Reflectii

Why Washington Must Reckon With the Devastating Inflation Its Policies Cause

Around the world, governments are grappling with inflation as supply chain disruptions and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to higher prices for all types of goods. Western politicians have spent the last few months trying to assuage the fears of their constituents, who are unaccustomed to fast-rising prices. Just before Thanksgiving, U.S. President Joe Biden promised “coordinated action … to deal with the lack of supply, which in turn helps ease prices.” French President Emmanuel Macron promised a cash handout to French citizens to ease the pain. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Britons to get tough as there is “no alternative” to inflation.

Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass.

Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few of those flashpoints, each one suffused with significance for the future of U.S. global power.

For anti-government and anti-authority extremists, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a godsend. In many ways, it seems almost tailor-made for anti-government propaganda, exerting an almost magnetic pull on conspiracy theorists and other far-right extremists. The Omicron variant sweeping the globe has made vaccine mandates a global talking point, which has led a paranoid and growing fringe of extremists to threaten violence against healthcare workers, scientists and government officials in countries around the world.

As tributes pour in to remember what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, as well as the lives lost following it, some experts are shifting their focus forward. An unclassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) indicates Americans should be aware of the possibility of lone wolf terror attacks. The report says that is more likely that an organized event similar to what happened Jan. 6, 2021.

As Bitcoin prices rise, so will the incentive to mine it, creating a feedback loop that spells trouble for the climate.

For advocates of cryptocurrency, the promise of an economic future that is managed by a blockchain (a decentralized database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network, as opposed to being held in a single location, such as a central bank) is compelling. For anyone paying attention, the rapid expansion of cryptocurrency has been stunning. In 2019, the global cryptocurrency market was approximately $793 million. It’s now expected to reach nearly $5.2 billion by 2026, according to a report by the market research organization Facts and Factors. In just one year—between July 2020 and June 2021—the global adoption of cryptocurrency surged by more than 880 percent.

London realized earlier than any other country that one of America’s weaknesses was exorbitant focus on unplanned international consensus. This was of course the best opportunity for Britain. London was well aware that the United States had the power to be at the center of global consensus after World War II and that was why European allies were following Washington. Given its cultural and linguistic affinity, Britain quite delicately prevented Washington from making independent foreign policy moves through powerful foreign lobbies and some influential Middle Eastern governments in the American press and think tanks. Consequently, over the past decade, the importance of the United States’s global role as a consensus-building leader has gradually diminished. The result is that most US allies and partners whose wars and crises were taken care of through US taxpayers’ money are no longer willing to cooperate and help protect the United States‘ interests

The history of the United States in the postwar era is replete with American efforts to change other nations. These projects often failed to achieve their goals, but few so completely as the recent one in Afghanistan. After 20 years, a great many lives lost, and untold billions spent, the Taliban—the very same group that the United States had intervened to remove at the outset—returned to power while U.S. personnel were still mid-evacuation.

Les actes de piraterie et de brigandage ont reculé de manière “notable” dans le monde en 2021, alors que leur nombre était stable depuis 2016, révèle vendredi dans son bilan annuel le pôle d’expertise français dédié à la sûreté maritime MICA Center.

Au total, 317 actes ont été dénombrés en 2021, contre 375 l’année précédente, soit une baisse “notable” de 15%, selon le Maritime Information Cooperation & Awareness Center, situé à Brest.

Even though Marx’s well-acknowledged truth that capitalism creates two classes is over 160 years old, class remains a much debated issue. Marx’s idea is relatively straightforward. In capitalism, there are two classes: firstly, there are workers or proletariat. Workers need to sell their ability to work as workers don’t own any means of production, or the ability to purchase the labor power of others.

Secondly, there is the class of capitalists. They own the means of production – companies and corporations – and purchase labor’s work while paying wages. Turbo-charged since the birth of neoliberalism during the 1980s, profits and productivity have left wages behind during the last 40 years. As a consequence, the rich get richer while the working class’ income has grown at a much lower rate, and for some, it has stagnated.