US efforts to ban TikTok are pure projection by the world’s biggest spy power — Timur Fomenko

Washington is used to controlling the planet’s top tech companies and doesn’t want anyone to threaten its surveillance domination.

The predictable result of this trend toward "weaponization" of commerce is already leading to de-dollarization, another consequence will likely be a bifurcation of the Internet into US-controlled areas and areas isolated from not only US control but also US access. 

Worse, it could spark Internet atomization, as countries attempt to protect themselves and the privacy of their citizens, as China does already. The call to emulate China in this regard is rising in other countries, notably Russia.

Related to this is the subversive activity not only of foreign intelligence agencies directly but also indirectly through NGOs. The trend to ban foreign NGOs and to closely oversee funds flowing from overseas is also growing.

Meanwhile, "globalization" is on pause as neoliberal globalization imposed as a US-led "rules-based order" is now dead in the water owing to weaponization. For example, the basis of the neoliberal "rules-based order is free markets, free trade, and free capital flows." Economic weaponization is strangling all three. 

The result is the rise of a new world order (world system) based on the UN charter and international law that applies equally to all sovereign nations (multipolarism) instead of under US hegemony and Western domination (unipolarism).

 

As the title of the article implies, the US that is already doing what it is accusing others of.

RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)
US efforts to ban TikTok are pure projection by the world’s biggest spy power
Timur Fomenko, a political analyst

See also

MR Online
TikTok on trial: The latest front in the U.S. tech war on China

Editor

OPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymore — M.K. Bhadrakumar

Uncharted territory that doesn't look friendly for the West.

India Punchline
OPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymore
M.K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service and former ambassador.

See also

The Cradle
Saudi Arabia makes its Eurasian shift
Agha Hussain

Also

RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)

More countries may join oil production cut – Moscow

The U.S. is trying to persuade China to commit suicide — John Ross

The article attempts to show how the US has had an anti-competitive stance for almost a century and in particular since WWII. China is now in the crosshairs of it.

This analysis also suggests how the US is reducing the competitiveness of the EU/EZ similarly. The EU was founded on the realization that European countries could only compete with the US by forming an economic bloc. 

This is a short article with documentation rather than a blog post.

MR Online

The U.S. is trying to persuade China to commit suicide
John Ross, senior fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China and formerly director of economic policy for the mayor of London

Zero Hedge — NATO Chief Wants Allies to Pledge Half-Billion Yearly To Ukraine

Gives new meaning to the term, "welfare state."

Zero Hedge
NATO Chief Wants Allies to Pledge Half-Billion Yearly To Ukraine
Tyler Durden

Andrew Korybko — The Internationalization Of India’s Rupee Is An Emerging Financial Trend Worth Monitoring

India aims to consolidate its emerging leadership in the Global South, which explains the priority focus that’s now being given to internationalizing the rupee. Upon making significant progress on this, it’ll then be able to function as an independent pole of economic influence across Afro-Eurasia, taking full advantage of its geostrategic location to accelerate South-South integration processes.

De-dollarization is the top financial trend of this decade, but it concerns much more than just the internationalization of China’s yuan – including its speculatively forthcoming petroyuan variant – and the Alt-Media Community’s unrealistically high hopes about BRICS’ planned reserve currency. One of the emerging aspects worth monitoring is the internationalization of India’s rupee, which is proceeding apace and gradually generating more media attention....

India has a population comparable to China and while China's population is declining, India's is increasing. It's becoming recognized that India is going to play a major role in the 21st century. The rupee benefits from that. For example, India and Russia are now using their currencies for trade, avoiding the Western-dominated dollar/euro/pound-based financial system.

Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The Internationalization Of India’s Rupee Is An Emerging Financial Trend Worth Monitoring
Andrew Korybko, American geopolitical analyst and independent journalist based in Moscow, and member of the expert council for the Institute of Strategic Studies and Predictions at the People’s Friendship University of Russia

Also from AK

There’s no doubt that BRICS’ planned creation of a new reserve currency will accelerate de-dollarization processes and advance financial multipolarity, but that’s very different from the dollar’s death that many folks prematurely predicted....

Popular Expectations About BRICS’ New Currency Project Should Be Tempered

Also

The De-Dollarization Of Brazilian-Chinese Trade Sheds More Light On Lula’s Grand Strategy

Pentagon fake news about Chinese fast breeder reactors — Jonathan Tennenbaum

Assistant Secretary of Defense John Plumb knew better when characterizing Russia-China reactor cooperation as a nuclear weapon threat...

What's up then? Demonizing Russia and China? Probably, but there is more to milk from the story.

The disinformation about China’s fast breeders offered by the Pentagon and others misses the key point: China and Russia are poised to dominate the world’s entire nuclear power sector, while the US and other Western countries have for decades been downsizing and even dismantling their nuclear industries.

China is currently pursuing by far the world’s largest nuclear power program, including the most innovative reactor types. Russia, the world’s leader in fast breeder reactors and a number of other key areas of nuclear technology, is today by far the world’s largest exporter of nuclear power plants and has a nearly dominant position in many global nuclear supply chains. 

Together, China and Russia are set to capture the vast emerging market for nuclear power in developing countries – a circumstance of great strategic importance....

Asia Times
Pentagon fake news about Chinese fast breeder reactors
Jonathan Tennenbaum

Simplicius, The Thinker — The Truth About Russia's Economic Power: Is It Really as Small and Weak as the West Claims?

Non-MMT and pro-Russia but the analysis contains a lot of numbers and other information that sets the record straight about comparing economies. Although it doesn't mention it, the CIA regards PPP as a more accurate measure than NGDP in assessing national capability as a measure of power.

Simplicius, The Thinker used to publish sitreps on the conflict in Ukraine at The Saker as Nightvision. The Saker blog is no longer operational. Now he publishes at Substack.

Simplicius, The Thinker
The Truth About Russia's Economic Power: Is It Really as Small and Weak as the West Claims?

See also

The Unz Review
Playing a Game of "Fool's Mate" on the Grand Eurasian Chessboard

Ron Unz

Danny Haiphong and Michael Hudson Discuss The Collapse of Antiquity, the Bank Panic (video and transcript)

 The Collapse of Antiquity is Michael Hudson's new book.

Video and transcript.

Naked Capitalism
Danny Haiphong and Michael Hudson Discuss The Collapse of Antiquity, the Bank Panic,

Public Pensions And Net Debt — Brian Romanchuk

Some Canadian conservatives were predictably angry last week when the Federal Liberal government highlighted Canada’s relatively low net debt. They want to instead focus on the gross debt, which moved in a different direction. (The figure above shows the gross and net financial liabilities of the “general government” — includes provincial governments. Canadian provincial governments have a big economic footprint, and in order for the debt figures to be comparable to international peers, you want to look at the general government. Otherwise, the Canadian government looks to be a misleadingly small part of the economy…

I do not have time to dig into all of the sources of the divergences between gross debt and net financial liabilities, but I want to discuss one that was raised — the role of public sector pension funds. My old employer was the Quebec public asset manager that has a long history, and the Canadian Federal government created its own in 1997, and has grown to a very large size (by the standards of the Canadian market)....

Bond Economics
Public Pensions And Net Debt
Brian Romanchuk

William Mitchell — Fiscal policy can always protect employment, incomes and business solvency if there is political will

I was at the optometrist the other day getting my regular eye test and all the person doing the test wanted to talk about was whether we were heading into recession. I think he was toying with buying a new apartment to live in and was trying to assess risk with the rising interest rate regime and all the negative talk. I actually don’t like giving that sort of advice to people I am dealing with in that sort of relationship. But it is a good question – and there is evidence either way. First, it is clear that governments can always protect employment, incomes and business solvency with appropriate fiscal policy interventions. Second, it is less clear on what monetary policy does and that is the issue – eventually interest rate rises will cause certain sectors, such as construction, to encounter difficulties and start laying off workers and recording bankruptcies. But the problem is that monetary policy is such a crude instrument that the damage is done before we really can measure it....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Fiscal policy can always protect employment, incomes and business solvency if there is political will
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Marco Rubio Accidentally Makes A Great Argument Against US Dollar Hegemony — Caitlin Johnstone

The USD as a "nuclear" weapon. It is the preferred weapon in that it leaves everything intact while submitting the recalcitrants to US-elites will. But, ironically, use of the weapon weakens the weapon as other countries develop counters to it, such as alternative payments systems and import substitution that build selfsufficiency.

CaitlinJohnstone.com
Marco Rubio Accidentally Makes A Great Argument Against US Dollar Hegemony
Caitlin Johnstone

Public Affairs — The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton available as ebook for $3.99.

Public Affairs
The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton available as ebook for $3.99.

ECNS — Zhang Yuyan: How does China find its new path as a major country under the threat of the "Kindleberger Trap"?

 Professor Zhang Yuyan, Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Senior Fellow of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, said in a W.E. Talk exclusive interview with China News Service, that Kindleberger’s research in essence is about the old “Collective Action Problem” in economics. To avoid the “Kindleberger Trap”, the international community not only needs to solve the “Collective Action Problem” by institutional reforms and innovations for a just and reasonable international order through joint efforts but also needs to dispel misgivings, strengthen cooperation, and share the responsibility for global governance to build a human community with a shared future.

Important. Should-read.

ECNS (Chinese official English news service)
Zhang Yuyan: How does China find its new path as a major country under the threat of the "Kindleberger Trap"?

New issue of Real-World Economics Review

 Some interesting items.

Real-World Economics Review Blog
new issue of Real-World Economics Review

Wall Street Journal-NORC poll — Sliding Confidence: Majority Of Americans Question The Value Of College

A new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll reveals that a majority of Americans believe a college degree isn't worth the cost and time. Sliding confidence in the higher education system indicates that the American Dream can be achieved without a college degree.

If this represents a developing trend, it potentially presages cultural and institutional realignment. 

Zero Hedge
Sliding Confidence: Majority Of Americans Question The Value Of College
Tyler Durden

Defense One — Milley: Don’t Invade Mexico

 This is not the Onion. Looks like the military is afraid that the civilians have lost their marbles (they have) in promoting the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex).

Defense One[

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark] Milley: Don’t Invade Mexico
Kevin Baron, Executive Editor of Defense One

See also at Defense One

‘Lower the Rhetoric’ on China, Says Milley

My podcast interview with MMT professor Randy Wray.

RT — Russian central bank reveals how it braced for Western dollar grab

The Bank of Russia had been preparing for an escalation of Western sanctions since 2014 and was beefing up additional funds as a hedge against future restrictions on its foreign exchange reserves, the regulator revealed on Wednesday.

Amid “increasing geopolitical risks” the central bank ramped up investments in assets “that cannot be blocked by unfriendly nations” and transferred part of its reserves to gold, Chinese yuan and foreign currency in cash, the regulator announced in its annual report.

The central bank managed to stash billions of imported dollars “in volumes limited by logistics capabilities,” the report said without specifying the amount of accumulated funds. Alternative reserves in dollars and gold bars have been stockpiled in the vaults of the Bank of Russia.

“This safety cushion was created in the form of alternative reserves – less liquid and convenient in everyday life, but more reliable in the face of a tough geopolitical scenario,” the regulator explained....

RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)

Russian central bank reveals how it braced for Western dollar grab

V. Ramanan — Nicholas Kaldor On Monetary Policy And Stability Of Financial Instituitions

Via Eric Tymoigne’s blog post, I came across this quote from Nicholas Kaldor in 1982 (page 13) on stability/solvency of financial institutions, especially relevant in recent times:

The Case for Concerted Action
Nicholas Kaldor On Monetary Policy And Stability Of Financial Instituitions

V. Ramanan

Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson — The Treasury Privatized?

RADHIKA DESAI: Hello everyone, and welcome to the sixth Geopolitical Economy Hour, the fortnightly show on the political and geopolitical economy of our time. I’m Radhika Desai.

MICHAEL HUDSON: And I’m Michael Hudson.

RADHIKA DESAI: As you know, the last time when we closed we were scheduled to do our fourth and final show on the subject of dedollarization. However, as you know, the best laid plans can be thrown awry by, as Harold MacMillan said, “Events, my dear boy, events.”

Since we published the fifth show we’ve had what looks like the biggest financial crisis since 2008 and 2020 on our hands, with the usual flurries of bailouts and emergency actions, which in other words amounts simply to a socialism for the rich.

So of course Michael and I had to devote our show today to that topic.

Video and transcript.

Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
The Treasury Privatized?
Radhika Desai, Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; and 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

Von der Leyen calls for de-risking EU-China relations in speech to MERICS — J.Heller

Delusional, still captured by the colonial mindset.

Merics
Von der Leyen calls for de-risking EU-China relations in speech to MERICS
J.Heller

See also

Project Syndicate
Destructive Decoupling
Michael Spence | Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics Emeritus and a former dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Senior Adviser to General Atlantic, and Chairman of the firm’s Global Growth Institute. He serves on the Academic Committee at Luohan Academy, and chairs the Advisory Board of the Asia Global Institute.

Review of Crotty's "Keynes Against Capitalism" (forthcoming in ROKE) — Matias Vernengo

It should not be a surprise that John Maynard Keynes is often seen as being relatively conservative by many progressively inclined or radical economists, that often tend to prefer the views of Michal Kalecki, or the more radical approach of Keynes’ favorite disciple, Joan Robinson. That is not the case in James Crotty’s book Keynes Against Capitalism, who takes a diametrically opposite view. He tells us that: “It is almost universally believed that Keynes wrote his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money [GT from now on], to save capitalism from the socialist, communist, and fascist forces that were rising up during the Great Depression era”, but in his view, that “was not the case with respect to socialism. The historical record shows that Keynes wanted to replace then-current capitalism in Britain with what he referred to as ‘Liberal Socialism’” (Crotty, 2019: 1-2). His Keynes was anti-capitalist and, in some sense, a socialist. The notion that Keynes was a socialist often encounters as much resistance as the notion that he was somewhat conservative, of course....

If Crotty is to be believed, it looks like Keynes held that the government needed to control the commanding heights of the economy and to shape it for public purpose through policy, which is one way to look at socialism as an economic system. This view is closer to ordoliberalism than to classical liberalism.

Not long and worth a read. While not directly related to MMT is related indirectly. Rightly or wrongly, MMT is associated with Keynes, and it is arguably a synthesis chiefly of Post Keynesianism and institutional economics, although at least some MMT economists would take issue with this characterization.

Naked Keynesianism — Hemlock for economics students
Review of Crotty's "Keynes Against Capitalism" (forthcoming in ROKE)
Matias Vernengo | Professor of Economics, Bucknell University and formerly Senior Research Manager at the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) and an external consultant to several United Nations organizations like the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

QE/QT And Deposits — Brian Romanchuk

Things seem to be calming down in financial markets, which could be interpreted in one of two ways. The benign interpretation is that a few weak banks failed, but the rest of the financial system is in decent shape. The paranoid interpretation is that crises occur in stages, with pauses between the key failures. So far, I lean towards the benign interpretation — there are some areas of weakness, but not a lot of visible credit failures in the real economy. Things will deteriorate as the cycle ages, but such is the fate of capitalist finance.
I just wanted to comment on bank deposits, which has been attracting some attention. My initial reaction is that we should expect some reversal in deposit growth as the Fed reverses its balance sheet growth. However, the figure above was not exactly what I expected....

Bond Economics
QE/QT And Deposits
Brian Romanchuk

The National Debt Ceiling and How Money is Created — jasciu

MMT for the "left." It's a reasonably good explanation of how a currency issuer is different from a currency user. Reading the comments section is depressing. The so-called left is about as clueless as the so-called 'right," e.g., as represented in the comments section at ZH. It seems doubtful that either of these heavily programmed groups will ever get it. However, here there are also commentors supporting MMT, holding out hope that the "left" isn't totally brainwashed.

Daily Kos
The National Debt Ceiling and How Money is Created
jasciu

Summer School on “Modern Monetary Policy and European Macroeconomics” (Maastricht, July/August 2023) — Dirk Ehnts

Modern Monetary Theory and European Macroeconomics

This course provides an introduction to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). During the course, students will examine the balance sheets and transactions that are relevant for understanding modern money, with a focus on the Eurozone. Furthermore, alternative explanations are brought forward that include, among others, the idea that governments spend first and collect taxes later...

econoblog 101
Summer School on “Modern Monetary Policy and European Macroeconomics” (Maastricht, July/August 2023)
Dirk Ehnts | Lecturer at Bard College Berlin, research assistant at the Technical University of Chemnitz, and spokesperson of the board of Pufendorf-Gesellschaft in Berlink

William Mitchell — When mainstream economists arrive at ideas 50 or so years late and pretend to be contributing to knowledge

I regularly encounter mainstream economists who are confounded by the dissonance that the body of theory they have been working in introduces and then seem to think they have come up with new ideas that restores their credibility. The more extreme version of this tendency is called plagiarism in academic circles. But the less extreme version is to produce some work in which you conveniently ignore the main contributors in history but hold out implicitly that the ideas are somehow your own. As mainstream economics fumbles through this period where the fictional world they operate in and push onto students is increasingly being revealed as a fraud, several economists are trying to distance themselves from the train wreck by resorting to restating ideas that in a period past they would have criticised a ‘pop science’. This syndrome is an accompaniment to the well established ‘we knew it all along’ or ‘there is nothing new here’ defenses that are often used when new ideas make the mainstream uncomfortable. I saw this again in a recent article from the British-based Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) which discusses the way modern banks work – How monetary policy affects bank lending and financial stability: A ‘credit creation theory of banking’ explanation (March 20, 2023). The problem is that heterodox economists knew this from years ago including with the seminal work in the early 1970s of Canadian economist – Basil Moore. The other problem is that the CEPR authors choose not to credit the seminal authors in the reference list, which I think is poor form....

I suspect that this behavior, serious as it is, may be owing to lack of knowledge of the field rather than intent. Most convention economists seems to be ignorant of anything that is not included in the domain of conventional economics, treating it a irrelevant. This is unprofessional, needless to say, and it goes beyond "poor form." It is amateurish.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
When mainstream economists arrive at ideas 50 or so years late and pretend to be contributing to knowledge
Bill Mitchell |rofessor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

William Mitchell — Inflation drops sharply in Australia but it is not the work of the RBA

 While this post is specific to Australia, the reasons for the recent spike in "inflation" are not unique to Australia. The inflation that is now turning out to be transitory was not the result of a wage-price spiral as central bank models assume. Rather, it was a consequence of supply shocks owing to the pandemic followed by sanctions in response to the conflict in Ukraine. Now that supply chains are beginning to function again or have been replaced or substituted, the inflation metrics are falling, as economists like Bill that were predicting transitory inflation had argued.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Inflation drops sharply in Australia but it is not the work of the RBA
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia P

What's wrong? — David Weakliem

 

WSJ survey results.

Just the social facts, ma'am
What's wrong?
David Weakliem | professor of sociology (retired) at the University of Connecticut

Modern Monetary Theory: The Right Compass for Decision-Making — Dirk Ehnts

In the November/December 2021 issue of Intereconomics, Françoise Drumetz and Christian Pfister examine Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and approach it from the policy consequences that would follow. This paper is a reply to Drumetz and Pfister. It restates the core of MMT and offers some suggestions for central banks. Theories are explanations of what we see, and MMT describes money creation and destruction. Hence, MMT cannot be and is not a political manifesto. In contrast to most other theories of money, MMT is falsifiable in its core statements, which are based on a balance sheet approach to macroeconomics. Since many central banks already educate the public about the creation of modern money through bank lending, it would be most welcome if they would do the same for the creation of modern money through government spending. Here, MMT and central bankers can find common ground to move forward and leave the theory of loanable funds and that of the money multiplier behind….

Intereconomics — Review of European Economic Policy
Modern Monetary Theory: The Right Compass for Decision-Making
Dirk Ehnts, Hochschule Magedburg-Stendal, Germany

ECB can't go bankrupt even it suffers losses - Christine Lagarde

“As the sole issuer of euro-denominated central bank money, the Eurosystem will always be able to generate additional liquidity as needed,” [ECB President Christine] Lagarde said in response to a question by an Italian member of the European Parliament.

“So, by the definition, it will neither go bankrupt nor run out of money. In addition to that, any financial losses, should they occur, would not impair our ability to seek and maintain price stability.…"

Reuters
ECB can't go bankrupt even it suffers losses