Democracy + created currency = Wile E coyote.
What sort of monster doesnt like free ponys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_FvgQ1csE

Posted by: LosBanos | May 1 2025 14:35 utc | 4

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 1 2025 14:32 utc | 2.
1. US? Of course
2. Why? Chaos
(Also, I read somewhere reasonable just the other day that Pakistan said if USrael nukes Iran, Pakistan will nuke USrael. If so, US wants to get Pakistan busy with India so it can’t help Iran. Time will tell…)

Posted by: Mary | May 1 2025 14:42 utc | 6

Colonialism is when countries that mine uranium and lithium can’t provide electricity to their people.
This is how the Capitalist West got so rich. It wasn’t through hard work or genius. It was by taking through force and manipulation.
Example,

France 🇫🇷 has the fourth largest gold reserves in the world, without a single gold mine in France.
Mali 🇲🇱 Which was occupied by France does not have ANY gold reserves, although it has more than 860 gold mines and produces 50 tons per year!

Russia, China, and Iran are helping several African states to correct imbalances like this. That too is an element of the SMO from a NATO perspective. France and the US are furious that the Axis has outflanked them on that continent.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 1 2025 14:57 utc | 8

Mike Waltz fired.

Posted by: Norwegian | May 1 2025 15:36 utc | 10

@ Caliman | May 1 2025 15:27 utc | 9
We must be looking at different scoreboards. Over several thousand years of history, there appears to be a big difference in violent expansion. Over the past few dozen years especially, one bombs while one builds.
Tell ya what: Why don’t you take your bases away, invest in your people, and then reassess?

Posted by: I forgot | May 1 2025 15:53 utc | 12

@ Posted by: Norwegian | May 1 2025 15:36 utc | 10
As bad as the fact of the leak is that he handled it like an idiot.
People like that have no value to an organization.

Posted by: jared | May 1 2025 15:57 utc | 14

@Posted by: Norwegian | May 1 2025 15:36 utc | 10
Next Hegseth? Trump doesn’t have a very good track record for the tenure of his appointees.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | May 1 2025 16:04 utc | 16

There are going to be some VERY disappointed people around here as the Chinese and the Indians (Russia is a declining empire who will play second fiddle, at best) continue to restore their natural dominant position in the world economy and heaven on earth will nevertheless fail to materialize for all … I continue to be amazed that astute and well-informed people who see through their own country’s manipulative propaganda systems nevertheless fall head over heels over the even more pedantic propaganda systems of the “other”.
Be that as it may, all I hope for is for my own country (US) to peacefully come back home, stop using wars and aggression as ways to transfer $ from the working people to the oligarch class, and conduct peaceful trade and relations with willing others. It’s going to happen, though whether it will take a disastrous war or national bankruptcy to get there is too close to call right now.

Posted by: Caliman | May 1 2025 16:17 utc | 18

On the old Saker blog I remember reading commenter “Batushka” describing a history where 1900-1914 Tsarist Russia was actually the main global industrial/technological innovator and was seen as the main threat for West European and American industrialists. This view in turn is ammo for the idea that Bolshevism was a Western proxy ideology used to weaken an economic competitor. Now I am familiar with Sutton’s work, but the idea that Russia was the global innovator flies in the face of what I learned about Russia from that period and haven’t found it corroborated elsewhere Any truth to that view?

Posted by: TG1 | May 1 2025 16:25 utc | 20

-” The capitalist west got rich through basic respect for rule of law and private property and profit, very hard work and genius of its peoples, government support for crony capital business, AND its ability to divide and conquer and get local agents to do its bidding. ”
There is something to what you write. Benevalent order creates high standard of living. At one point I believe the USA truly stood for benevalent order. The constitution is so insightful its origin must be divine.
What is the USA/ some here believe it to be a robber baron nothing more. Since the USA was stolen by robber barons in 1913 there is some merit to this argument. The people of the USA used to be better informed. USA struggled very hard to not be a minion of the robber barons. Andrew Jackson resisted strongly. He was also directly responsible for the trail of tears. Is there any better example of the paradox?
The critical issues mankind faces demand evolution. Evolution is demanded of all species at some point. They either are able to evolve or they perish A multi polar world (which actually is not polar) represents evolution. Russia would welcome evolution in the USA. Russia understands there is always possibility. Russia understands that the past does not always represent the future because they have evolved. No nation is without sin.
At a certain point its sink or swim. Evolution must occur. USA must participate as a equal as the world trys to evolve. The endless wars must end. The injustice that is the USAs veto in the UN must end. These things simply can not exist with a nation that represents justice. But this does not occur. Why? Who knows with the propaganda and lies. What is clear is the USA is on course where things will change. Will its core genius so badly corrupted be able to add value to a multipolar world? Perhaps but first it must become sane. That will be a very painful process. Right now its purchasing power is being revoked. Its license to consume is being revoked. That will be a very difficult transition indeed. My preference would be for a more humble and stable transition. Russia was a advocate of this. That is not the path ahead. When the smoke clears w will see if some essence of the USA can be salvaged.
Was the USA a predator? Yes. Was it consumed by robber barons itself? Yes. Its destiny as a product of a core divine in nature was stolen from it. That however is a idea. Ideas must manifest in reality or they are nothing. Unrealized potential is less than nothing.
Any objective analysis of the USA every aspect of its value pilfered and corrupted can only evoke pity. Its culture. its educational standards. Its facilitation. Its ability to participate. Its moral base. All gone. Or hatred at its role as a predator. Or my condition as a mutt a son of this nation. The power of the mutt. Anger at its stolen destiny as a far from perfect function of justice. Anger at its participation in radical injustice. It could have been a participant. It could have been a player. It had value. That is not now. Nothing is left on the turkey carcass. The robber baron cartel simply revokes the franchises license to consume leaving a polarized nation devoid of assets. This is not a advantageous position. if there was some humbleness and understanding it would be a much much better position. Exceptionalism is a disease and it is a killer. Exceptionalism represents the anti thesis to evolution and the anti thesis to evolution is extinction. The USA people do not truly understand justice. They understand it only through the veil of propaganda and lies that are now so clownish as to be hilarious. It is not that they have no capability for nobility. It is there capability for nobility has been destroyed as a function of deliberately propagated clown show. The destruction of the moral base and propagation of clownish paradigms was integral to the pilfering.
Still there is something to be thankful for. With its license to consume revoked the USA has a chance not to go out with a bang. In that there is hope. If it can somehow discard the disease of both brands of exceptionalism it can perhaps trade the ability to go out with a bang for some attempt to salvage its core and to participate based on the reality of its situation.

Posted by: LosBanos | May 1 2025 16:40 utc | 22

@# 2

Is it the US who is behind the latest tension between India and Pakistan and if so what is their aim?

Of course pure speculation and there is a chance that it was organic Paki action, but the incumbent administration, while having been put there by the US, is not acting as intended. The relations with Iran are very good, with cooperation in the field of counterterrorism. The relations with China are great, with ever more interconectedness. Even the relations with Russia are good and no war with Afghanistan is happening. The worst part for the US? They can’t threaten the Paki government with democracy, as that would bring back Imran Khan, who is very anti US. They are now completely immune against regime change operations.
Given that US is very well connected with Balochistan terrorists, has been for decades, it is conceivable that the US now tries to push other buttons.

Posted by: Hamburger | May 1 2025 16:46 utc | 24

Witkoff is a Zionist stooge.
Whatever Waltz was, he wasn’t Bibi’s hand-puppet the way Witkoff will be.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 1 2025 16:50 utc | 26

Witkoff is a Zionist stooge.
Whatever Waltz was, he wasn’t Bibi’s hand-puppet the way Witkoff will be.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 1 2025 16:50 utc | 26
Please provide a full list of those in current (or even previous administrations) that you do NOT consider a Zionist stooge. 😀

Posted by: Newbie | May 1 2025 17:04 utc | 28

If Witkoff takes over for Waltz, it’ll be Nixon Kissinger redux.

Posted by: morongobill | May 1 2025 17:16 utc | 30

Posted by: LosBanos | May 1 2025 14:11 utc | 1
Taxes = spending ( eventually )
The destruction of money = the creation of money ( eventually).
If you give somebody £100, they spend it which is taxed at 20%, leaving the next person with £80 as income. They then spend that £80 which is taxed at 20%, leaving the next person with £64 as income. And so on until the entire £100 disappears and creates £100 of extra tax. All without changing the tax rate one single percent
The result is lots of extra sales and income for people down the spending chain they wouldn’t otherwise have received. It’s a straightforward geometric progression.
Eventually £100 has been put into the economy and £100 has been taken out of the economy.
Let’s say there are 100 people in the spending chain. You issue currency to person number 1 by the time it reaches person number 100 in the chain. It has all been returned to where it came from and destroyed as taxes are collected.
As your spending is someone else’s income and vice versa.
Now if you take 30 people out of that spending chain. Nothing changes the spending still happens and the tax collection still happens. There’s always somebody next in the chain that will spend and pay their tax.
Taking 30 people out of the spending chain just means it returns to where it came from quicker than if there was a 100 people in the spending chain.
Once you have thought that through it destroys another right wing myth.
” If You increase taxes on the City of London or rich people . They will just leave the country and there will be less money to spend on public services . ”
We’ve all heard that bullshit for decades. Laffer curve horse shit. Made up by crazy people.
Truth is taxes don’t fund public services and if rich people or bankers leave the country. There’s always somebody next in the chain that will spend and pay their tax.
So money will always be created and destroyed just like before. Until what was created will be destroyed.
The debt is just an accumulation of people’s savings over time as that process happened over the years. It’s just money that hasn’t been taxed back yet.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | May 1 2025 17:38 utc | 32

GDP Has It Backwards: Why Importing Stuff Isn’t ‘Shrinking’
Here:
https://new-wayland.com/blog/gdp-has-it-backwards/
Which is excellent !!
The recent US data, interpreted through a lens of common sense rather than GDP dogma, shows an economy acquiring a vast amount of real physical goods from the rest of the world. Tariff fears might be driving this, but the result is the same: more stuff available in America. To call this ‘shrinkage’ is to mistake the map for the territory, the accounting abstraction for the material reality. Instead of obsessing over GDP, we should focus on what actually matters: the quantity and quality of goods and services available to the people living within a nation’s borders. By that measure, a surge in imports looks less like a problem and more like a nation successfully acquiring the world’s surplus output.
But nope , people’s heads have been filled with gold standard , fixed exchange rate type thinking and the export to growth models of the past.
Why most mis the obvious.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | May 1 2025 17:57 utc | 34

Posted by: Caliman | May 1 2025 15:27 utc | 9 and 29
Mutually self contradictory comments. Plus @ 9 you totally skipped over the “how” UK, France and USA subvert the locals using bribes, assassination, mandarins and compradors. When have Russia or China ever done those things in anything remotely resembling an extractive tribute based colonial model?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 1 2025 18:14 utc | 36

Caliman, without apologies, your country is a festering shithole. While there are decent people there I count amongst my friends, the country itself has become an immoral monster that has committed more evil in its brief period of ascendency than the combined evil of humanity in all the centuries before it existed put together. If this sounds like hyperbole, you need to study more history. If the guilt is greater it is because ignorance cannot be claimed in this age of information.
The exceptionalist mindset, of which you are a perfect exemplar, is immune to persuasion and rational argument. It is rather faith, a cult of faith in an ideal long since discarded and whose memory is used to murder, steal and rape the world over.
You will, perhaps slowly, recognize the truth of these words as the decadence of your country unravels itself from within. As you yourself seem to realize, whether with a bang or a whimper, the rule of Maerican terror over humanity will end, and sooner than later.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | May 1 2025 18:17 utc | 38

Please provide a full list of those in current (or even previous administrations) that you do NOT consider a Zionist stooge. 😀
Posted by: Newbie | May 1 2025 17:04 utc | 28
Oh cmon Newbie. The golden billion is 80+% stooge du zio.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | May 1 2025 18:32 utc | 40

TomQ – Russia historically does their “empiring” by conquest … they expanded from a medium sized state on the eastern edge of Europe clear across to the pacific and down to the Black and Caspian seas through old fashioned conquering. That is in some ways better than the western colonial way and in some ways worse for the locals.
As I said, China had not historically been interested in world colonial empires. But times and abilities change. With unaccountable power comes temptation and we will see how they handle it.
Doc11 – You seriously have no idea what I stand for. I am the farthest from “exceptionalist” one can be … I just want us to come back home and mind our own business and trade peacefully and freely with all …
As for “the country itself has become an immoral monster that has committed more evil in its brief period of ascendency than the combined evil of humanity in all the centuries before it existed put together” … this sounds like quite an exaggeration considering the great and unlamented empires of history. Just what Germany did in ww2 and Japan did in Manchuria should cause reconsideration and those two countries are considered pretty reformed now. Let’s hope we reform too.

Posted by: Caliman | May 1 2025 19:02 utc | 42

Posted by: Caliman | May 1 2025 15:27 utc | 9 The first paragraph is largely BS. In addition to the preposterous insinuation other peoples neither worked hard nor possessed genius, this omits the role of revolutions within and conquest without. Revolutions do not show any so-called basic respect for the rule of law and private property, not the laws of King and Church, nor the private property of nobles and Church!
The second paragraph is your personal revelation as to the human nature of nations, which are large groups that don’t even possess individual natures, as they are not even individuals. They are historical developments of many generations of genuine individuals with many changes in social and political institutions, not least from their own revolutions and conquests (both by and from.)
Posted by: Roger Boyd | May 1 2025 16:02 utc | 15 Wrong as @9 is, it is not correct to say that so-called China is not one of foreign conquest. The Han and Tang and even Qing dynasties conquered many lands which were not the traditional eighteen provinces. Consider the wars of Emperor Wu of Han. They conquered part of Korea, for a time. The Tang fought the Abbasids in the battle of Talas. The Ming briefly conquered Vietnam. The Qing also invaded Korea, as well as conquering Tibet and Mongolia. In living memory, absent willful amnesia, PRC invaded Vietnam, for reasons unpolite to discuss.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 1 2025 19:09 utc | 44

29
“But either way, to think that their dealings with Africa, s America, etc will not be motivated by self interest and greed is surely ahistorical”
—
Exactly
As Adam Smith said, we don’t expect the shopkeeper to serve us out of benevolence, but out of self-interest.
That’s why there’s no possible comparison between Chinese Commercial Civilization and the bloody, fanatical and decadent West Military Empire led (1963-) by a delirious medieval Polish-Ukrainian (700/1033-1875) ethnic group.

Posted by: Simon | May 1 2025 19:22 utc | 46

I should add, the Americans have inherited the role of the British who were the previous reigning champions of injustice, blood, death and terror. Seamlessly the elite of these peoples worship their one true god…money.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | May 1 2025 19:53 utc | 48

As I mentioned (yesterday?) north korea has a new low displacement frigate that packs a punch well beyond it’s weight class.
Now it’s tested and works properly.
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorea-testfires-full-spectrum-weaponry-destroyer

Posted by: Newbie | May 1 2025 20:40 utc | 50

Caliman 9 if the west is so “rule of law and private property rights” , why does it get its knickers in a twist over satoshi ?!
(not that the east and ROW are much different in that regard)

Posted by: E | May 1 2025 21:02 utc | 52

In living memory, absent willful amnesia, PRC invaded Vietnam, for reasons unpolite to discuss.
Posted by: steven t johnson | May 1 2025 19:09 utc | 44
1979, in the Sino-Vietnamese war, China launched a brief offensive ostensibly in response to Vietnam’s invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978.
https://waltking.substack.com/p/living-in-china sourced from Wikipedia.

Posted by: Walt | May 1 2025 22:09 utc | 54

The gas chambers were for the people unfit to work. More bodies were disposed of in steel crucibles than crematoria.
Posted by: Badjoke | May 1 2025 20:55 utc | 51
The gas chambers were for sterilising clothing and bedding to prevent typhus. Nobody was gassed in them.
https://waltking.substack.com/p/auschwitz-six-facts-and-seven-questions
I did a search on “steel crucibles at Auschwitz” and came up with nothing. Perhaps you would enlighten us.

Posted by: Walt | May 1 2025 22:20 utc | 56

Posted by: Walt | May 1 2025 22:20 utc | 56
Who the fuck mentioned Auschwitz? there were no gas chambers there. Buchenwald was where the gas chambers were.
The steel crucibles were at the Ford and GM plants. They would also do the same at the Krupps steel mills. Far less waste to get rid of when you send the carbon out in the steel or as CO2. Big part of why the gas chambers were overblown in what passes for history classes in the west. Gotta cover for the Du Ponts and the Fords making money off of slaves.

Posted by: Badjoke | May 1 2025 22:45 utc | 58

Amazon was never going to list the tariff mark-up cost. Now they can raise prices beyond the tariff mark-up and everyone will assume it’s the tariffs. Then Amazon can get taxpayers to pay the tariffs for them; and you will still pay more per item anyway.
-Shahid Bolsen

It’s a big grift, and you ain’t in on it.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 1 2025 23:03 utc | 60

Overcapacity has become an issue promoted by the US and its G7 puppets.
. . .from WTT

Overcapacity Debate Intensifies . .The agenda item on subsidies and overcapacity, introduced by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, sparked significant debate. A total of 18 interventions were recorded, with eight members participating actively. The discussion largely aligned G7 members against China, underscoring the heightened tensions around global trade and industrial competition.
The United States reiterated that overcapacity concerns have persisted in the committee’s discussions since April 2017. It highlighted how overcapacity—particularly in steel, electric vehicles, and solar products—has distorted global markets, with economists warning of a potential “China Shock 2.0.” The U.S. emphasized the disproportionate scale of Chinese subsidies, claiming they exceed the support provided by other members, including Brazil, Germany, and Japan, by a factor of ten.
. . .China, in response, dismissed the allegations, contending that overcapacity lies outside the committee’s mandate and lacks clear legal or economic definition. It argued that criticisms reflect latent protectionism that undermines cooperation on climate initiatives. China maintained that its support measures comply with WTO rules and that its subsidies are essential for inclusive globalization. It also challenged data presented by other members, claiming misinterpretation of remarks made by Chinese President Xi Jinping on economic recovery efforts.. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 1 2025 23:08 utc | 62

economist
What Xi Jinping gets wrong about China’s economy
Despite his protestations, the country does have an overcapacity problem
The EU is no stranger to overcapacity. Its economic landscape once featured butter mountains, milk lakes and other landmarks of excess production—the surreal results of its common agricultural policy, which guaranteed high prices to dairy farmers. Thus the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, knew what she was talking about when she warned Xi Jinping, China’s ruler, about his country’s “structural overcapacities” at a recent meeting in Paris. . .here
China
Xi says there is no such thing as ‘China’s overcapacity’
Xi made the remarks at a China-France-EU trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Elysee Palace.
China always views its relations with the EU from a strategic and long-term perspective, and regards Europe as an important dimension in its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and an important partner on its path toward Chinese modernization, Xi said. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 1 2025 23:27 utc | 64

Overcapacity is a “problem” because a large supply beyond demand results in lower prices until inventories clear.
The real sin of China is being too efficient and too productive, such that large profit margins are annihilated.
It just occurred to me that Western PTB must be terrified of a post-scarcity world where household debt would have no function.
Just a few years ago, we were being told to eat bugs and that owning less would make us all happier. That’s a full scarcity model.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 1 2025 23:44 utc | 66

Walt | May 1 2025 23:01 utc | 59
The original claim by Simon Wiesenthal was 11 million.
5 million of “others”
6 million of Jews.
Wiesenthal admits he settled on a number …. But wanted that number to be higher for the jews … because they suffered more.
Disposal of 11 million bodies…
If convax19 demonstrated anything… it was that modern day Italian crematoria could not cope with a few thousand dead.
But then, the Germans are known for their efficiency, the Italians, not so much, I guess.
§ InB4.. antisemitism…. These are Wiesenthal’s own claims…verbatim from Mr Holocaust himself.

Simon Wiesenthal was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II.
He survived the Janowska concentration camp, the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, a death march to Chemnitz, Buchenwald, and the Mauthausen concentration camp

I hope that guy bought a lottery ticket….that’s a lot of camp surviving.

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 2 2025 0:20 utc | 68

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 1 2025 23:27 utc | 64
How a buffer stock of employment controls inflation.
https://new-wayland.com/blog/how-the-jg-controls-inflation/
You implement an employment buffer stock and it injects additional spending into the economy where it is needed at precisely the right amount — all completely automatically.
It is an advanced auto-stabiliser so that spending happens in the locations that need it. More in some areas and less in others depending upon the level of other activity at the time.
“Precisely the right amount” means that it is withdrawn progressively and spatially as private economic activity increases. People hired away from the Job Guarantee start being paid with private funds, not public funds, so you get a swap of spending power, rather than an increase.
Over the cycle people come on and off the Job Guarantee which grows and shrinks government spending automatically.
It generates GDP with labour that nobody else currently wants to use. The private sector no longer has to go into areas it doesn’t really belong, or want to go, in a misguided attempt to try and “create jobs”. It can be left to do its thing of eliminating jobs with innovation and automation via capital investment. That drives up productivity and leads to an increased standard of living for all.
In fact, the private sector can be encouraged down the route. Controlling labour supply makes labour expensive which shifts the capital/labour ratio towards using more capital. You can ensure competition is intense because you’re no longer terrified about firms going bust or moving abroad; the Job Guarantee ensures there are always jobs in a locality that people can take. You don’t need the jobs of the private sector; they are a nice to have. This is the correct approach to take, because the private sector actually creates jobs as a side effect of its main task of destroying them with capital investment (hence capitalism, not jobism).
Government can set policy to eliminate price adjusting firms — via a combination of regulatory action (a strengthened Competition Authority with power to break up cartels rapidly) and competitive action. The Post Keynesian view of a firm shows that quantity-adjusting, time shifting competitors will outcompete price adjusters at any given quality level. Nobody gives up market share willingly in a truly competitive market.
Intense competition, and regulatory authorities aiming their 12-bore at price adjusters who break cover, along with tough government purchasing tactics, force businesses to compete or fail. Failure moves workers from the private sector to the Job Guarantee, activates the auto-stabilisation mechanisms and avoids cascade contagion. Only the misallocated resources are purged.
With the Job Guarantee in place you can let firms go bust and can hold firms to a much higher competitive standard than if you are relying on private firms to ‘provide jobs’. Job security is provided by a liquid local job market backed by the Job Guarantee, not by propping up individual firms with state subsidies. Businesses can be treated as cattle, not pets. If we are to have capitalism, we should have it — raw in the teeth and brutal — but merely restrict its effects to the capitalists.
Movement between the private sector and Job Guarantee automatically stablises the fluctations in business activity.helps prevents an unsustainable boom by creating an environment where bad firms can fail early and fail often.
It also solves the problem conservatives have. Who believe people can be moved around the economy like ignots of steel.
Any job losses caused by big movements of both skills and real resources when realigning economic policy. Like Thatcher did.
These people would be caught by the Job guarentee immediately and start work the following day. Which allows them to skill up , retrain on a living wage in order to transition back into the private sector.
Rather than being left to rot in hollowed out communities were unemployment is determined by business confidence.
Anti inflationary, fantastic price anchor, economy stays fully employed.
The genius of it all it flattens the Phillips curve
Here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-8RXC_vY2g&pp=ygUTQmlsbCBtaXRjaGVsbCBjdXJ2ZdIHCQmECQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | May 2 2025 1:08 utc | 70

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 1 2025 23:27 utc | 64
This is in sharp contrast to the neo-liberal, conservative viewpoint which is that government is just another organisation in the system that has to compete for resources by price.
That unelected Businesses and banks always get first choice of resources and government has to make do with the scraps. They believe the bankers and businesses should be in charge and that the population are just factors of production to be shifted around, like ingots of steel, as business and oligarchs requires.
When there is an other option using the buffer stock of employment model.
Where a nation has its own currency, runs its own central bank, floats its currency on the currency markets and has no material state-owned debt in any other denomination, the government controlling the currency is in charge and sets the rules of the game.
An elected Government can command any resources available for sale in its currency and can use its sovereign power to force those resources to be freed up so it can purchase them for the public good.
An elected Government for the people by the people can determine that business and banks are servants of the people. Government can take first choice of resources for the public purpose, then allow business and banks to work with what is left, before hoovering up any left over resources with a Job Guarantee.
The public wrap of the private system provides a containment vessel around the nuclear power of capitalism. We can draw its power without the boom. We can fuel it with public investment and improve the power output.
The focus of government action shifts from money to the actual things we need to buy for the public purpose. Smart people talk about government buying, not spending.
From this, government sets the policy for spending and taxation at a level that allows the Job Guarantee and other auto-stabilisation mechanisms (such as standby investment contracts) to function.
Similar to what China does.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | May 2 2025 1:22 utc | 72

US vs. China
Washington DC [US], May 1 (ANI): US Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller, has outlined the US trade goals with China, emphasising the need for a balanced relationship that protects American economic and national security interests.
On the occasion of the completion of the 100th day of the Trump administration, Miller stressed that the US will not allow China to steal American intellectual property, illegally dump and subsidise goods in the US market, manipulate its currency, or rack up an unsustainable trade deficit.
Miller said, “China is a unique situation. Obviously, the President (Trump) has talked at length about what happened to us economically since China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization and the trillions and trillions of dollars of trade deficits that we’ve racked up with China over the period of that time and what that’s meant for our national security, what that’s meant for economic security, what that’s meant for our supply chains. Obviously, right now, the Secretary of the Treasury is in the process of developing a plan that will answer the questions that you’re talking about. Still, the president’s goals have been very clear on these points, which is that he is not going to allow China to continue to steal our intellectual property, to continue to illegally dump and subsidise their goods in our markets, to manipulate their currency, to rack up an unsustainable trade deficit.” . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 2 2025 1:32 utc | 74

Posted by: Refinnejenna | May 2 2025 1:37 utc | 75
Yep bang on and thanks for the fantastic info.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | May 2 2025 1:46 utc | 76

Indian Army’s is in freefall. Sikh Regiment Shootout, Top Generals Sacked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNLxth5xMAE

Posted by: Suresh | May 2 2025 2:03 utc | 78

India/Pakistan has all the hallmarks of Israeli style Oct 7 LIHOP. The refusal by India to take up Pakistan’s offer of a joint and transparent investigation is very reminiscent of the Western efforts to hide the truth about Nord Stream.
Posted by: Suresh | May 2 2025 1:26 utc | 73
So what do you think is the motive behind India letting it happen then? Israel wanted justification to bomb and occupy the remaining Palestinian lands but I can’t see what India gets out of it.
No matter what, Pakistan is a nuclear power, if India tries to do the same to Pakistan all you’ll end up is a nuclear exchange.

Posted by: Silent Waves | May 2 2025 2:05 utc | 80

Posted by: Silent Waves | May 2 2025 2:05 utc | 80
India is a multi-ethnic and religion country, and the Hindu Extremists are as bad as the Zionists. My guess is this is an Israeli provocation.
I will never be able to understand these people, so cannot guess as to their motives.
See the Indian news @ 78 regarding a shootout between the Hindu Border Security Force and the Sikh Light Infantry Regt that left 6 Sikh soldiers dead.

Posted by: Suresh | May 2 2025 2:15 utc | 82

End Tribalism in Politics
@EndTribalism
·
21h
Tulsi revealed she’s assembled a team to investigate the origins of Covid.
Megyn: “The Chinese State Council Information Office has determined that Covid came from us.”
“I’m wondering whether you have any dispute with that?”
Tulsi: “So I created the director’s initiative group that is focused on investigating a number of the president’s priorities… and the origins of Covid is one of them.”
“They are actively working on that.”
Thread:
Then Tulsi dropped major news:
Her team may have identified the exact experiment that caused Covid.
Tulsi: “We are working with Jay Bhattacharya as well as Secretary Kennedy at looking at the gain of function research, that in the case of the Wuhan lab, as well as many others of these other bio labs around the world, was actually US funded and lead to this dangerous kind of research.”
Kelly: “We just have never been able to have somebody say it was this exact experiment that led to this Covid bug. But have we gotten there?”
Tulsi: “We are working on that with Jay Bhattacharya and look forward to being able to share that hopefully very soon.”
Tulsi also made clear that Wuhan isn’t the only place this is happening.
The U.S. is funding gain-of-function research around the world.
“This gain of function research is happening in bio labs around the world.”
“I warned against US funded bio labs in Ukraine when the Russia Ukraine war kicked off for this very reason.”
“Who knows what kinds of pathogens are in these labs, and if released, could create another Covid like pandemic.”
“For that I was called a Russian asset.”
“All of this nonsense simply for speaking the truth and stating facts that are still on US Embassy Ukraine’s website today about how The US has funded these bio labs in Ukraine.”
“In order to prevent another Covid like pandemic or another major health incident that could affect us in the world, we have to end this gain of function research.”
https://x.com/EndTribalism/status/1917807708419326279

Posted by: Menz | May 2 2025 2:33 utc | 84

Uk local by-elections
planed to have results by GMT 2:00, almost 4:00 and little to nothing
That’s sually a sign the powers that be didn’t like the result and seeing how far they can correct the voting error (by their constituents)

Posted by: Newbie | May 2 2025 2:59 utc | 86

Posted by: Newbie | May 2 2025 2:59 utc | 86
Reform seem to be smashing Labour:
Votes are being recounted in the Cheshire seat of Runcorn and Helsby due to potentially tightest ever margin in a UK election UK.
Candidates have reported just FOUR votes separate Reform and Labour..
It comes in what was a safe Labour seat just nine months ago at the general election, when Mike Amesbury won by 14,696 votes.
Happy about Labour being kicked in the ass but Reform is not an improvement.

Posted by: Walt | May 2 2025 3:50 utc | 88

From Xinhuanet

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that the country is currently assessing the situation, as the United States has recently reached out through relevant channels multiple times, expressing a desire to engage in talks with China over tariff issues.
China’s position has been consistent — if forced to fight, China will fight to the end, and for talks, the door is open, a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The tariff and trade wars were unilaterally initiated by the United States, and if it wants to negotiate, it must demonstrate sincerity by making preparations and taking concrete actions, such as correcting its erroneous practices and lifting the unilateral tariffs, said the statement.
Noting that China has noticed the U.S. side constantly talking about adjustments to its tariff measures, the spokesperson said that “in any potential dialogue or talks, if the United States does not rectify its erroneous unilateral tariff measures, it would demonstrate a complete lack of sincerity and further undermine mutual trust.”
Saying one thing while doing another, or even attempting to use talks as a cover for coercion and blackmail, will not work with China, the spokesperson stressed.

Hardball….this is how it is played.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 2 2025 5:28 utc | 90

Hardball….this is how it is played.
Posted by: psychohistorian | May 2 2025 5:28 utc | 90
Am enjoying the theatre ^ from the cheap seats….

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 2 2025 5:36 utc | 92

Trump tariff war hits both China and US economies, threatening millions of jobs
Nick Beams
The impact of US President Trump’s tariff war against China is starting to show up in the economic data of both countries amid fears that much worse is to come in the months ahead.
On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department reported that GDP for the first quarter had contracted at an annual rate of 0.3 percent, largely as a result of companies trying to stock up on goods before the 145 percent tariff against China—a virtual economic blockade—comes into effect.
In China, official data showed a contraction in manufacturing activity and a slump in export orders to their lowest levels since the contraction due to COVID in 2022.
US GDP is calculated by subtracting imports from the total of government spending, exports, investment, and consumer spending. Imports for the first quarter surged by 41 percent, and the trade deficit hit a record high of $162 billion for March.
While the import surge was the main factor in the result, consumer spending showed signs of slowing, coming in at 1.8 percent growth, the smallest increase since mid-2023. Government spending also fell as the DOGE axe cut jobs and contracts.
Consumption demand, the main driver of US economic growth, is expected to slow further in the second quarter as Trump’s tariff hikes come fully into effect. Investment decisions by companies are being put on hold because of mounting economic uncertainty.
In a comment to the New York Times, Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist for the financial and insurance firm Nationwide, predicted worsening economic conditions.
“Once everything kicks in, we’ll have a slower economy, the labor market is slowing. Hiring has already stalled, and we expect the unemployment rate to start to rise.”
The chief economist at Moody’s, Mark Zandi, shared these sentiments in remarks to the Wall Street Journal.
The GDP report “probably overstates the economy’s weakness, but the economy’s weak,” he said, pointing to slower consumption spending and government cuts.
“If the administration can’t find an off-ramp on the tariffs soon… then I think we’re going to see a lot more negative GDP numbers ahead, and ultimately job losses.”
The sacking of 20,000 UPS workers is an indication of what is to come.
MORE…
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/05/02/qhst-m02.html

Posted by: Menz | May 2 2025 6:24 utc | 94

Asean firms in limbo as Trump’s 90-day tariff window ticks, China ‘dumping’ fears grow
Companies brace for drop in demand and profits as they and regional governments struggle to find a way to tackle the punishing duties
Reading Time:
4 minutes
Hadi Azmi,Joseph SipalanandAidan Jones
Published: 1:58pm, 2 May 2025
Malaysian luxury watchmaker Ming has carved out a niche following with its minimalist designs and Swiss craftsmanship.
But a third of its customers are in the United States and now stuck on the wrong side of a tariff barrier thrown up by President Donald Trump, casting a long shadow over future sales.
“It doesn’t matter whether we export as Malaysian or Swiss – for the US customer, the landed cost has effectively gone up by 30 per cent,” said Ming Thein, the brand’s co-founder. “That’s going to hurt demand, no question.”
One month after Trump’s self-professed “Liberation Day” levies unveiled on April 2, Southeast Asian companies with a US market are running the numbers on what their business may look like in a few days, weeks and months.
But crystal ball gazing for the long-term has diminishing returns, as the White House rows back duties on some sectors – semiconductors and electronics – and then adds more taxes on others like solar.
At the same time, the Trump administration has turned the screw on trading partners with a 90-day deadline to find an agreement or live with punishing levies that range from 10-49 per cent across Asean.
Most Malaysian goods face a 24 per cent tariff.
That has left companies with multiple bases and reliant on complex manufacturing – such as luxury watches – in a costly limbo.
Ming has facilities in Switzerland – itself slapped with a bigger 31 per cent tariff – and elsewhere around the world, making the impact both “potentially significant and complex”, Thein added.
“The initial reactions of shock have now given way to practicality: how can we find a solution?”
For a company like Ming, which exports over 95 per cent of its products and counts the US as a third of its market, the hit could be significant as Americans recoil from sticker shock from tariffs on Chinese products sold on Temu, Shein and Amazon.
“It feels like another challenge in a never ending string of them,” Thein said.
“We had self-imposed ones through setting up in Malaysia, worldwide ones through the pandemic, domestic ones from the shift in taxation, currency devaluation and now Trump.”
Tariff pinball
Planning inventory, paying suppliers and booking transport has become a fool’s errand, companies told This Week in Asia, in what amounts to a freeze on business confidence.
It is a game of trade pinball, where wins have been counted: Thai exports surged in March ahead as retailers stockpiled before Trump’s announcement, but losses are also mounting.
Twenty-two container ships were this week anchored off Malaysia’s Port Klang as congestion seizes up ports across the region, according to an Australian logistics tech firm.
Sources at the Malaysian port attributed the clogging to shippers rushing to move their cargo within Trump’s 90-day deadline, with some vessels waiting three days for a berth.
Governments are also flailing around in the dark for an apt response.
Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia have struck out on their own to make deals with Washington – despite vague language on the unity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Thailand has held back so far, but its leaders have been forced into increasing verbal contortions to neither reveal their full hand, nor upset the US and China, which wants its Southeast Asian allies to call Trump’s bluff and reject trade pacts at the barrel of the tariff gun.
Thailand may hit some “air pockets”, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said on Thursday after growth forecasts were trimmed by nearly one point to 2.1 per cent for the Southeast Asian kingdom.
“No matter how the tariff will end up, if it is at an equal level and equal to our competitors, it will not affect us,” he added.
MORE…
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3308794/asean-firms-limbo-trumps-90-day-tariff-window-ticks-china-dumping-fears-grow?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article

Posted by: Menz | May 2 2025 7:31 utc | 96

AFD declared terrorist by German government.
East Germany shall arise for reunion with Russia.????..

Posted by: Jo | May 2 2025 8:12 utc | 98

In the time of Benjamin of Tudela
In the time of Benjamin of Tudela, we can see the last echoes of Judaism as a religion.
Judaism in the ancient and late ancient world was a religion that spread like wildfire among women.
A religion that was formed by people from “all nations of the world” (various classical sources)
However, in the 19th century, the bulk of Judaism was made up of an ethnic group forged by rabbis who decided Not to be a religion.
Where does the Polish-Ukrainian Yiddish people come from?
Well, on the one hand, from Italy and specifically from Rome.
It is this group from Rome that moves eastward from the Rhine in the wake of the unrest caused by the great crisis (1033-) of Christian consciousness, which, on the one hand, triggered a rise in pilgrimage along the Way of Saint Jacob, “brother of the Lord,” and, on the other, the Crusades (1064-)
This group fused with those of Greek, Syrian, Turkish, Persian, and Iranian origin.
And triumphed demographically, logically right on “the border”, “the Ukraine”, “the borderlands” between Catholics and Christians, that is, between the Catholic ruling class and the Christian peasantry.
But “the Deluge” came
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(history)
And this is so to speak the origin and beginning of everything (1917-)

Posted by: Simon | May 2 2025 8:24 utc | 100