In this episode of Geopolitical Economy Hour, economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss inflation: what it is, what causes it, and what are the problems in how the Federal Reserve and other central banks respond to it. Transcript RADHIKA DESAI: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the second Geopolitical Economy Hour. I’m Radhika Desai. MICHAEL HUDSON: Continue Reading
The post Inflation’s Drivers on The Geopolitical Hour first appeared on Michael Hudson.Reading
Americans tuning into the television news on January 8th eyed a disturbingly recognizable scene. In an “eerily familiar” moment of “déjà vu,” just two years and two days after the January 6th Capitol insurrection in Washington, D.C., a mob of thousands stormed government buildings in the capital city of another country — Brazil. In Brasilia, what New York Times columnist Ross Douthat ominously labelled “the first major international imitation of our Capitol riot” seemed to be taking place. As the optics suggested, there were parallels indeed, underscoring a previously underappreciated fragility in our democratic framework: the period of transition between presidencies. Wreaking Havoc Those January 8th rioters in Brazil were protesting the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better... Read more
Yes, I’m talking about the House Republicans Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer on the looming debt ceiling hostage situation in his newsletter today. (You should subscribe if you can — it’s always good.) He knows whereof he speaks. And so does Joe Biden (hopefully): I worked in the West Wing during a financial crisis, a pandemic, multiple active terrorist plots, once-in-a-century storms, and the rise of ISIS. None of those threats were anywhere near as frightening as the two times the House Republicans tried to take the full faith and credit of the United States hostage. In both cases, a group of radical extremists with a faint grasp on reality led by a weak Speaker almost stumbled ass-backward into a global financial crisis that would make 2008 look like an economic head cold. Well, here we are again. A group of radical House Republicans led by a Speaker in name only is threatening a confrontation over raising the debt limit. Like President Obama in 2013, President Biden is refusing to negotiate with House Republicans. And like in 2013, all of the usual voices are raising concerns about that strategy. What’s the harm in talking?
Britain is now in a very undesirable state. The governing Tories are bereft of any sensible ideas and likely to lose the next General election in 2024 to Labour, who are promising to be the party of ‘sound finance’, which…
Britain is now in a very undesirable state. The governing Tories are bereft of any sensible ideas and likely to lose the next General election in 2024 to Labour, who are promising to be the party of ‘sound finance’, which means they will be incapable of dealing with the challenges that face the nation in…
The Albanese Government has acted promptly to begin the process of restoring Australia’s reputation in the region. read now...Via Axios The murder rates in Trump-voting states from 2020 have exceeded those in Biden-voting states every year since 2000, according to a new analysis by ThirdWay, a center-left think tank. Why it matters: Republicans have built their party on being the crime-fighting candidates, even as murder rates in red states have outpaced blue states by an average of 23% over the past two decades. Four reliably-red states consistently made the top of the list — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri. Driving the news: Third Way’s report analyzed homicide data for all 50 states from 2000 through 2020, using CDC data. They used the 2020 presidential election results to characterize “red states” from the “blue states.” The findings build on a previous Third Way report that only analyzed murder rates from 2019-2020. This time, they write, they wanted “to see if this one-year Red State murder epidemic was an anomaly.” Zoom out: In Oct. 2022 — just before the 2022 midterm elections — a record-high 56% of Americans said there was more crime where they live, per Gallup.
They say he’s going more mainstream… You be the judge: “Through weakness and incompetence, Joe Biden has brought us to the brink of World War III. We’re at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn’t know it. As president, I will bring back peace through strength.” Donald J. Trump campaigned during his first presidential race in a distinctly audacious style, giving free helicopter rides to children at the Iowa State Fair and using his Trump-branded 757 jetliner as an event backdrop. For his third campaign, it’s back to basics — for the first time. More than two months after formally opening his White House comeback bid, the 76-year-old former president will hold his first two public events on Saturday. Both are the type of textbook campaign stops he mostly skipped in his first two runs for office. I confess that I will enjoy this part: On Saturday, Trump took his sharpest swings at DeSantis to date, accusing the governor of “trying to rewrite history” over his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 29, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Altercation: Goodbye and Thanks
Eric Alterman, January 27, 2023 [The American Prospect]
Making pie crust is harder than making a Corsi-Rosenthal box.
My thoughts on why the exposure of Adani’s dubious dealings came as no surprise
Another Message Board Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Mastodon here I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging […]
Suddenly, he’s feisty: Todd didn’t mention Jordans sensitive tweet on Holocaust Remembrance Day lamenting the demise of gas ovens: He hasn’t removed it. But then he’s the same guy who, as Chairman of the House GOP Judiciary Committee, left this up for months so …
A break away from Australia can do much to restore one’s hope that growing militarism and the militarisation of society does not have to be the way of things. Writing from Costa Rica, I’ve enjoyed the absence of news featuring blatant China-bashing, grandiose but ill-suited plans for nuclear-powered submarines, proud announcements about new military hardware Continue reading »
A re-energised peace movement is urgently required. To date, at least $100 billion dollars in armaments has been committed by the US and its NATO allies to press for the continuation of the war in Ukraine. A war initiated through an illegal Russian invasion in February 2022, but a war whose fires are being stoked, Continue reading »
Australia has a racist constitution. It gives the Federal Parliament power to make laws for ‘The people of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws’. Deemed necessary, that is, by the Parliament itself. The argument for including such a provision in the Constitution was provided at the conventions that drafted Continue reading »
The failure of this country’s school system to give many students a fair go and a fair share of resources did not feature on the last Federal election agenda. Nor has it surfaced to date as a key issue in the NSW state election. What does this silence mean? With an election only two months Continue reading »
In the applause showered on Jacinda Ardern at the close of her term there’s one credit missing: The NZ PM swore to never mention the name of the 2019 Christchurch mass murderer. After High Court Judge Cameron Mander’s sentencing to life imprisonment without parole she added the harshest of punishments: The Biblical curse of casting-out. Continue reading »
On Dec. 20, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the appointment of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as his country’s next ambassador to the U.S. I have known Rudd for about 25 years in different contexts and our paths have crossed in various parts of the world. We’ve been fellow panelists at seminars and conferences Continue reading »
Comparing their response Friday to the site's original mission statement.
The post Matt Taibbi: Hamilton 68: Brief Addendum appeared first on scheerpost.com.
A clear signal to the US leadership that there will be no survivors in any nuclear exchange between the US and Russia.
The post 90 Seconds to Midnight? appeared first on scheerpost.com.
Sheldon Whitehouse’s book includes important context about why radical conservatives control the Supreme Court today.
I dessa tider — när ljudrummet dränks i den kommersiella radions pubertalflams — har man nästan gett upp. Men det finns ljus i mörkret. I programmet Text och musik med Eric Schüldt — som sänds på söndagsförmiddagarna i P2 mellan klockan 11 och 12 — kan man lyssna på seriös musik och en programledare som […]
The problem with conventional economics is that it requires that the "settled methodology" define both the questions and how they are answered, insuring that their mathematical models will be tractable. That is inappropriate for complex adaptive systems. All life systems and especially social systems are complex adaptive systems that are appropriately modeled using organic models rather than mechanistic models suitable for the natural sciences.
While MMT does not use organic modeling based on the life sciences, neither does it use mechanistic modeling based on the assumption that economics is comparable to the natural sciences and can be modeled on similar principles. But this assume non-existent conditions such as homogeneity and ergodicity, which do not apply to social systems that are historical and influenced by culture and institutions.