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: US Dollar
Brazil: More Fascism and Neocolonialism or a Path Back to Self-Determination?
By Danny Shaw,
(The author has changed certain names and details to protect individuals’ privacy.)
When you arrive in another country, there is nothing more precious than new friends who adopt you, protect you, and teach you about their language, music, culture, and traditions. For an open-minded traveler, ethnographer and anti-imperialist organizer, this new family is more valuable than any air-conditioned hotel, amount of comfort or money.
Brazil: More Fascism and Neocolonialism or a Path Back to Self-Determination?
Is the USA Scoring Self-Goals With Its Ukraine Policy?
There has already been significant criticism of the Ukraine policy of the USA government from a perspective of world peace. The base of US policy is the concept of a proxy war that can bleed and weaken Russia as much as possible (at great cost to the people of Ukraine as well as the peace and stability of the rest of the world). This has been documented at several places. However another important aspect which has unfortunately received very less attention is that the Ukraine policy of the USA government also seriously violates the real, broader interests of the USA government and people.
Is the USA Scoring Self-Goals With Its Ukraine Policy?
Related:
Nearly 90 Percent of the World Isn’t Following Us on Ukraine
Globalization can function only if most participants believe it advances their interests. If the rest believe the West is unfairly using the system for its own benefit, the rules- based international order falls apart and alternatives will emerge.
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These concerns are generating considerable anti-Western sentiment across much of the Global South. While a nuclear-armed Russia shows no willingness to end a war its leaders cannot afford to lose; the West is rapidly losing the rest and thus undermining the very rules-based international order it has sought to create. Our most promising solution to this dilemma is likely to be some sort of diplomatic compromise.
Rail strikes: RMT chief Mick Lynch says Sir Keir Starmer must ‘cosy up to working class people’ to be effective in Opposition + UK Truss government delivers class war budget
Central Banks Eye Another Interest Rate Hike This Week
The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England this week are set to hike interest rates steeply again in a bid to chase down scorching inflation, investors are betting.
Central Banks Eye Another Interest Rate Hike This Week
US Treasury recommends exploring creation of a digital dollar
The Biden administration is moving one step closer to developing a central bank digital currency, known as the digital dollar. Administration officials say it’d help reinforce the U.S. role as a leader in the world financial system.
US Treasury recommends exploring creation of a digital dollar
H/T: PFYT2
Related:
A digital dollar would allow Americans to directly open up an account at the Fed
And while some have suggested that the Fed could potentially launch a digital dollar on a public network like Ethereum, Luther suspects that it would instead choose to launch on its own dedicated blockchain.
“A public blockchain would limit the government’s ability to control access and monitor transactions. I am not convinced it will give up control and oversight, even if doing so would be in the best interest of society.”
Fed’s Powell: a U.S. digital dollar could help maintain international primacy
The development of an official digital version of the U.S. dollar could help safeguard its global dominance as other countries issue their own, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday, weighing in with generally positive remarks on a hot-button topic at the central bank that has left policymakers divided.
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Ten countries have already launched central bank digital currencies and another 105 countries are exploring the option, according to the Atlantic Council, leading to fears the dollar could lose some of its dominance to China.
The economic crisis in Germany is the result of a deliberate provocation by the USA.
Berlin, Germany (World Express). War in Ukraine began on February 24. Since then, the sanctions imposed by EU countries against Russia have started to have a negative impact on European economies. The sanctions boomerang came as a surprise to the federal government, most politicians in the traffic light coalition and ordinary voters. However, as it recently turned out, these consequences of the anti-Russian sanctions were unexpected only for the Germans. The USA had calculated all the consequences in advance and, moreover, consciously decided to weaken the German economy.
The economic crisis in Germany is the result of a deliberate provocation by the USA. The Americans collapsed the German economy to destroy a competitor. (original)
WHCS = White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain. ANSA = Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Jake Sullivan. CIA = Central Intelligence Agency. NSA = National Security Agency. DNC = Democratic National Committee/Democratic Party.
H/T: iEarlGrey
They’re counting on the collapse of the German economy to rescue the US economy—all to save the Democrats from losing in the midterm elections?! Interesting, if this document is authentic, considering that it was supposedly written in January. Germans are already protesting, demanding that the current government resign!
UK’s New Prime Minister Makes No Apologies for Favoring the Wealthy
UK’s New Prime Minister Makes No Apologies for Favoring the Wealthy
Truss also went out of her way to channel Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who remains as iconic among the Tory Party base as Ronald Reagan is for Republicans in the U.S. Truss has studied Thatcher’s body language, has adopted her dress style — as Twitter users were quick to point out — and has reached for many of the same rhetorical tools. Yet, style notwithstanding, she has nowhere near the ideological consistency or heft of a Thatcher.
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It will take all of Truss’s shape-shifting talents, and then some, to turn around the election ship for the Conservatives over the coming two years, which is the time span that Truss has before the next general election must be called. In the meantime, as the U.K. grapples with a deepening economic crisis, all of the new prime minister’s public statements suggest that the country is going to be dragged ever-further rightward into a deregulated, anti-union, Brexit-hued future.
God Save The UK!
Putin Throws Down the Gauntlet Again at Western Currency System
Today we will touch upon President Putin’s speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
Just like back in June of this year, Putin trash-talked not only the dollar but the euro and the British pound.
He also announced that Russia and China would be bypassing the dollar from now on when dealing with natural gas.
Putin Throws Down the Gauntlet Again at Western Currency System via maneco64
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.
Related:
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
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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