David Graeber was a much-loved friend and comrade. We met soon after the Great Financial Crisis, at various demonstrations and events. David, as readers might know, was an anthropologist, anarchist and political activist who played an important role in the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations of 2011 and is credited with giving the movement its theme: "We are the 99 percent”. We bonded over economic issues (although we disagreed on the role of the state in addressing crises), in particular monetary theory and policies. David’s book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years was important to my work and I treasure memories of our conversations over meals in cafes, discussions at the LSE, our work with Extinction Rebellion, a visit to the Kurdish diaspora community in Islington, London, and over coffee in my kitchen.
Since his untimely death, his colleague and widow, Nika Dubrovsky has set up the David Graeber Institute which
provides a platform for projects related to David Graeber’s legacy, developing his ideas and projects that will take on a life of their own, continuing and contributing to his work.
One of the Institute’s projects is the staging of events online, and so I was chuffed when Nika invited me to discuss my new book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet with Grace Blakeley, the political activist, Marxist and author.
You can watch our discussion here. If only David had been alive to join us!
My interview with Bartolomeo Sala at Jacobin Magazine
Bartolomeo Sala is a London-based Italian freelance journalist and editor who interviewed me for Jacobin magazine - again over afternoon tea in my kitchen. It was a relaxed, and from my perspective delightful conversation which he has now edited and published in Jacobin.
You can read it here: How Global Finance Drove De-industrialisation.
The Global Casino and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son
The Global Casino opens with the story of Masayoshi Son, the Korean-Japanese CEO of a company, SoftBank. Readers will recollect that his biographer Lionel Barber titled his biography of Son: Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World’s Greatest Disrupter.
Today the Financial Times has a new article on Son and his latest bet on the giant bubble that is Artificial Intelligence. According to the FT, the latest bet of $30bn is in addition to
more than $34bn (invested) in OpenAI for a roughly 11 per cent stake, and shifted the company to play a central role in what the billionaire sees as the next stage of humanity’s development.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.