I don't see this as Russia mocking the US. This is purely the US mocking ourselves with stupidity. Napoleon said it, though he was paraphrasing Cardinal Richelieu, "There are limits to corruption. There are no limits to stupidity."
So! Here we are! USA! USA! USA! We're number one In stupid! We're number one in stupid!
And we're paying the price for it, right now! How? Inflation. You feel that at the supermarket?
Inflation is caused by energy poverty (which masquerades as energy expense). Here are the two papers that definitively link energy to valuation of money.
Garrett, T.J. (2011) Are there basic physical constraints on future anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-009-9717-9 ...the human system grows through a self-perpetuating feedback loop in which the consumption rate of primary energy resources stays tied to the historical accumulation of global economic production—or p×g—through a time-independent factor of 9.7±0.3 milliWatts per inflation-adjusted 1990 US dollar.
That brings us to the egregious stupidity of the economics profession. Economics has yet to accept this fact that is proven. Why? Well, economists are taught ancestor worship in their classes.
Economics today has a relationship to understanding flows of money and products analogous to the relationship astrology has to astronomy. There are a small number of renegades who developed modern monetary theory (MMT). However, they have wrapped their MMT exposition in a thick blanket of social programs.
MMT is correct in its mechanics as far as it goes. I think MMT theorists make a grave mistake in presuming (as Marxists did before them) that people and politicians can be expected to be saintly.
However, MMT has not accepted Garrett's work, not yet. The only economist I know of that recognized the value of Garrett's work is Steve Keen. Steve published this update to Cobb-Douglas before co-authoring the Lotka's Wheel article with Tim Garrett.
I have seen evidence that China's economists are not strangled by the grip of dead economists of yore. Russia also shows evidence of this. Both are understandable because their academics were, of course Marxists, and then Marx was dethroned in Russia, and quietly bypassed in China. I have heard a clear statement from V. Putin that the economy is about energy, resources, and engineering. And both Russia and China have operated their Central Banks better than the USA has.
Meanwhile, the USA is in the constrictor grip of the school of Western economics. This Western school encompasses neo-classical, institutionalist, etc. pretty much everyone except for MMT. Our economists, in Europe and North America sit astride a reeking pile of garbage that is well known to be empirically wrong, led by the ghost of Milton Friedman, a man who literally said that the less accurate a model's assumptions the more valuable it is. Friedman has been proven wrong on everything I am aware of. And yet, we of the stupid Western world just arranged for Friemdan acolytes to get a Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics. The work they were feted for is, in a word, malarkey.
So let's not blame any of this on Russia. This is 100% our problem. We created it. We maintain it. The enemy is us, nobody else. Yes, it's more than an embarrassment. This wealth of idiocy is now threatening the survival of civilization.
I don't see this as Russia mocking the US. This is purely the US mocking ourselves with stupidity. Napoleon said it, though he was paraphrasing Cardinal Richelieu, "There are limits to corruption. There are no limits to stupidity."
So! Here we are! USA! USA! USA! We're number one In stupid! We're number one in stupid!
And we're paying the price for it, right now! How? Inflation. You feel that at the supermarket?
Inflation is caused by energy poverty (which masquerades as energy expense). Here are the two papers that definitively link energy to valuation of money.
Garrett, T.J. (2022) Lotka's wheel and the long arm of history: how does the distant past determine today's global rate of energy consumption? https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/13/1021/2022/esd-13-1021-2022.html
Garrett, T.J. (2011) Are there basic physical constraints on future anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-009-9717-9 ...the human system grows through a self-perpetuating feedback loop in which the consumption rate of primary energy resources stays tied to the historical accumulation of global economic production—or p×g—through a time-independent factor of 9.7±0.3 milliWatts per inflation-adjusted 1990 US dollar.
That brings us to the egregious stupidity of the economics profession. Economics has yet to accept this fact that is proven. Why? Well, economists are taught ancestor worship in their classes.
Harvey, J.T. (2020) Book: Contending Perspectives in Economics: A Guide to Contemporary Schools of Thought. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/contending-perspectives-in-economics-9781789900484.html
Economics today has a relationship to understanding flows of money and products analogous to the relationship astrology has to astronomy. There are a small number of renegades who developed modern monetary theory (MMT). However, they have wrapped their MMT exposition in a thick blanket of social programs.
William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray, Martin Watts (2019) Macroeconomics. (1st ed.) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/macroeconomics-9781137610669/
MMT is correct in its mechanics as far as it goes. I think MMT theorists make a grave mistake in presuming (as Marxists did before them) that people and politicians can be expected to be saintly.
Hanley, B. Is Modern Monetary Theory’s prescription to spend without reference to tax receipts an invitation to tyranny? https://akjournals.com/view/journals/032/71/3/article-p431.xml
However, MMT has not accepted Garrett's work, not yet. The only economist I know of that recognized the value of Garrett's work is Steve Keen. Steve published this update to Cobb-Douglas before co-authoring the Lotka's Wheel article with Tim Garrett.
Keen, S. , Ayres, R.U., Standish, R. (2019) A Note on the Role of Energy in Production. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800917311746
Steve has been a renegade critic economist for most of his academic life.
Keen. S. (2011) Debunking Economics. The Naked Emperor Dethroned? https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/debunking-economics-9781848139947/
I have seen evidence that China's economists are not strangled by the grip of dead economists of yore. Russia also shows evidence of this. Both are understandable because their academics were, of course Marxists, and then Marx was dethroned in Russia, and quietly bypassed in China. I have heard a clear statement from V. Putin that the economy is about energy, resources, and engineering. And both Russia and China have operated their Central Banks better than the USA has.
Meanwhile, the USA is in the constrictor grip of the school of Western economics. This Western school encompasses neo-classical, institutionalist, etc. pretty much everyone except for MMT. Our economists, in Europe and North America sit astride a reeking pile of garbage that is well known to be empirically wrong, led by the ghost of Milton Friedman, a man who literally said that the less accurate a model's assumptions the more valuable it is. Friedman has been proven wrong on everything I am aware of. And yet, we of the stupid Western world just arranged for Friemdan acolytes to get a Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics. The work they were feted for is, in a word, malarkey.
Keen, S. (2022) The fantasy economics of the Nobel Prize: How banks create money. https://iai.tv/articles/the-fantasy-economics-of-the-nobel-prize-auid-2279?_auid=2020
So let's not blame any of this on Russia. This is 100% our problem. We created it. We maintain it. The enemy is us, nobody else. Yes, it's more than an embarrassment. This wealth of idiocy is now threatening the survival of civilization.
as always, Brian - I appreciate your feedback