Aufhebunga Bunga

On dollar hegemony.   Dutch disease has long been seen as the curse of resource-rich economies in which a currency appreciates and jobs are lost overseas. But what if the greenback is having the same effects on the US economy, the largest in the world? Many historians and economists have studied the global effects of having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But what is the effect on the US economy itself? The authors of an influential essay on this question join us to talk about the feedback effects of dollar hegemony.    Readings: The Class Politics of the Dollar System, Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder, Phenomenal World Dollar and Empire, Herman Mark Schwartz, Phenomenal World

The episode is for patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast The protests in the US against police violence - and their globalisation - prompts us to discuss radical proposals for what to do about the police. We look at the US, the UK and Brazil, each in their own national contexts, and debate how policing is structure and what makes realistic responses to state repression a political priority. Readings: Symposium on Policing, NonSite, various authors incl. Dustin Guastella, Christian Parenti Global Perspectives on Policing, Verso Books blog, various authors incl. Alex Hochuli

Reading Club episodes are only available to patrons $10+. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast This month we discuss Wolfgang Streeck's reading of Friedrich Engels which appeared recently in the New Left Review, which deals with the Marxian understanding of war and technology, how they relate to social development, and what this all means for our understanding of the state.   Engels's Second Theory: Technology, Warfare and the Growth of the State, Wolfgang Streeck, New Left Review

On British decline. Much ink has been spilled over the Britain’s fate since the end of its empire. Could it be that decline has been overstated? And what will happen to Britain as it leaves the European Union? We discuss how the history of the Industrial Revolution and Cold War militarism still shapes British politics today, as David Edgerton joins us to talk about the his latest book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation'. Readings: A misremembered empire, David Edgerton, Tortoise Britain’s 20th-century industrial revolution, Colin Kidd, New Statesman (review of Edgerton's book) Britain's persistent racism cannot simply be explained by its imperial history, David Edgerton, The Guardian

Singapore is held up as a free-market utopia: rich, orderly and clean. But the reality is quite different. Why does Singapore exert such a magnetism for neoliberals, when its reality strays from orthodox prescriptions? What and who made this model 'global city', and how does its communist and anti-colonial past lead to its hyper-capitalist present?

This episode is for patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast    Mailbag + bonus content ft. Corey Robin    In this new semi-regular slot, we feature bonus recordings (here, 20mins of additional discussion with Corey Robin from episode 129) and respond to your comments and criticisms received over the past month.

This is a sample. For the full episode, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast  The three of us discuss some of the themes that emerged from our interview with Krithika Varagur (ep.133) - the entanglement of the US state with Islamism, the Americanisation of the Middle East, and especially the Gulf States, and Wahhabism as religious justification for the Saudi state project.

On Saudi religious proselytism. Saudi Arabia has actively sought to export Salafism. How has it done this - and what have been its effects, in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria and Kosovo? Why was fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s such a formative experience for jihadists? And why has appeal of secularism faded? Readings: The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, Krithika Varagur How Saudi Arabia's religious project transformed Indonesia (Long excerpt from the book) The Coronavirus Threatens Saudi Arabia’s Global Ambitions, Krithika Varagur, Foreign Affairs Saudis and Extremism: 'Both the Arsonists and the Firefighters', Scott Shane, NYT China as the New Frontier for Islamic Daʿwah, Mohammed Turki al-Sudairi, Journal of Arabian Studies

Aleksandar Vučić's coalition won the recent (21 June) Serbian parliamentary elections amidst a mass boycott. We talk to Balkanist editor Lily Lynch about what Vučić represents - violent ultranationalist or technocratic centrist? We also take time to discuss geopolitical rivalries over Kosovo.  Plus: cigar socialism, Yugoboomers and the enduring appeal of Balkan orientalism. According to Julian Assange, the future always comes to Serbia first - what does this mean?  Intro clip: Vučić's very creepy virtual rally | Outro clip: The Big Z  Readings: Abramović, Žižek and Milanović: Yugoslavia’s First and Last Global Public Intellectuals, Srdjan Garcevic, The Nutshell Times The Tito–Castro Split and the End of Cigar Socialism, Lily Lynch, Balkanist Vucic’s nationalist party wins landslide victory in Serbian poll, Valerie Hopkins, FT West is best: How ‘stabilitocracy’ undermines democracy building in the Balkans, Srda Pavlovic, LSE blog

This episode is for patrons $10 and up. Please sign up at patreon.com/bungacast  On the Ehrenreich's re-evaluation of the Professional-Managerial Class.  We discuss Barbara and John Ehrenreich's "Death of a Yuppy Dream". Also attached are the Ehrenreichs' analyses from the late 70s, also referenced in the discussion.  Thanks again for all your questions! 

Full episode is for patrons only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast  On this latest Three Articles, we discuss the global Black Lives Matter protests.    Reading: The Triumph of Black Lives Matter and Neoliberal Redemption, Cedric Johnson, NonSite ‘As soon as I saw the slaveowner’s statue being toppled in Bristol, I knew the real anti-racism protest was OVER’, Lisa McKenzie, RT The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage Alex's additional notes on his blog

On the left case for freedom.   We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic.  Reading: What People Power Looks Like in a Pandemic Democracy, Corey Robin, NYRB Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats: Freedom Now, Corey Robin & Alex Gourevitch, Polity If authoritarianism is looming in the US, how come Donald Trump looks so weak?, Corey Robin, Guardian

On culturally conservative critics of capitalism.  Neoliberalism’s fragmentary and atomising tendencies have gone too far. In response, some right-wingers have turned against the market. At the same time, there’s a (marginal) tendency on the left turning against cultural liberalism. Are we witnessing a major political realignment underway? What is the substance of these "culturally conservative" critiques, and do they offer anything new, beyond what people like Christopher Lasch advanced decades ago?   Readings: The new intellectuals of the American right, Nick Burns, New Statesman The Problem of Hyper Liberalism, John Gray, The TLS The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs Socialism in One Country, David Runciman, LRB (on Maurice Glasman & Blue Labour) The idea that the British working class is socially conservative is a nonsense, Kenan Malik, The Guardian Zero to One, Peter Thiel (pdf) The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Daniel Bell (pdf)

This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast  Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126). 

Why did Bernie Sanders fail? In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead? And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip? Reading: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Collapse of the Sanders Campaign and the "Fusionist" Left, Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey, American Affairs

This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast In this latests Three Articles we discuss power, money and the power of money - in a post-Covid world.   Readings: The Death of the Central Bank Myth, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy Why the Neoliberals Won’t Let This Crisis Go to Waste, Philip Mirowski, Jacobin Plan A for the coronavirus, Curtis Yarvin, Medium

In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store? Readings: Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin

On the so-called "incel documentary", TFW NO GF.   This episode is for patreon subscribers only. Sign up: patreon.com/BungaCast We discuss the new documentary TFW NO GF, which focuses on the lives of extremely online alienated loners in the US. It has consequently been labelled the "incel documentary". Because the subjects are allowed to speak for themselves, it's also been called "irresponsible".   We take apart what, if anything, makes this cohort distinct from the past - is it the internet? are they lonelier? are their prospects worse? - and try to place the phenomenon in a wider context. If you haven't watched the documentary, there are clips from it interspersed throughout.   TFW NO GF on Amazon Prime List of Pirate Bay proxies

On the end of Left Populism.   Friend of the podcast Anton Jäger joins us to discuss the fate of Left Populism, investigate the response of the Left to the ongoing Coronacrisis, and question whether we're really witnessing the end of neoliberalism. We refer to his recent piece in Damage magazine, in the readings below.   Did Left populism ask the right questions but get the wrong answers? Are the next three years going to see the blossoming of the 'Well, Actually' Left? Or is the stage set for the triumph of covid corporatism?   Readings: It might take a while before history starts again, Anton Jäger, Damage Are we all covid communists now?, Philip Cunliffe, Medium

On The Jakarta Method. We're joined by Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book on the 1965-66 mass killings in Indonesia, Cold War anti-communism, and the destruction it wrought around the world. The mid-60s proved pivotal, with US-backed coups in Indonesia and Brazil setting the template. What was their effect on the Left worldwide? How did it alter developmental trajectories across the Third World? What lessons can we take from these historical experiences? Running Order: Indonesia - (10:43) Brazil & application of Jakarta Method - (36:14) Themes of anticommunism - (43:55) Global consequences - (53:03) Anticommunism today - (01:14:39) Bonus stuff - (1:21:18) Reading: The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World