Friday, April 30, 2021

All is NOT quite on the Western front

Zero Hedge
"The Social Contract Is Broken": Why Millennials Who Lack Rich Parents Feel Increasingly Hopeless


See also

WSWS
Ukrainian President Zelensky deepens alliance with far right

Asa Winstanley - How Israel helped bring down Jeremy Corbyn

I have spent a lot of time debating with conspiracists on twiiter. They make my blood boil: the anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, big government conspiracists, the covid is a hoax crowd, and many others. Professor Richard Werner believes in Chemtrails. They say I'm a brainwashed corporate neoliberal. None of these people seem to have any real interest in the genuine hoaxes and conspiracies, like Russiagate, Antisemiticism in the Labour Party, the Uyghur genocide myth. 


I find it shocking when I see on TV reporters spreading the propaganda, all in synch with the hoax: No debate, no questions, no doubts, no investigative journalisism, everything just stated as fact. 


Asa Winstanley tells the story of how a hostile foreign government helped stop a socialist becoming Britain’s prime minister. 



Asa Winstanley - How Israel helped bring down Jeremy Corbyn

Xinjiang shakedown: US anti-China lobby cashed in on ‘forced labor’ campaign that cost Uyghur workers their jobs— Max Blumenthal

The economic side of information warfare. The US keeps talking about being competitive while engaging in anti-competitive practices, as both China and Russia have charged.

The Grayzone
Xinjiang shakedown: US anti-China lobby cashed in on ‘forced labor’ campaign that cost Uyghur workers their jobs
Max Blumenthal

Good Forms of Collectivity: Low-Carbon Care Work and a Federal Job Guarantee — Natan Last

Mentions MMT.

Los Angeles Review of Books
Good Forms of Collectivity: Low-Carbon Care Work and a Federal Job Guarantee
Natan Last

Warning of Threat to 'Humanity and the Natural World,' Hawaii State Legislature Becomes First in US to Declare Climate Emergency — Andrea Germanos

It's official. "Hoax" no more in Hawaii.

Common Dreams
Warning of Threat to 'Humanity and the Natural World,' Hawaii State Legislature Becomes First in US to Declare Climate Emergency
Andrea Germanos

RT — RT editor-in-chief says she will seek Facebook ban if RT’s Redfish page, removed after anti-fascist post, is not restored

 Censorship Watch

RT
RT editor-in-chief says she will seek Facebook ban if RT’s Redfish page, removed after anti-fascist post, is not restored

See also at RT

Facebook bans RT’s digital content project Redfish after posts marking end of Mussolini’s dictatorship and Holocaust Memorial Day

See also

Sputnik International
Facebook Removes Page of RT's Redfish for Posts Commemorating Holocaust, Nazi Defeat

The Xinjiang Genocide Determination As Agenda — Gordon Dumoulin, Jan Oberg and Thore Vestby

The purpose of this TFF analysis is to examine the status of the Newlines Institute and the circle of scholars and others who have produced and contributed to it and their connections. It also takes a closer look at The Report’s methods and content as well as the sources on which The Report bases its extremely serious conclusion, namely that the Chinese state is responsible for committing genocide and violates the central provisions of the said Convention in its policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) intentionally.

TFF wants to make it very clear from the outset that we do not take a stand on whether or not what happens in Xinjiang is a genocide. As of principle, we would not state such an opinion unless we had also been on the ground in Xinjiang. The sole purpose is to examine what this first independent scholarly documentation – which was covered immediately by a wide range of Western mainstream media – is based on....
Most of what is in the report about the charge of genocide has been documented here already as not holding up to scrutiny and appears to be part of a propaganda campaign and information war against China. Here is a summary.

Morevoer, having engaged in this hybrid war aimed at regime change in China, the US finds itself embarrassed by China's publicizing actual genocide of Native Americans, slavery and the aftermath that persists today as systemic racism, and hate crimes against Asians, pictured against a pervasive background of imperialism and colonization that persists today as neo-imperialism and neocolonialism as foundational to neoliberalism and the so-called Western rules-based order under US leadership. The Global East and South are listening.

The Transnational — The Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research, TFF, Lund, Sweden
The Xinjiang Genocide Determination As Agenda
Gordon Dumoulin, Jan Oberg and Thore Vestby

See also
Today we are seeing the same strategies of disinformation being deployed to isolate and destroy an ascendant socialist China and leftists in the imperial core are once again being influenced by propaganda, uncritically, unthinkingly regurgitating Orientalist tropes about the barbarity of the Chinese regime. To defend the life of the mind against its debasement at the hands of imperialist propaganda, those on the left must put in the hard work of methodically, sceptically examining the articles of faith the establishment manipulates us into swallowing about China.

The lynchpin of the Western propaganda effort against China is the myth of the Uyghur genocide, a lie serving as justification for a long-planned war against China, which, as the biggest threat to US geostrategic hegemony, is a target for neutralization, and the propaganda is deeply, darkly manipulative, weaponising people’s innate sense of humanism against them....
Bill Totten's Weblog
China: The “Genocide” Myth
Megan Sherman
Originally at Global Research

See also
Accusations by the United States government and its allies about genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang have brought China’s westernmost province into the gaze of the international media. This approach toward Xinjiang defines the information war prosecuted by Washington. In our conversations with Professor Li Bo and Professor Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University, as well as intellectuals from Kashgar and Ürümqi (Xinjiang’s capital), we developed a storyline that includes the dynamics of Xinjiang’s social development, the threats of extremism, and the enfolding of its problems into the wider hybrid war unleashed against China.
Peoples Dispatch
The U.S. is trying to light the match of Islamic extremism in China’s Xinjiang
Vijay Prashad

See also

"Both countries." Just who is doing the escalating? This is like accusing Russia of "escalating" in the face of the threat of NATO advancing toward its borders and preparing a killer-shot first strike capability.

Sputnik International
Pentagon: Conflict With China Not Inevitable, But Both Countries Need to Avoid 'Needless Escalation'

See also

Video (2005) of Howard Zinn (1922-2010), author of A People's History of the United States.

MR Online
The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Howard Zinn

See also

The campaign for regime change in Iran, Russia, and China is at bottom about neoliberal globalization under Western leadership (read permanent US hegemony).

Real-World Economics Review Blog
Neoliberal globalization
Ted Trainer

See also
Moscow banned the activities of his Open Society Foundations (OSF) in 2015, deeming they pose a threat to national security and Russia’s constitutional order.
Sputnik International
Russian Security Council Chief Links Soros to Efforts to Destabilise Nations Worldwide, Including US

See also

Address to a deeply divided nation based on hopium.

RT
Biden’s Address To The Nation Was Little More Than A Magic Carpet Ride
Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, serving in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, on General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector

Economics Explained - Hyperinflation is Already Here – You Just Haven't Realised It Yet.

 This guy started off fairly well, but his economics seems to have shifted further to the right over the years. Here we have the usual printing money inflation fear. This video is in striking contrast to the Mark Blyth video I posted earlier, who is someone I trust more.

In a video I put out here last year, Mark Blyth had become a convert to MMT.


Just for your curiosity. 


Hyperinflation has been a doomsday scenario for modern economies throughout the last century. In all of these failed countries (Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Hungary, Yugoslavia, etc.) there have been uniform warning signs, the same signs that we are starting to see today in the U.S.




Economics Explained - Hyperinflation is Already Here – You Just Haven't Realised It Yet.

Florida Anti-Masker Records His Regret From Hospital Bed

This Florida man regretted doubting COVID's seriousness after he suffered from the virus. 

"I really pray that everybody can take politics out of it. I didn't. I was a jackass."



Florida Anti-Masker Records His Regret From Hospital Bed


Omega-3 Fish Oil Supplements Linked With Heart Rhythm Disorder

“Currently, fish oil supplements are indicated for patients with elevated plasma triglycerides to reduce cardiovascular risk,”[2] said study author Dr. Salvatore Carbone of Virginia Commonwealth University, US. “Due to the high prevalence of elevated triglycerides in the population, they can be commonly prescribed. Of note, low dose omega-3 fatty acids are available over the counter, without the need for a prescription.”

Some clinical trials have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids may be associated with an increased risk for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder. People with the disorder have a five times greater likelihood of having a stroke.[3]


Omega-3 Fish Oil Supplements Linked With Heart Rhythm Disorder




Fed “dual mandate”

 

Fed lately always bringing up what they call their dual mandate in the FRA of  “maximum employment with stable prices” (Powell a lawyer so ofc always looking at the law) while AT THE SAME TIME planning for a 55% reduction in equity prices....

I got news for these Art Degree people;  a 55% reduction in price ain’t stable... hate to break the news to you...




T-Bill drought?


This is going to be funny... it’s like they are going to have to go to Congress and say: “hey! we need you to re-suspend the debt ceiling so we can borrow more money than you even need and your borrowing costs can be even higher!“. 

Yeah that’s going to go over really well...



Watch: Author Jayati Ghosh on Vaccine Apartheid (Democracy Now!)

 India is an example of what happens if you don't fully embrace a lockdown strategy.


JAYATI GHOSH: Well, the catastrophe in India, I would say right now, is actually a man-made catastrophe, because it really reflects a government that had become casual, irresponsible and, in fact, actively engaged in superspreader events. We have had, as was mentioned earlier, massive gatherings, political rallies, addressed by the prime minister and other political leaders, in which all guidelines were flouted.


Watch: Author Jayati Ghosh on Vaccine Apartheid (Democracy Now!)


Thursday, April 29, 2021

Mark Blyth - An inflated fear of inflation

Political economist Mark Blyth explains why inflation in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U. is highly unlikely. There is a great deal of room for more government spending and higher wages before much inflation is possible. Mark joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.




Weed Whacking — Robert Paul Wolff

Short answer to a question about LTV.

The Philosopher's Stone
WEED WHACKING
Robert Paul Wolff | Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Honest Sector — Michael Hudson

Reminiscences.  Longish but interesting.

Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
The Honest Sector
Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking University

The Minsky Conference Returns — Michael Stephens

Good line-up.
The full program is below. Register here for the online event.
Multiplier Effect
The Minsky Conference Returns
Michael Stephens

Stephanie Kelton - Why The U.S. Can’t Go Broke

 The U.S. national debt is now bigger than its economy. That might sound scary, but we’ll explain how the United States can never go broke and can actually pay all of its debts whenever it wants to.

To help us, we spoke to economics professor Stephanie Kelton, author of The Deficit Myth, former chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budge Committee and a former economic advisor to Bernie Sanders.




Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Bill Mitchell — The Cambridge Controversy – a fundamental refutation of orthodox economic theory – Part 2

This is Part 2 in a two part series that deals with the importance of the = Cambridge capital controversy – which saw economists associated with Cambridge University in England and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts argue about the validity of neoclassical distribution theory. Most recently, in response to a New York Times article about Joan Robinson, one of the key protagonists in that controversy, Paul Krugman declared the Controversy “a huge intellectual muddle” which was really unimportant in the scheme of things. That just revealed his ignorance and/or his part in an on-going denial that the basis of the framework he operates in is deeply flawed and has no scientific legitimacy. In this Part, we get down to the complexity (as best I can without becoming too technical) of the debates. The import though is clear – orthodox economics, which is still taught on a daily basis in our universities and which people like Krugman use to make money by writing textbooks about is based on a series of myths that cannot be sustained, both logically, in terms of their own internal consistency, and, in relation to saying anything about the real world we live in....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Cambridge Controversy – a fundamental refutation of orthodox economic theory – Part 2
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Direct Job Creation in Greece — Michael Stephens

Senior Scholar Rania Antonopoulos recently participated in a webinar for the European Trade Union Institute, during which she discussed the rationale behind and experience with the implementation of the “Kinofelis” direct job creation program—a limited job guarantee for Greece. Watch her presentation below (accompanying slides are here).

The Levy Institute’s previous Strategic Analysis for Greece found that supplementing EU Recovery Funds with a more expansive job guarantee program (employing up to 300,000 people by 2022Q1) would help lift the Greek economy closer to its pre-pandemic growth trend....
Multiplier Effect
Direct Job Creation in Greece
Michael Stephens

Zero Hedge — Deflation Threat Looms As China Suffers First Population Decline Since 1949 [NOT]

ZH get is wrong again. Reducing the rate of population growth was the purpose of the one-child policy. It worked. Now China is quickly automating production and distribution to achieve a middle-income economy. Absolute poverty as already been eliminated.

Sputnik — Brussels Wants SWIFT Shut-Off, Halt to Russian Energy Use 'If Ukraine Aggression Continues'

Death wish?

Sputnik International ((Russian state-sponsored media))
Brussels Wants SWIFT Shut-Off, Halt to Russian Energy Use 'If Ukraine Aggression Continues'

Moscow on Potential Shut-Off of SWIFT: 'Let Them Try It, We'll Respond'
Russia began developing its SPFS system in 2014, following Washington's threats to disconnect it from SWIFT over Crimea situation. The first transaction on the network took place in late 2017.
Russia Has Basis for Analogue of SWIFT, FM Lavrov Says

Zero Hedge
Russia Holds Live-Fire Naval Drills Just As US Coast Guard Vessel Enters Black Sea
Tyler Durden

See also

SouthFront (US government alleges that SouthFront is a Russian operation)
Business As Usual: Ukrainian Nationalists Hold Rally Commemorating SS “Galicia” Division

See also

Caught between Western values and economic sense.

DW (German state-sponsored media)
Deutschland und China setzen auf Kooperation

Also


also
"The reason I think is twofold. One is that during ‘Russiagate,’ and the whole hysteria that surrounded it, there was this propaganda campaign to convince a huge part of the population, namely liberals and Democrats, that Russia posed as an existential threat to the United States and they believed it to the point where they think everything we can do against Russia we ought to do, and if you stand up and question it as we are doing now, it means you are some kind of spy for the Kremlin, which I'm sure people will say about this segment," Greenwald said.

According to Greenwald, the other part to the problem is that since the war on terror is winding down and Washington is pulling out of Afghanistan, the question of keeping big arms manufacturers who have political influence in Washington in business "where the government using taxpayer money to buy weapons" arises.
Sputnik International
Glenn Greenwald Says US-Russia Relationship ‘Clearly at Low Point,’ Names Two Reasons Why

also

Drumming up business.

TASS (Russian state media)
Russia demonstrates S-400 combat capabilities to [friendly] foreign military attaches

Browse The Intercept Anonymously and Securely Using Our New Tor Onion Service — Micah Lee

About anonymous use of the Internet. 

Combine Tor browser (free) with Duck Duck Go search engine (free) and use Onion links to servers if available. Remember though that when you access a site information you leave on a site may not be private, depending on the security of the server.

Yeah, the level of ambient paranoia is increasing.

The Intercept
Browse The Intercept Anonymously and Securely Using Our New Tor Onion Service
Micah Lee

The American Dream is less of a reality today in the United States, compared to other peer nations — Robert Manduca

It looks like the West in general is experiencing a decline in upward mobility and the living standard in terms of income distribution, although the US seems to be faring worse than most others. This would account in part of the current level of social dysfunction and political unrest.

WCEG — The Equitablog
The American Dream is less of a reality today in the United States, compared to other peer nations
Robert Manduca

The FBI Is Breaking Into Corporate Computers To Remove Malicious Code - Smart Cyber Defense Or Government Overreach? — Scott Shackelford

Precedent.
The FBI has the authority right now to access privately owned computers without their owners' knowledge or consent, and to delete software. It's part of a government effort to contain the continuing attacks on corporate networks running Microsoft Exchange software, and it's an unprecedented intrusion that's raising legal questions about just how far the government can go....
econintersect
The FBI Is Breaking Into Corporate Computers To Remove Malicious Code - Smart Cyber Defense Or Government Overreach?
Scott Shackelford, Indiana University
Originally at The Conversation

Also

Sputnik International
Americans Without a Warrant and Get Away With It

See also

TASS
Russia has capabilities to identify any invisible [cyber] threat — Foreign Ministry official

Russia recorded 25 mln cyber attacks to disrupt 2018 FIFA World Cup from overseas

Once More, Marx — Robert Paul Wolff

Short comment on the classical labor theory of value in Smith and Ricardo and Marx's approach to it.

The Philosopher's Stone
ONCE MORE, MARX
Robert Paul Wolff | Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Bill Mitchell — No inflationary trends evident in Australia – latest data

I have been seeing a lot of crazy predictions that inflation is about to accelerate because of the elevated levels of government spending, record low interest rates and substantial government bond purchases by the Reserve Bank of Australia. It is almost as if the conservative, deficit-haters want that to happen so they can say “We told you so” as they cling on to their flawed macroeconomic theories. Well sorry to disappoint. Today (April 27, 2021), the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Consumer Price Index, Australia – for the March-quarter 2020, which hoses down the inflation fears. The Consumer Price Index rose by just 0.6 per cent in the quarter (mostly petrol prices) and over the 12-months to March 2021 it rose 1.1 per cent. The less volatile series, Trimmed Mean rose just 0.3 per cent and the Weighted Median rose 0.4 per cent. So nothing to see here. The RBA keeps buying government debt and effectively funding substantial proportions of the fiscal interventions since the pandemic, interest rates remain low and yet inflation is still well below the lower bound of the RBA’s inflation targetting range. The most reliable measure of inflationary expectations are flat and below the RBA’s target policy range....
Remember when QE was supposed to result in runaway inflation and the resulting "widow-maker" trades based on it. MMT got it right. Just an asset swap. 

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
No inflationary trends evident in Australia – latest data
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

KV - Nice Pics 8



Perfect Sunrise



Cathedral Pipe Organ



Retro Diner



A crystal of Caffeine seen under an electron microscope (it does remind me of Darjeeling, which has a pretty amazing and stunning taste. Tea experts describe it as astringeny, where it shoots a spike up into the top pallet of the mouth). 



Inside a centuries old cello. 



Dresden Pfund Family Shop




Nice



 

Spring in Notting Hill, London. 



I do love trains



Fire Station in New York City 


Biden admin increasing economic policy coordination

 

Here:




Coordination of fiscal support for recovery and corporate tax policy coordination I don’t see how they can leave out interest rate policy and (to them) associated exchange rates...  post Trump how can the Fed raise rates and disadvantage US MAGA firms with a higher cost of capital and (to them) stronger USD when competing firms in Japan and EZ continue to have zero rates and (to them) weaker currencies .... imo post Trump it’s not going to happen... and Trump doesn’t even have his platform operational yet...

Powell Fed politicized by Trump and not primarily run by academic economists who have higher allegiance to some crack pot Monetarist theory than they do their own nation...







Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The Vienna shadowplay — Pepe Escobar

What's happening in Vienna? Pepe fills us in.

The subtext is that neither Iran, nor Russia, nor China are willing to blink. If the West wants a new Cold War, so be it.

The Vineyard of the Saker
The Vienna shadowplay
Pepe Escobar

Bill Mitchell — The Cambridge Controversy – a fundamental refutation of orthodox economic theory – Part 1

Some years ago, I promised to write about the – Cambridge capital controversy – which saw economists associated with Cambridge University in England and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts argue about the validity of neoclassical distribution theory. I never wrote the blog posts because I considered the material was a little difficult for a blog audience. Also, while of great interest to me, the topic was not necessarily compulsory reading for those trying to come to terms with Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). But today, I relent. For two reasons. First, I think my readership has reached much higher levels of economic literacy over the last 15 years and can handle a challenge. But, more importantly, there are times when the mainstream characters, who have been claiming that there is nothing new in MMT and that they knew it all along and all the important results can be explained within an orthodox New Keynesian approach, reveal their true colours. Their hubris sees them get ahead of themselves and they show they never really understood the basics that undermine their own approach. Such was the case this week when Paul Krugman declared the Controversy “a huge intellectual muddle” and “a tortured debate that illuminated nothing much”. Well, that just goes to show how the mainstream denial functions. A body of work comes along and blows the dominant paradigm out of the water, and the response is to ignore it as a meaningless muddle. Their current attacks on MMT are just another application of that approach, which I first encountered as a student while studying the capital debates. Given the complexity of this issue and the amount of material, this will be a two-part series. Today, we learn the historical context, which will convince you that this was not idle or arcane discussion. This was a debate that went to the heart of the existence of capitalism and the defenders of that system – the mainstream economists did everything they could to defend the myths that they had erected to make the system look fair. They failed but went on anyway. Here is Part 1....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Cambridge Controversy – a fundamental refutation of orthodox economic theory – Part 1
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Used car prices


Used cars up 50% ... bank stocks up 5%.... could have made more just buying used cars... A LOT more...

When are you leftists going to start complaining about the “carsters!”?   Better call Pocahontas...

Banks in the toilet getting crushed by their regulators... meanwhile used cars doing a moonshot and  incompetent left still complaining about those shrewd and crafty “banksters!” ...  hard to understand...



 

TSLA books $100M on BTC sale

 

Musk says it was a test... not a trade... probably true as this is how competent technical people operate...





Monday, April 26, 2021

Implicit assumptions in Econ 101 made explicit — Jason Smith

Econ 101 assumes a lot of things — from the existence of a market and a medium of exchange, to being in an approximately stable macroeconomy that's near equilibrium, to the rates of change of supply and demand in response to each other, to simply the existence of a large number of agents.

This is usually fine — introductory physics classes often assume you're in a gravitational field, near thermodynamic equilibrium, or even a small cosmological constant such that condensed states of matter exist. Econ 101 is trying to teach students about the world in which they live, not an abstract one where an economy might not exist.

The problem comes when you forget these assumptions or try to pretend they don't exist. A lot of 'Economism' (per James Kwak's book) or '101ism' (see Noah Smith) comes from not recognizing the conclusions people drawn from Econ 101 are dependent on many background assumptions that may or may not be valid in any particular case.

Additionally, when you forget the assumptions you lose understanding of model scope (see here, here, or here). You start applying a model where it doesn't apply. You start thinking that people who don't think it applies are dumb. You start thinking Econ 101 is the only possible description of supply and demand. It's basic Econ 101! Demand curves slope down [7]! That's not a supply curve!
Information Transfer Economics
Implicit assumptions in Econ 101 made explicit
Jason Smith

The Men Who Turned Slavery Into Big Business — Joshua D. Rothman

The domestic slave trade was no sideshow in our history, and slave traders were not bit players on the stage. On the contrary, the trade and its operators were pervasive in American life before the Civil War. They played vital roles in shaping the demographic, political, and economic contours of a growing nation, and we ought not fool ourselves into thinking we have left that past behind. In truth, we still live in the world that Franklin and Armfield’s profits helped build, and with the enduring inequalities that they and their industry entrenched....
The Atlantic
The Men Who Turned Slavery Into Big Business
Joshua D. Rothman | professor and chair for the department of history at the University of Alabama

NIH Scientist Who Developed Key Vaccine Technology Says Patent Gives US Leverage Over Big Pharma — Jake Johnson

A leading National Institutes of Health scientist who helped develop a key technology used in Pfizer and Moderna's coronavirus vaccines said this week that the U.S. government's ownership of the patent for the invention gives the Biden administration significant leverage to compel pharmaceutical companies to help boost global production.

Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the NIH's Vaccine Research Center, told the Financial Times in an interview this week that "virtually everything that comes out of the government's research labs is a non-exclusive licensing agreement so that it doesn't get blocked by any particular company."

Part of the team of scientists that in 2016 conceived the spike-protein technology being utilized in the highly effective mRNA vaccines, Graham told FT that "one of the reasons" he joined NIH was "to be able to use the leverage of the public funding to solve public health issues."

While Pfizer's partner BioNTech has licensed the technology from the U.S. government and is paying royalties, Moderna has not—and the Biden administration has not attempted to enforce the patent....
US government owns the patent on mRNA tech.

ECNS — 100% automation: Robots rule lines at China's largest SUV production base

With short video.

ECNS
100% automation: Robots rule lines at China's largest SUV production base
Also at ECNS

CASS: China's economy projected to grow at 8% in 2021

China to kick off nationwide consumption campaign

How Xiaomi Became an Internet-of-Things Powerhouse — Haiyang Yang et al

And how this happened so quickly.
We learned that the secret to Xiaomi’s growth lies in what we term as “strategic coalescence.”...
Harvard Business Review
How Xiaomi Became an Internet-of-Things Powerhouse
Haiyang Yang is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, Jingjing Ma is an assistant professor at the National School of Development, Peking University, and Amitava Chattopadhyay is the GlaxoSmithKline Chaired Professor of Corporate Innovation at INSEAD

Michael Roberts — Post-Keynesianism: the principles

The critique of PK from the Marxian POV includes MMT. Profit and profit rate v. income-expenditure model of macro.

Michael Roberts Blog — blogging from a marxist economist
Post-Keynesianism: the principles
Michael Roberts

A Response to "Unpleasant Asset Pricing Arithmetic" — Brian Romanchuk

Zhengyang Jiang, Hanno Lustig, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh and Mindy Xiaolan have a working paper "What Determines the Government’s Funding Costs when r=g?: Unpleasant Fiscal Asset Pricing Arithmetic." They argue that the "fiscal cost" of deficits is not expected to be driven by the gap between the "risk free rate" and GDP growth (the famous r-g equation). Their target is something or other Olivier Blanchard wrote. In a completely non-surprising development, I am not happy with their logic….
Bond Economics
A Response to "Unpleasant Asset Pricing Arithmetic"
Brian Romanchuk

We Still Don't Know How Bicycles Work

 This video is interesting! 


My old steel bike centres much better than my new aluminum frame/ carbon fork one. It's just point and forget, and it feels more secure and safer. In fact, I'm discovering that despite its extra weight, it's much more fun to ride, as it seems to have life and dynamics, a natural springiness, which helps to propel you along. It feels fast and just flies. You can feel this power within the frame, like it has momentum, and with the steel frame's natural springiness, it zooms you along with a bounce, which feels sturdy. It just terrific! It goes! Wow! There are many advocates who prefer steel bikes for this reason, and the modern ones are lighter. It looks like I've become a fan too. 

I was trying to think what does it remind me of, and I got it, it's a spring diving board? Years ago in the UK we had real diving boards at the larger swimming pools. They were called spring diving board or springboards. As you run along the board you bounce due to its springiness. When you reach the end of the board the bounce becomes more pronounced, and on the final part of the jump the board imparts its energy into you. Its an amazing feeling as you zoom upwards before diving down. You are literally flying! 

As you run along the board you are entirely in sync with the enormous power that is building up, and it feels very secure because you know exactly how to use it. You are at one with it. 

So, the steel bike is absorbing energy and given it back at the right points. It feels terrific! You just fly along. 



Sunday, April 25, 2021

Bill Mitchell — The IMF is all at sea, stuck in its ways, and sending conflicting signals

Last week, I wrote about how the IMF is presenting a somewhat nuanced view these days. See – IMF now claiming continued inequality risks opening a “social and political seismic crack” (April 21, 2021). But, there was a warning for those who might think this suggests the institution is leaving its mainstream macroeconomics past behind them though. Rather, I think what is going on is a series of ad hoc responses to the growing anomalies that the institution faces between the observed reality and the sort of predictions it has been making based on its core paradigmatic approach. We are observing a specific form of dissonance in many of the current contributions coming out of mainstream economics. This takes two forms: (a) an incomplete response to the current situation (pandemic, GFC aftermath, climate change) where there are conflicting signals being sent; and (b) a tortured attempt to absorb pragmatic narratives within a theoretical structure that cannot consistently accept that absorption. The IMF’s latest blog post (April 20, 2021) – A Future with High Public Debt: Low-for-Long Is Not Low Forever – is a good example of both forms of this dissonance.
The last line of defense of a theory is ad hoc adjustment. This undermines the foundation of theories that are rule-based since it introduces discretion.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The IMF is all at sea, stuck in its ways, and sending conflicting signals
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Sebastien Robin - "Century of Humiliation": China Hasn't Forgotten the Opium Wars

 An interesting article on the Opium Wars. 


Here's What You Need to Know: China will never forget its humiliation at the hands of the West.

In 1839, England went to war with China because it was upset that Chinese officials had shut down its drug trafficking racket and confiscated its dope.


The National Interest 

Sebastien Robin - "Century of Humiliation": China Hasn't Forgotten the Opium Wars




Connie Chung on US policy since WWII

Some links were posted previously. Here is the entire 3-part series on US policy  and its implementation from WWII through the Kennedy administration.

Bank open gains on USTs

 

This unrealized gain has  bottomed along with recent bottom in USTs.  If  it goes back to old highs then bonds will too...








Saturday, April 24, 2021

‘Americans first’: US cites domestic priorities to reject India’s vaccine plea

 

Trump flipped the script... would not be happening without trump... Biden admin continuing this Trump MAGA policy as well as many others... 





How did China manage to end absolute poverty

Hawks vs the Doves 


 The Western way to wealth : imperialism, wars of acquisition, piracy. A zero sum game. 

China’s way to weath: invest to grow the economy: invest in infrastructure and the people (education) - a plan for all poor countries. People create wealth. A wealthy Africa means more customers. Win, win. Invest in protecting the environment - the long term returns will be good. 




Only Fools and Horses - You put a bit of music on Dave

 


KV - Nice Pics 7

 


Dandelions from a bugs perspective



The Master of the Universe



Peaceful sleep



Hale House, Heritage Square Museum, Los Angeles 




Aspen, Colorado 



Mount Fuji



Quaint rural cottage 



Autumn view through a leaf



Hummingbird in flight 



Son of a woodcutter, Eden Mills, Vermont, colourised, 1936 

AlanMcleod - Tanks and Think Tanks: How Taiwanese Cash is Funding the Push to War with China

 Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East. Now, a new set of think tanks staffed with many of the same experts and funded by Taiwanese money is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.


Terrifying! 

MintPress, we have been at the forefront of exposing how Middle Eastern dictatorships and weapons contractors have been funneling money into think tanks and political action committees, keeping up a steady drumbeat for more war and conflict around the world. Yet one little-discussed nation that punches well above its weight in spending cash in Washington is Taiwan.

By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States. This has coincided with a strong upsurge in anti-China rhetoric in Washington, with report after report warning of China’s economic rise and demanding that the U.S. intervene more in China-Taiwan disputes.

Mint Press

Friday, April 23, 2021

Electricity Provisioning under the Green New Deal: A Modern Monetary Theory Approach — Avraham I. Baranes and Mitchell R. Green

Abstract: This paper applies theories of institutional adjustment and Modern Monetary Theory to the problem of rapidly transitioning to an electricity provisioning system consistent with the Green New Deal. We argue the current obstacles are primarily financial, not technological in nature, and offer a high-level policy framework for using fiscal tools at the Federal level that overcomes the obstacle, while protecting rate-payers from cost burdens. Drawing upon theories of institutional adjustment after John Fagg Foster, we show that it is feasible to craft a policy solution to the financial barriers to adoption of rapid transition to a clean and renewable grid, even under relatively conservative assumptions for institutional change.
Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
Electricity Provisioning under the Green New Deal: A Modern Monetary Theory Approach
Avraham I. Baranes and Mitchell R. Green

The Rising Threat Of Nuclear War Is The Most Urgent Matter In The World — Caitlin Johnstone

Caitlin Johnstone echoes Ray McGovern's concern. ZH amplifies the message.

Zero Hedge
The Rising Threat Of Nuclear War Is The Most Urgent Matter In The World
Caitlin Johnstone
Originally posted at CaitlinJohnstone.com

'Terrible Vengeance': The History Of Turkish Atrocities Against Armenians And Why Biden Is Poised To Call Them Genocide — Ivan Gutterman

Backgrounder.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (US state funded media)
'Terrible Vengeance': The History Of Turkish Atrocities Against Armenians And Why Biden Is Poised To Call Them Genocide
Ivan Gutterman

Focusing purely on injustices in China and Russia with a Cold War mindset damages human rights everywhere — Patrick Cockburn

Politicizing and even weaponizing human rights through propaganda and disinformation to further one's interests undermines human rights. It is also hypocritical, which challenges its credibility.

The Independent (UK)
Focusing purely on injustices in China and Russia with a Cold War mindset damages human rights everywhere
Patrick Cockburn

Michael Hudson — Plato, Aristophanes and Aristotle on Money-Lust, 399-380 BC

Yves here. Michael Hudson kindly provided us with an advanced draft of this chapter from his upcoming book, since readers seemed particularly interested in the views of the Greeks on money, commerce, and power. Get a cup of coffee. This post is meaty if you plan to consume it in one sitting.

Weekend reading.

Naked Capitalism
Michael Hudson: Plato, Aristophanes and Aristotle on Money-Lust, 399-380 BC
Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking University

Say hello to the new multilateral boss Pepe Escobar


China.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Say hello to the new multilateral boss
Pepe Escobar

Putin rewrites the law of the geopolitical jungle — Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar reads the tea leaves.

The ball is in Victoria Nuland's court. (And you thought Joe Biden was president?)

The Vineyard of the Saker
Putin rewrites the law of the geopolitical jungle
Pepe Escobar for The Saker blog

See also at VS

Afghanistan.

American plans something but ends up differently
Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan

Ukraine: Fascism’s toe-hold in Europe
Francis Lee for The Saker blog

See also

One World
Why's The West Covering Up The Foiled Belarusian Coup Attempt?
Andrew Korbko

See also

Dances with Bears
THE BLIN-NOODLE GANG (BLINKEN-NUDELMAN) SINKS FROM THE BALTIC TO BLACK SEA AND THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI
John Helmer

See also

Naked Capitalism
Biden’s Appeasement of Hawks and Neocons Is Crippling His Diplomacy
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran ,and  Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq

Also at NC

largi: Ukraine Warheads

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Macau* Lectures on Super Imperialism — Michael Hudson

Impressive. 

Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking Macau 

* Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China

ANDREW BACEVICH -We don’t need a new Cold War with China

 Americans should find the hawkish push toward a new Cold War with China deeply troubling.


Note too that China is not the Soviet Union. “Xi Jinping Thought” does not represent an exportable ideology. Unlike the Soviet leaders who railed against capitalism, China’s leaders embrace it, demonstrating a remarkable aptitude for harnessing the market to create wealth. The Soviet economy produced next to nothing that American consumers were interested in buying. Today, China produces almost everything that American consumers hanker to buy, which we do using money agreeably loaned by Chinese banks 

Los Angeles Times 



Brief Discourse On The Patriotic Communitarian Spirit — Rodrigo Sobota

 Traditionalism clashes with liberalism. The author is addressing Slavs, but it could be any traditionalist group, including in the liberal West. I am posting this since it illustrates what I have saying for some time about this conflict between traditionalism and liberalism at this moment in the historical dialectic. It is unlikely to be overcome easily, peacefully or in a short period.

Let us Slavs create communitarian bonds. Individualism does not belong to us, but rather, to the decadent West. So through the spirit of solid communitarianism, and through the new nationalistic sentiment, let us unfurl our flags and create a new civilization. This civilization must be built upon the spirit, the organic bonds of the narod, but also by unleashing ourselves from the decadent and corrupt egocentric outlook of the West.

The civilization of the West finds itself in its end phase. There is nothing sacred left, there is nothing left to preserve. The West is rotten, and so it falls upon us the mighty new task of building among us a new an organic body of civilization and polity based upon cooperation, community, socialism and patriotism – which alone belongs to us and carries the marks of our own unique traits.

In direct contradiction to the corrupt liberal capitalist individualism that has poisoned the West, I state that all the corrupt and negative influences that have so far poisoned the Slavic world since the end of Marxism must be duly purified with a new, strong, concise nationalism, that will alone reinvigorate ourselves and our spirit against the evils of Western decay. And so, through patriotic socialism, the Slavic world will again thrive! The spirit of communitarian patriotism is the spirit of the purification and the perfection of the Slavic soul from the evils of liberal capitalist consumerism, as well as the postmodern society.
Geopolitika
BRIEF DISCOURSE ON THE PATRIOTIC COMMUNITARIAN SPIRIT
Rodrigo Sobota

See also

Sputnik International
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Reveals Only Factor Deterring Western Politicians

India a 'Country of Particular Concern,' Says Scathing US Agency Report on Religious Rights

Increasing Desperation as the U.S. Capitalist System Declines — Brittani Banks

Maybe "capitalism" isn't in decline, but rather neoliberal capitalism, where institutions are used to funnel gains up and socialize losses? 

As an economic theory, capitalism assumes "perfect competition," which in turn assumes "perfect markets," that is, markets are symmetrical eliminating asymmetrical market power. That phenomenon is a unicorn given income and wealth distribution as well as endowments that undermine equal opportunity.

Could an equitable and functional version be implemented? Probably not as long as class structure remains intact as a quasi-caste system in which wealth equates with power. The result is asymmetrical markets that result in highly asymmetrical distribution.

Independent Media Institute 
Increasing Desperation as the U.S. Capitalist System Declines
Brittani Banks

A Rant About Base Effects — Brian Romanchuk

I ran across some silly commentary about inflation that did not take into account base effects. I just want to explain how to avoid this problem using elementary results from systems theory. The short version is to use a first order low pass filter, which economists vaguely label an "exponential moving average" (or something like that). Since it was used to generate "adaptive expectations," I strangely labelled it "adaptive average" in the above figure.
Bond Economics
A Rant About Base Effects
Brian Romanchuk

Is rising government debt truly bad? — Simon Brown

Recommends Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth.

FinWeek
Is rising government debt truly bad?
Simon Brown

KV - Nice Pics 6

 Captions my own. 



Sand under a microscope. It makes me want to visit the seaside.



My brother and me at Hastings, Kent UK. Taken a long time ago. I'm the older one. 



Stunning! 



Top view of a Mandarin Duck.



What you got?



What’s for dinner, Mum? 



The Blue Eye on Bude Castle, Budapest, Hungary 



Bolt City 



Silicon Valley 



Exterminate All the Brutes (Trailer)

 The past has a future we never expect. Exterminate All the Brutes is a four-part HBO documentary series from filmmaker Raoul Peck that challenges how history is being written. 





Bill Mitchell — German Bundesverfassungsgericht decision is no victory for EU federalists

The banner on the home page of the German citizens’ group – Bündnis Bürgerwille e.V. – says “Recht gilt auch in der EU” (Law also applies in the EU) and the sub-header “EU – Verträge müssen eingehalten werden” (EU treaties must be complied with). I have sympathy for that sentiment but not the politics of the so-called ‘Citizens’ Will Alliance’, which recently sought to block German government approval of the much vaunted, much delayed, fairly small recovery plan. The mainstay of the EU is the Eurozone because it comprises 19 of the 27 EU nations and the largest nations. The dynamics of the EU economy are driven by what happens in the largest Member States of the Eurozone. The European Commission has been dithering for more than a year to get a fiscal stimulus plan in place and by the time it eventually gets the pittance proposed flowing, significant economic and social damage will have been done, given that if all 27 states ratify the plan, funds (loans mostly) will only start flowing in July – like 18 months after the pandemic began. The Bündnis Bürgerwille group has challenged the German participation in the German Constitutional Court, the Bundesverfassyngsgericht, which delivered its (interim) decision last week. Bündnis Bürgerwille lost, or did they?...
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
German Bundesverfassungsgericht decision is no victory for EU federalists
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

European Central Bank left its crisis-fighting tools unchanged


ECB vs Fed in who will blink first.. in past it was always the Fed but Trump may have flipped the script... “MAGA” position would be to not disadvantage US firms with higher rates vs foreign competitors...



Wednesday, April 21, 2021

My new podcast episode is out.

Jenny Gross and Johanna Lemola - What Makes a Happy Country

 Finland, for the fourth consecutive year, topped a list of countries evaluated on the well-being of their inhabitants. “Really?” Finns ask.


But there is a lot about Finland that is, indeed, great. The country’s public school system, which rarely tests children, is among the best in the world. College is free. There is a good universal health care system and child care is affordable. And Finland has been one of the least affected European countries by the pandemic, which experts attribute to the high trust in government and little resistance to following restrictions.

The New York Times 

Vlad Savov - As a Bloomberg tech editor, and gadget reviewer in a past life, I’ve been trying many of these companies’ phones as they’ve been released, and I’ve come to an inescapable conclusion: They are extremely good—and getting better.

 My Honor 10 takes pretty good photos and I find it more fun to use than my Panasonic camera, although the zoom isn't as good. With its panorama mode I can some stunning photos. I use a little bit of the panoramic effect to get a nice wide angle. 

The photo below was with the panorama mode and I put it through some filters after. 

In night time mode it takes multiple shots over 6 seconds and then gives an image without camera shake. I remember years ago having to lug a tripod with me everywhere, which meant I often did not take it with me at all. 




I used no filters or effects on this one below. Early morning field with sheep in. 




 Because of the sanctions on Huawei, the other Chinese phone manufacturers have invested heavily to produce some stunning new phones. 

It’s old news to say that cameras and design are priorities for smartphone buyers. But it’s still a little startling to see that some of the best of them are coming from the likes of Oppo—which until very recently was messing around with clumsy pop-up cameras but whose latest model now sports an undulating design with world-class fit and finish. Or how about Xiaomi, the company that defined the iPhone clone in many people’s eyes? It might well offer the most powerful camera system in the world right now.


Bloomberg Technology 


Vlad Savov - As a Bloomberg tech editor, and gadget reviewer in a past life, I’ve been trying many of these companies’ phones as they’ve been released, and I’ve come to an inescapable conclusion: They are extremely good—and getting better.


More Bad Journalism on Russia — Paul Robinson

If these were isolated incidents, the matter could be ignored. But they are not. It fits pattern ("playbook") of journalism functioning as a key element in propaganda, disinformation, and narrative manufacturing. The other side of the page is marginalization of a counter-narrative and isolation of dissent through de facto censorship.

It is telling that other than his own blog, Professor Robinson's available venue is RT when he can arguably be considered the successor to Stephen F. Cohen as a Western Russia expert. Stephen Cohen had The Nation at his disposal since he wife is the publisher. 

Paul Robinson also "served as a regular officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps from 1989 to 1994, and as a reserve officer in the Canadian Forces from 1994 to 1996," according to his profile.

Irrussianality
More Bad Journalism on Russia
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

We need more bias in artificial intelligence — Mario Mariniello

Food for thought as we enter the digital age.

It is difficult escaping cognitive-affective bias, perhaps impossible, but we should realize what we are facing with the development of algorithms.

Bruegel
We need more bias in artificial intelligence
Mario Mariniello

A Culture of War in America? — Frank Li

My only criticism is that Frank Li should have used MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex) instead of MIC (h/t Ray McGovern for the longer acronym). The MIC has become a many-headed Hydra.

This not about national defense. It is quasi-religious war to spread the ideology of liberalism in a way that is eerily similar to the way that previous religious wars were tied to empire, in the course of which war is not only normalized but made virtuous and even obligatory.

econintesect.com
A Culture of War in America?
Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat, Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company, B.E. from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering

See also at econintersect
China Leads Expansion Again
Dan Steinbock, Difference Group

Bill Mitchell — IMF now claiming continued inequality risks opening a “social and political seismic crack”

I don’t have time today for a full review of the Fiscal Monitor publication.

But suffice to say, the tone coming out of the IMF has shifted significantly from when it was leading the charge in destroying nations and increasing income and wealth inequalities.

Don’t think for one minute, however, that the institution has abandoned mainstream macroeconomic thinking.

It hasn’t.
But it has opened a sort of schizoid image – talking about, on the one hand, a global innoculation program “paying for itself” (that is, still framing things in terms of making fiscal cuts), while, on the other hand, imploring governments to maintain fiscal support and target policies that “aim at giving everyone a fair shot at lifetime opportunities by reducing gaps in access to quality public services.”...
The failure is that of neoliberal capitalism to deliver distributed prosperity as it promises. It is just not credible that the conventional economic doctrine of "trickle down" and all receiving "just deserts" based on individual productivity, which the theory doesn't actual prove formally let alone in practice, has impoverished so many, reduced many in the "middle class" to the precariat, and rewarded monopolist on the order of former monarchs and despots. It doesn't fly, especially in light of the rise of China and its record of reducing poverty and eliminating absolute poverty through a mixed system.

Also
MMTed Update

Following the development of our edX MOOC = Modern Monetary Theory: Economics for the 21st Century – we are now working on the next MMTed project, which will be run within our own auspices....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
IMF now claiming continued inequality risks opening a “social and political seismic crack”
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

KV - Nice Pics 5

 


Super Scary Abandoned Castle



Tower at Five Corners, Vladimir, Russia 




Taj Mahal at sunrise 




Sunrise, Dolomites, Italy 




San Francisco, City Hall



Canned Music




Coastline Sunset



Oat House by river