I am now in a very hot and humid Kyoto having left Australia yesterday in weather that was in some places 20 or more degrees Celsius above the norm for early Spring. The heat here and back home at this time of year is rather scary given what it portends. I also do not have much time today given I have been contending with various ‘moving in’ requirements. But I read an article on the plane last night which I think marks a divide between what ‘green’ progressives think and what I think is needed. I was talking to a friend the other day who remarked he was enduring what he termed ‘ecological anxiety’. In the week that followed, bushfires across Australia have started burning some months earlier than has been the typical pattern over a long period. There are massive ‘weather’ events now all around the globe and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the sceptics to dismiss these conjunctions as random or ‘we just haven’t had data long enough’ type ruses. Some ‘green progressives believe the solution lies in governments inducing the financial speculators to shift funds into ‘green’ investments so that profitability can be safeguarded. They also believe that governments will get more money to invest this way (through providing inflation-indexed sovereign bonds). Talk about a vision for increased corporate welfare. My starting point is that we should do everything possible to keep the speculators out of our policy moves to decarbonise. It will end badly if we rely on the gamblers for the solution.William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
It will end badly if we rely on the speculators and gamblers for a climate change solution
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
28 comments:
Climate doomsday = debt doomsday
Franko is correct. The “climate change” doomsday is the same as the national debt doomsday. Both are always just around the corner. Both never arrive.
For the “climate change” doomsday cult there is Greta Thunberg. For the national debt doomsday cult there are most politicians except for Trump, who on 8 May 2016 correctly told CNN that the US government never needs to default on its debts because “You just print the money.” Trump's comment caused the national debt doomsday cultists to howl in rage.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/donald-trump-national-debt-strategy/index.html
Bill Mitchell speaks of the need to “decarbonize” -- i.e. remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so that all plants die, and therefore all animals and humans die.
How do liberals propose that we “decarbonize” anyway? Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen), and the 15th most common in the Earth's crust.
“Climate change” buffoonery is one aspect of wokery.
All forms of wokery are idiotic and tyrannical. All must be resisted.
Climate deniers believe in the debt doomsday. Different strokes for different folks.
”Climate deniers believe in the debt doomsday.”
Some conservatives do indeed preach the national debt doomsday for political reasons, just as liberals preach the climate doomsday for strictly political reasons.
These doomsday lies are all about having power over others.
Both doomsday cults are reason deniers.
Meanwhile liberal clowns like washed-up actor San Penn say we should support Zelensky of Ukraine even if it means global nuclear war, which would be a doomsday. Most liberal a**holes are psychopaths.
Fake conservatives have their own form of wokery -- e.g. China-bashing. Many conservatives are members of the national debt doomsday cult. Many liberals are too. Liberals placed those silly “national debt clocks” in London, Sydney, New York City, and some other urban centers.
Only the debt doomsday types are reason-deniers -- there is plenty of evidence for massive human-made climate change disasters. That there is another analysis, which legitimately points out very real uncertainties about climate change, does not limit the dangers of the anthropocene (and not just via climate change).
Logic requires, at a minimum, that one approach climate challenge, and our growth obsession, through precautionary perspective (albeit without demonizing or seeking to silence differing voices)
@ Marian
Climate-related disasters will be attributed to WEF policies. Mark my words.
The other day there was a story about China lending the US money. You'd think Putin would be upset by that - yet the irony of it escaped these monetarists.
“There is plenty of evidence for massive human-made climate change disasters.”
Cult members always imagine that they have “massive evidence” for their madness, plus a “rationale” for their desire to enslave others.
In any case the “climate change” agenda renders itself idiotic by its call to purge the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. CO2 is necessary to sustain all life on earth, just like oxygen. (We need plants far more than they need us.)
Moreover the “climate change” agenda is always accompanied by wokery, such as anti-whitism, LGBTQ(P) supremacy, BLM militancy, and endless war-mongering. Last Tuesday (19 Sep 2023) at the U.N. headquarters in NY City, Zelensky gave a speech demanding another hundred billion dollars from the U.S. government because “climate change.”
If a person has any concerns about the weather, then I recommend that he or she not use woke buzzwords like “climate denial.” Such insults drive away audiences.
Regarding our “growth obsession,” this will take care of itself. The West has a bubble economy, and when the bubble inevitably bursts, there will be a catastrophic contraction, not growth. Urban centers under woke Democrat control are already dystopian wastelands.
“The other day there was a story about China lending the US money.”
If you mean that China is lending yuan to state, county, and municipal entities in the USA, or lending to private citizens or companies, then I’d like to see a web link about that.
On the other hand, if “lending the US money” refers to China buying Treasury securities, then this is routine. China sends good to the USA, which pays for those goods in dollars, which China then uses to buy T-securities. China lends those dollars to the Fed until the T-securities mature, whereon the Fed gives those dollars back to China, plus extra dollars as interest. All of this is automated, and consists of mere computer numbers, since money is not physical.
Of course, none of this imposes any real limit on the U.S. government's ability to create dollars out of thin air and spend those dollars into the U.S. and world economy.
The China loans were the usual T-bills. China, an ally of Russia lending to the enemy!
If a person has any concerns about the weather, then I recommend that he or she not use woke buzzwords like “climate denial.” Such insults drive away audiences.
When people are in denial that their lifestyle is contributing to climate change, what euphemisms should be used?
The climate issue is but one symptom of ecological overshoot. If the MSM were to start reporting on that overarching predicament, I expect we'd have denial of that too.
The myth of progress will die hard over the decades to come.
On 15 Sep 2023 the “national debt” exceeded 33 TRILLION!!!
This is a TICKING BOMB! (Just like “climate change.”)
It never occurs to most people to ask where this money came from, who lent it to the U.S. government, and who it is owed to.
It’s a TICKING BOMB. That’s all that most people want to know.
Therefore if the USA has a population of 333 million, then every man, women, and child (plus “non-binary” neurotics, “furries” and all other quasi-human entities) “owes” $99,100.
To whom it is owed? It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that it’s a TICKING BOMB.
Maybe the reason why Democrats want unlimited migrants is to spread some of that TICKING BOMB around.
I wrote above that conservatives have their own version of wokery and silliness. An example is this TICKING BOMB nonsense. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB) in Washington DC, has been screaming for 42 years that the sky is falling. I don’t know who pays MacGuineas to spout this crap, but she apparently lives well.
Meanwhile the Fed’s interest payments on the national debt (aka TICKING BOMB) are approaching $1 trillion per year! No one knows how we will possibly come up with that money. (HINT: The Fed will create it out of thin air like it always does.)
If you want to worry about something, worry about the Fed’s ridiculously high interest rates.
“When people are in denial that their lifestyle is contributing to climate change, what euphemisms should be used?”
No one denies that climate exists. What reasonable people reject is the weaponization of climate rhetoric for political purposes.
When Zelensky demands another hundred billion dollars because “climate change,” I reject it.
When Biden’s handlers seek to outlaw gas stoves because “climate change,” I reject it.
When Dutch politicians seek to destroy small and medium farmers (so that Big Ag will have a 100% monopoly) because “climate change,” I reject it.
And then there is the liberal bilge. Climate cultists always couch their demands in wokery. Show me a climate cultist, and I’ll show you someone who also wants to enslave all white people because “white privilege.” For woke liberals, racial issues and climate ussues are linked. All of this crap forms a toxic sludge that woke liberals call "intersectionality."
Thus, when you call a white person a “climate denier,” what he hears is, “And you’re also a racist!”
If “climate change” was ever to become a conservative weapon, then the media outlets would pronounce the so-called crisis “over.”
“The myth of progress will die hard over the decades to come.”
Problems arise because we define progress as endless growth in population, GDP, and financial profits.
We would do better to seek progress in spiritual terms.
It never occurs to most people to ask where this money came from, who lent it to the U.S. government, and who it is owed to.
Or in the case if actual private debt, what happens if it doesn't get paid back?
No one denies that climate exists. What reasonable people reject is the weaponization of climate rhetoric for political purposes.
I object to green-washing and moneymaking scams as much as the next guy.
I object to solutions being touted for predicaments.
I object to authoritarianism disguised as concern for your safety.
I object to the portrayal of climate as the single biggest issue.
Bill Mitchell speaks of the need to “decarbonize” -- i.e. remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so that all plants die, and therefore all animals and humans die.
How do liberals propose that we “decarbonize” anyway? Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen), and the 15th most common in the Earth's crust.
In any case the “climate change” agenda renders itself idiotic by its call to purge the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. CO2 is necessary to sustain all life on earth, just like oxygen. (We need plants far more than they need us.)
Perhaps I am mistaken, but I have never heard a single climate change action proponent (least of all Bill Mitchell) asking for all CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere. What I have heard them say is that (1) we must stop adding excessive CO2 to the atmosphere, and (2) take steps to reduce the concentration of CO2 to normal levels.
The last estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (May this year) was that, on average, the atmosphere contained 424 CO2 parts per million (ppm).
That is highly unusual. In the last 800 thousand years, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has varied between 175 ppm and 300 ppm.
The point is that it may be hard to say precisely how much CO2 in the atmosphere is safe (is it 300 or 175? what about 301? or maybe 310? 350?). But it's pretty evident that we currently have way too much: almost one and half more than in all of the existence of the Homo genus (pace Matt Franko, who believes in intelligent design).
So, if you have heard anybody asking for an atmosphere entirely free of CO2, I would appreciate links.
Moreover the “climate change” agenda is always accompanied by wokery, such as anti-whitism, LGBTQ(P) supremacy, BLM militancy, and endless war-mongering. Last Tuesday (19 Sep 2023) at the U.N. headquarters in NY City, Zelensky gave a speech demanding another hundred billion dollars from the U.S. government because “climate change.”
The link climate change-wokery/climate change anti-whitism, LGBTQ(P) supremacy, BLM militancy/climate change is much less clear.
First, because the non-woke are not necessarilly straight. The late Pim Fortuyn is an interesting case study. The guy was not just gay, but openly so and indeed a gay-rights sort of guy. He was also pro-white, anti-immigration, and right wing. You see, traditional Islam is largely a non-white religion, not particularly LGBTQ-friendly. Shariah law? Many Dutch LGBTQ people did feel - rightly or wrongly - that migrants from Asia and Africa were a potential threat.
Pro-gay and anti-Islam: rise of the Dutch far-Right
Have you guys forgotten Milo Yiannopoulos?
Second, because the anti-white native (or left-wing, or environmentalist) of rich countries, say, are not necessarilly woke. An extreme case illustrates: the Nation of Islam. They are considered homophobic and misogynistic (also considered anti-semitic, which should ingratiate them with anti-semites).
Third, because there's plenty conservatives who are also environmentalists and even believe in anthropogenic climate change. It makes sense: environmentalism means conserving the environment, aka nature.
Why White Supremacists Are Hooked on Green Living
Fourth because not all otherwise woke believe in anthropogenic climate change or are even remotely leftist. Alan Joyce, departing Qantas CEO, is an example. Openly gay, he supported same sex marriage (he wanted to get married to his then partner) and supported the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Under him Qantas swindled the government and appropriated the wage subsidy the government gave them during the pandemic while illegally sacking 1,700 workers who were meant to be paid with that money. Qantas is also a lean, mean, greenwashing machine.
Speaking of Zelensky.
Local media coverage of the war has emphasised "Russian conservatism". LGBTQ people and women in Russia have no rights, they say. That may be truth or not, I can't say based on what I know.
But if one believes what one reads over the internet the thing is not limited to Russia. Poland for one. Its government is as an anti-Russian as it gets. It's also anti-migrant, anti-LGBTQ and anti-women rights.
More to the point, Zelensky's Ukraine is no LGBTQ/women paradise (and they are extremely anti-worker rights).
https://rainbow-europe.org/
Zelensky may be the darling of the Western woke, but I don't know the feeling is mutual.
Where has The Squad been, during this period of warmongering in Washington?
“Where has The Squad been, during this period of warmongering in Washington?
They are lying low do they don’t get their heads chopped off.
“The Squad” was never very enthusiastic about the war in Ukraine, nor about the economic war on Russia. Last year “Squad” members wrote some anti-war Tweets online that angered the Democrat establishment, so the “Squad” deleted all the Tweets and messages.
Even worse, on 24 Oct 2022 "The Squad" got a total of 30 Democrats to sign a letter to Biden to please consider negotiation to end the war.
The Democrat establishment responded by threatening to punish all 30 members, and even expel them from Congress. So the 30 signatories immediately retracted the letter and apologized.
Since then, members of “the Squad” has have not dared to say anything. No one on the Democrat side may question the warmongering mob.
The Republican side has its own struggles regarding the war. Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Establishment want to keep giving endless billions to Zelensky, but conservative populists (aka "MAGA Republicans") oppose this. They are resisting Kevin McCarthy and the Republican establishment, and their votes are needed. This is one of the reasons for the looming “government shut-down.”
So in summary, the Squad stands for nothing.
The anti-war movement ought to chop these bobble heads off next election. Or vote MAGA.
“ Matt Franko, who believes in intelligent design”
I’m biased towards purpose and creativity…. opposite Darwinists … but I’m not an IDer per se…
You Ken Ham is too Platonist/dialogic for me…
https://corvinak.hu/en/velemeny/2022/11/18/thunbergism-could-gretas-communist-moment-spell-the-beginning-of-the-end
13 yo uneducated Greta who couldn’t tell you the atomic number of Hydrogen is a commie… right on cue…
“So in summary, the Squad stands for nothing.”
True, but they didn’t start that way. “The Squad” began as populist liberals who opposed things like war profiteering, Israeli atrocities, Wall Street greed, Big Pharma tyranny, the West’s financialized bubble economy, and so on. Things that liberals used to believe in before they went woke and insane. Things that I agree with.
Then the Democrat establishment took “The Squad” behind the wood shed for a spanking.
To explain…
The Democrat and Republican establishments form a Uniparty that doesn’t care about anything except staying in office and continuing to get rich from corruption. The Uniparty includes longtime Democrat and Republican politicians, plus their countless staff members, plus everyone else in the permanent political class -- i.e. the entire Washington swamp. All of these parasites want to keep their cushy positions, which means preventing real change of any kind.
For example, why would Mitch McConnell cling to office despite having dementia as bad or worse than Biden’s? The current Congress is the oldest in US history by far (and the most senile). These decrepit old fossils don’t even know where they are. They are too old to actually enjoy their wealth. So why do they cling to office? The answer -- again – is that everyone in Washington of all ages wants to keep their positons and prevent any changes. It is they who rig elections behind the scenes to keep these brain-dead Republican and Democrat geezers in office.
Meanwhile MAGA conservatives represent change, as do genuine populist liberals like “The Squad” was at first.
Indeed, genuine conservatives and the original "Squad" are very similar in many respects; almost identical. They are hated by establishment Republicans and Democrats, the Uniparty, which sees any kind of change as a threat.
Therefore the Uniparty called “The Squad” in for a spanking and a lecture. If “The Squad” agreed to go woke, and serve the Uniparty, then “Squad” members would always have a job. The Uniparty would rig elections to keep them in office for life.
If not, then “Squad” members would be expelled in the very next election, or sooner. The males would be Me-Too’d, and the females would be smeared with something “racist” or whatever. No proof or evidence would be needed. The corporate media outlets would ruin them, and the Me-Too’d males might even be sent to prison.
So “The Squad” got its mind right and went woke, betraying everything they had believed in.
It made me cringe to see AOC, for example, literally weeping after she voted in support of Israeli atrocities. AOC knew she was supporting evil, but she had to obey the establishment in order to keep her cushy job. (US House members collect $174,000 per year, plus countless perqs and privileges, plus all they can steal.)
(Continued below)
(Continued from above)
Actually all liberals got their minds right. Previously they had cheered when Obama took office in 2008, only to see Obama serve the bankers during the 2008 financial crisis, and throw millions of families out of their homes. Obama also presided over new wars (e.g. the destruction of Libya and Yemen and the near destruction of Syria). Obama also decreed that the U.S. government could assassinate any American citizen anywhere for any reason or no reason.
Obama shocked liberals, but still, even as late as 2011, liberals formed the Occupy Wall Street movement, only to be crushed by the establishment. This made liberals get their minds right once and for all, accept their permanent slavery, and go insane (i.e. woke).
Now for woke liberals the supreme evil is average straight white males. The new religion is career criminal St. Floyd, LGBTQ(P) supremacy, BLM supremacy, “trans rights,” and so on. And everything -- EVERYTHING is “racist.” From the whirling of electrons to the orbit of galaxies, everything is “racist” (meaning that average straight white males must be enslaved or exterminated).
The establishment Uniparty loves this, because it keeps the peasants fighting each other, rather than uniting against their rich owners, and uniting against the politicians who serve the rich owners.
For the Uniparty, MAGA conservatives and genuinely populist liberals are a threat, and must be crushed.
Average Americans are in a vast prison camp, with establishment politicians as “trustee inmates.” If the trustee politicians obey orders, and support lucrative rackets like the Ukraine war, limitless migrants, the Homeless Industrial Complex, and so on – then the trustees get special privileges. If not, then the trustees are cast into the general prison population.
The entire prison camp is on a ship that is rapidly sinking.
For that kind of salary, voters should expect the Squad to fight. Keeping their heads down, or engaging in partisan attacks against Republicans just doesn't cut it.
If Matt Gaetz can make noise, so can the Squad.
Another sad song and dance is RFK Jr.'s campaign within the Dem apparatus. Doomed to failure and he knows it.
Corey Morningstar wrote an exposé on Greta years ago.
https://www.amazon.ca/Manufacturing-Greta-Thunberg-Cory-Morningstar/dp/3749464758
The manufacturing of Greta Thunberg - for consent: the political economy of the non-profit industrial complex We are introduced to the not-so accidental phenomena of Greta Thunberg, the current child prodigy and face of the youth climate change movement. The "climate change is real" message is reframed for public consumption and rolled out at an international level, using Greta and her global platform to "sound the alarm" on climate change. This climate emergency is likened to a "house on fire", while urging the public to be serious, patriotic, empathetic and, of course, nonviolent. Not one sentence of the new strategy mentions the horrific impact militarism has on climate change. The New Climate Economy being pushed by groups like Extinction Rebellion merely repackage our oppression into emergency mode. This urgency becomes global so that governments, NGOs and corporations will all direct immediate funding towards unlocking trillions of capital needed to save capitalism by further funding the new green imperialism. Today's youth are used and molded into market solutions to insulate a global elite. Celebrity-sponsored activism seeks to build a new industry in which NGOs, the media and corporate powers collude to get people to support the very industries we should be erasing from the planet. The planet's most powerful capitalists lie behind these "youth-led" movements for climate change, helping to manufacture consent for the "fourth industrial revolution" in an attempt to quell resistance to industrial civilization.
“If Matt Gaetz can make noise, so can the Squad.”
The Democrats have no equivalent to Gaetz, plus the 45 members of the House Freedom Caucus that oppose the Uniparty.
The Uniparty consists of establishment Republicans and all Democrats, including "The Squad."
The Uniparty despises Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus for wanting changes. This isn’t a question of ideology. It’s a question of money and power. The Uniparty collects oceans of money from scams like the war in Ukraine, plus unlimited migration, plus the Homeless Industrial Complex, and so on. The Uniparty is also demanding more trillions for “Covid relief," most of which will be pocketed by the Uniparty and its cronies.
Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus oppose this. They oppose any measure that funds the political weaponization of the Justice Dept. They oppose funding programs that push wokery in the military (such as anti-whitism, aka “affirmative action”). They want an end to the migration scam. They want to defund the Dept. of Homeland Security until it starts doing its job, which includes protecting the border. They want to cut off the Ukraine racket, or at least have an accounting of who is pocketing those endless billions of dollars. They want no more funding for "Covid relief."
These are the “MAGA Republicans” that the corporate media outlets so vilify, and the Uniparty so hates.
Again, it isn’t a question of ideology. It’s a question of money and power.
For example, New York City alone spends $9.8 million per day on caring for migrants. That’s $300 million per month, or $3.6 billion per year. The money is extracted from city taxpayers, and it is paid to insiders, who in turn kick back a lot of that loot to politicians of the Uniparty that support unlimited migration.
I just saw a news story about one migrant shelter in Chicago run by a private company called “Favorite Staffing.” At that shelter, ordinary employees are paid $200 per hour. A manager there is paid $14,000 a week, and a nurse is paid $20,000 per week.
The migration scam is extremely lucrative to people who have the right connections. Those people in turn funnel some of that lot to the politicians that make it all possible. This is why the migrant scam keeps getting worse and worse. The more migrants, the more lucrative the racket.
The Uniparty doesn’t want to change this.
At the state level, the same racket happens with the Homeless Industrial Complex. San Francisco spends $600 million per year on its homeless. Almost none of that money goes to the homeless. 99.9% of it is pocketed by people with the right connections, and they funnel some of the loot back to the politicians that make it all possible. This is one reason why the homeless crisis keeps exploding. The worse it gets, the more lucrative it becomes.
So Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus are putting their foot down. They say enough is enough. They will not vote to approve spending bills for FY 2024 unless there are changes.
The Uniparty is furious with them, because the Uniparty wants its loot; its payoffs.
We’ll see who wins.
“Corey Morningstar wrote an exposé on Greta years ago.”
The entire “climate change” campaign is once again about politicians and connected insiders seeking money and power.
California’s legislature is 78% Democrat. A week ago they filed a lawsuit in state court against oil companies because “climate change.” [BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips.] The lawsuit also targets the American Petroleum Institute, a trade organization.
The “damages” sought have not yet been disclosed, but California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta (Democrat) says he is demanding “hundreds of billions of dollars” from the oil companies.
Bonta wants those “hundreds of billions of dollars” from you and me, since all of us use myriad petroleum products in myriad ways.
Again, money and power.
It’s like religious wars. They are never about doctrine. Religious wars are always about money and power. Religious b.s. is mere camouflage for this. Window dressing.
Meanwhile young morons promote this racket, this shakedown, by protesting and by committing acts of terrorism because “climate change.” They’re too stupid to ask why their lives are so full of anxiety and hopelessness, so instead they block roads and they throw orange paint on passersby so that the imbeciles can feel that they are “doing something.” Mindless little puppets one and all.
They’re like peasant serfs that are being starved by their landlords. The stupid peasants respond by righteously protesting against barking dogs and rainy days while they congratulate each other for “accomplishing something.” They howl at the moon and imagine that they “stand for the future.” As their starvation gets worse and worse, they do silly rituals and blame everyone but their landlords.
And they cheer for that annoying little troll Greta.
Speaking of Matt Gaetz and the looming “government shut-down,” Moody’s is now saying that if the (fake) “shut-down” happens, then Moody will downgrade its credit rating of the U.S. government.
Fitch did this last August. S&P Global did it in 2011.
All nonsense. The Big Three credit rating firms are totally corrupt. (Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P) The banks bribed them to give AAA ratings to worthless mortgage-backed securities, which was one of the factors that led to the crash of 2008.
And now the corrupt Moody’s is threatening to downgrade the US government, which creates its spending money out of thin air. The Fed likewise creates money out of thin air to pay interest on Treasury securities.
Investors know this, and they ignore Moody’s nonsense. Indeed, T-securities are selling very well, because they are as good as gold, and because they are paying high yields. The rise in sales is why the “national debt” has risen to $33 trillion.
The corporate media outlets are pretending, as always, that a (fake) “government shutdown” will destroy the world. (Just like "climate change" will "destroy the world.")
The media say that every time these (fake) “shut-downs” happen. (So far it has happened 21 times.) The last time was in 2018, when Trump wanted to build a border wall, and the Democrat-led House refused to give him any money to do so. That (fake) “shut-down” lasted 36 days. The world was not destroyed, Social Security paid its benefits, and life went on.
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