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adding sauce to the multipolarity of the world economy....

The Russian economy is growing at a faster pace than projected, with GDP expected to soar 3.9% this year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Friday.

Siluanov told TV channel Russia-24 that GDP growth in the first half of the year amounted to 4.7%, which is “a very good figure.”

“We see investments growing, at around 8%, real disposable incomes of the population are also increasing,” the minister stated.

“The estimates for the dynamics of the economy for this year are also higher than we initially included in our forecasts … Last year, the figure was 3.6%, it was high, and this year we will exceed it,” he said.

Budget revenues are growing above last year’s level, having increased by 4.7 trillion rubles ($52 billion) to date, according to Siluanov. He attributed the jump to the growth of oil and gas revenues and to income from the domestic economy.

The country’s budget deficit is expected to be at about 1.1% of GDP by the end of 2024, according to the minister.

The budget will receive around $30 billion in 2025 from changes in the tax system, which will be directed to priority tasks, he also said.

In its April forecast, the Russian Economic Development Ministry predicted growth of 2.8% for 2024. The projection is expected to be revised in early September.

READ MORE: Russia becomes ‘high income’ country – World Bank

The World Bank has previously raised its growth forecast for the Russian economy, saying GDP will grow 2.9% this year and 1.4% in 2025. This is an upward revision from its previous projection of 2.2% and 1.1% growth, respectively. The World Bank said that Russian economic growth has defied Western sanctions.

The International Monetary Fund said in April it expects the Russian economy to grow faster than all advanced economies in 2024.

https://www.rt.com/business/603324-russian-economic-growth-siluanov/

 

 

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The US is rapidly moving towards bankruptcy because the government in Washington is spending too much money, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has warned.

On Thursday, Musk shared a post on his X (formerly Twitter) platform by another user, who cited a forecast from the US government budget for fiscal year 2025 that said that the budget deficit could increase from the current $1.8 billion to almost $16.3 billion by 2035.

"At current rates of government spending, America is in the fast lane to bankruptcy,” Musk wrote.

The tech billionaire also suggested that “government overspending is what causes inflation” in the country.

The US annual inflation rate dipped below 3% in July for the first time since 2021, according to a Labor Department report, issued two weeks ago. The prices for goods and services went up by 2.9%, while core inflation, which excludes food and energy industries, rose by 3.2% over the previous 12 months.

In late July, the US Treasury Department announced that the country’s national debt surpassed $35 trillion for the first time in history, increasing by a trillion since January.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that by 2034 the debt will exceed $50 trillion, amounting to more than 122% of America’s GDP. The CBO also said that it expects the country’s average annual GDP growth rate to be at around 1.8% from 2029 to 2034.

In June, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) think tank claimed that the national debt grew by $4.3 billion under incumbent US President Joe Biden, compared to $8.4 billion during Donald Trump’s term in office.

In August, Trump gave a lengthy interview to Musk on X. Shortly after that, the Republican presidential candidate said that he would consider the tech billionaire, whom he described as a “brilliant guy,” for a role in his administration if he wins the election in November. Musk replied to the offer in a post, stressing that he is “willing to serve.”

https://www.rt.com/news/603366-us-musk-bankruptcy-inflation/

 

 

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DECEMBER 2020

HOW RUSSIA WINS THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate change and its enormous human migrations will transform agriculture and remake the world order — and no country stands to gain more than Russia.

By Abrahm Lustgarten

It was only November, but the chill already cut to the bone in the small village of Dimitrovo, which sits just 35 miles north of the Chinese border in a remote part of eastern Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region. Behind a row of sagging cabins and decades-old farm equipment, flat fields ran into the brambly branches of a leafless forest before fading into the oblivion of a dreary squall. Several villagers walked the single-lane dirt road, their shoulders rounded against the cold, their ghostly footprints marking the dry white snow.

This article, the third in a series on global climate migration, is a partnership between ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, with support from the Pulitzer Center. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

A few miles down the road, a rusting old John Deere combine growled on through the flurries, its blade churning through dead-brown stalks of soybeans. The tractor lurched to a halt, and a good-humored man named Dima climbed down from the cockpit. Dima, an entrepreneur who farms nearly 6,500 acres of these fields, was born in the Liaoning Province of northeastern China — his birth name is Xin Jie — one of a wave of Chinese to migrate north in pursuit of opportunity in recent years. After Dima’s mostly Chinese laborers returned home this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, he has been forced to do much of the work himself. Bundled against the wind in a camouflage parka, he bent to pick a handful of slender pods from the ground, opening one to reveal a glimpse at Russia’s future.

A great transformation is underway in the eastern half of Russia. For centuries the vast majority of the land has been impossible to farm; only the southernmost stretches along the Chinese and Mongolian borders, including around Dimitrovo, have been temperate enough to offer workable soil. But as the climate has begun to warm, the land — and the prospect for cultivating it — has begun to improve. Twenty years ago, Dima says, the spring thaw came in May, but now the ground is bare by April; rainstorms now come stronger and wetter. Across Eastern Russia, wild forests, swamps and grasslands are slowly being transformed into orderly grids of soybeans, corn and wheat. It’s a process that is likely to accelerate: Russia hopes to seize on the warming temperatures and longer growing seasons brought by climate change to refashion itself as one of the planet’s largest producers of food.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/16/magazine/russia-climate-migration-crisis.html

 

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Russia’s GDP could grow by 1.2 trillion rubles ($13 billion) if the average annual temperature across the country rises by one degree Celsius, according to new research. The agriculture and forestry sectors stand to benefit most from global warning, the experts who conducted it conclude.

The findings of the report by the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEF RAS) were presented at a forum called “BRICS Climate Agenda in Modern Conditions” which was held in Moscow on Friday. 

On average, the temperature in Russia grows by 0.5 C every ten years, causing additional risks of weather extremes as well as creating challenges for the economy, said Aleksandr Shirov, the director of IEF and one of the authors of the research. However, if an efficient adaptation policy is implemented, the effects of climate change could be positive for Russia, he told the forum.

The research compared possible profits and damages in different areas of the economy, such as agriculture, extraction of mineral resources, transport and construction sectors, etc. The damage from warming by one degree Celsius in all sectors amounted to 2.45 trillion rubles ($26.8 bn), while the benefits total 3.64 trillion rubles ($39.8 bn).

https://www.rt.com/russia/603364-gdp-russia-global-warming/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

 

neutered UAVs....

Russian air defenses thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow during the night, with no casualties or damage on the ground, according to the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin.

The official said the first of the UAVs was shot down near Podolsk, 40 km south of Moscow, at around 1:20am on Sunday, and an hour later, another drone was destroyed en route to the capital.

In a series of follow-up posts over a six-hour period, Sobyanin reported that more drones were intercepted over the Stupino, Odintsovo, Leninsky and Ramensky districts.

Another UAV reportedly attempted to target an oil refinery in Kapotnya, a district in southeast Moscow renowned for its petrol industry, but was shot down with no damage or injuries on the ground, Sobyanin added.

Meanwhile, the head of Moscow Region’s Kashira district, Mikhail Shuvalov, said the local Kashirskaya Power Plant was targeted by three drones overnight, but that the attack did not cause any casualties or damage. 

“Electricity is being supplied to customers without interruption. Emergency services are working on site,”Shuvalov wrote on Telegram.

As of 7.30am local time, Russian air defenses were still engaging hostile targets, Sobyanin added. According to preliminary information, falling debris did not cause casualties or significant damage, and emergency services were working at the site.

Ukraine has periodically attempted to target the Russian capital – located more than 500 kilometers from the front line – with drone raids. Most of the UAVs have been neutralized before reaching their targets. On August 21, eleven UAVs were downed in the vicinity of the Russian capital in “one of the largest” Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.

https://www.rt.com/russia/603351-moscow-unkrainian-drones-intercepted/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

US job market....

The U.S. labor market is deteriorating, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell might still have time to save it, with plans to begin cutting interest rates later this month.

The government reported on Friday that hiring is slowing, with 142,000 jobs added in August, fewer than economists expected. It also sharply revised down the gains from the two previous months. But after a worrying jump in the unemployment rate last month, joblessness actually ticked back down to 4.2 percent in August and wage growth accelerated.

“The big question is, did the Fed snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Did the Fed keep rates too high too long?” said Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “Nobody knows that yet."

 

The delicate work of taming inflation without choking off growth is coming to a head just weeks away from a presidential election where polling is neck and neck and the economy is a top priority for voters. 

Inflation, among the biggest concerns for voters, is falling back to the central bank’s 2 percent target alongside a slow but noticeable increase in unemployment over the past year, prompting Powell and his fellow officials to say they’re ready to ease off the economy. 

President Joe Biden touted the added jobs and falling unemployment rate as a sign the economy is still strong.

“With inflation back down close to normal levels, it is important to focus on sustaining the historic gains we have made for American workers,” he said in a statement.

The immediate question for the Fed is how quickly to lower borrowing costs. But most of the fallout will come after ballots are cast, meaning Powell’s decisions will set the backdrop for economic conditions as a new president takes office. 

Fed policymakers will meet on Sept. 17-18, where they are widely expected to cut rates for the first time in more than four years.

“While the labor market has clearly cooled, based on the evidence I see, I do not believe the economy is in a recession or necessarily headed for one soon,” Fed Governor Chris Waller said in a speech Friday. “But I also believe that maintaining the economy’s forward momentum means that, as Chair Powell said recently, the time has come to begin reducing [rates].”

The labor market has been softening because there are fewer opportunities — bad news for recent college graduates or people looking to change jobs, but overall, less disruptive. Policymakers are worried that any further weakening will come through a more painful route: layoffs.

Fed officials aren’t seeing reason for panic, yet. “Reports of layoffs remained rare,” according to this week’s Beige Book, a document where central bank officials compile stuff they’re hearing throughout the country.

Weekly jobless claims also aren’t spiking. And the unemployment rate fell largely because it went up in July, driven by temporary layoffs — meaning companies expected to rehire the workers.

Still, the labor market is weakening.

Omair Sharif, president of Inflation Insights, wrote in a note to clients that the three-month average of jobs added is 116,000 after the downward revisions to the previous two months. There are so many jobs gained and lost each month — more than 5 million on each side of the ledger — that only a gain of at least 130,000 is statistically significant.

“In other words, we don’t know if payrolls were any different than zero in two of the last 3 months,” Sharif said.

Although Friday’s report doesn’t suggest a recession is imminent, John Waldmann, who is CEO of small business payroll company Homebase, said his company’s data showed “flashing yellow lights.”

“What we have seen is broad declines in employees working across pretty much all industries,” he said. Headcount shrunk by 3.5 percent relative to July, “which is normal seasonally, but the drop was sharper than the last few years.”

Their small business clients “react very quickly to changes in the market,” he added. “And what we are seeing is, fundamentally, they are just hiring less.”

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/06/weakening-job-market-pressure-on-fed-00177701

 

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.