by Francis Lee for the Saker blog It is an open question as to why Putin and the Russian government tolerated the 2014 coup which was blatantly funded and organized by internal and external actors followed by the war in the Donbass. The coup was bought and paid for by the usual suspects – The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) the ubiquitous Mr. Soros (The Open Society Foundation – OSF)
By Francis Lee for the Saker blog During the Second World War in Europe, particularly in the East, special corps of mobile German extermination units known as “Einsatzgruppen” (literally “operational groups”) were recorded has having exterminated well over one million civilians, primarily in mass shootings in the greater Soviet Union and also included the Baltics, Romania, and Poland. Whenever Nazi Germany’s army marched East it immediately occupied and ethnically cleansed
by Francis Lee for the Saker blog ‘’You can’t always get what you want.’’ Courtesy of the Rolling Stones This aptly sums up the Eurozone/East-Asian/US relationship: In short US hegemony. Suffice it to say that – of all people, Leon Trotsky writing in, (War – In the International 1933) – opined … ‘’That prior to WW2 the US was Europe’s debtor but now Europe was relegated to the background. The
By Francis Lee for the Saker blog Part I Victor Yanukovich was elected President of the Ukraine in 2010 narrowly defeating Yulia Timoshenko with 49% of votes cast to Timoshenko’s 45%. The Ukrainian Presidential term of office lasts for five years. Yanukovich’s party, the Party of the Regions, together with its coalition partner, the Communist party of the Ukraine, also had a majority in the Ukrainian Parliament, with Mykola Azarov
by Francis Lee for the Saker blog As the textbooks would have define it Capitalism should be understood as being essentially a dynamic force, constantly growing and mutating, and it takes no prisoners moreover. It is a social system in which individuals are free to own the means of production, property, and maximize profits and which resource allocation is determined by the price system. Well, that’s the theory in its
by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Contemporary politics consists of the usual timeless formula of Machiavelli – namely: rule by force and fraud – but now with the current emphasis being on fraud, writes Francis Lee. ‘’Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, their inhabitants driven out into the countryside, their cattle machine gunned, their huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.’’ (Politics and the
By Francis Lee for the Saker blog ‘’The best-known definition of financialization is that it involves the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in the operation of domestic and international economies.’’ (1) In this dungeon – All that glitters is gold. Bank of England Gold Vault The massive shift in the global system of industry and finance which had been based upon the Bretton
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog When everybody talks of new eras – blissfully unaware of the fact that soon he will be talking of the hopeless failure of capitalism – an increasing volume of business is being done on the assumption that things will continue to boom. A superstructure of such transactions rises above what is substantially sound and comes down with a crash as soon as, under
by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog The customary argument that ‘free-trade’ promotes global growth will, given an appropriate policy mixture of specialisation and comparative advantage, result in a rise in the maximisation of growth in particular and trade in general. Well, this is the conventional wisdom that is usually trotted out in the textbooks and university lecture halls. Moreover, governments across the board continue to be heavily engaged, either
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Inflation Tax: The Plan to Deal With the Debt – By Peter Comley – pp.209 – July 2013 Reviewed by Francis Lee Inflation presupposes money. Money has evolved as an unplanned social institution during a period of perhaps 2500 (some would say 5000) years. Still, the worst excesses of inflation have occurred during the 20th century. The prime cause of inflation has been
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog. Here is a typical political offering from the British centre-left. As follows: ‘’Putin’s war on Ukraine has led to thousands of deaths, upended the world order, and intensified the global energy crisis. At home in Britain, it has led to an outpouring of support for Ukrainian refugees – if not for black and brown people fleeing war and persecution – and provided cover
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog I wrote this particular piece in 2014/15 just after the February 2014 coup. As it turned out the coup has evolved into a greater political and strategic military conflict – orchestrated by outside forces, the western NATO bloc, and carried out by internal neo-nazi forces in the west of the Ukraine. These far-right factions have changed their names and a leadership which rotates
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog One of the unstated and extant features of the contemporary age has been the demise of the Westphalian Treaty. This arrangement had in times past regulated the relationship and clashes of interest among the great powers. We should remind ourselves that the key precepts of the system were preceded by the carnage of the 30 years’ war in Europe circa 1618-1648, and eventually
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Seven Roads to Moscow is an intriguing book written by that strange animal, a British soldier intellectual. Lieutenant-Colonel W.G.F.Jackson MC, BA, R.E. Instructor, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, 1950-53 I read this book when I was only 17 and at the time it made a great impression on me. The stories of the seven invasions of Russia have now passed into history. In order
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog It is interesting to note how the collective west has reacted to the present and ongoing events in Eastern Europe – namely, in Russia and Ukraine. As I understand it Russia has concerns about its own security and NATO’s inexorable push toward the Russian frontier. Moreover, there has been a positioning of missile systems, nuclear and otherwise, right smack on the borders of
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Readers should bear in mind that I wrote the following below in 2008-09 when the global economy was in its recovery stage; a stage of convalescence after the fever of the 2007/08 boom-bust economic phenomenon. Suffice it to say that the much vaunted ‘recovery’ was to run its course but eventually ran into phase 2 of an all-together more comprehensive debacle which started
by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog There was always going to be a fundamental incompatibility of the dollar between the attainment of 1. An anchor currency for international trade fixed against gold at $35 per ounce, and 2. A single and flexible national currency for the internal economy of the US – the $. From the outset this dual mandate for the US$ was problematic. As a global reserve
By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog PART 1 It might be a good idea to start with some theoretical clarifications. Firstly, nationalism should not be confused with national sovereignty. Nations which are effectively ruled by outside agents – from Greece to Honduras – are not sovereign; they are colonies or vassals of some larger agency. And since they are not sovereign, the cannot be democratic, since decision making, and
After all the initial euphoria and hopes placed upon the original concept of a non-aligned, social-democratic Euro-bloc, the reality has turned out somewhat differently. By Francis Lee for the Saker Blog In 2011 I drafted an article in an obscure publication called ‘Chartist’. It was entitled: ‘’Europe: The Unfinished Project’’. It ran as follows. ‘’At the present time the EU project seems to be stuck in no-man’s land, unable to
by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Moral Hazard: Circumstances that increase the probability of loss because of an applicant’s personal habits or morals. For example, if the applicant is a known criminal or engages in suspect financial dealings. (Dictionary of Business Terms) Economic Rent: Payments and remuneration over and above normal profits which arise from a monopolistic market position. (Cf. David Ricardo – Theory of Ground Rent). For our
