The world has witnessed China’s sweeping centralized measures against the coronavirus, sometimes with awe and sometimes with criticism. These cases give a picture from various levels below. At each level, decentralization plays a crucial role and importantly, it is not categorically against collaborations with social, business and state agents at other levels. These are vertical and horizontal social networks of support in the broadest sense of the word ‘social’ and for the interest of the broadest groups.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/social-support-networks-springing-coronavirus-stricken-china/

#podcast

theintercept.com/2020/03/17/naomi-klein-and-jeremy-scahill-discuss-coronavirus-the-election-and-solidarity-in-the-midst-of-a-pandemic/

When the coronavirus threats begin to recede, my greatest hope is that those who survive can hang on to the idea that we are in this together, that government can promote our common health and prosperity, and that a lot of solutions dismissed as unreasonable are, in fact, quite possible. There will be powerful pressures to return to “normalcy.” It will be our responsibility to insist we can’t go back to the way things were.

thebaffler.com/latest/stepping-up-wimbish

ASEAN Geoeconomic Project

"The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has a vision for greater physical, institutional, and people-to-people linkages among its ten member countries. Its Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 proposes connecting its members with new hard and soft infrastructure."

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I'll be sending the maps of other geoeconomic projects in the next days :)

there is much talk about fiscal and monetary measures to alleviate the slump in the advanced capitalist economies. But there is little talk about the devastating hit to the billions in the so-called ‘Global South’. Many larger economies there were already in a recession – Mexico, Argentina, South Africa etc. And now the double-whammy of a collapse in commodity prices, particularly energy, will hit many ‘global south’ economies depending on staple commodities as their main exports. It is the sharpest fall in commodity prices since 1986.

thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/03/19/the-emerging-market-slump/

When uncommon emergency situations dominate our concerns, we become obsessed with building systems that can survive at all costs, instead of thinking about how to build systems that, even if not totally impervious to destruction, will actually help people to live good lives. This is, I think, an extremely dangerous proposition.

www.currentaffairs.org/2020/03/the-politics-of-emergencies/

China's Geoeconomic Project

"The Belt and Road Initiative imagines a future Eurasia where all routes lead to Beijing. As an open-ended framework, however, the initiative is less clear. It combines new and older projects, covers an uncertain geographic scope, and includes efforts to strengthen hard infrastructure, soft infrastructure, and even cultural ties."

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Capitalism is not the end of history. It is nothing more than one more system of repression, one more system of organization. It is no more permanent than slavery, feudalism, absolute monarchy or any other system of the past. If this were not so, there would not be so much frenetic activity put into convincing us that “there is no alternative.”

www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/20/if-neoliberalism-is-crumbling-what-will-follow/

European Union’s Geoeconomic Project

The EU aims to extend its well-developed transport network. Its Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) includes 9 corridors, which complement the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the Eastern Partnership, and other agreements that aspire to deepen political and economic ties with their respective regions.

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India’s Geoeconomic Project

India’s vision is focused on increasing connectivity within its own borders. The Indian government is assembling small groups of coalitions with its neighbors in support of its regional economic objectives. By developing Chabahar Port in Iran, for example, India intends to bypass Pakistan and access overland routes to Europe and Central Asia. Looking even further, India's “Act East” policy aims to strengthen links between India and ASEAN nations.

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Oil Age: How one commodity explains the rise of our modern age…and now threatens to destroy it.

www.currentaffairs.org/2020/03/oil-age/