It was hoped at the outset that high-level meetings this week between Washington and Beijing might go some way toward bringing the crisis in Ukraine to an end.

Few people today ask the most important question about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Many people want America to stay out of the fight, but even they don’t ask the vital question. Why does the world face a crisis today? Why has a border dispute between Russia and Ukraine escalated to the point where people fear nuclear war?

A new edition of Political Ponerology, by Andrew M.

There is an active, influential, and well-paid minority of pundits and politicians in America who apparently believe that escalating conflict between nuclear powers—and even nuclear war itself—is not really that big a deal. 

These, of course, are the sorts of people who fancy themselves “the adults in the room,” while people who proceed with prudence, caution, and regard for the rule of law are to be regarded as traitors, cowards, or Russian agents. 

The US government’s Consumer Price Index indicates prices have increased 7.9 percent in the last year. While this statistic shows the highest rate of increase in forty years, it still understates the amount prices have increased, in part because the statistic is manipulated to minimize reported price increases.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that isolating Russia and totally cutting it off from the global economy is not going to be easy. 

 “Ask yourself whether you are willing to kill in an unjust war, whether decrees from the US government can provide sufficient moral justification for you to slaughter folks in Afghanistan or Nicaragua (in my day), or anywhere, and whether being called a coward is more frightening than selling your soul, so to speak.

For me the answer is no, but I am long past the draft age. What is your answer?

Think, consider, and act today!” (Jim Fedako, “Having the Manhood To Be a Coward“)

Following the first interest rate increase in several years, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell provided some interesting predictions for the year ahead. Starting with his thoughts on the likelihood of a recession:

…I would start by saying that, in my view, the probability of a recession within the next year is not particularly elevated.