Russell Lee Farmer’s truck at state rice mill, Abbeville, LA September 1938 Sometimes similarities have an entertaining effect. Noticing how the US and China deal with their similar though not identical debt levels in similar though not identical ways made me think of the “it’s turtles all the way down” version of the origins of the universe – which has an ancient Hindu version that says the earth rests on an elephant which rests on a turtle -. It seems
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John Vachon Liquor store, Palacios, Texas May 1943 An amusing discussion is firing up ever more about what the ECB should do in the face of a – perceived or not – deflation threat. Many voices are clamoring for immediate action, claiming Mario Draghi et al may well already be too late, or even use words like “the spectacular idiocy of EMU policy”, as Ambrose Evans Pritchard does, who’s been on the topic for a very long time. IMF’s Christine
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Dorothea Lange Drought-stricken farm family near Muskogee, OK August 1939 It’s taken some time, but Nicole is back. Here’s her first article in a hopefully productive cycle: Food insecurity has become a major global issue in recent years, underlying many of the instances of social upheaval around the world. This is both a reflection of the short-term fluctuations in an over-financialized commodity sector and also of the longer-term limits to growth scenario. As an ever greater number of limits are
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Esther Bubley Greaseball, mascot at Stevens Airport, Frederick, MD October 1943 Since we can all attest to the fact that our financial banking economic system is bust and busted, we should probably look at ways to repair and cure it. And we don’t want to wait for the system to repair itself from the inside with the aid and abetment of its political stooges, revolving door and otherwise, because that will only lead to everyone else paying through the nose
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NYWT & Sun Newspaper Fire in oil storage tanks, Texas City, Texas April 17, 1947 The latest IPCC report is out, and as predictable as clockwork the reactions are the same old same old lip service, and only that. ‘There is no time to lose’, ‘if we don’t act now, we’re too late’, yada yada. Go do some digging and look for quotes from 10, 20, 40 years ago and you won’t be able to tell the difference. And just
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National Photo Co. Janes’ candy store, Ninth Street, Washington, D.C. 1924 Boxing champ Vitali Klitschko, who was reportedly the most popular opposition leader in Ukraine during the Maidan protests before Yanukovych was chased away, and was then shunned by the west as interim PM in favor of banker-boy Yatsenyuk, this morning announced he’s no longer a candidate in the presidential elections in May. Instead, he’ll throw his heavyweight behind Ukraine’s own Willy Wonka, candy man Petro Poroshenko, known locally as
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Esther Bubley Daily Greyhound commute to Memphis September 1943 How do we know what’s really going on in China’s economy? Given that it’s – at least officially – under central control, that’s not easy. The Chinese leaders know their way around spin and propaganda; one might argue that their lives depend on it. Still, maybe following and connecting the dots as they appear in the news can be helpful. So I thought I’d squirrel together a few data and talking
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Esther Bubley Sign at the National Zoological Park, D.C. May 1943 The story itself may at times feel repetitious and belonging to a different era, but in the case of Ukraine it’s certainly applicable: another country is being given the Shock Doctrine treatment; it’s by no means restricted to South America in the 1970s. Ukrainians have hit the streets for months, and about a hundred of them got taken out cold by nobody knows who, just to end up with
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Detroit Publishing Co Galveston Flood disaster cyclorama, Coney Island 1904 If there’s one thing that defines why we, and the world we live in, are doomed, it can be found – once more – in a recent spat of (leaked) reactions to the upcoming new IPCC report. We’ve come a long way since skeptics started budging in the way creationists demand equal time on the new Cosmos series – only more successful – and now we’re way past mere skepticism.
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Charlotte Brooks Duke Ellington at bat near segregated motel in Florida April 1955 You can hurt a few handfuls of Putin’s people for a few days with sanctions like closing their Visa accounts. But if you threaten to buy less Rosneft oil and Gazprom gas, why should they really care? It’s not as if there’s a glut of either available. Any pain will be short lived. Moreover, it’s all but certain that such actions will drive Russia and China closer
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