Response to Grace Blakely
This review by Grace Blakely crafts a good slogan about 'breaking the power of finance', but a couple things stand out to me:
1. 'Finance' isn't necessarily capitalist: we'll have to fund our budgets in socialism too.
The issue is how to win hegemony for socialist finance and end the dominance of capitalist finance.
That would require figuring out what socialist finance means and paying close attention to how capitalist finance works and navigating that transition.
2. The article's kicker (how we're going to 'break finance') is that
Fighting back against the oligarchy that will use this crisis to strengthen their grip on political power is the central task for socialists today. We can only begin to move beyond capitalism once we democratize the state.
I think the terms 'oligarchy' and 'state' cover up a lot of complexity.
Which part of the oligarchy? Which part of the state? Who are we talking about exactly?
The review doesn't account for the role of the Federal Reserve, central banks, or really anything having to do with monetary policy--which are the core of capitalist finance. These are all institutions socialists have to contend with directly and with precision.