In – The austerity attack on British local government – Part 1 (April 30, 2019) – I examined the way in which the central government austerity had impacted on the major service areas in Britain and considered some of the motivations that have been driving this agenda. In this Part, I am examining the way in which these cuts have been distributed at the local government level. How their grants have been cut and how they have been forced to rely on their own income bases to maintain a...
Read More »Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017 — Amy Goodman interviews Jeffrey D. Sachs
More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot. The report examines how U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality. We speak with Jeffrey Sachs in our New York studio. In the report, he writes, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck...
Read More »Edward Harrison — Hippie punching the MMT crowd
So, you have to tune out all of this MMT hippie-punching. That’s politics. Now, you don’t have to agree 100% with the MMT framework. The real question is, first and foremost, what parts of MMT make sense as a descriptive framework. That means understanding the framework and ignoring the policy prescriptions, where all of the vitriol is focused. One basic thing that works for me: Chartalism In March, I tried to show you where MMT dovetails with the economics of six economists of repute. I...
Read More »Fed meeting concludes. Here are my thoughts.
Fed cites strong growth and labor market. Curiously cuts one rate.
Read More »John Bellamy Foster — Absolute Capitalism
The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1864 that “the cleverest ruse of the Devil is to persuade you he does not exist!” I will argue here that this is directly applicable to today’s neoliberals, whose devil’s ruse is to pretend they do not exist. Although neoliberalism is widely recognized as the central political-ideological project of twenty-first-century capitalism, it is a term that is seldom uttered by those in power. In 2005, the New York Times went so far as to make...
Read More »Kate Whiting — The world is getting angrier, according to a new poll
World Economic ForumThe world is getting angrier, according to a new poll Kate Whiting
Read More »Ramanan — Labour Day!
Nicholas Kaldor on how neoliberalism weakened labour power. Happy Labor Day to all those that don't have a passive income from portfolio investment. You are the people that get it done. The Case for Concerted ActionLabour Day!V. Ramanan
Read More »Bill Mitchell — Marxists getting all tied up on MMT
Marx, MMT, wage labor and surplus value.Bill Mitchell – billy blogMarxists getting all tied up on MMT Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, AustraliaSee alsoThe Radford Free PressA Quick Note: Utopian or Real? Peter RadfordAlsolibcomThe Iron Fist Behind Exchange: The Problems With The Freed Market Ivysyn
Read More »Andrei Martyanov — S-500 Is On Line
As is expected, by far not all data on actual capabilities of S-500 is available, but the range of 600 kilometers against any aerodynamic targets means one not just tactical or even operational, but fully strategic ramification--it is precisely the range within which latest versions of E3 Sentry AWACS aircraft must enter to have any impact of the target acquisition and battle management. So, you get the idea, right? As you can see, my next book (while still not 100% completed, very close,...
Read More »What America can learn from the fall of the Roman republic — Sean Illing interviews Edward Watt, author of Mortal Republic
If you were a Roman citizen around, say, 200 BC, you probably would have assumed Rome was going to last forever.At the time, Rome was the greatest republic in human history, and its institutions had proven resilient through invasions and all kinds of disasters. But the foundations of Rome started to weaken less than a century later, and by 27 BC the republic had collapsed entirely.The story of Rome’s fall is both complicated and relatively straightforward: The state became too big and...
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