EconoSpeak

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has just announced a "special military operation" to "de-Nazify the Ukrainian government" so as to halt the supposed "genocide" being committed against Russian speakers in Ukraine.  There is not a shred of justification for any of this.  The extreme nationalist fascist groups in Ukraine do not support and are not part of the current Ukrainian government, whose leader is half Jewish.  There has been a low level war between the Ukrainian government and the...

 Oh, I cannot resist taking that phrase from a recent Economist article about the separatist Donbass republics, the Luhansk Peoples' Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk Peoples' Republic (DPR). The official recognition by V.V. Putin of their independence brings about the end of the Minsk II Accord negotiations that have been going on since 2015. These accords were supposed to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, but they failed to do so. This recognition brings them to an end, the Minsky Moment, as it...

"Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence, and everybody who can read without moving his lips should know it by now. We make good products, we induce people to buy them, and then next year we deliberately introduce something that will make those products old fashioned, out of date, obsolete. Planned obsolescence is the desire to own something a little newer and a little better a little sooner than is necessary. It isn't organized waste. It's a sound contribution to the American...

 On the one hand Russian media is telling Russians that Russian troops will leave Belarus when exercises there end on Feb., 20, coinciding with the end of the Winter Olympics, and also sends out videos of troops supposedly being pulled back. OTOH, US officials declared based on reported satellite evidence that 7,000 more troops have gone to "the Ukrainian border" with a chance of Russia invading Ukraine very high, as US personnel are removed, and the US embassy is moved from Kyiv to L'viv in...

 Yes, signs regarding a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine have gotten much worse in the last few days. I am hearing from my wife that Russian media are now claiming there are lots of US troops in Ukraine. Such a claim, not even backed up by some fake video, would clearly serve as an excuse for an invasion. There are also reports out of the Russian media that Putin feels that he was not treated well in Beijing. Apparently he was shunted off to some side airport when he landed, with only...

A twitter exchange worth following up: the thing about a guy like joe rogan is that his style of podcast — endless, full of banter — is a friendship substitute for people. completely orthogonal to politics, fans who think he’s been hard done may rally emotionally around him as if standing up for a personal friend.— Steve Randy Waldman (@interfluidity) February 9, 2022 Right—amiable neighbor/bar mate/co-worker is his secret. He’s not a dick like Tucker or Limbaugh. Just an genial, widely...

 In this Sunday's Washington Post, columnist David von Drehle suggests that a way out of the difficult Russia/Ukraine situation would be for Ukraine to become like what happened with Austria in 1955 and since; it formally became officially neutral, not joining either NATO or the Warsaw Pact, and has remained so since.   For Ukraine this would in effect grant Putin his demand that Ukraine not join NATO, although it would not involve pulling NATO back from such nations as Poland the Baltic...

I am finding it difficult to proceed with writing about free time because I am not having enough opportunity to talk out these questions with people in person.

 I shall be having a parathyroid removed tomorrow at University of Virginia hospital. Will be going over this evening to avoid freezing fog.  So, I shall be out of commission for awhile.Barkley Rosser

 I note that on 1/19/22 The Intelligent Economist released its annual list of the top 100 economics blogs.  Both Econospeak and Angry Bear, which we feed into, are on the list, us again as one of the financial economics blogs while AB is in the general economics section.  They again say we are not for beginners due to the "complexity" of things we post and talk about.Barkley Rosser