In this episode, I explore why conflict is a built-in feature of capitalism and why genuine prosperity depends on cooperation. Drawing on Marx’s insights on class struggle and alienation, I argue that societies in 2025 must decide whether to let conflict dominate or build institutions that make cooperation the smarter strategy.

For the full essay and more in-depth notes, go to my Patreon page. Patreon

In this episode, I explore the rise of hard-right populist parties and the paradox at their core: voters under economic strain accept short-term benefits while surrendering long-term rights and opportunities. We trace how capitalism generates inequality, how inequality fuels populism, and how populism reshapes democracy into a system of selective protection. The essay examines Poland, Hungary, and France as case studies, and considers the broader structural loop: capitalism → inequality → populism → authoritarian drift.

For more essays and reflections, visit www.wernermouton.com.

Sanctions, Adaptation, and the Edges of Economic Power

Sanctions have become structural features of the global economy. This episode traces their rise since 2014, the adaptation of targeted states, and the consequences for finance, trade, and humanitarian flows.

In this episode:

• How sanctions expanded after Crimea and deepened after the invasion of Ukraine.
• Why trade flows look stable in aggregate yet fragment beneath the surface.
• The ways Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have adapted through rerouting, barter, and shadow networks.
• The role of connector economies that preserve volumes while signaling fragmentation.
• How freezing central-bank reserves demonstrates leverage but raises doubts about trust in global money.
• The humanitarian effects that often go unmentioned: blocked aid transfers, shortages of medicine, and the liquidity crisis in Afghanistan.
• Why sanctions are powerful, but fragile when they corrode the networks they rely on.
• What design choices can preserve their credibility into the future.

Sanctions remain central to international politics. They punish, deter, and signal without force. Yet they also expose how economic power rests on trust, and how easily that trust can be eroded by overreach.

For more essays, reports, and podcast episodes, visit www.wernermouton.com.

Is There Only One Capitalism, or Many?

When we speak of capitalism, it often appears as a single, fixed system. But closer examination reveals a more complex picture. Capitalism carries an essential logic—the investment of capital for profit and its reinvestment to generate more capital—yet this logic has taken different forms across history and regions.

In this episode, we explore the distinction between capitalism’s core traits and the diverse structures through which it operates, asking whether there is one capitalism or many.  www.wernermouton.com

Rising interest rates have turned what once seemed a manageable tool of crisis response into a structural risk. U.S. debt now nears the size of the economy, with annual interest costs exceeding defense spending and credit ratings downgraded. For decades, cheap borrowing and the dollar’s reserve role muted consequences, but those assumptions no longer hold.

Across advanced economies, similar pressures collide with populist resistance to fiscal restraint, leaving governments trapped between austerity’s political costs and deficits’ financial weight. History offers only limited strategies—default, inflation, repression—each with profound trade-offs. The question that remains is whether democratic systems can adapt before the next shock makes the choice unavoidable.

https://www.wernermouton.com/

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, even as war rages in Gaza. Exports are rising, arms sales are flowing, and Israel is embedded in Europe’s flagship research programs. Meanwhile, citizens take to the streets in protest, demanding a break that institutions refuse to deliver.

In this episode, we unpack the contradiction between Europe’s humanitarian rhetoric and its structural entanglement with Israel — tracing how trade, politics, institutions, and culture reinforce one another. What does this tension reveal about Europe’s ability to act on principle when its economic backbone is at stake?

Visit www.wernermouton.com for more

In August 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska — a setting unprecedented for U.S.-Russia relations and fraught with implications for Ukraine, Europe, and the Western alliance. With minimal U.S. economic leverage over Moscow, European allies excluded from the table, and Trump openly suggesting territorial concessions by a sovereign nation, this meeting is as much about the image it projects as any agreement it might produce.

In this episode, Werner Mouton examines the facts behind the summit, the structural weakness of the American negotiating position, and the symbolic gains already secured by Moscow before talks even begin. What might Putin want? Could Trump be outmaneuvered? And what will this moment mean for the cohesion of the alliance that has supported Ukraine for three years?

Visit www.wernermouton.com for more analysis and essays.

This episode examines the structural tension between capitalism’s claim to fairness and the profound inequality of starting positions it relies on. 
We explore how accumulated advantage compounds across generations, how rules that appear neutral reinforce unequal outcomes, and how this arrangement is framed as inevitable, even as it is the result of deliberate design. 

This is not about resentment, but about understanding the architecture of a system that works predictably for some and predictably against others.

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This episode examines how the United States’ use of the atomic bomb in 1945 marked more than the end of a war. It marked the beginning of a system—a geopolitical structure in which the right to possess and deploy ultimate violence became concentrated, controlled, and enforced through silence, spectacle, and selective legitimacy.

Drawing on two historical texts—The New York Times front page from August 7, 1945, and Mary Turfah’s essay “You’ll See” (The Baffler, August 6, 2025)—the episode traces the continuity between Hiroshima and the present logic used to discipline Iran. It explores how the bomb became less a weapon and more a structure of permission, defining who may live with deterrence and who must be punished for imagining it.

This is not a story about proliferation. It is a story about exclusion, power, and the architecture of global control.

—

Sources referenced in this episode:

• The New York Times, August 7, 1945 – Front page reporting on the bombing of Hiroshima
• Turfah, Mary. “You’ll See.” The Baffler, August 6, 2025 — thebaffler.com

—

Read the full essay and explore related work at:

www.wernermouton.com

In this episode, we examine the deliberate unraveling of the global trade system by the very nation that once built it. What does it mean to be economically present in the world if presence no longer demands interaction? What happens when tariffs are no longer instruments of protection for domestic renewal, but tools of tactical leverage?

Drawing historical parallels from the mercantilist era through 19th-century industrial policy, this episode explores the return of trade as a means of control—not construction. We trace the structural failure of European empires that extracted but did not build, and the deeper implications of the United States adopting a similar logic today.

China’s rise, like Britain’s before it, challenges not just competitiveness but coherence, exposing what happens when nations rely on leverage without investing in transformation. The episode asks whether economic collapse in the U.S. will take the form of a dramatic crisis or slow erosion: not an explosion, but an unbuilding.

Topics include:

• The shift from multilateralism to bilateral pressure
• Mercantilism as a historical mirror
• Trump’s tariff logic and structural implications
• China’s role in exposing strategic fragility
• What real economic transformation demands—and why extraction isn’t enough

For essays, transcripts, and more analysis, visit:

www.wernermouton.com

This episode examines the structural logic behind the new U.S.-EU trade deal. At the surface: a 15% tariff on European exports, framed as a victory for balance. But beneath that surface lies a deeper contradiction between how trade deficits are perceived and how they actually function.

We trace the system that sustains the U.S. trade deficit: not as a policy failure, but as a reflection of capital inflows, reserve currency demand, and domestic consumption fueled by external financing. Tariffs do not alter this structure. They tax the symptom without addressing the cause.

For Europe, the deal institutionalizes asymmetry. Energy purchases and investment pledges were exchanged for conditional market access, while core industries now face structural disadvantage. This is not reciprocity; it is compliance under leverage.

We follow how these dynamics redistribute risk, suppress industrial policy, and displace production from Europe to the U.S., with long-term political consequences.

What’s at stake is not just trade. It’s autonomy, institutional coherence, and the ability to govern the terms of economic adjustment.

This is not a trade war. It’s the normalisation of managed imbalance.

Political Economy is written and hosted by Werner Mouton.

This episode is part of an ongoing attempt to examine how economic and political systems structure the world—and how we think within them.

More work at wernermouton.com

Economics Is Already Part of Your Life

Most people think economics is reserved for Wall Street analysts or government policymakers, but the reality is that you're making economic decisions every single day. 

When you choose between buying coffee or making it at home, negotiate your salary, or decide how to spend your weekend, you're engaging with economic principles, whether you realize it or not.

Why This Matters for Your Career and Life

Understanding economics provides you with a powerful framework for decision-making that extends far beyond financial matters. In this episode, I explore ten key areas where economic literacy makes a practical difference:

• Daily Decision-Making: Every choice involves trade-offs and opportunity costs

• Career Development: Understanding labor markets helps you make informed career decisions and negotiate better compensation

• Government Policy: Economic literacy helps you evaluate political promises and understand policy trade-offs

• Personal Finance: Foundation for understanding inflation, interest rates, and investment decisions

• Global Awareness: Making sense of international trade and how global events affect local markets

• Critical Thinking: Evaluating economic claims made by politicians, media, and businesses

• Consumer Choices: Understanding production and consumption patterns to make informed purchasing decisions

The Bottom Line

Economics isn't just about numbers and graphs. It's about human behavior, choices, and how we navigate a world of limited resources. 

Whether you're a complete beginner or someone looking to sharpen your economic thinking, understanding these principles helps you become a more informed citizen, better decision-maker, and more effective professional.

The question isn't whether you're an economist—you already are. The question is whether you want to be a good one.

Listen to Episode 1 now!

Political Economy is written and hosted by Werner Mouton.

This episode is part of an ongoing attempt to examine how economic and political systems structure the world—and how we think within them.

More work at wernermouton.com