Category Archives: Economic fundamentals

Debunking the Petrodollar Myth: Pricing Oil in Dollars Is Just a Convention

The term petrodollar has come to have talismanic value. Time to instill some reality.

Limits to Growth: Inconvenient Truth of Our Times

Before the first UN environmental summit, The Limits to Growth showed Earth’s finite resources cannot support ever-growing human consumption.

Real Progressives Live with Michael Hudson: The Destiny of Civilization

Michael Hudson explains how financial capitalism won the struggle with industrial capitalism and gave rentiers the upper hand.

Has this Contorted Labor Market Forced Companies to Change their Thinking about Layoffs?

There is now mounting anecdotal evidence that many employers are having second thoughts about laying off people at the first signs they see their revenue growth get into trouble.

Collateral Damage From Higher Interest Rates

Why to be wary of Larry Summers selling another Volcker-type “kill the economy to save it” interest rate jihad.

Russian Oil Price Cap Will Not Apply To Resold Cargoes

The “collective West” is remarkably attached to sanctions that have hurt them more than Russia. The oil price cap is next in this pattern.

Could the Ukraine Conflict Be an Opportunity for the Global South?

Many countries see the Russia challenge to Western economic dominance as an opportunity to rewrite the rules of global trade in their favor.

Thieves’ Paradise in Kiev — IMF Admits It Doesn’t Know How Much Ukraine Has Received of $35 Billion in Promised Foreign Cash, or Where the Money Was Spent

It isn’t surprising that IMF funds to Ukraine are lost in action. What is surprising is the IMF isn’t pretending to care.

Michael Hudson: Germany’s Position in America’s New World Order

Why is Germany in thrall to the US, to Germany’s great detriment? A historical analogy provides some insight.

After Bolsonaro’s Failures, Why Was Brazil’s Election So Close?

Lula wins by a whisker, but the Bolsonao Christian Right remains a powerful threat.

Stop Worshiping Central Banks

Preoccupied with ‘credibility’ and reputations, central banks are again driving the world into recession, financial turmoil and debt crises.

“Nikkei-Owned Financial Times Begins to Crack on Sanctions”

Some serious whinging from Japan about the supposedly new and improved oil and gas sanctions on Russia.

The U.S. Diesel Shortage Is Worsening

That diesel shortage we warned you about is arriving. So what is likely to happen?

Electro-Shock Therapy for Slow Learners in the Ukraine Electric War (Part III)

Russia launches another high-intensity attack on Ukraine’s electric grid, and John Helmer continues his analysis of Russia’s strategy.