this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
107 points (100.0% liked)
news
24485 readers
663 users here now
Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.
Rules:
-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --
Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body.
If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include not just the twitter.com URL but also Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source (archive.today, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org). Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed.
Mass-tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken Markov chain bot will result in a comm ban.
Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.
Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned.
Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
107
Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it's important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism's decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Hey, the US. You can destroy our infrastructure and please, we want to buy more weapons and fossil fuels from you. But ending a war? HELL NO!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-dealt-major-blow-as-europe-threatens-nuclear-option-if-ukraine-deal-goes-left/ar-AA1RuVN5
"Borrowing" costs won't rise since exchange rate is the thing that moves, not interest rate. In case of heavy selloff, Fed will stabilize yields.
When you sell US Treasuries you get Dollars. Only when you sell those Dollars in the forex markets does the Dollar depreciate. Will the EU be just replacing US Treasuries with USD. If so it's not very meaningful.
Are the EU countries willing to tolerate capital losses on their holdings if they go with USD for EUR? Ie they will get less and less of Euros as they dump USD.
The US can simply prevent or limit conversions to foreign currency. It's their computers. Will markets react badly? Sure, but whether or not this is catastrophic is uncertain.
Given the massive exchange rate appreciation of the EUR if they do sell, trade competitiveness will be undermined significantly. Other countries will have to get hold of more units of Dollars which they get from abroad to purchase European goods and services.
U.S. Dollars powers come from rest of the world being willing to accumulate it. Not from the existing stock of debt (which is functionally not different from interest earning cash). Will that change if EU dumps Treasuries?
The EU and UK hold over $2 trillion in treasuries. QE of that size would be massive at a time when the Fed is trying to lower inflation. It would be very painful for the US, and yields would certainly rise
Worst case scenario, Fed can open a window where they will buy all the treasuries at a fixed price targeting a certain yield. Markets will arbitrage it keeping yields near the target.
Australia did it during COVID, not because of any sell-offs but to lower long term yields to near short term ones.
In the gold standard era, doing so would result in everyone holding Dollars which they could convert to Gold (at least foreigners could). This would drain gold reserves and they would actually have to try borrow gold from the market and take away convertible currency at higher and higher yields until markets won't give you anything regardless of yield (see Greece).
That is not a binding constraint under float. Hence why bond issuance for fiscal policy is no longer needed. It has stopped being the price Govt pays to market to get them to hold your bonds over convertible cash. It is now simply a free money asset.
The idea of QE causing inflation comes from a very trickle down idea supply creating demand. The idea that if you just give reserves to bank by doing QE (an asset swap), lending will somehow rise. That's not the case, banks lend to whoever they see as profitable within their risk appetite, they won't lend because Gov swapped their bonds for reserves. Businesses and individuals won't take loans if their own balance sheets are squeezed. Banks just end up holding excess reserves and lending just as they did before. The only effect it does have is by lowering long term rates. I am not suggesting lowering rates, I am saying they will do YCC like bond buying. The Fed then sets the curve just as they set Fed funds rate.