May 26, 2022

• With the economy slowing – for a variety of reasons – financial investment decision makers are finding there are few other options than the investment in climate destroying energy projects since these projects are the only ones making money.

• Vanguard, the second largest asset holder, says it's job is to maximize returns for clients, not save the planet for those client's future.

  • $8.1tn
  • more than 30mn investors
  • largest investor in coal companies globally
  • No interest at all in even the Net Zero by 2050 cop-out

“Our duty is to maximise long-term total returns for clients. Climate change is a material risk but it is only one factor in an investment decision. There is already a pensions crisis and we have to make sure that climate concerns do not make that even worse,” said Buckley.

Environmental campaigners argue that none of the world’s three largest asset managers — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — have policies that will achieve absolute reductions in carbon emissions by the end of the decade.

• It isn't so much that the "environment" is an issue for these people, it is that capitalism is just not set-up to solve the climate crisis it created.
• Unfortunately, being correct on this issue is of no solace to those who already know this.

The racism that is inherent in the Monkeypox story is astounding. Monkeypox is not an African or Black disease just because the countries where it is endemic are not Western.

There has to be some push back from the left on this and other diseases out there that can be crushed out or the negative impacts reduced to nothing. Malaria, diphtheria, polio, chickenpox, water-bourne diseases, eye worm, HIV, Hep A/B, HPV. The list goes on, but we do nothing because it is not economical to save people's lives or reduce misery.

• Has a vaccine.
• Can be treated with anti-viral.
• Has a known transmission process.
• Is not confined geographically.
• Is endemic in some African countries.

On a planet where anything made sense, one of these things is not like the other. Under capitalism, it is predictably stupid to have all these things together.

Public, globally coordinated, locally produced, generic vaccines – which is once again in peril in Africa after funding was reduced during a pandemic – are the only way that we can solve this crisis.

• According to capital, China protecting its population – in the same way Western countries protected their population under similar situation – is to blame for the global slow-down.
• War in Ukraine is also to blame – although, it is harder to directly point to exactly how this is the case other than oil price speculation.

• China's growth is sitting at 2/3rds of its (internally set and) externally desired level.

• Some inflation terms that mean different things:

  • Inflation: general decline in the value of a currency in relation to all other commodities.
  • Disinflation: general decline in the rate of inflation.
  • Deflation: general decrease in inflation below 0% (that is the appreciation of the value of the currency related to other commodities).
• If anyone tries to tell you that there is a link between inflation and unemployment, point to this graph from Shaikh's work and then ask how can they be so stupid as to suggest that increasing or decreasing unemployment leads to inflation or disinflation?

Inflation rate and unemployment rate. Each point is a year: