Sunday, August 25, 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 25 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 25 2024

by Tony Wikrent


Strategic Political Economy

How Europe Could Reinvigorate Their Economy

Ian Wlesh, August 22, 2024

Force the US to reduce embassy staffs by 90% and remove all US NGOs and similar organizations.


Nicaragua shuts down 151 more NGOs, including US Chamber of Commerce affiliate 

[Anadolu Agency, via Naked Capitalism 08-23-2024]


How the Pentagon built Silicon Valley 

[Responsible Statescraft, via Naked Capitalism 08-21-2024]

[Yves Smith notes: This was documented years ago in Marianna Mazzucato’s book, The Entrepreneurial State.]


Global power shift

“How China acquires ‘the crown jewels’ of U.S. technology” 

[Pekingnology, via Naked Capitalism 08-19-2024]


Who Benefits From Sanctions? 

[Phenomenal World, via Naked Capitalism 08-19-2024]

‘On “How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare” by Narges Bajoghli, Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, and Ali Vaez.’


A Look at Iran’s First Ever Aircraft Carrier: Shahid Bagheri Promises to Expand Reach of Stealth Drone Fleet

Military Watch, August 21, 2024

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 18 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 18 2024

by Tony Wikrent


Strategic Political Economy

The world will lose $4.7 trillion of revenue in the next decade to tax havens. How did we get here? 

[The Business Standard, via Naked Capitalism 08-16-2024]


American Pharmaceutical Companies Aren’t Paying Any Tax in the United States

Brad W. Setser and Michael Weilandt [CFR, via Naked Capitalism 08-16-2024]

It is an undisputed fact that American pharmaceutical prices are the highest in the world…. However, those high prices do not translate into high reported profits in the United States. Rather the contrary: large pharmaceutical companies generally report losing money in the U.S….

So high prices strangely seem to correlate with large losses. This, of course, is a clear sign that pharmaceutical companies live in a world marked by transfer pricing and tax arbitrage….

The average effective tax rate paid in the U.S. (so U.S. tax paid versus global profit) was only 3 percent from 2018 to 2022, well below the typical effective tax paid in the US before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (see the work of Senator Wyden and his staff for more details). 



A Very Good Sign: Kamala Harris Is Going Right at Corporate Greed 

Nick Hanauer, August 16, 2024 [The New Republic]

… Greedy CEOs have milked the average American household for $12,000 since the pandemic. As a businessman, I can explain how they’re doing it. ...if you compare corporate profits in 2019 to the last four years, you’ll find corporations have gouged their way to an almost unbelievable $1.5 trillion in excess profits since 2020—that’s in addition to their pre-pandemic profit rates.

That means the average American household has paid an eye-popping $12,000 in higher prices solely to pump up quarterly corporate profit margins. To put that figure into perspective, $12,000 could buy the average American household more than two years’ worth of groceries….

Over the last two years, CEOs learned they could get away with padding their profits by keeping prices high. We have really great evidence that this is what’s been happening, because CEOs admitted this is what’s been happening.

For example, Procter & Gamble chief financial officer Andre Schulten bragged during a 2023 earnings call that even though the company’s input costs to make diapers had decreased, they were still keeping consumer prices high….

This corporate embrace of price gouging is a new and troubling development in American capitalism. And this is an area I know something about.

I’ve founded, financed, and/or run 43 different companies, spanning a dozen different industries…. I’m deeply acquainted with all the tricks of the trade when it comes to corporate profit margins.

But I’ve never seen executives exult in raising prices like this….

The chasm between corporate costs and profits has never been greater in my lifetime:

Immediately before the pandemic, corporate profits were 9.7 percent of the total gross domestic product. From 2020 to 2023, they spiked to an average 11.2 percent of annual GDP. The disparity between those two numbers amounts to a jaw-dropping $1.5 trillion more of our economy that was transferred over to corporate profits in the last four years.

That money was picked directly from the pockets of American families, who each paid $12,000 more to plump the profit margins of corporations (and that’s not even counting the excess APR rates that have cost the average credit card user $946 over the same four-year period)….

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 11 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 11 2024

by Tony Wikrent


Strategic Political Economy

In 2023 the world’s forests stopped acting as a carbon sink 

[REDD Monitor, via Naked Capitalism 08-10-2024]

At the recent International Carbon Dioxide Conference in Manaus, Brazil, scientists presented preliminary findings that in 2023 the world’s forests stopped acting as a carbon sink. An intense drought in the Amazon rainforest and record wildfires in Canada were part of the reason that forests and other land ecosystems emitted almost as much carbon dioxide as they removed from the atmosphere.

Usually, forests remove about one-quarter of the world’s annual CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere. But in 2023, that carbon sink collapsed, study co-author Philippe Ciais of the French research organisation the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences told Reuters.

As a result, in 2023, the growth rate of CO₂ in the atmosphere shot up by 86% compared to 2022. Yet CO₂ emissions — which come mainly from burning fossil fuels — only increased by between 0.1% and 1.1%. The explanation is that natural carbon sinks absorbed much less….


'Holy Sh*t This Ad Is Powerful': UAW Says It Knows How to Defeat Trump and the Billionaire Class

Jon Queally, August 10, 2024 [CommonDreams]  

"This is brilliant," said author Naomi Klein in response to new United Auto Workers ad….

"There is only one answer to the threat we face as a nation. The answer is solidarity."

That is the core message directed at the American working class from the United Auto Workers (UAW) in a new ad that frames the nation's current political battle as one between organized workers and the billionaire and corporate classes.

"We stand at a historic crossroads in this country right now," says UAW president Shawn Fain to begin the 2-minute video. "And it's clear Donald Trump represents the billionaire class—that's his base." ….

UAW: Fight For a Better Life

x


"The dream of a man like Donald Trump is that the vast majority of working class people will remain divide," says Fain. "They divide us by race. They divide us by gender, by who we love, or where we were born. That's the game of the wealthy, divide and conquer

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 4 2024

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 4 2024

by Tony Wikrent


Gaza / Palestine / Israel

US Urged to Condemn Israel's 'Summary Execution' of Two Journalists

Edward Carver, August 02, 2024 [CommonDreams]

A Palestinian journalist on Thursday pressed a U.S. State Department spokesperson to characterize the killings of two Al Jazeera journalists by Israeli forces as summary execution.

The heated press briefing followed an airstrike on Wednesday that killedAl Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifee, and sparked global outrage. Israel's military acknowledged targeting al-Ghoul, saying he was "eliminated" because he was a Hamas "terrorist," an allegation the Qatar-based network said was "baseless."

The death toll of Palestinian journalists and media workers now stands at least 108, including several intentionally targeted by Israel forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).


[X-Twitter, via Naked Capitalism 07-31-2024]

It's telling Israel (allegedly) can conduct pinpoint operations thousands of kilometers away to a capture target with precision, yet just two kilometers from home, they use 5-ton bombs on families to eliminate minor threats.

Oligarchy

Private Equity Giants Invest More Than $200M in Federal Races to Protect Their Lucrative Tax Loophole 

[Exposed by CMD, via Naked Capitalism 08-02-2024]