While signing an executive order to expand competition and crack down on monopolistic practices, Joe Biden said that “capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.” His statement reflects a long-standing assumption among both classical and more left-leaning economists alike that increasing monopolization is the source of increasing exploitation under capitalism. What do they get wrong? Economist Michael Roberts explains.

Accelerating inflation may be an issue right now in the U.S. and other recovering capitalist economies. But for capitalism, profitability is the real benchmark and that can be hit by wage rises on the one hand and interest rises on the other.

Profit is not a "gift of capital," and does not rely on investment. Profits can be generated out of the exploitation of labor power without further investment, and indeed, that is what we can see now in the expansion of ‘fictitious capital’ at the expense of productive investment.

In his latest piece, Michael Roberts takes a look at the crisis in productivity and the failures of Keynesian economics over nearly a hundred years.

Private capital and sport for profit must be replaced by a real people’s sport, run by the people for the people.

In recent years, there has been a spate of new fictions in the casino world of financial speculation. Marxist economist Michael Roberts discusses these technological developments and how when the financial markets go belly up, the digital damage will be exposed.

In recent months, we have seen financial meltdowns from Archegos Capital and Greensill Capital. Marxist economist Michael Roberts dives into the fictitious capital behind these events.

In 2020, output, investment, and employment plummeted across the world, but the opposite was true for the stock and bond markets of the major economies. Marxist economist Michael Roberts explains this trend, which will likely reverse in 2021.

As Biden begins the first day of his presidency, the United States still faces near record levels of COVID cases and deaths. At the same time, economic activity remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

As the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, British capitalism will suffer. But as Marxist economist Michael Roberts argues, the bigger problem is the COVID slump and the underlying weakness of British capital.

The year of the coronavirus pandemic is drawing to a close. What are the trends in the economy, the political situation, and the class struggle in the year to come?

With the promise of a vaccine on the horizon, many sectors of capital are hoping that the world economy will spring back soon. But with the economic crisis sending many working people and businesses into significant debt in order to survive, the prospects for such a strong recovery are rapidly narrowing. Originally posted on his blog, “The Next Recession,” Michael Roberts here outlines the possible scenarios for a third leg of the pandemic slump.

The G20 summit took place virtually this past weekend, with the G20 leaders discussing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the world economy. What does this mean for the current debt crisis? The following article was originally posted on Michael Roberts’ blog, “The Next Recession.”

It took days of counting votes, but the 2020 election finally ended. Biden won because workers, ethnic minorities, young people and city dwellers voted against Trump. Economist Michael Roberts investigates the data. The following article was originally posted on Michael Roberts’ blog, “The Next Recession."

With over tens of millions unemployed in the US and economies slowly reopening after the coronavirus pandemic, where are we heading? Economist Michael Roberts provides perspective. The following article was originally posted on Michael Roberts' blog, "The Next Recession. "

British economist Michael Roberts takes a look at the implications of Karl Marx's major work, 150 years after its first edition.

British economist Michael Roberts writes about the immediate and long-term consequences of the Brexit.

In this interview with Marxist economist Michael Roberts, he discusses the concepts in his new book, in which he argues that the world economy today remains in the grips of a "long depression" since the crisis of 2008.