He’s changed his stance on Ukraine without any explanation so now he appears to be confused and weak. TPM had this observation: For big picture purposes, let me just make this clear off the bat: Ron DeSantis’ position on U.S. support for Ukraine is still unclear. But that is largely beside the point. Over the course of the last week and a half, the Florida governor has been roundly criticized by fellow Republicans for an answer he gave in a Tucker Carlson questionnaire about his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.’s support for Ukraine’s military. His response at the time was more telling about his 2024 campaign strategy than his actual beliefs about the war. In remarks to Carlson, DeSantis characterized Russia’s year-long deadly invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and argued that supporting Ukraine’s defense was not necessarily in the U.S.’s best interest. Here’s the full quote: The remark confused some Republicans and supporters who have been following DeSantis’ positioning for longer than the past year.
Reading
In the following conversation, law and economics expert Walker Todd explains how a financialized system creates havoc and why it’s time to rethink banking
Over the last two weeks, you could hear rumblings under the global financial system as one large, ugly crack appeared after another. Soon everybody was bracing for an earthquake.
We have just witnessed the second and third biggest bank failures in American history, putting the health of the financial system on high alert. Events have sent global markets reeling with fears of fallout not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.
This is an unusual post from me, in that I’m far from unique in making these kind of arguments. Despite what I see as a growing chorus of thoughtful critics advocating for a TikTok ban, no one seriously seems to think it could happen. If TikTok is already un-ban-able, our capacity for democratic control is […]
Courtesy Cambell Soup Company, Fine Arts Meats-Fish-Fowl PAD #26, 1968
~ Today's Water Cooler ~
Alvin Bragg responded to the House Republicans fatuous primal scream earlier today: In a letter to Jordan and others Thursday, Bragg’s office said their request “treads into territory very clearly reserved to the states” — and noted that it had only come after Trump had “created a false expectation that he would be arrested … and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.” “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry,” stated the letter from the district attorney’s office, signed by general counsel Leslie Dubeck. Complying with their request would interfere with law enforcement and violate New York’s sovereignty, Dubeck added. The letter also poured cold water on Jordan’s suggestion that Congress needed those documents for a review of federal public safety funds, but said the district attorney’s office would nonetheless submit a letter describing its use of federal funds.
The Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in October last year may be seen with the efflux of time as a watershed event, not so much for the extension of Xi Ping’s tenure in the job, but for subsequent sharp policy resets. This year began with the shock announcement that China’s zero covid policy, and Continue reading »
AUKUS. This is a horror for which I now fear for the lives of my children and their children. Every time a Labor member of parliament or senator puts foot outside their office to appear in public, turns up at a public meeting, we need to ask them: why have you betrayed us? Why have Continue reading »
The $368 billion AUKUS deal raises many more questions than we have had answered to date. The Labor Government has followed the Morrison Government as if the plan unveiled by Mr Morrison was a fait accompli. On September 15th 2021, following a two hour briefing from the then-government in which no documentation was presented, key Continue reading »
With the publication of the series, “RED ALERT” in the two leading newspapers in Australia, predicting that China will invade Australia in three years, the constant push from the ASPI, and the increasingly strident rhetoric from the China hawks in both major political parties, will the Australian security apparatus be encouraged to re-establish a “Chinese Continue reading »
In NSW, Labor is favoured to end the Coalition’s 12 years in office at the forthcoming election. If it wins it faces a formidable task. The task is not merely what Labor says: review toll roads and buses; rebates for motorists; reconsider a few mega projects; deal out electoral bric a brac. It will need Continue reading »
While voting is considered a universal right in Australia, barriers remain preventing many people exercising the franchise effectively. In the lead-up to the 2023 New South Wales state elections it seems clear that more should be done to enable everyone to vote comfortably. Back in 1990, International Literacy Year I was possibly the only person Continue reading »
The outcome of a massive police-caused tragedy on Indonesia’s Java Island got less media coverage than a silly white woman’s argument with a brown cop in Bali. The ‘lady’ didn’t like being stopped for riding a motorbike bare-headed, though no helmet law is needed for Indonesian traffic – just a want to live. A story Continue reading »
If Thucydides were asked about what’s happening in relations between the US and China today, what would he say? That was the question posed to me at the Davos World Economic Forum in January. I responded that he would say that this is a classic Thucydidean rivalry in which the two parties are right on Continue reading »
If not arrested by Friday, Trump said, “I will perform a citizen’s arrest on myself.”
Here is a new illustration to announce I'll be the 8 and 9 April in Mons, Belgium, for signing sessions at the festival Trolls & Légendes. Looking forward to meeting many of you!
by Brian Czech
Banks are macroeconomic mirrors. They reflect the activity of the real economy. If the economy is growing, so are the banks, starting with the Federal Reserve and its regional banks, all the way out to tiny First Michigan Bank, Oakwood Bank (the smallest bank in bank-laden Texas), and the patriotically named Citizens Bank of Americus (Georgia).
Not only do the banks,
The post Lesson from a Failed Bank: Only One Real Start-Up appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
He went to jail for a hush money scheme Here’s a good rundown of why the Stormy Daniels case matters from Amanda Carpenter. It’s actually important, even in the great scheme of things. Donald Trump’s defenders would love for people to believe that the former president entered into totally normal, by-the-book, run-of-the-mill legal agreements with adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to purchase their silence, and that he did so in a way that was agreeable and beneficial to all parties. But that’s not what happened. Trump risks indictment because, allegedly at his behest, an illegal scheme was undertaken to deceive the public at a critical moment before the 2016 election. That was the purpose of the “hush money” payments—not to enrich the women or settle a personal matter, but, in the words of the man who went to prison for arranging the deals, “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.” A reminder of what really happened: In 2016, Daniels and McDougal each wanted to sell her own story about liaisons with Trump to the press.
Capricorn
Spring has sprung, and flowers are blooming. In fact, everyone everywhere is blooming except for you, dear Capricorn. Dry, parched days lay ahead, so this month is the perfect time to join a local knitting circle or Wiccan cooking class. Or any other group that would never be described as “dewy.”
Aquarius
If you choose to be happy, happy you will be. Just not any time soon because you’re a woman over forty. Is this new anger because of hormones or because your moon is rising? Or from some other planetary shit we astrologers make up after knocking back a few mojitos? No idea. You’re just going to be really pissed off for a while.
Pisces
Your natural tendency to be adventurous has been derailed now that your time of the month no longer uses a calendar and just comes and goes as it damn pleases. But don’t let your inability to confidently wear white pants keep you from traveling, dear one. You can probably make it to the nearest Piggly Wiggly and back for a tub of mint chip.
Following the latest banking crisis, monetary authorities should seriously consider how modern digital technologies could be used to avert such problems in the future. A central bank digital currency would both eliminate many barriers to financial transactions and end the risk of bank runs once and for all....
Project Syndicate
Jan Eeckhout | Professor of Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Steve Martin plays with Alison Brown and some of the most revered players in acoustic music on Alison Brown's new single "Foggy Morning Breaking.”