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Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 09:30
Since Trump is determined that we are going to talk about the Afghanistan withdrawal let’s talk about it. Kevin Drum has the best discussion that I’ve seen: The entire operation had only one serious failure: the death of 13 American service members (and 170 Afghans) to an al-Qaeda suicide bomber at Abbey Gate. Multiple investigations by the Pentagon concluded that there wasn’t really anything that could have stopped it. Everyone processes grief differently, and I can’t bring myself to reproach the families that blame Biden for the deaths of their children. But the fact remains that Biden wasn’t at fault; the Army wasn’t at fault; and deaths in the line of duty are a natural occurrence in war. The withdrawal wasn’t handled perfectly, but there weren’t any huge mistakes. Nor was it really possible not to withdraw given the situation Biden inherited: the Taliban’s takeover was inevitable as soon as Trump signed the withdrawal agreement with them. It might well have been inevitable even without that.
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 08:00
During Trump’s very weird event with Moms for Liberty last week he lied many times as he always does. And this particular lie is one he keeps telling and it keeps not being true. After telling them that he had wanted to make Ivanka “UN Secretary” (which would not have been possible) he said this: “Daddy, I just want to help people get jobs….” Yeah right. Reality (from 2019) Trump signed an executive order creating the National Council for the American Worker, co-chaired by Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. One of the council’s priorities is asking companies across the US to sign the Pledge to America’s Workers. The pledge involves “committing to expand programs that educate, train, and reskill American workers from high-school age to near-retirement,” according to the White House. Two hundred companies have agreed to the pledge, with each providing different numbers of training opportunities. This brings the total number of opportunities pledged to just over 6.5 million.
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 07:00

At stake in the machinations between global asset managers, the firms they invest in, and regulators is the core question of what environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing really does and its function at the frontiers of contemporary capital accumulation. This is the question addressed in my recent book, False profits of ethical capital.

The post False profits of ethical capital: Finance, labour and the politics of risk appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 06:30
The Republicans have spent the last four years caterwauling about the “Biden Crime Family” and its alleged connections to foreign countries, especially China. They called it the greatest corruption scandal in American history. There was no evidence of this, of course. But they just repeated it relentlessly and pushed hearings and investigations until the old “where there’s smoke, there must be fire” dynamic kicked in. Well, here’s a raging, out of control conflagration and nobody cares: [W]ith Trump running for the presidency once more … foreign governments — including brand-new regimes that weren’t involved in Trump’s first whirlwind in the White House — have only spied new opportunities to burrow into his pockets and into a second administration. Many of these networks are already known, if forgotten. Trump’s financial links with regimes in places like China, Kazakhstan, or Indonesia were already reported in detail during his presidency.
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 05:00
It’s labor day and the blue-collar billionaire, friend of the working man has quite the record: Here’s something he said just a couple of weeks ago that ought to make his union fans think twice, but it won’t: That’s illegal, of course. But as we know, the law means nothing to Trump. Or Musk, for that matter. How about this one? Happy labor day to all the suckers and losers who work for a living.
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 04:59
Since the onset of the Gaza War, many Australians have urged the Albanese Government to speak up in condemning the Netanyahu regime’s constant breaches of international law and to act urgently to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. While the government has been strident in attacking those Green and Independent parliamentarians who Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 04:58
We can all be grateful that the acting auditor general Rona Mellor has decided to take at least a sideways glance into Commonwealth speculation, alongside a similar bet by the probably outgoing Queensland government, in an American horse in the great quantum computing race. I know nothing to say that there is anything intrinsically dodgy Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 04:56
The All-Ords share price index plunged 5.8% in the first two trading days of August and then rebounded 5.8% by 30 August. It ended the month just 0.3% short of where it started. The main reason for the sharp V-shaped trading pattern of August was initial fear that the US economy could plunge into recession Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 04:53
China’s traditional culture has contributed greatly to the country’s modernisation. Yet it is not the only factor that has advanced Chinese modernisation. The process of modernisation has been driven by factors such as industrialisation and greater equality brought about by socialism, which have been provided by the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 03:45
I was going to deconstruct Trump’s inane interview on Fox last night but Tom addressed it well earlier and I came across this and thought it was well done. Trump ran through most of his greatest hits, mangling them like an aging crooner who forgot the words. And Levin sat there like a potted palm. (I know that Steve Schmitt is an asshole — at best — but when he’s right, he’s right. Especially about Mark Levin.)
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 02:00
Trump is cooking up some plans of his own too He’s going to let the foxes right into the henhouse and one fox in particular: Behind closed doors, former president Donald Trump and his advisers have been talking for months about forming a commission led by prominent business executives to comb through the government books to identify thousands of programs to cut. Lately, one particularly famous candidate has made clear he’d be up for it: Elon Musk. And he may have much to gain personally from the endeavor. On several occasions, including on X, the social media platform he owns, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has expressed interest in being part of a “government efficiency commission” aimed at eliminating wasteful regulations and spending. Musk in August posted an apparently artificial intelligence-generated image of himself behind a lectern labeled “Department of Government Efficiency,” with the acronym DOGE — a meme-based cryptocurrency Musk has previously embraced.
Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 00:55
Britain Is Arresting Prominent Pro-Palestinian Activists

For “supporting a proscribed organization”. Aka. Hamas. The arrests are by counter-terrorism police.

Sarah Wilkinson’s arrest:

The police came to her house just before 7.30am. 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for “content that she has posted online.” Her house is being raided & they have seized all her electronic devices.

Others who have been arrested include Richard Barnard, Richard Medhurst and Craig Murray.

This is the law they are being charged under:

Created
Tue, 03/09/2024 - 00:46
Mainstream macroeconomics is stuck with crazy models. That goes for ‘New Keynesian’ macroeconomics and DSGE models too. Let me just give one example. A lot of mainstream economists out there still think that price and wage rigidities are the prime movers behind unemployment. What is even worse — I’m totally gobsmacked every time I come […]