People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations Are Laying the Foundation for Socialism
by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski
(Verso, £9.99)

IGNORED both by conservatives obsessed with the “invisible hand” of the market and socialists caught up in the drama of challenging oppression, planning doesn’t elicit a passionate response.

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The authors do not merely rehash the notion that economic planning is useful in securing fairer distribution of goods and services — they see it as an engine for the creation of a fairer and more sustainable society.