Every week my e-mail box receives a steady stream of articles aimed at cultivating public animus to Russia. The articles are always wrapped in a narrative in which Russia is a threat to democracy in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. The effect is to create public support for hardline action (economic and/or military) against Russia.
(more…)Archive for the ‘U.S. Policy’ Category
The US and Russia: beware of Neocons and liberals preaching democracy promotion
Wednesday, December 8th, 2021Anti-China Fever in the US: a lethal contagious disease
Monday, September 20th, 2021Much of the United States (especially Washington, DC) is in the grip of a contagious lethal anti-China fever which is spreading fast.
Even people I usually admire and respect have become infected. Reason and facts have lost all capacity to inoculate.
Fortunately, I was sent a vaccine (that takes one minute to administer) which I would like to share with you:
Three points in response to China (& Russia) hawks:
(1) A mirror is a very good thing to have in these situations (probably the most valuable & cost-effective piece of equipment the Pentagon could purchase right now). When wondering about China’s naval posture in the South China Sea or Russia’s response to eastward NATO expansion, use the mirror to reflect on the Monroe doctrine & how we would react if a Chinese flagged 7th fleet were cruising the Caribbean.
(2) Ukraine & Taiwan are both special unresolved historical situations. They should each be treated as such, carved out as best possible, and not allowed to poison the entire relationship. The mortal danger is the US war lobby exploits those situations to provoke Russia and China, hoping the resulting optic will favor their ugly ambitions.
(3) In his later years, George Kennan, architect of the containment doctrine, believed the best way to deal with the Russians is to leave them to themselves (i.e. they will sabotage themselves on their own). That continues to be good advice & also has relevance for China.
Financialization revisited: the economics and political economy of the vampire squid economy
Wednesday, September 1st, 2021This paper explores the economics and political economy of financialization using Matt Taibbi’s vampire squid metaphor to characterize it. The paper makes five innovations. First, it focuses on the mechanics of the “vampire squid” process whereby financialization rotates through the economy loading sector balance sheets with debt. Second, it identifies the critical role of government budget deficits for the financialization process. Third, it identifies the critical role of central banks, which are the lynchpin of the system and now serve as de facto guarantors of the value and liquidity of private sector liabilities. Fourth, the paper argues financialization imposes a form of policy lock-in. Fifth, it argues financialization transforms popular attitudes and understandings, thereby generating political support despite poor economic outcomes. In effect, there is a politics of financialization that goes hand-in-hand with the economics. The paper concludes with some observations on why mainstream macroeconomics has no equivalent construct to financialization and discusses the disquieting unexplored terrain that the economy is now in.
Preparations for the “Next Afghanistan” have already begun
Thursday, August 19th, 2021Now that the twenty year-long US military expedition to Afghanistan has ended in catastrophe, the US Neocon establishment has already begun preparations for the “Next Afghanistan”. That process begins with blaming Joe Biden and rewriting history.
Thus, Richard Haas (President of the Council on Foreign Relations) writes in Project Syndicate: “Biden was recently asked if he harbored any regrets about his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan. He replied he did not. He should.” As part of his argument, Mr. Haas scare mongers the prospect of a “Taliban domino effect” whereby the Taliban takeover Pakistan.
The New York Times has also been busy playing the blame game and rewriting history. Two days after Kabul fell, its page one story blamed President Biden and suggested something very different was possible: “But in his speech, Mr. Biden spent more time defending his decision to depart Afghanistan than the chaotic way it was carried out.”
In similar vein, another Times story claimed: “In several cities, Afghan security forces put up a strong fight to stop the Taliban advance, with videos showing exchanges of gunfire. But much more prevalent during the Taliban’s offensive were scenes of apparent retreat by government forces left ill-equipped to secure the country after the American withdrawal.”
The reality is President Biden has nothing to apologize for and deserves our collective thanks for a decision that always stood to benefit the United States but never politically benefit him.
(more…)The Macroeconomics of Government Spending: Distinguishing Between Government Purchases, Government Production, and Job Guarantee Programs
Monday, June 14th, 2021This paper reconstructs the Keynesian income – expenditure (IE) model to include distinctions between government purchases of private sector output, government production, and government job guarantee program (JGP) employment. Analytically, including those distinctions transforms the model from a single sector model into a multi-sector model. It also surfaces the logic behind the automatic stabilizer property of JGP employment. The model is then extended to include Kaleckian income distribution effects which contribute to explaining why expenditure multipliers vary by type of fiscal expenditure. The Kaleckian version generates a new balanced budget multiplier driven by changed composition of government spending. It also illuminates some macroeconomic implications of privatization of government produced services.
Proto-fascism unleashed: how the Republican Party sold its soul and now threatens democracy
Friday, June 4th, 2021This essay argues that some forty years ago the Republican Party struck a Faustian bargain whereby it traded political integrity and decency for tax cuts and a corporate dominated economy. Now, the Republican party is reaping the consequences of that bargain in the form of its capture by Donald Trump and his followers. However, it also means we are all threatened as the party has unleashed and legitimized proto-fascist tendencies that risk destroying tolerance and democracy, and replacing them with intolerance and authoritarianism. The U.S. is now fighting a war for its soul. At issue are two core questions. One, will the U.S. remain committed to true democracy? Two, will the U.S. aspire to having a decent society with shared prosperity? The one upside of Trump and his purging of the old guard Republican Party is that he compels welcome clarification of those questions, which can no longer be evaded by the Democratic Party and the chattering class.
Sliding Doors: The Day US Democracy Almost Died
Sunday, January 10th, 2021Sunday January 10, 2021. It is now four days since the January 6 mob attack on the US Congress which President Donald Trump incited. In a manner akin to a combat situation, the numbness induced by the overwhelming nature of the event is giving way to shock and anger. What is also becoming clear is just how close US democracy came to dying.
Sliding Doors
The film Sliding Doors begins with two different scenarios in which the course of the main protagonist’s life depends on whether or not she catches the subway by seconds. The events of January 6 have a Sliding Doors quality to them.
It now seems the attack has backfired for Trump and turned into a political fiasco. That fiasco resonates with Adolf Hitler’s failed 1923 Munich Beer Hall putsch (German for coup) – though lest we get carried away, let us not forget Hitler returned and took power ten years later, and we all know what followed.
Hitler’s failed Munich putsch is one scenario. The other scenario is the Bolshevik Party’s sudden seizure of power in St. Petersburg, Russia in October 1917. That coup succeeded and launched a totalitarian dictatorship that was to last almost seventy-five years.
It is easy to imagine a scenario in which Trump’s mob had been better organized and more ruthless, and in which they had seized Congress and summarily executed Democratic Senators and House members – along with Senator Mitt Romney, who has been heroic in his opposition to Trump. That would have left a rump majority of willing accomplice Republicans, plus a smaller group of Vichyssoise Republicans who meekly towed the line.
(more…)Obamacare With a Public Option: Fool Me Twice Shame on Me
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020There is an old saying “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” That saying is relevant for the current healthcare debate in which former Vice-President Biden and elite Democrats are touting a reheated version of Obamacare with a public option. It is a case of trying to fool the American public twice.
Adding an Obamacare public option will not solve the healthcare problem. Worse yet, it misses an historic opportunity to heal the festering wound of healthcare via a single-payer system as proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders.
(more…)Bernie Sanders: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself
Tuesday, February 18th, 2020“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Eighty-seven years ago those were the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural speech. Today, they resonate with Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, which confronts a barrage of attack aimed at frightening away voters.
Fear is the enemy of change and the friend of hate. That is why both sides of the political establishment are now running a full-blown campaign of fear-mongering against Sanders.
The Democratic Party establishment likes the economy the way it is and wants to prevent change. Donald Trump and the Republicans have made themselves the party of hate. Both therefore have an interest in promoting fear, which explains the strange overlap in their attacks on Sanders.
(more…)A Stock Market Boom is Not the Basis of Shared Prosperity
Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020The US is currently enjoying another stock market boom which, if history is any guide, also stands to end in a bust. In the meantime, the boom is having a politically toxic effect by lending support to Donald Trump and obscuring the case for reversing the neoliberal economic paradigm.
For four decades the US economy has been trapped in a “Groundhog Day” cycle in which policy engineered new stock market booms cover the tracks of previous busts. But though each new boom ameliorates, it does not recuperate the prior damage done to income distribution and shared prosperity. Now, that cycle is in full swing again, clouding understanding of the economic problem and giving voters reason not to rock the boat for fear of losing what little they have. READ MORE