In July, the price of eggs and milk went up. The price of fruits and vegetables went up. The price of new cars went up. Electricity cost more. Medical costs rose. Alcohol became more expensive. Rent went up.
Biden: July Inflation Was 0%. Actual July Inflation: 8.5%. Media: Eh, Close Enough.
Tag: food prices
Lavrov is on Blinken’s list of people to call
Lavrov is on Blinken’s list of people to call
Blinken also added a second topic he’d like to discuss with Lavrov —implementation of the recent “grain deal”. Washington played no role in negotiating the deal and is presumably hoping to make a lateral entry into the matrix now. Blinken claimed he is “seeing and hearing around the world a desperate need for food, a desperate need for prices to decrease. And if we can help through our direct diplomacy encourage the Russians to make good on the commitments they’ve made, that will help people around the world, and I’m determined to do it.”
Interestingly, in a veiled reference to the US, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavuсoglu stated Wednesday on broadcaster Tv100 that there were countries who “wanted to block” the grain deal between Russia and Turkey, who want the Ukraine conflict “to prolong”, as they think the longer Moscow’s special military operation continues, “the weaker Russia will be.”
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Indeed, the war has spun out of US algorithm. As Hungarian PM Orban pointed out last week, anti-Russian sanctions “have not shaken Moscow,” but Europe has already lost four governments and is in an economic and political crisis.
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The spectre of the collapse of EU economies is rattling the Biden Administration. A CNN report yesterday was titled US officials say ‘biggest fear’ has come true as Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe. It said the Biden administration “is working furiously behind the scenes to keep European allies united” as the blowback from the sanctions against Russia hits them and the “impact on Europe could boomerang back onto the US, spiking natural gas and electricity prices.”
The report quoted an unnamed US official saying Russia’s retaliation for western sanctions has put the West in “unchartered territory.” Suffice to say, Blinken’s call underscores the desperate urgency in Washington to open a line of communication to Moscow at the political level.
Debt Traps & Terrorism: The Roots of Sri Lanka’s Crisis
by Brian Berletic
The island nation of Sri Lanka, located south-southeast of India in the Indian Ocean has suffered economic and now political chaos that has grabbed international headlines.
Debt Traps & Terrorism: The Roots of Sri Lanka’s Crisis
Previously:
Sri Lanka ‘Uprising’ Is Not What You Think. Sri Lankan Activist Explains The Politics
Boris Johnson resigns: Five things that led to the PM’s downfall
Biden aides seek to unlock Afghan reserves without enriching Taliban
AFTER EARTHQUAKE, AID GROUPS WARN OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IF THE U.S. KEEPS AFGHANISTAN CUT OFF FROM THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Biden aides seek to unlock Afghan reserves without enriching Taliban
Inflation Storm Devastates US Households As Fuel, Power And Food “Become Unaffordable”
The scissors of slump
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the US Congress that “We now are entering a period of transition from one of historic recovery to one that can be marked by stable and steady growth. Making this shift is a central piece of the President’s plan to get inflation under control without sacrificing the economic gains we’ve made.”
It’s true that the US economy since the depths of the pandemic slump, (which remember in terms of national output, incomes and investment was the worst since the 1930s – even worse that the Great Recession of 2008-9) has made a recovery. But it could hardly be described as ‘historic’. And as for the claim that the US economy, the best performing of the major economies in the last year, is heading towards ‘stable and steady growth’, that is not supported by reality.
The scissors of slump
By endangering the petrodollar, Ukraine conflict brings multipolar world & U.S. revolution far closer
The U.S. empire’s social stability can no longer rely on buying off the workers within its own borders. When Che Guevara observed that international worker solidarity gets undermined by the proletarians in the core imperialist countries receiving special benefits compared to the proletarians in the exploited countries, he was right. But with the contraction of capital, and the consequential introduction of neoliberalism to keep capital afloat, this has changed. Every year, the masses within the United States face conditions that are more like the ones in the Global South. The global wealth gap is still the primary wealth gap in a macro sense, but this widening of the U.S. empire’s internal inequality represents a contradiction which can bring about the empire’s defeat from within. And therefore a major step towards eliminating the global gap.
By endangering the petrodollar, Ukraine conflict brings multipolar world & U.S. revolution far closer
US Federal Reserve Says Its Goal Is ‘To Get Wages Down’
The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said his goal is “to get wages down.”
US Federal Reserve Says Its Goal Is ‘To Get Wages Down’
H/T: THE NEW DARK AGE
I Cannot Live on Tomorrow’s Bread
On April 19, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its annual World Economic Outlook, which forecasted a severe slowdown in global growth along with soaring prices.‘For 2022, inflation is projected at 5.7 percent in advanced economies and 8.7 percent in emerging market and developing economies – 1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected in … January’, the report noted. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva offered a sobering reflection on the data: ‘Inflation is reaching the highest levels seen in decades. Sharply higher prices for food and fertilizers put pressure on households worldwide – especially for the poorest. And we know that food crises can unleash social unrest’.
I Cannot Live on Tomorrow’s Bread
Related:
H/T: The New Dark Age
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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