A new variant, magic coins, and libertarian collapse …
In poorer African nations, the cascade of travel closures triggered a wave of resentment among people who believed that the continent was yet again bearing the brunt of panicked policies from Western countries, which had failed to deliver vaccines and the resources needed to administer them.
Richer countries, having already hoarded vaccines for much of 2021, were now penalizing parts of the world that they had starved of shots in the first place, scientists said.
“Told you so,” said Francois Venter, a researcher at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, referring to warnings from African researchers that delaying vaccinations there risked the emergence of new variants. “It feels like these rich countries have learned absolutely nothing in terms of support.”
As Omicron Variant Circles the Globe, African Nations Face Blame and Bans – NY Times
By Gregg Wall (11-27-2021)
Thanksgiving week 2021 started off brightly enough, filled with hope and some hints at a return to normality, but try as the media might, it just never felt right. And then the reports hit, w/ holiday air travel in the United States back in full swing, news of a new COVID variant coming out of southern African nations. The new, Omicron, appears - at least as of this writing, this is all still under review by scientists – more easily transferable and there are ominous warnings that Omicron, maybe, better able to evade vaccine defenses. All of this should come as no surprise, as the global vaccine rollout was handed off to the private sector – Big Pharma – which has an inherent conflict of interest, or moral hazard, built into its business model. To wit, crush the virus with vaccine, globally, and all those billions in taxpayer funded profits are likely to vanish overnight or certainly be crimped.
And so here we are, the libertarian economic model, and market rule, failing humanity once again, as a new -- potentially, far more lethal -- variant is shutting down parts of the globe and threatens economic recovery. Politicians are already reacting. Biden, not for the first time, is calling for the release of vaccine formulas and the suspension of IP rights. Such a move will undoubtedly be met with howls of derision & scorn by Big Pharma utilities, which have badly botched the pandemic response (largely, with taxpayer funded vaccine formulas & technology). Politicians, particularly in the US Senate, that profit from taxpayer monies laundered through private corporations (with campaign contributions, stock buybacks and dividends) will undoubtedly kick up a fuss. As once again, so-called moderate senators will place greed, monopolies, rigged markets, and their own personal interests ahead of the interests of humanity. Even if humanity dodges a bullet with this new variant, what of the next?
Lost in all the shuffle this week was a hidden piece coming out of Bloomberg… in which Mark Carney offers the following insight on the Net-Zero paradigm. A paradigm politicians frequently love to cite as the great savior of the other planetary crisis facing humanity, Big Oil & the climate catastrophe.
The use of carbon offsets should be a last resort to cover only a small fraction of emissions if the world is to achieve meaningful decarbonization, according to Mark Carney, the co-chair of the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
If I read Mr. Carney correctly, it appears that Net-Zero, and carbon credits, will not save the planet. Nor will this ‘market-based solution’ provide the answers for a planet under threat by atmospheric floods, drought, famine, & fire (aka the four horsemen of the apocalypse), as a direct result of fossil fuels emissions.
So much for billionaire rule, laissez faire, and the infallibility of markets… the trifecta is literally slitting humanity’s collective throat.
Of course, it’s about to get interesting in the Senate again… the place where all good deeds and better legislation goes to die. Eleven months into President Biden’s term, his Build Back Better agenda is coming up for a vote… just as the debt ceiling limit is all set to rear its ugly head, yet again. You know, the favorite tool of far-right politicians -- who shower trillions in welfare upon corporate donors, the MIC, Wall St., and their own stock portfolios -- but then turn around and use the same debt limit as a well-timed excuse to cut aid and eliminate proposals of long overdue assistance to the American people.
Over the last couple of months there’s been much talk about magic coins that could be used to thwart the debt ceiling. I love a good gimmick & to wonk-out as much as the next person, and even highly educated economists seem up for the coin. Nearly everybody in the U.S. is tired of the national debt (debt accumulated bailing out Wall St, repeatedly, financing endless war, funding tax cuts for the rich and, seemingly, a bottomless welfare state for billionaires) being used as an excuse to inflict endless austerity upon the American people.
But does the magic coin really resolve the national debt itself? What happened to a good old-fashioned debt haircut or write down? The nation’s inability to take on our ever-soaring national debt is just another in a long line of failures that America’s two-party system seems unable, or unwilling, to address. With the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet swollen with Treasuries, it seems to be in a fantastic position to engage in gradual, methodical debt forgiveness. The FED could even move the forgiven Treasuries off balance sheet and place them in a bad bank or a SPV (special purpose vehicle), so as not to take the hit. Excess money supply contorting bond and equity markets, evaporated? Problem solved.
(As for inflation… almost all of it is being generated by the end result of the failed libertarian model: cartels & monopolies with too much pricing power, and a TBTF Wall Street.)
If such a course of action were followed, so much for GOP and far-right Dem arguments about the national debt (which, as long as faith in the dollar to pay tomorrow’s bills is retained, are moot)… public debt forgiveness, by the FED, eliminates nearly all arguments about the Build Back Better bill, presently before the Senate. Last I checked, the badly abused US dollar is on a tear, as a preferred safe-haven asset.
What such a move does not do, most unfortunately, is address the abject corruption & structural defects that plague the US economy and government.
One step at a time.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment