BRICS — Russia Triples Gas Supplies to China Via Power of Siberia Pipeline

Russia’s energy major Gazprom said on Monday that it had pumped more gas to China in February via the Power of Siberia pipeline than it had initially planned, more than tripling supplies compared to the same month last year.

“The export of gas to China through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline continues to grow. Supplies regularly exceed our daily contractual obligations. The actual monthly volume of supplies in February is 3.2 times more than in February 2020,” Gazprom said in a statement.

The 3,000km (1,864 mile) cross-border pipeline started official deliveries of Russian natural gas to China in 2019. The so-called eastern route’s capacity is 61 billion cubic meters of gas per year, including 38 billion cubic meters for export. Last year, Gazprom supplied 4.1 billion cubic meters of gas to China via the Power of Siberia. It plans to boost exports by an additional six billion cubic meters.

BRICS
Russia Triples Gas Supplies to China Via Power of Siberia Pipeline

Also at BRICS

China has pledged to provide nearly half a billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to about 45 countries and is ignoring Washington’s provocative charges that it is using vaccines to diplomatize and expand its influence through soft power initiatives. According to the Financial Times newspaper, the U.S. is developing a plan with QUAD allies - Japan, India and Australia – to distribute vaccines globally to hamper Beijing's efforts to expand its influence. The plan is being led by the White House's Indo-Pacific policy coordinator, Kurt Campbell, who reportedly met with ambassadors from QUAD member countries.

Considering the persistence of COVID-19 in some countries, in December last year Beijing promised Southeast Asian and African countries that they would have priority when the vaccines manufactured nationally by China were ready for distribution. Despite Washington's accusations, Beijing denies that its “vaccine diplomacy comes with costs.” A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China considers the vaccine a “global public good.”

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, commented: “I don't see any connection in that […]. China should do more to help other countries because it is doing well.”

QUAD aims to deter countries from buying Chinese-made vaccines

Pavlina Tcherneva – Guaranteeing the Right to Decent Work

Interview.

Brave New Europe
Pavlina Tcherneva – Guaranteeing the Right to Decent Work

Matthew D. Rose

TASS — Putin says Internet can destroy society if it does not follow moral guidelines

"We have had a lot of discussions about certain restrictions on the Internet, but the Internet has already penetrated every sphere of our lives and for the most part, it should follow not only formal laws and legal rules, but the moral guidelines of society that we live in as well," Putin said. "Otherwise, society will destroy itself from within," he stressed.

The president said that he wants the majority of citizens to understand this danger for the country’s future. "Because if there isn’t such a thing, they will stir things up for us from the inside," he said.…

China figured this out long ago.

TASS
Putin says Internet can destroy society if it does not follow moral guidelines

See also

Just another iteration in the unfolding of WWIII (which began immediately after WWII, and was in fact planned toward the end of WWII).

Sputnik International
West Has Launched Large-Scale Campaign to Support Russia's Non-Systemic Opposition, Russian MFA Says

See also

Both pro- and anti-war voices have stated that the U.S. is on the cusp of entering a second Cold War, and a new Gallup poll suggests that the groundwork for such a conflict has already been laid.

MintPressNews
After Years of Propaganda, American Views of Russia and China Hit Historic Lows

Alan Macleod

See also

TASS
Gorbachev calls on Russian, US leaders to renounce nuclear war

Oilprice — Oil Soars As OPEC+ Sources Suggest No Production Increase

The U.S. oil benchmark, WTI Crude, jumped early on Thursday to above $64 a barrel, soaring by more than 5 percent, after OPEC+ sources began telling reporters that the coalition may be close to agreeing not to increase their collective oil production in April. WTI Crude prices were surging by 5.06% at $64.21 as of 11:18 a.m. ET on Thursday. Brent Crude prices jumped above $67 per barrel, to $67.17, up by 5.10%, after OPEC+ sources started to leak insights from the ongoing OPEC+ ministerial meeting.…

Oilprice
Oil Soars As OPEC+ Sources Suggest No Production Increase
Tsvetana Paraskova

See also at Oilprice

Resource Nationalism Becomes Major Threat For Oil Companies, Miners

Sputnik — China Development Bank Backs $62bn Loan Scheme For Mainland Chipmakers Amid US-China Trade Tensions

China Development Bank (CBD) has pledged financing for key emerging technologies in China via a 400bn yuan ($62bn) loan scheme, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and others reported on Thursday.

China's State Council pledged $1.4tn in May last year to decouple from US emerging technologies and develop domestic artificial intelligence, green tech, energy infrastructure, 5G, transport and numerous other projects.

Sputnik International
China Development Bank Backs $62bn Loan Scheme For Mainland Chipmakers Amid US-China Trade Tensions

Dean Baker — The New York Times Has not Heard of China’s (or Russia’s) Vaccines

China and Russia are whopping the West in the Global South. NYT ignores.

Dean Baker
The New York Times Has not Heard of China’s (or Russia’s) Vaccines

See also

Dances with Bears
HOW THE NATO ALLIANCE IS FIGHTING RUSSIA’S SPUTNIK V VACCINE WITH SUBSIDIES FROM STATE BUDGETS AND THE GATES FOUNDATION, HIDDEN BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES
John Helmer

New Great Recession data suggest Congress should go big to spur a broad-based, sustained U.S. economic recovery — Austin Clemens

Will Biden repeat Obama's mistake and undershoot?

WCEG — The Equitablog
New Great Recession data suggest Congress should go big to spur a broad-based, sustained U.S. economic recovery
Austin Clemens

See also

Biden’s stimulus is not the stuff of economic revolution—it’s a mix of common sense and keeping the lights on. And the fundamental thinking behind the stimulus approach reflects a continuation of neoliberal policies of the past 40 years; instead of advancing broader social programs that could uplift the population, the solutions are predicated on improving individual purchasing power and family circumstances. Such a vision of society as a collection of enterprising individuals is a hallmark of the neoliberal policy formula—which, as the stimulus bill is about to make clear, is still prevalent within the Democratic and the Republican parties. This attention to individual purchasing power promises to be the basis for bipartisan agreement over the next four years.

The reality is that social programs on health care and education, and a new era of labor and banking regulation, would put the wider society on sounder feet than a check for $1,400....

Naked Capitalism
Bad Stimulus: Government Payments to Individuals Are a Terrible Way to Solve America’s Structural Economic Problems

Albena Azmanova, an associate professor of politics at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies and author of Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia(2020), and Marshall Auerback, a researcher at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, a fellow of Economists for Peace and Security, and a regular contributor to Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute

Lenders are flush with cash!

 

“Banks flush with reserves to lend out!”... (LOL nothing has changed)...

Lenders are flush with cash they want to put to use, and banks hope loan growth will pick up in 2021 https://t.co/aACHmAflYC

— Real Time Economics (@WSJecon) March 4, 2021

Murdoch & Morrison vs the ABC

 Jack Ma got brought in for a pep talk, because his new financial scheme could have harmed the Chinese economy if it loaded it with too much private debt.

Jamil Anderlini, of the FT, wrote this article below, but he doesn't understand the context and thinks it's just big bad government, the CPC. But why should wealthy individuals be allowed to wreck our economies and societies for private gain?

Libertarian freedom is everyone else's enslavement. 

Jack Ma personifies the contradiction of China’s ideology

The Communist party system needs entrepreneurs but curtails anyone who becomes too powerful

Jack Ma personifies the contradiction of China’s ideology

Rupert Murdoch is out to destroy the ABC, so he can replace it with his personal nonsense. He should be brought in by the authorities, given a pep talk, and he made to pay all his taxes, and all the other taxes his companies owe. 

Murdoch and Morrison v the ABC

Below, Michael Hudson describes how the financial sector has loaded our economy with too much private debt, so that now our society is crumbling. The Chinese government was never going to allow this to happen to their society. 

Debt and Power - Michael Hudson 

Bill Mitchell — It isn’t just like household debt!

See this Report from the Corporate Europe Observatory (February 2, 2021) – Vaccine scarcity: how the EU’s appeasement of Big Pharma damages COVID-19 response.

They sought information through FOI processes from the European Commission, which they documented in this report – Power and profit during a pandemic – why the pharmaceutical industry needs more scrutiny not less (September 21, 2020).

They concluded then that:

In a pandemic the pharmaceutical industry is hailed as a saviour; yet the industry is using the crisis to lock in its problematic, profit-maximising model. Pushing for public money with no-strings-attached, and stronger monopoly patent rules, the industry’s wish-list could restrict access to COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, prolonging the pandemic in the name of profit.

No surprises there, which is why we need nationalised pharmaceutical facilities.

The most recent CEO article reports the refusal of the Commission to disclose anything relevant to the public, including the “names of the members of the Joint Negotiation Team” (mentioned above).

The conclusion is that corporate cabal which is the EU is doing what corporate cabals do, cooperate with other corporate cabals to generate profits and to hell with the rest of us....

This post covers a lot of other ground. 

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
It isn’t just like household debt!
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

My new podcast episode is out.

The U.S. Grid Isn’t Ready For A Major Shift To Renewables Irina Slav

This [US electrical grid] is one massive system, and the sources that feed it electricity have become increasingly diversified. And while the shortage of natural gas was a big reason for the power outages in Texas, it was certainly not a shortage of gas that caused the blackouts in California last summer during a heatwave. Grid reliability has come to the fore because the decarbonization of electricity generation is not all fun, games, and zero-emission power.

The U.S. grid, as it is now, cannot support the massive shift to low-carbon power generation, Westhaven Power says. Operators need better control of regional grids to be able to anticipate dangerous situations like the ones in Texas and California, but obtaining it would become trickier with more intermittent wind and solar feeding the grid, the utility explains.

"What events in Texas and California demonstrate is the shortcomings of having highly-centralised power systems and the true value of resilience and flexibility in our energy grids, a value that is going to become even more vital as we continue to transition to renewable energy," says Dr. Toby Gill, the chief executive of UK-based climate tech startup Intelligent Power Generation....

Resiliency is back in vogue.

"Reliability and resilience – even in the face of extreme events – is achieved through diversity, redundancy, and modularization. Co-locating energy supply with demand through microgrids and other DERs [distributed energy resources] is an important step in preventing widespread crises like this in the future," according to Mark Feasel, Smart Grid president, Schneider Electric North America.

"In both cases [Texas and California], the strain could have been reduced with distributed resources, such as batteries and solar, as well as demand response tools, like smart thermostats with utility control," says K.C. Boyce, vice president of human insights firm Escalent's energy division. "However, Texas has limited distributed resources and demand response, and while California has lots of distributed resources, it doesn't have a good way of coordinating those resources, nor does it really have demand response tools to call on."...

Oilprice
The U.S. Grid Isn’t Ready For A Major Shift To Renewables
Irina Slav

Neoliberal "competition" in the vaccine world.

Big Pharma is fighting for tight control over Covid-19 vaccine production, limiting availability worldwide while reaping billions.

The Intercept
Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Foreign Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines

Lee Fang

See also

Jacobin
Finland Had a Patent-Free COVID-19 Vaccine Nine Months Ago — But Still Went With Big Pharma
Ilari Kaila and Joona-Hermanni Mäkinen

Also

KHN

They [Oxford University] Pledged to Donate Rights to Their COVID Vaccine, Then Sold Them to Pharma

Jay Hancock

Teaching Current Monetary Policy — Timothy Taylor

Catching up.

Conversable Economist
Teaching Current Monetary Policy
Timothy Taylor | Managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, based at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota

Is the U.S. Going the Way of Afghanistan? — James Bovard

 The US is now deeply divided ideologically, which implies socially and politically also, since the two halves of the population see the world entirely differently, giving rise to "alternative facts."

The upshot of this condition is the necessity of one side controlling the narrative to capture the middle, which constitutes the swing votes.

A foundational issue at present is the legitimacy of the government. This post is about that and it outlines the conservative stance for the 2020 presidential election being illegitimate. 

Whether one agree with the position or not, or even who may be correct, it is important to understand the reasoning behind it as the basis for "stop the steal." 

Former president Trump continues to assert that he won the election, and this post explains the legal basis for this claim. The further claim is that these issues were never properly litigated in court.

You decide.

Whatever, some states, including Iowa where I live, are tightening down on the election laws making it more difficult to vote by shortening the period of early voting and restricting the procedure regarding absentee ballots, changing the conditions that prevailed in the recent election, ostensibly owing to the emergency conditions resulting from the pandemic.

Ironically, the US has managed to create domestic conditions resembling those it is trying to create in targets for regime change. Moreover, some are projecting this as the result of inference by US adversaries rather than being homegrown.

AIER
Is the U.S. Going the Way of Afghanistan?
James Bovard

Imperialism Is Capitalism’s Life Support System: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix — Caitlin Johnstone

Capitalism is collectivism in denial. Money only works the way it works and exists the way it exists because we all collectively agree to pretend that those made-up, imaginary conceptual constructs are real. The collective is free to change that collective agreement at any time.

Capitalism is collectivism. If the collective wants to switch to another form of collectivism that doesn’t let people starve and die for not having enough imaginary numbers in their bank accounts, the collective is free to change the rules of its collective improvisation.

❖

Becoming more conservative as you age isn’t maturity, it’s an admission that your values are based entirely on securing your own net worth....

CaitlinJohnstone.com
Imperialism Is Capitalism’s Life Support System: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Caitlin Johnstone

"History 2.0" - Blurb by Jeffrey Sachs — Frank Li

Short comment on Frank Li's new book.

econinterest
"History 2.0" - Blurb by Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor

The ideological function of economic theories and models — Andri W. Stahel

... economists seem to be undeterred by these new understandings brought to physics or even by the blow brought to Newton’s mechanics by 20th-century quantum physics and Einstein’s relativity. They continue to stick to classical mechanics as if nothing had changed in the way physician understand the physical world. Nor are they bothered by the way other social and political sciences came to understand the social world; or how in neurosciences and psychology, the understanding of the working of the human brain is undoubtedly far-removed from the assumption of “rational behaviour” economists like to base their models on. As have neoclassic economists never seriously asked themselves whether the mathematical equations resulting from leaving aside all potential friction and nuisances while establishing models of the economic reality bear any meaning describing actual reality and real-world events.…

Real-World Economics Review Blog
The ideological function of economic theories and models

extract from 

real-world economics review, issue no. 94

Is economics a science? 

Andri W. Stahel, Universitat Popular del Baix Montseny, UPBM, Barcelona, Spain

See also

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
General equilibrium illusions
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Lars P. Syll— MMT perspective on Biden’s $1.9-trillion big spend

The size of public debt and deficits is not — as already Abba Lerner argued with his ‘functional finance’ theory in the 1940s — a policy objective. The size of public debt and deficits are what they are when we try to fulfil our basic economic objectives — full employment and price stability.

Governments can spend whatever amount of money they want. That does not mean that MMT says they ought to — that’s something our politicians have to decide. No MMTer denies that too much of government spendings can be inflationary. What is questioned is that government deficits necessarily is inflationary.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
MMT perspective on Biden’s $1.9-trillion big spend
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Bill Mitchell — Australian national accounts – second quarter of strong growth but still below where economy was a year ago

Coming off a low base. That is how to view the latest data release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics of the – Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, December 2020 (released March 3, 2020). It shows that the Australian economy grew by 3.1 per cent in the December-quarter after growing by 3.4 per cent in the September-quarter. But the economy is still 1.1 per cent smaller than it was this time last year. The other thing to take from the data is that it once again confirms that nations that took the virus elimination strategy have done the best in economic terms compared to those nation which resisted tight lockdowns and other restrictions and are still enduring high infection rates and stalled economies. Household Consumption expenditure rose strongly as opportunities to spend increased and disposable income recovered somewhat. How long this considerable rebound can continue is another question. With the government fiscal support due to end soon and the base now higher, the coming quarters will not be as robust. And remember that the economy is still 1.1 per cent smaller and the labour market is still struggling and the Government’s fiscal support will still be required in certain sectors, which are still unable to achieve recovery (arts, tourism)....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Australian national accounts – second quarter of strong growth but still below where economy was a year ago
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Budget Day 2021 — NeilW

It’s budget day here in the UK, and traditionally that means commentators write what they would do instead. Here’s the MMT view.

New Wayland
Budget Day 2021

NeilW

Modern Monetary Theory and the Expansion: Ebook Pre-Order — Brian Romanchuk

My latest book Modern Monetary Theory and the Expansion will be released on March 11, 2021 in e-book formats. It is available for pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and others to be added. The paperback edition will be available in about a month....

Bond Economics
Modern Monetary Theory and the Expansion: Ebook Pre-Order
Brian Romanchuk

US Treasury account back over $1.5T

 

This account balance was planned on Feb 1st to be reduced by $800b by end of March... so ofc they have only reduced it by $100b in 4 weeks... if they are still planning (moron journos? Bueller?) on hitting the $800b balance by end March then they going to have to reduce it by the remaining $700b in 4 weeks...

Warren urged U.S. regulators to reject banks’ requests to ease capital requirements

You knew this was going to happen.... "screw the banksters!".... now we have to see if Dems let her win this one...

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown urged U.S. regulators to reject banks’ requests to extend an easing of capital requirements https://t.co/YJCkVu1SJs

— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) March 2, 2021

China Never Sleeps - The Rise of Megacities

 

Sputnik — Huawei's AppGallery Rivals Google, Apple With 530m Users, Major Growth in 2020 Despite US Trade Bans

"Outcompeting China."

Sputnik International
Huawei's AppGallery Rivals Google, Apple With 530m Users, Major Growth in 2020 Despite US Trade Bans

Biden's Trade Agenda Reflects More Hardline Stance Against China in Rules, Experts Say

China Aims for Tech Independence Amid Looming Cut-Throat Race With US

Zero Hedge
Futures Spooked After China Says "Very Worried" About Bubbles In US, European Markets

Tyler Durden

Aperture - The Real Meaning of Life

 One day our Sun will burn out and  expand to devour the Earth.

Then our galaxy will burn out too, and all the other galaxies, after which the universe will die.

All the stars will become black holes and evaporate to nothing.

Everything gone.

It's sad! 

Noam Chomsky - Privatisation

 In China the state industries performed so well during Covid that the CPC decided to increase their influence.

“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”

— Noam Chomsky

Bill Mitchell — Were are undermining our futures by deliberately wasting our youth

What simple measures might we use to see whether a system is working or not? Well that depends on the objective of the system. For me, one of the worst things that can happen in a social context is a capitalist system is involuntary unemployment because work is intrinsic to our beings. From the time we crawled out of the slime we have had to transform nature in order to survive. That reality goes to the heart of human existence and gives us purpose and builds our sense of network and cooperation and giving. I know all the arguments – this is a filthy capitalist system and why would we want people to be wage slaves – I am older now. I have been a left-winger all my life. I heard these arguments decades ago. And until those revolutionary armies that are apparently hiding out in the suburbs arms themselves and appear in the streets, I am thinking of the actual societies we live in and have to make the best of. We would spend our whole life times talking about revolution while workers around the world are being made to bear the costs of the failing neoliberal system....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Were are undermining our futures by deliberately wasting our youth
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

See also

CaitlinJohnstone.com
There’s Only One News Story, Repeating Over And Over Again
Caitlin Johnstone

Lars P. Syll — Keynes on models and economics

Keeper quote. The implication is that organic modeling is more applicable to economics and other social sciences than mechanistic modeling owing to the nature of the subject matter.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Keynes on models and economics
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University