Adam Tooze questions
Added 2025-01-27 10:29:04 +0000 UTCOn February 5th Adam Tooze will be returning to PTO to respond to listener questions. You may like to ask Adam about his most recent PTO episode on the likelihood of a US war with China, something else on the new Trump administration, or a question on his recent fascinating and provocative talk, Polycrisis and the Fraying of U.S. Hegemony.
It's likely that we will receive a great many questions, so unfortunately not all of them will be asked, but we will do our best to select the best ones. As usual please comment below the line here, or send by email to politicstheoryother@gmail.com with the subject header "Tooze Questions".
Thanks as ever for your continued support!
Comments
My question concerns business and fascist regimes. This is something I have been thinking about since the French elections which gave the NFP more power than anyone had expected. Watching French business media I saw the debate immediately shift one which had the Rassemblement National as the greatest threat to “actually maybe we can do business with them so long as it keeps Melonchon away”. At the risk of triggering Godwin’s Law, Tooze I think is uniquely placed to comment on the attitude of business interests to the Nazi regime. Did they initially push for the conservation of the status quo? Was capital broadly pro or anti Nazi? I’m interested to know whether the money put up a fight for liberalism or were they content to preserve a patch of market liberalism while society and politics did its own thing? (is it even relevant to think of business interests in the Weimar republic?) That links to the question of what exactly do the new oligarchs want from the illiberal Trump project? It has been fascinating to watch Silicon Valley turn Texan. Are they just cynically following power? Or are we to believe - as the New Right seem so willing to do - that the Zuckerberg we see now is the real Zuck. I ask as we see the new oligarchs lining up to support Trump. I suspect that they're all rich enough not to have to care about blood and soil issues and all they want is the freedom to make money and realise their terrifying visions unrestrained by the voters who, when they really think about it, would probably prefer a nature reserve to a rocket launch site or battery factory. (I realise this is long so please do feel free to editorialise)
Jon
2025-02-04 09:34:25 +0000 UTCIn your current writing on the US election you suggest that the Trump coalition can be best characterized as an anti-PMC coalition. I'm curious about what you think that should entail for the political strategy of progressives. I recently listened to a conversation with Michael C. Williams, co-author of the book "World of the Right", who argues that the global far-right has not only been successful on a tactical mobilisation level but that its intellectual debates about ideology are currently more interesting and dynamic than the ones on the left. In light of the rise of the right, the left has essentially moved towards a position of defending the status quo. You have argued that the first move against for instance the rise of the AfD in Germany should be Neo-Keynesian economic policy with a focus on a build-out of infrastructure, education and social security. Do you think that economic policy is sufficient to get back initiative in the struggle against the right or are there indeed facets of the PMC other than its economic policy that need to be challenged, for example its individualism or its focus on meritocracy?
Philipp Rönchen
2025-01-31 14:16:41 +0000 UTCAnother one on the book theme - Presumably Tooze has read Merkel's memoirs and I'd be interested in his thoughts. Also, if he read it in the original German was the book as grey and prosaic as the English translation?
Jon
2025-01-30 10:36:15 +0000 UTCAnother one: was reading Toozes engagement with Streeck in the LRB from a few years ago, where he notes that: 'In Germany, the solidity of the checks and balances in its constitution and the sophistication of its democratic culture mean there is no real risk of a Trump, Le Pen, Brexit-style swerve to the right' I'd be interested to know if he thinks that situation has changed
yohn doe
2025-01-29 17:23:57 +0000 UTCI'll have a chunk of proper questions later but I would like to know if Tooze is currently working on any books or other projects (other than Chartbook and the podcast and his day job)?
Jon
2025-01-28 14:50:24 +0000 UTCYou Tooze, you lose
Peter Fishbeast
2025-01-27 13:07:31 +0000 UTCIt’s all ones and Tooze
Peter Fishbeast
2025-01-27 13:07:21 +0000 UTCIn this geopolitical & economic environment, what has to be done on a national & international basis to make even a useful reformist social democracy possible? We still haven’t got close to a thought out answer to the Mitterrand / Syriza problem & we should try harder!
Lorcan Mullen
2025-01-27 11:35:21 +0000 UTCWhat is your assessment of the risks the Trump Administration are taking in undermining the structures of US military and financial hegemony (NATO, the Federal Reserve, trade/diplomatic alliances etc.)? Is the administration right to think that the US has room for a far more thuggish wielding of its power, or are we watching a convulsion that will hasten hegemonic decline?
Alex Ramage
2025-01-27 11:12:03 +0000 UTCI'd be interested in hearing him speak to what prospects he sees for: i) England breaking out of its stagnation / Reeves balance sheet so far ii) how Europe is likely to position itself relative to Trump iii) more oppositional currents emerging within the US given the number of articles we've seen about the lack of mass mobilisations and leading DNC figures not being on the scene thanks for setting up these sessions w Tooze and Seymour, best value Patreon
yohn doe
2025-01-27 10:35:08 +0000 UTC
