Similar Posts

Project 2025 Will Decapitate Civilian Oversight of the U.S. Military – Mikey Weinstein
The First Amendment guarantees religious freedom and the separation of Church and State, basic tenets of American democracy which conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation is intent on undermining. Mikey Weinstein,…

Fight for Chair of the California Democratic Party ā RAI with Norman Solomon (pt 1/4)
This is an episode of Reality Asserts Itself, produced on May 18, 2017. On Reality Asserts Itself, Norman Solomon of the Bernie Delegates Network tells Paul Jay that the California fight reflects a much larger struggle within the party between progressives and corporate Democrats.

A Dangerous Moment for the Democratic Party – Matt Taibbi
In a wide-ranging discussion, Matt Taibbi and Paul Jay discuss why the Democratic Party is losing large sections of the working class, and how politics has become a religion.

Historic Victory for Sri Lankan Left – Can They Deliver? – Devaka Gunawardena Pt. 1/2
In November 2024, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) coalition won a two-thirds majority in Sri Lanka’s general elections, marking a historic win for the Sri Lankan left. NPP’s victory came at a time of prolonged economic crisis exacerbated by the crushing terms of Sri Lanka’s IMF agreement. Political economist Dr. Devaka Gunawardena traces the factors leading to Sri Lanka’s economic woes and how international sovereign bonds (ISBs) held by private equity firms such as BlackRock constitute a large segment of Sri Lanka’s debt. Given the government’s recent private creditor debt restructuring agreement, can the NPP still deliver on its campaign promises of wealth redistribution and reversing austerity?Ā

Balancing Coming from a Police Family with Holding Cops Accountable – Nina Turner on RAI (pt 4/4)
This is an episode of Reality Asserts Itself, produced on January 20, 2017. On Reality Asserts Itself, Nina Turner, whose husband is a retired cop and son is active duty, tells host Paul Jay that police need to be held accountable, but so do policymakers who are responsible for stagnant wages and chronic poverty.

Debunking the IMF Myth: South Korea A ‘Free Market Miracle’? – Martin Hart-LandsbergĀ Pt. 1/2
Despite being (mis)characterized by the IMF as a free-market “success story,” South Korea’s development model involved state planning and import controls for decades prior to the 1997 East Asia debt crisis. Economist Martin Hart-Landsberg, Professor Emeritus at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, explains how capitalist globalization materialized and morphed in East Asia, often to the detriment of its worker population. With Trump’s inauguration nearing, Hart-Landsberg sheds light on why contemporary U.S.-China hawks view China as a threat rather than a technological competitor.Ā
I suggest Mr Ferguson reread Mike Moore’s Stupid White Men on Bill Clinton being the best or worst republican POTUS America never voted for, before trying to alibi the duplicitous , absolutely corrupt , and perhaps senile Joe Biden as Americas white knight.
Voting is of little importance and has been since our defeat in Vietnam , when CIA and the the various deep state entities controlled by unelected elites decided that guys like Carter , Nixon , and Kennedy were unreliable and began openly fixing the results. These days the SCOTUS, and Electoral College are the primary tools , supplemented by electronic ballot rigging , voter suppression , and gerrymandering of districts . Whether Trump or Biden sit on the now mainly ceremonial POTUS throne is truly immaterial to the global elites that now rule most of the planet.
The characterization of today’s (since 2009) QEs as “Keynesian” stimulus is incorrect. If JM Keynes were alive today, he would be vociferously denouncing the Fed and the Treasury as irresponsible. Keynes, in his 1936 treatise, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”, urge federal borrowing when there is growth stagnation and high unemployment. Its object was the stimulation of aggregate demand by putting people back to work. Keynes saw this as the singular responsibility of the federal government, because private investment in times of GDP stagnation is discouraged by the wide perception of unacceptable risk. Only the federal government can provide the needed employment stimulus . This is very different from increasing the reserves of the major banks so that they and their privileged borrowing corporations can help themselves in the stock market rather than invest and increase employment. That is not Keynesian stimulus.
I can think of no person who was and is still detested as much as FDR by his own capitalist class as was JM Keynes. If Keynes had been in charge at the Bretton Woods conference in place of Harry Dexter White, an agreement could have been made that might have avoided the domination of the postwar economy by the US and the ultimate breakdown of the gold standard (1971). If Keynes had been heard after WWI, the Versailles Treaty would not have set the stage for WWII. He was a profoundly far sighted political economist and one of the key intellectuals of the 20th century, as recognized and celebrated by Bertrand Russell in his “History of Western Philosophy”.
Great post I heartily agree.