Subjects Archives: Financialization

Developing countries have long been told to avoid borrowing from central banks (CBs) to finance government spending. Many have even legislated against CB financing of fiscal expenditure.

Seneca Lake’s picturesque setting belies its long history of conquest and extraction.

During the Second World War, the Canadian government appealed for Canadians to buy war bonds to fight fascism in Europe.

The story currently being peddle by the folks at Bloomberg [ht: ja] is that the American middle-class is currently suffering, as the enormous wealth they managed to accumulate during the past few years is now dwindling. And that crisis—the end of their “once-in-a-generation wealth boom”—is what they will take into the midterm elections.

Inflation, Imperialism & Worker Resistance

EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell confessed the West’s neoliberal economic model was “based on cheap energy coming from Russia,” “access to the big China market,” and low-paid Chinese workers. Europe has now lost that, and is thus in crisis.

Big Oil stands to pocket billions in taxpayer dollars by way of carbon capture, their latest climate scam. Here’s how they’ll do it.

Preoccupied with enhancing their own ‘credibility’ and reputations, central banks (CBs) are again driving the world economy into recession, financial turmoil and debt crises.

WHAT is called OPEC+, that is the 13 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) together with 11 other petroleum exporting countries led by Russia, decided on October 5 to cut their oil production by 2 million barrels per day, starting from November. The U.S. had been pressing OPEC not to take this decision.

The dogmatic obsession with and focus on fighting inflation in rich countries are pushing the world economy into recession, with many dire consequences, especially for poorer countries. This phobia is due to myths shared by most central bankers.

FOR the first time ever, the annual rate of inflation in the Eurozone, measured by the Consumer Price Index, has reached double digits: it exceeded 10 per cent in September 2022, up from 9.1 per cent in August.

Conor: Germany’s swift demise reminds me of the German intelligence agent Bachmann in “A Most Wanted Man.” He’s led to believe he’s operating on an equal level with CIA and British intelligence only to realize too late he was being played the whole time.

The Secretary-General of the UNCTAD is warning that “the current course of action is hurting the most vulnerable, especially in developing countries, and risks tipping the world into a global recession.”

“Record heat and droughts are exposing millions to growing water and food scarcity issues across all continents,” the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in a February 2022 report. “About half of the world’s population already experiences severe water scarcity for some part of the year.”

ON September 23, the value of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar fell to a new low: it crossed 81 to a dollar after some weeks of relative stability when it hovered between 79 and 80.

Like a traveler sailing the Archipelago who sees the luminous mists lift toward evening, and little by little makes out the shore, I begin to discern the profile of my death.
— Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

The UK government’s economic policies under new PM Liz Truss have caused a stir among, not only leftists, but also among mainstream economists.

Central banks (CBs) around the world–led by the U.S. Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England–are raising interest rates, ostensibly to check inflation. The ensuing race to the bottom is hastening world economic recession.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 27, 2022 (IPS)—Inflation phobia among central banks (CBs) is dragging economies into recession and debt crises. Their dogmatic beliefs prevent them from doing right. Instead, they take their cues from Washington: the U.S. Fed, Treasury and Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs). Costly recessions  Both BWIs—the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World […]

It is not just the immediate effect on Europe that threatens to be severely adverse; capital has already started relocating away from Europe to the United States, a trend that will inevitably gather momentum, so that long-term growth and hence employment prospects on that continent will also be affected.