Posts by John Ross
Why do Cubans live longer than Americans?
Cubans live almost a year longer than Americans. So it must come as news to them that Trump says socialism in Cuba has produced ‘anguish and devastation and failure’. And as for China its citizens under socialism live 2.7 years longer than would be expected from its level of per capita GDP, whereas in the…
Read MoreWhy BRICS will overtake the G7 economies in size
A radio interview with me on why Jim O’Neill is correct that BRICS will overtake the G7 in economic size – and why BRICS already accounts for more of world growth than the G7. To listen to the interview please click here.
Read MoreWill China’s Upcoming Communist Party Congress Formalize ‘Xi’ism’?
The once in five years upcoming Congress of China’s ruling Communist Party, to be held this autumn, would in every circumstance be a major global political event. But this year’s Congress will be even more significant because it will formally consolidate Xi Jinping’s position as China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping and Mao…
Read MoreNew GDP figures confirm China’s economy is growing more than three times as fast as the US
The US has just published new data for the 2nd quarter of 2017. In order to accurately compare this data with China it is necessary to understand that the way the US and China publicise their GDP data is different. China publicises its data as a comparison to the same quarter in the previous…
Read MoreWhy China is a socialist country – China’s theory is in line with Marx (but not the post-1929 Soviet Union)
Deng Xiaoping is famous for the saying ‘it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white provided it catches mice.’ As I am an unashamed Dengite in economic theory the equivalent of this is that it is perfectly possible to understand China’s socialist economy in terms of either Western or Marxist economic theory – an…
Read MoreWhy the Latin American left, & the left in other countries, need to study China’s economic success
From 2000 until recently the left was in government in most Latin American countries. This left had enormous achievements to be hugely proud of. It brought about a real ‘revolution in distribution’. For the first time for decades a period of growth of the Latin American economies brought huge benefits to the people of Latin…
Read MoreWhy you should support China in one chart – China accounts for 78% of the world reduction of the number living in poverty
The greatest problem facing the overwhelming majority of the people living in the world is inadequate incomes and poverty. This is literally a life and death question. A person living in a low income country by World Bank standards lives only 62 years compared to 81 years in a high income economy – a difference of…
Read MoreOpinion polls show a socialist is now the most popular politician in the United States
An opinion poll has reaffirmed that the most popular politician in the US is a socialist – Bernie Sanders. As Vice reports: ‘A new poll found that among all other notable American senators, representatives, and even the president, Bernie Sanders reigns supreme as the most popular politician in the nation… ‘The Harvard-Harris Poll—an online survey conducted…
Read MoreChina’s state owned enterprises (SOEs) show their strength
The most fundamental source of confusion for Western commentators on China’s economy is that they mistakenly believe their own myth that China’s is a capitalist economy – not a socialist one. In fact China is clear that the state sector plays the leading role of the economy – something no capitalist economy does. The latest meeting…
Read MoreTrump confirms Steve Bannon is only on a ‘vacation’ from the White House
President Trump has sent out two tweets since Steve Bannon left the White House strongly confirming the analysis made earlier in ‘Bannon thinks he’s on vacation from the White House – but not that he has left it for good‘ that Steve Bannon is only on vacation (perhaps a sabbatical is the most exact concept) from the…
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