date:20200420

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 11:00 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Apr 20, 2020, at 10:23 PM, John Edmundson via Marxism 
>> mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> What I don't understand is how MMT can be simultaneously a progressive
>> approach compatible with socialism and also a good strategy for capitalist
>> survival. Mike Roberts seems to have similar misgivings. I think these may
>> have been posted here before but seem pertinent to this discussion.
> 
> The mistake you’re making is in thinking that MMT is inherently a 
> political-economic “ideology” that is trying to “compete” with “Marxism” — 
> and that therefore must be either pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist.
> 
> Do you believe the same of chemistry? Biology? Physics? Math? 
> 
> This is the mistake that Michael Roberts makes, and it’s what makes his 
> “critique” essentially worthless.
> 
> None of this will make any sense if you’re not willing to read the source 
> literature. 

“I have not yet been persuaded that the study of physics is inherently 
anti-capitalist, and therefore I refuse to make any serious effort to 
understand physics.”

Maybe the stakes get clearer when we put the argument that way.
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Re: [Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 10:23 PM, John Edmundson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> What I don't understand is how MMT can be simultaneously a progressive
> approach compatible with socialism and also a good strategy for capitalist
> survival. Mike Roberts seems to have similar misgivings. I think these may
> have been posted here before but seem pertinent to this discussion.

The mistake you’re making is in thinking that MMT is inherently a 
political-economic “ideology” that is trying to “compete” with “Marxism” — and 
that therefore must be either pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist.

Do you believe the same of chemistry? Biology? Physics? Math? 

This is the mistake that Michael Roberts makes, and it’s what makes his 
“critique” essentially worthless.

None of this will make any sense if you’re not willing to read the source 
literature. 
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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:49 PM, Anthony Boynton via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> MMT's prescriptions can be seen as extensions of Keynesian economics. Their
> limited value for saving capitalism applies only to imperialist countries
> without debts denominated in currencies other than their own currency and
> cannot and does not apply to the world economy.

This is a staggeringly ignorant and cringingly “priestly” couple of sentences. 
Let me just rip a few phrases to shreds for now:

“MMT's prescriptions” — as if there is a single set of prescriptions coming out 
of this school of thought — when even leading voices of MMT insist that the 
main thing that unifies “MMT” is a descriptive account of the money function, 
as for instance in this interview: 
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/20/deconstructed-podcast-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-coronavirus-economy/

"can be seen” — by whom? Sectarian idiots? Great; not really very concerned 
about them.

“Their limited value for saving capitalism” — as if MMT is focused on saving 
capitalism, as opposed to saving societies from capitalism, as would be 
apparent to anyone who spent even a few minutes trying sincerely to become 
familiar with the body of thought in question.

"cannot and does not apply to the world economy” — already dispensed with in 
earlier posts.

This is really getting embarrassing. Why are people so enthusiastically 
committed to pronouncing on stuff they don’t have the first clue about? I feel 
like I’m trapped in a Monty Python sketch.

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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:49 PM, Anthony Boynton via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> A good place to start understanding MMT, its history, and its differences
> with traditional Keynesian economics is Wikipedia
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory 
> 
> 
> ...
> MMT's prescriptions can be seen as extensions of Keynesian economics. 

And now we have someone purporting to be a serious Marxist thinker invoking 
Wikipedia as an authoritative source on MMT — a body of thought for which there 
is no single set of policy prescriptions.

And by the way, I’ve personally seen Michael Roberts admit that he couldn’t 
offer any source reference for his characterization of MMT because it was 
simply “his opinion.” 

This is getting ridiculous. It’s truly astonishing how committed some people 
are to defending their own ignorance.

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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

2020-04-20 Thread John Edmundson via Marxism

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What I don't understand is how MMT can be simultaneously a progressive
approach compatible with socialism and also a good strategy for capitalist
survival. Mike Roberts seems to have similar misgivings. I think these may
have been posted here before but seem pertinent to this discussion.

https://secure-web.cisco.com/1Wqew6QP9O2Ek8dFTiizOrSlxRFkpSDcl30AoiY2WcRBgyH6-IZEe4u7bYBX5Xp2GgSAFiyQznAdoWWMyst3HXRW6CwyMzx_tVX3LvXT8e3E1FCmoW3uzom92SIDVxZUGPQWtGa5oYoKuoEeWKtRI1DvPzdoj-iLbIHK26edovgzDl4naJrPteHE7jXvUC33bHGK3IrFi7o6nd7tKudmsAfu_Xh7fs9wBiWaoU0cWXL4bwAvs1cAxKtQtrmCvUM8O5OMihhJYx-s4VxB_0ZUnyJ-1TdmwOoSUmGu0vk6uGj0dcjkrvHJwisksoVQT-mmtu4QCMRD_mjcZGaR6vCTShvkfDvZqalURBw2NurRn_CRWb8PoRYjODfFJjoe6auXn/https%3A%2F%2Fthenextrecession.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F01%2F28%2Fmodern-monetary-theory-part-1-chartalism-and-marx%2F

https://secure-web.cisco.com/1sZmYPmpVFYeL8bvtQ4xSih0Qmdw_yYtiKD1qb9uFxrswfWEPJQ_T7puAA5OITJuU3Cd4bx6v2nPxLhaDpnvTEsa4Fhu938EBos4L1-83qrnk0bfDYAAi8jzXoeKJgXXlLtrlQZGSq05rRQ0rf5NT9WWtVwMX6znDPBH8Fcev9RgNf02RxTcGDEDCirSrVn_Yd0jTmDMLeH-0soCNbtSdmdM6utx8gFiomtpTGcdbyje8cuTLIdB8cC_nS0Z146g7KelGsCA8jAvdbAR3xXhcGRe3JZU4zVDV2Ph2zpqjU7x5JlsuUon8NEpKDIuN7tFvzfcGhL0UHwynWbmtsihEbSnpQQWQg9kl0YQqYyu0HEJAmxJeE8UXHqAFRMboNshs/https%3A%2F%2Fthenextrecession.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F02%2F03%2Fmmt-2-the-tricks-of-circulation%2F

https://secure-web.cisco.com/1fDk08lfT8sc-cCnad1linEIeiyJELkx87wj31mVacm6YaGcp3KaIjEM23phQQpZihA_2ls9YiSlgkP_g2asWyPkba17hjhDRbvpDrsFl4H-rgpnehErZXd54RUF2s26nCBVr3HxjVfzYoclic8mSAT3wqRwSRFHDighlcZmytkwqTmETJWOjmyKhFQfm3zxmFa8dpl48O0dTGBnt_IR9IQw2SglZXwn6bQM_cJWAauz5yb8IlBzcfdQQtzWESc8k9HbSmO4DZ6GJL2yyBF9vroxSFE17cP4npqrTYAVG0p2DkftTB_Mdd1A_1LtIu7C0_m11gvWcn1-mdfmZSDg0YXGWC41cxDv5f8QkhTy0INuH4S6B8Ru-nukIBPdHsEaf/https%3A%2F%2Fthenextrecession.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F02%2F05%2Fmmt-3-a-backstop-to-capitalism%2F


I'm not an economist but this does seem a pretty convincing argument from a
Marxist economist.

Cheers,
John

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 1:47 PM MM via Marxism 
wrote:

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>
> > On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:09 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
> >
> > I'd be willing to read something written by an MMT proponent.
>
> I’m almost sure you don’t realize how that comes across. Almost.
>
> > I used to be in contact with Nathan Tankus but lost touch.
>
> I posted the link to Nathan’s new substack website earlier; it’s here:
> https://secure-web.cisco.com/1zq0d1FMyn7KjXIhIKmd1Mp0PjL569ugItSKDAxlhemzmBef7CyghKWdfrLIvnft0u2Vin4L38ThsNwYWWHpj56C6xZulkCf7I4ATHti9Oof2K3miZn6BZCppFrCOpgBqbgVTWCSExJPYC28T5TcZqGIEsuxh0BdUcTiRD-njl9xXVA_Q3JhEBc5Z5NBLXZCkKE90fXUyZIEuvD9KM0H4D9qY2JTM5BVYLY1Orxof0zsQPjwK5rYdPJflAELZQr4F9PlkNkQHcFsg-46HRvgK5h7zPDxN6PTieFoLmwHyBuThcltV34dBewNRFCkL0abCEATAZMyc78QB1Opx0B-t4HEvrJ-kqCT0o_vbe1IT2Ny5oG2mnMfL_KoYL7q6M7lJngJ2vBVqwwYZf1dYSfgWEQ/https%3A%2F%2Fnathantankus.substack.com%2F
>
> > Much of what I've heard about MMT seems geared to G7 nations.
>
>
> The first thing you say here is a nearly universal misunderstanding based
> on a simple failure to use Google. The podcast I posted is the best single
> source I know of, and frankly I don’t have a lot of patience with anyone
> who isn’t willing to listen to it. Fadhel is incredibly busy — he gave more
> than 400 presentations last year alone, in dozens of countries.
>
> > If it was so easy to lift a country up by its own bootstraps, it seems
> made to order for the global South. Right?
>
> Who said it was easy? This is a stupid, ignorant comment. It’s beneath you.
>
> > So, why hasn't it been adopted universally?
>
> Believe it or not, we’re working on it. This is from South Africa, less
> than 24 hours ago:
>
> Former Treasury official Donaldson says Bank can buy up to R20bn of bonds
> a week
>
> Current shocks to global and domestic demand mean inflation is not an
> immediate concern, says former Treasury official
>
> BL PREMIUM
> 20 April 2020 - 05:10 Lukanyo Mnyanda
> The Reserve Bank should scale up its bond purchases to as much as R20bn a
> week to help reduce borrowing costs for the government as it seeks to fund
> emergency measures to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, according to one of
> the economists briefing advisers and officials in the presidency.
>
> That would be a major escalation in the use of the Bank’s firepower after
> deputy governor Fundi Tshazibana <
>

Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:59 PM, John A Imani via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> JAI

What’s missing from JAI’s response — but is dealt with at length in the 
interview I posted, and runs throughout the MMT literature — is what the newly 
printed money is put to use to do.

Unless comrades are willing to start dealing with the details of specific 
national contexts and industrial strategies, this is all sound and fury, 
signifying nothing. Pick a country — any country — and start dealing with the 
numbers. But for Christ’s sake stop with the fucking Marxian scriptural 
references. 

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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

2020-04-20 Thread John A Imani via Marxism

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Why must revolutionaries worry about inflation? That cannot be answered
without a simultaneous worry about wages. Even in a capitalist system, if
wages rise with inflation then that is of benefit to borrowers as they pay
back the advance (home, auto, credit cards, etc.) with ‘cheaper’ dollars.
The key is the ratio of inflation to the wage. Indexing the wage to the
rate of inflation, i.e. say a wage of $20 per hour is increased 100%, to
match the 100% rate of inflation, leaves the real purchasing power of the
wage the same but devalues debt by 50%. But more to the point here is that
inflation, properly used, deliberately induced inflation, can be a monetary
tool that we can use as one method of aiding the transition from a
capitalist system to a socialist system-- which itself ought be
transitioning in its role as a precursor of a communistic economy and
society.

Inflation. Inflation as a transitional device. Deliberately induced
inflation. Created by a printing press ‘bazooka’, initially, to give to all
a GAI (UBI) .
Then, after an initial pre-inflation wage boost (most important are a rise
in the minimum and the guarantee of employment), the creation of new
currency, perhaps a la the Mexican nuevo peso in 1993, and at the same time
an indexing to the rate of inflation of wages, pensions, welfare, bank
accounts (up to a limit of say, e.g., the FDIC limit of $100,000), even
shareholdings and bonds (to that limit) held by individuals, perhaps in
401Ks.  All these would again be protected by being indexed to the rate of
inflation. Limits for housing ownership, subject to socially set limits.
Savings, incomes, capital gains above this or that limit (or any limit that
society sets) would be subject to being devalued by the deliberately
induced inflation. Expropriation through inflation.

Where's the money for this?" Well jobs don't cost they pay. Ask any
capitalist hiring any worker. But w/o going into that question there's a
simple answer to the first question about "Where the money?" The answer is
'print' it. They did it ($750bill) for the banks. Twice. Bush and Obama.
Paulson's 'bazooka'. They (then We) can print as much as 'needed' to fund
this. The Fed Res has such power to transfer purchasing power (which is all
that this is) as real purchasing power is created only through work. Such a
transfer by inflation reallocates the purchasing power by making
accumulated dollars worth less through inflation. Individuals with modest
savings can be protected by indexing these to the rate of inflation. Same
with wages. Pensions ditto. Etc. Those with larger fortunes would see these
reduced by as much as the working class has the will to do it:
Nationalization through redistribution of the ruling class' liquid assets
by inflation.

This, and all of this could be accomplished, I am certain with a tiny
portion of the computing power already extant. See almost anything by W
Paul Cockshott.  Information is essential as production goals need be
tailored to consumer needs and desires.

"Book-keeping, as the control and ideal synthesis of the process, becomes
the more necessary the more the process assumes a social scale and loses
its purely individual character. It is therefore more necessary in
capitalist production than in the scattered production of handicraft and
peasant economy, more necessary in collective production than in capitalist
production...” Marx. “Capital. Vol 2.  Chap VI.”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/ch06.htm#1.2

“…after the abolition of the capitalist mode of production, but still
retaining social production, the determination of value continues to
prevail in the sense that the regulation of labour-time and the
distribution of social labour among the various production groups,
ultimately the book-keeping encompassing all this, become more essential
than ever.” Vol 3. Chap IL.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch49.htm

JAI
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[Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

2020-04-20 Thread Anthony Boynton via Marxism

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A good place to start understanding MMT, its history, and its differences
with traditional Keynesian economics is Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

The chart showing differences between MMT and Keynesians is especially
useful.

MMT's prescriptions can be seen as extensions of Keynesian economics. Their
limited value for saving capitalism applies only to imperialist countries
without debts denominated in currencies other than their own currency and
cannot and does not apply to the world economy.

For this reason alone, the theory fails to address the current crisis. For
more on the topic, read Michael Robert's three blog posts on MMT starting
here
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/modern-monetary-theory-part-1-chartalism-and-marx/

Anthony
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:09 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
> 
> I'd be willing to read something written by an MMT proponent.

I’m almost sure you don’t realize how that comes across. Almost.

> I used to be in contact with Nathan Tankus but lost touch.

I posted the link to Nathan’s new substack website earlier; it’s here: 
https://nathantankus.substack.com/

> Much of what I've heard about MMT seems geared to G7 nations. 

The first thing you say here is a nearly universal misunderstanding based on a 
simple failure to use Google. The podcast I posted is the best single source I 
know of, and frankly I don’t have a lot of patience with anyone who isn’t 
willing to listen to it. Fadhel is incredibly busy — he gave more than 400 
presentations last year alone, in dozens of countries. 

> If it was so easy to lift a country up by its own bootstraps, it seems made 
> to order for the global South. Right? 

Who said it was easy? This is a stupid, ignorant comment. It’s beneath you.

> So, why hasn't it been adopted universally?

Believe it or not, we’re working on it. This is from South Africa, less than 24 
hours ago:

Former Treasury official Donaldson says Bank can buy up to R20bn of bonds a week

Current shocks to global and domestic demand mean inflation is not an immediate 
concern, says former Treasury official

BL PREMIUM 
20 April 2020 - 05:10 Lukanyo Mnyanda
The Reserve Bank should scale up its bond purchases to as much as R20bn a week 
to help reduce borrowing costs for the government as it seeks to fund emergency 
measures to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, according to one of the economists 
briefing advisers and officials in the presidency. 

That would be a major escalation in the use of the Bank’s firepower after 
deputy governor Fundi Tshazibana 

 told Business Day on April 7 that it had bought about R1bn of government-debt 
securities the month before, a relatively modest number in a market valued at 
about R2.5-trillion. The Bank announced its programme on March 25, after 
identifying market dislocations that pushed bond yields to record highs. 

Such an aggressive show of force, mirroring actions by central banks in 
developed economies that have exceeded interventions during the great recession 
a decade ago, would reduce market stress and shift market expectations towards 
lower long-term yields, according to a paper written for the government by the 
University of Cape Town’s Andrew Donaldson.

Current shocks to global and domestic demand mean inflation is not an immediate 
concern despite the sharp depreciation by the rand in 2020, he said. The rand, 
which started the year at about R14/$, has slid about 25% to nearly R19/$, 
though the potential effect on inflation has been countered by the collapse of 
oil prices and economic activity.

Donaldson spent 20 years at the Treasury before retiring in 2017. The group of 
economists supporting efforts to come up with measures to mitigate the economic 
impact of the coronavirus outbreak includes another former official, Michael 
Sachs, who has headed the Treasury’s budget office and is now an adjunct 
professor at Wits University. Sachs has argued for fiscal stimulus to deal with 
the health and economic crisis arising from Covid-19.

The Bank, which has slashed its repo rate by 200 basis points in two meetings 
since March, has resisted pressure to undertake wide-scale money printing to 
help reduce government borrowing costs at a time when already elevated 
borrowings costs were raising questions about its ability to fund itself.

The Bank entered the bond market after 10-year yields spiked to close to 13% 
late in March, though it insisted this was not quantitative easing as it was 
not meant to influence prices but rather to restore market liquidity and 
efficiency to ensure sellers could easily find buyers. Yields have since eased 
back to about 10%, a level that is still seen as severe and unsustainable given 
that inflation is well within the 3%-6% target range.

After the Bank cut rates on April 14 governor Lesetja Kganyago rejected 
suggestions that it follow its counterpart in the UK and fund the state 
directly through so-called monetary financing. That step was unnecessary 
because the government has no trouble funding itself in open markets, he said. 
It would also be illegal and in breach of the Bank’s legal mandate.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak government borrowing costs were heading 
higher due to a weak economy and failure to consolidate spending to arrest a 
deterioration that was set to push the deficit

[Marxism] Washington Babylon Podcast Episode 29: Noam Chomsky | Washington Babylon

2020-04-20 Thread Andrew Stewart via Marxism

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https://washingtonbabylon.com/podcast/episode-29-noam-chomsky/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"


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On 4/20/20 8:41 PM, MM wrote:


Just to say a little more: The key is how the new money is spent, and 
specifically whether it is spent on developing the kind of productive 
infrastructure that any good socialist government would build: public 
transport, hospitals, schools, local farms, factories to produce basic 
consumer goods, etc.


Yeah, but that's exactly what was happening in Nicaragua. I was 
president of the board of Tecnica that had close relations with Paul 
Oquist, Ortega's chief economic adviser. The government printed money 
and it was like Germany in the 1920s. I'd be willing to read something 
written by an MMT proponent. I used to be in contact with Nathan Tankus 
but lost touch.


Much of what I've heard about MMT seems geared to G7 nations. If it was 
so easy to lift a country up by its own bootstraps, it seems made to 
order for the global South. Right? So, why hasn't it been adopted 
universally?


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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"


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On 4/20/20 8:13 PM, MM via Marxism wrote:

Alternatively, maybe the “so-called theory” deals with them in considerable 
detail:

https://urpe.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/fadhel-kaboub-on-monetary-sovereignty-colonialism-and-independence/


I can't deal with podcasts. If you can recommend an article, I'd read it.

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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Green Party candidate accuses Twitter of censorship after campaign account suspended - Washington Times


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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 8:13 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I have not really bothered reading anything about MMT but I do have to wonder 
> whether it could have done anything to relieve the terrible economic crisis 
> that the FSLN had to deal with in the late 80s and that eventually led to the 
> election of Violetta Chamorro.
> 
> Nicaragua certainly printed money like it was going out of style but it led 
> to an inflationary spiral as bad as 1920s Germany. It had to pay soldiers who 
> were out in the field trying to end the contra war. The money that was put 
> into circulation had consequences:
> 
> Nicaraguan Devaluation
> Reuters, January 5, 1989
> 
> Nicaragua devalued its currency by 54 percent today, the seventh drastic 
> reduction in a year, and cut subsidies on transportation and military 
> spending to combat an economic slump and soaring inflation. The central bank 
> said in a statement that the cordoba was now fixed at 2,000 to the United 
> States dollar, down from 920 to the dollar. President Daniel Ortega said 
> Sunday that prices rose 21,742 percent in 1988, and he promised a severe new 
> round of austerity. Some independent economists have warned that inflation 
> could exceed 100,000 percent this year.
> 
> So, what is it that I am missing?

I’m not familiar with the Nicaraguan economy, but I think you’ll probably find 
the interview with Fadhel Kaboub that I just posted in response to John at 
least suggestive of how to go about answering the question.
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 8:25 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> So, what is it that I am missing?
> 
> I’m not familiar with the Nicaraguan economy, but I think you’ll probably 
> find the interview with Fadhel Kaboub that I just posted in response to John 
> at least suggestive of how to go about answering the question.

Just to say a little more: The key is how the new money is spent, and 
specifically whether it is spent on developing the kind of productive 
infrastructure that any good socialist government would build: public 
transport, hospitals, schools, local farms, factories to produce basic consumer 
goods, etc. The money thus spent into existence continues to circulate, 
becoming the lifeblood of local economies: bodegas, book stores, hair salons, 
jazz clubs. But very few people on the left have been willing to even engage 
with this body of thought enough to be able to move beyond the fundamentally 
reactionary phrase “printing money,” and begin think about how any of this 
actually works in concrete terms — hardly a shining testament to the legacy of 
historical materialism.

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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"


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On 4/20/20 7:34 PM, MM via Marxism wrote:

John, Where do you think a future socialist government’s money supply would 
come from?


I have not really bothered reading anything about MMT but I do have to 
wonder whether it could have done anything to relieve the terrible 
economic crisis that the FSLN had to deal with in the late 80s and that 
eventually led to the election of Violetta Chamorro.


Nicaragua certainly printed money like it was going out of style but it 
led to an inflationary spiral as bad as 1920s Germany. It had to pay 
soldiers who were out in the field trying to end the contra war. The 
money that was put into circulation had consequences:


Nicaraguan Devaluation
Reuters, January 5, 1989

Nicaragua devalued its currency by 54 percent today, the seventh drastic 
reduction in a year, and cut subsidies on transportation and military 
spending to combat an economic slump and soaring inflation. The central 
bank said in a statement that the cordoba was now fixed at 2,000 to the 
United States dollar, down from 920 to the dollar. President Daniel 
Ortega said Sunday that prices rose 21,742 percent in 1988, and he 
promised a severe new round of austerity. Some independent economists 
have warned that inflation could exceed 100,000 percent this year.


So, what is it that I am missing?

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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 7:57 PM, John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I asked around about whether the advocates of this theory say it applies to 
> underdeveloped countries - in fact any country aside from the US, any country 
> whose currency isn't the world currency - and nobody can answer me. Now, 
> maybe all those other people are just as dumb and uneducated as I am. Or 
> maybe they don't know because the so-called theory simply doesn't deal with 
> these questions concretely.

Alternatively, maybe the “so-called theory” deals with them in considerable 
detail:

https://urpe.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/fadhel-kaboub-on-monetary-sovereignty-colonialism-and-independence/

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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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I actually did read some of the "ideas" of modern monetary theory. Most of
it, I couldn't make head or tail of. I know I'm not the smartest person in
the world, but I'm not the stupidest either. In general, I figure if I read
some theoretical piece carefully and still can't understand it, that's
because it's simply gobbledygook. I've asked around about what's the
difference between this "theory" and Keynesianism and nobody has been able
to give me a straight answer. Maybe it's the idea (as far as what I can
make out) that governments should simply print more money rather than go
into debt. If that's the case, then it's simply reformist nonsense and in
practice, as far as the effect of expanding the money supply without an
equal expansion of production, there is no practical difference. I asked
around about whether the advocates of this theory say it applies to
underdeveloped countries - in fact any country aside from the US, any
country whose currency isn't the world currency - and nobody can answer me.
Now, maybe all those other people are just as dumb and uneducated as I am.
Or maybe they don't know because the so-called theory simply doesn't deal
with these questions concretely.

John

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 4:34 PM MM  wrote:

> On Apr 20, 2020, at 6:31 PM, John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> In many other countries around the world, extremely high levels of
> government debt led to devaluation and high inflation. The US is in an
> exceptional situation because of the global role of the dollar. That role
> is based on the military and economic power of the US internationally.
> However, just as that power of US capitalism is being challenged so,
> contrary to what some comrades seem to think, the international role of the
> dollar may not last forever.
>
> So, we will see.
>
> John Reimann
>
>
> John, Where do you think a future socialist government’s money supply
> would come from?
>
>

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 6:31 PM, John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In many other countries around the world, extremely high levels of government 
> debt led to devaluation and high inflation. The US is in an exceptional 
> situation because of the global role of the dollar. That role is based on the 
> military and economic power of the US internationally. However, just as that 
> power of US capitalism is being challenged so, contrary to what some comrades 
> seem to think, the international role of the dollar may not last forever.
> 
> So, we will see.
> 
> John Reimann

John, Where do you think a future socialist government’s money supply would 
come from? 

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[Marxism] The Year of the Wombat | Madeline Lane-McKinley


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Whether as fires or storms, earthquakes or floods, this familiarity with 
catastrophe looms everywhere. It isn’t quite seeable, precisely because 
it’s everything. At this point, it’s unclear how devastating the impact 
will be on wildlife in Australia, but there are estimates that over a 
billion animals have been killed by the bushfires and that species will 
go extinct. As the rest of the world followed these developments, 
stories began to circulate about wombats providing shelter to other 
animals. I read about wombats inviting not just other animals into their 
burrows, but also predators. I read about wombats even herding animals 
in need of refuge. I read about wombats as figures of leadership, but 
not quite.


https://communemag.com/the-year-of-the-wombat/

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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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In many other countries around the world, extremely high levels of
government debt led to devaluation and high inflation. The US is in an
exceptional situation because of the global role of the dollar. That role
is based on the military and economic power of the US internationally.
However, just as that power of US capitalism is being challenged so,
contrary to what some comrades seem to think, the international role of the
dollar may not last forever.

So, we will see.

John Reimann

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 2:29 PM Michael Meeropol  wrote:

> 90% of that WAPO article is garbage  corporate debt is another problem
> but government debt is not (Japan's government debt reached 200% of GDP)
> --- with interest rates so close to zero in nominal terms that they are
> probably negative in the long run, government borrowing can be much higher
> than it is even now ---
>
>
>

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 20, 2020, at 6:31 PM, John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In many other countries around the world, extremely high levels of government 
> debt led to devaluation and high inflation. The US is in an exceptional 
> situation because of the global role of the dollar. That role is based on the 
> military and economic power of the US internationally. However, just as that 
> power of US capitalism is being challenged so, contrary to what some comrades 
> seem to think, the international role of the dollar may not last forever.

And those cases have been analyzed at length in the /extensive/ literature on 
modern money systems that’s been produced over the past couple of decades. All 
this proves is that Reimann still hasn’t read any of it. 
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[Marxism] "Conventional capitalism is dying" - covid-19 and the return of the state

2020-04-20 Thread Omar Hassan via Marxism

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This is a genuinely brilliant piece on the long term implications of the
current crisis, set in the historical context of the evolution of
capitalism from the early 20th century.

https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/conventional-capitalism-is-dying-covid-19-recession-and-the-return-of-the-state/
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[Marxism] Fw: Colombia, the Oligarchs and Washington

2020-04-20 Thread Chris Slee via Marxism

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~ T h e B u l l e t ~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2064 ... April 20, 2020
__
Colombia, the Oligarchs and Washington
Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado and Zoe PC
Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive 
numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. 
In particular, the people called on the government to withdraw two policies.

First, the people wanted the right-wing government of Duque to advance the 2016 
peace accords between the government and the left-wing FARC (Revolutionary 
Armed Forces of Colombia). These accords, negotiated in good faith, would have 
ended a war that has lasted for six decades; 70 per cent of Colombian society 
has been born during this war.

Second, the people wanted to end the harsh austerity policies driven by Duque’s 
government, which includes cuts to public universities, cuts to the pension 
system, and cuts against broad social spending. The main trade union federation 
-- Central Trade Union of Workers in Colombia (CUT) -- called for that protest, 
which then broadened into a mass uprising against Duque and the system of 
Colombian politics.

The general secretary of CUT and spokesperson of the People’s Congress, Edgar 
Mojica, was on the barricades daily, helping shape the mass upsurge that 
suggested that Colombian society no longer wanted to be held hostage to the 
whims of its sclerotic oligarchy and to the United States government. This was 
the mood. It was clear in the slogans and graffiti that emerged in Bogotá, the 
capital of Colombia, and then outwards to its smaller cities and towns.3
Continue reading

Share on 
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Twitter
 T h e B u l l e t 
The Bullet is produced by the Socialist Project. Readers are
encouraged to distribute widely. Comments, criticisms and
suggestions are welcome. Write to thebul...@socialistproject.ca

The Bullet archive is available at 
socialistproject.ca/bullet
~~


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[Marxism] Jacobin’s road map within the catacombs of the Democratic Party | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist


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One big difference between the Jacobin left and the left of my 
generation is over the “road map”. In 1973 or so, nobody in the SWP or 
any Maoist, for that matter, had any idea of how a revolution could take 
place except in the most general terms. We all pretty much understood 
that the workers would not march under the banner of socialism, at least 
understood according to the Communist Manifesto, unless there was a 
profound change in American society that forced them to engage in 
uncompromising struggle such as that which took place during the Great 
Depression. It was up to us to engage in various struggles as they 
arose, from the right to an abortion to challenging the trade union 
bureaucracies, but we accepted the idea that as Marx put it in “The 
German Ideology”: “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the 
ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of 
society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”


In the late 70s, the SWP accepted the word of its leadership that 
revolution was on the agenda but there was no road map as such that 
described the specific routes. The entire membership was instructed to 
get blue-collar jobs because increasing class conflict was making the 
factories and mines like Columbia University and Berkeley were in 1968. 
This was delusional of course.


Then along came Bhaskar Sunkara who with his customary aplomb and 
self-confidence told his readers in the penultimate chapter of “The 
Socialist Manifesto”: “The dilemma for socialists today is figuring out 
how to take anger at the unjust outcomes of capitalism and turn it into 
a challenge to the system itself…Easier said than done. But this chapter 
offers a road map based on the long, complex, variously inspiring and 
dismal history of left politics—for challenging capitalism and creating 
a democratic socialist alternative to it.”


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2020/04/20/jacobins-road-map-within-the-catacombs-of-the-democratic-party/


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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

2020-04-20 Thread Michael Meeropol via Marxism

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90% of that WAPO article is garbage  corporate debt is another problem
but government debt is not (Japan's government debt reached 200% of GDP)
--- with interest rates so close to zero in nominal terms that they are
probably negative in the long run, government borrowing can be much higher
than it is even now ---
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

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> On Apr 19, 2020, at 9:59 AM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> From the Washington Post
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/18/record-government-corporate-debt-risk-tipping-point-after-pandemic-passes/
>  
> 
> 
> The United States is embarking on a rapid-fire experiment in borrowing
> without precedent, as the government and corporations take on trillions of
> dollars of debt to offset the economic damage from the coronavirus
>   
> >
> pandemic.

There’s a fundamental misconception in this piece. US government debt is 
nothing like debt for the private sector, or at the state or municipal level. 
Virtually all USG debt is denominated in dollars, and the US is the sole issuer 
of dollars. The US Government doesn’t have to “earn” US dollars in order to pay 
off its dollar-denominated debts, and its debt is for all practical purposes 
“owed” to itself: it “borrows” from itself when it expands the money supply. If 
people think the US government needs to “raise” dollars in order to meet its 
obligations, then surely they should be able to explain where those dollars it 
is ostensibly going to get from someone else — taxpayers, China, whoever — 
could have come from in the first place.

Nathan Tankus is almost certainly doing the best analysis of what’s happening 
with the bailouts — and the mainstream press is rapidly recognizing that fact:

https://nathantankus.substack.com/

It really would be helpful if the left would get up to speed on how central 
banking works, because the scales are very rapidly falling from the eyes of 
those members of the capitalist class who didn’t already understand this stuff, 
and they’re quite happy to use it against us while we continue to wallow in our 
ignorance.

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[Marxism] Howie Hawkins – Counterpunch Radio Episode 150

2020-04-20 Thread Andrew Stewart via Marxism

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https://store.counterpunch.org/howie-hawkins-episode-150/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
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[Marxism] Studies on genetics and Covid-19 immune reaction

2020-04-20 Thread Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism

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A few days ago I posted an article on the environmental factors that
influence a person's survival chances if the contract Covid-19. I commented
on how little this is studied, how the tendency is towards looking for
genes. That is particularly "strange" since an NIH article (
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/immune-system-shaped-environment-more-genes
) had to admit that "researchers found that non-heritable influences
outweighed heredity in about 75% of all the immune parameters, and almost
exclusively determined more than half of the parameters." Yet here we are,
with "The Scientist" reporting on major studies to find the genes that
determine how a Covid-19 patient's immune system will react to the virus.
Sure, genes have an influence. The fact that women survive better than men
and that behavior differences (smoking vs. non-smoking, eg.) don't seem to
be the determinant would indicate that. But from reading the article it's
clear that many millions are being spent in these genetic studies, far more
than is being spent to investigate environmental factors. Could there
possibly be a political reason? You think?
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/dna-could-hold-clues-to-varying-severity-of-covid-19-67435?utm_campaign=TS_DAILY%20NEWSLETTER_2020_source=hs_email_medium=email_content=86538700&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_qhnptb1C3MycFr6zF2WSaDh7vvEEMdcsBlCNXpr0tq70L67uqrI1E6Lf0g-P4MTaXNNAQPY6gFebkyf-piA7f9OrCuw&_hsmi=86538700

John Reimann
--
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] Covid-19 is a perfect storm for women workers

2020-04-20 Thread Dennis Brasky via Marxism

America's women workers have been living in a straw house perched high on a
cliff, and COVID-19 is the perfect storm. Though research reveals that men
are more likely to succumb to the virus, women will be disproportionately
devastated by its economic impacts, and that's especially true for women of
color. Women have long held the most precarious jobs, made less money, and
done the most paid and unpaid caregiving. The coronavirus exacerbates these
inequalities, making female workers particularly vulnerable to economic
disaster in the months and years to come.

Less visible, however, are the legions of women who have lost their jobs in
recent weeks. The last downturn in 2008 and 2009 knocked the male-dominated
construction and manufacturing the hardest, but this time, women made up a
full 60%

of
the first wave of layoffs, which hit the service, leisure, and retail
industries particularly hard. Many worked for low wages, often for tips, as
hotel housekeepers, waitresses, salon staff, child care workers, home
health care aides, and in other service and caring jobs. These were not
family-supporting, stable jobs, even before the current crisis. Will these
businesses close for good, leaving many women workers out of a job
permanently?

https://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/covid-19-is-a-perfect-storm-for-women-workers/
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[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-Judaic]: Werdiger on Kohler, 'Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820-1880): The Foundation of an Academic Discipline'

2020-04-20 Thread Andrew Stewart via Marxism

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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
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Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
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Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: April 20, 2020 at 7:05:06 AM EDT
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-Judaic]:  Werdiger on Kohler, 'Kabbalah Research in 
> the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820-1880): The Foundation of an Academic 
> Discipline'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> George Y. Kohler.  Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des 
> Judentums (1820-1880): The Foundation of an Academic Discipline.  
> Berlin  De Gruyter, 2019.  282 pp.  $114.99 (cloth), ISBN 
> 978-3-11-062037-5.
> 
> Reviewed by Ori Werdiger (University of Chicago)
> Published on H-Judaic (April, 2020)
> Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz
> 
> "It is very meritorious to provide information about the essence and 
> substance of such a profound intellectual endeavor, especially if its 
> creations are only accessible to such a small number of scholars, and 
> have up to now so often been misunderstood." This observation was 
> made by a towering figure of nineteenth-century Wissenschaft des 
> Judentums, the historian Isaac Marcus Jost. The endeavor to which 
> Jost referred was kabbalah and its literary productions, one of many 
> research objects of the then emerging field of Jewish studies in 
> Germany. Yet, within this endorsement of research on Jewish 
> mysticism, made on the occasion of reviewing a monograph on the 
> history of kabbalah by his colleague Adolf Jellinek, Jost also 
> confessed he viewed kabbalah as nothing short of "aberrances of the 
> human intellect" (p. 124). An aberrancy, then, that nevertheless must 
> be thoroughly studied and explained. 
> 
> In contrast to nineteenth-century Germany, in today's arguably 
> post-secular age, Jewish mysticism often counts among the most 
> studied and in a certain way also most accessible elements of 
> Judaism, both in the academy and in popular culture. With some 
> historical irony, however, the observation by Jost quoted above 
> captures the present-day status of research on the kabbalah conducted 
> by him and his colleagues: this too was a serious intellectual 
> endeavor that is little studied today, possibly misunderstood, and 
> practically non-accessible for English readers. George Y. Kohler's 
> book aims to remedy this situation, through a presentation of every 
> instance of Wissenschaft treatment of the kabbalah from 1822 up to 
> the early twentieth century, focusing on the scholars who wrote and 
> published in German. Consequently, together with more familiar 
> figures, such as Abraham Geiger or Moritz Steinschneider, the study 
> introduces many lesser-known scholars as well. Among the latter are 
> the Hungarian Ignaz Stern; Abraham Adler, brother of the famous 
> German American Reform rabbi Samuel Adler; and David Joel, head of 
> the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary and brother of the pioneer historian 
> of Jewish philosophy, Manuel Joel. 
> 
> The book comprises twenty short units that generally follow a 
> combined temporal and thematic line: each unit treats the 
> publications on kabbalah produced by one or more Wissenschaft 
> scholars at roughly the same time and, when relevant, also the 
> reviews and responses to their key publications. For example, the 
> second unit is titled "Leopold Zunz and Moritz Freystadt 
> (1818-1832)," whereas units 7 to 9 cover Jellinek's publications in 
> 1851-52, the "first reactions" to Jellinek, and his publications in 
> 1853-54, respectively (p. vii). The second-to-last unit complements 
> the focus on the Wissenschaft's scholarly republic of letters 
> throughout the rest of the book by looking at the popular 
> dissemination of Wissenschaft views on kabbalah in Jewish textbooks 
> published from the 1870s and after. The last unit, an epilogue, 
> extends the time covered by the book to 1907, by examining further 
> textbooks and publications in that later period. This predominantly 
> chronological organization corresponds with Kohler's declared aim to 
> provide an overview of the emergence and development of 
> nineteenth-century studies of kabbalah within the Wissenschaft 
> movement. Accordingly, Kohler does not enter into an assessment of 
> Wissenschaft's achievements in the actual analysis of kabbalah's 
> history and ideas, an area that he explicitly leaves for contemporary 
> experts on Jewish mysticism. 
> 
> In addition to making this era in kabbalah research more accessible, 
> Kohler also seeks to correct what he sees as a grave 
> misunderstanding. With few

[Marxism] Odetta, the Shy Folk Singer Who Defied McCarthyism's Fear Tactics | Ian Zack | Literary Hub

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https://lithub.com/odetta-the-shy-folk-singer-who-defied-mccarthyisms-fear-tactics/


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[Marxism] Russian news agency close to Putin calls Assad ‘weak and powerles


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https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/19/russian-news-agency-calls-assad-weak-in-unprecedented-criticism

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[Marxism] Bram Wispelwey and Amaya Al-Orzza | Underlying Conditions · LRB 18 April 2020


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At nearly 18 per cent officially, and probably higher, the prevalence of 
diabetes among Palestinian refugees in the West Bank is one of the 
highest in the world. The official rate in Gaza is 16 per cent. Among 
adult citizens of Israel, it’s 7.2 per cent. The disease suppresses the 
immune system, among other complications, and can spiral dangerously out 
of control when combined with an infection, such as the coronavirus that 
causes Covid-19. Diabetic patients with Covid-19 in China had a 1 in 14 
chance of dying, more than triple that of the general population.


https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/april/underlying-conditions

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[Marxism] Service Workers Strike at Two Luxury Manhattan Buildings


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https://therealdeal.com/2020/04/16/service-workers-strike-at-two-luxury-manhattan-resi-buildings/

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[Marxism] #3 Big Farms make Big Flu oder Die politische Ökologie der Epidemien - Burning Futures: On Ecologies of Existence


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Rob Wallace podcast.

https://burningfutures.podigee.io/3-big-farms-make-big-flu

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[Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

From the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/18/record-government-corporate-debt-risk-tipping-point-after-pandemic-passes/

The United States is embarking on a rapid-fire experiment in borrowing
without precedent, as the government and corporations take on trillions of
dollars of debt to offset the economic damage from the coronavirus

pandemic.

The federal government is on its way this year to spending nearly $4
trillion more than it collects in revenue, analysts say, a budget deficit
roughly twice as large relative to the economy as in any year since 1945.

Business borrowing also is setting records. Giant corporations such as
ExxonMobil and Walgreens, which binged on debt over the past decade, now
are exhausting their credit lines and tapping bondholders for even more
cash.

To support such borrowing, the Federal Reserve has dropped interest rates
to zero and added more than $2 trillion of loans to its portfolio in the
past six weeks — as much as in the four years following the Great Recession.

All this borrowing is required to plug the gaping hole the novel
coronavirus has punched in the economy, as unemployment reaches levels not
seen since the Great Depression. Few, if any, prominent economists or
lawmakers opposed opening the government’s fiscal taps amid the current
economic emergency. The Senate last month approved $2 trillion of crisis
spending with a vote of 96 to 0.

Yet high debt loads already are straining many corporations, which may be
forced to choose between skipping loan payments and laying off workers.
Millions of consumers, too, face sizable monthly bills for student loans
and credit cards, a burden that could weigh on any economic rebound.

The reliance on so much debt also will leave scars after the pandemic
passes, economists say, making it difficult for policymakers to withdraw
support and leaving the economy more vulnerable than before this crisis
began.

“We should be very worried,” said Atif Mian, an economics professor at
Princeton University who has written widely on the subject. “We are talking
about a level of debt that would certainly be unprecedented in modern
history or in history, period. We are definitely at a tipping point.”

On the eve of the pandemic, the U.S. economy was humming, thanks in part to
a jolt from the 2017 tax cut and the subsequent end of congressional
spending limits. But Congress took those actions without any plans to pay
for them.

Governments and companies often turn to lenders during times of unexpected
duress. This new wave is different because it follows an era of heavy
borrowing.

For President Trump, debt is a familiar tool. The former real estate
executive once bragged that he was “the king of debt” and suggested
haggling with holders of U.S. Treasurys over repayment terms using hardball
techniques he had honed in the business world.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last month that the government must
spend freely to help workers and businesses hurt by official shutdown
edicts. “Interest rates are incredibly low, so there’s very little cost of
borrowing this money,” he told reporters. “In different times, we’ll fix
the deficit. This is not the time to worry about it.”

Some argue that even more spending is needed to save the economy. Economist
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, says the government should guarantee
workers’ pay and forbid evictions or foreclosures. Larry Fink, the chief
executive of BlackRock, a New York-based investment firm, told CNBC last
week that an additional $1 trillion may be needed for small businesses.

But once the coronavirus has been tamed and the country regains its
swagger, U.S. leaders will need to find an exit from the extraordinary
levels of government borrowing.

Building a consensus for the blend of tax increases and spending cuts
needed to shrink the mammoth post-crisis debt will be tough to manage.
Neither political party emphasized spending limits in recent years. And the
presumptive Democratic nominee for president, former vice president Joe
Biden, proposed relatively modest tax increases compared with his former
rivals. Republicans, meanwhile, reflexively oppose tax hikes.

The Fed, likewise, will face difficulty extricating the economy from
today’s elevated levels of financial support. The Fed had only partial
success in unwinding its efforts to buttress the economy after the
2008-2009 crisis before the pandemic drew it back into an emergency posture.

Economists typically worry that excessive debt could lead to a

[Marxism] Letter From Beirut: From Revolution to Pandemic

2020-04-20 Thread stormybeirut via Marxism

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https://lithub.com/letter-from-beirut-from-revolution-to-pandemic/
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[Marxism] [UCE] New report says many adjuncts make less than $3, 500 per course and $25, 000 per year


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https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/20/new-report-says-many-adjuncts-make-less-3500-course-and-25000-year

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[Marxism] 'Heroes': Healthcare Workers Stand in Street to Block Right-Wing Protest Against Colorado Stay-at-Home Order | Common Dreams News