Steve's Politics Blog

This is an excellent episode or the Geopolitical Economy Report titled How China became the world’s industrial superpower – and why the US is desperate to stop it.

China has gone from one of the poorest countries on Earth to building the world’s largest economy, responsible for nearly one-third of global manufacturing. Meanwhile, the US de-industrialized and financialized its economy. Journalist Ben Norton explains how.

This is an excellent analysis by Ben Norton. I kept thinking he was leaving out the time of the Chinese “cultural revolution”, but he eventually talked about it and its deleterious impact on China. Maybe the USA could straighten itself out if more people in this country would listen to Ben Norton’s explanation.

YouTube has the video Did the debt ceiling deal really save the US from bankruptcy?.

Economists Radhika Desai and Michael Roberts discuss the US debt ceiling deal reached by President Joe Biden and the Republican opposition, and what it means for the future of the economy

This focuses on what the government should be funding. They also seem to take leave of their senses when they talk about government borrowing. They seem to completely forget all they know about modern money theory. In discussing the private banks’ trouble with rising interest rates. they do not make clear that it is the rising of interest rates that decreases the value of the banks’ bond holdings. Many people do not know that the relation between interest rates and the value of existing bonds is an inverse relation. If you think both things rise together, you make very bad policy decisions. They also make no mention of how much the Federal Reserve Bank spends to buy Treasury securities. This throws off their discussion of government borrowing completely out of whack. May be they should talk about the whack deficit in this discussion.

I just cannot stand to watch any more of this crap. If these people cannot get the economics right, why are they even on the air? Notice that Michael Hudson is not present to try to bring this discussion back to reality.

I had a mental picture of how checks between banks got cleared. I decided that I needed more details. I have been reading articles. Here is one that might explain most of what I have learned I just realized that I have not made the connection to the overnight bank-to-bank lending process called the Repo market. I’ll make that connection next.

What Is the Automated Clearing House, and How Does It Work?

This article greatly expands my knowledge of the Repo market and the Federal Reserve’s role in the market. What is the repo market, and why does it matter?

Whie I am at it, I might as well throw in something about What Is the SWIFT Banking System? Investopedia.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system powers most international money and security transfers. SWIFT is a vast messaging network used by financial institutions to quickly, accurately, and securely send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions.

Public has published the article First People Sickened By COVID-19 Were Chinese Scientists At Wuhan Institute Of Virology, Say US Government Sources.

After years of official pronouncements to the contrary, significant new evidence has emerged that strengthens the case that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

I have known about, but not the identity of, patient zero from the very beginning. This is why I never trusted anything that Dr. Fauci said about Covid.

This story is far too important to be buried by the USA government and the corporate press.

Glenn Greenwald has posted INTERVIEW: RFK Jr. on Russiagate, Israel/Roger Waters, JFK Assassination, Ukraine, & More | SYSTEM UPDATE #97.

This is a great interview. In my opinion it is so great because there were some things that Robert Kennedy Jr. said that I agree with and some things I still disagree with.

Watch this at your own risk. It might or might not change your opinions.
What I vehemently disagree with it Kennedy’s constant adherence to his view that Israel is a Democracy. It may be democratic for its Jewish citizens, especially the right wing ones, but it is decidedly not democratic for Palestinians.

Many of the things Kennedy claims the Israeli government would not do to Palestinians, they clearly have done. The only thing I can say in favor of Kennedy is that he seems to be open to changing his mind, when he opens himself up to listening to opinions that he is not ready to accept now. I refer to the influence that Oliver Stone had on Kennedy’s view of the war in the Ukraine.

Crypto-currency is another issue where Kennedy leaves me cold. This subject did not come up in the interview. As the President, if Kennedy feels that our current central bank is not providing something that our society needs, then he should fix our central bank. He should not be in favor of privatizing a service that the government should provide. (I am not saying he should oppose the current fraudulent crypto-currency mania before he gives it an honest consideration.)

The Geopolitical Economy Hour has the episode China builds global alternative as US-led financial order decays.

To analyze how China is building a global alternative as the US-led neoliberal financial order decays, political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are joined by economic geographer Mick Dunford.

I claim to be a “what worksist”. This was discusses in this podcast without giving it name. Several people discussed the process of trying a policy and measuring whether or not it works to improve peoples’ living standards. If Michael Hudson wants to develop an academic justification for “what worksism”, then that is something he should work on.

I include the video below from YouTube. Warning, YouTube seems to have detuned the audio volume to be sharply lower than the rest of the web. You may have to turn up the volume to hear the audio portion. Just remember to turn the volume back down before listening to other audio sources. (The turned up volume might blast you our of your seat, and stun you out of control before you can reach out to turn the volume down)

Here are two article that highlight what worries me abou Robert F. Kennedy Jr – Exclusive: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says He Doesn’t Want ‘Anti-Crypto’ People on the SEC and Watch Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Keynote Address at Bitcoin 2023.

Kennedy warned of the danger of centralized digital currency (known as CBDC or central bank digital currency) being abused by governments to track every financial transaction of its citizens and then punish them for bad behavior, noting that “free money is as important to freedom as free expression.”

As far as I am concerned, I think crypto-currencies are a mania that has little reason to exist. These currencies have enough computer mystique to fool many people into thinking that there is some innate value to a crypto-currency. When I think about cry[to-currency I think about the Tulip mania that lasted from 1634 to 1637.

Geopolitical Economy Report has the video Ukraine’s neoliberalism on steroids, Europe’s economic suicide

To analyze the conflict in Ukraine, political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are joined by economic geographer Mick Dunford. They discuss the aggressive neoliberal reforms being imposed by the Ukrainian government and Europe’s suicidal policies.

Michael Hudson has posted the article/Interview Krugman Clings to Currency Tropes

Hudson comes right out and says what he thinks of Paul Krugman. I agree with that opinion and his opinion of the Nobel Prize in Economics.

And if I hadn’t met him, and I didn’t know how really stupid he is as a person, I would think he’s deliberately lying, but I have met him and he really is that stupid.

YouTube has the video Interview with RFK Jr – Massive Russian missiles rain down.

Colonel Douglas Macgregor discusses the war in Ukraine with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 6, 2023.

I see nothing in the video to justify the phrase “Massive Russian missiles rain down”

Compare Robert Kennedy Jr.’s understanding of the Ukraine with Marianne Williamson’s lack of understanding, There is just no doubt in my mind as to which one I would rather have in charge of USA foreign policy. I have trouble warming to Robert Kennedy Jr., but I find this issue decisive in his favor. I find Douglas Macgregor to be too right wing for my preferences, but on the issue of Ukraine and relations with Russia and China, I tend to agree with him.