Sunday, October 21, 2018
Persuader in Chief
Trump dealing Friday in Arizona. This may be his most impressive political speech this election season...
‘plus one, minus one,’ became ‘plus one, plus one.'
Entertaining to watch all the cognitively under-developed Peterson people having a really bad year now under Trump/GOP administration:
Working with substantially higher funding limits, thanks to this spring’s two-year budget deal, Congress' spending leaders have fought about how and where to spend an extra $300 billion — not what to cut — making the Obama administration look like an era of austerity by comparison.
“Budgeting was supposed to mean: If you want more of something, you have less of something else,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “But instead of ‘plus one, minus one,’ it became ‘plus one, plus one.'" https://t.co/eCBTus1kZu— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) October 21, 2018
China says it will steer its financial markets back to health
Still doesn't sound like the fiscal intervention they really need.
PBoC guy talking more monetary policy, securities regulator talking reducing some red tape there, bank regulator pointing to fundamentals, high government official saying their market has become cheap.
Weak sauce..
So far Xi Jinping’s government appears to be taking a middle road, voicing support for the market while stopping short of large-scale intervention.
People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said in a statement on the central bank’s website that it is studying measures to ease companies’ financing difficulties and will use policy tools to support banks’ credit expansion.
Liu Shiyu, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said his agency encouraged local government-backed funds to help ease pressures created by share-pledge risks.
Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said in an interview posted on the regulator’s website that recent “abnormal fluctuations” in markets don’t reflect the country’s economic fundamentals and “stable financial system.”
Liu He, China’s vice premier, hammered home the message in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency. He urged officials to step up efforts to promote “healthy” stock-market development while noting that equity valuations had dropped to historically cheap levels.
China says it will steer its financial markets back to health https://t.co/R66C45jkvJ pic.twitter.com/aUtTz6PAko— Bloomberg Australia (@BloombergAU) October 19, 2018
Whitney Webb - ANGERED BY SAUDI PLAN TO PURCHASE RUSSIAN S-400, TRUMP ADMIN EXPLOITING KHASHOGGI DISAPPEARANCE TO FORCE SAUDIS TO “BUY AMERICAN”
I don't know much about this site, which could be libertarian as it has articles about Bitcoin and Litecoin, but it's very anti-war. This might be an opinion, but it seems plausible to me in the world of the ruling elite who have no morals, ethics, or humanity. It's all about dough! Lizard people!
However, there is considerable evidence pointing to the fact that the U.S.’ response to the Khashoggi affair is likely to be determined, not by any Saudi government responsibility for Khashoggi’s fate, but instead whether or not the Saudis choose to follow through with their promise to purchase the $15 billion U.S.-made THAAD missile system or it cheaper, Russia-made equivalent, the S-400. According to reports, the Saudis failed to meet the deadline for their planned THAAD purchase and had hinted in late September that they were planning to buy the S-400 from Russia instead.
The Vagabond
Whitney Webb - ANGERED BY SAUDI PLAN TO PURCHASE RUSSIAN S-400, TRUMP ADMIN EXPLOITING KHASHOGGI DISAPPEARANCE TO FORCE SAUDIS TO “BUY AMERICAN”
But why are the Saudi's holding back on purchasing the THAAD system? Could it be?
US-Made Missile Defenses Spectacularly Failed in Saudi Arabia: "It's nothing but an unbroken trail of disasters with this weapon system."
Hyperloop Explained | The B1M
Interesting! And it can be run on green energy. Trains as fast a jet planes, but passengers can turn up as and when they wish to travel, while hyperlink stations can be placed within cities, just like with ordinary trains.
The end of polluting aircraft, at least across countries and continents.
Hyperloop represents the greatest leap in transport infrastructure for generations. Here we explain the concept that's about to revolutionise our world.
The end of polluting aircraft, at least across countries and continents.
Hyperloop represents the greatest leap in transport infrastructure for generations. Here we explain the concept that's about to revolutionise our world.
Beginning of the End for Crown Prince MBS' New Saudi Arabia
The Saudi reversal on the decision to sell shares in oil giant Aramco highlights all the flaws in MBS' reform drive
Trump is still convinced the 20th century isn’t over and that coal and oil will keep fueling us forever, but MBS understands the world is moving on. He is investing in solar power at home and in companies like Tesla (maybe) abroad.
But can MBS pull it off? NO, according to this article.
Haaretz
Beginning of the End for Crown Prince MBS' New Saudi Arabia
Economic Collapse Is Coming! China 'Weaponize' Yuan For Dollar Collapse - 2018 Stock Market CRASH!
Whenever I see something titled like this, I think it is by some very right wing conservative, or conspiracy theorist, getting all worked up about the national debt - 'there's going be seen economic collapse!'. But this video isn't like that, but only you guys as economists and traders will know how accurate it is. It's full of charts and figures, many from leading newspapers. Is it alarmist, or is it about right?
According to this video, Trump is a disaster - but so were the Democrats wanting war with Russia. Trump is going to hit his voters hard with the trade sanctions with China and could loose his base. But Trump is also imposing economic sanctions on Europe.
Neoliberalism was sold to us as a way of improving our economic situation. 'Let the job creators and the entrepreneurial spirit loose and we will all benefit '. But we've all ended up poorer. The US could have been well ahead in technology, but they gave all their know how to China for short term financial gains and the multimillionaires became multi-biliionaires. With stock buy backs, rather than investing, China is zooming ahead of us. Sour grapes! But the commentary under the video blames China for the problem.
It seems to be true, that Trump and Bannon wanted peace with Christian Russia to start hostilities towards China. Trump was never the peace candidate. We were duped!
The most incredible video of the imminent economic collapse and a major stock market crash.
Can we avoid the global economic collapse during this trade war between the two largest economies on the entire planet? We have never seen anything like this happen in the modern age, and this is creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty for the financial markets. China has been stealing our intellectual property, manipulating currency rates and slapping high tariffs on American goods. We simply could not allow China to continue to take advantage of us, but now we are so dependent on the Chinese that a trade war with them is going to inevitably produce a major economic collapse and stock market crash. We are all going to wish that another way could have been found to resolve this economic crisis, because in the short-term this is definitely going to hurt the U.S. economy and causing a major economic collapse. And if President Trump chooses to press forward with trade wars against Europe, Canada and Mexico at the same time as well, the pain for our economy is going to be off the charts.
According to this video, Trump is a disaster - but so were the Democrats wanting war with Russia. Trump is going to hit his voters hard with the trade sanctions with China and could loose his base. But Trump is also imposing economic sanctions on Europe.
Neoliberalism was sold to us as a way of improving our economic situation. 'Let the job creators and the entrepreneurial spirit loose and we will all benefit '. But we've all ended up poorer. The US could have been well ahead in technology, but they gave all their know how to China for short term financial gains and the multimillionaires became multi-biliionaires. With stock buy backs, rather than investing, China is zooming ahead of us. Sour grapes! But the commentary under the video blames China for the problem.
It seems to be true, that Trump and Bannon wanted peace with Christian Russia to start hostilities towards China. Trump was never the peace candidate. We were duped!
The most incredible video of the imminent economic collapse and a major stock market crash.
Can we avoid the global economic collapse during this trade war between the two largest economies on the entire planet? We have never seen anything like this happen in the modern age, and this is creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty for the financial markets. China has been stealing our intellectual property, manipulating currency rates and slapping high tariffs on American goods. We simply could not allow China to continue to take advantage of us, but now we are so dependent on the Chinese that a trade war with them is going to inevitably produce a major economic collapse and stock market crash. We are all going to wish that another way could have been found to resolve this economic crisis, because in the short-term this is definitely going to hurt the U.S. economy and causing a major economic collapse. And if President Trump chooses to press forward with trade wars against Europe, Canada and Mexico at the same time as well, the pain for our economy is going to be off the charts.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
David Stockman - Genocidal’ Saudi Arabia Is ‘Our Worst Ally in a Bad Neighborhood’
In my opinion, this is essential viewing. David Stockman, a former budget advisor to President Reagan, might not be MMT kosher, but listen to what he says about Saudi Arabia and their war on Yemen.
Tyler Durden - China Trade Data Suggests Trump Is Not "Winning" The 'War'
While most attention among global onlookers is focused on the almost unbelievable divergence between US and Chinese stocks this year, actual 'real' Chinese import and export data suggest President Trump is far from winning this trade war... in fact it's never been worse.
Headline trade figures show China exports to the rest of the world grew at 14.5% YoY in USD terms (almost double expectations) and imports rose 14.3% YoY in USD terms (below expectations and well below August's 20% rise).
However, all eyes were on the US-China interaction and that's where the fun and games begin...
Chinese exports to the US rose 14.0% YoY in USD terms - the most since February - but, Chinese imports from the US actually dropped 1.2% YoY in USD terms
That pushed China's exports to US to a new record high and saw China's imports from the US sink to 6-month lows... sending China's trade surplus with the US to a new record high...
That pushed China's exports to US to a new record high and saw China's imports from the US sink to 6-month lows... sending China's trade surplus with the US to a new record high...
Zero Hedge
Saudi Arabia Bombs Residential Neighborhood in Yemen Killing Entire Family
Some say there have always been wars, and it isn't so bad as it is very profitable. It's only tens of thousands of people dying, they say, not millions, so what's the problem?
These people may be comfortable sitting in their homes in the West watching their shares in the MIC rise, so they don't care, but no place in heaven for them.
Warning: This video is very graphic, but I managed to handle it, and I can't stand things like this, so I had my finger over the stop button.
People in the West don't see the effects of war, because it's all sanitized from our screens. If they did, there would be less war.
Despite the early morning bombing of an obviously civilian neighborhood, at dawn the U.S.-backed Saudi-coalition continued to rain bombs on the nearby security-department building.
The Saudi coalition claimed it was targeting a Yemeni military reinforcement site in response to a recent missile launch on the Ministry of Defense Information Center by Houthi forces.
But locals say the attack is part of a broader campaign against civilians by Saudi Arabia and the United States to destroy the morale of the Yemeni people.
Local residents in Amran held a rally to condemn the recent crime against civilians and ongoing indiscriminate bombing campaigns by Saudi Arabia and the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49766.htm
These people may be comfortable sitting in their homes in the West watching their shares in the MIC rise, so they don't care, but no place in heaven for them.
Warning: This video is very graphic, but I managed to handle it, and I can't stand things like this, so I had my finger over the stop button.
People in the West don't see the effects of war, because it's all sanitized from our screens. If they did, there would be less war.
Despite the early morning bombing of an obviously civilian neighborhood, at dawn the U.S.-backed Saudi-coalition continued to rain bombs on the nearby security-department building.
The Saudi coalition claimed it was targeting a Yemeni military reinforcement site in response to a recent missile launch on the Ministry of Defense Information Center by Houthi forces.
But locals say the attack is part of a broader campaign against civilians by Saudi Arabia and the United States to destroy the morale of the Yemeni people.
Local residents in Amran held a rally to condemn the recent crime against civilians and ongoing indiscriminate bombing campaigns by Saudi Arabia and the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49766.htm
One Reason Homes Cost So Much
I don't know about this, I still prefer the countryside, but the narrator might have a point, if architects designed very beautiful property people might not mind new housing developments occurring near them. Just imagine if they were really, really beautiful, now that would be grand, so, it's part of the solution.
Why do people think they high prices benefit them? They must me stupid, because even through their property may have gained in value, most people are still climbing up the housing ladder, and so will get clobbered with a massive mortgage at some stage, then life will become all work. Surely, it's better to get everything as cheep as posible, and then have more spending money while doing less hours at work? That's what I always wanted, anyway.
So, they work their way up the housing ladder getting worked to death on the way, while the paper value of their property is ever increasing, but they can't ever realise the money, it's fictional. Yes, they could one day downsize and live in a flat, but flats tend to be horrible to live in as the soundproofing is often bad, while the rooms are small, and your chances of inconsiderate neighbors greatly increases. I know, because I lived in a flat for many years, and it's outstanding how inconsiderate and selfish some people can be.
Anyway, I feel we should be thinking of reducing the population growth. Politicians, and most people, don't understand the exponential growth function, which means that there will always be a demand for more and more land.
But it's a nice video!
Very high house prices aren’t an act of God or a fact of nature. They’re the result of all sorts of policy and design mistakes – which we should try to understand and correct.
Why do people think they high prices benefit them? They must me stupid, because even through their property may have gained in value, most people are still climbing up the housing ladder, and so will get clobbered with a massive mortgage at some stage, then life will become all work. Surely, it's better to get everything as cheep as posible, and then have more spending money while doing less hours at work? That's what I always wanted, anyway.
So, they work their way up the housing ladder getting worked to death on the way, while the paper value of their property is ever increasing, but they can't ever realise the money, it's fictional. Yes, they could one day downsize and live in a flat, but flats tend to be horrible to live in as the soundproofing is often bad, while the rooms are small, and your chances of inconsiderate neighbors greatly increases. I know, because I lived in a flat for many years, and it's outstanding how inconsiderate and selfish some people can be.
Anyway, I feel we should be thinking of reducing the population growth. Politicians, and most people, don't understand the exponential growth function, which means that there will always be a demand for more and more land.
But it's a nice video!
Very high house prices aren’t an act of God or a fact of nature. They’re the result of all sorts of policy and design mistakes – which we should try to understand and correct.
Jordan Peterson: Carl Jung's Intelligence was "bloody terrifying"
This is interesting, do you think in images or words? I thought everyone thought in words. I think in words and probably do too much thinking, but I'm also good at visualizing. When I studied electronics, maths, and physics I used a lot of visualization to understand the topics.
When I think about MMT I think in words, but I can also see the banks, the off-shore tax havens, and people working and spending their money.
I knew some people weren't good at visualising things, but I never knew that 30% to 50% of people of people think in images and have to translate that into words. It turns out that 30% of Jordan Peterson's audience thought in words, 30% in pictures, and 30% did both. I guess I come in the both category. But thinking primarily in pictures and not using words seems odd to me.
When I think about MMT I think in words, but I can also see the banks, the off-shore tax havens, and people working and spending their money.
I knew some people weren't good at visualising things, but I never knew that 30% to 50% of people of people think in images and have to translate that into words. It turns out that 30% of Jordan Peterson's audience thought in words, 30% in pictures, and 30% did both. I guess I come in the both category. But thinking primarily in pictures and not using words seems odd to me.
Jimmy Dore - Facebook Censors 800 Anti-Establishment Pages As Predicted
This video is hilarious, but has a serious note. Jimmy Dore says they are censoring Facebook and Twitter to get ready for the coming war with Iran.
If you haven't seen the neocon clip where some guy calls for a false flag attack on a Iranian submarine, you might not get Graham Elwood's joke, so I have posted the neocon clip below. It's shocking!
If you haven't seen the neocon clip where some guy calls for a false flag attack on a Iranian submarine, you might not get Graham Elwood's joke, so I have posted the neocon clip below. It's shocking!
Friday, October 19, 2018
Jeffrey Frankel — “China’s Q3 GDP Reportedly Slowed to 6.5%. Or Is It 6.4%?”
One thing that interests me in the reports is a particular (very wonkish) detail. For the US and most other countries, the quarter’s GDP is routinely reported relative to the preceding quarter, not relative to four quarters ago. Why do the media and markets routinely focus on the 1-quarter growth rate for the US but focus on the 4-quarter growth rate for China?
It is not because China’s National Bureau of Statistics fails to make the 1-quarter change available. It’s there in footnote 2 of the NBS press release, as usual. The number for the 3rd quarter relative to the 2nd quarter is 1.6 per cent; to express that in terms comparable to US growth numbers, it is 6.4 % annualized. In other words it is slightly lower this time than the 6.5% number everyone is focusing on.
This puzzle is a case for behavioral finance. When the statistical agency has a practice of putting the 1-quarter or 4-quarter number at the top of the press release, that is the number to which the wire services, the rest of the media, and even the financial markets pay attention....Framing.
Econbrowser
“China’s Q3 GDP Reportedly Slowed to 6.5%. Or Is It 6.4%?”
Jeffrey Frankel, Harpel Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and formerly a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
Jimmy Dore - Chris Hedges Interview
There's quite a lot here, but if you like Chris Hedges, it's quite good. Here he is talking about his new book, America: The Farewell Tour.
Chris Hedges won a scholarship to a top school and he says that the elite are even stranger in person. They are pompous, full of their own importance, selfish, narcissistic, psychopathic, and perverted ( probably due to their inbreeding, I might add - lizard people!).
Book review:
Chris Hedges’s profound and provocative examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate.
America, says Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.
Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With a trademark blend of…sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.
Chris Hedges won a scholarship to a top school and he says that the elite are even stranger in person. They are pompous, full of their own importance, selfish, narcissistic, psychopathic, and perverted ( probably due to their inbreeding, I might add - lizard people!).
Book review:
Chris Hedges’s profound and provocative examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate.
America, says Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.
Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With a trademark blend of…sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.
Reporter Tells Truth About War & Gets Fired By NYTimes w/Chris Hedges
Can Far Right & Left Fight Together Against Corporatism? w/Chris Hedges (part 2)
Late Stage Capitalism Is Killing America w/Chris Hedges (part 3)
Paul Tucker — The 5 best books on The Administrative State
Experts versus populists, bureaucracy versus democracy: Paul Tucker, former deputy governor of the Bank of England and a fellow at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government, chooses books that wrestle with the central dilemmas of today's liberal political order….Important with respect to the paradoxes of liberalism that are are now coming to a head in the conflict between politics as usual and populism. Steven Bannon's chief target was the administrative state, which is bound up in the meaning of "draining the swamp." This post is a good summary of the issues involved and the major positions concerning them.
Everything comes back to the elected legislature, because our system of government ultimately depends upon the legislature drawing lines between the pursuit of efficiency and of equity, reconciling our disagreements on various fronts for the time being. Legislation itself is a commitment device. You can’t flick a switch and it’s no longer law; you have to go through a process to change it, and it’s done in more or less bright sunlight. We debate legislative change, which is terrific. My book is trying to draw on both our liberal traditions and our republican traditions. The problem with the liberal tradition, as Lowi saw, is that it too easily ends up saying that vague delegations are inevitable, and therefore we must have these technocrats overseen by the courts and we must make it easy to challenge their rules and decisions via the courts.
I don’t want to argue against those processes, but they can’t suffice because they amount to no more than one group of unelected officials (judges) overseeing another group of unelected technocrats (central bankers and regulators). So, if we have legislatures that just pass vague statutes—in effect handing over their power and responsibility to set high policy—and then say that judges will see it’s all okay, then something has gone deeply wrong.…These issues are directly related to economic policy, most obviously monetary policy set by a politically independent central bank. They also concern governance and policy in general in a democratic republic as the contemporary state becomes less democratic and more technocratic.
Should we be governed more by laws passed by democratically elected representatives or by technocrats that are appointed rather than elected? The answer involves tradeoffs.
Almost all aspects of policy and its implementation are now bureaucratic, managed by "experts," usually drawn from the field expertise, that is, the industry. The top level is appointed politically and the lower level consists of career civil service personnel. This puts governance largely in the hands of unelected technocrats that may harbor conflicts of interest, but it also provides expertise and a measure of continuity in a complex world in which the public and politicians are woefully ignorant of the background and nuance.
Five Books
The best books on The Administrative State, recommended by Paul Tucker
Don Quijones — Italy’s Debt Crisis Thickens
The new big fear is that this month, either or both, Moody’s and S&P, will downgrade Italian debt two notches into junk territory. The potential implications of such a move, not only for Italy but for the European project as a whole, are so huge that many market players are discounting it as a possibility altogether.
“A downgrade to junk could trigger a full-blown (euro zone) crisis,” said Nicola Mai, a portfolio manager at PIMCO, the world’s largest bond investor. “…Which is why I don’t believe the agencies will do it, I don’t think they will want to be the ones causing a crisis in Europe.”
Iain Stealey, a fixed income portfolio manager at JP Morgan Asset Management, concurs. “It would be a very, very big decision, just given the size of the Italian bond market; it makes up something like a fifth of government bonds in the euro zone,” he said. In other words, contagion would spread across the Euro Zone like wildfire....Raging Bull-Shit
Italy’s Debt Crisis Thickens
Don Quijones
Stephanie Kelton - Presidential Lecture Series: Stephanie Kelton
Warren Mosler tweeted this saying he liked it. Who was it that said that he doesn't like the left wing economists who have taken over MMT?
Our nation’s finances are a blistering topic. Democrats blame Republicans for "blowing up the deficit" with tax cuts, while Republicans insist that programs such as Social Security and Medicare are the real drivers of our fiscal mess. As politicians fight over who’s at fault, an important debate is getting lost in the fog. Professor Kelton casts a different light on these fiscal feuds and the budget deficit, arguing that both sides are missing the bigger picture when it comes to paying for our future. Stephanie Kelton is a professor of public policy and economics at Stony Brook University. Before joining Stony Brook, she chaired the Economics Department at the University of Missouri—Kansas City, where she taught for seventeen years. She served as chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic staff) in 2015 and as a senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign. She is a former editor-in-chief of the top-ranked blog New Economic Perspectives and member of the TopWonks network of the nation’s best thinkers.
Our nation’s finances are a blistering topic. Democrats blame Republicans for "blowing up the deficit" with tax cuts, while Republicans insist that programs such as Social Security and Medicare are the real drivers of our fiscal mess. As politicians fight over who’s at fault, an important debate is getting lost in the fog. Professor Kelton casts a different light on these fiscal feuds and the budget deficit, arguing that both sides are missing the bigger picture when it comes to paying for our future. Stephanie Kelton is a professor of public policy and economics at Stony Brook University. Before joining Stony Brook, she chaired the Economics Department at the University of Missouri—Kansas City, where she taught for seventeen years. She served as chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic staff) in 2015 and as a senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign. She is a former editor-in-chief of the top-ranked blog New Economic Perspectives and member of the TopWonks network of the nation’s best thinkers.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Paul Robinson — Some Other Russian Isms
In the comments section of my last post, I was asked what other Russian ideologies might be, and how they contrast with conservatism. So here’s a brief stab at an answer:Irrussianality
SOME OTHER RUSSIAN ISMS
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
Disney heiress Abigail Disney is here to tell you exactly what the 1% did with Trumps Tax Cuts
Chilling stuff, and Abigail Disney says that after they have taken everything else, 'they're coming after your social security '. Where have we heard that before?
Pepe Escobar — What sanctions on Russia and China really mean
The Pentagon may not be advocating total war against both Russia and China – as it has been interpreted in some quarters
Look at the behavior and its motives rather than the speech and spin.
Global hegemony is a zero-sum game for the US. The stakes could not be higher. Obviously, the US has not built the military it has to defend the homeland or even its allies.
The US would prefer to prevail through hybrid means rather than kinetically, but if not ....
Even an amateur in international relations, geopolitics, or geostrategy, as well as history, could figure this out easily. But the US has already declared it as policy in the Wolfowitz and Bush doctrines. and recently named Russia and China as the chief adversaries.
Equally obviously, when backed to a corner, great powers respond.
Pepe Escobar
Dean Baker - RIGGED: HOW MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS FAILED US ALL
I don't know if this has been posted before, but you can get a free PDF copy of the book in the link below.
“Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer” very skillfully proves that textbook economics is far removed from the world we actually live in. Baker shows how the distribution of income in our society has little to do with merit and how postulates of neoclassical economics are selectively invoked to prevent any actions that do not benefit elites. Interventions that promote upwards distribution of incomes are never criticized, while inequality and unemployment are left for the invisible hand to fix.
In the late 19th century neoclassical economics transformed the subject into “the Calculus of Pain and Pleasure,” by introducing the concept of utility, and creating a theory based on the assumption that each individual aims to maximize their own utility. By introducing a mathematical component, the new theory offers, as Baker states, “a basis for distributing income that is independent of political decisions or moral judgments.” The discussions about class struggle and distribution of wealth, which previously dominated the economics debate, became obsolete. Ever since, the mathematical component has become the norm in mainstream economics.
Henry Farrell — Law and Economics
I’ve been waiting for this paper to drop, ever since Suresh told me about it last year. It’s groundbreaking. What it does is to take Steve Teles’ qualitative work on the conservative legal movement, and then ask a simple question: if we start with the qualitative evidence about the program’s intentions, then FOIA the hell out of George Mason University to find out which judges attended the Manne seminars, and then apply cutting edge econometrics and natural language processing to their decisions, what are we going to find out?….Crooked Timber
Law and Economics
Henry Farrell
Bruno Bonizzi and Jo Michell — A BELATED REPLY TO FAZI AND MITCHELL ON BREXIT
In a Jacobin article earlier this year, Thomas Fazi and Bill Mitchell argued in favour of a hard Brexit. We published a reply, also in Jacobin. Fazi and Mitchell (FM) responded with accusations of strawman arguments, false claims, bias and muddled thinking. We intended to write a reply at the time, but other commitments got in the way. However we believe that FM’s reply was sufficiently inaccurate – and in places, dishonest – that a reply is required, even if belatedly....Critical Macro Finance
A BELATED REPLY TO FAZI AND MITCHELL ON BREXIT
Bruno Bonizzi and Jo Michell
Link — 18 Oct 2018
According to a recent survey, 46% of participants do not doubt that the military confrontation will occur next year.
As a comparison, in 2017, only 5% of the US military expected an armed conflict, while 50% discarded a war scenario and 4% did not respond.
As for the most likely enemies, US soldiers mostly mentioned Russia and China. Respectively, 72% and 69% of those interviewed chose these two countries....
Fort Russ News
Paul Antonopoulos
See also
Urging the world community to prefer dialogue over pressure, he suggested: “Colonial-era diktat and coercion should be sent into the archive or the dustbin of history.”
RT
Moscow ‘ready for larger-scale provocations’ by the West, says Lavrov
See also
Translation: Russia is upping its military preparedness.
TASS
Russia not considering military response to western sanctions, PM says
The Geopolitics of the Khashoggi Murder
Graham E. Fuller | adjunct professor of history at Simon Fraser University, formerly vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, and a former senior political scientist at RAND Corp.
See also
As we follow the lurid news about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it’s important to realize that this ugly incident represents just a small piece of the much bigger geopolitical game playing itself out in the Gulf….Graham E. Fuller
The Geopolitics of the Khashoggi Murder
Graham E. Fuller | adjunct professor of history at Simon Fraser University, formerly vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, and a former senior political scientist at RAND Corp.
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Intel Today
Former CIA Director Mike Morell : “CIA Needs Help and Time to Understand Saudi Missing Journalist Case.” Where is Pompeo Crack Team?
L
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As elite US special operations fighters, they had years of specialized training by the US military to protect America. But now they were working for a different master: a private US company that had been hired by the United Arab Emirates, a tiny desert monarchy on the Persian Gulf.
On that night, December 29, 2015, their job was to carry out an assassination.
Their armed attack, described to BuzzFeed News by two of its participants and corroborated by drone surveillance footage, was the first operation in a startling for-profit venture. For months in war-torn Yemen, some of America’s most highly trained soldiers worked on a mercenary mission of murky legality to kill prominent clerics and Islamist political figures....
The company that hired the soldiers and carried out the attack is Spear Operations Group, incorporated in Delaware and founded by Abraham Golan, a charismatic Hungarian Israeli security contractor who lives outside of Pittsburgh. He led the team’s strike against Mayo....
Golan said that during his company’s months-long engagement in Yemen, his team was responsible for a number of the war’s high-profile assassinations, though he declined to specify which ones. He argued that the US needs an assassination program similar to the model he deployed. “I just want there to be a debate,” he said. “Maybe I’m a monster. Maybe I should be in jail. Maybe I’m a bad guy. But I’m right.”...See also
A member of the 15-man team suspected in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has died in an accident back in Saudi Arabia, according to Turkish media, prompting suspicion of a cover up.RT
Suspected member of Khashoggi ‘hit-team’ dies in mysterious ‘traffic accident’ in Saudi Arabia
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A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers To Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be The Future Of War
Aram Roston
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“Strange as it seems, it’s a result of globalization. There are entire communities dedicated to it in the social media online. It all started with well-known tragedies in schools in the US. Young mentally unstable people invent false heroes for themselves,” Russian leader said as he attended a Valdai Club plenary session in the Russian southern city of Sochi.
The striking resemblance between how the Kerch shooter was dressed and the outfit used by one of the 1999 shooting in Columbine can hardly be overlooked. The Russian investigators are yet to confirm whether the violence in Russia was inspired by the notorious American incident.…RT
Kerch college shooting ‘result of globalization’, it all started in American schools – Putin
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If any nation decides to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, it may end life on Earth; but unlike the aggressors, the Russians are sure to go to heaven, President Vladimir Putin has said.RT
“Any aggressor should know that retribution will be inevitable and he will be destroyed. And since we will be the victims of his aggression, we will be going to heaven as martyrs. They will simply drop dead, won’t even have time to repent,” Putin said during a session of the Valdai Club in Sochi....
After nuclear holocaust, we’ll go to heaven as martyrs; attackers will die as sinners – Putin
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As I stated not for once and I will continue to press my point in the next book--any talk about "economy" outside the military power geopolitical framework is an exercise in pseudo-intellectual masturbation and unicorn doctrine-mongering, and that is precisely what most economists have degree in.…
...trying to convey these things to humanities "educated" products of liberal economics is virtually impossible...
Reminiscence of the Future
Andrei Martyanov
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This is the area where the traditional Roman Catholic world and the traditional Orthodox world intersect. The article is long and detailed but it gives an idea of the forces involved in this area, where the US is completely naive and ignorant of its history. If the Middle East is a snake pit, this is a hornet's nest.
The Vineyard of the Saker
How the Vatican Is Preparing to Launch a Religious War in Ukraine with the Help of the Constantinople Patriarchate and the Uniats
Aleksandr Voznesensky
Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard
Scientists Warn World Facing Major Famine, Could "Lead To Severe Shocks To Global Food System"
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Researchers from Washington State University have published a new report of the Great Drought, the most destructive known drought of the past 800 years - and how it sparked the Global Famine that claimed the lives of 50 million people. The scientists warn that the Earth's current warming climate could spark a similar drought, but even worse.
One of the lead researchers, Deepti Singh, a professor in WSU's School of the Environment, used rainfall records and climate reconstruction models to characterize the environmental conditions leading up to the Great Drought, a period in the mid-1870s known for widespread crop failures across Asia, Brazil, and Africa. The drought was connected to the most extreme manifestation of the El Nino supercycle ever recorded.…
The release of the study came days before the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global warming could cause intense droughts, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people....Zero Hedge
Scientists Warn World Facing Major Famine, Could "Lead To Severe Shocks To Global Food System"
Tyler Durden
Carrier killer? That would be a game-changer.
Russia surpassed rivals with precise hypersonic weapons & will deploy more within months – Putin
Carrier killer? That would be a game-changer.
Flying at hypersonic speed poses a number of challenges in material sciences and engineering due to the high temperature and pressure affecting the vehicle. Russia has applied its technologies to develop a hypersonic cruise missile called Kinzhal, already in use with the military. It is presumed to be a countermeasure to aircraft carrier strike groups, the backbone of the US’ ability to project military power worldwide. Putin said Russia is ahead of other nations in terms of hypersonic weapons....RT
Russia surpassed rivals with precise hypersonic weapons & will deploy more within months – Putin
Aditya Chakrabortty - Britain fell for a neoliberal con trick – even the IMF says so
The fund reports that Britain’s finances are weaker than all other nations except Portugal, and says privatisation is to blame
Columnists usually proffer answers, but today I want to ask a question, a big one. What price is paid when a promise is broken? Because for much of my life, and probably yours, the political class has made this pledge: that the best way to run an economy is to hack back the public realm as far as possible and let the private sector run free. That way, services operate better, businesses get the resources they need, and our national finances are healthier.
It’s why your tax credits keep dropping, and your mum has to wait half a year to see a hospital consultant – because David Cameron slashed public spending, to stop it “crowding out” private money. It’s why water bills are so high and train services can never be counted on – because both industries have been privatised.
From the debacle of universal credit to the forced conversion of state schools into corporate-run academies, the ideology of the small state – defined by no less a body than the International Monetary Fund as neoliberalism – is all pervasive. It decides how much money you have left at the end of the week and what kind of future your children will enjoy, and it explains why your elderly relatives can’t get a decent carer.
I don’t wish to write about the everyday failings of neoliberalism – that piece would be filed before you could say “east coast mainline”. Instead, I want to address the most stubborn belief of all: that running a small state is the soundest financial arrangement for governments and voters alike. Because 40 years on from the Thatcher revolution, more and more evidence is coming in to the contrary.
The Guardian
China down another 3%...
I think this takes them now 30% below old highs... They are going to have to add capital to their banks eventually (US in 2008/09 happened at -40%) to stop this price reduction in risk assets due to their current massive non-risk reserve addition... sorry libertarians...
In the meantime you got a billion people over there who are getting more pissed off day after day... scary!!!
They are losing control of the exchange rate too as they have to increase their bid in CNY per USD in order to increase reserve assets in the CNY system... more CNY per USD means the CNY goes down.... if they keep adding CNY reserves like this CNY will just keep falling... they wont hold 7... then Trump is going to get pissed...
Only light at the end of the tunnel I see is ECB is supposed to at least cease asset purchases (reserve adds) in December and at least stop some of the current global addition of non-risk reserve assets...
3% stock selloff in #China overnight as concerns grow about the #economy , #trade and forced selling due to margin call pressures. Some spillovers to #markets in Europe and US but it's notably limited (as of now) judging from #stocks, #bonds and #fx. #Oil is again under pressure.— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) October 18, 2018
WHAT MONEY CAN’T BUY: THE MORAL QUESTIONS OF MARKET SOLUTIONS
It looks good, but I've only watched the trailer.
Example : Should airlines be allowed to have scantily dressed female flight attendants if it creates more revenue?
I walked past a pub the other day which had a sign saying, 'Topless Barmaid', and I was appalled, but then I came to the conclusion it was the name of a band. The pub has live bands. Phew! (At least, I hope it was the name of a band).
Conservatives embrace capitalism because of its work ethic, but it often goes against much of what they believe in, like family values, a civic society, saving money, and not living above your means.
Capitalism tends to be very progressive ( in the way I often don't like). Peter Stringfellow, who runs a tasteless nightclub in Covent Garden - who banned fat women from entering his club - is a staunch Conservative supporter.
Philip Soos, an Australian economist, says the One Percent - the bankers - the capitalists - are encouraging mass immigration into Australia to lower wages, boost house prices, and increase GDP. They're getting rich out of it. Is this what conservatives want?
The best things in life are free but you can give them to the birds and bees. I want money THAT'S WHAT I WANT that's what I want THAT'S WHAT I WANT Your lovin' give me a thrill but your lovin' don't pay my bill. Now gimme money THAT'S WHAT I WANT that's what I want THAT'S WHAT I WANT (Instrumental) Money don't get everything it's true. What it don't get I can't use. I want money THAT'S WHAT I WANT
Example : Should airlines be allowed to have scantily dressed female flight attendants if it creates more revenue?
I walked past a pub the other day which had a sign saying, 'Topless Barmaid', and I was appalled, but then I came to the conclusion it was the name of a band. The pub has live bands. Phew! (At least, I hope it was the name of a band).
Conservatives embrace capitalism because of its work ethic, but it often goes against much of what they believe in, like family values, a civic society, saving money, and not living above your means.
Capitalism tends to be very progressive ( in the way I often don't like). Peter Stringfellow, who runs a tasteless nightclub in Covent Garden - who banned fat women from entering his club - is a staunch Conservative supporter.
Philip Soos, an Australian economist, says the One Percent - the bankers - the capitalists - are encouraging mass immigration into Australia to lower wages, boost house prices, and increase GDP. They're getting rich out of it. Is this what conservatives want?
Against the backdrop of a society that rarely questions the perceived superiority of “market-based” solutions, Michael Sandel skillfully explores the intersection between markets and morality. In a six-part video series, Sandel teaches viewers a very important lesson: in practice, there is no consensus on what a free market is, and what outcomes are optimal.
The video series “What Money Can’t Buy,” produced by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, takes viewers on a journey which compels them to critically engage with a series of questions that challenge the common perception that untethered markets provide optimal solutions to all problems. While the questions cover a variety of topics, ranging from selling organs to discrimination based on looks, the common thread is to highlight this: in economic terms, what could be seen as an optimal outcome is often not a desirable outcome for society.
By watching the series, one thing becomes evident: there is no clear line that marks where markets should begin or end. Furthermore, each individual has a different understanding of what counts as an optimal outcome. As we come to terms with the lack of clear answers, the perception that unregulated markets always objectively provide a better outcome is shattered.
Economics textbooks teach students that households and firms act as if they are guided by an invisible hand that leads them to desirable market outcomes. As everyone seeks to maximize their own utility, free markets allow individuals and firms to engage in mutually beneficial exchanges, with supply and demand determining ideal price and output levels. Thus, one should simply let markets work their magic — no outside intervention necessary.
However, not even Adam Smith, to whom the “invisible hand” observation is attributed, believed that unregulated markets can lead to the best outcomes for society. As Harvard professor Amartya Sen points out, Smith was aware of the limitation of free markets. He knew resources would be drained and society’s ills would go unaccounted for in the absence of government.
Economic Questions
View the series here-
New Economic Thinking
Flying Lizzards - Money thats what I want 1979
The best things in life are free but you can give them to the birds and bees. I want money THAT'S WHAT I WANT that's what I want THAT'S WHAT I WANT Your lovin' give me a thrill but your lovin' don't pay my bill. Now gimme money THAT'S WHAT I WANT that's what I want THAT'S WHAT I WANT (Instrumental) Money don't get everything it's true. What it don't get I can't use. I want money THAT'S WHAT I WANT
Kate Allen - No, the housing crisis will not be solved by building more homes
With great flourish, Theresa May last week announced that she was lifting the borrowing cap which constrains local councils’ ability to finance new housebuilding.
“We will only fix this broken market by building more homes,” the prime minister said. “Solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation. It doesn’t make sense to stop councils from playing their part in solving it. So today I can announce that we are scrapping that cap.”
Nope.
In reality, councils – or anyone else for that matter – building more homes will do very little to address the fundamental problem in the housing market, and if you want to understand why, there’s a new book which explains it.
‘Why Can’t You Afford To Buy A Home?’ by Josh Ryan-Collins – a researcher at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose – is about the phenomenon which he dubs ‘residential capitalism’.
It follows on from his less snappily-titled volume ‘Rethinking The Economics of Land and Housing’, which was written jointly with fellow economist Laurie Macfarlane and policy wonk Toby Lloyd and published last year.
Both books address the question of why a growing number of people are being priced out of the property market, with rising house prices accelerating away from household incomes.
The answer is financialisation – and it is not an aberration, according to Ryan-Collins. The ‘housing crisis’ needs to be understood primarily as a product of the banking system.
Business Telegraph
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