Reflectii

The Federal Reserve Board’s ostensible policy aim is to manage the money supply and bank credit in a way that maintains price stability. That usually means fighting inflation, which is blamed entirely on “too much employment,” euphemized as “too much money.”[1] In Congress’s more progressive days, the Fed was charged with a second objective: to promote full employment. The problem is that full employment is supposed to be inflationary – and the way to fight inflation is to reduce employment, which is viewed simplistically as being determined by the supply of credit.

It was very frustrating to read Noam Scheiber’s profile of Jaz Brisack, the person who led the first successful union organizing drive at a Starbucks. Brisack does sound like a very impressive person and it is good to see her getting the attention her efforts warrant. However, Scheiber ruins the story by repeatedly telling readers that the neoliberals, who have dominated political debate in recent decades, want a free market. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, international grains prices, especially wheat, corn and sunflower, have soared. The circumstance has abruptly aggravated the already serious shortage of grains due to frequent droughts and other adverse climatic variations, now developing into a global food crisis. According to the U.N. World Food Program, 49 million people in the developing world are falling into peril of famine, manifested by riots and protestations in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, and by destabilizing dynamics in the Sahel, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Chad, among others[2].

Vision & History

Some People got hopes and dreams
Some People got ways and means

– Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Survival”

We have to recognize the fundamental social realities behind our most pressing crises, in order to have any hope of ever facing and dealing with them. Summer 2020 saw a righteous global awakening against structural racial injustice and death. Summer 2021 as well as 2022 terrifying onslaught of floods, drought and killing heat, adding up to an awakening to the imminent disasters – not mere “risks” – of climate catastrophe. As the late, great John Trudell[i]taught us, sometimes it’s in our interests to deal with the things that are in front of us. Yes, let’s. First some new language for new challenges.

Elitele vor să dicteze fiecare aspect al vieții tale, de la ceea ce mănânci, la unde mergi, la de câte ori pe săptămână ai voie să faci duș și să-ți speli lenjeria intimă.

The history of humankind of the past hundred years have thrown up a gamut of emotions and heart-wrenching crises. An accentuating challenge is the displacement of millions upon millions of peoples throughout the planet. People are forced to flee or migrate from their homeland or places of birth for a variety of reasons. At the international level United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees holds annual consultations with Governments and Non-governmental Organizations to address the worsening crises.

World Refugee Day is commemorated every year on the 20th of June to honor the bravery, strength, and determination of women, men, and children who are compelled to flee their own countries under the peril of persecution, conflict, curbs on freedom, and violence. Many international organizations like Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) often get involved in various events for the day to make the international community acquainted with the miseries that these refugees face every day.

We are now well past the corona crisis of 2020, and most of the restrictions around the world have been repealed or loosened. However, the long-term consequences of arbitrary and destructive corona policies are still with us—in fact, we are now in the middle of the inevitable economic crisis.

Pentru că viața noastră de zi cu zi este în principal preocupată de chestiuni lumești într-o lume care pare relativ stabilă și prosperă – chiar și oamenii săraci nu mor de foame în Occident și dispun de facilități de bază – , cei mai mulți dintre noi nu conștientizează din ce perioadă extraordinară a istoriei facem parte. Este atât un blestem, cât și o binecuvântare, deoarece timpul nostru este atât epocal, cât și satanic.

The most dangerous words in monetary policy and economics are “this time is different.” Argentine politicians’ big mistake is to believe that inflation is multicausal and that everything is solved with increasing doses of interventionism.