Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“Neither the respectable left nor the hardline liberals can explain how spiralling ‘punishments’ are meant to bring a quick end to the war, still less a lasting peace.”  Invasion of Ukraine: more on hypocrisy, warmongering and the innocent abroad

Definition of ‘globalisation’ aside, it is very interesting to follow the arguments of liberals. BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink’s proclamation last week stated that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalisation we have experienced over the last three decades”. As he put it, the war marks “a turning point in the world order of geopolitics, macroeconomic trends, and capital markets”. Rana Foroohar of the Financial Times argues that  “we won’t see a 1930s-style meltdown but rather a new kind of regionalisation that will replace what came before. I’ve been arguing for some time that regional trading blocs are the only way forward given the mercantilist reality of China’s current system, which is simply incompatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization. I think the big question is whether we move towards a bipolar system, with the US and Europe (and whichever OECD nations decide to come along with them) creating some new structures, particularly f...

Deterring the U.S. Related For nearly 30 years, Russia has been enabling China’s rise as a military power. Russian weapons producers have supplied the People’s Liberation Army with missiles, helicopters and advanced fighter jets to the tune of an average of $1.5bn a year.  Now, the tide is turning. As reported by the Financial Times this month, Russia has requested military assistance from China to maintain its invasion of Ukraine. According to intelligence the US shared with allies, Russia requested supplies including surface-to-air missiles, drones, intelligence-related equipment and armoured and logistics vehicles. Sipri’s arms transfers database, which tracks deals from 1950 to 2021, records scores of Russian weapons exports to China, with none going the other way. But China is clearly outgrowing its traditional reliance on Russian for supplies of advanced arms. China spent more than three times as much on defence as Russia in 2020. Source: Financial Times Imperialist Keynesian...

Avoidable Covid-19 deaths were significantly higher in the most deprived areas in England Age-standardised avoidable mortality rates (per 100,000 people) with an underlying cause of Covid-19 in England, 2020 Most deprived Males 95.1 Females  53.3 Least deprived Males  21.9 Females  9.4 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year and exclude deaths of non-residents.  Source:   ONS – Deaths registered in England Death rates expose health inequalities

  When people ranging from seasoned American idiot Thomas Friedman to Israeli best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari come together to argue Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine is unlike anything we have seen before and is a turning point in human history, it is hard not to bury your head in your pillow and wonder where have these people been over the last two decades of US military thuggery around the globe. Ceasing to follow the propaganda machinery of Russia and the US, the world would be much better off turning to Gogol, a Ukrainian master of Russian literature, and in the liminal space he crafts in his superior literary heritage, thinking where the real borders lie between civilisation and barbarities. Biden Putin or Gogol

A battlefield between workers and corporatisation

Irish law maker speaks out

 Ukrainian Jews, anti-Semitism, pogroms, nationalism and racism

 Excerpt from Geoff Mann’s Keynesianism, Political Economy, and Revolution

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Putin is a war criminal – and so was Albright

Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could have sanctions against them lifted if Russia's President Vladimir Putin ends his invasion of Ukraine and commits to "no further aggression", UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said. You see in principle ‘we’ don’t really have a problem with the oligarchs.