Pepe Escobar summarizes the state of play at the outset of the BRICS conference as it begans in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, Russian Federation. The heads of the central banks have already met in Moscow in preparation for discussing initial steps in an overhaul of the post WWII Bretton Woods monetary system and associated institutions established by and controlled by the West, the US in particular. Expectations had begun to exceed reality and now they are more modest but still...

The following are the first three paragraphs of the introduction to the Wealth of Nations: "The annual labor of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations. According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to...

from Asad Zaman and WEA Pedagogy Blog 1. The Methodenstreit: How Economics Forgot History In the late 19th century, economics experienced a deep philosophical debate over methodology, known as the Methodenstreit, or Battle of Methodologies. Geoffrey Hodgson, in his book How Economics Forgot History, emphasizes the critical nature of this debate. The essential conflict was between those who believed that historical context and specificity are crucial for understanding economic phenomena,...

The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the US dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.Geopolitical EconomyBRICS plans ‘multi-currency system’ to challenge US dollar dominance: Understanding Russia’s proposalBen Norton

IntroductionIn the first part of this year’s BRICS series, we described the geopolitical environment in which BRICS is currently operating and trying to evolve. This environment has changed for the worse since the last BRICS summit in South Africa last August.The consequence is that BRICS cannot develop freely, because on the one hand, the decisions – especially those of the USA – regarding the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the situation in the financial markets and finally the...

Josh Marshall at TPM gives the details on an Elon Musk-funded PAC targeting Jewish and Arab communities. Elon Musk’s Fake Sites and Fake Texts Impersonating the Harris Campaign I can see this type of targeting playing well in the city of Detroit where there are large communities of both Jewish and Arab communities . . . Dearborn being one such community. One action is to target a community with your support for a candidate. Another and a...

And Arizona has its share of nut-jobs too. One representative is more interested in controlling the lives of others. In particular those being the lives of women. And yes, one representative is making the right of women to control their lives an issue in Arizona. This is much like those creatures of control found in other states too. Arizona is a state where others can decide for you what the better course in life is to take. You have to wonder...

Living in Arizona has been a different experience than what we experienced in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Avoiding Winter is pleasant, but the heat of the summer keeps you inside. I believe it was a record year for the number of days above a certain temperature. Winter is shorter in comparison. Would I do the move knowing what I know now. The temperature is a factor we did not take much into consideration. A record year for temperatures being...

Richard Murphy is the guest this week and is a chartered accountant and a political economist. Rachel Reeves is planning £3bn welfare cuts in Budget, so we will drill down into that and much more this week! https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/ https://businessfilmbooth.podia.com/

– by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Newsletter NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to September 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available). This is the third look at several early reporting local markets in September. I’m tracking over 40 local housing markets in the US. Some of the 40 markets are states, and some are metropolitan areas. I’ll update these tables...