The Capitalists “Bible”, the ‘Financial Times,’ has some disturbing news for the EU working class. A  ‘severe recession’ is a strong possibility.

The  Prussian  Klemens Wenzel Furst von Metternich first said, ‘When France sneezes the whole world catches cold.’ This later became, ‘When America sneezes…’ That  ‘boom and bust’ was an inherent part of capitalism was firstly delineated by Karl Marx. Unlike the common cold there is a cure to prevent  this happening time and again with its devastating effects on the lives of all members of the majority class. The cure is the replacement of capitalism by Socialism.

“The lingering energy crisis is expected to cause further recession in the Eurozone this year, the Financial Times has reported, citing economists.

According to the report, prices in the region will rise by an average of over 6%, and the unemployment rate will increase from the current 6.5% to 7.1% by the end of 2023. High inflation and energy shortages will lead to a further decline in production and worsen the situation in the labour market. Subsequently, by the end of the year, the Eurozone economy will shrink by 0.01%.

“Gas markets in Europe remain a key risk. Additional supply disruptions, or a particularly cold winter, could lead to renewed tensions and prices rising again, forcing another round of adaptation and demand destruction,” Chiara Zangarelli, an economist at Morgan Stanley, was cited as saying.

The energy crisis in the EU worsened over the summer when sanctions and technical setbacks led to the first interruptions in gas supplies from Russia. While most economists have said that Europe is past the worst of the energy crisis this year, many worry that the prospect of energy rationing could return next heating season, especially if the upcoming months are cold and cause increased tapping of gas reserves.

“The tail risk of gas rationing has likely been avoided for this winter, but the question of energy supply for the next winter is still open,” Sylvain Broyer of S&P Global Ratings told FT. Another expert, Carsten Brzeski of ING Bank, said, “next winter will be even more challenging,” as it will be much harder for EU countries to refill gas storage facilities without Russian supplies, even with more gas coming from Norway, the US, and the Middle East.

Economists are also worried about the outcome of further steps to stem inflation by the European Central Bank. Marcello Messori, an economics professor at LUISS University in Rome, warned that further interest rate hikes could “lead to a severe recession in the euro area.””

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Dave C.

The 14 largest publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion on stock buybacks and dividends from 2012 through 2021 — more than the $660 billion they spent on research and development according to economists William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, and Öner Tulum, a researcher at Brown University, in a new paper.

The Lazonick/Tulum research shows that the business model of America’s largest pharmaceutical companies involves far more spending on enriching shareholders and executives than on research and development.

Big Pharma rarely invests in prevention, because it has very little motivation to invest in preparedness for a public health crisis. Drugs for prevention do not contribute to share-holder value and profit. Instead, cures are designed once a public health crisis strikes.

Opinion | When Big Pharma Spends More on Stock Buybacks Than R&D | Common Dreams

Access to and availability of quality health care continues to be a matter of life or death for children globally. Most child deaths occur in the first five years, of which half are within the very first month of life. For these youngest babies, premature birth and complications during labour are the leading causes of death. Similarly, more than 40 per cent of stillbirths occur during labour – most of which are preventable when women have access to quality care throughout pregnancy and birth. For children that survive past their first 28 days, infectious diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria pose the biggest threat.

“It is grossly unjust that a child’s chances of survival can be shaped just by their place of birth, and that there are such vast inequities in their access to lifesaving health services,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO). 

An estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021, according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).

The group found that 1.9 million babies were stillborn during the same period. Tragically, many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health care.

54 countries will fall short of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals target for under-five mortality. If swift action is not taken to improve health services, warn the agencies, almost 59 million children and youth will die before 2030, and nearly 16 million babies will be lost to stillbirth.

Children continue to face wildly differentiating chances of survival based on where they are born, with sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia shouldering the heaviest burden, the reports show. Though sub-Saharan Africa had just 29 per cent of global live births, the region accounted for 56 per cent of all under-five deaths in 2021, and Southern Asia for 26 per cent of the total. Children born in sub-Saharan Africa are subject to the highest risk of childhood death in the world – 15 times higher than the risk for children in Europe and Northern America.

Mothers in these two regions also endure the painful loss of babies to stillbirth at an exceptional rate, with 77 per cent of all stillbirths in 2021 occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Nearly half of all stillbirths happened in sub-Saharan Africa. The risk of a woman having a stillborn baby in sub-Saharan Africa is seven times more likely than in Europe and North America.

 “Every day, far too many parents are facing the trauma of losing their children, sometimes even before their first breath,” said Vidhya Ganesh, UNICEF Director of the Division of Data Analytics, Planning and Monitoring. “Such widespread, preventable tragedy should never be accepted as inevitable. Progress is possible with stronger political will and targeted investment in equitable access to primary health care for every woman and child.”

“Behind these numbers are millions of children and families who are denied their basic rights to health,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank and Director of the Global Financing Facility. 

John Wilmoth, Director, UN DESA Population Division, explained “Only by improving access to quality health care, especially around the time of childbirth, will we be able to reduce these inequities and end preventable deaths of newborns and children worldwide.”

A child or youth died once every 4.4 seconds in 2021 – UN report – World | ReliefWeb

 More than a third of UK adults would find it difficult or impossible to cope with a £20 increase in their monthly outgoings, as the cost of living crisis hits household finances.

Citizens Advice found that 37% of adults would struggle to find an extra £20, with 25% saying they would find it “somewhat difficult”, while 7% said it would be very “very difficult,” and 4% “impossible,” PA reported.

The charity said people were increasingly resorting to desperate measures to get by, for example by eating only cold meals.  

The charity’s chief executive, Dame Clare Moriarty, said: “Millions of households are at financial breaking point: running down savings, going without bare essentials and turning to food banks to get by. We’re already seeing record numbers of people coming to us for crisis support and this research shows people simply cannot cut back any further…”

The Citizens Advice survey, of 2,000 UK adults by Public First between 5 and 9 December, showed nearly a quarter (23%) had spent more money on essentials such as food, toiletries and energy, than they had coming in over the past three months. More than two-thirds of them (67%) said they could only keep this up for six months or less without additional support. A third of people said they had to dip into their savings in the last three months to get by, but more than half (56%) of this group said they had either run out of savings or expected to do so in the next three months.

This persistent financial stress is taking its toll on people, with 28% losing sleep at least once a week over their finances.

Around one in seven said they had been eating cold meals over the winter to reduce their energy costs.

It supported a record number of people in December, helping them access emergency grants and referring them to food banks.

StepChange, the UK’s largest debt advice charity, told the Guardian that more people were using candles or not putting the cooker on “because they’re scared of the bills”.

More than third of UK adults would struggle to find extra £20 | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

 United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund released a report showing that more than 11,000 young people have been killed or injured in the conflict, where a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out attacks since 2015. The known number of maimed children in Yemen is equivalent to about four young people being hurt per day, according to UNICEF.

The true death toll of children is likely far higher, said UNICEF, as millions face hunger and disease.

“Thousands of children have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable disease or starvation,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

Roughly 2.2 million Yemeni young people face acute malnourishment, said UNICEF, and one-quarter of those children are under age five. With 10 million children lacking access to healthcare as health clinics have been forced to close, a majority of the country’s children are now at extreme risk for measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses, as well as cholera. 

UN Report: 11,000 Children Killed in Yemen (consortiumnews.com)

 For decades, the biggest inequalities in carbon emissions have been between rich and poor countries. 

Now, inequalities within countries explain more of the gap between clean and dirty lifestyles. 

The top 1% of global earners — somebody earning a yearly salary of about €124,000 ($132,000) — are responsible for one-fifth of the growth in carbon pollution in the last 30 years. They live in cities from Miami to Mumbai. 

“The top 1% use basically a similar amount to the bottom 50% of humanity — and so obviously that, just in terms of scale, is a ridiculous proportion of the carbon budget,” said Anisha Nazareth, a scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) studying emissions inequality.

 Oligarch Roman Abramovich’s 162-meter-long boat comes with two helipads and a swimming pool. A study published in 2021 estimated that Abramovich’s yacht emitted more carbon dioxide in 2018 than Tuvalu, a pacific island nation of 11,000 people.

In the EU, half the spending on air travel comes from the richest 20%. In the US and Canada, 19% of adults who take more than four flights a year account for 79% of the flights. 

Shrinking the carbon footprints of the super-rich? – DW – 01/02/2023

 To all those who agitate for more taxation of millionaires and billionaires, the only way to ensure fairness and true equality is to replace capitalism with socialism – production for need, not profit. Ask yourself, what would governments squander extra revenue on anyway? Because it’s odds -on it wouldn’t, in the long run (or short), help those who need help most.

“Tesla owner Elon Musk has lost some $200 billion in the past year, becoming the first person ever to lose that much money, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing calculations from its Billionaires Index.

According to the report, Musk had a net worth of $340 billion after Tesla’s market capitalization topped $1 trillion late last year. However, his fortune is now worth $137 billion.

Analysts say the losses were attributable to the poor performance of Tesla stock, which plummeted by 65% this year, intensifying its descent in the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

In order to help cover the cost of purchasing the social media platform, Musk has been selling Tesla shares, leading to accusations from investors that he is prioritizing Twitter over Tesla.

The billionaire, however, has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the car-manufacturing company, claiming on Twitter earlier this month that it “is executing better than ever.”

However, Tesla’s plummeting stock has already cost Musk his place as the world’s richest man. Earlier this month, the title passed to French tycoon Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH.”

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Dave C.

 “North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for the country to develop a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and boost its nuclear arsenal amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, state-run media reported.

Pyongyang requires “overwhelming military power” to defend itself as Washington and “our undoubted enemy” Seoul try to “isolate and stifle” North Korea with US nuclear assets deployed in South Korean territory, Kim said on Sunday, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.

During a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), the country’s leader insisted that a new ICBM capable of a “quick nuclear counter-strike” must be developed by North Korea.

Kim stressed the importance of “mass-producing tactical nuclear weapons,” saying “an exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal” would be the “main orientation” of North Korea’s defense strategy in 2023, KCNA reported.

Pyongyang is also planning to launch its first military satellite “at the earliest date possible,” and this is in the final stages of development, the agency added. 

On Saturday, Kim praised the country’s defense industry for delivering 30 new 600mm super-large multiple rocket launchers to the military. He described the nuclear-capable system as the country’s “core offensive weapon,” which can strike anywhere in South Korea with surprise and precision launches.

“We have declared our resolute will to respond with nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation,” he warned, as quoted by KCNA.

North Korea carried out a record number of missile tests in 2022, some of which involved ICBMs, according to calculations by Western media outlets. And it has already fired a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast in the early hours of the new year. Washington and Seoul have claimed that the North is gearing up for its nuclear test since 2017.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned on Sunday that North Korea would continue with its nuclear and missile provocations, insisting that Seoul’s military should respond to such moves with clear retaliation, according to his office.

On Monday, Pyongyang sent five drones into South Korean territory, with Seoul responding by flying three UAVs into North Korean airspace. South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup told parliament on Wednesday that President Yoon had ordered him to come up with a tit-for-tat response “even if that means risking escalation.”

Tensions have been on the rise between the two neighbours since Yoon came to power in May and declared a “peace through strength” policy, which is based on further boosting military ties with the US. In late December, Seoul announced an increase in joint drills with the Americans, with 20 such exercises planned for the first half of 2023 alone.”

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Dave C.

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 Two nuclear power plants in the UK are at the risk of being closed next year as a result of the windfall tax approved by the British authorities last year, The Sunday Telegraph reports on Sunday, citing French grid operator Electricite de France (EDF), which runs the stations.

EDF, which owns all five of the serving nuclear plants across the UK said that the new levy, which has come into effect on January 1, will make it harder for the operator to run the ageing stations of Heysham 1 and Hartlepool.

The UK authorities introduced the Energy Price Levy earlier this year and then expanded it in November in an effort to refill the nation’s budget drained by subsidizing natural gas bills that have skyrocketed since London joined the Ukraine-related sanctions.

The windfall tax on oil and gas generators was raised from 25% to 35%, imposing an overall tax rate of 75% on profits from UK operations. The measure places a 45% tax on any income from lower-carbon power sold for more than £75 ($91) per megawatt hour starting 2023.

“We accept there’s definitely a need for a levy of some kind – you’ve got to break the link between really high gas prices and the impact they have on power prices,” Rachael Glaving, commercial director of generation at EDF UK, told the newspaper.

“But of course that’s going to factor into the business case of life extension and we’ll have to take that [the windfall tax] into consideration. It’s not going to make it easier.”

She stressed that the levy will damage the business case for the facilities at a time when inflation is already pushing up other costs.

Heysham 1 and Hartlepool supply over two gigawatts of electricity to the grid, providing enough power for four million households annually, and nearly 4% of the power Britain uses during highest winter peaks.

Under the initial plan, the two power plants were to close in March 2024, but the owner considered extending the operating period for a “short term” amid a large-scale energy crisis that has hit Western Europe over the past years.

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Dave C.