In a wide-ranging interview, JEREMY CORBYN talks to Ben Chacko about the difficulties the new Prime Minister faces and why he sees no future in Labour
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Where does money come from?
Once it was a supposedly a physical thing, allegedly tied to an amount of gold — but money only really got into its stride when it was created out of nothing by nation states and financial institutions. What does that mean in a world with multiple currencies and distinct rich and poor nations, asks the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
A sharp rise in public-sector investment is required to kick-start the economy, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Burnham’s billions for defence while councils and local services struggle will not deliver the change that Britain’s working-class communities need, says MICAELA TRACEY-RAMOS
Millions of elms were wiped out by Dutch elm disease in the 20th century, transforming the landscape forever – yet pockets of hope are keeping this beloved tree alive. MARK SEDDON explains
CARLOS MARTINEZ looks at the facts behind US persecution of Fergie Chambers
While Italy’s communist tradition remains fragmented and politically marginal, France’s party is attempting to re-establish itself as an independent force rooted in working-class organisation, says NICK WRIGHT
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” (attributed to Henry Ford)
OUR last answer explored the way that money is central to the circulation of commodities under capitalism. It argued that money is more than simply a token of value, a facilitator of exchange: it is itself a commodity, with (as Marx declared) the remarkable property of being able to make more of itself.
Debt, in particular, has become a commodity, bought and sold between large financial institutions. Credit is the basis of what Marx called “fictitious capital” — value in the form of paper money, shares, stocks, securities, and debt, all today existing primarily in digital form and all above and beyond what can be realised in the form of commodities or physical, productive capital.
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