces of financialized corporate capitalism, as well as the recent history of shareholder corporations. So far the jumps between theory and ethnography are problematic. In addition, no mention is made of neoinstitutional economics. This is a fundamental part of neoclassical notions of "the firm" (Coase) as well as current "governance" fads.

"Nobody Listens to a Poor Man" provides an excellent analysis of how the culture of fear operates at local levels and how it is covered up and yet peers through hegemonic accounts of individual interaction and tradition/modernity dichotomies. One generally (the exception being Hibou) finds accounts of fear and violence wanting in post-structuralist literature.

I am less certain how well Mitchell fits into the framework of "structuralist post-structuralism" because Mitchell is intimately engaged with historical people (e.g. Richard Critchfield). However, some gaps still need to be filled by the end of the book.