Inflation

Corporate Profits Were Biggest Driver Of Inflation In Europe

June 27, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Corporatism, Europe, IMF, Inflation

Corporate profits have been the biggest contributor to inflation in Europe since 2021. This is according to a study published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Rising corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation over the past two years as companies increased prices by more than spiking costs of imported energy”, wrote IMF economists this June. The IMF said “companies may have to accept a smaller profit share if inflation is to remain on track to reach the European Central Bank’s 2-percent target in 2025”. IMF economists Niels-Jakob Hansen, Frederik Toscani, and Jing Zhou detailed their findings in a research paper, “Euro Area Inflation after the Pandemic and Energy Shock: Import Prices, Profits and Wages”.

A New Third World Debt Crisis? The Need For System Change

June 23, 2023 Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson and Anne Pettifor, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Debt, Finance and the Economy, Global South, Inflation, Neoliberalism

Today we are joined by Anne Pettifor to discuss an urgent issue of our time, that of the third world debt crisis. As we record this, this is the topic of the Summit on New Global Financing Pact called by Emmanuel Macron in Paris. And we couldn’t find a more authoritative guest for this show. Anne Pettifor does not really need any introduction, and I’m only going to give one to remind ourselves of the range of her contributions. She’s a prolific writer on issues relating to debt, finance and development, and is also an activist and has intervened in politics to great effect.

The Rise And Rise Of Far-Right In Germany

June 14, 2023 M.K. Bhadrakumar, People's Dispatch. Educate! Germany, Inflation, Right wing politics, Wars and Militarism

The political class in Germany is stunned by the findings of a YouGov poll published on Friday that 20% of voters would give their vote to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), making it the second-strongest party behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (28%) and ahead of center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) (19%). There is no mistaking that it is a political earthquake. Given Germany’s proportional representative system — which is unlike the US or the UK where, too, politics is fractious but is protected by the first-past-the-pole voting system — it is reasonable to estimate that the current “traffic-light” coalition between the SPD, the Greens (who polled 15%) and the neo-liberal Free Democrats or FDP (7%) no longer has a mandate to rule, after only one and a half years in office.

Nigeria Labour Congress ‘Outraged’ That New President Ends Fuel Subsidies

May 30, 2023 Joe Ajaero, Nigeria Labour Congress. Resist! Fuel Prices, Inflation, Nigeria, Poverty

We at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) are outraged by the pronouncement of President Bola Tinubu removing the "fuel subsidy' without due consultations with critical stake holders or without putting in place palliative measures to cushion the harsh effects of the ‘subsidy removal’. Within hours of his pronouncement, the nation went into a tailspin due to a combination of service shut downs and product price hike, in some places representing over 300 per cent price adjustment. By his insensitive decision, President Tinubu on his inauguration day brought tears and sorrow to millions of Nigerians instead of hope. He equally devalued the quality of their lives by over 300 per cent and counting.

Britain’s Broken Food System

May 27, 2023 Red Pepper. Organize! Food and Agriculture, Inflation, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights and Jobs

Multimillionaire food-writer Jamie Oliver has some advice for the one in five households, including 9.3 million adults and 4 million children currently experiencing food insecurity in the UK: check out his £1 Wonder website for ‘thrifty tips, helpful hacks and delicious recipes that won’t blow the budget’. Mind you, the energy costs are not included, access to white goods like a freezer is assumed, and you will need to put aside 2 hours and 40 minutes to cook your spag-bol. Even the BBC are at it with a page on their website dedicated to £1 meals. Like many other personalised responses to the spiraling cost-of-living crisis focused entirely on money-saving frugality, Oliver and the BBC miss the bigger picture behind food inequality across the country.

The Inflation Reality And The Attack On Wages

May 23, 2023 Arthur MacEwan, Dollars & Sense. Educate! Employment, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Interest Rates, Wages

Inflation was slow throughout the second half of 2022. Yet you wouldn’t know this from newspaper headlines, statements from “experts,” or the statements and actions of the Federal Reserve. It was only in January of 2023, when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December 2022 was released showing an actual (very small) decline in prices for the month, that there began to be a general recognition that the relatively high rate of inflation of late 2021 and the first half of 2022 had abated. The December 2022 decline of one-tenth of 1% was later revised upward to an increase of one-tenth of 1%, but this tiny increase still brought attention to the easing of inflation.

Italy: Trade Unions Continue Mobilizations Against Labor Policies

May 16, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Inflation, Italy, Ukraine, Unions, Wars and Militarism

Mainstream trade unions in Italy, including the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (CISL), and the Italian Labor Union (UIL), organized a major demonstration in Milan on Saturday, May 13. The unions denounced the economic policies of the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni, including proposed cuts to public services and social welfare programs, along with lack of investment in job creation. Cadres from various political groups including the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) also participated and expressed solidarity with workers.

As Food Prices Rise, Study Finds Market Power Drove Pandemic Inflation

May 4, 2023 Claire Kelloway, Food & Power. Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Food and Agriculture, Inflation

On earnings calls last week, major food brands bragged about their ability to keep raising prices. Soda and snack giant PepsiCo told investors that it raised prices 16% last quarter, bringing in 18% more profit. Nestle announced a 10% price hike and Unilever said its food brands cost 13% more. In all these cases, higher prices helped food giants increase profits even as their sales decreased. Food giants keep raising prices even though well-publicized cost pressures, like fuel costs, rising wages, and supply chain disruptions, have largely subsided. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal landed on an explanation for persistent food inflation that many consumer groups and economists (including the Open Markets Institute) provided months ago: corporate greed.

Europe Pays More For Banned Russian Oil, Resold By India

May 1, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report China, Europe, European Union (EU), India, Inflation, Oil and Gas, Russia, Sanctions, US Imperialism, Wages, Wars and Militarism

The European Union heavily sanctioned Russia and pledged to boycott its oil, yet continues to buy it, and at an even higher price, albeit indirectly. India is importing record levels of discounted Russian crude, purchasing it in currencies other than the dollar. India then refines the Russian oil and exports fuel to Europe at a profit. Meanwhile, increasing energy costs in Europe have stoked inflation, causing workers’ wages to significantly decline. The real wages of workers in the Eurozone fell by 6.5% between 2020 and 2022. As of April, Bloomberg reported, European imports of refined fuel from India are approaching 360,000 barrels per day.

Agitation By Teachers Forces Latvian Government To Increase Wages

May 1, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Education, Inflation, Latvia, Strikes, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

An intense three-day strike by educators in Latvia, led by the Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Trade Union (LIZDA), forced the coalition government headed by Krisjanis Karins to increase their wages. LIZDA organized a major protest march in the Latvian capital of Riga on April 24 and went on a three-day strike until April 27. Subsequently, in a meeting with the union leadership on April 25, government authorities in principle agreed to increase teachers’ pay, with additional funding of EUR 4.168 million (USD 4.59 million). On April 26, an emergency meeting of the cabinet approved the agreement for additional funds for the wage hike.

The United States Of Paralysis

April 24, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Christian Nationalism, Fascism, Global gangsterism, Inflation, US Imperialism

Political paralysis is snuffing out what is left of our anemic democracy. It is the paralysis of doing nothing while the ruling oligarchs, who have increased their wealth by nearly a third since the pandemic began and by close to 90 percent over the past decade, orchestrate virtual tax boycotts as millions of Americans go into bankruptcy to pay medical bills, mortgages, credit card debt, student debt, car loans and soaring utility bills demanded by a system that has privatized nearly every aspect of our lives. It is the paralysis of doing nothing about raising the minimum wage, despite the ravages of inflation, around 600,000 homeless Americans and 33.8 million people living in food insecure homes, including 9.3 million children.

Western Hegemony Declining, Admits European Central Bank

April 21, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report De-dollarization, Global Economy, Inflation, Wages

The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, gave a speech acknowledging that “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. “We could see more multipolarity as geopolitical tensions continue to mount”, Lagarde added. Geopolitical Economy Report editor-in-chief Ben Norton analyzed Lagarde’s speech with Radhika Desai, professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group.

Brics Bank De-Dollarizing, New Chief Dilma Rousseff Says

April 16, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! Brazil, BRICS, De-dollarization, Dilma Rousseff, Inflation, Lula da Silva

The new president of the BRICS Bank has revealed that the Global South-led bloc is advancing toward de-dollarization, gradually moving away from use of the US dollar. The New Development Bank plans to give nearly one-third (30%) of its loans in the local currencies of the financial institution’s members. Dilma Rousseff, the left-wing former president of Brazil, took over the leadership of the Shanghai, China-based New Development Bank (NDB) this March. The NDB was created in 2014, by the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, as a Global South-oriented alternative to the US-dominated World Bank, which is infamous for imposing neoliberal economic reforms on impoverished countries, which hinder their development.

Why The US Banking System Is Breaking Up

March 13, 2023 Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! Banking Crisis, Banks, cryptocurrency, Finance and the Economy, Inflation

The breakup of banks that is now occurring in the United States is the inevitable result of the way in which the Obama administration bailed out the banks in 2008. When real estate prices collapsed, the Federal Reserve flooded the financial system with 15 years of quantitative easing (QE) to re-inflate real estate prices – and with them, stock and bond prices. What was inflated were asset prices, above all for the packaged mortgages that banks were holding, but also for stocks and bonds across the board. That is what bank credit does. This made trillions of dollars for holders of financial assets – the One Percent and a bit more.

Silicon Valley Bank Fails; Deposits Of Venture-Backed Companies Frozen

March 11, 2023 Lambert Strether, Naked Capitalism. Educate! Banking Crisis, Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest in the US, was shut down and put under the control of California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation on Friday. This failure is set to send ripples across smaller technology companies. Even though there is good reason to think that uninsured depositors will eventually be made whole or nearly whole, some may have had so much of their working funds tied up at Silicon Valley Bank that it may be hard for them to find work-arounds, particularly with so many other companies in the same pickle. While is it is likely someone will cobble together financing, at what speed and on what price?

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