Economy
New Internationalist provides comprehensive analysis on burgeoning corporate power and its impact on people and planet, as well as ideas on how we can change our economies for the better.
On this page, readers will find extensive coverage on the social movements – working on both a micro and macro-level – to critique and challenge capitalism – from garment factory unions in Bangladesh to rail staff striking against cuts in the name of ‘modernization’, as well as the causes of the global cost of living crisis.
It’s official, the global economy is a ‘debtor’s prison’
As the World Bank and IMF sound the alarm on debts driven sky high by Covid-19 in some of the world’s poorest nations, Nick Dearden explains why debt ‘relief’ will not cut it – we need system change.
The self-help myth
Political theorist Neil Vallelly on why the state keeps passing the buck to the individual.
The way out of Argentina’s debt crisis
Since the early 2000s, Argentina has been forced into a cycle of debt and austerity. Nick Dearden presents solutions to this coercive, financialized system.
We can’t grow our way out of poverty
In an era of planet-wide ecological breakdown, the conventional wisdom of the growth model is crashing to an end. Jason Hickel lays it on the line
Who’s the thief?
Tax havens in the Global North enable the systematic looting of the Global South. John Christensen explains how their activities impoverish the world.
A brief history of impoverishment
Poverty between – and within – nations doesn’t just exist. It is created and needs constant maintenance.
Poverty: shut out
Poverty is not down to chance or bad choices. It’s hard wired into a deeply unequal economic system. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Dinyar Godrej.
The Interview: Kate Raworth
As ecological collapse looms, our growth-at-all costs economic system urgently requires a different vision. Renegade economist Kate Raworth is preaching a new mindset fit for the challenges ahead. She spoke to Hazel Healy.
Pyromaniac president, international pariah
Leonardo Sakamoto writes plainly about the suicidal drives and fake patriotism behind the culling of the Amazon rainforest.
Spectacle and reality in Rio
Sporting mega-events purport to boost civic pride and economic growth. But their true legacy is one of rampant gentrification, argues Anne-Marie Broudehoux.
The free trade myth
T.J. Coles explains ISDSs, legal mechanisms designed to favour corporate interests that will be integral to any post-Brexit US-UK trade deal.
Public ownership is back and this is how we do it
Jack Harmsworth makes the case for why the UK must learn from its European neighbours and take back control of privatised industries.
How to one-up the universal basic income
A radical proposal to redefine and extend service provision to all those in need without breaking the bank has the potential to spark something truly transformative. Nick Dowson takes a closer look.
Holding platforms accountable to digital workers’ rights
There is an urgent need to improve the welfare and job quality of digital workers, write Mark Graham, Sai Englert and Jamie Woodcock.
Networked but commodified: digital labour in the remote gig economy
Research by Alex J. Wood, Mark Graham and others shows how gig economy platforms commodify labour in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Trade in turmoil: part two
In part two of The Big Story, Vanessa Baird explores the costs of free trade to the environment and Global South.
Beyond Davos: Fighting inequality on the frontline
On the eve of yet another World Economic Forum, Zubair Sayed looks at how people are mobilizing to find solutions to social problems exacerbated by inequality.
Trade in turmoil: part one
The global free trade system is being battered like never before. Can any good come of it, asks Vanessa Baird in part one of The Big Story?
Investor rex
The beast that won’t lie down and die – the ISDS ‘investor protection’ racket is still with us, in all but name.
Is trade in turmoil a chance for justice?
The global free trade system is being battered like never before. Can any good come of it, asks Vanessa Baird in the first of an eight-article exploration?
How we chose the cover of NI516
A dump in Cambodia and a child waste-picker to show that our waste never really disappear.
The Amazon effect: sweat, surveillance and exploitation
Jeff Bezos must be stopped, writes Mark Engler.
Why CETA is no better
The agreement between Canada and the EU remains the wrong type of trade deal. Alex Scrivener writes.
Challenging exploitation in the gig economy
Global South workers in the digital platform-enabled gig economy are beginning to organize. Alex J. Wood and Mark Graham report.
The carbon bubble
Yohann Koshy looks at the impending catastrophe linking the stock market to climate change.
Home sweet home
The foreclosure crisis in the US is still a reality for many. Jack Crosbie reports on the human cost of finance.
The next financial crisis
Clueless central banks? A trade war? Southern debt overload? Leading economists including Jayati Ghosh, Cédric Durand and others speculate on where the next crisis might come from...
China: a post-neoliberal order?
For Martin Jacques, 2008 represented the end of the Western-dominated financial system and the beginning of a Chinese century.
When the world almost ended
Ten years after the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Yohann Koshy takes stock of what went wrong and where we are.
Have economists changed since the 2008 crash?
The economics profession was partly to blame for the financial meltdown of 2007-08. Cédric Durand asks whether anything has changed.
One belt, one road
Wayne Ellwood looks at the scale of China’s ’Belt and Road’ juggernaut and its economic and political ramifications.
Reclaiming the city
In the Barcelona area, local governments and citizens are transforming municipal politics, finds Luke Stobart.
