There is surprisingly a certain degree of optimism around at the moment, despite virtually entire populations and economies on lockdown. Although things are really bad for millions right now due to the effects of lockdown, economist Mariana Mazzucato believes that the Covid-19 crisis will shine light on societal and economic systems all across the world, exposing some of the deep-rooted flaws of capitalism.
A central bank-financed UBI can fill the debt gap, providing a vital safety net while preventing cyclical recessions.
-by Skip KaltenheuserOne thing we know for certain about what weighed on Bernie’s decision to suspend his campaign is that there are things we do not know for certain. Before and after the October 1st medical adventure his heart embarked on, I wrote he’d be ticking like a Timex and coming from behind like Seabiscuit, both prediction and prayer. I acknowledge my disappointment but refrain from judgment on what I believe to be a clean call.
Pepe Escobar looks at a frightening future that might follow the already terrifying Covid-19 global outbreak.
Pepe ESCOBAR
You don’t need to read Michel Foucault’s work on biopolitics to understand that neoliberalism – in deep crisis since at least 2008 – is a control/governing technique in which surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the US and UK stimulus plans, as both countries face an economic collapse due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the most immediate objective is to slow its spread, minimise the death toll and help people through the crisis. But, despite government promises to support citizens who are now losing their jobs and income, the underlying establishment concern will be as it always has been: to preserve the global inequitable system of wealth and power.
History in truth never repeats, but it very often reverses itself. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bet heavily on repeating history when he tried to bankrupt Russia by opening the gates of unlimited oil production and exports: He will only ruin his own Kingdom of Saudi Arabia instead.
We are at a critical moment in the history of politics and markets. Everyday the U.S. government stares into the fiscal and monetary abyss and chucks trillions in hoping that will be enough to finally fill it.
We stand by hoping that it will work to reflate markets collapsing from a catastrophic mispricing of assets. At least some of us do. I don’t.
I hope it fails and it’s because those inflated prices fuel the very global political order that is anathema to human advancement.
Western society has long been gripped by a deep seeded belief in money. Trillions of dollars of bank notes tied to ever-growing mountains of un-payable national debts has taken on a life of its own over the years. As the post-1971 years rolled by, society increasingly lost a sense that this human invention called “money” was created to serve humanity rather than rule it, and with that lost sense, money became an idol of worship.
