Ep. 139: Rolling Back Price Signals (W/ Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski)

You know how under a "free market" system, there is no planning at at all and the magic of supply and demand just kind of make things happen? Yeah, that's not how it works. Economic planning happens everywhere in our economy at the level of the state as well as the level of the firm--with some firms, like Amazon or WalMart, being larger than some states! The real question is what is the scope of planning and who is allowed to do it. Right now, independent rich weirdos do a lot of the economic planning in society. Wouldn't it be neat if those processes were more democratized? That's the subject of a new book "The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism." And wouldn't you know it, our guests week--Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski-- are the co-authors of that very book.

Highly recommend checking this book out! You can get it here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-of-walmart.

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