Yes, proper regulation is what’s required, which demands a strong government capable of standing up to private financial interests. Just this morning I read the exchange between Putin and Director of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring Yuri Chikhanchin who heads a specialized, hybrid law enforcement/regulatory agency within Russia’s government. We don’t know much about the work of this agency for as Putin admits, “we usually have the bulk of your report taking place behind closed doors, but I know that you would like to start with the work that concerns combating money laundering.” Again, it’s quite curious to read what the Kremlin allows you to learn. Here is part of the report; I found the educational inclusion most interesting:

We are actively working on the platform of the Council of Heads, Heads and Financial Intelligence. This is our association with the CIS. Thank you here for supporting the project.
We are creating an international risk assessment centre for the CIS to develop measures to minimise these risks associated with countering money laundering. We work within the framework of Operation Barrier – this is countering the financing of terrorism. There are results, there are already frozen assets on both sides. That is, the work is underway.
I would like to say a few words about how the international information exchange is being built. Despite the fact that in the Egmont group, which unites the financial intelligence of almost 180 countries, a number of countries are also trying to disconnect us from communication channels, we still continue to work. To date, about 70 countries are actively cooperating, more than 100 joint financial investigations, including with countries – there is a list here – which are, perhaps, even to some extent unfriendly. This year alone, more than 40 cases have been opened, and the work is being carried out jointly with the prosecutor’s office, the FSB and the Interior Ministry.
We are also searching for assets abroad with colleagues from law enforcement agencies. To date, there are about 60 cases. First of all, we pay attention to offshore ones. We have already identified part of the beneficiaries, offshore ownership and identified part of the assets, we are working with law enforcement agencies.
New formats are actively included. This is an initiative you supported to hold the International Financial Security Olympiad. Last year, we held it for the CIS countries. This year, in addition to the CIS countries, we have already connected the BRICS countries. To date, a lesson on financial security has been held in schools, and more than two million schoolchildren have sat at their desks and attended a special course. Now the selection is underway. More than 30 thousand schoolchildren and students came from Russia, the BRICS countries, the CIS. We work very closely here.
The final round will be held at Sirius in October. Thank you for your support. Sirius helps us a lot. I think that with the help of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Education and Science, our international training center, the network institute, we will solve this problem.

That’s about 15% of the total report. That financial security is taught in Russian, BRICS and CIS schools is most interesting as nothing like that is taught within the Anglosphere. One can see how such a course could be tied to the overall importance of financial regulation and need for strong enforcement mechanisms. The weakness or lack of such mechanisms is decried by Hudson as the main reason for Neoliberal capture of government and the resulting destruction of real economies.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 28 2022 18:16 utc | 104

Trenchant analysis from Chris Hedges, tracking the trajectory of Christian Fascism in USA at the latest tolling of bells — don’t even ask for whom — from the US Supreme Court:

Women, denied contraception, access to abortion, and equality under the law, will be subordinate to men. Those who practice other faiths will become, at best, second-class citizens. The wars waged by the American empire will be defined as religious crusades. Victims of police violence and those in prison will have no redress. There will be no separation of church and state. The only legitimate voices in public discourse and the media will be “Christian.” America will be sacralized as an agent of God. Those who defy the “Christian” authorities, at home and abroad, will be condemned as agents of Satan.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/06/27/chris-hedges-fascists-in-our-midst/
I appreciate that Hedges has long abstained from the conventional call for preventative activism. As is the case with Earth’s greenhouse gas problem, USA’s democracy problem has been baked in for many decades. To counter shameless tyranny from our court system, all we have left is people from the fraud-squad — so-called because none of them understand there’s a problem with approving of preparations for WWIII — such as AOC.
It’s probably impossible to overstate how terrible a place to be USA has suddenly become. Hedges gives his usual “We’re all damned to Hell!” an especially emphatic homily, without coming close.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 28 2022 20:05 utc | 106

Here’s Alastair Crooke’s SCF article for those unable to access it sans links and other special formatting:

The train wreck has been expected for so long that we have become comfortable living under its shadow. Life went on; markets were sanguine that the market lifestyle subsidy provided by the Central Banks would continue unabated. And not without good reason either: Any trader disappointment at Central Bank action, any dip in markets, brought forth a collective market hissy fit that usually strong-armed the Central Banks into immediate appeasement. We were hard pressed to imagine differently.
Now, however, we’re in a new era, in many ways. The West has entered upon a war with Russia and China. The West, however, did not do its homework first, and now is finding that the ‘war’ is cruelly revealing the structural rigidities and flaws integral to its own economic system, rather than mining the weaknesses of its rivals.
Why is this new era so grave? Firstly, because of what lies ‘beneath the stones’. These structural contradictions have been accumulating over decades, lurking in the dark damp underside to the stones. Kept hidden from sight by the serendipitous (for the U.S.) economic outcome to WW2, and the equally serendipitous combination of factors that kept inflation low (so low that western economists believed they had found the ‘holy grail’ of monetary ‘easing’ – they had banished recessions for ever). So simple, really, just turn on the money-printer!
Hubris prevailed. It was magic: a ‘new economics’. And then inadvertently, Team Biden kicked over the stones in their eagerness to cut Russia down to size (instigating sanctions and stealing Russia’s foreign reserves). And Inflation was the serpent under the rock. Long latent, unseen, yet always present. And no longer one serpent, but now many.
And then they found they are fighting the wrong war: Ukraine was conceived as the urban war American and NATO trainers had absorbed from the jihadists fighting President Assad in Syria. But Russia knew this type of war well – they did not bite; instead, they fought a classic artillery war (in which Russia traditionally has excelled).
So, the serpents of inflation – at a time of structural economic checkmate – are loosened, as they always are in war. And as pressures mount, ‘things’ and people get thrown under a bus. ‘War’ makes for clarity: It becomes starkly clear what baggage must go overboard to save the vessel.
Saving the vessel, of course, is imperative. Thus, America has decided to look after ‘its own’. The Davos-Brussels plan to eventually to roll-up the over-indebted European commercial banks into a single, Brussels-controlled digital currency suddenly is seen – as if scales had fallen from the eyes – as potentially threatening to hole the hull below the waterline.
What this reveals is that the ‘strong dollar–weak dollar play’ – in tandem with Treasury sanctions – has been ‘not so bad’ for the NY Big Banks! Why let the Europeans scoop up all those distressed assets that pop-up in times of crisis? Why allow the U.S. big banking sphere to dissolve into a world of fin-tech Apps? Why deprive the former of their historic raiding rights? Why stop now because the Europeans want ‘Davos’.
So, the U.S. Big Banks are thinking, let the ECB – and by extension the Euro Zone – ‘fall under the bus’. Co-ordinating policy with the ECB anyway has tied the hands of the Fed to manage affairs to its own advantage.
With ‘war’, the serpents crawl out. Again, a stark clarity emerges: What worked when inflation was less than 2% doesn’t ‘cut it’ at double digit inflation. The low inflation era was dominated by monetarist dogma. And so, it also bred structural contradictions. Even moderate interest rate increases now risk eviscerating bonds and highly leveraged U.S. companies, and yet still will not be high enough to stem inflation. The Fed’s 75bps rate hike is a drop in the bucket compared to what will be needed to slow the inflationary crisis.
What to do? With war comes inflation and a decline in those willing to fund the U.S. government’s borrowing requirement – as interest due on $30 trillion blows out. Interest rates therefore must rise (even if they do nothing to stem inflation) to keep ‘value’ in Treasuries. Thrown under the next bus too then is the U.S. consumer as inflation will soar.
Higher rates however, have not been enough to lure outside investors into treasury markets, with treasuries now facing the worst bond market collapse in half a century. This has led China to dump U.S. Treasuries to the lowest level in 12 years, and Japan, once a stalwart pillar of U.S. investment, is cutting their holdings as well.
The decline in U.S. treasuries along with the ongoing decline in the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency leads to one thing: More inflation; more pain.
Here is another structural contradiction thrown up by the monetarist era. Theoretically, should the Fed crash ‘demand’ enough (by making people so poor they cannot afford things), inflation can quicky be lowered to 2%. Huge sigh of relief ensues – Can the Fed then get back to printing money again? Not so quick, please – this outcome is ‘monetarist group think’. It is part of the hubris: Today’s narrative is that the Fed can hike until the year-end; hammer the consumer senseless; and then start the printing presses again, so that the market lifestyle subsidy is ‘on’ again.
It’s the war, stupid (to misquote President Clinton). If you take a sanctions hammer to a fragile ‘just in time’ complex supply network, you will have supply blockages – and cost push inflation is inevitable. Turning-on the money tap when you face supply-generated inflation will only return the inflationary dynamic to the system. What the Fed is trying to do is to keepsome benefits of a reserve currency intact, at a time when commodity-value as a trading medium commands the world’s attention.
What is this likely to mean in terms of practical politics? Well, cost-of-living crises are already here, as is the beginning to the ensuing political ructions. The ECB last week announced the end of the asset purchases and did not put anything else in place. All the ECB said was that it would work on an ‘emergency instrument’.
So clearly there is an emergency – yet there is no new instrument and there won’t be one. The ECB can use an existing QE tool to buy an unlimited amount of sovereign bonds, or not. It’s a choice, not a new tool.
The Euro is but a derivative of the dollar (which itself is a derivative of the underlying collateral). The Euro-system (to use a military metaphor) was built to protect existing, static, defensive lines: It is no roving, mobile expeditionary military force.
The systemic basis to the Euro-zone has been the ECB’s absolute commitment to keep German 10-year Bund at a managed premium over 10-year U.S. Treasuries (these are respectively the two ‘value anchors’ underpinning the functioning of the Euro-zone).
And, as interest rates rise in the U.S., this must be reflected in the Bund (to preserve its ‘value’) – for sovereign bonds represent the highly leveraged collateral upon which the European banking edifice stands (or not). If the value of, say, Italian collateral declines, a financial doom loop sets in – as it did in 2012. In a word, the Euro Zone potentially would collapse.
At 2% inflation, European sovereign bonds could be kept more or less aligned. At 8% they cannot. And the bond market is fragmenting. The spreads between states’ bonds have skyrocketed in recent weeks. As a stopgap, the ECB seems to be selling German bunds to buy Italian debt.
What does this portend for the future? A hint of what might be coming was when Christine Lagarde left no doubt that the ECB will at least try to tough it out. She said during a conversation at the London School of Economics that the ECB would not subject itself to financial dominance. Financial dominance is a broader concept than ‘fiscal dominance’ because it includes bailing out banks and other financial institutions, as well as government borrowing needs.
That sounds very much like her stating a readiness to throw either EU banks – or countries, or both – under a bus.Hypothetically, the only remedy might be a mutualised Eurobond and full QE (though that would require EU treaty renegotiation). QE would of course, exacerbate inflation and the spreads.
But would the northern frugal states acquiesce? Might they not prefer to opt for a truncated, frugalist mini-Euro Zone by throwing Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain under the bus?
This effectively might at least, save a core to the Euro ‘project’ by winnowing out the weaker states, and reserving the Euro to the less indebted northern economies. The consequence would be a Europe emulating that which Wall Street did to Russia during the Yeltsin era: i.e., imagine it as Italy, with its assets ‘privatised’ and sold-off for $1 (as Draghi once did to Banco Popular, which he ‘took over’ as ECB chief, and then sold to Santander for Euro 1).
As of now, it seems the Euro-élites have not sensed the danger they are in. They entered ‘a war’, and already three major geo-political tectonic shifts are visible. Firstly, Putin’s ‘rebellion’ has prompted the Rest of the World to say that they have ‘had it’ with ‘Westification’ (by which is meant the predatory, grasping type of colonialism that has characterised western foreign policy). By all means, be ‘the West’, but not ‘Westified’; by all means be ‘European’, but not an ‘EU-values missionary’, the non-westerners suggest.
Secondly, European voters are not looking for more efficient markets or regulatory structures. As the cold winds of recession blow, they look to their leaders for protection from markets and regulatory absurdities. They sense the danger of unknown ‘doom-loops’ imploding parts of their economy. They are beginning to understand that in wars, rivals strike back too. War is ‘what it is’.
The risk coming from the cost-of-living crisis is easy to grasp. The risk from additional food shortages is almost beyond calculation. But what we observe from America, and the recent round of the French Assembly elections, is normal politics checkmated; social distrust; widening reservations toward the legitimacy of central authority; and increasing scepticism and doubts about ideologised SCIENCE.
In the U.S., there is evident a centrifugal separation reflected in migratory flows: The checkmating, the toxification of politics is leading Americans to want to live amongst their like-minded counterparts. It is, as it were, a political Ben Op – a literal and geographic mass movement to live within ‘encircled wagons’. And in states such as Florida and Texas (with their clear ‘tribal’ immigration), an increasing self-definition in opposition to the Federal government.
Thirdly there is in America – as in Europe – fear, and anger too, at system disintegration. Fear, as cities become both violent and mal-administered. The situation at Europe’s airports in these last weeks of sheer chaos and unbelievable queues gives a foretaste of the angst that is unleashed toward remote, techno fragile systems that simply freeze solid under pressure, triggering both anger and grievance.
War – even a war of choice – always reveals the fragility of complex systems. An article in the Atlantic recently noted that if “you, as a typical urban professional Millennial, woke up on a Casper mattress, worked out with a Peloton, Ubered to a WeWork, ordered on DoorDash for lunch, took a Lyft home, and ordered dinner through Postmates only to realize your partner had already started on a Blue Apron meal, your household had, in one day, interacted with eight unprofitable companies that collectively lost about $15 billion in one year”.
It has been a Millennial lifestyle subsidy that may vanish in the twinkling of an eye (or in one hike of an interest rate). It is a mirage. One that reflects the absurdities of the ‘cult of tech’ in a zero-interest rate era. It will soon be gone.
Yet, if our various crises stop at such minor inconveniences, we shall be lucky. Rather, we may well see ideological movements (as likely upper middle class, as drawn from the blue-collar sphere) split – with one part staying mainstream, and others seeking violence and revolution, as did the Baader-Meinhof and the Red Brigade groups in 1970s Europe.
In the U.S., there are already intimations of such armed actions stemming from splinters of the pro-abortion movement, but in Europe (and particularly in Germany), we may see the anger deriving from radical Climate Activists, furious at finding that it is the Energy Transition that will be thrown under the bus, as states struggle to do as best, they can to keep a system afloat, as cheaply as they can. Self-survival invariably takes priority, pushing other interests aside.
A book by Swedish academic and climate activist, Andreas Malm, Wolfgang Münchau has noted, carries the title, ‘How to blow up a pipeline’. Its most important message was a battle cry for climate activists to burn and destroy all CO2-emitting machinery. It also invoked Meinhof’s most famous statement – that it was time for a transition from opposition to resistance.
Caveat: A violent late summer may be brewing.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 0:59 utc | 108

Israel tosses the shekel again.

Israel’s parliament is expected to dissolve Wednesday, ending Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s year-long tenure and triggering a fifth election in less than four years that could see ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu reclaim power.
Barring an 11th hour shock agreement to save the coalition or form a new government within the existing parliament, Bennett’s eight-party alliance is due to end by midnight, installing Foreign Minister Yair Lapid as prime minister.
The former television anchor is set to head a caretaker government, ahead of polls due in late October or early November.

What, me worry?

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 29 2022 6:21 utc | 110

Big shootout at a small city bank. In Canada’s province of BC, municipality of Saanich, heavily armed men reportedly in body armour tried to rob a Bank of Montreal. On their way out, they met with police, resulting in 2 dead suspects and 6 injured officers (3 very seriously).
The premier of BC, John Horgan, who’s actually from Saanich, announced that he’s resigning as premier that same day. Just felt it was time, doesn’t have as much energy as he once did, more time for family.
Horgan is Chair of the Council of the Federation (made up of premiers of Canadian provinces). They are holding a summer meeting in Victoria, BC (Saanich is in the greater Victoria area) on July 11-12. Wonder what’s on the agenda there!! And who will become the new chair! (…why not Horgan, anyway, what’s the big deal? Just to be tin foil about it for a moment.)
https://www.canadaspremiers.ca/
I checked La Presse: their top story was about neo-Nazis , Atomwaffen Division. Police raided a paramilitary training camp of theirs in mid-June. One of their propaganda videos is embedded in the report.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2022-06-29/centre-du-quebec/un-camp-de-la-haine-tenu-par-un-groupe-neonazi.php

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jun 29 2022 9:51 utc | 112

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 26 2022 20:43 utc | 27
You’re on a roll! Just about anything ‘chronic’ – which nearly always means weak immunity = microbial screw-up – they generally don’t have a clue about so flounder around doing more harm than good.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 29 2022 11:28 utc | 114

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jun 29 2022 6:10 utc | 110
I would second T-Bear on that. I too use V-C, V-D3, and a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and minimal meat.
1 cold in 2 years (about 5 days and mild)…
Posted by: V | Jun 29 2022 8:03 utc | 112

Yes, I’m there too. V-C, V-D3, zinc, and a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and minimal meat. + nasal lavage every 2-3
days and especially on days after being in stores or other indoor places with crowds. 75 orbits, 12 years now no colds, flu or anything other
than sloth and apathy which I don’t care about and which I’m too lazy to do anything about.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 29 2022 12:30 utc | 116

Spanish inflation hits record 10%
Germany, France and overall euro zone data coming later this week. So much winning!
poor families to be paid to use less electricity in UK
Because it is the poor who can afford to use less electricity…
Asia coal prices hit record
Sanctioning that Russian coal was totally a good idea, EU. Just imagine what prices would be if the EU was buying Russian coal.
Off the charts chemical shortages hit US farmers
chemicals = pesticides. As I noted before via the Doomberg article, the difference between Roundup and nitrogen fertilizer production isn’t actually that much.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 29 2022 12:41 utc | 118

Because catalytic converters…
Michigan county bus service stopped due to catalytic converter thefts

A dial-a-ride bus service in a Michigan county has been suspended after catalytic converters were stolen from vehicles.
A catalytic converter is part of a vehicle’s exhaust system. They’re sought by thieves because they contain valuable precious metals.
The thefts occurred last weekend at buses operated by the Shiawassee Area Transportation Agency in Shiawassee County, 40 miles northeast of Lansing.
“At this point, our transportation services are temporarily suspended. We are going week to week and will inform you regularly of any changes,” the agency said Monday.
For a fee, the buses take county residents to grocery stores, medical appointments, schools and more. People who are 60 or older can ride for free.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 29 2022 12:50 utc | 120

…being totally or largely isolated cuts down on risk factors considerably.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 29 2022 12:52 utc | 122

Yeah, I keep that to a minimum and have no argument against that being a factor.
But prior to 2020 I was around a lot of people indoors, operating a small store for 35 years,
so was exposed to the public all the time with only a couple colds and one 3 day flu. So I think my natural
immunity is fairly strong too. Like Formerly T-Bear, I’ve dug into as much of the Covid maze as possible and will take my
chances w/o mRNA injection, (only type available here). Plus I look both ways before crossing the street in case that garbage
truck is coming for me. As former A’s pitcher Jaoquin Andujar once answered an interviewer, “two words – ya never know”.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 29 2022 15:06 utc | 122

Just getting caught up with the day’s reading of comments here, Thanks All above. Some shapes are forming in the statistical fogs being recorded that have serious portents for the future, if true. Time will tell and will come with the label: “You are not allowed to know this”.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jun 29 2022 18:11 utc | 124

@waynorinorway #123
Isolation is all relative.
Operating a store in a small town, for example, would be completely different than operating a store next to a major convention center in a major city.
In the former, you are exposed to people but it is the same, small group of people all the time.
In the latter, you are not only exposed to people all the time – these people are from all over the place and are constantly changing.
Urban vs. rural is another example: it is well documented that rural people have significantly greater social spacing mores than those in cities. New York is infamous for very short social spacing mores – which is why I was not surprised by it being a hotbed of COVID even though COVID first popped up in Washington state.
As for strong immune system: there is definitely both a genetic and an environmental component.
You can’t really test it except by exposing to known infectious situations, but in general – exposure to more leads to stronger immune systems. And ironically this is where the urban/rural flips. While urban people are exposed to more diseases than rural due to density, rural people are exposed to much more varied environmental factors.
In any case, I don’t wish anyone ill – I hope everyone stays healthy.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:52 utc | 126

Furthermore, you aren’t thinking this through. If the government, Big Pharma and so forth are all liars – why exactly are other sources necessarily telling the truth? The reality is that there are plenty of people who are making hay pushing conspiracy theories and/or peddling quackery too.
How do you separate the quacks and the cons from the legit?
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:46 utc | 126

The US government’s pronouncements regarding the vaccines often conflict with what its publicly available documents and other information say. For example, the US’s VAERS (vaccine adverse event reporting system) indicates that the number of deaths from the COVID vaccines exceeds the number of deaths from all other vaccines of the previous 30 years combined. Accounting for number of times administered, this translates to a ratio of more than an order of magnitude. That doesn’t seem consistent with the assurance that they are “safe.”
I’ve read that Europe’s equivalent of VAERS tells a similar story, although I’ve not looked at this as closely (being that I’m in the US).
There have also been shifts in the US government’s explanations of what happens after taking the mRNA vaccines. At first, it said that the mRNA quickly dissipates. Then it conceded that the mRNA doesn’t quickly dissipate but assured us that it remains in the injection region (typically the shoulder). Then it conceded that the mRNA does spread to other regions of the body but claimed it doesn’t hurt anything.
The first two positions were unjustified, being that a study on rats that was completed before any of the vaccines were available showed that the mRNA takes only hours to be detectable in numerous organs. Notwithstanding that effect on rats cannot definitively be extrapolated to effect on people, what’s the point of doing animal studies if the results are going to be disregarded?
It seems to me that the US government has been caught lying about COVID vaccines more than enough for it to have earned our distrust.

Posted by: David Levin | Jul 2 2022 15:36 utc | 128