Notas de interés

Headlines are abuzz with the return of inflation, which, according to some measures, is now reaching 40 year highs. Considering that vanquishing inflation is supposed to be the one undisputed achievement of neoliberalism, why is it rising? Many explanations – from excessive money creation to disrupted supply chains to tightening labour markets and a post-lockdown surge in demand are offered.

The view that it would be a short term affair is giving way to a more sobering assessment of its persistence, particularly since geopolitical conflict gave inflation a booster shot. As for its solution, one thing is clear, dealing with it as Paul Volcker famously did in the late 1970s is not a politically affordable option for governments beholden to elites whose outrageous fortunes depend on low interest rates.

This panel will seek to examine this phenomenon by asking question such as why is inflation rising? Can we expect it persist? What are the major policy-options being discussed and what are their political implications of each? How should socialists think about this new problem?

El gobierno de Venezuela confirmó que Estados Unidos autorizo que empresas petroleras estadounidenses y europeas reanuden operaciones en el país caribeño. Esto puede ser un indicio para el levantamiento de las medidas impuestas al país por parte del gobierno estadounidense.

Durante el mandato de Barack Obama se emitió una declaración de emergencia que representaba Venezuela para el país del norte, amenazando la seguridad nacional y la política exterior. Las restricciones se intensificaron durante el mandato de Donal Trump, impidiendo comerciar con la empresa estatal Petróleos de Venezuela.

Este alivio de las sanciones esta encaminado a reanudar las negociaciones con la oposición y se ve impulsado por el súbito incremento de los hidrocarburos derivado de la crisis entre Rusia y Ucrania.

El conflicto Rusia-Ucrania y las sanciones derivadas de la coyuntura ha hecho que los precios el precio de las materias primas alimenten la escalada de la inflación en América Latina, teniendo impacto en la producción y la seguridad alimentaria de la región.

América Latina es una región exportadora de alimentos a nivel mundial, pero los fertilizantes usados como insumos son, en parte, importados desde Rusia. Rusia Provee aproximadamente el 15% de fertilizantes en el mundo, del cual algunos mercados latinoamericanos obtienen mas del 80% para su producción.

El precio de los fertilizantes en el mercado internacional ha incrementado un 89% debido a las sanciones impuestas a Rusia y las dificultades económicas de Ucrania, participantes estratégicos en el mercado de materias primas.

Trust in the U.S.-led economic and geopolitical order has been eroding. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. response to it, whatever its merits, may be the last straw for the global monopoly of the dollar-reserve system.

In 2013, eight years before horned intruders stormed the United States Capitol in the name of a perverse freedom, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass argued in his book Foreign Policy Begins at Home that the greatest threat to American security comes not from abroad but within.

“If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. Still haunted by the clever preaching of monetarist guru Milton Friedman’s ghost, all too many monetary authorities address every inflationary threat or sign they see by raising interest rates.

Friedman’s dictum that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” still defines the orthodoxy. Despite changed circumstances in the world today, for Friedmanites, inflation must be curbed by monetary tightening, especially interest rate hikes.