Cooking the Books is two 500-600 word articles per issue introducing the basic concepts of Marxian economics from discussing contemporary news items and media reference to Marx’s ideas.
ALB
2005
- Jan: Acceptable capitalism?
- Jan: Who needs a financial structure?
- Feb: Banks again
- Feb: Who pays income tax?
- Mar: Lies, damned lies, and statistics
- Mar: Vice’s homage to virtue
- Apr: The other Adam Smith
- Apr: What classless society?
- May: Britain’s bonanza farms
- May: Islamic Bankers
- Jun: From Workshop to Counting House
- Jun: What is like gravity?
- Jul: The Right to Work All Hours
- Jul: Wages, prices and profits
- Aug: Is Brown’s luck running out?
- Aug: Putting business first
- Sep: Access Denied
- Sep: The waste of competition
- Oct: Feudal Relic
- Oct: The market fails again
- Nov: More conservative mottos
- Nov: Things can only get worse
- Dec: Pensioned Off
- Dec: Who needs the rich?
2006
- Jan: The Property Rights Act
- Jan: Value added, but who by?
- Feb: Calculating the Rate of Profit
- Feb: Marxism and Panda Bonds
- Mar: What is capitalism’s true course?
- Mar: World poverty not yet history
- Apr: Capitalism for ever?
- Apr: Living in an asset
- May: Footballers’ wages
- May: Money for nothing
- Jun: Capitalist Ideals
- Jun: Towards an economic crash?
- Jul: Baron Rothschild rides again
- Jul: The Nutty Philosopher
- Aug: Commodity Markets
- Aug: Was there an alternative?
- Sep: Doing Business, the World Bank Way
- Sep: “Mass unemployment”
- Oct: Salt sellers
- Nov: Abnormal behaviour
- Nov: Statistical errors
- Dec: Poor Woman’s banker
- Dec: Stating the obvious
2007
- Jan: Global turbulence
- Jan: Who’s to blame for carbon emissions?
- Feb: International non cooperation
- Feb: The Poverty Line
- Mar: Is Ian Paisley a socialist?
- Mar: Venture or vulture
- Apr: A stroke of the pen
- Apr: Market failure
- May: Just a yellow metal
- May: Underlying cause
- Jun: Back to the seventies?
- Jun: Economic cycling
- Jul: Oliver in Blunderland
- Jul: Who will verify the verifiers?
- Aug: Brown means business
- Aug: Strictly For The Birds
- Sep: How To Undermine Socialism
- Sep: Turmoil at the Stock Exchange
- Oct: Back to the Iron Age?
- Oct: Why they like a bit of inflation
- Nov: Co-opting the Co-op
- Nov: That was then
- Dec: Buying to leave empty
- Dec: Cameron’s hindquarters
2008
- Jan: Bottom line building
- Jan: Dreaming of a super cycle
- Feb: Ever heard of tryvertising?
- Feb: The Price of Bread
- Mar: Marx and corals
- Mar: Who would work for nothing?
- Apr: That's Capitalism
- Apr: What’s China’s game?
- May: Anyone for coal?
- May: Are prices real?
- Jun: The nature of business
- Jun: The way the world can feed itself
- Jul: Passing on costs
- Jul: Profits Before Homes
- Aug: Sinned against not sinners
- Aug: The world could produce more food
- Sep: It’s the system, stupid
- Sep: The coming purge
- Oct: Cuba’s wage system
- Oct: The fruits of labour
- Nov: God and the Market
- Nov: M – C – M’
- Dec: Keynes rides again
- Dec: The myth of magic money
2009
- Jan: D-words
- Jan: Fictitious capital
- Feb: Free money for everyone?
- Feb: Have the Tories gone Marxist?
- Mar: Silly money
- Mar: Thieves fall out
- Apr: Capitalism is working
- Apr: Saved by the slump?
- May: Capitalism, but not as they know it
- May: The theology of interest
- Jun: No growth area
- Jun: No jam tomorrow either
- Jul: Clutching at green shoots
- Jul: Spot the difference
- Aug: Businessmen and opera-dancers
- Aug: Sharing with Shah
- Sep: A salaried economy, no thanks
- Sep: Hunting in the morning
- Oct: Funny Money
- Oct: It isn’t over till it’s over
- Nov: Free is cheaper?
- Nov: Out of control
- Dec: Free is good
- Dec: This year’s Nobel Prize for Economics
2010
- Jan: Financial alchemy
- Jan: State monopoly capitalism
- Feb: Dreams and nightmares
- Feb: The yellow brick road to nowhere
- Mar: Empty Hope
- Mar: Living without money
- Apr: A Nobel Prize for Marx?
- Apr: More pain ahead?
- May: Much ado about nics
- May: Profit Freedom Day
- Jun: How capitalism moves
- Jun: What’s a “Living Wage”?
- Jul: A front line service
- Jul: Housing madness
- Aug: Economic soothsaying
- Aug: The problem with capitalism
- Sep: Labour and labour-power
- Sep: Overproduction or underconsumption?
- Oct: Capitalism and the Labour Party
- Oct: Defending capitalism
- Nov: Cable and capitalism
- Nov: Pocket money
- Dec: Currency wars
- Dec: Zero-sum games
2011
- Jan: Muddle class
- Jan: The great debt swindle
- Feb: Doom and gloom
- Feb: Ed’s Dad
- Mar: Capitalism will not be controlled
- Mar: Was the crisis just a mistake?
- Apr: Brown re-invents the wheel
- Apr: Don’t ask Jevons
- May: A global capitalist class?
- May: Organised waste
- Jun: The truth about tax
- Jun: Who are the wealth producers?
- Jul: Good capitalism, bad capitalism?
- Jul: Profits before petitions
- Aug: Debts and Doubts
- Aug: Southsea bubble
- Sep: Nothing to offer
- Sep: Too much debt or too little profit?
- Oct: How Long Will it Last?
- Oct: Neither Keynes nor Hayek
- Nov: Ground Rents and Coronets
- Nov: Producers and Predators
- Dec: “We are the 99 percent”
- Dec: Who Controls the World?
2012
- Jan: Clueless
- Jan: The Gnomes of the Market
- Feb: After the Revolution
- Feb: Profitability
- Mar: Back to the 1930s?
- Mar: Capitalism in Action
- Apr: Cash Mountains - Why?
- May: Banking Demystified Again
- May: Has Money Gone?
- Jun: C, V and S
- Jun: Socialism in One Village?
- Jul: It Wasn’t Socialism
- Jul: Responsible Capitalism? No Such Thing
- Aug: In or Out, Who Cares?
- Aug: Overproduction
- Sep: Going for Growth
- Sep: No One’s in Control
- Oct: Loose Talk About Thin Air
- Oct: The Bank Charter Act
- Nov: From Lame Ducks to Zombies
- Nov: Value and Surplus Value
- Dec: A Nobel Prize for Non-Economics
- Dec: Labour’s Share Goes Down
2013
- Jan: No Profits, No Growth
- Jan: Who Gains From ‘Tax Justice’?
- Feb: Capitalism No Better
- Feb: Why the Arms Trade
- Mar: Value Creation and Extraction
- Apr: Big Fish Swallow Small Fish
- Apr: Hoping for Profits
- May: Class Struggle From Above
- May: Marx and Banks
- Jun: Bitcoin or Bit Con?
- Jun: Capitalism is Sharia-Compliant
- Jul: A ‘Factual Point’
- Jul: Income Tax or Sales Tax?
- Aug: A History of Slumps
- Aug: The Decline of Manufacturing - Good or Bad?
- Sep: An Easy Match for Mammon
- Sep: A Reply to the New Economics Foundation
- Oct: In or Out - Who Cares?
- Oct: The Death of the Middle Class
- Nov: Dirty Talk at the Tory Conference
- Nov: Ed, Ralph and Karl
- Dec: Co-operatives Can’t Escape Capitalism
- Dec: Is Recovery Under Way?
2014
- Jan: Co-ops Again
- Jan: ‘I’m Not Going First’
- Feb: Against ‘Redistributionism’
- Feb: Green Recipe for Raging Inflation
- Mar: Labour is All Capitalist Now
- Mar: Owen Jones’s Hopeless Agenda
- Apr: Capitalism will not collapse
- Apr: Down with welfare?
- May: Capitalism and Inequality
- May: Harry Graeber and the Magic Wand
- Jun: The Recession that Roared
- Jun: Towards a Cashless Society?
- Jul: Fighting Against Falling Prices
- Jul: Imperialism?
- Aug: The Falling Rate of Profit (1)
- Aug: The Falling Rate of Profit (2)
- Sep: By Whose Labour Alone
- Sep: Not Something to Get Used to
- Oct: Green Economic Policies
- Oct: More . . . and More
- Nov: More on Profits
- Nov: The Quest for Superprofits
- Dec: Comic Capitalism
- Dec: Hard Work, Taxes and Profits
2015
- Jan: Another Reform Goes Wrong
- Jan: Pie-crust Pie-chart
- Feb: The Onward March of Globalisation
- Feb: What is Capitalism Like?
- Mar: Saving Greek Capitalism
- Mar: This ‘Anti-business’ Business
- Apr: A Thirst for Profits
- Apr: Squeeze the Rich?
- May: An Ambitious Politician Promises
- May: Cashless is Not Moneyless
- Jun: Marx and the SNP
- Jun: Property Poverty
- Jul: Capital Needs Labour
- Jul: Marx Right About What?
- Aug: Hypocrisy and the Unemployed
- Aug: The Other Adam Smith
- Sep: Is He a Leninist?
- Sep: Who Pays the Working Poor?
- Oct: Islamist Gold
- Oct: People’s QE
- Nov: A Classic Reformist
- Nov: Moore on Marx
- Dec: Yes, We Have No Economic Policy
- Dec: You Can’t Buck the Market But You Can Abolish It
2016
- Jan: Capitalism Goes into Space
- Jan: Osborne, Mao, Same Struggle
- Feb: A Parasite on Parasites
- Feb: But Who Owns the Machines?
- Mar: Swizz Banking?
- Mar: The Face of Capitalism
- Apr: George Osborne, Paul Mason and Marx
- Apr: McDonnell’s Mantra
- May: When Supply Exceeds Demand . . .
- May: . . . and When Demand Exceeds Supply
- Jun: Mises is Irrelevant
- Jun: The EU and the Price of Food
- Jul: No Basic Change
- Jul: Saving Private Capitalism
- Aug: Crocodile Tears for the ‘Have-nots’
- Aug: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
- Sep: Negative Interest?
- Sep: Who Funded the Brexit Campaign?
- Oct: Beyond Economics
- Oct: Dreaming of Ending Poverty
- Nov: John McDonnell Imagines
- Nov: The Sinking Pound
- Dec: Cashless but Not Profitless
- Dec: Jack London Was Wrong
2017
- Jan: Allocating Resources
- Jan: The First Lost Decade Since the 1860s
- Feb: Abolish Money – But Not Now
- Feb: Marxists Under the Bed
- Mar: Growth of What?
- Mar: Trumps – or Trumpery?
- Apr: Bill Gates on Robots
- Apr: Never Been Tried
- May: No Profit, No Care
- May: The Price of a Home
- Jun: Oh No He Didn't
- Jun: Women, Work and Wages
- Jul: Back to Basic
- Jul: The Magic Money Tree
- Aug: Boo to Capitalism
- Aug: Capitalism and Property
- Sep: Another One Bites the Dust
- Sep: Crises and Consciousness
- Oct: Answer on a Postcard (to Lord Finkelstein)
- Nov: The 'Engels pause'
- Nov: The Wages Trap
- Dec: Free is Cheaper
- Dec: More Hot Air About Banks
2018
- Jan: More Unequal Than Croesus
- Jan: The Money Shuffling Business
- Feb: Whom to Tax?
- Feb: Zombie Capitalists
- Mar: Greed or Need?
- Mar: What the Poor Law Pays
- Apr: Fareless Transport
- Apr: Zollverein
- May: Pleasing Business Leaders
- May: Yes, Read Marx
- Jun: Mark Carney as Vulgar Marxist
- Jun: No Need for More Capitalism
- Jul: Quantity and Quality
- Jul: Riding for a fall
- Aug: Are we exploited twice?
- Aug: Bitcon
- Sep: Gizza’ job
- Sep: When did capitalism start?
- Oct: Death of a Loan Shark
- Oct: The Price of Everything
- Nov: State Capitalism
- Nov: Unpaid Work
- Dec: Fukuyama goes reformist
- Dec: Message from Gotha
2019
- Jan: ‘Transition period’
- Jan: Who is Exploited?
- Feb: Extracting profits
- Feb: Literal Communism
- Mar: Trump and anti-socialism
- Mar: What are normal profits?
- Apr: Mono – what?
- Apr: WTO rules, ok?
- May: How much are you worth?
- May: Reform or Revolution?
- Jun: Cash Mountains
- Jun: The Libertarian Myth
- Jul: For the few not the many
- Jul: Monbiot sees the light
- Aug: Monopoly money
- Aug: Use value and exchange value
- Sep: The Next War
- Sep: Who, where or what is NAIRU?
- Oct: Not applying technology
- Oct: Who Are the Working Class?
- Nov: Divided Business Elite
- Nov: Lenders and Borrowers
- Dec: A capitalist own goal
- Dec: Fantasy politics (and economics)
2020
- Jan: The Labour Party Marxist? Pull the other one!
- Jan: The Lib Dem vision for capitalism
- Feb: Boris’s Gift Nag
- Feb: Not for the squeamish
- Mar: Capitalism is irredeemable
- Mar: Same difference
- Apr: Capitalism catches a cold
- Apr: Iron asteroids and golden meteorites
- May: Social distancing and the wages system
- May: System change not policy change
- Jun: Negative prices: how come?
- Jun: Will capitalism collapse?
- Jul: Negative interest rates
- Jul: UBI – Useless Baseless Initiative
- Aug: Big Deal!
- Aug: Consumption – not the driver
- Sep: What is poverty?
- Oct: Do monkeys produce surplus value?
- Oct: Socialism in one enterprise?
- Nov: The National Debt: whose debt?
- Nov: The really big slump
- Dec: Capitalism with Chinese characteristics
- Dec: Why capitalists are ‘greedy’
2021
- Jan: Profiting from the pandemic
- Feb: All state activists now?
- Feb: The paradox of cash
- Mar: Capitalism cannot be reset
- Mar: Is capitalism based on unsustainable debt?
- Apr: Profit-sharing Aussie-style
- Apr: Tories increase tax on profits
- May: Carney rethinks capitalism
- May: Who invented money?
- Jun: Lights Out
- Jun: What the market does
- Jul: Is inflation going to increase?
- Jul: The Tories and Free Trade
- Aug: Divvying up?
- Aug: Something for Nothing
- Sep: Accumulate, accumulate!
- Sep: QE didn’t work
- Oct: Labour power shortage
- Oct: The limits to tax and spend
- Nov: Capitalism: No Paper Tiger
- Nov: Greed or Necessity?
- Dec: Must prices rise?
- Dec: 'Sustainable investment'
2022
- Jan: How many working classes are there?
- Jan: Marx and the City
- Feb: The Return of Tariff Reform
- Feb: Unfair Shares
- Mar: Go on, ask for a pay rise
- Mar: Levelling Up
- Apr: A price worth paying?
- Apr: Ill-gotten gains
- May: Russian gold
- May: Something (a lot) for Nothing
- Jun: Is Russia imperialist?
- Jun: Which way to AI?
- Jul: Mutual Assured Downturn
- Jul: No such thing as free shorter hours
- Aug: An arms economy?
- Aug: Structural imbalance
- Sep: Can banks create wealth?
- Sep: Fairy-tale economics
- Oct: A fair price for power?
- Oct: Energy wars
- Nov: ‘Ignorant and mistaken’
- Nov: Profits, profits, and profits
- Dec: Rating the Bank Rate
- Dec: Who creates wealth?
2023
- Jan: Profit restraint
- Jan: The wage-price spiral myth
- Feb: Per capita
- Feb: Taking back what control?
- Mar: Supermarkets and sub-profits
- Mar: The Moral Mess
- Apr: Budgets for Business as usual
- Apr: Collapse of a banking theory
- May: What the market will bear
- May: ‘Woke capitalism’: a contradiction?
- Jun: Are nurses exploited?
- Jun: Greedflation?
- Jul: Another extinction rebellion?
- Jul: Was Marx really a reformist?
- Aug: The papers learn how banks work
- Aug: What about producer prices?
- Sep: Digital pound, what’s that?
- Sep: Reformism sucks
- Oct: AI in perspective
- Oct: An anarcho-capitalist president?
- Nov: No magic wand
- Nov: What is productivity?
- Dec: From Marx to Musk
- Dec: Progress and pauperism
2024
- Jan: Capitalism: whose bonanza?
- Jan: Does austerity breed extremism?
- Feb: Communism is socialism
- Feb: Entrepreneurialism
- Mar: Two questions answered
- Mar: What does ‘capitalism’ mean?
- Apr: Be they dragons?
- Apr: What would ‘good’ capitalism be?
- May: An April Fool
- May: Uninvestible
- Jun: More pro-business than thou
- Jun: Wages, prices and profits
- Jul: The blame game
- Jul: UBI no solution
- Aug: Should tokens make the world go round?
- Aug: Some reformists never learn
- Sep: Another reform stops working
- Sep: Trumponomics
- Oct: Harris in Blunderland
- Oct: ‘The markets’ before people
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