Berlin. In response to the execution of the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) ordered the closure of all consulates general in Germany on Thursday. Only the Iranian embassy in Berlin will remain open.
“His assassination underlines the fact that the unjust regime continues to act with full brutality even with the latest change at the top,” said Baerbock in New York. The German government had previously warned Iran that the execution of a German citizen would have “serious consequences”.
via handelsblatt

an execution labaled as an assasination, a government labeled as an unjust regime, and a vassal regime labeled as a government.
germany sliding further down the drain. today our regime also opened cases against the online distributor temu for some alleged legalese non-issues that they so lovely copied from the americans.

Posted by: Justpassinby | Oct 31 2024 14:08 utc | 3

Regarding the global South. The current Geopolitical fight right now is
BRICS, African union agenda 2063, the Just transition plan.
V’s
The Italian EU Mattei Plan for Africa.
That is where we are right now.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 14:27 utc | 5

Russia’s inflation rate is around 9%
Because Elvira Nabiullina has set interest rates @ 21%
21 fecking percent. Unbelievable madness.
The increased cost of credit just gets passed onto consumers via higher prices.
Just as rising prices allegedly leads to higher income due to higher wage demands which then confirms and embeds those higher prices, raising interest rates leads to rising prices, which leads to higher income due to interest paid which confirms and embeds those higher prices. It is precisely the same positive feedback process.
If a wage/price spiral leads to doom, then clearly so does an interest/price spiral.
Elvira Nabiullina is doing her best to get trapped in an interest/price spiral. See Argentina and Turkey for details.
When she should be acting Japanese and slashing interest rates to as close to zero as possible.
That’s my only fear with BRICS. They all think interest rate targeting works and they all have it backwards.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 14:45 utc | 7

Green Steel – a Closer Look
The following links provide a quick 15-minute overview of the rationale, method, costs, and impact of the efforts of the global steel industry to reduce CO2 emissions from steel-making, which currently accounts for about 8% of global CO2 emissions.
While the steel industry is the focus of the discussion today, the production of hydrogen from solar and wind farms solves the “intermittency” problem of solar and wind. Hydrogen is an excellent storage mechanism – it’s a massively-scalable “battery” than can smooth out and help match the highs and lows of production .vs. consumption.
Here is a white paper, written by the EU in 2020. It covers all the key issues, including:
1. The differences between how steel is made now, and how it would be made using hydrogen
2. The cost of producing hydrogen, and how that is likely to change over time (next 5-10 years)
3. The major increase in electricity production capacity that would be required to scale hydrogen-produced steel production up
4. The (likely) major changes in geographic distribution of steel-making facilities (major logistics changes between the two methods)
5. The subsidies, in the form of carbon-discharge levies, that will be needed for green steel to be price-competitive with old-way steel
Here’s another link to a major (500 million tons of steel per year) steel mill that’s being built in Sweden that is doing what the EU paper talks about. Sweden has a lot of high-grade iron ore, and abundant hydro power resources, and is proximal to high-demand steel customers, so it’s a natural fit for green steel production.
From an operational perspective, the big difference between old way .vs. hydrogen-way of steel making is that we’d stop using coke (a form of coal) and use hydrogen instead to strip the oxygen off the iron-ore molecule (FE O3) to produce FE and CO2 (old way) or FE and H20 (new way). Coke is expensive; in the U.S. it costs about $350 a ton. For comparison, iron ore is $110 a ton. The ore-to-coke ratio is about 3 ores to 1 coke, so the coke costs about as much as the ore.
Steel-making is a logistics and heavy-manufacturing game. The inputs are heavy, high-volume, and often located hundreds of miles or even thousands of miles away from the steel plant. Steel-making – the smelting, refining, and forming of steel – is highly capital-intensive in order to reach the scale necessary to be competitive.
If you don’t need to use coke, you have a lot more flexibility about where to locate the plant. If you happen to have a renewable energy source next to a iron mine, that’s a major competitive advantage if you’re using the hydrogen-based steel method. Steel produced via hydrogen doesn’t have to buy or ship coke. That savings is used – in part – to offset the costs of the hydrogen plant, and the electricity needed to run that plant.
The EU document touches on this; it notes, for example, that Australia – which has abundant iron and plenty of scope for solar power production – could ship finished steel to China, instead of just raw iron ore as it does now.
That changes some things, right? And I think that helps explain why the Aussies are so interested in hydrogen steel-making.
So this is a “how fast can the cost of hydrogen fall, and how far” game, and it’s a geopolitical game – “where do you produce the steel”, and it’s a “how much, how fast can you ramp up renewable energy production” game. That EU document is worth the read.
Green steel is an excellent “entry-point” major industrial process that (very nearly) is steel-cost neutral, and yet:
a. Can make a major dent in CO2 emissions
b. Eliminates a lot of shipping ton-miles (no coke, put plant next to mine, ship finished steel .vs. ores)
c. Makes distributed renewables-based electricity production viable; this is a great way to match production with demand (solves the “intermittency” problem)
d. Makes it easy for industry to vertically integrate into the energy business. Now you don’t need to own and operate a coal mine or an oil refinery; you can buy a solar farm and a hydrogen plant (soon will be turnkey ops), and now you (mostly) control your energy costs. Think about the implications of that for, say, railroads, or big farms, truck fleet operators, petrochem plants, and so forth.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 31 2024 14:59 utc | 9

“10-year breaks 4.3%
Reminder, De-dollarization brings Peace”
Posted by: Exile | Oct 31 2024 14:06 utc | 2
Today will not be a good day for the US bond market as the repo market has become shaky as banks don’t want to lend to other banks as the Fed lowers rate -end of the month-last trading days when the tide comes in and we see who has wearing bathing suits.

Posted by: canuck | Oct 31 2024 15:02 utc | 11

“I’m going to explain this to you again.
Interest rates are the price of borrowing. Prices are subject to market conditions. Creditworthy market participants have pricing power. A country like Russia with a positive balance of trade has more pricing power over its debt than a country like the UK that has to borrow to import goods.
Nabiullina is setting rates in order to moderate internal consumer demand because of the impact of wartime production. The BoE has no such control over rates and is at the mercy of external creditors because the UK consumes more that it produces. Those two inflation scenarios are entirely different species.
Nabiullina has pricing power. The BoE? Not so much.”
Posted by: too scents | Oct 31 2024 15:01 utc | 10
Wonderful explanation-between my criticism and your, I think your post is superior to mine-regardless Sun Alabama can’t, won’t ascribe to the obvious.

Posted by: canuck | Oct 31 2024 15:13 utc | 13

Posted by: too scents | Oct 31 2024 15:01 utc | 10
I’ll explain to you again see if you get it this time.
Wrong as a matter of accounting :
Wrong as a Matter of Business:
Wrong as a Matter of Banking
The Myth:
“when we raise Bank Rate, banks will usually increase how much they charge on loans and the interest they offer on savings. This tends to discourage businesses from taking out loans to finance investment, and to encourage people to save rather than spend.”
1. Wrong as a matter of accounting :
Like all propaganda The Myth sounds very reasonable at first glance. However even a cursory institutional analysis reveals a glaring problem. MMT shows us that The Myth is not compatible with how banks work. Loans create deposits. So if there are fewer loans then there will be fewer deposits. For you to save financially, there has to be a corresponding outstanding loan somewhere.
They believe there is a magic number out there that balances borrowing v’s savings. It doesn’t exist in the real world it is a fantasy. The one rate to rule them all is bunkum.
2. Wrong as a Matter of Business:
Why do prices go up? It’s not quite as difficult a question as it seems. A business with an item to sell asks for more money and somebody pays it because they don’t just want the item, they need it. In fact the only reason prices of needed items remain stable in any situation is because there is excess capacity to supply. Only then will market competition keep a lid on prices.
Therefore if I’m in an inflationary situation, I have pricing power. I use loans to fund my inventory because that is capital efficient. If the bank moves the interest rate to 21% then I just put my prices up to compensate.
I do that because I’m rational. I know that I have pricing power, I know my customers have no choice but to pay, and the central bank has just embedded my expectations that no new competitors will be forthcoming – since they have stated that their intention is to suppress business investment.
The cost of credit is incorporated into the cost of all goods and services. The higher the interest rate, the higher the price.The
The Myth recommends pouring fuel on the fire. MMT recommends a permanently zero Bank Rate, and making central bankers, along with their expensive entourage, redundant.
3. Wrong as a Matter of Banking:
Interest is income for banks, with which they pay their suppliers – bankers and savers. Therefore the 21% that the firm pays the bank is redistributed to bankers and savers, who then spend the interest back with the firms.
Why? Because the price of goods and services has gone up and people have to spend the income they earn on their savings, and likely draw upon their savings as well to pay the new prices. Savings are more likely to be drawn down than added to in a high inflation/high interest rate environment simply to maintain access to needed goods and services.
The Myth expects people, faced with increasing prices and who haven’t the wage income to meet daily needs, to suddenly start spending less and saving more, solely because interest rates have changed. Yet, when you look at it from the MMT point of view, it is clear, both institutionally and systemically, that it is an extremely unlikely proposition.
Just as rising prices allegedly leads to higher income due to higher wage demands which then confirms and embeds those higher prices, raising interest rates leads to rising prices, which leads to higher income due to interest paid which confirms and embeds those higher prices. It is precisely the same positive feedback process.
If a wage/price spiral leads to doom, then clearly so does an interest/price spiral.
Yesterday’s Ideas with Yesterday’s Solutions:
Old generals, who remain in charge long past their sell-by date, always end up fighting the last war rather than the present one. Here we are again in a situation that requires a fresh approach and a fresh view yet all that is rolled out is the demand suppression cavalry to face down a supply-side enemy equipped with machine guns.
It will be a bloodbath, born of incompetence and arrogance topped off with that most destructive of human conditions: “unshakeable belief.”
The question now, as with austerity before it, is how long will it take, and how many will be made destitute, before people realise that The Myth doesn’t work as advertised.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 15:23 utc | 15

Posted by: canuck | Oct 31 2024 15:09 utc | 12
The US shouldn’t have raised rates as the inflation was transitory the FED made it worse.
Japan didn’t touch rates with their debt to GDP of 270%
https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/inflation-cpi
It was transistory.
Let’s talk more about Japan and the EU.
They set interest rates to zero or negative for months. Well according to the myth that should have caused inflation right .
They set rates to zero and negative
Why ?
They could never hit their 2% inflation target always fell below it .
It didn’t work it created deflationary pressures rather than inflationary pressures.
Very simply they have it backwards.
Japan learned a great deal from that experience and didn’t raise rates during the highest inflation in decades. Why ?
Because they knew it would make it worse.
Now let’s go back to Turkey :
Erdogan publicly came out and said ” increasing rates makes inflation worse ”
Here:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/erdogans-risky-experiment-heal-turkeys-economy-2021-11-23/
Told the truth for once.
What was his problem ?
He was using foreign exchange reserves to fight the exchange rate and they became exhausted.
He believed …
” If you make exporting more difficult you will eventually make importing more expensive as foreign reserves are depleted and borrowing foreign currency gets more expensive (and or the currency devaluates).”
Nope. That’s fixed exchange rate thinking. Bretton Woods ended in 1971.
Erdogan was 100% correct when he said increasing rates makes inflation worse.
His solution was complete folly like Russia pre August 17, 1998.
Erdogan like Russia post August 17, 1998 should just let the Lira float instead of defending it with foreign exchange reserves.
As soon as Russia stopped defending the rouble using foreign exchange reserves the problems went away.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 15:44 utc | 17

Re: interest rates and SoA’a takes
Thx canuck and too They don’t pass the smell test and I get big Echo Chamber vibes and MMT whiffs from that content.
The problem with MMT’ers is that they see a fire everywhere, a problem everywhere. And so they set off trying to manage the economy. This is a shaky enterprise and a little too grandiose an ambition.
Here’s a better solution: work for stability and predictability. Set up rails for the economy but do not try to steer it.
Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that sooner or later, with a debt of 35 trillion, there will be a result to that. Believing anything else is willful blindness. To cement my point, why does Russia run even? And why is the west so determined to get Russia hooked on neoliberal MMT economic policy?

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 31 2024 15:56 utc | 19

Russian History :
Russia pre August 17, 1998.
Was using fixed exchange rate thinking just like Erdogan.
The choices were:
1. Hold rubles in a clearing account at the Rusdian Central Bank.
2. Exchange ruble clearing balances for something else at the CB.
3. Buy a Russian GKO (tsy sec), which is an interest bearing account at the CB
4. Exchange rubles for $ at the official rate at the CB
For all practical purposes, 3 and 4 competed with each other. Russia had to offer high enough rates on its GKOs to compete with option 4. In that sense interest rates were endogenous. Any attempt by the Russian Central Bank to lower rates, such as open market operations, would result in an outflow of $US reserves.
EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM ERDOGAN HAS.
The conditions for a stable ruble could not coexist. The net desire to save rubles was probably negative, the failure to enforce tax liabilities resulted in deficit spending even as the government tried to reduce spending, and the higher interest rate on GKO’s increased government spending even more.
At the time GKO rates were around 150% annually, and the interest payments themselves constituted at least the entire ruble budget deficit. Higher rates of interest were the driving factor behind the excess ruble spending which led to the loss of $US reserves.
EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM ERDOGAN HAS.
With the $ in high demand due to a variety of factors, such as domestic taxed advantaged $US savings plans, insurance reserves, pension funds, and the like, and, exacerbating the situation, what could be called overly tight US fiscal policy, there was, for all practical purposes, no GKO interest rate that could stem the outflow of $US reserves.
The main source of $ reserves was, of course, $ loans from both the international private sector and international agencies such as the IMF. The ruble was overvalued as evidenced by the fact that $ reserves went out nearly as fast as they became available.
The Russian Treasury responded by offering higher and higher rates on its GKO securities to compete with option 4, without success. This inability to compete with option 4 is what finally leads to devaluation under a fixed exchange rate regime.
Floating the ruble:
On August 17th it was announced that option 4, for all practical purposes, was no longer available.
This meant the ruble was now a floating currency. Option 3 now competed only with option 1, so the interest rate was suddenly exogenous.
It would be and could only be whatever the government determined to pay when it offered its GKO’s for sale. It could, for an extreme example, decide to pay 0%, and the excess clearing balances would have no choice but to remain as excess balances and earn no interest. That would make the interbank rate 0 bid between credit worthy counterparties.
Previously, with option 4 open, the penalty for excess government spending was higher rates on GKO’s and loss of $US reserves. With a floating exchange rate the penalty for excess spending is the exchange rate of the ruble.
That is it – Period now the exchange rate takes the strain.
Erdogan and Elvira Nabiullina has yet to understand that they can now automatically issue GKO securities at any rate it chooses. That lowering the rate fights inflation.
Neither of them understand Russian history.
This is their belief system
“If you make exporting more difficult you will eventually make importing more expensive as foreign reserves are depleted and borrowing foreign currency gets more expensive (and or the pound devaluates).”
Nope. That’s fixed exchange rate thinking. Bretton Woods ended in 1971.
They both believe there is some magic number out there that balances savings v’s borrowing. The one interest rate to rule them all.
There isn’t and never has been it is a fantasy. The Russian central bank has missed its inflation target 103 times in the last 18 months.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 16:03 utc | 21

It seems S has taken a page from B (in How Media Continue To Discredit Themselves) with a twist of us angle and “the dems quit”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/as-we-stare-down-the-precipice-final

Posted by: Newbie | Oct 31 2024 16:14 utc | 23

There are quite some believers in the Magic Money Tree.
We’ll see.

Posted by: MorePain4Cakes | Oct 31 2024 16:18 utc | 25

Erdogan actually understood it and claimed openly hiking rates makes inflation worse.
But then with his fixed exchange rate thinking exhausted foreign exchange reserves trying to defend the Lira.
What he should have done is slashed interest rates and let the Lira float. Not defended it.
All would be well.
ARGENTINA:
Now that Argentina have got the regime change they wanted what have they done. What have Argentina done ?
They have slashed interest rates from 120% to 40%
Inflation has went from 292% to 209%.
If they keep slashing rates inflation will come down further.
They caused a crises to get regime change. They hiked and hiked and hiked and inflation grew and grew and grew trapped in an interest price spiral.
Now they have their man in charge. They are now doing what they should have done years ago.
If they get interest rates down to close to zero inflation will land below 2%.
The Myth has geopolitical consequences, it is a geopolitical tool and Elvira Nabiullina is sleepwalking into a interest/ price spiral.
Don’t give me any right wing crap about purchasing power nonsense. Or purchasing power parity. If you know your Russian history you know EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON HERE.
Hope this helps ….
Thatcher used the exact same tool to push through her reforms. Hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked.
Volker used the exact same tool to get Reagan in charge to push through his reforms. Hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked.
The exact same tool that Argentina used to get their US friendly man in charge.
It is a geopolitical tool.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 16:31 utc | 27

I’ve had constant abuse thrown at me for at least 7 years. First on the Saker blog and On here, because I always talked about money. I was considered a money troll. Many people were sick to the back teeth of hearing about it. I don’t blame them.
Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 25 2024 11:40 utc | 13
The true definition of madness is repeating the same action, over and over, hoping for a different result.

Posted by: Passerby | Oct 31 2024 16:42 utc | 29

@too scents | Oct 31 2024 15:15 utc, who said:
a. No such thing as a green steel mill, and
b. Best way to make “green” steel is for products made from steel to last longer
We’re talking relative terms here, too scents. A steel mill that makes 95% less CO2 is pretty green, as steel mills go, and yes, there are a lot of other contaminants, pollution etc. from smelters, iron purification (remove carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, etc.) and forming (heat-treat, bend, quench, extrude, galvanize, etc.) … which will happen hydrogen or not. Taking out 95% of CO2 is a giant step in the right direction, of course. And yes, I’ve been in several steel mills; pretty good idea what they’re like. Never had a job in one, tho.
As to extending the life of products – all products, not just those made with steel – is at the top of my list of smart things to do. I am a big advocate of:
a. Teaching the next generation how to do product development. Not too many of us can do it right now, and if we (the West) are ever going to get back in the mfg’g game, it’s going to be on the strength of our designs. Not just the individual product design, but also the design of the full-life-cycle supply chain that backs that product. That’ll be the next product battle-ground: how efficient and how effective is the entire supply chain. (which includes mat’ls source, product design mfg’g proficiency, distribution, promotion, retail, maintenance and (new!) materials recovery before disposal.
b. Designing products for durability, ease of maintenance, functionality and resource reclamation. Best way to do mining is to not do it at all. Make the reclamation center be “where we get materials”. Get rid of – stamp it out – the notion of a landfill
c. Moving mining and materials sourcing labor into recover, repair, refurb, re-sell. Why? Now the mfg’g supply chain is almost entirely local; transport is minimized, jobs are much more secure (not buying as much mat’l, got more budget to pay labor), nothing gets thrown away, products can legitimately last for many decades (not max 10 years, like most household appliances, for ex). Same thing for transport; design an elec car to just do transport safely, efficiently, reliably. Get rid of all that techno-junk cars come with now (and add a lot of the expense, and wear out first). Design cars for modular-component swap-out, and distributed refurb and stocking of the components.
So we’re in agreement: steel-making is going to remain a dirty job, never mind the CO2, and we need to build better products. Yes.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 31 2024 17:01 utc | 31

The Young Turks, who are responsible for the Armenian Genocide, were FreeMasons from the same lodge.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060520105427/http://www.mason.org.tr/en_history.htm.
The lodge was founded by Emmanuel Carasso, a political figure of the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Carasso.
We never refer to Talaat Pasha, or the Young Turks as those responsible for the Armenian Genocide, but always say, Turkey and by implication, all Turks throughout history. This is like saying all Germans are responsible for the Holocaust, not Hitler, not the Nazi party. Dick Cheney, George Bush and the Neocons are not responsible for the Iraq War, instead, all Americans, throughout history.

Posted by: Turk 152 | Oct 31 2024 17:15 utc | 33

The Volker transcripts:
HERE:
https://medium.com/@monetarypolicyinstitute/the-volcker-myths-8579cea33b95
Now that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcripts and data have become available above for everybody to access them years later.
The Transcripts show clearly apart from a few ideologues, nobody at the FOMC took Monetarism seriously.
From the official transcripts …
1. FOMC members understood that the Fed exists to provide an elastic currency; its purpose is to promote interest-rate stability not reserve-supply stability. As such, they understood that the Fed cannot control the quantity of reserves, even less so the money supply;
2. Just like the BOE and Russian central bank the Fed never achieved the growth targets it set during the “Volcker experiment.”
3. While FOMC members believed that higher interest rates could help bring inflation down, they also understood that the interest-rate hikes they were planning would be unpopular, would be a major source of economic and financial instability, and could perversely contribute to inflation.
It doesn’t get more clearer than that. Now the official transcripts have been released. I now rest my case your honour. I have now provided enough evidence to win the case.
Yet, here we are years later central bankers pushing on the same bit of string. So I firmly stand by my original statenent. With more than enough proof to back it up.
” My only worry about BRICS is they all believe pushing on a bit of string works. Even worse they all have it backwards”
Apart from that which is very worrying. I think the BRICS Report and the Kazan Declaration are clearly heading in the right direction. Very thoughtful pieces of work to help the global South and developing nations.
I’ll leave it at that.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 31 2024 17:46 utc | 35

Posted by: Turk 152 | Oct 31 2024 17:15 utc | 33

From the Carasso/Karasu Wiki entry:

Karasu was one of the first non-Muslim members of the Ottoman Freedom Society, which later became part of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP); when the CUP came to power, he became the Salonica deputy in the Ottoman parliament.[

Speaking of the Young Turks and Karasu (an Ottoman Jew), one has to mention the influence of Dönmeh on Turkish politics of that time:

Some commentators have suggested that several leading members of the Young Turks, an anti-absolutist movement of constitutional monarchist revolutionaries who in 1908 forced the Sultan to grant a constitution, were Dönme.[12] At the time of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, some of the Thessaloniki Dönme tried to be recognized as non-Muslims to avoid being forced to leave the city.[citation needed] One of the leaders of the İzmir plot to assassinate President Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) in İzmir after the establishment of the Turkish Republic was a Dönme named Mehmed Cavid,[13] a founding member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the former Minister of Finance of the Ottoman Empire.[14][15][16][17] Convicted after a government investigation, Cavid Bey was hanged on 26 August 1926 in Ankara.

Masonic Jews and their “democratic” revolutions. Not so hard to do the math…

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Oct 31 2024 17:49 utc | 37

South Sudan gets Starlink. No war there according to Le Monde.
https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2024/10/31/starlink-au-soudan-du-sud-un-petite-avancee-dans-l-un-des-pays-les-moins-connectes-au-monde_6369351_3212.html

Posted by: Tom | Oct 31 2024 18:09 utc | 39

Ahenobarbus | Oct 31 2024 16:15 utc | 24–
“Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and “Allentown” are timeless, while “We Didn’t Start the Fire” still brings forth many questions. Joel and Springsteen provided a very different type of pop music, much of which has a political content that remains valid today.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 31 2024 18:19 utc | 41

Kamyhoe Harris and Joementia Biden certainly have a nack for stepping on their tongues…………..calling Trump supporters garbage is a mona from heaven…….for the Trumpsters !
You cant buy ad time like this…………….call half the entire country garbage……who is advising these idiots anyway……???

Posted by: Tobias Cole | Oct 31 2024 18:25 utc | 43

Posted by: Newbie | Oct 31 2024 17:47 utc | 36
——————————————————————
As a newbie, I don’t have a problem with interest as either an add-on payment or broken down into small payments over the course of paying the original cost of the product to be purchased: homes, cars, home improvements, business loans, etc.
Compound interest reduces the working class to poverty or near-poverty subsistence level. Compound interest is a criminal invention by a criminal finance capitalist class.

Posted by: Ed | Oct 31 2024 18:55 utc | 45

@ Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 31 2024 16:00 utc | 20
re: I’m 100% certain that China will not conduct a military campaign to unite Taiwan with the Mainland.
Yes, for the reasons you mention.
. . .another, better way. . .
Beijing can argue that any maritime quarantine it declares against Taiwan constitutes a reasonable domestic law enforcement operation authorized under international law. It can use that declaration to monitor, intercept, and search shipping entering the quarantine zone to ensure the cargos contain no contraband or materials that Beijing considers supportive of the rebellion.
. . . it’s legal
USGA 2758
Recalling the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
. . .Decides to restore all its rights to the People’s Republic of China and to recognize the representatives of its Government as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it. *i.e. Republic of China (Taiwan).”//
comment: The “representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” i.e. Republic of China (Taiwan) were never expelled and still unlawfully reside in Taiwan, declaring their independence as another China when only the PRC has the right. It’s one-China.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 31 2024 18:57 utc | 47

There is an interesting Headline story on Guancha.cn site: https://www.guancha.cn/
It says: Regardless of who wins, Europe has already lost. Winning refers to the Nov. 5 US election.
Yeah, Europe lost BIG TIME when Nordstream II was blown and all Europe’s top leaders kept their mouths tightly shut. But Europe ain’t the only sucker who has lost. All those who are riding the USA wrecking train have lost, whoever wins in USA on Nov. 5. To name just a few of the non-European losers:
The four Eyes besides USA (well, let’s include USA too :-); Philippine; Korea; Argentina; Brazil (on the edge of the cliff now); among others.
When you bet on a losing horse, you eat the losing mudpie. The US is losing big now, so the losses of the losers will become more and more conspicuous as we head into 2025.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 31 2024 19:12 utc | 49

Trump

TW should pay for our protection, kinda like buying insurance,

Posted by: denk | Oct 31 2024 19:23 utc | 51

Good thread, everyone. Important questions discussed controversially, with meaning and goodwill.
I appreciate Mr. Pfotzer’s presentation of a new technology, though I’m not that convinced of its bright future. Knowing a bit about mathy stuff and physics myself, the other obstacle to remain pessimistic is my being German, where I can see the crazy green policies up close everyday. For instance, Hamburg is an economic powerhouse, and decades of consequently planning major infrastructure like waste disposal (“thermische Verwertung/recovery”) and grid power have been derailed from very substantial solutions that were already in place. A brand new, state of the art coal plant never entered full operation, legally to spare the fish in a stretch of the sprawling harbor from the exhaust heat. Pipelines beneath the river had already been prepared to heat large parts of the city. Vattenfall, its owner company, closed it down for good after a few years; it is now being replaced with a hydrogen cracker.
Our Wirtschaftsminister, Habeck from the Greens, who brings his own photographer at all times, has recently portrayed himself with a dreamy gaze into the distance. Xanthippe says he looks like a drunken hobo at the main station. He authors children’s books about various ways of doom, and dismisses critical energy reports of his ministry out hand. Clearly, this part of government has other things in mind than the well-being of the country.
On economic theory, I am almost illiterate. Calling this subject another application of mathy tools is, however, implausible when closely examining the usual textbooks. The same goes for psychology-derived numerization which has been en vogue for a while now. The homo oeconomicus is at best a golem lacking the magic scripture to make it come alive. All the more intruiging that a simple approach like keeping balance sheets (“flows” in phys parlance) is good for such a far-ranging controversy!
Keep it going, MoA! – I’m off, due traveling.
[juke box] – reposting the wonderfully fitting song and video from the last OT, now appropriately annotated: Queen – Breakthru, remastered version from youtube.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 31 2024 19:30 utc | 53

Spooky Halloween weather ==> https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo.php?basin=atlc&fdays=7

Posted by: too scents | Oct 31 2024 19:35 utc | 55

Gen BUtler

USAss , a mafiaso protection racket masquerading as a country.

William bLum

For more than 70 years, the United States convinced much of the world that there was an international conspiracy out there. An International Communist Conspiracy, seeking no less than control over the entire planet, for purposes which had no socially redeeming values. And the world was made to believe that it somehow needed the United States to save it from communist darkness. “Just buy our weapons,” said Washington, “let our military and our corporations roam freely across your land, and give us veto power over who your leaders will be, and we’ll protect you.”
It was the cleverest protection racket since men convinced women that they needed men to protect them, for if all the men vanished overnight, how many women would be afraid to walk the streets?

Posted by: denk | Oct 31 2024 19:39 utc | 57

Uncle’s officials’ sense of a natural right to dominate goes back into the nineteenth century, but I used to read to my students a beauty from 1954, shortly after the Chinese Communist victory, when U.S. officials and pundits were already claiming that the CHINESE were planning on subverting everywhere:
Representative Frederick R. Coudert. Did I correctly understand you to say that the heart of the present policy toward China and Formosa is that there is to be kept alive a constant threat of military action vis-a-vis Red China in the hope that at some point there will be an internal break- down?
Walter S. Robertson, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. Yes, sir. That is my conception.
Coudert. In other words, a cold war waged under the leadership of the United States, with constant threat of attack against China, led by Formosa and other Far Eastern groups, and militarily backed by the United States?
Robertson. Yes…
Coudert. Fundamentally, does this mean that the United States is undertaking to maintain for an indefinite period of years American dominance in the Far East?
Robertson. Yes. Exactly.
(Hearings before the House Committee on Appropriations, Jan. 26, 1954.)

https://tinyurl.com/n97usfjc

Posted by: denk | Oct 31 2024 19:49 utc | 59

The basic problems the US has with China (1) it’s successful and (2) it’s communist.
Now being successful and out-competing the US is bad enough, but when it’s communist it’s unbearable.
That’s the government controlling businesses, instead of companies controlling the government which its profiteers do not want to see an end to.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 31 2024 20:01 utc | 61

Chinese slaughtered in Afpak
Myanmar civil war threaten China’s security
Escalating provocations at TW, SCS, ECS, korean Peninsula…
War nerd

It takes a full time job to monitor the fires started in China’s front yard by you know who

Posted by: denk | Oct 31 2024 20:07 utc | 63

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 31 2024 18:19 utc | 41
I had a friend that told me Sting’s “Russians” made him question it all.

Posted by: UWDude | Oct 31 2024 20:14 utc | 65

@Newbie | Oct 31 2024 14:51 utc | 8,
@Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 31 2024 16:00 utc | 20,
@Susan | Oct 31 2024 16:22 utc | 26,
Regarding Taiwan, a few points.
1. China must and will reunite Taiwan. That is a very important step for Chinese renaissance from the century of humiliation from Chinese point of view.
2. Taiwan held one China policy (ROC) under two Chiangs. Starting from Lee regime in 1988 when he took the presidency at the time of Chiang Jr.’s passing, it started to change. Lee gradually changed Taiwan identity from China to Taiwan. Lee was very good because he started at the root- the curriculums of grade schools in Taiwan by removing Chinese elements from it. So people under 35 in Taiwan mostly think they are Taiwanese rather than Chinese. I believe China learned the lesson from Hong Kong. So there will be cleaning work to do after reunification, which will probably take one or two generations to complete. People between 10-35 in Taiwan now are probably wasted generations if they cannot recover from years of brainwash damages.
3.
– DPP’s Chen got to power in 2000 with Lee’s (covert) help. Chen’s regime is 8 years. Chen continued and enhanced on what Lee’s done.
– Ma of KMT got the presidency back from DPP in 2008 but he didn’t change the direction for Taiwan that Lee and Chen set. In hindsight, Ma is more like a comprador rather than stateman.
– DPP’s Tsai regime is also 8 years from 2016. She is almost as good as Lee for political maneuvers to achieve her political goals. Tsai is also a loyal amerikkkan servant to fully execute whatever amerikkkan orders. If us asked her to jump, the only thing she’d say is “how high?” amerikkkans can’t and won’t find anyone better than her.
– The current Lai regime is also DPP and he publicly claimed he’s practitioner for Taiwan Independence. So the only direction from here is worse and worse for the strait relationship.
Lee, Ma, and Tasi all have personal amerikkkan connections. Lee and Ma got their PhD and JD from Cornell and Havard respectively. Tsai got her master from Cornell although Tsai has no academic talent.
Chen and Lai has secondary amerikkkan connections by their children. Chen’s son studied in NY for a few years and lives in Taiwan now. Both Lai’s sons studied in the us. Lai’s older son lives in the us with his family, including Lai’s grandson.
People in Taiwan are extremely favor amerikkka. There is a good percetange of population, expecially DPP supporters, that do believe amerikkkan troops would come to rescue should a military conflict with PRC erupts.
4. Peaceful reunification is no longer possible, given the current China-amerikkka relationship and how amerikkka uses the Taiwan pawn that is willing to serve.
Taiwan will become amerikkkan Ukraine in Asia, one way or another. Do you know amerikkka asked Taiwan to prepare itself for (military) street fight in case PLA arrives in Taiwan? Robert O’Brien once even said to give every Taiwanese an AK-47.
For anglo, one has to see what it does, not what it says. amerikkkan’s one-China-policy is now in name only that everyone knows it but just pretends nothing happens.
The Biden regime had a lot of military sales to Taiwan regardless whether it is what Taiwan needs. The sales are not meant for strengthen Taiwan defense but fee extraction for “amerikkkan protection”.
Both DPP and KMT are amerikkkan xxx-kissers. Neither dare disobey their master’s orders.
5. Does China want to solve the Taiwan problem militarily? No. Does China want to have a war with amerikkka? No. However, it is not completely China’s call.
China does not necessarily care about amerikkkka. China simply wants to provide a decent living to as many her people as possible, which is also a ideal in traditional Chinese philosophy.
Will amerikkka take its bet to use Taiwan to start a war? I’d say it is likely as its LAST bet after all the trade war, technology sanctions, and financial war fail. It is likely in next 5-10 years before amerikkkan forces deteriorate further.
Korean war is the war to eastablish/strengthen PRC’s foundation. If China does have another war with amerikkka, that will be the one to complete China’s renaissance.

Posted by: LuRenJia | Oct 31 2024 20:17 utc | 67

Here comes the shit head…
Fucker Carlson

Why do we allow the chicom messing around in our sphere ?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YPO6JHjPhpk
MInd you,…Carlson is a national hero !
Enuff said .
Thats all folks

Posted by: denk | Oct 31 2024 20:25 utc | 69

@UWDude | Oct 31 2024 20:24 utc | 68

Is it possible in 2024, the Taiwanese youth dont care enough to die for it?

My understanding is that Taiwan’s youth does not want to serve if possible. Taiwan’s current military strength is much worse than 25 years ago, not only in aged equipment, much less troops, and low morale. There is a term to describe Taiwan military conscripts years ago- Strawberry soldier. Why? It’s because they need tender care and can’t be squeezed.
Before DPP came to power in Taiwan, the military in Taiwan traditionally supported KMT. Therefore, DPP smeared the military and veterans very badly for political purpose. DPP doesn’t even apologize for their misdeeds after being in power. There was a military officer who got promoted to a general (at least one star) after being a DPP xxx-kisser. What he did was to make the troop under his command to yell “You are my chocolate!!” to President Chen when he toured his barrack in early 2000.
I agree with your observation about Chinese to become more materialistic nowadays. Similar to people in Taiwan, Chinese traditionally have favorable views toward amerikkka and the materialism that amerikkka may represent. It may be about actual things that people can see and feel, especially from Hollywood and amerikkkan media such as Big houses, Big cars, Big blah blah… And all those impressions imply GOOD living. People in general envy good living, I guess. To mitigate that (being less materialistic) seems not an easy task for average people. I have an impression that China started to add traditional Chinese material like Confucian teachings etc. back to the curriculum in grade schools years ago (they might get some material in those areas from Taiwan in late 1990 or early 2000). I hope that may help to establish some philosophical base about what is need and what is want and the relationship between self and society.

Posted by: LuRenJia | Oct 31 2024 21:19 utc | 71

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to figure this out for myself. I need to find people smarter or more experienced than I am who know about the problem space, and hash it out with them.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 31 2024 20:46 utc | 70
I think it is something you work on, not something you fix. A job. The ideas have been around for a long time. I could babble on about this like Sun Of Alabama does about money, but I think I will pass. It will take a synthesis of something new, not just an analysis of what we have already done wrong. Knowing what to avoid is a big step, but not enough. The Chinese at least don’t seem wedded to “Greed is Good.”
Many indigenous peoples were much more aware and perpetuated themselves for thousands of years, we should listen to them with a sympathetic ear, instead we dismiss them and focus on their sex practices or religions, and then we screw them up trying to make them live like us. I think it more likely the 3rd world will eventually come up with something new, if anybody does, but it won’t be a “technical” solution, it will be a set of heuristics about how to manage change and maintain equilibrium, because change it will, no need to force it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 31 2024 21:30 utc | 73

Fascinating comments on the topic of interest rates, usury, and debt. I have two questions though, I’m not that savy in economic things.
1) Does Russia have a sovereign central bank ? Does the Russian gov borrow money from the bank at interest ? If so , why ?
2) I see some posters stated that interest rates are needed so that make money, but , why do banks need to make money ? Why cant Russian banks operate like Islamic banks do ?

Posted by: Comet | Oct 31 2024 21:39 utc | 75

Green steel is a scam.
For green steel you need green H2. To produce green H2, you need a constant source of electricity. Therefore
1 You could use Hydropower for making Green H2. but the avaiability is limitied.
2 You could use Biogas (Methane) to make electricity to produce green H2. But why use this Gas with 25% efficiency instead of using Methane with 100% efficiency?
3. Wind and Solar Power are intermittend. So you have to use the grid to get constant electricity. Which runs with coal, natural gas or oil. The efficiency is low (25%). Therefore you produce more CO2 than using coal or natural gas directly.
4 The only source for abundant CO2 free electricity would be nucelar power. But not in Germany. Because we nuked our nukes.

Posted by: Johann von Oberndorf | Oct 31 2024 21:56 utc | 77

About the discussion what people should spent money for:
Some guys seem to see the necessity to change people to buy the “right” things and to abstain from luxury goods. But the human nature Always liked to have some luxury.
And we had and have always some groups who like to “transform” the soceity into something “better”. You can’t change the human nature. Maybe control it a bit.

Posted by: Johann von Oberndorf | Oct 31 2024 22:11 utc | 79

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 31 2024 20:46 utc | 70
—————————————————————————
Can we fix it before this happens, or are these scientists just fearmongers?
Ed.
—————————————————————————————————
Last year, climate scientists sent up a red flag over the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a network of ocean currents in peril from climate change. That warning indicated it could be decades before that happens, but a new analysis suggests such a “devastating” collapse could be more imminent—and dozens of researchers are now begging Nordic policymakers to take action, reports the Guardian. “A string of scientific studies in the past few years suggests that this risk has so far been greatly underestimated,” the 44 experts from 15 nations write in an open letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers published Monday. The letter adds: “Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/giant-ocean-conveyor-belt-may-fall-sooner-than-thought/ar-AA1sWtzY?ocid=BingNewsSerp
————————————————————-
Global warming caused vital Atlantic Ocean currents to collapse just before the last ice age, a new study suggests.
The weakening currents triggered a cascade of effects, resulting in a dramatic cooling of the Nordic Seas — the Greenland, Iceland and Norwegian seas — while the surrounding oceans grew warmer. And scientists say we could be heading toward the same thing again, as the world warms with climate change and temperatures race closer to the levels that existed before the last ice age.
“Our study is indeed alarming regarding what we might be heading to,” study lead author Mohamed Ezat, an associate professor and paleoceanographer at The Arctic University of Norway, told Live Science in an email.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/earth-is-racing-toward-climate-conditions-that-collapsed-key-atlantic-currents-before-the-last-ice-age-study-finds
——————————————————————
“https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=675&q=news+about+the+atlantic+conver+belt&cvid=561eb12147c045b7a8a09bc8ccfe0c71&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhAMgYIBRAAGEAyBggGEAAYQDIGCAcQABhAMgYICBAAGEDSAQk0NDQyOGowajGoAgCwAgA&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=VALBAN

Posted by: Ed | Oct 31 2024 22:51 utc | 81

should they be “dialectically materialist”?
Posted by: Ново З | Oct 31 2024 22:07 utc | 78
—————————————————————
No, they are turning into capitalistic materialists: Something completely different.

Posted by: Ed | Oct 31 2024 23:04 utc | 83

Posted by: Outraged | Oct 31 2024 14:19 utc | 4
I used to love “Piano Man”, but nowadays find it a little too sentimental for my taste. I counter with “You Suffer” by Napalm Death, one side of the shortest single ever released (the other side is “Mega Armageddon Death Part 3” by the Electro Hippies, an instrumental):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z1IGjr2cT0

Posted by: Cherrycoke | Oct 31 2024 23:11 utc | 85

Jun 16, 2024
Taiwan’s worrying rise in military suicides
The number of servicemen who have taken their own lives in the first six months of 2024 has already surpassed the annual average of around 15 from 2017 to 2023, with some attributing the rise to escalating cross-Taiwan Strait tensions.
Another oft-speculated explanation is that from Jan. 1, Taiwan’s compulsory military for men, which was shortened to four months in 2013, has been returned to one year in light of the threat from China.
However, Chen Pi-e (陳碧娥), founder of the Association of Human Rights for Military Personnel, told CNA that she believes workload, not service length, is a more likely source of stress for grassroots military personnel.
The number of troops has plummeted from around half a million in 2001 to around 160,000 today, meaning fewer recruits are left with more responsibilities.
Moreover, Chen said, Taiwan’s dwindling birthrate has also seen the military accept “substandard” recruits.
“There is insufficient manpower at the grassroots level within Taiwan’s military. Compared with a few decades ago, one serviceman now has to take on many positions,” Chen said.
“Higher pressure, combined with recruits who already have a lot of problems, it is only logical that the number of suicides is rising,” Chen said, noting that many recruits are either psychologically unfit or join the military as a last resort due to financial troubles. . . . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 31 2024 23:25 utc | 87

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 31 2024 23:04 utc | 84
—————————————————————- |
Thanks, karlof1. I watched it on YouTube. I tried to sign on to your site, as I did more than a year ago, but I can’t find or remember my password. I will try again later.

Posted by: Ed | Oct 31 2024 23:26 utc | 89

@Ed | Oct 31 2024 22:51 utc | 81 & 82
# The Atlantic current has been shifting for a while – his is well documented – moving North. If this is accelerating, as cited scientists suggest may be the case, then it is going to get a helluva lot colder in Northern Hemisphere.
Another great-re-set may be our lot in future …
# On living in nuke-land – well, we are all living in nuke-land. Been used once – odds on that will be used again – such is human nature.
# Not great options are they?
# Take solace from understanding – if feeling powerless to influence either in any real substantive manner

Posted by: Don Firineach | Nov 1 2024 1:02 utc | 91

@ karlof1 | Oct 31 2024 23:25 utc | 88 with the link to the latest Nima, Hudson and Wolff video…thanks….have watched now and at the end Nima showed this recent Gallup poll about 3rd parties but now for the details

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults currently agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is needed.” This represents a seven-percentage-point increase from a year ago and is the highest since Gallup first asked the question in 2003. However, the current measure is not meaningfully different from the prior highs of 61% in 2017 and 62% in 2021, shortly after the January 2021 Capitol Hill riots.

My hope is that the current disaffection with the red/blue party will give Jill Stein at least 5% so that the Green party can be recognized as viable and get federal funding.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 1 2024 1:17 utc | 93

@Johann von Oberndorf | Oct 31 2024 21:56
Johann: replies interleaved.
Johann: To produce green H2, you need a constant source of electricity.
Tom: Not necessarily. There are several solar and wind-powered projects operational, and many planned that don’t need constant electricity input. There are major projects – they call them “island” projects – totally unconnected to the grid (e.g. on an “island”), that will be producing major amounts of hydrogen. Looks like a lot of off-shore wind power will be producing hydrogen on off-shore platforms and either loading it onto ships or piping it thru existing methane lines (or lay new ones) to move the H2 to shore. Apparently the pipelines costs way less than the comparable power conductors. Search keys: offshore hydrogen windfarm
Johann: You could use Hydropower for making Green H2. but the availability is limited.
Tom: Correct. To scale truly green hydrogen, going to have to use solar or wind or nukes.
Johann: (regarding nukes) … But not in Germany. Because we nuked our nukes.
Tom: That’s likely to change, I’d guess, but may take a little time. Here in U.S. there’s a major push on for small-scale nukes, led by Microsoft, Google and Facebook. Why? To power their datacenters. Wish I was kidding, but that’s what’s on.
If I have to tolerate nukes, and yes, I do have issues with nukes, but if I have to deal with them it seems a real pity to waste that power on AI data centers.
=== and on the topic of dealing with people …
Johann: And we had and have always some groups who like to “transform” the society into something “better”. You can’t change the human nature. Maybe control it a bit.
Tom: This is the mistake that we Green advocates have got to get thru our skulls:
a. Nobody likes or pays attention to nags
b. Human nature is extremely difficult to change, and unless you’re packing a gun, is almost impossible to do outside-in (e.g. with coercion). Durable change comes inside-out.
That last point you made about “changing human nature” is where a lot of effort gets spent, and therefore wasted.
Question to the Bar:
So, if you want to change how the world works … and I know, in your heart of hearts many of you really do want change … and it’s not possible to coerce or otherwise substantially influence others, how do we solve these big problems whose solution requires many people working in sort of the same direction … ?
I think I’ll let that question hang in the air for a little while, because I don’t currently know the answer. Maybe the Bar does.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Nov 1 2024 1:45 utc | 95

psychohistorian | Nov 1 2024 1:17 utc | 93–
I decided not to tell people of the news at the end and let those who went to the end reap a reward. We filled out our ballots tonight and I’ll drop them at Newport when I’m there tomorrow. Time is roaring fast.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 1 2024 1:53 utc | 97

@ 98
Re: maintaining a “more level playing field” among us humans
How about starting with time limits on our ‘representatives’ in congress. Not Lindsay Graham (Net worth: $2 million) and Nancy Pelosi (Net worth: $120 million) forever, nor others.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 1 2024 2:15 utc | 99