These were the most important geopolitical and economic issues of 2023.
Including Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and NATO’s failure to defeat Russia in Ukraine, expansion of BRICS and growth of the de-dollarization movement, inflation crisis and rising interest rates, crypto fraud scandals and several bank collapses, stagnation and de-industrialization in Europe amid an escalating US tech war on China, and much more.
Journalist Ben Norton reviews the chaotic year.
Links
Israel’s war on Gaza
Washington Post: “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “Gaza is one of the most heavily bombed areas in history: Israel has turned Gaza into one of the most heavily bombed areas in history, according to a report in the Financial Times. Top UN experts warn that the Palestinian people are at risk of genocide”
United Nations: “Two Thirds of Gaza War Dead Are Women and Children, Briefers Say, as Security Council Debates Their Plight”
Save the Children: “Gaza: 3,195 children killed in three weeks surpasses annual number of children killed in conflict zones since 2019”
Reuters: “Gaza war ‘most dangerous ever’ for journalists, says rights group”
Wall Street Journal: “More U.N. Workers Killed in Israel-Gaza War Than in Any Single Conflict”
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”
Haaretz: “‘We’re Rolling Out Nakba 2023,’ Israeli Minister Says on Northern Gaza Strip Evacuation”
South Africa’s Department of International Relations & Cooperation: “South Africa approaches the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention with respect to acts committed by Israel in the context of its attacks on Gaza”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “US blocks Gaza peace proposal at UN for 3rd time, holding world hostage: The US government has paralyzed the United Nations, voting against the rest of the world and preventing peace in Gaza by vetoing three different resolutions in the Security Council. Meanwhile, Washington continues giving weapons to Israel”
Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Sends Israel 2,000-Pound Bunker Buster Bombs for Gaza War”
NATO fails to defeat Russia in Ukraine
Washington Post (2022): “U.S. wants Russian military ‘weakened’ from Ukraine invasion, [Defense Secretary Lloyd] Austin says”
New York Times (2022): “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say: A secretive operation involving U.S. Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine’s still outgunned military”
The Economist (2023): “Putin seems to be winning the war in Ukraine—for now”
The Telegraph (2023): “Ukraine is losing, but the UK must stand by it”
AFP / France 24 (2023): “‘We’re losing’: Ukrainians reel from war chief’s stalemate warning“: “The frontline between the Ukrainian army and Russian forces occupying the east and south of the country has barely moved since last November [2022]”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Ukraine war is frozen, no territorial changes expected, says Council on Foreign Relations chief, while dismissing peace talks: The president of the US government-linked Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, said the proxy war in Ukraine is frozen and he expects no territorial changes in the next year of fighting. At the same time, he dismissed the possibility of peace negotations”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “West sabotaged Ukraine peace deal with Russia, admit Zelensky official and Germany’s ex leader: Russia wanted to sign a peace deal with Ukraine in March 2022, but NATO countries sabotaged it, according to Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the parliamentary faction leader of Zelensky’s political party, Davyd Arakhamia”
Anti-colonial uprisings in Africa’s Sahel region
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US/France threaten intervention in resource-rich Niger: Fears of war in West Africa: The US and France have threatened intervention to re-install a pro-Western regime in Niger, which produces uranium needed for nuclear energy, has untapped oil reserves, and hosts strategic US drone bases and French troops. This follows coups led by nationalist, anti-colonial military officers in West Africa”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Burkina Faso’s new president condemns imperialism, quotes Che Guevara, allies with Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba: Burkina Faso’s new President Ibrahim Traoré has vowed to fight imperialism and neocolonialism. Pledging a ‘refoundation of the nation’, invoking revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, and quoting Che Guevara, his government has allied with Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba”
The Economist (2023): “After Niger’s coup, the drums of war are growing louder“: “Canvassing by Premise Data, a polling firm, for The Economist in the first survey conducted since the coup found that 78% of respondents support the actions of the junta and that 73% think it should stay in power ‘for an extended period’ or ‘until new elections are held’”
Growing global inequality
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Richest 1% took 2/3rds of global wealth since 2020 – twice as much as 99% of population earned: In 2020 and 2021, the wealthiest 1% of the world’s population took nearly two-thirds of all new wealth – six times greater than the wealth made by the poorest 90% of workers. And while billionaires get richer, global poverty is increasing, Oxfam warns”
Oxfam (2023): “Survival of the Richest” report
BRICS expansion
Geopolitical Economy Report: “BRICS expanding into economic powerhouse: Petrodollar under threat: In its South Africa summit, BRICS invited six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The bloc now represents 37% of global GDP (PPP), 40% of global oil production, and roughly 1/3rd of global gas production, challenging the US petrodollar system
UPI: “Argentina’s Milei says his nation won’t join with China, Russia in economic alliance”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “BRICS New Development Bank de-dollarizing, adding Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe as members: The BRICS bloc’s New Development Bank, an alternative to the US-dominated World Bank, is de-dollarizing its loans, promoting local currencies, and adding new members: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “‘World becoming more multipolar’, Western hegemony declining, admits European Central Bank: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde acknowledged “the tectonic plates of geopolitics are shifting faster” and “we may see the world becoming more multipolar”, with the decline of US dollar hegemony, war in Ukraine, and rise of China”
De-dollarization
CNBC: “Calls to move away from the U.S. dollar are growing — but the greenback is still king”
Foreign Policy: “A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance: De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “Countries worldwide are dropping the US dollar: De-dollarization in China, Russia, Brazil, ASEAN: The global de-dollarization campaign is gaining momentum, as countries around the world seek alternatives to the hegemony of the US dollar. China, Russia, Brazil, India, ASEAN nations, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are now using local currencies in trade”
Bloomberg: “Dollar’s Share in Central-Bank Reserves Declines, IMF Data Shows”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “‘Dollar suffered stunning collapse in 2022’: Share of global reserves fell to 47%, decreasing at 10 times rate: ‘The dollar suffered a stunning collapse in 2022 in its market share as a reserve currency’, largely due to US sanctions, falling from 73% of reserves in 2001 to 47% in 2022, according to economist Stephen Jen. Countries in the Global South are seeking economic alternatives in a multipolar world”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “US Congress plots to save dollar dominance amid global de-dollarization rebellion: The US Congress held a hearing titled ‘Dollar Dominance: Preserving the U.S. Dollar’s Status as the Global Reserve Currency’, as countries around the world join the de-dollarization rebellion against Washington’s ‘exorbitant privilege’”
Geopolitical Economy Report: “Sanctions ‘undermine hegemony of dollar’, US Treasury admits: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted to CNN that Washington’s unilateral sanctions on countries around the world ‘could undermine the hegemony of the dollar’”
Washington Post: “U.S. intensifies push to use Moscow’s $300 billion war chest for Kyiv: Considerable amounts of Kremlin funds are frozen in Western nations, and the Biden administration is increasingly interested in using them to benefit Ukraine”
New York Times: “U.S. and Europe Eye Russian Assets to Aid Ukraine as Funding Dries Up: Despite legal reservations, policymakers are weighing the consequences of using $300 billion in Russian assets to help Kyiv’s war effort”
Wall Street Journal: “Central Banks Look to Increase Gold Reserves as Geopolitical Worries Mount: Up to 24% of central banks were looking to raise gold holdings in 2023, according to a new survey from the World Gold Council”
Inflation and Fed interest rate hikes
St. Louis Fed: Federal Funds Effective Rate data and chart
Geopolitical Economy Report (2022): “US Federal Reserve says its goal is ‘to get wages down’: US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said his goal is “to get wages down,” complaining workers have too much power in the labor market. Economist Michael Hudson says this is “junk economics,” and corporate monopolies are driving inflation, not wages”
The Guardian (2023): “Greedflation: corporate profiteering ‘significantly’ boosted global prices, study shows: Multinationals in particular hiked prices far above rise in costs to deliver an outsize impact on cost of living crisis, report concludes”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Corporate profits were biggest driver of inflation in Europe, IMF admits: Rising corporate profits have caused 45% of inflation in Europe, compared to 40% for rising import prices and just 15% for workers’ wages, according to research by IMF economists”
Debt crises in the Global South
UN Global Crisis Response Group (2023): “A world of debt: A growing burden to global prosperity” report
Economists Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Development and Change journal (2023): “Chronicles of Debt Crises Foretold”
The Economist (2023): “Africa faces a mounting debt crisis: Rising rates are hurting some of its brightest economic stars”
Reuters (2023): “Debt squeeze leaves sub-Saharan Africa’s governments in fiscal bind”
Reuters (2023): “Ethiopia becomes Africa’s latest sovereign default”
France 24 (2023): “G77+China summit in Cuba calls on Global South to ‘change the rules of the game‘: The G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 percent of the world’s population, kicked off a summit in Cuba Friday with a call to “change the rules of the game” of the global order”
DW (2023): “G77 summit in Cuba calls for new global order: The G77 is a bloc of countries from the Global South representing 80% of the world’s population. At the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world is failing developing countries”
Bank collapses (and US government bailouts)
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “4 US banks crash in 2 months: Banking crisis explained by economist Michael Hudson: Economist Michael Hudson discusses the collapse of four US banks in two months, giant JP Morgan Chase taking over First Republic Bank, and how government regulators are in bed with the bankers”.
American Banker (2023): “Dramatic collapses made 2023 the biggest year ever for bank failures”
New York Times (2023): “3 Failed Banks This Year Were Bigger Than 25 That Crumbled in 2008”
The Guardian (2008): “Greenspan – I was wrong about the economy. Sort of: Former Fed chief admits ‘mistake’ over regulation”. “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” said Greenspan.
Reuters (2017): “Fed’s Yellen expects no new financial crisis in ‘our lifetimes’“: “Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis?” then Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said. “You know probably that would be going too far but I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be”.
UBS (2023): “UBS completes Credit Suisse acquisition”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US government bailout of Silicon Valley and banks is $300B gift to rich oligarchs: The US Federal Reserve printed $300 billion in a week to save collapsing banks and bail out Silicon Valley oligarchs. 93% of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits were uninsured, over the FDIC limit of $250,000, but the government still paid them. 56% of SVB’s loans went to venture capitalist and private equity firms”.
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US bank bailout benefited billionaires, exposing corruption: ‘I understand why Americans are angry’: Before it collapsed and its billionaire depositors were bailed out by the US government, Silicon Valley Bank successfully lobbied Congress to remove regulations on it. A senator admitted, ‘I understand why Americans are angry, even disgusted’”.
Crypto fraud
Reuters (2023): “Crypto scam: Inside the billion-dollar ‘pig-butchering’ industry”
The Block (2023): “Crypto users lost $1.8 billion in 2023 hacks and scams, Immunefi says”
NPR (2023): “FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is found guilty of all charges including fraud”
MarketWatch (2023): “Here are the politicians who received money from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried”
Stagnation and de-industrialization in Europe
The Guardian (2023): “Eurozone economy shrinks by 0.1%, putting it at brink of recession: Ireland posts biggest decline, while Germany contracts by 0.1% and France grows by 0.1%”
Political economists Charlotte Sophia Bez and Lorenzo Feltrin at LSE (2023): “Why Europe must address the problem of ‘noxious deindustrialisation’”
European Council on Foreign Relations (2023): “The art of vassalisation: How Russia’s war on Ukraine has transformed transatlantic relations“: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed Europeans’ profound dependence on the US for their security, despite EU efforts at achieving ‘strategic autonomy’… Europe becoming an American vassal is unwise for both sides”
Destruction of Nord Stream pipelines
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US blew up Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, journalist Seymour Hersh reports: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported the US government destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines that delivered Russian gas to Germany. The Biden administration approved the CIA operation, which used explosives and Navy divers, with help from NATO member Norway”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Facebook censors journalist Seymour Hersh’s report on Nord Stream pipeline attack: Facebook censored a report by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh on the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany, forcing users to instead read a website funded and partially owned by NATO member Norway”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “German lawmaker denounces Ukraine ‘proxy war’ and US ‘terrorist attack’ on Nord Stream pipelines: In this interview, German Member of Parliament Sevim Dağdelen, of the Left Party, Die Linke, condemned the NATO ‘proxy war’ in Ukraine, saying EU members are acting as US ‘vassal states’. She also denounced the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines as a ‘terrorist attack’”
China’s economic transition
Reuters (2023): “IMF upgrades China’s 2023, 2024 GDP growth forecasts“: “China’s economy is set to grow 5.4% this year, having made a ‘strong’ post-COVID recovery, the International Monetary Fund said on [November 7], making an upward revision to its earlier forecast of 5% growth, while expecting slower growth next year”.
Bloomberg (2017): “Housing Should Be for Living In, Not for Speculation, Xi Says”
Caixin (2020): “Regulators’ Three Red Lines on Debt Spur Property Developers to Curb Leverage”
Reuters (2023): “China to lead global renewable growth with record installations – Woodmac”
Wall Street Journal (2023): “China’s Green Revolution Is Quietly Succeeding”
BBC (2023): “China overtakes Japan as world’s top car exporter”
People’s Republic of China’s State Council (2020): “New development plan for NEVs unveiled: The State Council on Nov 2 issued a circular aimed at boosting the high-quality development of new energy vehicles (NEV) from 2021 to 2035″
Bloomberg (2023): “Chinese Carmaker Overtakes Tesla as World’s Most Popular EV Maker: Elon Musk once scoffed at the notion that BYD could compete with his company. Now, the automaker run by billionaire Wang Chuanfu is poised to be the new No. 1 in electric vehicles”
Los Angeles Times (2015): “Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies”
Business Insider (2021): “Elon Musk is speaking out against government subsidies. Here’s a list of the billions of dollars his businesses have received”
Escalating US hybrid war on China
Geopolitical Economy Report (2022): “US waging ‘unilateral’ economic and tech war to halt China’s rise, DC insiders say openly: The Biden administration’s aggressive sanctions aim to ‘kneecap’ China’s tech sector. A former Pentagon official acknowledged it is a ‘disproportionate’ and “unilateral” attack, a ‘form of economic containment’”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Chinese balloon was not spying, US gov’t admits months after manufactured crisis”
Reuters (2023): “Biden calls Xi a dictator after carefully planned summit”
Politico (2023): “Raimondo chides Congress on China tech threat“: US Commerce Secretary Gina “Raimondo defends export controls: Gina Raimondo over the weekend said China is ‘the biggest threat we’ve ever had’ and that the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security needs a bigger budget to help the United States outpace the country’s technological innovation. ‘We cannot let China get these chips. Period,’ she said at the Reagan Defense Forum, a symposium of government and industry officials in California”
CNBC (2021): “U.S. needs to work with Europe to slow China’s innovation rate, [Commerce Secretary Gina] Raimondo says“: “If we really want to slow down China’s rate of innovation, we need to work with Europe,” Raimondo said.
Financial Times (2023): “How Huawei surprised the US with a cutting-edge chip made in China: The inside story of how the country’s flagship tech company kept its edge in the semiconductor war despite sanctions”
India’s deepens ties with US (while trading more with Russia)
Economic Times (2023): “From India to UK, here are the countries that have ban on TikTok”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US woos India’s far-right PM Modi to help wage new cold war on China: The US government is trying to divide the BRICS bloc and recruit India for its new cold war on China. Biden doesn’t care that far-right Prime Minister Modi is closely linked to fascistic Hindu-supremacist groups that violently oppress minorities”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Europe pays more for banned Russian oil, resold by India – as EU wages fall: The EU sanctioned Russia and boycotted its oil, yet is still buying it indirectly from India, at a higher price. This is fueling both de-dollarization and inflation in the Eurozone, where workers’ real wages dropped 6.5% from 2020 to 2022″
Financial Times (2023): “The west’s Russia oil ban, one year on: How a shadow fleet undermined the price cap”
Pakistan’s US-backed coup regime imprisons Imran Khan
The Intercept (2023): “Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan: ‘All will be forgiven,’ said a U.S. diplomat, if the no-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds”
Return of Brazil’s Lula da Silva
The Guardian (2023): “Exiled Bolsonaro lives it up in Florida as legal woes grow back home: Ex-Brazilian president faces criminal inquiries, including an investigation into his alleged role in the Brasília uprising”
El País (2023): “Brazilian military caught in the crossfire after failed coup attempt against Lula’s government: The Armed Forces is facing a slump in popular credibility amid the requirement to punish those possibly responsible for backing an attempt to annul the result of the 2022 elections”
Financial Times (2023): “Brazil’s Lula calls for end to dollar trade dominance: Leftist president lends his voice to Beijing’s efforts to boost renminbi’s role in global commerce”
France 24 (2023): “Brazil’s Lula criticises US dollar and IMF during China visit: The two countries have recently announced a deal to trade in their own currencies, dropping the dollar as an intermediary. Lula also criticised the IMF, accusing it of ‘asphyxiating’ the economy of certain countries”
Associated Press (2023): “Brazil’s Lula proposes South America currency to rival US dollar: The president is hosting a regional summit as he seeks to to revive a bloc of 12 politically polarised countries. Lula also gave a warm welcome to Venezuela’s Maduro, and criticised sanctions imposed on the nation by the US and others”.
Argentina’s far-right leader Javier Milei
The Guardian (2023): “‘Prison or bullet’: new Argentina government promises harsh response to protest: President Javier Milei and his allies are preparing new security guidelines in anticipation of protests against currency devaluation”
The Guardian (2023): “Javier Milei’s radical economic policies for Argentina met with protests: New libertarian president accused of drawing up a ‘battle plan against working people’”
US-backed coup in copper-rich Peru
The Conversation (2023): “Release of Alberto Fujimori in Peru rekindles fears of backsliding on human rights”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Peru’s natural resources: CIA-linked US ambassador meets with mining and energy ministers to talk ‘investments’: Peru has large reserves of copper, gold, zinc, silver, lead, iron, and natural gas. After a coup overthrew left-wing President Pedro Castillo, the US ambassador, CIA veteran Lisa Kenna, met with mining and energy ministers to discuss ‘investments’. Europe is importing Peruvian LNG to replace Russian energy”.
Goldman Sachs (2022): “Green Metals: Copper is the New Oil”
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “Peru’s coup-plotting congress has 6% approval, 91% disapproval (but full US backing): A polling firm found that Peru’s coup-plotting, right-wing-controlled congress has 6% approval and 91% disapproval. Unelected leader Dina Boluarte has 15% approval and 78% disapproval. But they have the full support of the US, Canada, and foreign mining corporations”.
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “US President Bush praised dictator Fujimori as ‘Peru’s hope for the future’: US President George H. W. Bush welcomed far-right Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to the White House in 1991, heroizing him as “Peru’s hope for the future” and praising his neoliberal economic policies”.
Growing US-Mexico tensions
Geopolitical Economy Report (2023): “‘Mexico is not a US colony!’: AMLO condemns invasion threats, celebrates nationalization of oil, lithium: Mexico’s leftist President AMLO condemned ‘hypocritical’ Republicans who want the US military to invade, declaring ‘Mexico is an independent and free country, not a US colony or protectorate!’ In a massive rally, López Obrador also celebrated the expropriation of oil and lithium, condemning exploitative foreign corporations”.
Politico (2023): “GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl: Republicans suggest everything from terrorist labels to an invasion to decimate drug cartels in Mexico”.
Corruption in the US government
US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York: “U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, His Wife, And Three New Jersey Businessmen Charged With Bribery Offenses”
Biden loses support as 2024 election nears
Gallup (2023): “Biden Ends 2023 With 39% Job Approval”
New York Times (2023): “Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Siena Poll Finds“