I hate the mainstream scoff.Do you know the mainstream scoff? It’s the scoff people who’ve been indoctrinated into the mainstream worldview make when you say something which falls outside that worldview. Something like “Nothing of substance has changed since the Trump administration.” Or “The west sided with al Qaeda in Syria.” Or “Check out this link to an article from an alternative media outlet.”It’s any kind of swift, vapid dismissal someone makes when you offer a perspective that isn’t a part of the mainstream perspective, solely on the basis that it is not part of the mainstream perspective. A laugh. A “Pfft!”. A “LOL”. A laugh-cry emoji. Whatever form it takes, the dismissal can be summed up as “That’s a fringe position, so I’m dismissing it.” Which is really just saying “That’s

Ukraine and Russia may be on the brink of war – with dire consequences for the whole of Eurasia. Let’s cut to the chase, and plunge head-on into the fog of war.The Unz ReviewUkraine Redux: War, Russophobia and PipelineistanPepe EscobarSee alsoInternationalist 360ºBiden, Pentagon, NATO Signal Readiness to Go to War against Russia Over UkraineBaltic: “NATO Allies and Partners from Across the Globe” Prepare for “Real-World Fight” with RussiaRick RozoffAlsoTASSKiev seeking to provoke Donbass to resort to force scenario — DPR’s top diplomatalsoDefend Democracy PressA Criminal (and stupid!) Empire: US is playing with fire in UkrainealsoSputnik InternationalRussian Ambassador Antonov’s Return to US Unlikely to Happen Soon – Foreign MinistryalsoSouthFrontUkrainian Foreign Minister Says Kiev

Kishore Mahbubani believes that the US would do better being an economic rival to China rather than enter an expensive cold war. The money would be better spent on the American people. The writer, a distinguished fellow at the National University of Singapore, is author of ‘Has China Won?’China is doing the opposite of the former Soviet Union. China believes the Soviet leaders failed because they lost touch with their own people, ignoring their welfare while engaged in foreign wars. China hasn’t fought a major war in 40 years. Unlike the Soviet Union, it controls military expenditures.No country has improved its people’s wellbeing as much as China. In terms of human development, the past 40 years have been the best four decades in 4,000 years of Chinese history.China still faces many

In order to reduce the complexity of real economic activity to equations, economists must in effect choose between supposing that there is one dominant technique for the production of each distinct commodity and supposing that there are an infinite number of techniques for the production of each distinct commodity. To put this point as simply and formulaically as I can, they have to decide whether they are going to use linear algebra or calculus. The neoclassical assumption of an infinity of alternative ways of combining inputs to produce an output lends itself to analysis using calculus and the classical assumption of a single dominant technique of production for each commodity finds its most natural expression in systems of linear equations.Linear algebra makes it possible to handle

These allegations are founded on one undeniable aspect of China’s manufacturing eco-system: its control by the Chinese state, despite the substantial increase in private ownership of manufacturing equity. But what is inadequately emphasized in this discourse is that, using power centralized in the State, China is managing what was seen in market systems as impossible without “rivalry”—the planned acceleration of research and development, invention and innovation that advances both market and political objectives.Of course, China could not have advanced as quickly without building on the achievements of the West. That’s what the distribution of knowledge is supposed to be about. In effort to preserve colonialism, the West established various means to hoard knowledge. That is short sighted

Hilarious.It used to be, "Anyone can become president," with hard work and luck. Now it’s, "Anyone can become a billionaire," — if they have something to parlay.While Kardashian West owns several properties in Calabasas and "a portfolio of blue-chip investments, including shares of Disney, Amazon, Netflix and Adidas," it is the companies that she "launched herself" that "land her on the World’s Billionaires list," as the magazine puts it.Sputnik International’Everything That’s Wrong With America’: Netizens Nonplussed as Kim Kardashian Becomes BillionaireAlso at SIIrina Volynets, founder of the National Parents Committee social movement, has proposed new regulations which would force fast food companies to apply health warning labels to their products, and provide detailed ingredient

Its Wednesday and only a short blog post day. I have been following the disaster unfolding in Timor-Leste over the last few days as I continue to compile research material as part of the development of a plan to increase the resilience of the Island state. We know that accumulating new public infrastructure is a key to the growth process. It crowds-in private investment, which leverages off the capacity provided by such infrastructure. A lack of essential public infrastructure is a major aspect of poverty and exclusion. While natural disasters impact on all nations when afflicted, the problem for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Timor-Leste is that they regularly face major capital destruction as a result of natural disasters and do not have the capacity to defend themselves and

Podcast and transcript of an interview with Australia’s Renegade EconomistsMichael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of NeoliberalismDream House, Nightmare Mortgage: Carry on!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

An excellent, short article from Ron Paul. Washington believes it’s okay for it to meddle in other countries affairs, but says it’s a crime if it is perceived that someone has done it to them. As could be expected, Moscow has responded to Zelensky’s decree and to the increasingly bellicose rhetoric in Kiev and Washington by repositioning troops and other military assets closer to its border with Ukraine. Does anyone doubt that if the US were in the same situation – for example, if China installed a hostile and aggressive government in Mexico – the Pentagon might move troops in a similar manner?But according to the media branch of the US military-industrial-Congressional-media complex, Russian troop movements are not a response to clear threats from a neighbor, but instead are just more

The BMI is not state owned Chinese media. They seem to cover all sorts of big projects like this from all around the world.China makes no profit on its high-speed rail as they see it as a social good. Neoliberalism, with its privatisation and need for sufficient profits, can’t cope with building a country’s infrastructure. The Western answer is to try to destroy the competition. In Britain they have privatised almost everything so the oligarchs can make all the profits, and they recently got the Royal Mail, but they are after the NHS too. In China they threw their oligarchs out of power, so now the country can be run for the benefit of everyone, not just the rich. [embedded content]

Review of Lars Schall’s soon forthcoming, Denken wie der Feind – 20 Jahre Ausnahmezustand 9/11 und die Geopolitik des Terrors (“Thinking Like the Enemy – 20 Years State of Emergency, 9/11 and the Geopolitics of Terror”). It will be initially published in German.The Unz ReviewBombshell Book in Germany Revives 9/11 as a Business Model, by Pepe EscobarPepe Escobar

The 25% tariffs exactly equal the European taxes imposed. Washington is reportedly moving forward with its additional duties for hundreds of billions in imports from six nations in response to digital service taxes targeting the likes of Google and Amazon.A wide range of goods from the UK, Spain, Italy, Turkey, India and Austria could be hit with 25% tariffs, the US Trade Representative documents show. If the US goes ahead with the punitive measure after public consultations scheduled for May, those tariffs would total around $880 million annually, according to Bloomberg.RTUS retaliation for taxing its tech giants may be as high as $900 MILLION

LFC makes the following comment: “Prof. Wolff has said that one of his aims is to "put the irony into the equations," but where is the irony here? I get the mocking language ("moneybags") and the element of mystification, but mockery and mystification aren’t the same as irony. So where is it?” Once again, I am afraid that by rushing through my ideas too quickly I have neglected to include essential points, so instead of the next episode in this soap opera I will directly address LFC’s question. That will actually set things up for what I wanted to say next.The central ironic utterance whose true meaning Marx seeks to expose is the phrase “free market….” [emphasis added]The Philosopher’s StoneAN ADDENDUM BY WAY OF A RESPONSERobert Paul Wolff | Professor Emeritus, University of

Not actually a "roll-out" quite yet. The digital yuan is still in trial, but the article is interesting anyway.Sputnik InternationalChinese Central Bank Rolls Out Digital Yuan in a First for a Major Economy

No one is "lending" to the BOE. The BOE doesn’t need to get funds to spend. As the currency issuing agent for the British state, it creates the currency in the act of spending, which is merely crediting accounts on its spreadsheet. It is done simply by keystrokes, no "money printing" needed.Spending and securities issuance are monetary operations. The funds used to spend are created by the central bank as "new money" and securities are issued as a reserve drain after spending. Elementary, my dear chap. The fiscal aspect of the operation is the payment of interest on the securities issued, which increases the fiscal balance and adds to the stock of nongovernment net financial assets in aggregate, along with the amount spent and not taxed (the fiscal deficit). Curiously, the stock of

Marx goes on for quite some time portraying commodities and commodity exchange in deliberately mystified and buffoonish ways. Those who are interested in exploring this in greater detail can take a look at my little book, Moneybags Must Be so Lucky. But let me move along with my exposition of Marx’s argument. You will recall that I said Marx chose to write volume 1 as though Ricardo’s simple Labor Theory of Value were correct because he thought there was a deeper problem that neither Ricardo nor any of the other classical political economists had recognized. The problem quite simply is that they are unable to explain why there is any profit at all in a capitalist system of the sort we are examining….The Philosopher’s StoneMY UNDERSTANDING OF MARX PART VIRobert Paul Wolff | Professor

For years, the U.S. and China have waged war over technology, trade, and capital markets. Tensions between the world’s leading economies reached a fever pitch during former president Trump’s term in office, leading to escalating tariffs and trade restrictions.But now, a new revelation will have Washington scratching its head again: China has been vastly outspending the United States in renewable energy R&D.According to BNEF data cited by Bank of America in a recent report, for every dollar that the U.S. spent on renewable energy research between 2010 and 2020, China spent two, making it by far the leading investor in renewable energy around the world.BofA says in this new climate war, China hopes to gain the upper hand in supply chain dominance, carbon-related trade tariffs, and

Last Friday (April 2, 2021), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – March 2021 – which showed that the recovery since the catastrophic labour market collapse in March and April 2020, which had stalled in recent months, has got back on track as States open up their economies. Payroll employment growth was very strong and the unemployment rate fell by 0.2 points to 6 per cent. The broader labour wastage captured by the BLS U6 measure fell by 0.4 points to 10.7 per cent. Whether the vaccination process in train allows businesses to remain open is an unknown at present. Time will tell….Bill Mitchell – billy blogUS labour market – strong improvement but for how long?Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director

The reality is that current conditions are nowhere near normal. At the beginning of the last cycle, the only labour market series that offered useful information was the employment-to-population ratio. As the figure above shows, we are still below the lows of the last cycle….Bond EconomicsU.S. Economy Getting Better, But…Brian Romanchuk

Alastair Crooke channels Michael Hudson, who is becoming more popular with the alt-right than the alt-left, surprisingly for a self-declared Marxist economist. But then and again the neoconservatives are essentially Trotskyites, albeit with a different ideology (neoliberalism).Anyway, Alastair Crooke explains how the game just changed big time.Strategic Culture FoundationChina and Russia Launch a ‘Global Resistance Economy’Alastair Crooke | founder and director of the Conflicts Forum, and former British diplomat and senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy

Only a matter of time now.ProtocolJustice Thomas argues for making Facebook, Twitter and Google utilitiesIssie Lapowsky

Joe Biden just admitted the real reason behind the US anti-China crusade.Never before has a US president acknowledged that the US may no longer be the world’s undisputed superpower.BT’s Kei Pritsker analyzes Biden’s admission and what kind of devastating conflict this could lead to.[embedded content]

Numbers.The Vineyard of the SakerThe Russian economy – ‘small’, ‘impotent’, ‘insignificant’: true or false?Arcturus Le

By-passing maritime choke-points.The Unz ReviewHow Eurasia Will be InterconnectedPepe EscobarSee alsoHistorical backgrounder.The GeopoliticsThe Great Game: Tale of a CenturyDanish Zahoor

Elves seem to suit Iceland’s otherworldly landscape.It’s cute!  Elves are small—only 36 inches high at most. And though they have big ears and wear old-fashioned clothing, they do not wear pointy hats.Such facts can be learned on an “elf walk” in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, a harbor town just outside Reykjavík reputed to be the elves’ capital.National GeographicRich Warren – More Than Half of This Country Believes in Elves – For real.

Once again, massive fiscal spending in the United States has invited warnings of inflation and triggered dark memories of the 1970s. But these fears are based on a model that has since been obliterated by economic realities – not least the rise of China, which has fundamentally reshaped the US and global economies…. Project SyndicateChina Is Missing from the Great Inflation DebateJames K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin

On the fundamental problem and its solution.CaitlinJohnstone.comEgo Is The Cosmic KarenCaitlin Johnstone

"Lord Keynes" clears up a misunderstanding about MMT and inflation with respect to certain priced rises owing to supply constraints.Social Democracy For The 21St Century: A Post Keynesian PerspectiveAcademic Agent versus “Adam Friended” on Price Inflation and MMTLord Keynes

Stephanopoulos, Blinken Score a Win for MICIMATT Ray McGovern, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, and retired 27-year career CIA whose tasks included preparing and briefing The President’s Daily Brief and leading the Soviet Foreign Policy BranchThe Unz ReviewWar with China? What Fun!Fred ReedBrown Political ReviewThe Origins of a Distinguished Diplomatic Career and the U.S.-China Fight for Primacy—BPR Interviews: Chas FreemanSam KoltichThe GrayzoneChomsky on the ‘joke’ of ‘Russian interference’ and the savagery of US sanctionsAaron Maté