A concise explanation of how the US exports inflation to developing countries.

“The… thing about inflation in developing countries … it’s usually the case of external inflation that’s imported when you import food or fuel or whatever resources a particular country has. So, when you look at most developing countries, you realize that the reason they lose their monetary sovereignty is because they have structural economic issues, structural trade deficit issues. And when you zoom in, in most countries, those tend to be two reasons. One is a deficit related to food imports that just don’t have enough food production domestically.

So, they have to import food on a systemic basis. And number two, it’s energy or fuel trade deficit related.

So, they have to import fuel to fuel their economy. And those are things that, no matter what you do as a central bank, you’re not going to eliminate those structural issues unless, as a country, you start investing in renewable energy so that you don’t have to import fossil fuels anymore. Or you invest in a sustainable agricultural policy so that you have food self-sufficiency.

So, if you have that hole in your trade deficit every single year, if you don’t borrow in a foreign currency, as a developing country, if you don’t borrow in dollars or euros, what’s going to happen is that your exchange rate is going to depreciate. And, then, the next morning or the next month, when you as a country try to import food or fuel, you’re going to import it at a higher price. So, you’ll be importing inflation into your domestic economy.”

Fadhel Kaboub

All liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude, and the emergence of this consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions which, to a great extent, have become the individual’s own.

— Herbert Marcuse

The conditions, and the balance of leaders and followers that are necessary for successful and sustained revolution has been debated for years.

So I think it’s humorous that this quotation came from a book entitled “Everything is Obvious.”

😎

You’re absolutely right…the House, full of the ultra-rich living off of rents and corporate bribes in exchange for legal favors certainly isn’t representative of the people who labor for their money.

I meant to say the House is the only body directly elected by the people, rather than appointed by another body supposedly representing the people (Senate, President, Sup Court).

And because of this sentiment, we have an elite class of managers that constantly enact polities that roll up our rights, shift wealth out of our hands into theirs, privatize public resources to sell back to us, sacrifice social services for more lucrative exploits, and create ever more Orwellian surveillance policies sold to us as “protection.”

Maybe the public are dumb and don’t know what’s best. Or maybe it is inevitable that a class of managers will abuse the power they have over the people. I am of the masses, and I think I know what is best for me better than an in-elected oligarch.

We feel that we are losing our rights, but many of our “rights” were only ever imaginary.

The purpose of the Constitution was to shift power back away from the people…a democracy enacted by the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution reestablished a representative government over a republican government, wherein the only branch of government truly representative of the people would be the House of Representatives.

“…to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.”

Our government was never intended to be a democracy representing all people. It was intended to protect a certain elite class.

https://www.commentary.org/articles/sohrab-ahmari/terrible-american-turn-toward-illiberalism/

“The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge the wants or feelings of the day-laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe, — when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.”

Attributed to either James Madison or to John Adam’s, depending on the source. Likely 1787

“Be a man of vision, Palamedes. A lookout and a statesman who perceives the whole of the politics that forms the needs of our people.”

-The Lost Muse of Justice

Programmatically, both the Republican and Democratic parties exist to advance corporate economic and political interests.

When we use terms incorrectly to elicit feelings in the reader, we diminish the value of our communication

Pursuit of ideologies leads to ignorance. Pursue understanding.

People lose their ability to describe oppressive relationships with power when they use terms like “socialist,” “fascist,” “communist.” These terms have been hijacked and reinterpreted for us so that the original meanings are misunderstood by most. To use such a term interchangeably for “bad” belittles the original meaning and demotes whatever message you’re trying to share.

I see these terms used incorrectly all the time.

Nationalism and patriotism, not ideology, suffice to control the American population and gain its support. Patriotism requires no collective self-examination. It needs only a spontaneous response to whatever threat is sold to the population

When did the people delegate “most powerful force in the world” to the government?

Our founding fathers and their documents did not delegate power over our lives, over the lives of people in Syria and Palestine and Lebanon, or over the time and resources of people in Venezuela, Nigeria, Turkey, etc.

Such power is antagonistic to the concept of democracy.

As long as Bitcoin uses the RIPEMD160 hash function, there are 2^160 Bitcoin addresses.

That number is:

1,461,501,637,330,902,918,203,684,832,716,283,019,655,932,542,976

There is no natural harmony among self interests, especially when a small part of the population has access to unlimited 0% loans, while the majority of the population is relegated to 17% interest contracts on credit cards.

I notice that all teaching about Adam Smith invokes a mythical yearning that unrestrained competition will somehow lead to a world of morally relevant economic interactions, rather than to a world of unrestrained monopolies growing ever larger.

Smith’s “invisible hand” was his imagination, and was only used once or twice within his works. His clearer message was about the dangers of monopolies.