Tuesday 26, April 2022

I have recently read Keynes’ magnum opus, the General Theory. In it he repeatedly mentions the importance of taking action to

I, like Hunt, am not a believer in the Phillips Curve, and I think this would be far better than trying to find infrastructure projects, or build windmills over the country.

Macron vs Le Pen: the plutocracy vs the precariat

I think the best commentary on the French election that I read was by Yanis Varoufakis in Project Syndicate

But the precariat expanded. Many voters saw their prospects diminish as a direct consequence of policies which seemed to them to constitute an outright class war waged against them personally: tax giveaways to the already ultra-rich, deregulation of layoffs, a regressive carbon tax, and a determination to raise the pension age significantly in a country where poor men’s life expectancy is 13 years lower than that of well-off men. This reality became the foundation of the mutually reinforcing feedback between Macron’s and Le Pen’s political oeuvre. While there is no whiff of collusion – they are clearly allergic to each other – the dynamic between them forms a political cul-de-sac that facilitates a new type of capital accumulation for a new ruling class. Macron ultimately serves that class, and its reign is strengthened when someone like Le Pen is the official opposition.

The plutocracy controls the mainstream media; social media is controlled by a handful of billionaires. It’s not surprising that commentary like Varoufakis’s does not make it to the mass media.

Maybe at some point, some genuine representative of the precariat, or at least a leader of one of the mainstream socialist parties will appear who actually cares about their lot. Until then, we’ll get technocrats or demagogues. How sad.

Wrap

There has been continued risk-off behaviour. Equity markets are down heavily: NDX by 4%, SPX 2.8%. No sector was spared. Bonds are up, as is the dollar. Commodities are down.

It feels like we are nearing the point where the Fed loses its nerve.

The London Laundromat

The FT has produced a nice 20 minute feature about The London Laundromat. It’s nicely done, and features interviews with a number of their journalists, including Tom Burgis, who wrote Kleptopia.

It shows how successive UK governments have been extremely reluctant to kill the golden goose that has brought so much money into London, especially to its banking, accounting, legal and real estate professionals. It argues that the institutions of government themselves have been corrupted by the presence of so many oligarchs.

Images

Agnes Martin pic.twitter.com/0LP1u9hihK

— Daniel Brami (@Daniel_Red_Eire) April 26, 2022