Library of democratic content

Financing Sustainable Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond - An analysis and assessment of innovative policy options

The “paper picks some of the most promising and most innovative proposals” from the May 2020 UN policy dialogue entitled “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” and examines the “political feasibility of each of the proposals” and their potential (Ellmers 2020).

How Venture Capitalists are Deforming Capitalism

“Even the worst-run startup can beat competitors if investors prop it up. The V.C. firm Benchmark helped enable WeWork to make one wild mistake after another—hoping that its gamble would pay off before disaster struck” (Charles Duhigg, 2020).

Surveillance Capitalism Wasn't Built by Powerful Companies Alone

The “surveillance economy is made up not only of the powerful tech companies but also of the underlying assumptions, beliefs and economic models that reinforce them. Unless we scrutinize and question these beliefs, we risk merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” (Anouk Ruhaak, 2020).

New thinking is needed on workers’ rights

“​​Technology is fundamentally reshaping the nature of work in other ways, as firms rethink their businesses after the pandemic. There will be new skills to learn, new responsibilities to master and new models of remote and hybrid working. Employees will be forced to adapt. Such constant change will be unsettling” (Azeem Azhar, 2020).

Covid 19 Is Upending Capitalism

“In 2021 the toll will become clearer as stimulus tapers down and more firms fail. Healthy businesses will ramp up investment, giving them an enduring advantage. These top dogs will, however, face a new climate in which three tenets of modern business—the primacy of shareholders, globalisation and limited government—are in flux” (Patrick Foulis, 2020).

Covid has made the state’s hand more visible but there are risks

“In the pandemic, the invisible hand of the market is giving way to the visible hand of state. The big question is not whether the state will be back, but what form its presence will take” (Beata Javorcik, 2020).

What COVID‑19 Reveals About Twenty‑First Century Capitalism: Adversity and Opportunity

“Twenty-first century capitalism features financialization and monopoly power. A structural perspective of contemporary political economy illuminates how these aspects shape the COVID-19 response...examining access to medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines, inequality and working conditions highlights just some of what is broken and what needs to be fixed” (Susan K. Sell, 2020).

Why the Social Media Rage Machine Won't Stop

If Facebook and Twitter functions “replaced algorithmically tailored and targeted newsfeeds with ones that simply displayed the most recent posts first, the sites would become less enraging — but also less engaging, losing their grip on the attention of users, who may drift away” (Margaret O’Mara, 2020).

Capitalism After the Pandemic

“In the months after the virus first surfaced, governments stepped in to address the concomitant economic and health crises...But it is not enough for governments to simply intervene...they should actively shape markets so that they deliver the kind of long-term outcomes that benefit everyone” (Mariana Mazzucato, 2020).

Capitalism in a Post-Covid World

Debates about economic systems and corporate governance have taken on a new urgency in

the face of the pandemic, as well as of income inequality, climate change, populism, and other

major forces sweeping the world. Can corporations make the enormous changes needed in

their culture and business models to respond effectively to a rapidly changing world, or will it

require governmental action? Is the capitalist system itself outmoded and in need of an

overhaul?