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About John Helmer

John Helmer is the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. He first set up his bureau in 1989, making him today the doyen of the foreign press corps in Russia.
  • 2800

    Blinken concedes war is lost-offers Kremlin Ukrainian demilitarization; Crimea, Donbas, Zaporozhye; and restriction of new tanks to Western Ukraine if there is no Russian offensive

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on January 25, 2023 (more by Dances with Bears)

    David Ignatius (lead image, left) has been a career-long mouthpiece for the U.S. State Department. He has just been called in by the current Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) to convey an urgent new message to President Vladimir Putin, the Security Council, and the General Staff in Moscow.

  • ALEXEI KUDRIN STARTS HIS RUN TO SUCCEED PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

    Alexei Kudrin starts his run to succeed President Vladimir Putin

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on November 30, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    There were only two ways for Alexei Kudrin to become the president of Russia that he and the U.S. government have always wanted.

  • Kurilla was joined on the USS West Virginia by Vice Admiral Brad Cooper.

    The U.S. signals readiness to launch nuclear strike against Russia

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on October 24, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    U.S. Navy announced that “General Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, conducted a visit aboard the USS West Virginia, a U.S. Navy Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine at an undisclosed location at sea in international waters in the Arabian Sea. Kurilla was joined on the USS West Virginia by Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and NAVCENT.”

  • THE UKRAINIAN M.O. FOR THE CRIMEAN BRIDGE ATTACK – THIS IS HOW THE OPERATION WORKED TO THE POINT OF DETONATION

    The Ukrainian m.o. for the Crimean Bridge attack-this is how the operation worked to the point of detonation

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on October 13, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    Two detailed reports appeared in Moscow describing precisely how the attack on the Crimean Bridge on October 8 was organised and carried out.

  • The only Russian leader in a thousand years who was a genuine gardener and who allowed himself to be recorded with a shovel in his hand was Joseph Stalin (lead image, mid-1930s).

    Lemons, mimosas, and Stalin’s shovel

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on September 25, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    The only Russian leader in a thousand years who was a genuine gardener and who allowed himself to be recorded with a shovel in his hand was Joseph Stalin (lead image, mid-1930s). Compared to Stalin, the honouring of the new British king Charles III as a gardener pales into imitativeness and pretension.

  • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

    International Atomic Energy agency takes Ukraine side in war in September 15 vote, making UN Secretary-General Guterres either a liar or a fool

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on September 16, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided this week to take the side of Ukraine in the current war; blame Russia for the shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP); and issue a demand for Russia to surrender the plant to the Kiev regime “to regain full control over all nuclear facilities within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, including the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.”

  • NATIONAL CHAMPION OR NATIONAL CHUMP – OLEG DERIPASKA AND VLADIMIR POTANIN TRY THE RUSAL-NORILSK NICKEL MERGER

    National champion or National chump-Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin try the Rusal-Norilsk nickel merger

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on July 10, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    In wars like the present one, politics on the home front cannot be permitted to give aid and comfort to the enemy. In the U.S. and NATO campaign, the Russian oligarchs and their businesses are targets and also weapons of the plan for regime change in the Kremlin.

  • THE OLIGARCHS PLAY THEIR CARDS

    The Oligarchs play their cards–that’s the loyalty card, the get out of jail free card, the rewards redemption card

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on May 30, 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    The Russian regime-change theory motivating U.S. sanctions against the Russian oligarchs is that they will trigger a palace coup in which the oligarchs will arrange a bullet for President Vladimir Putin’s head, and in return the U.S. will give them back the keys to their yachts, mansions, and offshore bank accounts.

  • Grandson / Grandfather

    Naïve questions about Russia’s war economy

    Originally published: Dances with Bears on April 2022 (more by Dances with Bears)

    “Tell me, please, Grandpa,” the little boy asked the Red Army veteran, “what does a war economy mean and how is it different from now?”

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Money on the Left Episodes

  • A Rhetorical History of Modern Money Theory with John T. Harvey
    John Helmer

    We speak with John T. Harvey about a new article he co-wrote with Billy Saas titled, “A Rhetorical History of Modern Money Theory,” out this month in the September 2026 issue of the Journal of Economic Issues. Harvey is Hal Wright Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University. We discuss his recent publication in the […]

  • Democracy Needs Public Media w/ Victor Pickard
    John Helmer

    Victor Pickard returns to Money on the Left six years after his first appearance on the show to discuss the state of the U.S. media system under Trump 2.0. Pickard is C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and Co-Director at the Media, […]

  • Public Employment & Training from the Great Society to the “End of Welfare as We Know It”
    John Helmer

    This month, Scott Ferguson speaks with Mario Rendina about the politics of public employment and training in the United States as they shifted over the course of the late 20th century. Rendina brings over thirty years of hands-on experience working within municipal government in Tampa Bay, Florida—specifically within Hillsborough County. Grounded in his extensive career […]

See all Money on the Left Episodes

Monthly Review Essays

  • Parallel Universes
    Andy Merrifield

    Anybody who’s ever leafed through Finnegans Wake will quickly recognize that we’re not dealing here with a standard novel, just as anybody leafing through Marx’s Capital will know we’re not dealing with standard economics.

Lost & Found

  • Honor the Vietnamese, Not Those Who Killed Them
    Michael D. Yates A Vietnamese stamp depicting two Vietnamese resistance fighters shooting down a US Army helicopter.

    Only the courage of those who opposed the war, including the soldiers who did so at great risk, should be respected.

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