Inflation

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?

Latin America’s Plan Against Inflation ‘New Scenario Of Regional Integration’

March 5, 2023 Daniela Diaz, Orinoco Tribune. Create! AMLO, Inflation, Latin America, Mexico

Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Cuba are leading a project to contain and reduce inflation in Latin America. According to experts consulted by Sputnik, the plan is viable and could lead to the region’s economic diversification. According to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the plan consists of the commercial exchange of food imports and exports, as well as other goods, to reduce the consequences of economic problems in the region. Producers, distributors and merchants will be invited to participate in the agreement. According to the most recent data, inflation is reported at 5.63% in Brazil, 7.76% in Mexico, 13.12% in Colombia, 42.08% in Cuba and 98.8% in Argentina.

United Kingdom Teachers Join Strike Wave

March 3, 2023 Ross Domoney, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Inflation, Strikes, Teachers, United Kingdom (UK)

The strikes in Britain are growing and this time it’s the teachers who have come out in force, demanding better wages amongst the cost of living crisis. On Feb. 1 up to 500,000 workers walked out in the UK, in one of the largest coordinated strike actions since the pensions dispute of 2011. It was a cross-union action which also saw train drivers going on strike as well as thousands of the government’s own civil servants. The teachers are refusing to back down in their demands and have promised further strike action and disruption in the coming months. TRNN heads to a protest in central London and speaks directly with the striking teachers, pupils, and other unions who have come out in support of the action.

Great Britain: The Current Strikes Represent A Moment Of Awakening

February 11, 2023 Josefina L. Martínez and Satnam Virdee , Left Voice. Strategize! Inflation, Strikes, united kindgom, Worker Rights and Jobs

The first week of February was marked by the most significant strikes in Britain in recent decades. Teachers, nurses, ambulance drivers, firefighters, public employees, university professors, railway workers, postal workers, and many other sectors are leading an expansive wave of strikes that began several months ago and will continue throughout February and March. February 1 is particularly remarkable for the number of workers who came out into the streets: half a million workers went on strike across England, Wales, and Scotland. Teachers and railway workers met together in massive demonstrations. The “specter” of a general strike haunted the streets as simultaneous strikes of strategic sectors converged across the region. Mick Lynch, Secretary-General of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), declared at a rally outside the gates of Downing Street: “We are the working class and we are back!”

Claims Of Mass Workers Shortages And Layoffs; Read Between The Lines

February 3, 2023 Daniel Kostzer, Equal Times. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Unemployment, Worker Rights and Jobs

In the midst of the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, in trying to justify the acceleration in global inflation – even before the war in Ukraine – the mainstream media was flooded with news about the so-called ‘Great Resignation’, blaming an apparent shortage of workers for widespread bottlenecks in the production of goods. Today, the same media is talking about large-scale redundancies and layoffs by corporations. The explanations offered for this apparent trend could lead one to draw conclusions that barely scratch the surface in terms of understanding the true root causes of these issues. This impacts not just the general public but also, most worryingly, policymakers who could be led to implement poorly designed policies that produce negative effects on people, their livelihoods and the wider economy.

What Causes Inflation?

January 29, 2023 Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Central Bank, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Inflation

Today’s discussion is focused on inflation and its much-debated return after many many decades. We thought we would structure our discussion around certain key questions. What is inflation? What is the textbook definition? How has it been understood in the past? What causes inflation? What are the supply and demand-side factors? Given that capitalism is considered such a powerful productive machine, why are the most powerful capitalist countries suffering from inflation today? What does it say about their productive system? What is, in fact, causing the current inflation? What is the Federal Reserve in the United States particularly — the most powerful central bank in the world — doing about it, and what’s wrong with what the Federal Reserve, and many other central banks, are doing? So Michael, why don’t you just start with your thoughts on the first question.

Solving The Debt Crisis The American Way

January 19, 2023 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Currency, Debt, Finance and the Economy, Inflation

On Friday, Jan. 13, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to Congress that the U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit on Jan. 19, forcing the new Congress into negotiations over the debt limit much sooner than expected. She said she will use accounting maneuvers she called “extraordinary measures” to keep U.S. finances running for a few months, pushing the potential date for default to sometime in the summer. But she urged Congress to get to work on raising the debt ceiling. Lifting it above its current $31.385 trillion limit won’t be easy with a highly divided and gridlocked Congress. As former Republican politician David Stockman crowed in a Jan. 11 article: 15 [House] votes and the slings and arrows of MSM opprobrium were well worth it. That’s because the GOP’s anti-McCarthy insurrection obtained concessions which just might slow America’s headlong rush to fiscal armageddon. And just in the nick of time! We are referring, of course, to the Speaker elect’s promise that there will be no more debt ceiling increases without off-setting spending cuts; and that in the event of a double-cross a single Member of the House may table a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair.

Media Prescribe More ‘Pain’ For Workers As Inflation’s Only Cure

December 20, 2022 Luca Goldmansour, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Media, Worker Rights and Jobs

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is profit’s prophet and the corporate media are his cultish devotees, joining hands to sacrifice working people. In this cult, profit is sacrosanct. When inflation hits, this is because of the conditions upon which profits are made. It’s not the fault of profit-making itself. The problem is a “labor shortage,” or “too much demand,” which forces the invisible hand to raise prices—and not a shortage of dignified work, or a surplus of people living paycheck to paycheck. Maximal profits are a given, and scarcity for ordinary people is a requirement. This catechism means that, even if reporters in corporate media are sympathetic to working people’s struggle with the increasing costs of living, the group that inevitably needs to take a hit to curb inflation is, you guessed it, still working people.

The UK Is Mired In An Energy Crisis, But Not On Goldsmith Street

December 13, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Create! Energy, Inflation, Passive House, Social Housing, United Kingdom (UK)

When the Goldsmith Street social housing development was completed in Norwich, UK, in 2019, it was the country’s largest residential complex built to energy efficient Passivhaus standards. At the time, it was dubbed a “modest masterpiece” and won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize. Now, as the UK braces for the first full winter of a cost-of-living crisis and the energy crisis prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is winning its residents something even more important: savings on their heating bills. “We don’t have to put the heating on so it’s cheaper,” resident Jayed Abdas Samad told The Guardian. “We feel very lucky.” Passivhaus standards were first developed in Germany and are the go-to standards for new construction there.

What Does The Fed’s Jerome Powell Have Up His Sleeve?

December 7, 2022 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Educate! Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Inflation

“There is no sense that inflation is coming down,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a November 2 press conference, — this despite eight months of aggressive interest rate hikes and “quantitative tightening.” On November 30, the stock market rallied when he said smaller interest rate increases are likely ahead and could start in December. But rates will still be increased, not cut. “By any standard, inflation remains much too high,” Powell said. “We will stay the course until the job is done.” The Fed is doubling down on what appears to be a failed policy, driving the economy to the brink of recession without bringing prices down appreciably. Inflation results from “too much money chasing too few goods,” and the Fed has control over only the money – the “demand” side of the equation.

The Fed’s Response To Inflation Is Another Upward Transfer Of Wealth

December 4, 2022 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Chris Hedges, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Inflation

The Federal Reserve has responded to runaway inflation by hiking up interest rates at the same time that Americans are drowning in historic levels of personal debt. With interest rates up, prices will only rise faster than wages, hitting the vast majority of people with stagnant or declining wages in real terms. The result is yet another upward transfer of wealth to the minority of capitalists responsible for the crisis in the first place. Economist Richard Wolff joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the origins of the inflation crisis, the Fed’s response, and what this all means for working people. Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School. He is the host of the weekly program Economic Update, and the author of several books, including his most recent title, The Sickness in the System: When Capitalism Fails To Save Us From Pandemics or Itself.

Liberating Africa Requires Changing Power Relations With The West

November 21, 2022 Ramzy Baroud, Mintpress News. Educate! Africa, Inflation, Pandemic, Poverty, Western imperialism

Soon after arriving in Oslo, my taxi zigzagged through the city’s well-organized streets and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Large billboards advertised the world’s leading brands in fashion, cars, and perfumes. Yet, amid all the expressions of wealth and plenty, an electronic sign by a bus stop flashed the images of poor-looking African children needing help. Over the years, Norway has served as a relatively good model of meaningful humanitarian and medical aid. This is especially true compared to other self-serving western countries, where aid is often linked to direct political and military interests. Still, the public humiliation of poor, hungry and diseased Africa is still disquieting. The same images and TV ads are omnipresent everywhere in the West.

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