Monday, October 5, 2020

How the History of Class Struggle is Written on the Stock Market — Blair Fix

The idea that the stock market reflects class struggle is not my own. It comes from political economists Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan. In ‘Stocks Are Up. Wages Are Down. What Does it Mean?’, I summarized their thinking (as I understand it). Before you continue here, I recommend reading that post. But if you’re pressed for time, here’s the gist of their argument.
Class struggle, Bichler and Nitzan observe, is a part of all hierarchical societies. But capitalism is the first social order to quantify this struggle. It does so through prices, which Bichler and Nitzan propose indicate power....
Economics from the Top Down
How the History of Class Struggle is Written on the Stock Market 
Blair Fix

2 comments:

Matt Franko said...

How do you “write something on the stock market?”

Peter Pan said...

It means that the numbers have a story to tell.

Stock market statistics > 'evidence' of class struggle