Month: May 2021

Inflation and financial risk

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Is inflation coming back in the major capitalist economies? As the US economy (in particular) and other major economies begin to rebound from the COVID slump of 2020, the talk among mainstream economists is whether inflation in the prices for goods and services in those economies is going to accelerate to the point where central banks have to tighten monetary policy (ie stop injecting credit into the banking system and raise interest rates). And if that were to happen, would it cause a collapse in the stock and bond markets and bankruptcies for many weaker companies as the cost of servicing corporate debt rises?

Inflation and financial risk

Marx on technology

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The longest chapter in Capital is the fifteenth, on “Machinery and Large-Scale Industry.” At almost 150-pages, it’s really a book in itself, a staggeringly dense and expansive discussion that could easily standalone—not only as a brilliant exegesis of capitalist machinery, but also as a sweeping social history of technology. At its broadest reach, the chapter is a vivid demonstration of historical materialism in action, of Marx’s method put through its dialectical paces. As ever with Marx, his footnotes aren’t to be passed over glibly: they’re worth studying, pondering over for the nuggets of insight they contain.

Marx on technology

MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

MEK Israel Derailing Failed – Democrats Try New Tactic

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has alleged that negotiators don’t yet know if Tehran is serious about making a deal in Vienna. The US negotiators are talking with Iran’s negotiators on the sidelines of the meetings of the remaining JCPOA signatories. But perhaps the opposite is true. In spite of severe provocation, Iran did not abandon the talks and has kept its baseline proposition – if the US wants to re-join the JCPOA it must credibly lift sanctions and Iran will scale back its nuclear enrichment to agreed levels. Maybe, by focusing heavily on Iran’s compliance without offering a clear commitment to lifting the sanctions, it is the US that is not serious about the talks.

Israeli warplanes bomb two locations in central Gaza + Scores of worshipers injured for 2nd night as Israel clamps down on worshipers

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Israeli warplanes bomb two locations in central Gaza

Related:

Scores of worshipers injured for 2nd night as Israel clamps down on worshipers

The forces used rubber-coated rounds, stun grenades and teargas to attack the worshipers, leaving at least 90 people wounded, of whom 30 were hospitalized. Several of the injuries were for children below 18, including a 12-month-ol toddler.

Facebook’s suspension of Donald Trump is not a free speech issue

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Facebook’s suspension of Donald Trump is not a free speech issue

The fact is that social media censorship overwhelmingly targets the left, not the right. Last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitted that the company censors the World Socialist Web Site, and the WSWS remains buried in search results for “socialism,” “socialist,” “Trotskyism,” and “class struggle,” despite being universally recognized as the most comprehensive authority on these issues.

For months, Facebook blocked the sharing of a WSWS article opposing the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was a Chinese-made bioweapon, and anyone who attempted to share the article was either warned or suspended. Leading members of the WorldSocialist Web Site editorial board—including US managing editor Niles Niemuth—have been suspended from Facebook entirely without cause.

Greenwald and his co-thinkers, while condemning Facebook’s supposed violation of Trump’s free speech, have made no mention of the ongoing censorship of the World Socialist Web Site. In fact, in November, Chris Hedges bluntly refused, in response to an appeal by WSWS international editorial board Chairman David North, to make a statement opposing the suspension of the Twitter account of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), claiming he was too busy.

Too busy for a Tweet?! Glenn’s a lost cause, as far as I’m concerned (So is Jimmy).