China’s oil consumption is a bigger part of global demand than most analysts acknowledge. A slowdown in buying after China stopped stockpiling diesel for the summer Olympics was a proximate cause of the 2008 oil bust. China is again in a stockpiling phase, which could precede another not-well-anticipated demand drop.
Read more...Debunking “free trade” and other spurious defenses of the multinational enrichment, democracy stripmining programs known as the Trade in Services Agreement, the TransPacific Partnership, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Read more...America’s current leadership has failed to grasp the significance of a radical global change underway inside the Eurasian land mass. If China succeeds in linking its rising industries to the vast natural resources of the Eurasian heartland, then quite possibly, as Sir Halford Mackinder predicted on that cold London night in 1904, “the empire of the world would be in sight.”
Read more...Some observers thought that Greece might get a break in the G-7 summit this weekend. While the G-7 has one more day to run, the statements coming out of the summit strongly and uniformly back the creditor position.
Read more...Greece has already offered to continue with a program of significant austerity. No wonder the creditors are close to agreeing to that part of the government’s proposal.
Read more...As Tsipras’ options narrow thanks to the revolt in his party, it is also becoming harder for even Merkel to forestall a default.
Read more...As Greece’s cash crunch continues and its negotiations are moving slowing and tending towards an impasse, it becomes more and more likely that the beleaguered borrower will issue some sort of scrip in order to fund operations while remaining in the Eurozone. How and how well might that work?
Read more...Is the august Wall Street Journal hinting that the “recovery” has no clothes?
Read more...Yves here. Das published this post in February and I thought it would be useful to reprise it for three reasons. First, it has held up well to the passage of time. Second, for latecomers to the Greek saga, it summarizes the background, the stances of the parties, and key economic and financial considerations. Third, the section starting “Controlled Warfare” (about 2/3 of the way through the post) summarizes the consequences to the lenders of a Grexit. Those risks are why almost no one thought we’d wind up where we are now, with two sides issuing ultimatums a mere two days before a possible Greek default, and why most of the financial media still believes a deal will get done.
Read more...A 2004 book by Martin Wolf provided the intellectual foundation for the competitiveness fad. Ironically, Wolf debunked his own thesis in it.
Read more...Le Monde published a defiant op ed by Alex Tsipras over the weekend. The wee problem is that Greece is well past the point where political appeals will work.
Read more...Central banks think they’re omnipotent – until they aren’t.
Read more...Hudson’s so-called “Operation Vulture,” the strip-mining of what little is left of a functioning economy in Ukraine, comes straight out of the neoliberal playbook.
Read more...The Fed disavows responsibility for the way US interest rate policy sends money sloshing around the world. It’s a huge mistake intellectually and politically.
Read more...As reader Li, an international road warrior, says, “America is getting to be just like Italy, except without the attractive men.”
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