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Apple, Market Manipulation and the Cult of Personal Finance – RAI with Rana Foroohar Pt 2/6
On Reality Asserts Itself, Ms. Foroohar says the legalization of stock buybacks in 1982 allowed companies like Apple to now spend only 15% of their investments on R&D, while the majority is spent on market manipulation; the Financial Times columnist and author of “Makers and Takers” said the move from traditional pensions to 401k’s makes everyone feel they benefit from finance when the vast majority of profits go to the elites and most people’s living standards deteriorate – with host Paul Jay. This is an episode of Reality Asserts Itself, produced May 9, 2018.
Truman Delayed End of WWII to Demonstrate Nuclear Weapons – Daniel Ellsberg on RAI Pt 3/13
To intimidate the Soviet Union and prove to Congress the nuclear program should be funded, Truman dropped nuclear weapons on Japan to end the war; no scientist came forward to warn of the dangers to life on earth, says Daniel Ellsberg on Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay. This is an episode of Reality Asserts Itself, produced November 2, 2018, with Paul Jay.
The War on Cuba Episode 4
Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández investigates the mysterious health incidents reported by U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana in 2017. The incidents — characterized as “sonic attacks,” “microwave attacks” and the “Havana Syndrome” — led to the shuttering of the U.S. Embassy and opened the doors to a barrage of devastating sanctions imposed by Trump and maintained by Biden. Liz interviews scientists from both countries who dismantle the theory that U.S. personnel were attacked. She shows how major media outlets fanned the flames of hysteria and speaks with the Cuban families separated by the near total closure of U.S. consular services.
“It Will Take 100 Million Deaths” Hedge Fund Billionaire Warns of AI Threat
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones recently warned that artificial intelligence poses an “imminent threat” to humanity, with a 10% chance it could lead to catastrophic loss of life within 20 years. But while Jones acknowledges the danger, he stops short of identifying the real cause: the reckless, profit-driven race among Big Tech firms and national powers to dominate AI at any cost.
We also reveal what Jones doesn’t mention: the growing integration of AI into nuclear command and control systems.
AI doesn’t have to lead us over the edge. Under democratic public ownership, it could help solve the climate crisis—but in the hands of tech monopolies and the military, it could destroy us.
IMF & Private Creditors Subject Sri Lanka to Neo-Colonial Debt Bondage – Asoka Bandarage part 1/2
The Sri Lankan government turned to the IMF for a near $3 billion bailout to repay loans provided by India and Japan, as well as international sovereign bonds issued by foreign creditors such as BlackRock. Dr. Asoka Bandarage, sociologist and author of Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World, suggests that Prime Minister Rajapaksa’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2022 and the subsequent IMF bailout under Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was not an absolute necessity, but an attempt to shift Sri Lanka further under the umbrella of Western and Indian institutions, and away from Chinese loans.
Hedges and Binney on NSA Policy – Reality Asserts Itself pt 2/2
This interview was originally published on January 11, 2014. On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges and William Binney answer the question: “What should the NSA policy look like?”
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.