Steve Bull's Blog, page 126
February 16, 2023
Professional Managers Are Driving Us Off the Cliff
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
― Antonio Gramsci
We live through transitional times. Transition from an era of growth to economic contraction. From a stable climate to something utterly different and chaotic. From a global hegemony to a multi-polar world. These are interesting times indeed, loaded with peril and doubt. Why are so many of us — especially those who should know better — are still in deep denial as to what is really going on? Why can’t our leaders change course when it is needed the most?
Photo by Taylor Floyd Mews on UnsplashWith every end to a civilizational cycle, there is a caste which has a lot to lose, yet remain unable to influence the course of events. These people are usually located just below the top tier of the ruling elite. They are the well payed, salaried individuals who serve the system loyally and receive tremendous privileges in return: getting all the access to the best of what this world has to offer.
In our current round of the popular game called civilization, replayed time after time with the same predictable results, this layer is happened to be called the “professional-managerial class” (or PMC for short). They are your high ranking academics, engineers, doctors, lawyers, economists, political scientists, project leaders and managers of multinational companies who run and oversee the system for the wealthy elite. I should know, I’m one of them.
This class has gathered immense power over the past few decades, and has managed to turn democracy into a technocracy (the government of society or industry by an elite of technical experts) — leaving little to none for the public to decide…
…click on the above link to read the rest…
Pakistan on the Brink: What the Collapse of the Nuclear-Armed Regional Power Could Mean for the World
A series of disasters — including catastrophic flooding, political paralysis, exploding inflation, and a resurgent terror threat — risk sending the global player into full-blown crisis.
Vendors sell fruit under battery-powered lights during a blackout due to a power grid failure in Lahore, Pakistan, on Jan. 23, 2023. Photo: Betsy Joles/Bloomberg via Getty Images
THE LAST YEAR has brought Pakistan to the brink. A series of rolling disasters — including catastrophic flooding, political paralysis, exploding inflation, and a resurgent terror threat — now risk sending a key, if troubled, global player into full-blown crisis. If the worst comes to pass, as some experts warn, the catastrophe unfolding in Pakistan will have consequences far beyond its borders.
“This is a country of 220 million people, with nuclear weapons and serious internal conflicts and divisions,” said Uzair Younus, the director of the Pakistan Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. “The world didn’t like the outflows of refugees and weapons that came from countries like Syria and Libya. In comparison, Pakistan is magnitudes larger and more consequential.”
“If the economy remains in a moribund state, and there are shortages of goods and energy leading to a political crisis on the streets of major cities, that would also allow the Pakistani Taliban and other terrorist groups to begin hitting at the government more directly,” said Younus, who is also vice president of the Asia Group, a strategic advisory firm. “We could see a significant weakening of the state and its capacity to impose order.”
It is hard to overstate the difficulty of Pakistan’s current situation. An unfortunate string of recent events combined with chronic mismanagement has created a potentially mortal threat to Pakistan’s political system.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
The Year in Which I Grow Our Food Pt. 7
A Place for Animals-Ducks and Geese
When we arrived here almost 13 years ago, we brought with us a small red coop of 10 laying hens, and a pair of American Buff geese named Ginger and Ferdinand. The chickens no one questioned. But the geese….no one understood.
Arthur, the Chinese goose.Keeping geese is odd in the US because the US doesn’t keep geese (Europeans keep geese). It’s shortsighted, because geese do a job, which I’ll talk about below. To me, keeping geese in a country that doesn’t keep them really just brings home the point that here in the US we don’t allow our animals to work with us the way that they can. We see them as something to be extracted (just like everything else), instead of as allies. If anything at all, I hope this article will open your eyes to the other things animals can do for us besides providing food (which they do as well).
Ferdinand and Ginger are no longer with us, though their descendants are. Over the years, I have had American Buff, Pilgrims, a very loud and very affectionate Chinese goose named Arthur, and now I have two Ferdinand and Ginger descendants named Persephone and Echo living with a pair of Embden geese named Maxwell and Leona. As to ducks? Such a long cast of characters there. I’ve had Pekins, Runners, Cayugas, Muscovys, Khaki Campbells, Appleyards, and White Crested (for pictures of these, see here). Why so many different types? Turns out that ducks might be delicious for humans, but they are VERY delicious to wild animals, as well as easy pickings…
…click on the above link to read the rest…
Barclays Vows To Stop Financing Oil Sands Projects
Barclays on Wednesday said it would no longer provide financing to oil sands companies or oil sands projects and tightened conditions for thermal coal lending in an updated policy, which fell short of announcing overall pledges or targets in funding oil and gas.
In the annual report for 2022 published today, the UK-based banking giant vowed not to provide financing for any oil sands projects, compared to a previous policy which stated that it would only provide financing to oil sands exploration and production clients that had projects to materially reduce their overall emissions intensity.
In coal lending, Barclays now aims to phase out financing to clients engaged in coal-fired power generation in the EU and OECD by 2030, compared to phasing out such lending only to clients in the UK and the EU in the previously announced policy.
Commenting on Barclays’ new targets, Jeanne Martin, Head of Banking Programme at ShareAction, said in a statement, “Disappointingly, despite not having published a new oil and gas policy for the last three years, the bank’s fracking policy remains unchanged and there is no mention of new oil and gas. This means Barclays continues to be out of step with current minimum standards of ambition within the industry.”
Pressured by ESG trends and shareholders, other banks have already started to announce cuts to lending to the oil and gas industry.
At the end of last year, two prominent banks in Europe vowed to significantly cut exposure to the fossil fuels sector. Credit Agricole, the largest retail lender in France, said in early December that it targets to have no new financing granted for oil extraction projects by 2025, and to cut its oil exploration and production exposure by 25% by 2025 compared to 2020.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
Nord Stream Terror Attack: The Plot Thickens
What’s left for all of us is to swim in a swamp crammed with derelict patsies, dodgy cover stories and intel debris.
Seymour Hersh’s bombshell report on how the United States government blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea last September continues to generate rippling geopolitical waves all across the spectrum.
Except, of course, in the parallel bubble of U.S. mainstream media, which has totally ignored it, or in a few select cases, decided to shoot the messenger, dismissing Hersh as a “discredited” journalist, a “blogger”, and a “conspiracy theorist”.
I have offered an initial approach, focused on the plentiful merits of a seemingly thorough report, but also noting some serious inconsistencies.
Old school Moscow-based foreign correspondent John Helmer has gone even further; and what he uncovered may be as incandescent as Sy Hersh’s own narrative.
The heart of the matter in Hersh’s report concerns attribution of responsibility for a de facto industrial terror attack. Surprisingly, no CIA; that falls straight on the toxic planning trio of Sullivan, Blinken and Nuland – neoliberal-cons part of the “Biden” combo. And the final green light comes from the Ultimate Decider: the senile, teleprompt-reading President himself. The Norwegians feature as minor helpers.
That poses the first serious problem: nowhere in his narrative Hersh refers to MI6, the Poles (government, Navy), the Danes, and even the German government.
There’s a mention that on January 2022, “after some wobbling”, Chancellor Scholz “was now firmly on the American team”. Well, by now the plan had been under discussion, according to Hersh’s source, for at least a few months. That also means that Scholz remained “on the American team” all the way to the terror attack, on September 2022.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
February 15, 2023
The French Pension War
When a million people protest on the streets of Paris and most major French cities, you know there is a serious problem in French society…
The protests, which had been going on for four days, culminated on Feb. 11 in Paris, where reportedly half a million people participated. The vitriol directed at the president during these protests was uncivilised and contemptuous of government reform proposals.
Reminiscent of the Yellow Vest Revolution in 2018, which was initially directed at a hike in the price of fuel, it soon morphed into a demand to raise the minimum net wage in France, which is now around €1,679 (US$1,800) per month.
The recent proposal, which earned the wrath of the protestors, concerns President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age from 62 to 64. It is a response to the dire situation of the French pension system.
In France, retirees might be paid 50 per cent of their income, with a maximum of €41,136 annually. The state scheme is financed by “social security contributions”—a payroll tax that burdens French businesses.
It could be argued that the French president’s proposal constitutes a justifiable attempt at containing the burgeoning cost of the pension scheme, which otherwise would become unsustainable.
That the pension scheme is economically untenable is an unavoidable consequence of changes in French demographics.
A protester holds a placard reading “Macron pensions, it’s no!” during a demonstration on the fourth day of nationwide rallies organised since the start of the year against a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul, in Paris, on Feb. 11, 2023. (Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1910, when the first pension law came into effect, life expectancy was 51.3 years, whereas now it is 82.4 years. Also, the population has increased exponentially since 1910 and now stands at around 65 million, compared to around 39 million in 1910.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
IMF Says World Needs to Prepare for the ‘Unthinkable’ After COVID, War in Ukraine
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva participates in a town hall discussion with civil society organizations at IMF headquarters in Washington on Oct. 10, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that the world needs to be prepared to better handle shocks and “the unthinkable” in a post-COVID-19 world and in light of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Georgieva made the comments during a World Government Summit panel hosted by CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Dubai on Feb. 14, where she also referenced the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that have killed more than 36,000 people.
Asked how “difficult” this year is going to be, Georgieva replied that the world economy is still “in a very difficult place and global growth is slowing down in 2023 but it may be a turning point,” pointing to inflation declining in some countries.
“What we are very concerned [about] is one, the unexpected,” Georgieva said. “What COVID and the war taught us is we live in a more shock-prone world. What the earthquake in Turkey and Syria taught us is, to think of the unthinkable.
“We all have to change our mindset to be much more agile and much more oriented towards building resilience at all levels, so we can handle the shocks better,” Georgieva added, noting that resistance comes in the form of ensuring that the very “fabric” of each country and its society is strong.
IMF Plays ‘Stabilizing Role’ in Ukraine
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Georgieva said the IMF has to play a “stabilizing role” in the war in Ukraine, adding that the nation will need around $40 billion to $48 billion for the economy to function this year.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
OPEC Output Drops As Saudi Production Falls By 156,000 Bpd
By Charles Kennedy – Feb 14, 2023, 9:30 AM CST
[image error]Crude oil production from all 13 OPEC members slid by 49,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January from December as top producer Saudi Arabia slashed output by 156,000 bpd, OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) showed on Tuesday.
OPEC’s crude oil production in January fell by 49,000 bpd from December to average 28.88 million bpd, according to secondary sources in OPEC’s report.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer and de facto leader of the cartel, pumped 10.319 million bpd in January, down by 156,000 bpd month on month, and more than 100,000 bpd below its quota of 10.478 million bpd as part of the OPEC+ agreement, set out at the October meeting and valid from November 2022 through December 2023, or until OPEC+ decides otherwise.
A Bloomberg survey found earlier this month that OPEC’s crude oil production fell in January due to cuts by Saudi Arabia which may have been steeper than the Kingdom’s quota.
Saudi Arabia, however, self-reported to OPEC that its crude oil production averaged 10.453 million bpd in January, up by 17,000 bpd from December.
According to OPEC’s secondary sources, Nigeria and Angola boosted their production the most, by 65,000 bpd and 47,000 bpd, respectively. But these producers are among the biggest laggards in their OPEC+ targets—they continue to pump well below their quotas.
The monthly Reuters survey pegged OPEC’s January production nearly in line with the OPEC figures from secondary sources reported today—production at 28.87 million bpd, down by 50,000 bpd from December.
The 10 OPEC members that are part of the OPEC+ collective target production were estimated to have produced around 920,000 bpd below the January target, per the Reuters survey.
Going forward, OPEC and OPEC+ don’t plan to change the course in oil production targets after Russia announced last week a 500,000 bpd cut in its output for March.
Covid Emergency, Climate Emergency: Same Thing
Would a ‘Climate Emergency’ Open the Same Door to Authoritarian Governance as the ‘COVID Emergency?’
I am always happy to welcome new content from The Brownstone Institute, one of the last few beacons of common sense left in the world.
This week they published a new piece on how, as the Covid emergency fades away, the climate emergency is becoming prominent. After lamenting the rights that were taken from citizens during the Covid emergency, the article looks at exactly what superpowers the government would get in declaring a climate emergency. You guessed it: more power to ram through ways for government to micromanage your life, interfere with the economy and – best of all – further the Keynesian nightmare by printing and spend as many U.S. dollars as they want without consequences.
QTR’s Fringe Finance is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I reached out to the publication last year and requested permission to share their content when I enjoy it, in full, with my readers, which they kindly granted. If you’re interested in the topic – or simply just having a grasp on the objective truth – I believe it is a “must read”.
The article is written by W. Aaron Vandiver, a writer, former litigator, and wildlife conservationist. He is the author of the novel, Under a Poacher’s Moon. Photographic annotations have been added by QTR.
In February 2022, 1,140 organizations sent President Biden a letter urging him to declare a “climate emergency.” A group of US Senators did the same, in October 2022, and a House bill, introduced in 2021, also called on the president to “declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act.”
Biden has considered declaring such an emergency, but so far he has declined, to the disappointment of many progressives.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
February 14, 2023
Snowden Says UFO Hysteria is “Engineered” Distraction From Nord Stream Pipeline Bombshell
“I wish it were aliens.”
Alex Wong via Getty Images
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says the hysteria over UFOs being shot down over America and Canada is a distraction from Seymour Hersh’s story about the U.S. being responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.
Over the past week, there have been at least four instances of U.S. fighter jets destroying unidentified flying objects, in one case over Alaska, an object that had no means of propulsion but was spotted flying at 40,000 feet and pilots said interfered with the sensors of their aircraft.
Yesterday, the White House denied that the objects were extraterrestrial in nature, although the glib dismissal if anything only continued to feed into speculation online that ET had paid a flying visit.
In reality, as most people have pointed out, the shootdowns are likely a show of force to save the Biden administration’s blushes from questions as to why the Chinese spy balloon was allowed to monitor America in the first place.
According to Edward Snowden, the UFO flap is also a misdirection to wipe the infinitely more awkward Seymour Hersh story from the headlines.
Snowden tweeted that the hysteria was an “engineered” bait and switch to prevent the media from covering the pipeline explosion revelations.
Last week, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article in which he asserted that the pipelines were destroyed by the US as part of a covert operation.
According to Hersh’s sources, the explosives were planted in June 2022 by US Navy divers under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise and were detonated three months later with a remote signal sent by a sonar buoy.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
