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The Only Existential Threat To Russia Is Neoliberal Economics

August 4, 2018

The Only Existential Threat To Russia Is Neoliberal Economics

This week I was interviewed on Russian TV about the possible new anti-Russian sanctions that Washington is considering that would prohibit anyone in the entirety of the world from holding Russian government bonds. Think about this for a moment. Washington thinks that Washington has the right and the power to block sovereign countries and their citizens from investing in Russian government bonds. Here we face arrogance that has developed into insanity.

The Russian bonds are an excellent investment. Unlike US, EU, UK, and Japanese government bonds, the Russian bonds pay good interest rates, and Russia has virtually no national debt, unlike the heavily indebted governments of the US, Europe, UK, and Japan.

Moreover, the Russian ruble is protected by immense energy resources on which Europe and China are dependent. The only way the ruble can be driven down is by orchestrated short-selling by Western and Japanese central banks. These central banks can print and waste all the money that they care to. A Western central bank is even less accountable than a Western government.

The Soviet government had more sense than to aleow the ruble to be traded on markets that the West can manipulate, but the Russian government, brainwashed as it is by American neoliberal economists, lacks the understanding of the Soviet government.

All of Washington’s economic threats to Russia are designed to force the Russian government into accepting vassal status, like all of Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan. The threats can only work because the Russian government and the Economics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have ignored the lessons that Michael Hudson and I taught them. See:

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/08/10/russias-weakness-is-its-economic-policy-paul-craig-roberts-and-michael-hudson/

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/09/28/can-russia-learn-from-brazils-fate-paul-craig-roberts-and-michael-hudson/

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/02/08/privatization-is-the-atlanticist-strategy-to-attack-russia-paul-craig-roberts-and-michael-hudson/

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Home Economicus: An Endangered Species

February 12, 2015

Home Economicus: An Endangered Species

The modern world is full of myths. I’m not talking about Greek legends or medieval lore, but the shared stories and constructs underpinning our beliefs and behaviours. We need myths—they help us understand and feel in control of our world—but when they blind us to reality, they can serve as obstacles to change. As long as I accept, for example, that being richer and thinner will make me happy, I’m not actually likely to find happiness. We may not believe in the pantheon of ancient gods, but many of us still believe in mythical creatures that clearly don’t exist, like the infallible celebrity or the unimpeachable leader.

Homo economicus, the mythical creature of neoliberal economics, is one such persistent presence, despite a thorough debunking by commentators and academics. This bizarre specimen is supremely autonomous, free of social bonds, lacking any emotion and interested only in what will make himself [sic] happy. Homo economicusacts within (and only within) a market full of others like himself, each with equal knowledge and resources, each seeking to maximise financial gain.

Both the actor and the market are completely fictional, yet they still serve as a model for much economic thinking. Behavioural economics, beloved of the current government and a heavy influence on our financial regulators, purports to demonstrate how humans are in reality subject to bias and error. Yet by depicting any deviations from rationality as a form of weakness or susceptibility, the discipline betrays its assumption that calculating self-interest is the ideal.

 

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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