What is Global Capitalism?

Capitalism is a very broad term that encompasses the freedom for:

1. the natural emergence of small businesses at the grassroots of free societies
2. the development of large scale businesses
3. the global oligarchy of Fortune 500 companies that compete with nation-states for rulership of the planet.

Definition as of 1894: An organization of business upon a large scale by an employer or company of employerspossessing an accumulated stock of wealth with which to acquire tools and raw materials and to hire labour, so as to produce an increased quantity of wealth (profit).(Hobson, (1894) The Evolution of Modern Capitalism).

Definition as of 2014: An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Read a simple contrast of systems

It has not existed without governmental intervention and structuring of legal frameworks.

See Economic Roles and the Scope of the State

Limits to Capitalism

Today's global capitalism is based on both the real world of production of real goods from real materials and the creation of paper money base on paper money based on paper money to a level 30-60 times that of the real productivity of the world. The real productivity of the world faces some limited resources. The continual expansion of paper based on paper faces the uncertainties of unreality and is anchored in stock exchanges based on a form of logical gambling.

Set up a chart taking the ten Biblical Principles of Economics from the first class. Apply each principle to grassroots capitalism as practiced in the slums and to global capitalism as practiced on Wall Street. Discuss.

Given the Biblical critiques of Capitalism, alternative futures are constantly being pursued.

The shift has not come easily of course. Focusing on economic growth , and assuming it would produce a better world was extremely convenient; it let us stop thinking about ends and concentrate on means. It made economics as know it now – a science of means – extraordinarily powerful.  We could always choose our path by fixing our compass on More; we could rely on economists, skilled at removing obstacles to growth, to act as guides through the wilderness.  Alan Greenspan was the wisest of wise men.   
  From Bill McGibben (2008). Deep Economy. St Martins Griffen.

Presentations...

Global Economic Systems (ppt)

Linear Take-off theory (Rostow)

Discuss: The Current World Financial Situation

Readings

Complete reading 2 or 3 of the following:.

• Grigg, V (2010). Conversations on Kingdom Economics. (Access at http://www.urbanleaders.org/home/publications.html). Section contrasting Capitalism and Socialism with Biblical principles.
• Jeffrey Sachs (2005). The End of Poverty. Penguin Group. U.K.
• Santos, Milton. (1979). The Shared Space (trans from Portuguese, C. Gerry, Trans.). London and  New York: Methuen
• de Soto, Hernando. (1989). The Other Path (June Abbott, Trans.). New York: Harper & Row.
• Jacobs, Jane. (1984). Cities and the Wealth of Nations.The Atlantic Monthly (Mar/Apr 1984).
• Rostow, W.W. (1991). The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Schumacher, E.F. (1973). Small is Beautiful – Economics As If People Matter, Colophon Books (Ch. III, pp.180-193)
• Korten, David (2000) "The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism", BK Currents ( Berrett-Koehler Publ.) (Ch. 18-20)
• Korten, David (2001) "When Corporations Rule the World" , 2nd ed., Kumarian Press. (Ch. 6-9).