alanjjohnstone
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Still the bubble gets bigger and bigger
Equity funds have attracted more than half a trillion dollars in the past five months, exceeding inflows recorded over the previous 12 years…A record $576 billion has flown into equity funds since November — more than the $452 billion seen in the last 12 years combined, all thanks to ultra-easy monetary policies and unprecedented stimulus…valuations are at the highest since the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s
“You should definitely be worried about valuations and all the more so when people start justifying extremely high valuations,” said Fahad Kamal, chief investment officer at Kleinwort Hambros.
Some of those worries have seeped in, with investors loading $120 billion-plus into cash funds in the last three weeks. But equity asset allocations are still at a record…
I remember having contact with someone who had studied on the ground the modern CNT-unions in Spain. i forget his name but he did publish a small pamphlet, and he pointed out that despite having a recall rule in the constitution, it was never ever enacted as far as he knew.
The reasons he believed were very human and personal, simply a strong reluctance to seek to challenge a sincere official for incompetence.
It would be different if someone was openly corrupt but we can surmise that such grounds wouldn’t exist in socialism.
Haven’t we also had similar situations within the Party, not wishing to go through a process of dismissing a fellow-member from any duty because of his or her mistakes or inability to perform up to an expected standard. Because we recognise we all all fallible, the first recourse is an informal one and that usually works.
The UK has a very limited recall rule regards MPs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_of_MPs_Act_2015‘Bright Green Lies’
Much like ‘Planet of the Humans’, it questions the green answers being proposed by capitalism
If it is as you say, then i see no point in you wasting your time or an longer sharing your insight with unappreciative members of the SPGB.
After all these years and perhaps thousands of posts it has been a failed venture for yourself so shouldn’t you be cutting your losses and seeking out a more receptive audience, and continue your search for that ever elusive ‘democratic socialist party’ which you have so far not succeeded in tracking down.
All i can say, is that Marx in his lifetime actively joined in organisations which did not fully accord with all his ideas and expectations. We can only assume that he valued their contributions to the emancipation of the working class more than he did the philosophical views from his youth. It appears you take a very difference position from Marx.
Kshama Sawant has not totally been replaced in the media by the Squad. She is still prominent in Seattle’s left and now subject to a recall challenge.
Grassroots Organizers Mobilize to Defend Kshama Sawant Against Recall Effort
Chomsky praises Biden
“I must say that what Biden has done so far is a rather pleasant surprise to me. It’s better than I would have expected. He’s pretty sharply criticized on the left for flaws and omissions in the domestic policy; these criticisms are, in my view, correct but a little bit unfair. There’s only so much you can do when half of the Senate is — no matter what you say — is going to be 100% against it.”
Then he goes on to recommend creating cooperatives as a policy.
Nevertheless, he does evoke Marx in some of his responses in the interview
https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-politics/noam-chomsky-david-barsamian-mole
If ever global temperatures reach 4C above pre-industrial levels, UK scientists say a third of the vast floating platforms of ice surrounding Antarctica could be at risk of collapsing and releasing “unimaginable amounts” of water into the sea.
The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggest that 4C warming could leave 34% of the area of all the Antarctic ice shelves – amounting to about half a million square kilometres – at the risk of collapse.
The Road to Nowhere
Six truckloads of troops were deployed to quell protesters in the town of Taze. When the protesters fought back with handmade guns, knives and firebombs, five more truckloads of troops were brought in. At least 12 people were killed in a similar clash between troops and protesters on Wednesday,
It may be heroic but it is futile resistance
My questions were as you rightly quoted
“…can you suggest any political party, contemporary or historical, that has been more democratic than ourselves? Likewise, can you provide an example of a socialist party exemplifying socialism more than we do?”
Your answers did not address them, LBird.
The language of diplomacy become increasingly bellicose
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/8/us-warns-china-over-moves-on-philippines-taiwan
“An armed attack against the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will trigger our obligations under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters
Price voiced “concern” about Chinese moves, “The United States maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardise the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan.”
He was using language from the Taiwan Relations Act, under which the US is obliged to provide the island with the means to defend itself against mainland China.
“The US move to send warship to sail through the Taiwan Strait and hype it publicly is an old trick to ‘manipulate’ the cross-Strait situation,” Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui, the spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, said in a statement. “China is firmly opposed to that,” he said.
I know you’d rather deal with ALB and Robbo since they are at a level that you feel justifies your learning
Again in case you missed my post, could you answer the simple direct questions i posed.
The coup comes to London
It is a complex issue with contending viewpoints to debate and i think such policy discussions will feature prominently within a socialist society where all the options will be on the table and as you point out, without the constraints of the exchange economy limiting the answers imposed upon the participants. It is a global question and one that is all about horses for courses, what is fitting and appropriate to particular regions.
Walmart’s field to fork via scanning bar-codes certainly has much in its favour in determining the quantity and choices of food and where we distribute it but not necessarily the methods we use to produce it.
I cannot see how “agroecology can help cut 75% of food systems’ GHG emissions” – not unless you murder all the cows.
If you go to the Marxist Animalism thread you will find plenty of hotly debated posts on flexitarian V. Meat-eating V. plant-based diets
The author calls it a dystopian farming future but some elements i believe would be beneficial to a planned socialist food strategy.
Two birds with one stone
Researchers have come up with a system which uses the radioactive decay heat produced by spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors to heat water.
https://www.dw.com/en/czech-researchers-develop-revolutionary-nuclear-heating-plant/a-57072924
