The Real News Network has a very interesting 12 partseries Growing Up in the USSR – RAI with A. Buzgalin (1/12).

Prof. Alexander Buzgalin joins Paul Jay on Reality Asserts Itself; born two years after the death of Stalin, he talks about growing up in the Soviet Union.

This series gives me a much netter understanding of Russia and the Soviet Union from the point of view of a Russian scholar. I find this discussion to be very revealing.

I came to this series at a later segment, and found it so interesting, I went back to the beginning. I have listened to the first 3 segments so far, and intend to watch the rest of the series as time permits.

The initial link in this post leads to a collection of links to all 12 parts.

July 23, 2018

At this point, only 9 of the 12 segments have been published, and I have seen them all. I am getting a somewhat different picture of Russia than I had before. Some of what I thought before has been confirmed, but there are more than nuances and subtleties that are different.

The 10^th segment is now available Why Does the West Hate Putin? – RAI with A. Buzgalin (10/12).

July 27, 2018

The next segment has been published – Many Russians Think Climate Change is Propaganda to Weaken Their Economy – RAI with A. Buzgalin (11/12)

Senator Elizabeth Warren has posted some prepared remarks Senator Discusses Ways Congress Can Improve U.S. Business Bankruptcy System.

It is an interesting discussion about structuring bankruptcy laws. There is one slightly sour note in those remarks.

The business world is littered with companies that were thought to be invincible — right up until the killer moment: Worldcom and accounting fraud, Blockbuster and disruptive new companies; PanAm and terrorism. Toys ‘R’ Us, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack and Gymboree were all once bright stars-stars that all fell in 2017.

She misses an opportunity to single out special cases like Toys ‘R’ Us. This bankruptcy did not occur because the original company had a bad business plan. The only disaster that befell the company was the attack by vulture capitalists who took the company private. These vulture capitalists used other people’s money (money from investors in their vulture capital business) to take Toys ‘R’ Us private. They then stripped the assets out of the company to pay huge salaries and fees to themselves. They also loaded up the company in debt to pay themselves even more salaries and fees. When the company ran out of assets to keep itself in business, they abandoned the company to bankruptcy court. The businesses that were owed money by Toys ‘R’ Us, the people who lent money to Toys ‘R’ Us, and the people whose pensions, jobs, and health insurance depended on Toys ‘R’ Us, were all left holding an empty bag. The vulture capitalists walked away fat and happy. Elizabeth Warren makes no mention of holding the vulture capitalists accountable for what they did.

Global Times has the article Washington’s risky calculation of currency war.

A depreciating yuan would be favorable to China’s exports, but also put pressure on China’s capital flight, stimulate inflation and affect the market’s expectation of the country’s economic outlook. Why would China manipulate toward such a mixed blessing?

The renminbi’s recent fast depreciation is obviously a result of multiple market factors. And among them, the trade war launched by the US is a major driving force.

Here is a point of view I don’t expect that you will read in the USA’s corporate media. I wonder if #45 thought about this possibility when he started the trade war.