"Saving Capitalism from Itself"
By Mark Blessington Have you ever wondered why publicized unemployment is so low yet so many people don’t have jobs? The U.S. Department of Labor announced that unemployment in October was 5 percent. The details in the same report, however, show that 37 percent of our working age population did not have a job in … Continue reading The Truth About Unemployment
Michael Hopkin, The Conversation As French foreign minister Laurent Fabius brought his gavel down on the most ambitious climate deal ever struck, at 7:27pm on Saturday December 12, 2015, applause broke out throughout the sprawling conference centre in Le Bourget. It spread even into the cavernous media centre that played host to an estimated 3,700 … Continue reading Beyond Paris: what was really achieved at the COP21 climate summit, and what next?
Phil Kotler’s latest article in FORTUNE asks us to ask more questions. In the last Republican TV debate, Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief, Gerald Baker, put the following question to presidential candidate Rand Paul: “Income inequality has been rising in the United States. Fifty years ago, for example, the average CEO of a big corporation in this country earned … Continue reading FORTUNE: What the Presidential Candidates Are Failing to Address About CEO Pay
The Econ4 network of teachers, professors, practitioners, students and others are working to shift how economics is understood, taught and practiced. We’re now launching a video contest to crowdsource as many short, 3 minute videos about “Greed” as possible. We will distribute many of these across our network and beyond. The contest is patterned after the … Continue reading CALL FOR ENTRIES: Greed! A Video Contest from Econ4
Richard Gunther, Ohio State University On November 3, Ohio voters approved by a margin of 71% to 29% a constitutional amendment that will greatly reduce, or even eliminate, the gerrymandering of state legislative districts beginning in 2021. Ratification of Issue 1 by the voters followed its approval by bipartisan votes of 28-1 in the Ohio … Continue reading Ohio strikes blow against gerrymandering
Corpocracy is the absurd reality of our society in which corporations and their interests are allowed to have dominance over the economic and political systems. Through the subversive imagination, the artist works toward a transformation of social consciousness. WATCH: The show features 13 artists including, Beehive Design Collective, Michael D’Antuono, Ron English, Clark Fox, Kenneth … Continue reading VIDEO: Corpocracy – at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art
Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology A few days ago – October 30 – MIT’s Media Lab celebrated its 30th anniversary. The Media Lab is a place that takes very seriously the idea that we can invent a better future and have it spread around the globe. It’s a place that’s helped invent things that … Continue reading Can innovators build a future that’s both disruptive and just?
by Jon Queally, staff writer – CommonDreams.org An independent investigation by journalists featured in the New York Times on Sunday offers an in-depth look at the way American corporations have used the inclusion of “arbitration clauses” within consumer contracts to strategically circumvent judicial review of their behavior and immunize themselves from class action lawsuits –”realistically the only tool citizens have to fight … Continue reading Corporate America’s Plan to ‘Misbehave Without Reproach
Janet Napolitano, University of California, Office of the President In this presidential election season, one thing is certain: candidates will rarely – if ever – be asked what they would do to keep this nation at the forefront of science and innovation. That’s a shame. The public dialogue about science is perhaps the most vital … Continue reading Janet Napolitano: Why more scientists are needed in the public square
Considered one of the world’s most controversial artists, Michael D’Antuono is known for making art that challenges people to think more deeply about sociopolitical issues. His collectors range from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Pete Seeger and his work has received high praise from fellow artists Shepard Fairey and Banksy. What made you decide to dive into this sort of … Continue reading Art & Response: An Interview with Michael D’Antuono
Andrew J Hoffman, University of Michigan The tide is finally turning. In last night’s third Republican debates, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and former New York Governor George Pataki both acknowledged the scientific consensus that climate change is real and linked to human activities. These candidates participated in the “undercard” debate of four before the … Continue reading Breaking the link between a conservative worldview and climate skepticism
Packard Jennings is the nicest revolutionary you’ll ever meet. Polite and soft-spoken, he’s as self-effacing as they come. And yet this is the man who is one of our hyperconsumerculture’s sharpest critics, using “appropriation, humor, and interventionist techniques to explore the dynamics of public spaces, and to address political and corporate transgressions against public interest.” Jennings got … Continue reading The Real Revolutionary: The Art of Packard Jennings
Yoshua Okón was born in Mexico City in 1970 where he currently lives. His work has been described as “a series of near-sociological experiments executed for the camera, blends staged situations, documentation and improvisation and questions habitual perceptions of reality and truth, selfhood and morality.” Okón challenges the assumptions we make as so many of us live our lives … Continue reading Questioning Reality: Yoshua Okón’s Videos of Alienation
Clark V. Fox (aka Michael Clark), the “Godfather of modern underground art,” started making art full time in Houston, Texas at age 5 and has never slowed down since. “Art chose me: I’m an American Indian, and Indians make stuff. My father carved. My mother painted. when I was five, I’d go up and down the … Continue reading The Struggle Against Joyless Materialism: The Art of Clark Fox
Social practice is an art medium that focuses on social engagement, inviting collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions in the creation of participatory art. For artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, social practice meant taking on the very foundation of capitalist society – money. Running out of money? What’s an artist/entrepreneur to do? Why not make like the Federal … Continue reading Make it Rain (∄MIR): The Social Practice of Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung
Ron English is a troublemaker, an outlaw artist. His almost-spiritual attack on corporate billboards and their consumerist messages have won him the admiration of the public across the world. POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English is a documentary that captures English at his best (and worst?). Do you want to know why Joe Camel is no … Continue reading POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English
The works of Spanish-born artist Eugenio Merino deal with matters such as politics, religion and society with the purpose of making us question our assumptions – the truth we are told by society, by the images and constructs of the dominant culture. “My work is about our relation with the world we live in and … Continue reading Art Against Inequality: The Works of Eugenio Merino
David Cobb’s latest on We the People, Not We the Corporations, is up on our Huffington Post FIXCapitalism channel. Read the article, and watch this interview below:
House Joint Resolution 29 introduced February 14, 2013 Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights] The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution … Continue reading Move to Amend’s Proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution
This course is an economic history of what happened to ordinary American people and families from about 1930 to 2010. From the late 1940s to about 1980 ordinary people and families in the United States enjoyed a tremendous increase in their prosperity and quality of life, especially when compared with the conditions that existed during … Continue reading Free Online Class: “The Creation and Destruction of the Great American Middle Class (1930-2010)” with Professor Stanley Stasch
People often ask me: “You are known as a marketing guru. Yet you just published a book called Confronting Capitalism. How is it that a marketing expert is writing about Capitalism?” I usually give two answers. First, I am a Ph.D. economist and I have spent many years studying how markets and marketing works. Marketing … Continue reading Phil Kotler on the Relationship between Marketing and Capitalism
A video on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
Come on, face it. “Labor Day” is a national fiction — right up there with “anti-trust enforcement” and “regulating Wall Street.” The only parades that matter this September 7th will trudge through Wal-Mart, Gap, Radio Shack and other retailers in mad pursuit of holiday price reductions that come from eviscerating labor, not investing in it. … Continue reading Labor Day? Let’s Tell The Truth And Call It “Assets Day”
We’ve just begun a partnership with Huffington Post – and we invite you to join us. It’s worth repeating why we’re doing this: Capitalism must evolve to serve the needs of all citizens, not just the very affluent. Our goal is to discuss the 14 Shortcomings of Capitalism and systematically analyze the problems and potential solutions. … Continue reading Our Partnership with Huffington Post – Join Us!
WATCH: Fareed Zakaria interviews Zeynep Ton
Hedrick Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor, and Emmy award-winning producer/correspondent. He has won most of television’s top awards including two Emmys and two Dupont-Columbia Gold batons for the best public affairs programs on U.S. television in 1991 and in 2002. His current best-seller, Who Stole the American Dream … Continue reading WATCH: Hedrick Smith on Who Stole the American Dream?
Nick Hanauer warns us all about the future: Forget about “trickle down” economics. The pitchforks – the angry mobs – are coming… WATCH:
In 1969, a concerned American citizen sent the following letter for inclusion in the records of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution’s 1969 field hearings in St. Louis, Missouri: “[My organization] is proud that it involves itself socially and politically in all the great issues of our times. We take positions … Continue reading “What difference will any of it make…?”
Since the Japanese Quality Revolution of the 1970s and 80s, companies have been obsessed with hearing and incorporating the “Voice of the Customer” into their management systems and processes. Many still struggle to incorporate this elusive voice effectively–to be truly customer driven. Indeed, many firms are still on the journey to learn how to “build … Continue reading Listening to the Voice of the Planet
Raj Sisodia is a leading figure in the Conscious Capitalism movement – he is the FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Conscious Capitalism Inc. Let’s begin by asking: what is a conscious business? … Continue reading What is a Conscious Business? An Interview with Raj Sisodia
Philip Kotler calls for economic reform in Confronting Capitalism and envisions a kinder, gentler capitalism (to paraphrase President George H.W. Bush). Economic reform is not something the U.S. judicial branch takes kindly too. While Kotler’s book includes 14 shortcomings of capitalism, there is little mention of the judiciary. In my view a fifteenth shortcoming in needed. … Continue reading Judicial Obstruction of Economic Reform
… then I don’t know what is. Monsanto’s U.S. market share is 90% in soybean and 80% in corn seed sales (Dan Mitchell, Fortune). In the same article, Larry Robbins of the Glenview Capital hedge fund goes further and says Monsanto has “perpetual local monopolies.” They tie farmers to contracts for life. The Monsanto case is a perfect illustration of at … Continue reading If 90% Market Share Isn’t a Monopoly …
In April 2015, Capital Institute released Regenerative Capitalism (by John Fullerton) at an event hosted by Yale University. John Fullerton is the founder and president of Capital Institute, “a collaborative working to explore and effect the economic transition to a more just, regenerative, and thus sustainable way of living on this earth through the transformation of finance.” Through the … Continue reading REPORT: Regenerative Capitalism
Richard Stengel interviews Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. We’ll reference this conversation in future discussions. The big question: how can we, as a society, encourage companies to do good?
Many a bitter fight is waged over tax policy. How high should sales taxes go? How should we tax personal income? What deductions should be allowed? Should all income regardless of the source be treated the same? Most countries have a similar list of income classes: the poor, the working class, the middle class, the … Continue reading A Note on Progressive Taxation of Personal Income
Confronting Capitalism by Philip Kotler is organized around 14 shortcomings. The list is broad and his thinking is brave and deep without being strident or bleak—a daunting challenge and a wonderful contribution given the controversial if not explosive nature of emotions at the intersection of money and politics. Kotler’s inaugural post for this site invites enhancements … Continue reading The Great Corporate Tax Dodge
Lisa Sideris, Indiana University, Bloomington When the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose Francis as his papal name, he signaled to the world a dual commitment to sustainability and the global poor. His namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, was a man of poverty and peace who loved nature and animals, and is said to have … Continue reading With encyclical, Pope Francis elevates environmental justice
Welcome! As you’re aware, we live in a time where rational voices are increasingly questioning the shortcomings of capitalism. A group of us are starting a new online-community called FIXCapitalism.com and I wanted to personally invite you to participate. My name is Phil Kotler, and I’m a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The community brings together business … Continue reading Introduction
