alanjjohnstone
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Can Ukraine sustain its resistance?
Tax revenues have plummeted due to an economy in free fall while military spending has skyrocketed, leaving the government facing a budget shortfall of $5 billion (€5.02 billion) per month. To make up for the lack of cash, the country’s central bank has effectively been printing money — buying government bonds to the tune of $7.7 billion over the past six months. The Financial Times reported that the printing presses effectively created $3.6 billion in June alone.
the London-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) urged a “decreasing reliance” on money printing, or seigniorage, warning that Ukraine would likely face much higher inflation, a currency crisis and even a banking crisis if it continued.
“Money printing makes sense at the beginning of the war, when there is a lot of chaos, and allows you to raise money very quickly,” report co-author, economist Yuriy Gorodnichenko from the University of California, Berkeley, told DW. “But it’s not a sustainable solution. If you keep doing this, you’re going to destroy the rest of the economy.”
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-battles-to-avoid-hyperinflation-as-war-costs-soar/a-62890235
The World Bank has predicted that 55% of Ukrainians will be living in poverty by the end of 2023, compared with 2.5% before the conflict.
The optimism of an agreement with Iran may be premature.
Axios’ Barak Ravid reported over the weekend the Biden administration has told Israel that it “hasn’t agreed to new concessions with Iran” and that the U.S., European nations, and Iran are not on the verge of a deal, even after Tehran engaged with and offered its response to what E.U. leaders characterized as a “final” offer.
The U.S. has yet to formally respond to the E.U. text or Iran’s written reply.
Iran accused the U.S. of stalling progress toward an agreement, with a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry saying that “the Americans are procrastinating and there is inaction from the European sides.”
Everyday we read that the Ukraine war has caused price rises and food shortages across the world.
Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute, stated that according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global food production and stocks are at historic high levels in 2022, with only a slight contraction compared to 2021.
“Skyrocketing food prices seen this year are rather due to speculation and profiteering than the war in Ukraine…”
Millions Go Hungry– While Billions Worth of Food Go into Landfills
Are the SNP now the left-wing proponents of nationalisation rather than the Old Labourites?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62623751
To relate to one of the topics of our Summer School talks, “middle class” lawyers discover they are working class.
Barristers have voted to go on an indefinite, uninterrupted strike in England and Wales from next month. The walkout by members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) will begin on 5 September.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62629776
Meantime the container port of Felixstowe is at a standstill due to strike
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-62582931https://libcom.org/article/no-war-class-war-statement-nwbcw-rome
Italy’s No War But Class War Group
A pregnant Louisiana woman faced with either carrying a skull-less fetus to term – for the baby to likely die within hours – or traveling several states away to obtain an abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/louisiana-abortion-woman-nancy-davis-benjamin-crump
The climate measure Biden signed Tuesday bypasses the administration’s concerns about emissions and guarantees new drilling opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
it boosts oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. The law reinstates within 30 days the 2,700-square miles (6,950-square kilometers) of Gulf leases that had been withheld. It ensures companies like Chevron will have the chance to expand And it locks renewables and fossil fuels together: If the Biden administration wants solar and wind on public lands, it must offer new oil and gas leases first. As a result, U.S. oil and gas production and emissions from burning fuels could keep growing.
Explained Andrew Gillick with Enverus, an energy analytics company whose data is used by industry and government agencies, “The folks that think oil and gas will be gone in 10 years may not be thinking through what this means.” The result would be more planet-warming carbon dioxide — up to 110 million tons (100 million metric tons) annually
USA to supply Ukraine with more hi-tech armaments
Ortega’s love affair with the Catholic Church appears to be well and truly over.
Nicaraguan authorities accused the bishop of “organising violent groups” and inciting them “to carry out acts of hate against the population”.
Seems like good news.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/19/iran
A European proposal to revive the nuclear agreement between Western countries and Iran is imminent and includes the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds and oil exports in return for the scaling back of its nuclear programme.
Iran’s negotiating team adviser Mohammad Marandi said earlier this week “we’re closer than we’ve been before” to securing a deal and the “remaining issues are not very difficult to resolve”.
the proposal stipulates on the day after the agreement is signed, sanctions on 17 Iranian banks as well as 150 economic institutions will be lifted.
This forum will be interested in who tries to block the agreement
Canada and China’s South Sea
Canadian Navy sails with US Empire into War, Environmental Disaster
Canada’s defence minister Anita Anand tweeted, that HMCS Vancouver and Winnipeg will remain deployed in the Indo-Pacific until December 2022
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/8/18/palestinian-misuse-and-zionist-abuse-of-the-holocaust
“…If the Palestinian misuse of these analogies is utterly wrong, their abuse by Zionists has been truly wicked. Israeli leaders have called any Palestinian or Arab leader they disliked a “new Hitler”, to justify aggression and war against Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and others. Before their trilateral attack on Egypt in 1956, Israel and its two co-conspirators, France and Britain, portrayed its pan-Arab leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, as “Hitler on the Nile”.
Worse, any journalist, scholar or peace activist who dares criticise Israeli policy is routinely denounced as an anti-Semite, Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi.
Meanwhile, “Never Again”, the noble phrase that appears on many Holocaust memorials, has become an excuse for dominating Palestine and much of the Middle East. Well after Israel became the Middle East’s superpower and its only nuclear power, the “threat to the survival of the Jewish state” has been used as a pretext to bomb, kill and maim Palestinians and Arabs…”
The trade war heightens
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62585899
The US has announced that they will begin formal trade negotiations with Taiwan
The UK has blocked the takeover of an electronic design company by a Hong Kong firm because of concerns over risks to national security.
