By Michael Hudson
The reaction to the sabotage of three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in four places on Monday, September 26, has focused on speculations about who did it and whether NATO will make a serious attempt to discover the answer. Yet instead of panic, there has been a great sigh of diplomatic relief, even calm. Disabling these pipelines ends the uncertainty and worries on the part of US/NATO diplomats that nearly reached a crisis proportion the previous week, when large demonstrations took place in Germany calling for the sanctions to end and to commission Nord Stream 2 to resolve the energy shortage.
The Euro Without German Industry
Tag: Stock Markets
Surging cost of living in US drives class tensions to the breaking point
The latest inflation data published Tuesday shows that the working class confronts months of immense hardships as wages lose their value in the face of rising living costs. The ruling class’s attempt to make the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism is driving workers into struggle across the world, including in the United States, where teachers, nurses, and possibly railroad workers are launching powerful strikes.
Surging cost of living in US drives class tensions to the breaking point
Tech war: US tightens export rules with ban on Nvidia, AMD selling advanced AI chips to China
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Falls To 35-Year Low as American crude heads overseas at a record pace
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Falls To 35-Year Low
According to the Institute of Energy Research, the SPR is expected to shrink to a 40-year low by the end of October, with inventories then at 358 million barrels, compared to 621 million barrels a year ago.
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US oil exports to China and India jump as American crude heads overseas at a record pace
The only thing that climbed as high as gas prices earlier this year was the disapproval of US President Joe Biden 😂
Biden was wrongly blamed for rising gas prices. But he doesn’t deserve much credit for the drop
Amidst Uproar Over Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan, Media Ignores Aggressive U.S. Maritime Action in South China Seas
In order to force high-tech companies to decouple from the People’s Republic of China and reverse U.S. decline, U.S. imperialism needs a political/military crisis with China
Amidst Uproar Over Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan, Media Ignores Aggressive U.S. Maritime Action in South China Seas
China Heralds Another Major Oil Discovery
China’s state-run China Petrochemical Group, Sinopec, says it has discovered a massive oilfield in the Tarim Basin, containing 1.7 billion tons of oil reserves.
The discovery is the result of exploration in the Shunbei oil and gas field, said to be one of the deepest commercial fields in the world, in the country’s Xinjiang region.
China Heralds Another Major Oil Discovery
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Chinese Oil Giants Sinopec And PetroChina To Delist From NYSE
The Energy Industry in Xinjiang, China: Potential, Problems, and Solutions
Vast oil deposits discovered in Xinjiang
I’m sure Halliburton would love to get their hands on that oil! Oh wait, that was Iraq!
Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates
The latest US GDP figures for second quarter of 2022 renewed the debate about whether the US economy was in a recession or not. Real GDP contracted in the second quarter of this year by a 0.9% annualised rate (or by 0.2% quarter over quarter). That meant the US economy had contracted for two successive quarters, and so ‘technically’ (by that definition) was in a recession. Real GDP is now up only 1.6% from Q2 2021. And business investment is slowing, up only 3.5% from this time last year, the slowest rate since the end of the COVID slump in 2020.
Calling a recession and blaming it on interest rates
Senate Passes $280 Billion Industrial Policy Bill Meant to Counter China
Senate Passes $280 Billion Industrial Policy Bill Meant to Counter China
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 passed in a vote of 63-33, with 17 Republicans voting in favor. The over 1,000-page legislation includes $52.7 billion for direct funding for the construction and expansion of semiconductor manufacturing and $24 billion for tax incentives and other purposes.
The bill will authorize roughly $200 billion in science and technology research funding that will be spread across several government agencies over the next five years. The largest recipient of the research funds will be the National Science Foundation, which will receive $81 billion.
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Third, the CHIPS Act actually has provisions designed specifically to restrict investments in China. These so-called “guardrails” require that companies taking federal dollars for American projects must also agree not to invest in state-of-the-art technology in China—not just with the federal dollars, with any dollars. Good-faith critics have raised fair concerns that these guardrails should be broader, tougher, and firmer. But any guardrails at all represent unprecedented restrictions on what U.S. companies can do in the People’s Republic. It’s one thing to say an ideal bill would hurt China even more; it’s quite another to try and claim that less-than-perfect restrictions count as “help.”
Pelosi’s Husband Dumped Up to $5M of Tech Stock Right Before Senate Passed CHIPS
Pelosi’s Husband Dumped Up to $5M of Tech Stock Right Before Senate Passed CHIPS
Just before the Senate passed a major bill to subsidize computer chip manufacturers on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) husband sold thousands of shares of Nvidia — a tech company that could stand to gain from the passage of the nearly $80 billion bill.
Pelosi’s Husband Dumped Up to $5M of Tech Stock Right Before Senate Passed CHIPS
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Nancy Pelosi And Husband Sell NVIDIA Corp Stock After Public Pressure
“I think this comes in response to public pressure and the conflict of interest her stock position posed,” the founder of Congresstrading.com, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of his site, told Benzinga.
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“It is surprising to see the sale. Also, what’s surprising here is that she sold and reported one day later. Usually she takes a couple of weeks. She wanted the public to know she cleared her books of this conflict of interest immediately.”
Congresstrading also noted Pelosi’s filings typically come on Fridays, when the media may potentially bury the story over the weekend.
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The Nancy Pelosi Tracker on Twitter, which shares transactions by the Speaker of the House, noted the transaction history of NVIDIA Corporation by the Pelosis dates back to May 2021. According to the account, the Pelosis still own 50 options on NVIDIA Corporation with a strike price of $100 and expiration of Sep. 16, 2022 that were purchased back on July 23, 2021.
Pelosi remains one of the most active filers of stock transactions in Congress due to her husband being a venture capitalist.
US recession is very likely, IMF says + A recession alarm sounds on Wall Street
“It’s a very narrow path,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said. “The current environment suggest that the likelihood that the US economy can avoid a recession is actually quite narrow.”
US recession is very likely, IMF says
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