Geopolitical Economy Report

Economist Michael Hudson joins Ben Norton to discuss the collapse of four US banks in two months, giant JP Morgan Chase taking over First Republic Bank, and how regulators - and the government itself - are in bed with the bankers. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ImjdVxd09fo Transcript here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/05/first-republic-bank-crisis-michael-hudson

Beijing-based scholar Roland Boer discusses China's economic model, debunking misconceptions and exploring Deng Xiaoping's leadership. Topics include the incorporation of market mechanisms, the automobile industry's growth, addressing poverty, the dialectical relationship between the collective and the individual, and challenges in China's economic system.

The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, nearly 40% of the global total, 10 times more than Russia ($86.4 billion), and three times more than China ($292 billion). The US military budget is larger than the next 10 biggest spenders combined. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IvI58EwlwwE

The EU sanctioned Russia and boycotted its oil, yet is still buying it indirectly from India, at a higher price. This is fueling both de-dollarization and inflation in the Eurozone, where workers' real wages dropped 6.5% from 2020 to 2022. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yuy6UvRbjNU Sources and more information here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/30/europe-russia-oil-india-wages

Economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss de-dollarization, the global drive to drop the US dollar, and the transition away from financialized neoliberalism toward a new economic system. VIDEO (with slides): https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Jxl4LRpIpw Transcript here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/29/de-dollarization-neoliberalism-radhika-desai-michael-hudson This is their program Geopolitical Economy Hour. Check out other episodes here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP

As the war drags on, Ukraine is selling off state assets in a big privatization spree. US fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Halliburton are in discussions to take over the country's energy industry. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LXXk0e-nbvg Sources and more information here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/28/us-corporations-ukraine-oil-gas Zelensky is literally selling Ukraine to US corporations on Wall Street: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/09/09/zelensky-selling-ukraine-wall-street West prepares to plunder post-war Ukraine with neoliberal shock therapy: privatization, deregulation, slashing worker protections: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/07/28/west-neoliberal-recovery-conference

Radhika Desai, political economist, explores capitalism's inherent contradictions in a discussion of crisis of overproduction, falling rate of profit, monopolies, financialization, and the difference between classical political economy and neoclassical economics.

Facebook censored a report by the world's most famous investigative journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh, on the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline between Russia and Germany. Facebook (a US government contractor) instead forces users to read a website funded and partially owned by NATO member Norway. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NXGUTcHgI8g Links to all sources here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/24/facebook-censor-seymour-hersh-nord-stream/ More information about the Nord Stream sabotage here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/08/us-nord-stream-pipelines-seymour-hersh

"The dollar suffered a stunning collapse in 2022 in its market share as a reserve currency, presumably due to [the US government's] muscular use of sanctions", warn prominent financial analysts, as countries in the Global South create economic alternatives in an increasingly multipolar world. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HnUpKal9A0 BRICS Bank de-dollarizing, promises 30% of loans in local currencies, new chief Dilma Rousseff says: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/15/brics-bank-dollar-local-currencies-dilma Countries worldwide are dropping the US dollar: De-dollarization in China, Russia, Brazil, ASEAN: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/dedollarization-china-russia-brazil-asean

The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, gave a speech acknowledging "the tectonic plates of geopolitics are shifting faster" and "we may see the world becoming more multipolar", with the crisis of imperialism, decline of dollar hegemony, and rise of China. Ben Norton is joined by geopolitical economist Radhika Desai to discuss the massive changes happening in this increasingly multipolar world. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0cQak6RWT6o Check out Radhika's show with Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy Hour: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP France’s Macron opposes US cold war on China, wants independent Europe – but is it just rhetoric?: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/11/france-macron-us-china-independent-europe