I wonder if non English speakers are getting what is meant by materialism confused.
One is a philosophical look at the world, which tries to codify everything with science.
But in more common English use, it means people who crave material wealth, like expensive cars, big houses, yachts, etc…

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 17 2023 17:39 utc | 4

“…Wallace had a special role in the Ukraine war, being the oldest member of the British cabinet at 52…” Indian Punchline.
Does that surprise anyone else? First that nobody is older than 52. And second that Wallace, obviously immature and silly, is the oldest member.
On another subject: does antone remember the link to that excellent looking video about the subjection of Sweden to imperialism? I need to pass it on.

Posted by: bevin | Jul 17 2023 17:47 utc | 6

I got a chuckle out of this altered photo of a neglected VZ at the recent NATO meeting in Vilnius.

Posted by: David Levin | Jul 17 2023 18:10 utc | 8

@4 uwdude
Materialism is that thing obsessed with objects/beings.
It is the default of people without curiosity. Or rather, curiosity that can not take mystery at face value.
It seeks to codify all reality but can not seek to help understand why we should or why there would be a why question at all.
Materialism says there should be justice and puts out a definition of justice that is not complete.
It is life without philosophy or mystery. It is the tendency to destroy all mystery. It imagines itself limitless and does insane evils because it can not take the notion that nature has an avenging power to destroy human arrogance.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jul 17 2023 19:08 utc | 10

I think it is time we started pointing them in the direction of Japan. What with their HUGE debt to GDP ratios and their quadrillion Yen deficits at times.
Yet, have consistently run both very low inflation rates and very low unemployment rates other countries can only dream of.
Those that push the meme that de- dollarisation will collapse America are the very same people who keep shorting Japanese bonds. The widow maker trade that have bankrupted many a trader. They simply don’t understand fiat money.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:14 utc | 12

Japan and the EU – the king and Queen of QE and low and negative interest rates for over a decade – always failed to hit their 2% interest rate targets.
That really plays with people’s heads when we are told by a bunch of bankers that increasing interest rates fights inflation lol.
Japan has the had the lowest level of inflation throughout the covid period and never raised rates. They know how how money works. Simply destroy the myths of mainstream macro in real time, every day of the week. Including the BOJ simply buying the Japanese bonds themselves.
Quantitative Easing (QE) Can’t Cause Inflation never mind the fact both Japan and the EU proved it for decades.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=quhkjLAXFGs&pp=ygUoU2NvdHQgZnVsbHdpbGVyIFFFIGNhbid0IGNhdXNlIGluZmxhdGlvbg%3D%3D

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:29 utc | 14

What REALLY should have been done to fight against inflation.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ggcsd08LXFA&pp=ygUQU2NvdHQgZnVsbHdpbGVyIA%3D%3D
Interest rate targeting is the work of the devil.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:37 utc | 16

we hear zero about spirituality but much about the disney version of it!
@ dors venabili | Jul 17 2023 17:13 utc | 3
To some folks, the word “spirituality” connotes those comforting words for relatives of the deceased: “I’m sure he’s in a better place now.” Most folks who think about such things envision a spiritual plane which is somehow higher or better than Life on Earth.
To others, the previous view stands as the antithesis of true spirituality, experienced as reflexive solidarity with all sentient and non-sentient beings, all of our precious relatives inhabiting a most unnecessarily beautiful planet, our Earth — a planet inherently despised and actually despoiled by those satisfied with yearnings for a better place someday. Was Rachel Carson a “spiritual person”? To my way of thinking, yes indeed.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 17 2023 20:04 utc | 18

Switzerland will classify information about the collapse of Credit Suisse (EurAsia Daily, July 17, 2023 — in Russian)

Swiss parliamentary commission will classify the results of its investigation into the collapse of Credit Suisse for 50 years, Reuters reports, citing commission documents. Typically, such documents are out of the public domain in Switzerland for 30 years.
“After the completion of the investigation, the files should be transferred to the Federal Archives and should be subject to an extended period of protection of 50 years,” the parliamentary commission decided.
The president of the Swiss Society for History, Sacha Zala, expressed concern to the head of the commission, Isabelle Chassot, about the decision to classify documents for such a long period.
“If researchers want to scientifically investigate the 2023 banking crisis, access to the CS files will be invaluable,” Zala said.
The parliamentary committee, on the contrary, believes that the disclosure of data is detrimental to the credibility of the commission and may have “negative consequences for the financial center of Switzerland.”
Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, found itself in a difficult position after the collapse of U.S.’s Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital. Shares of Credit Suisse on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX) on March 15 reached a historical low. Price collapsed by 30.8% to 1.55 Swiss francs, which was the biggest drop in one day. At the close on March 15, the fall was 24.2%, to 1.7 Swiss francs.
In addition to the situation with U.S. banks, the decline in price was affected by the refusal of the largest shareholder of Credit Suisse, Saudi National Bank, to buy more of the bank’s shares. They said they would not buy more shares so as not to violate regulatory requirements.
After that, Credit Suisse turned to the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for support, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. As a result, the Swiss National Bank approved the plan to rescue Credit Suisse: the country’s second bank was to be absorbed by the UBS group. The merger of the two largest and oldest Swiss banks took place on March 19. The transaction took place on the terms of 0.76 Swiss francs per CS share, that is, the total amount was 3 billion francs ($3.24 billion).

In the spirit of true openness and transparency, Switzerland, a mature democracy, classifies information about what happened to its second largest bank for 50 years. Totally unlike those closed opaque authoritarian countries of China and Russia!

Posted by: S | Jul 17 2023 20:14 utc | 20

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 18:55 utc | 9
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:14 utc | 12
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:29 utc | 14
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 19:37 utc | 16
But, but… it says here, on this £10 note I have in front of me, “I Promise To Pay The Bearer On Demand The Sum Of Ten Pounds”, signed by the Chief Cashier of the Bank Of England, no less (whose signature diminishes in proportion to the reduction of the size of the note, strangely).
“Ten Pounds of what?” assembled barflies may well ask; well 10 lbs of sterling silver of course!
Now, what are my chances of success if I get on a train to London, go up to the doors of the Bank Of England, and seek to redeem the promise (made to me by the Chief Cashier of the Bank Of England, don’t forget) of 10 lbs of sterling silver in exchange for the promissory note that was paid to me in lieu of actual money?

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 17 2023 20:28 utc | 22

Gas suppliers have washed away the wealth of Europe: the victory over Russia turned out to be Pyrrhic (EurAsia Daily, July 17, 2023 — in Russian)

During the energy crisis, Europe burned $1.12 trillion worth of gas. This amount is comparable to EU fuel costs for the entire previous decade. The victory over Russian gas turned out to be Pyrrhic.
“Last year, European consumers paid a hefty price for LNG, and the bill for gas import is washing away the wealth of the EU,” writes Energy Flux.
According to the publication, in two and a half years Europe spent $1.12 trillion on gas and by the middle of the decade the amount could increase by another $600 billion. While over the entire previous decade the EU paid $1.35 trillion for fuel.
Energy Flux mentions that $1.12 trillion exceeds Saudi Arabia’s GDP and is four times the combined market capitalization of global energy giants ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell ($260 billion).
“Gas costs eclipse the amount Europe has invested in green energy over two and a half years ($260 billion in 2021 and $154 billion in 2022, according to the IEA) and are more than double the $411 billion estimated cost of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction,” writes Energy Flux.
The publication continues: “One trillion dollars worth of gas burning sent the EU trade deficit to a record minus €432 billion in 2022.”
…
At the same time, ordinary Europeans could not fully experience the energy crisis, since European governments took on most of the costs.
Since September 2021, Europe has earmarked and set aside €758 billion for consumer protection, according to the Bruegel Center. Most of it by Germany—€265 billion. It was with federal money that German importers purchased gas at record prices of $3.5 thousand per thousand cubic meters in August 2022.
The washing out of hundreds of billions from the EU countries did not happen without consequences for them. In June, the European Commission presented an updated multiannual financial framework (MFF), adopted in 2020. For the development of the competitiveness of the European economy, which will be able to compete with the United States and China, it was proposed to allocate only €10 billion.

Posted by: S | Jul 17 2023 20:39 utc | 24

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 17 2023 20:28 utc | 22
It promises to pay the bearer of the £10 note £10 no more no less. So you can exchange it for another £10 note or two fivers.
The days you could exchange it for silver are long gone thank god.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 20:48 utc | 26

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 17 2023 20:28 utc | 22
If you got on the train and travelled to the BOE to use your
£10 notes to pay your taxes. They would write you a receipt say thank you very much and put it in a shredder.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 20:52 utc | 28

To karlof1 | Jul 17 2023 20:39 utc | 23
Yes, positron-circuits and yet heartwarming. The real AI will never gain the level of the literary AI.

Posted by: dors venabili | Jul 17 2023 21:08 utc | 30

There was some brief discussion in an earlier thread about parallels between our current world and Frank Herbert’s Dune saga. Looking at my utterly un-philosophical bookshelves, I’m wondering if we could draw some parallels with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld…
Perhaps Joe Biden as Rincewind, V V Putin as Granny Weatherwax, and Xi Jingping as Vimes…

Posted by: West of England Andy | Jul 17 2023 21:26 utc | 32

dors venabili | Jul 17 2023 21:08 utc | 30–
Thanks for your reply. I’ve always wanted to talk about the prequel series to Foundation, but few knew they existed and thus hadn’t read them. I’m pleased Asimov finally decided to write them but wish he hadn’t waited as long as he did to do so. Oh well. I did find an old, timed-out forum five or so years ago that was interesting to read. Be well!

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 17 2023 21:35 utc | 34

“I’m wondering if we could draw some parallels with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld…”
🙂
‘Making Money’ by Terry Pratchett.
If policy makers get money wrong by implementing gold standard, fixed exchange rate analysis upon fiat money then their solutions are always wrong.
There’s no better example of this as Nicholas Kaldor one of those bourgeois socialist economicsts at Cambridge university. How post Keynsians live and die by the Kaldorian point of view.
Balance of payments constraints
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=32931

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 17 2023 22:31 utc | 36

Browser@35
I only watched the first two minutes of Part One. I decided to watch it with my wife and that is what we intend to do. I will post my thoughts (should I have any) when we have watched the videos.
Thanks again.

Posted by: bevin | Jul 17 2023 23:29 utc | 38

De-dollarization is not about “bankrupcy” internally, but about the contraction of a currency’s influence outside its borders. Sure fiat money works within a sovereign’s market, but the trick is to convince those outside its borders to believe in it as well. Less and less of the world is clapping for The Beast’s Tinkerbell. Disillusionment is a magic all its own.

Posted by: titmouse | Jul 17 2023 23:58 utc | 40

Why did Musk limit viewership of Twitter?
I meant to share this assessment made two weeks ago by Jeff Childers.
Twitter had been subject to a lot of programmatic “scraping” of opinions and persons, and Musk stated his aim as intending to curtail this by throttling it back.
To understand the import of this scraping, we have to think of AI-directed efforts to compile massive instances of opinion, as a way to gauge the tenor of public opinion on any subject.
Mostly, it’s the spook agencies directing these efforts, and they go both ways: not only understanding what public sentiment is, but feeding back to it with thousands of bots, to change it.

LIMITATIONS ☙ Monday, July 3, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS
How would rate limits hurt the intelligence agencies? Benz speculated that the spooks are mainly the ones doing all the scraping, and are using the massive amounts of “scraped” Twitter user data to help censor Americans and stop them from thinking wrong.
My sense is that is probably true. But censorship is only a single use case. I suspect what’s really going on is much bigger: that the intelligence agencies are using real-time Twitter data to — legally — run all their online psyop operations.
Here’s how it probably works. First, spies and other clandestine government operators publish some new psyop using their network of AI-driven bot accounts — like Erica Marsh and her criticism of Ashli Babbitt, for example. Then the spooks can use their AI-based scraping tools to monitor and analyze millions of user responses in real time, as people click the like buttons, re-tweet things, and post their own tweets and thoughts.
Meanwhile the spooks are watching and testing whether their psyop is working or not.

So that’s the fascinating probability of what’s going on here. Childers provides persuasive collateral for the view he’s put together, and he cites Musk himself agreeing with the thesis.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 18 2023 2:44 utc | 42

De-dollarization is not about “bankrupcy” internally, but about the contraction of a currency’s influence outside its borders. Sure fiat money works within a sovereign’s market, but the trick is to convince those outside its borders to believe in it as well. Posted by: titmouse | Jul 17 2023 23:58 utc | 40

Indeed – hear hear.

Posted by: Exile | Jul 18 2023 3:39 utc | 44

Musk ( or his early investors/handkers) is very much connected to the deep state. He has all sorts of ex-spooks involved in his companies. He has a small private army in Texas.
In many ways Musk is a bit like our Prigozhin.

Posted by: Exilr | Jul 18 2023 3:43 utc | 46

@ Browser | Jul 17 2023 20:04 utc | 19
thanks.. those are most interesting videos on sweden and how it has got to where it is now.. highly recommended for others..

Posted by: james | Jul 18 2023 4:34 utc | 48

Concurrent with the Vietnam War, U.S. warplanes dropped some 260 million cluster bombs on neighboring Laos, making Laos “the most heavily bombed nation in history.”
And they did so secretly, without letting the US public know for years. Operation Menu.
Huge conspiracy.

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 18 2023 5:41 utc | 50

Posted by: titmouse | Jul 17 2023 23:58 utc | 40
Very true but many believe it enables the US to issue treasuries on the cheap. Which is a myth.
The real problem is if you export your way to growth then they are going to horde bonds.The shift to manufacturing in the 3rd world has generated a huge export overhang with the West. They need to export to the West or their economies collapse. And that is one of the reasons why the Western currencies have remained valuable – because the Eastern countries are forced to run up huge stockpiles of the stuff to enable their economies to work.
And that will continue until they realise they are being had, Some economists been showing them how they are being had. Eliminate the export overhang and move to domestic consumption. You’ll note that the Japanese have only just done that, so it ain’t something that is going to happen overnight. China is moving in that direction.
Exporting your way to growth and being forced to is the main problem.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 8:39 utc | 52

Scotland exports its shell fish all over the place for funny bits of paper that it has to be exchanged back to £’s. Until certain areas now has very limited shell fish as the stocks are running out. The sea beds are bare.
For what ?
So a few exporters can make a killing.
What about the local economy were they fish ?
Perhaps the mental blockage is the horrible realisation due to covid is that an awful lot of private sector activity adds about as much real value to the local economy as a government furlough payment.
You end up with a few exporters that make a killing telling everyone it needs to continue or the fishing communities will die. That’s simply not true and yet another tale told by the free market tooth fairy. It is exporters exploiting the current privilege they have.
Move to domestic consumption to protect the fish stocks through a type of government furlough payment that pays the boats to stop fishing and protect the fishing area from outsiders until the stocks replenish. Introduce a job guarentee across the country.
Do we really have to go back to the early days of coal and tin mining when the owners of the mines lived in huge mansions in 1000 of acres of land and the local community lived in sheer poverty to prove the point ?
Stop these exporters giving huge sums of money to the political parties to lobby to keep their privilage. Interfering with the democratic process.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 9:04 utc | 54

@watcher | Jul 18 2023 8:56 utc | 53

Also it may surprise many but agriculture may not have started in the Middle East but possibly in Papua New Guinea – not grain but taro. There is also some evidence of it spreading to Australia (or conceivably even starting there although there is not much evidence of people moving south to north).

In the Middle East, there is some evidence that agriculture started/rebooted around the time Gobekli Tepe was built 12 000 years ago (according to even conventional history).
A very interesting 2.5 hour presentation I recommend to those who are interested in the long term history of human civilazation: The Tale of Two Industries! Interpreting the Evidence for Ancient Technology

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 18 2023 9:06 utc | 56

watcher | Jul 18 2023 8:56 utc | 53
There is quite a bit of evidence regarding ancient aboriginal trade in Australia. Ochre was a prized commodity and traded all over the continent, including the Torres Strait. So it is quite conceivable that information from Papua/ New Guinea found its way through these trade routes and vice versa.
https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2012/05/16/indigenous-science-australia-had-ancient-trade-routes-too-2/

Posted by: ZimZum | Jul 18 2023 9:28 utc | 58

“There is quite a bit of evidence regarding ancient aboriginal trade in Australia. Ochre was a prized commodity and traded all over the continent, including the Torres Strait. So it is quite conceivable that information from Papua/ New Guinea found its way through these trade routes and vice versa.”
Did it help the aborigines live in palaces of gold ? Or were they just about exterminated ?
Did only a handful of Western families benefit from it over the long term ? As they turned it into a monopoly.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 9:50 utc | 60

Knowing the fact that taxes do not fund government spending. What’s the difference to the local economy between a business that exports sand and a government furlough payment ?
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 9:39 utc | 59
Just curious. If this is true, why do taxes exist? Why are private citizens taxed and why are some taxed so heavily?

Posted by: Phil R | Jul 18 2023 11:15 utc | 62

De-dollarization is the most serious threat to the USA. Not because it won’t be able to pay its debt, but because the subsequent drop in the value of the US$ relative to other fiat currencies will make it much harder to buy what other countries produce and America needs.
MMT-ers don’t understand that any fiat currency exists in an ecosystem of fiat currencies so the issuer of any fiat has very limited degrees of freedom, with the sole exception being that fiat issuer that enjoys olipolic dominion of trade settlements and currency reserves.
This exceptionality that the US$ enjoys is what is being targeted for termination by rising powers. They know that de-dollarization is the weak underbelly of the hegemon.
De-dollarization started in the 2000s at a very slow pace, it accelerated in 2014 and it is getting additional acceleration in the current years.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 18 2023 11:48 utc | 64

Russian Novorrossyisk wheat price per ton keeps rising, now 17000 rubles per ton. The supply from Ukraine disappeared and sequentially raises the price for other wheat.
https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1681277104799854593

Posted by: unimperator | Jul 18 2023 12:35 utc | 66

re: censorship & German media
transcript of a German-language talk on how the German media propaganda works in terms of profit, dependence, self-censorship.
Its in simple style so good for machine-translation.
“Lecture by Florian Warweg at Attac Dortmund: “Media: Fourth Estate or Opinion Maker?”
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=101250
I wont put a translation here, its too long and has several interesting hyperlinks and imbedded material.

Posted by: AG | Jul 18 2023 12:55 utc | 68

I see Jeremy Corbyn has finally decided to pull up his fork-tongued replacement as leader of the englander labour party. The subject he has picked is a good one in that Starmer has gotten so over-confident about going back on his word that he has reneged on an undertaking that is always a keystone of labour policy, child poverty, which england has a lot of afaik about 30% of england’s kids are currently living in poverty.
This is something that hits even the more conservative of the neolibs as it has always been central to labour policy that children who have no say in their circumstances shouldn’t be the people most affected by them. That makes it something other than the anti-left, hate the left broken promises of starmer’s previous reversals on undertakings. starmer has been hoist on his own petard in that starmer like tories operates on the lie that government spending is somehow constrained by government revenue which he has in the past used to deny party demands he offer the voters something as he imagines he can win by just being not tory.
He appears to think that lib dem voters (other parliamentary party tho much smaller than labour or conservative parties) haven’t gotten over the 2010 (I think) election where the then lib dem leader sold out to tories. Voters are over that it seems and since starmer offers no difference from tories it is likely that a large chunk of them will vote libdem. Not that it is likely to make much difference as with Corbyn outta picture they all basically offer the same shit but they all have a heritage & libdems has too.
I know y’all hate reading the grauniad & I get why & agree but it does report on labour machinations more in depth than the other equally deceitful englander fishwraps, so from Labour MPs ‘seething with anger’ about Starmer’s stance on two-child benefit cap, says Jeremy Corbyn

Labour MPs are “seething with anger” about Keir Starmer’s decision to say the party would not get rid of the two-child benefit cap, Jeremy Corbyn said this morning.
Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor as leader, told LBC that he had spoken to “quite a lot of Labour MPs” about this issue. He went on:
“They are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty. Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy …
Even in areas like mine, there are high levels of child poverty – probably 40% of the children in my constituency. All across the north-east, which Jamie [Driscoll] represents – a third of all children across the whole of the region are living in poverty. That has got to go and got to change.
And it’s the Labour party that ought to be offering that pathway to change and it’s not doing it at the moment.”
Corbyn, who has been suspended from the parliamentary Labour party over his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission into antisemitism in the party when he was leader, has been banned from standing as a candidate again for the party at the next election.
In the interview he said he had not ruled out standing as an independent candidate in the next London mayoral election, but he did not elaborate, saying he wanted the interview to focus on child poverty.

It is easy to forget how self-effacing Corbyn can be, I doubt he will run for mayor as he is more interested in fixing the englander labour party, which means he will run as independent labour candidate and wait for an opportunity, which will come as not only is starmer as much of a liar as johnson or any other tory, englanders are starting to find out how corrupt starmer was as head of england’s crown prosecution service and pushed for Julian Assange to be arrested & charged on those bogus sex charges, plus there have been a couple of other instances where his calls as england’s chief prosecutor politicised other cases for a tory government. A real low life who hadn’t been an MP for long before he was made labour leader, primarily because none of the established neolib labourites had any credibility with Jo/Joe Public.
We shall see; Corbyn is tilting at windmills which he has always done yet that is why so many citizens respected him so much that when they opened selection of labour leader for a plebiscite among all party members Corbyn beat the careerist hacks like a dusty old rug.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 18 2023 13:05 utc | 70

That the real constraints are your productive capacity and the skills and real resources you have at your disposal.
Not some mumbo jumbo, voodoo stick, EU treaty that says your deficit must not go over 3% of GDP and the amount of savings you issue to the public must not go over 60% of GDP.
It’s an abomination of gold standard austerity thinking that was written on a napkin by the French at the last hour to appease the Germans who saw Hyperinflation under their beds. Hyperinflation lives rent free in every Germans head.
If you think THAT gives you any freedom at all, or any kind of sovereignty and truly defines ” fiscal space “. I have a bridge to sell you.
Now would be good time to jettison all the macroeconomic theory that construes the government budget constraint as an ex ante financial constraint instead of seeing it for actually what it is – as an ex post accounting statement, with no operational relevance. Certainly not something that defines ” fiscal space ”
Fiscal space has nothing to do with public debt ratios or the size of deficits.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=40224
It is the mainstream “the EU uber alles brigade ” that falsely claims what freedom a nation state has. Binds them in chains to be devoured by capital and the rent seekers. With gold standard, fixed exchange rate tombstones tied around their necks.
Export your way to growth, Export your way to growth, Export your way to growth, Export your way to growth, Export your way to growth, Your real resources others own from which to extract rent whilst imposing austerity on you via spending and debt rules to dampen down the demand for imports. Imports that would improve your standard of living.
In short – Neo colonialism and they waved flags and sang Ode to Joy while they were being imprisoned.
Tell me, explain to me – Why should budget deficits in Europe
Not exceed 3% of GDP ?
Why should “private sector/ household surpluses ” which is the asset side of the balance sheet not exceed 3% of GDP ? Why should the private sector / households not allowed to hold savings held as bonds above 60% of GDP ?
You can’t there is no valid or common sense reasoning for any of it. It is all a bunch of BS that holds back freedom and sovereignty and hides the TRUE definition of ” fiscal space. “.
See Japan for details that destroys all the economic theory behind this madness and has done for decades. With their HUGE deficits over the years and HUGE debt to GDP ratios with inflation rates and unemployment rates and Productivity that all of Europe can only dream of.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 13:36 utc | 72

“..That Johan is one of the best videos I have ever seen regarding the global South in many a century.”
Echo Chamber@69
For how many centuries have you been watching videos about the global South?

Posted by: bevin | Jul 18 2023 13:47 utc | 74

Posted by: bevin | Jul 18 2023 13:47 utc | 74
There hasn’t been any other video than neocolionialism for 100’s of years.. That’s the point.
TINA – There is no alternative.
Well that video shows there is and always has been an alt in the global South.
If Japan has been in the EU. They would have been told to STOP and austerity would have been imposed on them. They wouldn’t have been allowed to move away from their exporting to more domestic consumption. They wouldn’t have been allowed to explore and improve what “fiscal space “they have.
That’s how bonkers “EU uber alles” is. Just ask Portugal how bad it is if you even try to improve your ” fiscal space ”
Portugal exposed just how bad “EU uber alles” is. Because they exposed it, they got reigned in very quickly by their MASTERS in Brussels.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?s=Portugal

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 14:03 utc | 76

Posted by: S | Jul 17 2023 20:39 utc | 24

Posted by: Passerby | Jul 18 2023 14:07 utc | 78

Posted by: Wondrous | Jul 18 2023 14:03 utc | 77
Because the Bank of Japan continues to show who has the power and who calls the shots. Who actually sets the rate. If they feel like it just buy the bonds themselves. Have done for decades.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=50605
If Japan was in the EU. They would have been told no deficit bigger than 3% of GDP no issuing of bonds above 60% of GDP and that the ECB would simply refuse to buy the bonds of Japan tried any different. To simply appease a bunch of w@nkers in Brussels. Who think “fiscal space” is defined by some neoliberal globalist priest who decides what your fiscal and monetary policies should be.
Japan is fully sovereign and Euro countries aren’t. Fed, which has proven itself under Jerome Powell to be a follower of the markets (i.e. hedge funds, market commentators, etc.) There is no “widow maker” trade in the U.S. bond market because the hedge funds simply force the Fed to make moves aligned with their trades. When they could simply refuse to do so and ignore Wall street.
Just follow Robert P Balan on twitter,if you want to make money from it. Or his side kick Alan Longbon on seeking alpha. Or Mike Norman in the US on twitter.
I’m not here to explain how I make plenty of money from it. B wouldn’t want that. As this site is not designed for any of that.

Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 18 2023 14:28 utc | 80

Echo Chmaber is it us or yourself you are trying to convince that dedollarization will not affect Maerica?
Maericas Federal government is looking at interest on their debt of 20 percent this year. I believe someone noted these are projected to rise to even more unsustainable levels in most forecasts for 2024.
The bear trap Maerica currently has its nuts in in Ukraine is the reason everything is go slow. Maerica and her vassals working classes are having their meagre wealth drained away in massive inflation and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Inflation will only accelerate.
Meanwhile Maerican weapons are exposed as overpriced toys that break or fail in real world conditions. A polycrisis if you will, with absolutely no awareness from the lower classes of their peril due to overwhelmingly sufforcating propaganda.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 18 2023 15:30 utc | 82

Any comments on or opinions on why many central banks are adding to their gold reserves if fiat currency can continue indefinitely? Is it just for use as a hedge?

Posted by: Bubba | Jul 18 2023 15:47 utc | 84

Jeremy seems like a rare bird – the real deal. But I’m more of a fan of his iconoclastic, brilliant brother Piers.
In any case, as long as the U.K. is run by banker cabals in the City to whom even its erstwhile Monarchs must defer, all such lower level politicking is dogs fighting for scraps under their masters’ table.
@bevin: thxs for that Murray link. One of the Good Guys, a cut above etc….

Posted by: Scorpion | Jul 18 2023 15:56 utc | 86

It doesn’t make headlines,but I wonder if anybody at all has noticed that an american woman is to be made chief of the anti-trust legislation department of the European Union;France has made a tepid protest to this nomination.
Germany’s minister of environment is an american woman as well.USA taking over officially the reins of sleepy Yurp.

Posted by: willie | Jul 18 2023 16:25 utc | 88

Posted by: james | Jul 18 2023 16:31 utc | 89
I guess the EU is Ukraine 2.0.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Jul 18 2023 16:35 utc | 90

@ juliania | Jul 18 2023 15:07 utc | 81 (and Debs)
Yes, it’s always about the children, or there’s no future. In a similar vein, Heather Heying has a nice story today about seagulls defending their children from eagles:
Defend what is yours – An avian allegory
You may enjoy that story. I suspect the vaccines are principal in her mind, with probably gender reassignment a close second, and maybe too all the exploitation forced on children by people who lust to harvest today, rather than investing soberly in the future.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 18 2023 17:37 utc | 92

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 18 2023 17:37 utc | 92
Thanks Grieved for that story.
I can attest to its accuracy. Behind my house there is a woods of birch surrounding a bog approximately 200 by 600 yards wide. Every year in April the seagulls return from their winter home and nest there. They head south again in August.
I cross that bog to get to the grocery store – except from April until sometime in August. They are ferocious, tenacious, dive-bombing acrobats swooping right down to your head from all directions, one after another with remarkable coordinated attacks. They will rip your hat off and leave their droppings like a B-52 capet bomb run.
I watch crows get run off by the seagull gangs, I see loose dogs chased like scared pups into the trees, and I can tell when an otter has come up from the shore since the battle rages for half an hour or more. But the gulls don’t let up.
Christopher Hitchens had a spiel about morality being independent from religion. He used the example of a young child about to run into the street. It doesn’t take a ‘good book’ for an onlooker to react. As a species we are no different than many others.
That America has lost its way is evident in its abdication of the universal moral dictate to care for the children.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 18 2023 18:52 utc | 94

Posted by: Browser | Jul 17 2023 20:04 utc | 19
I join others in thanking you for posting these two educational video links. I have spent the morning learning more about Sweden and the world from a Nordic perspective than I ever knew. We all should take the time to view them.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 18 2023 20:07 utc | 96

@ Blue Dotterel | Jul 18 2023 16:35 utc | 90
that is a good way to put it at this point.. yes!
@ bevin | Jul 18 2023 16:46 utc | 91
they are really excellent and offer insights i haven’t seen anywhere else… that is investigative reporting on a topic i only had a superficial understanding of, prior to watching them.. highly recommended as they hit a home run in those 2 videos.. i think you’ll agree…

Posted by: james | Jul 18 2023 22:31 utc | 98

Juliette, Bevin and Grieved, I really appreciate your kind responses to the post I made last night (Aotearoa time) on Jeremy Corbyn & his continuing fight with labour, this time for something he considers more vital than his career, children. To tell you the truth I had almost given up on MoA as even here in the open thread one issue dingbats repeating the same didactic tosh over and over again are drowning out other voices simply by over-posting.
For me I have always felt that if you’re not posting on a subject or point of view which hasn’t featured at MoA before your post is redundant and useless. It was bad enough when we started getting people posting same shit different day, now we’ve got arseholes posting same shit same day, over and over again. I haven’t got the interest in them or what they say to consider whether they are alphabet agency plants or just annoying lunatics, though I do believe unless some hard but fair & consistent editing is undertaken the blog will be ruined as a site for people to express a particular point of view as everything is becoming drowned in a sea of stupidity. I guess this post will give pleasure to the forces of darkness especially if it is them mounting a campaign, I no longer care as I’m resigned to reality, all good things come to an end.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 18 2023 23:41 utc | 100