Washington is pushing to make the tax regime voluntary — a position Le Maire strongly opposes, as most of the biggest tech firms hail from the U.S.A voluntary "tax" is not a tax. Simple as that. If it’s voluntary, it’s charity (philanthropy).POLITICOFrance reinstates digital tax, courting trade warBjarke Smith-Meyer, Elisa Braun

What the U.S. still could do is to honestly compete with China. But that would require humility, a strong industrial policy and a well paid and competitive work force.Neither of that is in sight.…Easier said than done. Owing to national security issues. as well as cultural and institutional differences, neither country is interested in a level playing field, and both are preparing for a lose-lose scenario to unfold for the foreseeable future. This will, of course, impact the rest of the world, and different countries are considering their options.Moon of AlabamaU.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China

Carlos Alberto Libanio Christo, better known as Frei Betto, is a recognized Latin American progressive reference and one of the main figures of the Theology of Liberation.Catholic socialism. Liberation theology tends to be to the left of Catholic social teaching, which steers a middle course between capitalism and socialism. Brazilian Frei Betto views neoliberalism as leaning toward neo-fascism, in particular in Brazil. Internationalist 360ºFrei Betto: “It is Totally Naive to Want to Humanize CapitalismBárbara Schijman

Robert Lighthizer and the Trump administration (for whom Steve Bannon was the initial spokesman before he was forced out) pitted themselves against neoliberal globalization on one hand, and the capitalist establishment on the other. Big chunk to bite off, to be sure. They made some inroads, but none that are permanent, lasting beyond a change of administrations. If DJT wins the election, they might have more success. If not, it’s likely back to business as usual.ProPublicaRobert Lighthizer Blew Up 60 Years of Trade Policy. Nobody Knows What Happens Next.Lydia DePillis

In this post, I continue the draft of sections of my forthcoming book, “Marxian Economics: An Introduction.” The first five posts (here, here, here, here, and here) will serve as the basis for chapter 1, Marxian Economics Today. The text of this post is for Chapter 2, Marxian Economics Versus Mainstream Economics (following on from the previous posts, here, here, here, here, and here).Occasional Links & CommentaryMainstream economics then: classical political economyDavid F. Ruccio | Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Notre Dame

We will update this analysis tomorrow once we have the full bank data, however the take home message for now is that the next time someone says that under fractional reserve banking deposits are always a consequence of loan creation – one of the core pillar of such idiotic theories as MMT – just show them the chart above."Loans create deposits," doesn’t specify a quantifier. ZH assumes this says that all loans create all deposits, whereas it is plain that the MMT assertion is that all bank loans create some bank deposits." For example, MMT asserts that government spending creates bank deposits independently of bank lending. So the total of bank loans will not necessarily be the total of bank deposits in a period.ZH has the MMT position wrong.Zero HedgeWhich Came First: Loans Or Deposits?

Energy security. It’s more about alternatives to imported energy supplies than renewables. China is going nuclear.OilpriceThe Real Reason China Is Betting Big On RenewablesHaley ZarembaSputnik InternationalTrade War Heats Up as China Threatens to Cut Off Coal Imports From Australia

Shot across the bow.Zero HedgeChina Inexplicably Cancels iPhone Launch LivestreamTyler Durden

I divide macroeconomic models into two classes: teaching models, and empirical models. Teaching models are far more common, and most economic arguing about these models. An alternative name for them is "toy models," which points to the weakness of this class. They are not fit to real-world data, and so there is no reason to expect them to offer useful predictions. More dangerously, the class of teaching models is so wide that almost all scenarios can be seen as the result of such a model (barring things like violating accounting identities). This explains why we can find neoclassical economists arguing the opposite sides of political issues, despite being in the same theoretical school of thought. Empirical models offer predictive content, and to what extent they are accurate, can

These could be propaganda videos but somehow I don’t think they are because they are far too casual. I’m not sure who Anne Gurley is, but I think she might be a Uyghur model who makes lots of videos of herself, her family, and her community for her fans. Pompeo and CJ Werlerman say 8 million Uyghurs are in concentration camps or have gone missing, but there are only 12.3 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, so all their communities would be stressed if that were true. There is no distress being shown in these videos. [embedded content]Out and about in the Uyghur community. [embedded content]A fun day out shopping in Xinjiang. [embedded content]

Nine people have developed asymptomatic Coronavirus in Qingdao, China, so the city is going to test all of its 10 million inhabitants within the next five days. It’s amazing, but also look at the quality of the city’s beautiful infrastructure. The whole place is like it.[embedded content]Dining out in Xinjiang Anne Gurley takes us on a guided tour of the restaurants in Xinjiang, and shows us some delicious Uyghur specialities. [embedded content]https://t.co/zkfZG9Dobi

A view from abroad. How some others see us.Not as much about the election as the state of the union.KatehonGeopolitics of American ElectionsAlexander Dugan

Justice officials in Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US say they need access to encrypted apps to police online criminality.India and Japan, which cooperate in intelligence with the Five Eyes group, added their names to the statement.And NSA already pick up everything else.SCMPFive Eyes group demands ‘backdoor’ access to WhatsApp and other encrypted appsAFP

Well, at least now we know unambiguously why we are there.Sputnik InternationalUS Moves to ‘Secure the Oil’ in Syria by Building New Base in Crude-Rich Deir ez-Zor

Why there will be no Asian alliance with the US (and Australia) against China. The game is already over. The dragon has flown.India PunchlineQuad won’t fly. This is why.M.K. Bhadrakumar | retired diplomat with the Indian Foreign ServiceSee alsoRTBeijing urges Asian nations to unite against Washington’s ‘old-fashioned cold war mentality’

More than 5,000 Michigan residents have been infected by coronavirus in new and ongoing school-related outbreaks, according to data released Monday, Oct. 12, by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.That includes 346 students and staff at outbreaks in 46 schools serving preschoolers through high school. The K-12 clusters include outbreaks involving before- and after-school programs.The bulk of the cases — 4,862 — involve outbreaks on or around 29 college campuses.Coronavirus outbreaks reported at 70 Michigan K-12 schools and 29 colleges in Oct. 12 reportct-12-report.htmlCoronavirus – Red States vs Blue States [embedded content]

When a nation or region is experiencing the worst crisis the IMF always comes to the party and makes it worse. The latest evidence from those who study the detail of IMF interventions across the globe have found that the IMF has imposed harsh conditionalities (healthcare spending cuts, cuts to jobless assistance, cuts to public service wages and employment) in 76 out of the 91 loans it has extended to nations in peril as a result of the pandemic. On the other hand, data show that the wealth of billionaires has scaled new heights between April 2020 to July 2020 – a 42.4 per cent increase in their total wealth. If all that doesn’t tell us that the neoliberal system has overextended it indecency and rebellion is required then what else would? The point is that when disaster strikes the

Creativity is a relatively new concept. It is largely a psychological one and denotes an ability whose application leads to innovation, either discovery or invention. Creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but it is part of a system that falls under the category of human potential.Creativity thrives on curiosity, and in this regard, every child is a creative genius. Unfortunately, this is an ability that doesn’t necessary grow and stick as one matures. The challenge of education is how to let that happen by not getting in the way of its natural progression. Once the ability is diminished or lost, it is difficult to recover.Steven Shapin tours the history of the concept.AeonThe rise and rise of creativitySteven Shapin | Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at

From the perspective of a fixed income practitioner, the easiest way to interpret dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models is that they are a form of arbitrage-free pricing models, albeit with a novel definition of arbitrage. This is not too controversial, as DSGE models are an extremely wide classification of models, and pricing models are one recognised sub-category. The issue is that if we look at DSGE macro models — models which have some resemblance to a core real business cycle (RBC) model — they inherit some of the limitations of such models. Furthermore, since there is no way to engage in such arbitrage trades in the real world, one is faced with the question why one would insist upon the required mathematical complexity needed to support them.(Note: this article

And that is a good thing. Were you ever in HK under the UK colonial governor? I was–several times. Great for the established, awful for most of the population considering HK wealth disparity. And no, HK was not democratic then. It was governed by a British-run colonial administration. The quicker HK becomes Chinese, the better off the people will be, and this will involve those now benefitting from the remnant of the British raj either changing or leaving. Most will likely leave as the gravy train ends and HK as a tax haven and money laundering center winds down.Those tears being wept over Hong Kong now are crocodile tears.SCMPMainland Chinese bankers are taking over Hong Kong’s financial sector, displacing their local peers in top rolesBloomberg

Trump can thank his inability or unwillingness to challenge traditional Republican ideology for his consistent polling deficit against Democratic nominee Joe Biden during this year’s election cycle, according to Saagar Enjeti, co-author of “The Populist’s Guide to 2020: A New Right and New Left Are Rising.” Enjeti ― who, like Krein, identifies as a right-wing populist ― believes that pro-corporate, trickle-down economics has been an especially tough sell amid the destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recession that has come with it. “Trump became a real Republican at the very worst time ― a time when Republican orthodoxy could not be less wanted by the American people,” Enjeti said. “That is why you see such devastation in terms of his public support ― even among

Corruption is just another form of economic rent extraction.Tax Research UKLawyers understand that this country is corrupt. So do medics. It’s time other professions did as well.I can accuse the government of being corrupt without fear now, because the evidence supports my case. And that’s profoundly worrying.Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy ForumSee alsoRenegade, Inc.Corruption at the Heart of the Prison System Lubnaa JoomunThe Daily Poster (as much about the Roberts Court as DJT, who seized the opportunity created by the court. Barrett will likely add to the problem based on her record)Trump Built His

Imposing the market state (neoliberalism).Mint PressIMF Seizes on Pandemic to Pave Way for Privatization in 81 CountriesAlan Macleod

A contrarian view of China.It might be cathartic to opine noisily about another country’s standards and practices, but there is substantial historical evidence to suggest that a country’s citizens will tend to value economic opportunity over most other issues. That axiom applies as much to the US, the UK, and Europe as it does to China….China is kicking ass economically. Might it be foolish to keep poking a dragon (along with a bear and griffin (huma in Persian)?Project SyndicateThe Logic of Sino-Western DétenteJim O’NeillChina is a huge country and it has learned to deal with both opportunities and challenges of scale by using a systems approach.RT9 million in 5 days: China’s Qingdao launches citywide Covid-19 testing campaign after new cases arrive from abroad

Interesting for two reasons. First, it takes us a step further in discovering the how of the origin of life on Earth. Secondly, it shows how science discovery works inductively by starting with observation to arrive at new hypotheses, rather than deductively by proceeding from existing theory.Quanta MagazineNew Clues to Chemical Origins of Metabolism at Dawn of LifeJohn Rennie

I have been arguing within the Scottish Currency Group recently, through a number of OPs and comments, that the MMT narrative about taxation is incomplete and presents a serious weakness in the MMT proposition. I want to explain why this weakness needs to be addressed…. Back to the Noble Lie. Progressive PulseMMT and Tax : a new narrative – A guest post by Jim Osborne

In this post, I continue the draft of sections of my forthcoming book, “Marxian Economics: An Introduction.” The first five posts (here, here, here, here, and here) will serve as the basis for chapter 1, Marxian Economics Today. The text of this post is for Chapter 2, Marxian Economics Versus Mainstream Economics (following on from the previous posts, here, here, here, and here).Occasional Links & CommentaryLimits of mainstream economics todayDavid F. Ruccio | Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Notre Dame My comment over there.A major distinction between mainstream "orthodox" economics from "fringe" heterodox economics lies in the way that treat economic rents and rent-seeking behavior. Classical economics was concerned with economic rent, and this analysis culminated in

Someone I follow put a tweet out under a Republican thread. The thread was very disturbing and was full of conservatives foaming at the mouth baying for China’s blood. They were saying that the CPC had taken over many Americans institutions, including the Democrats, the media, ect, and was underming American democracy. How can they believe this when nothing could be further from the truth. The media hammers China daily. It’s like a replay of the Democrat Russiagate conspiracy theory. I lost many Democrats followers on Twitter who liked the way I had debated with climate change deniers, but they soon unfollowed me when I said Russiagate was a hoax, and put out articles proving it. Two got very angry with me. The Dems have been almost at the point of wanting war with Russia, and many

‘Great news organisations … should introduce fact to disperse doubt’In an interview with the New York Times, Mr Murdoch expanded on the statement he gave when he left his father Rupert Murdoch’s company earlier this year, expressing his discomfort with the toxicity of Fox News and other media outlets owned by the company.The Independent James Murdoch says he quit father’s news empire because it legitimises ‘disinformation’.html