Edward Helmore – US increased weapons sales in 2015 despite slight drop in global arms trade

The sale of global arms dropped slightly last year to $80bn from 2014’s $89bn, according to a new congressional study, with the US maintaining its position as the world’s dominant supplier. But at $40bn the US market share of weapons sales amounted to about half of all arms agreements in 2015, and more than double the orders recorded by France, …

Yves Smith – Why Economic Recovery Requires Rethinking Capitalism

In 2008, Queen Elizabeth II went to the London School of Economics to open a new academic building.  The British Monarch has made it a life’s work to avoid saying anything contentious in public, but this time she had a question for the economists: Why had they not seen the financial crash coming? Her question went to the heart of …

Herbal Dietary Supplement Sales in US Increased by 7.5% in 2015

PR Newswire 09-08-16 AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Sales of herbal dietary supplements in the United States increased by 7.5% in 2015, according to a new market report by the American Botanical Council(ABC).1 In 2015, herbal supplement sales totaled an estimated $6.92 billion, a new record. The report appears in issue 111 of HerbalGram, which was published in late August. The annual Herb Market Report is based on sales statistics …

Andrew Korybko – Lithium, a Strategic Resource: Here’s Why The US Wants To Break Bolivia To Bits With Hybrid War

So I was scanning Telesur’s website the other day and a pretty interesting story caught my eye. It said that Bolivia had begun exporting 10 tons of lithium to China as the start of what the country hopes will flourish into a multimillion-dollar partnership in the near future. The reason why this is such a big deal and I’m talking about it …