Archive for the ‘U.S. Policy’ Category

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The best explanation of the Epstein saga: an Israeli asset who helped twist regional relations and the peace process against Palestine

Tuesday, February 10th, 2026

A recent interview with Craig Mokhiber, an American former Director of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, provides by far the most compelling explanation of the Jeffrey Epstein saga I have heard.

According to the interview, Epstein was an Israeli asset who helped significantly twist regional Middle East relations and the peace process against Palestine.

Having circulated as rumor for a long time, the “Israeli asset” story is now being clearly confirmed by the 3.5 million Epstein file pages (still only partial) released on January 30, 2026.

If you find it hard to believe, recall that Israel’s Mossad is an extraordinarily sophisticated and accomplished secret service, as evidenced by the 2024 deadly sabotage of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.

Epstein’s interventions on behalf of Israel worked in two ways. First, he twisted the peace process by seducing powerful US and UN actors, who then bought into overlooking persistent Israeli violence and creeping West Bank colonization in the name of keeping the peace process alive. Second, he helped twist regional relations against Palestine by engaging and entangling elite Arab business interests, who then bought into supporting the Abraham Accords. Those accords normalized Arab – Israeli relations, thereby pushing the Palestinian conflict off stage and relegating the rights of Palestinians.

The mainstream media is doing everything it can to obscure this. Initially, it treated the Epstein saga exclusively as an issue of “personal perversion” involving sex-trafficking, pedophilia, and elite immorality. Since then, it has also sought to paint Epstein as a Russian agent.

The pedophilia – elite immorality story is undeniably true, with the entitled immorality of elites being the doorway whereby Epstein accessed influence. The Russian agent accusation is a Western media fabrication. Both have been used to obscure the deeper story. That deeper story further explains both the means and motive for Epstein’s operations, and it fits with his deeply held Zionist beliefs.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW: “Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘one single cause’: Israel”

Posted in Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Argentina’s labor reform: back to the past

Friday, January 30th, 2026

The research note below is by my friend, Argentine economist Rubén Lo Vuolo. There are two features I especially value about it: (1) It shows it is a myth that the era of Neoliberalism is over and retreating. (2) Lo Vuolo’s “language” is analytically accurate and powerful, and it is strikingly different from that of progressive advocates and economists here (in the US & Europe).

“Warren Buffett, one of the most renowned billionaire financiers in the world, is well known: “Of course there is a class struggle, but it is my class – the class of the rich – that is waging this war. And we are winning it.” The labor reform project promoted by the Argentine Executive Branch is proof of this. It is not something new, much less something modern as it is claimed, but one more link in a process that seeks to take labor relations back to the nineteenth century to submit the labor force to the designs of the capitalist class.”

READ MORE

Posted in Economics, Europe, Globalization, Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

How the IMF and US helped loot and entrap Argentina with debt

Monday, October 13th, 2025

Argentina is back in the news with renewed financial turmoil spurred by President Milei’s poor political standing. That poor standing is the product of anger with Argentina’s dire economic performance and massive corruption within Milei’s administration, and it augurs poorly for his party’s performance in the forthcoming October 2025 election.

In response, the IMF and US have jumped into action to save Milei’s government. The IMF had already provided a $20 billion bailout in April 2025. Now, the US government has provided another $20 billion (in the form of a central bank currency swap line). Furthermore, the US has expressed willingness to provide additional stand-by credit and even purchase Argentine government debt.

The media has focused on Argentina’s long troubled financial history, the difficult inflation situation President Milei inherited, and President Trump’s political affinity with Milei. However, that fails to explain why the IMF and US have provided such huge assistance to Argentina, given its lack of credit worthiness.

The support for Milei should be understood as a continuation of past lending to Presidents Macri (2015-2019), and Menem (1989-1999). The purpose is to entrench Neoliberalism in Argentina and entrap it with dollar debt. It is supported by local elites because they are the beneficiaries of Neoliberalism, and they also get to loot the Argentine state via the process of debt entrapment.

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Posted in China, Economics, Globalization, Political Economy, U.S. Policy | Comments Closed

The Case Against European Union Rearmament Spending: statement to the Irish Parliament re EU Proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123

Wednesday, June 18th, 2025

This statement is submitted in connection with the Joint Committee’s deliberations on the European Union’s (EU) legislative proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123. Those two measures aim to increase EU member state military expenditures and weapons production. They raise multiple serious concerns regarding the merits thereof, including gravely exacerbating the existing Ukraine conflict and making a peace settlement even more difficult to achieve. They will also contribute to cementing the EU on a path of massively increased military expenditures, which will inevitably displace and diminish other forms of needed government spending owing to the fiscal constraints confronting member states. Worst of all, they could contribute to EU member states becoming directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, thereby bringing the conflict inside the EU. Consequently, Ireland should vigorously oppose the two measures as they are neither in Ireland’s national interest nor in the collective interest of the European Union.

READ THE STATEMENT

Posted in Europe, Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

A Niemöller moment: more on being cancelled Post Keynesian style

Saturday, May 31st, 2025

Last week I e-mailed a note titled “Goodbye pluralism: cancelled Post Keynesian style” which detailed my suspension by the Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES). That suspension unjustly sanctioned me for an earlier e-mail announcement of my article “The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”.

The PKES has now responded, claiming I violated its list-serve rules. I welcome their response. It creates an opportunity both to remedy this injustice and to reverse an intolerant turn within the PKES’s rules of discourse. That turn is the much more important issue and it should concern all.

But first, I must address the PKES response, which I believe is disingenuous about the real reason for my suspension. In my view, that reason is the desire of pro-Ukrainian sympathizers to ban discussions of the Ukraine conflict which challenge the Western establishment’s anti-Russian narrative. If my article had been about Keir Starmer’s Labour government fiscal austerity it would not have been sanctioned.

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Posted in Economics, Europe, Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly

Monday, March 24th, 2025

In her book The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, the historian Barbara Tuchman explores the perplexing question of why countries sometimes pursue policies that are fundamentally contrary to their own interests. That question has acquired renewed relevance as Europe has now enlisted in a deepening march of folly over Ukraine.

Failure to reject the march of folly will have grave consequences for Europe, but doing so is a huge political challenge. It requires explaining how Europe has been harmed by its Ukraine policy; how Europe stands to be further harmed by doubling-down on that policy; how the march of folly has been sold politically; and why the political establishment persists therewith.

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Posted in Europe, Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Germany’s election & why it is important to understand the Ukraine War

Sunday, February 2nd, 2025

I urge you to watch this YouTube mini documentary (30 minutes). If that is too long, watch just the segment from 10:30 -12:00 (1.30 minutes).

Jeffrey D. Sachs – Understanding the Ukraine conflict – Brave New Europe

Every German should watch this before voting in the February election (and every European should watch in advance of future elections).

The establishment has lied to all of us. Perhaps worst of all are the German Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock. Today’s German Greens are neither Green nor for peace (the explanation of that transformation is a standalone story).

We must act now, or the far-right will exploit the crack caused by the establishment’s lies about Russia & Ukraine.

Fortunately, in Germany the BSW (Bundis Sarah Wagenknecht) Party provides an alternative. In most other countries (like the UK) the situation is more difficult because no party is challenging the lie.

The Ukraine – Russia war is the foremost issue facing Germany. The Social Democrats have fundamentally misunderstood the geopolitical causes of the war, and they show no sign of change. They are captured by the US/NATO Neoconservatives, and Germany and Europe suffer therefrom. The economic and social damage is huge, both now and in terms of lost future prosperity from a Europe that included Russia as an economic partner.

The political situation is akin to a Gordian knot, and the cleanest cut of that knot is with the BSW sword, even if it is not perfect. Failure to cut the knot will allow the AfD to make further gains, and that is the worst outcome.

N.B. For those wanting additional argument & evidence, I have written a research paper titled “The Ukraine – Russia war explained”.

Posted in Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

The Ukraine – Russia war explained: how the US exploited internal fractures in the post-Soviet order (plus lessons for Georgia)

Sunday, November 10th, 2024

This paper explores the deep causes of the Ukraine – Russia war. It argues that the war has both internal and external causes. The internal causes are rooted in the way the Soviet Union disintegrated. The external causes relate to how the US exploited the fractures in the post-Soviet order to advance its geopolitical agenda aimed at establishing US global hegemony. The war has devastated Ukraine. The capture of Ukrainian politics by extremist nationalists prevented a compromise that addressed the political and demographic reality of post-Soviet Ukraine. In doing so, the nationalists made Ukraine a sacrificial pawn in the US project seeking global hegemony, with fateful consequences that may yet worsen further. Georgia’s frozen conflict with Russia has some structural similarities. That said, Georgia can avoid Ukraine’s fate by choosing a path of non-alignment. That will not be easy as the US is likely to try and sabotage that path, as non-alignment tacitly challenges US hegemony.

READ THE PAPER

Posted in Europe, Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Causes of the Ukraine War & the case for Georgian non-alignment — An interview I gave in Tbilisi, Georgia

Thursday, October 31st, 2024

Watch the interview here

Posted in China, Globalization, Political Economy, U.S. Policy | Comments Closed

We still ask if 80 years ago they (ordinary Germans) knew?

Tuesday, October 29th, 2024

Watch this and ask yourself if you know:

“Gaza”: an Al Jazeera Investigative Unit documentary

Posted in Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

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