xiaohongshu [none/use name]

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Joined 2 months ago
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Cake day: August 1st, 2024

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  • Slightly unrelated, does anyone knows why podcasts like this never bothered to release their transcripts?

    These episodes were scripted after all, so it’s not like they have to do extra work to get it down in written form. I’d even pay good money to purchase them but this has never been an option.

    As someone who much prefer reading than listening because it’s so easy to miss small details when your attention wanders off for just a few seconds, it’s kinda frustrating. The same with the Revolutions podcast - so much details are packed into every episode and it would have been so much better to just being able to read them.




  • Follow up to the IMF mission to Russia:

    IMF scraps its mission to Moscow, Russian media reports

    The IMF has indefinitely postponed its first official visit to Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine following criticism from several of Kyiv’s European allies, according to Russian state media.

    The IMF’s leadership scrapped plans to begin a review of the Russian economy this week ahead of a trip to Moscow later this month because the mission was “technically not ready”, Alexsei Mozhin, the IMF’s executive director for Russia, told Tass news wire on Wednesday.

    Mozhin said the last-minute decision was taken on Monday, the day preliminary talks were supposed to start. He suggested the U-turn had been prompted by objections from European countries to the IMF’s renewal of its ties with Russia.

    In a letter seen by the Financial Times and signed by Poland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and non-EU members Iceland and Norway, ministers spoke about the “reputational risk” to the IMF and implied that such a visit would “diminish donors’ efforts and actions in supporting Ukraine through IMF initiatives”.

    The visit “would be a sign for the international community that the IMF is ready to go back to business as usual, taking a step towards normalising relations with the aggressor”.

    The European libs have prevented the reconciliation between Washington and Moscow lol. What a twist.

    Once again the Russian libs get betrayed by their European “allies” who they love so much but that one-sided affection has never been reciprocated.


  • Do you seriously think that the consequences of Khrushchev’s reversal of Stalin’s policies would manifest immediately and not take years to culminate?

    Stalin had built a strong industrialized economy that was growing exponentially and on the rise by the 1950s. It would take 30 years after Khrushchev’s policies for the USSR economy to stagnate, and eventually fail.

    For example, when the USSR defaulted under Khrushchev in 1957, the seeds that would lead to “empty shelves under communism” stereotype had already been sown, as both industrial and agricultural production were brought to stagnation. Many policies under Stalin that made the USSR the most rapid growing economy in history were reversed en masse by Khrushchev.

    Reagan and Clinton’s financial deregulations culminated in the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007 and the global financial crisis in 2008 - 7 years after Clinton had stepped down as president.








  • It depends on how fast America can rebuild its own supply chain. If the Global South can form their own alternative economic bloc that decouples from the dollar, then there is very little reason to export to America.

    When countries export stuff to places like China, they can actually get real, tangible things in return. When you export to America, you get junk papers in return. For now these junk papers are highly desirable, because you need them to purchase energy/food and pay back your debt, but would you still want to obtain junk papers when you no longer need them?

    With so much of US consumer products dependent on foreign imports (seriously, name a Made in America product at your home, and even then, how many of its components are actually locally made), it will ultimately depend on what America can offer to the world that is attractive enough that other countries would want to sell their stuff to you. Hospitals, schools etc. still need supplies, many of which America no longer make. Maybe China can ship some humanitarian aid to America or something.

    I think America can still sell fossil fuel and food, but those are fairly low value added goods and not nearly enough to sustain a high income economy. The country isn’t going to starve or anything, but it will no longer be able to get cheap consumer products like it used to.