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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).

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.

Niche news station, Sky News Australia, has revealed that a survey of their viewers, all 6 of them, has showed that they are all in favour of nuclear power. ”When Sky News speaks, people listen,” said a Spokesperson for the... Read More ›

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.

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 »

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 »

This is a topic difficult to raise without it sounding like a sermon. And although I happen to be writing on a Sunday (and was ordained as an Interfaith, post-denominational minister nearly 20 years ago) “sermonising” has never worked for me: not in the getting or the giving. What we “ought” to do will never Continue reading »

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 »

China has never expressed aggressive intentions towards Taiwan, it has repeatedly maintained it is prepared to wait, but will never rule out force to defend Taiwan Continue reading »

‘Old’ is defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as any person over the age of 65. This is a wildly outdated notion given our longer life expectancy and the fact that most of us will live many years beyond that arbitrary date in active service to the community. We know little about this cohort, Continue reading »

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 »

The recently published book 'Nuclear is not the answer' by Prof. M.V. Ramana at the University of British Columbia provides a comprehensive and well-researched response to the evolving debate on the relevance of nuclear in our energy mix. Continue reading »

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.)

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.

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:

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 […]

Changing the narrative on false memories might be surprisingly simple.

The post What Makes a Memory Real? appeared first on Nautilus.

New evidence suggests it was slower than we thought.

The post How Disease Really Spread in the Americas appeared first on Nautilus.

Let The Brotherhood Of The Damned be your tour guide Kamala HQ flagged this clip of tech bro “thought leader” Curtis Yarvin advocating an American Caesar as the next step for America. This is the guy incels and billionaire tech autocrats like Peter Thiel (J.D. Vance’s mentor) look to for envisioning a future with them running the world and getting laid, like, anytime they want. Gaze upon Yarvin, all ye who dream big. TPM’s Josh Marshall quipped, “Amazing that this college sophomore level thinker is a major force in Silicon Valley.” I’m reminded of the formulaic pap The Sphinx (Wes Studi) spouted as wisdom in Mystery Men (1999). Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) gazes on in wonderment (or is it befuddlement?) and remarks, “It’s cool, isn’t it? It goes right up to the point of being, like, confusing.” Shallow and stupid or not, don’t think they won’t attempt something like this. Marcy Wheeler predicts they’ll try. Violently, preferably. https://mstdn.social/@lolgop@journa.host/113068278494067131 Vote like you mean it. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● It’s Labor Day.

Social media algorithms show violent content to boys but that's just the start of the problem according to a leading investigative journalist

The Clown Prince of Grievance Every time one thinks Donald Trump cannot possibly get more demented, he surprises. It’s as if Mark Levin were interviewing The Joker. Except The Joker sports a wide, lipstick-red smile. Trump: “Who ever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it.” Who ever heard you get indicted for embezzling billions from the U.S. Treasury when (immunized by “conservatives” on the U.S. Supreme Court) you “have every right to do it”? Think “the short-fingered vulgarian” won’t plunge his stubby mitts into the national cookie jar if reelected? That is, if he hopes to impress Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and get richer doing it? No one more sentient than mold slime doesn’t know that’s exactly what Trump will do. Maybe even before sending troops into the streets to apprehend and throw into concentration camps anyone brown and migranty-looking . For context, Trump was commenting on the superseding indictment filed last week by special counsel Jack Smith in the stolen documents case.

Nobel laureates join chorus of 1,000+ scientists urging Parliament to prioritise far-reaching Climate and Nature Bill as environmental tipping points loom

The Government has announced it will include dynamic pricing in a consultation into ticket resale websites after hundreds of complaints over Oasis ticket sales. But that's just the start

It’s ridiculous that governments leave it to people like me to communicate the need for environmental action. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  28th August 2024 There are several services and assets I would like to see nationalised. But at the top of my list is neither water, nor trains, nor development land, much […]