It's Wednesday and there are a few topics that caught my attention this week as…
Recent and upcoming elections tell us a lot about how far gone the global order is
It’s Wednesday and I am flat out finishing things today as I am off to Japan again to work once again at Kyoto University. I will keep you updated on the progress of that work and a public event that we are thinking about in November in Kyoto (or possibly Tokyo or both). For now a few thoughts on current political happenings and some administrative matters.
Interesting election outcomes and prospects
There are two upcoming national elections that will be important in shaping the global economic order in the coming years.
Japan now will go to the polls on October 27, 2024 and the newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has signalled he is likely to break away from the neoliberalism that characterised the era of Shinzo Abe.
While he has claimed he supports Bank of Japan ‘independence’ he has not been backward in telling the bank that he wants an accommodating monetary stance to support more fiscal activism.
I will be in Japan during the election and it should be an interesting period, given the factions within the LDP are splintering in the wake of the funding scandals and the impact that has had on the structure of the new cabinet.
The US, of course, goes to the polls in November and it represents a dilemma for the American voters.
Both candidates for the Presidency are unelectable and that fact illustrates that this neoliberal era has finally produced failed states.
One will be elected but spare the world in either case.
Not a good prospect.
But two finalised elections also produced evidence of the polarisation in the world these days has increased.
The Austrian embrace of the Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ) and the decimation of the People’s party (ÖVP) and Social Democratic party (SPÖ) illustrates how far the world is shifting to the extremities.
The FPÖ won 28.8 per cent of the vote compared to its 16.2 per cent vote in 2019.
The ÖVP, by comparison took 37.5 per cent of the vote in 2019 but was only able to gain 26.3 per cent in the 2024 election.
The leader of the FPÖ is now using Hitler-period expressions (such as Volkskanzler) and the party itself is arguably at the most radical of its evolution in terms of the policies it is advocating.
Everything is up for grabs – climate policy, security of minorities, etc
The Far Right is now mainstream in Europe and one can expect the success in Austria to spread into increasing success in Germany (AfD), France (National Rally), the Netherlands (Dutch Freedom Party), Belgium (Vlaams Belang), Italy (Lega) and more.
This period of neoliberalism has created such anxiety among ordinary folks which the organised Left has largely ignored or been complicit in executing, that the only movements that have given voice to the citizenry are these Far Right groups.
And their success is reflecting that fact.
The other interesting outcome is the election of a Marxist revolutionary in Sri Lanka – who led the – Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – to power at the election on September 23, 2024.
The JVP led the – 1987-1989 JVP insurrection – against the Sri Lankan government as part of its long history of struggles against US imperialism and the oppression of the Sinhalese and Tamil people.
In 2019, he won just 3 per cent of the vote.
In 2024, he stormed to office with 42.31 per cent of the vote, such is the discord in the country as a result of the harsh neoliberal austerity imposed on it by the IMF with compliance of the established political class in Sri Lanka.
The interesting thing from my perspective about his election is his position on the IMF and the new governments likely rejection of the current austerity plans that the IMF has imposed.
He has indicated that the new government will increase fiscal outlays and reduce taxes and spend more on health care and education, all targets of IMF-austerity programs.
If you study the IMF program in detail – HERE – it will not escape you that it punished the poor and low-income workers and benefits the rich and high income Sri Lankans.
Real wages for the workers have been cut in half almost while cost-of-living increases have been damaging (energy price subsidies are gone, for example).
Meanwhile the large hedge funds pressured the former government to restructure the outstanding debt to satisfy the IMF’s so-called Debt Sustainability Analysis – which I might write about more specifically in the future.
For Sri Lanka the targets set are unbelievable but the short-term burden on the nation of trying to meet the targets will be particularly punishing.
It is estimated that (Source):
the retirement funds of working people, such as garment workers and tea pluckers, over the next 16 years are going to lose half their value. Meanwhile, wealthy investors in the financial sector have got away scot-free, with their investments untouched.
The new government is now up against the financial elites who are served by the IMF.
Under the IMF restructuring program, the new government must devote around 30 per cent of annual GDP to servicing the debt – which will just represent a bonanza to the major international financiers.
It is time that these anti-austerity forces combined to reject the IMF way and find a new way of operating.
Defaulting on the outstanding debt is the first part of the solution.
The on-going human genocide in the Middle East
In Australia, the political class is feigning their shock that some protesters last week had the temerity to carry Hezbollah colours during a protest march supporting the innocent people of Gaza and Lebanon.
Both the Government and the Opposition are trying to politicise this for their own gains demanding that police arrest the flag bearers for supporting a terrorist organisation.
I recall back to the Vietnam War protest years where people (including myself) were accused of being traitors for supporting the National Liberation Front against the US-led invasion.
I always find this asymmetric treatment of terrorism terribly convenient for politicians.
But these characters always come across as disgusting hypocrites in their support for Israel, which is now engaged, in my view, in the worst organised terror acts on innocent civilians since the Holocaust.
The irony of that should not be lost.
In the current conflict, it is clear that the Israeli government, its military forces, and the Zionist movement that gives it succour all around the world are terrorists.
According to the Australian government’s official definition of – International Terrorism – which is based on the UN Committee on Terrorism, requires an “act or threat that is intended to”:
– advance a political, ideological or religious cause; and
– coerce or intimidate an Australian or foreign government or the public (or section of the public), including foreign public.
The conduct falls within the definition if it
– causes serious physical harm to a person or serious damage to property;
– causes death or endangers a persons life;
– creates a serious risk to the health and safety to the public (or section of the public), or
– seriously interferes, disrupts or destroys:
— an electronic information, telecommunications or financial system; or
— an electronic system used for the delivery of essential government services, used for or by an essential public utility, or transport system
In other countries, the definition includes “an intention to advance a political cause”.
The FBI definition of – Terrorism – is:
International terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups who are inspired by, or associated with, designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).
Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature
The UN – Definition of Terrorism – is:
Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.
General criteria include:
– The use of violence or of the threat of violence in the pursuit of political objectives
– Acts committed by non-state actors (or by undercover personnel serving on the behalf of their respective governments)
– The intentional use of lethal force against civilians, and/or destructive force against civilian areas, buildings or infrastructure.
– Acts reaching more than the immediate target victims and also directed at targets consisting of a larger spectrum of society
– Both mala prohibita (i.e., crime that is made illegal by legislation) and mala in se (i.e., crime that is inherently immoral or wrong)
Thus while the definition varies across countries and according to different individual assessors, by any stretch of the plethora of criteria that have emerged to define terrorism, the current behaviour of the Israeli government and its defence forces constitute international terrorism.
The occupation was already declared illegal by international authorities.
And what has followed since last October is a brutal tyranny of innocent people by a bullying force that is backed and facilitated by the material and political support given to it by many Western governments including the Australian government.
It is a shocking abuse that is going on and demonstrates how the international order has failed to deliver a world that is desirable for all parties to live in.
The other astonishing aspect to all this is that Israel is probably doing the most effective thing it could to spawn further hatred and resistance among the downtrodden communities that they brutalise through occupation, illegal settlements, property confiscations, apartheid systems and violence.
I thought this Op Ed (September 29, 2024) – Israel’s assassinations can’t kill resistance – was a reasonable and balanced analysis of the situation.
And Israel has apparently forgotten that it was forced into an embarrassing retreat in 2006 the last time it tried to engage Hezbollah in open warfare.
Dealing with that force in the remote hills of Southern Lebanon is quite a different matter to slaughtering defenseless children in Gaza.
And for the many who bombard me with E-mails accusing me of being anti-Semitic for supporting the Palestinian cause over a long period – F*ck Off – I just delete your messages.
Episode 6 of our MMT Manga will be released tomorrow.
Troubles increase in the Smith Family as Ryan drowns the sorrows of his entrenched unemployment in the bottle.
Elizabeth is not impressed.
And the community is reeling as the privatised Water Company leaks human waste into the streets as a result of their decision to pursue short-term profit at the expense of maintaining the infrastructure.
Go to – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – to see what is happening.
Don’t forget – the Modern Monetary Theory: Economics for the 21st Century – Open Access MOOC
My educational arm – MMTed – is now offering the – Modern Monetary Theory: Economics for the 21st Century – Open Access MOOC – on an on-going basis.
The 4-week course is free and self-paced.
It is packed with learning resources.
My latest book – on sale now
You can purchase my latest book with Warren Mosler – Modern Monetary Theory: Bill and Warren’s Excellent Adventure (published July 2015 by Lola Books) – from a range of outlets.
But the cheapest places are:
1. Global – Lola Books – €14.00.
2. Australia – Readings – Modern Monetary Theory: Bill & Warren’s Excellent Adventure – SA29.99.
Music – Vacation
This is what I have been listening to while working this morning.
I dug this out of one of my unpacked box of records the other day and it reminded me of how great a guitar player – Mick Taylor – was before his career was dented by his experience with the Rolling Stones.
This album – Blues from Laurel Canyon – was released on Decca in 1968 after – John Mayall – abandoned the – The Bluesbreakers and decided to move to California.
It was also the last time Mick Taylor would record with John Mayall and his next stop was the Stones.
A short track but some great guitar playing.
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2024 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
Some years ago, sending exploding letters to someone was considered terrorism.
Now, putting bombs in pagers and walkie-talkies and making them explode by pushing a button is not terrorism.
Some idiot in television said it’s self-defense and all is justified by the hostages take in October, 7, almost a year ago.
Tell me this: who is talking about the hostages?
Not the Palestinians, right?
As for anti-semitism, I must say that many (if not the most) of the people who dared to talk against the genocide in Gaza are JEWS.
Just three names: the late Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders and Norman Finkelstein.
It’s very oportune to mix the Jewish people with the sionists.
Makes them look like good people and God’s people.
They’re not.
There is a recent interview by Chris Hedges with Gideon Levy that is well worth listening to (55 min).
For those unaware of Levy’s history; he has reported on the Palestinian situation for 35 years now, and in doing so has received all sorts of threats from his fellow Israeli-Jews.
Some of the most telling commentary coming out of the USA is from Dwayne Booth, who uses the cartoon format to say in but a few words and a drawing what many talking heads (mistakenly offered as experts) fail to understand.
A couple of personal favourites:
Got Him! – https://scheerpost.com/2024/09/29/got-him/
The World’s Most Dangerous Anti-Semite – https://jrmora.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-antisemite-mr-fish.jpg
Paulo Rodrigues – great list
Have you read Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People (https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2103-the-invention-of-the-jewish-people) and The Invention of the Land of Israel:
From Holy Land to Homeland (https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2277-the-invention-of-the-land-of-israel)?
https://scheerpost.com/2024/09/28/the-looming-catastrophe-in-the-middle-east-w-gideon-levy-the-chris-hedges-report/
https://scheerpost.com/category/mr-fish/
The July 4 landslide defeat of the neoliberal pro-war British Conservatives by the neoliberal pro-war Labour Party poses the question of just what the media mean when they describe the elections and political alignments throughout Europe in terms of center-right and center-left traditional parties challenged by nationalist neo-fascists.
Political differences between Europe’s centrist parties are marginal, all supporting neoliberal cutbacks in social spending in favor of rearmament, fiscal stringency and the deindustrialization that support of U.S.-NATO policy entails. The word “centrist” means not advocating any change in the economy’s neoliberalism. Hyphenated-centrist parties are committed to maintaining the pro-U.S. post-2022 status quo.
That means letting U.S. leaders control European politics via NATO and the European Commission, Europe’s counterpart to America’s Deep State. This passivity is putting its economies onto a war footing, with inflation, trade dependence on the United States and European deficits resulting from U.S.-sponsored trade and financial sanctions against Russia and China. This new status quo has shifted European trade and investment away from the Eurasia to the United States.
Voters in France, Germany and Italy are turning away from this blind alley. Every incumbent centrist party has recently lost – and their defeated leaders all had similar pro-U.S. neoliberal policies. As Steve Keen describes the centrist political game: “The Party in power runs Neoliberal policies; it loses the next election to rivals who, when they get in power, also run neoliberal policies. They then lose, and the cycle repeats.” European elections, like this November’s one in the United States, are largely a protest vote – with voters having nowhere else to go except to vote for the populist nationalist parties promising to smash this status quo. This is continental Europe’s counterpart to Britain’s Brexit vote.
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman wrote about how wholesale violence committed by a friendly state against its people is presented by government and media as maintaining “order” and “secutity”, whereas the term “terror” is reserved for the sporadic retail violence that is the inevitable reaction.
Israel has conducted a campaign of terror against the Palestinian people since 1948, with the full support of the US and its allies and the uncritical complicity of most of their media.
By contrast, in “unfriendly” regimes any action against the state is generally celebrated in the West, while oppression or violence by the state is vigorously condemned.
I am at a loss to understand how the governing party in Australia, which took a political risk in supporting the Voice to Parliament referendum in an attempt to improve prospects for indigenous people disadvantaged by our own settler colonial past, could give unqualified support for settler colonialism conducted by Israel with such ferocious brutality.
And even accepting that the Labor Party is constantly trying to be more neoliberal and more subservient to the United States than the Opposition, I cannot comprehend their failure to support any action against Netanyahu. In an ideal world he would be removed from office by unanimous sanctions against Israel until he steps down.
Always visit this site not only for the lowdown on economic matters but also the political analysis and bringing to me awareness of struggles in places I don’t know much about.
Also just bought my copy of Bill and Warren’s excellent adventures…. will read it first to keep my MMT up to scratch and then maybe gift it to someone it might influence….
Israel doing as it pleases with weapons and diplomatic protection from the US because of the US lobby of class donors who are pro Israel.
Supported also by Australia who repeats the US narrative along with the MSM who never question, unlike independent media.
I turned away from MSM media a very long time ago, because of its clear support of a narrative that is deluded propaganda.
The discourse is exactly what the government wants, as presented by MSM who are now on a very short lease as the freedom of the press continues to shrink.
Mr Assange is definitely a case in point.
The mass murder of a civilisation of people for a Greater Israel for Jews, is the same as what Palestinians wanted but are contained under occupation and clear apartheid.
But I only see one side actually committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. The other side has committed intifadas plus Oct 7, which are by no means any sort of existential threat to Israel who is also backed by the US.
The west elites are deluded imho.
I am quite disturbed as the likes of the current western elites, like the Victoria Nulands, who are taking us all to the point of being incinerated.
I have to ask why? I see no logical answer except private capitalist greed.
What value is a human life today when the UN is now toothless in relation to ICJ rulings, due to US undermining by sanctioning prosecutors.
I dont like the current geopolitical path the US is steering us (the world).
Israel has banned international journalists from reporting in Gaza and google Earth have not updated satellite images of the territory for over a year, so the true scale of the horrors and ponerology perpetrated by the Zionists has been largely hidden from scrutiny. Until now. Whilst many Israeli’s are complicit in this genocide, this documentary also identifies other nationalities – US, UK, French – all equally culpable, which supports the claim that Zionism, is a curse on humanity and must be proscribed as a terrorist entity.
GAZA: https://youtu.be/kPE6vbKix6A?si=kDMY-CAeAewSm8TF
An addendum to the previous post. Just published today – the role of the mainstream media in obscuring the genocide and manipulating content to compliment the Israeli version of events.
https://youtu.be/UAmk4efA2t0?si=IJeWlUW7lwHcf26Q
The documentary that Mark Russell linked contains a lot of footage taken by Israeli soldiers which they posted to their own social media accounts. Damning evidence of war crimes.
Israel has always faced threats from outside but the behaviour of its military will now see threats from inside. When those soldiers return to being civilians they will be bringing a lot of baggage with them.
I would urge everyone to watch the two documentaries above. Whatever your beliefs, politics or nationality – there are times when events occur that undermine our perspective and that will certainly be the case for many. But we have been given a unique insight into the mindset of the Israeli/Zionist people who have fortunately filmed and recorded, with impunity, all their atrocities and celebrations.
This pernicious ideology permeates throughout Israeli society, especially with the militant settler movement. Danielle Weiss features in this short documentary. She was a regular spokesperson on BBC News for the first few months of the war and was rarely challenged.
https://youtu.be/mF6B5UVupyA?si=yaeirJy3uHFybl7S
One year on, the only question is how it ends.
If justice were properly applied there would be a return to the 1948 borders and repatriation to the homes stolen from the Palestinians by the settlers – with generous compensation. Israel and the USA would fund the rebuilding of Gaza and the other damage they have inflicted on the infrastructure in Palestine and Lebanon. Zionism would be proscribed and banned. Israel would be demilitarised and prohibited to hold any weapons other than small arms issued to the Police. There would be one state – call it the Holy Land – secular with Jews, Christians and Muslims living together. Those like Ms Weiss should be offered free passage to the USA where perhaps they can be apportioned part of a relatively uninhabited State – Oregon, Idaho & etc – to start a new homeland. But who would really want them as neighbours?