Geopolitical Economy Report

Ben Norton

Geopolitical Economy Report is an independent new…

  • 20 minutes 40 seconds
    Trump admits he wants to take Venezuela's oil — and give it to US corporations
    Donald Trump imposed a naval blockade on Venezuela and admitted that he wants to take the country's oil and give it to US corporations: "They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. They threw our companies out, and we want it back". Ben Norton explains how Washington's colonial war seeks regime change. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXjnaqfzO-Y Topics 0:00 Intro 0:36 Venezuela nationalized huge oil reserves 1:36 Trump claims US owns Venezuela's oil 2:32 (CLIP) Trump on Venezuela's oil 3:19 Trump's 1st coup attempt in Venezuela 4:32 (CLIP) Trump wanted to "take it over" 4:44 ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson 6:04 Stephen Miller: USA owns Venezuela's oil 7:23 Marco Rubio, warmonger 7:52 Naval blockade of Venezuela 8:33 Piracy: USA seizes oil tankers 9:14 Chevron allowed to pass siege 9:46 USA chokes off exports & imports 11:26 "Make the economy scream" 12:33 US coup attempts 13:00 US sanctions on Venezuela 14:24 Corporate media propaganda 16:49 UN experts: US sanctions are illegal 19:05 Imperial war of aggression 20:29 Outro
    18 December 2025, 1:39 pm
  • 37 minutes 46 seconds
    US influence in Latin America grows: Nazi-tied, pro-Israel, anti-China candidate wins Chile election
    The winner of Chile's presidential election, José Antonio Kast, is the son of a German Nazi official. He is a US-backed far-right extremist who loves Donald Trump, Israel, and fascist former dictator August Pinochet. He is also very anti-China, and will assist in Washington's attempt to impose its imperialist Monroe Doctrine. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYtCi-Wh3FU Related videos: Javier Milei is making Argentina a resource colony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3qgYZMYkj0 Why Trump is meddling in Honduras: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKShReciYQ Topics 0:00 US interventions in Latin America 2:18 Javier Milei's Argentina 2:51 Chile's President-elect José Antonio Kast 3:27 Map of political balance in Latin America 4:28 Marco Rubio 4:55 US war on Venezuela 5:27 Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet 6:53 Operation Condor (Plan Cóndor) 7:14 Cold War Two 7:44 CIA support for Nazis 8:23 Nazis who fled to South America 8:55 José Antonio Kast's Nazi father 10:36 Neoliberal Chicago Boys 12:14 Myth of Pinochet's "economic miracle" 15:18 Economic growth rates in Chile 16:20 Corrupt privatizations under Pinochet 17:50 Javier Milei deindustrializes Argentina 18:40 José Antonio Kast supports Pinochet 20:24 Kast loves Israel 20:42 Kast hates China 22:18 Brazil's far-right coup leader Bolsonaro 23:04 Kast loves Donald Trump 23:33 Kast wants mass privatizations 24:43 Chile: world's top copper producer 25:30 Lithium reserves in South America 27:42 Failure of President Gabriel Boric 28:35 Boric supports Ukraine 29:18 US corporate media praised Boric 30:58 Boric: pro-US, NGO-funded fake "left" 34:02 "Nothing will fundamentally change" 34:46 Political balance in Latin America 36:17 Trump meddles in Honduras 36:35 US empire targets Latin America 37:34 Outro
    15 December 2025, 3:20 pm
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    What is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics? This is how China's economic model works
    How does China's economic model work? Political economist Ben Norton explains the ideas behind Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, discussing China's socialist market economy, historical development, reform process, poverty reduction, industrial policy, and more. VIDEO with charts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E89qUXTX-k Topics 0:00 Introduction 1:07 China has world's largest economy 3:01 China's economic development 3:54 Poverty reduction 6:56 Rising incomes 7:42 Life expectancy 8:57 Mortality rates 9:34 Reform and Opening Up 10:16 To get rich is glorious? 11:35 Deng Xiaoping's ideology 13:54 Primary stage of socialism 14:28 Chinese capitalists 15:54 Industrialization & urbanization 16:55 Birdcage economy (Chen Yun) 18:17 State ownership 19:40 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) 20:49 Grasp the large, let go of the small 22:22 Public property 23:16 SOE assets 24:14 Provincial & local governments 25:51 Golden shares in tech companies 26:54 Huawei, biggest worker-owned company 27:17 Rural cooperatives 29:09 Democracy in China? 31:40 Foreign investment in China 33:49 Global value chain 34:34 Foreign direct investment (FDI) 35:48 Industrial policy evolution 38:22 New quality productive forces 39:23 China's green energy revolution 40:24 World's manufacturing superpower 41:04 US deindustrialization & financialization 43:22 US bubble economy 44:37 China popped real estate bubble 46:50 Inequality & uneven development 48:31 Eras of the PRC 49:01 Common prosperity in New Era 49:34 Gini coefficient 50:26 Labor income vs capital income 51:48 Poverty alleviation 52:17 Wages of Chinese workers 52:44 Labor unions in China 55:19 USA funds anti-China labor groups 57:02 Marco Rubio takes over NED 57:32 Delivery workers 58:30 996 system is banned 59:23 Working hours in China 1:00:25 Imperialism & division of labor 1:03:51 AI & new cold war 1:04:45 Silicon Valley model: monopoly 1:05:43 Market competition in China 1:07:44 China opposes private monopolies 1:08:10 State planning 1:09:05 Cold War Two
    11 December 2025, 2:02 pm
  • 1 hour 9 minutes
    This is the US empire's new strategy for global dominance
    The Donald Trump administration revealed the US empire's new plan for global dominance in the 2025 National Security Strategy. The goal is to impose hegemony in the Western Hemisphere, reviving the colonial Monroe Doctrine, to move supply chains out of Asia and bring manufacturing into Latin America via "nearshoring", in order to economically decouple from China and prepare for conflict in Cold War Two. Ben Norton analyzes the important document. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idkurWogst8 Topics 0:00 Summary of US National Security Strategy 2:45 US economic dependency on China 5:25 USA loses China war games 6:45 Why Trump targets Latin America 7:41 Marco Rubio, war hawk 9:34 (CLIP) Marco Rubio on China "threat" 10:17 Main goals of Trump's foreign policy 10:35 Improve Russia relations 11:30 Brief summary of US strategy 12:01 Western media misunderstands report 13:24 Whitewashing US imperialism 14:45 Obama's pivot to Asia 15:18 Asia is 1/2 of global economy 16:05 Hillary Clinton's "Russia reset" 16:34 Second Cold War aims at China 17:38 Main goals of US foreign policy 21:29 First target: Latin America 23:13 Second target: China 24:37 US dollar dominance 25:47 (CLIP) Trump threatens BRICS 26:16 Weaponizing technology 26:44 Natural resources in Americas 27:27 Hypocritical buzzwords 29:38 Culture war 32:00 Regions targeted by US empire 32:22 Colonial Monroe Doctrine 33:51 "Enlisting" US vassals 35:30 Nearshoring manufacturing 37:58 Militarizing Latin America 39:04 USA threatens countries 40:30 Natural resources 41:30 "US must be preeminent" 41:55 Cutting off Chinese technology 42:58 Goal: "an American-led world" 43:59 US government serves corporations 45:51 Strategy in "Indo-Pacific" region 46:21 Criticizing China's independence 47:17 Pacific: 21st century's "battleground" 47:52 Asia is half of world GDP (PPP) 49:08 Decline of Western hegemony 51:04 Supply chains 51:31 Economic war 52:21 India 55:12 Japan, South Korea, Australia 57:22 Dollar as global reserve currency 57:45 Taiwan 1:01:28 Europe 1:02:20 Russia 1:03:15 EU as captive US market 1:04:47 West Asia (Middle East) 1:05:18 Oil and natural gas 1:06:19 Israel 1:06:56 Africa 1:08:15 Conclusion 1:08:49 Outro
    7 December 2025, 2:35 pm
  • 25 minutes 6 seconds
    Trump frees one of world's worst drug traffickers - while meddling in foreign elections
    Donald Trump pardoned and freed from prison one of the world's worst drug dealers, the former dictator of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), who was convicted of trafficking 400 tons of cocaine and machine guns into the US. Ben Norton explains how the United States has meddled in Honduran elections, backed fraud, and supported a military coup. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKShReciYQ Topics 0:00 Trump pardons notorious drug trafficker 2:16 US support for Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH) 2:59 Trump threatens war on Venezuela 5:45 Journalist addresses Trump's drug hypocrisy 7:04 (CLIP) Trump blames Biden for drug arrest 7:36 USA backed Honduran narco-regime 8:01 Coup in Honduras in 2009 9:04 Stolen elections of 2013 & 2017 10:33 Trump meddles in Honduras' 2025 election 14:13 Libre Party alleges fraud 14:59 Result transmission system changes votes 15:26 President Xiomara Castro warned of coup plot 17:03 No official winner declared in election 19:16 Very suspicious results 21:15 US-backed coups and fraud 21:54 US coups in Latin America 22:30 Honduras resists US imperialism 24:54 Outro
    3 December 2025, 2:17 pm
  • 23 minutes
    Palantir executives sell their shares as the stock crashes - but they smear critics as 'crazy'
    The most overvalued stock on Earth may be that of Palantir, the corporate Big Brother that is getting huge contracts from the Trump administration and helps the US government wage war and carry out mass surveillance. Executives have been selling billions of dollars worth of shares, yet CEO Alex Karp attacks short-sellers like "Big Short" investor Michael Burry, claiming they're "crazy" for thinking the company is in a bubble. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_OuoAFp54Y Topics 0:00 Financial bubbles 0:31 AI bubble 1:01 Palantir 1:35 Investors short Palantir stock 1:58 (CLIP) CEO Alex Karp attacks short sellers 2:10 Targeting retail investors 2:23 (CLIP) CEO Alex Karp is "triggered" 3:13 Palantir executives sell shares 4:58 Financialized US economy 5:27 Trump admin contracts with Palantir 5:57 Mass surveillance 6:28 Preparing for war on China, Russia, Iran 6:54 Most revenue is from governments 7:32 Palantir stock price 8:20 Insane price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio 10:28 Is the bubble popping? 10:45 Michael Burry: "Big Short" investor 11:14 US housing bubble & financial crisis 12:11 Michael Burry shorts Palantir 12:31 (CLIP) Alex Karp: short sellers are "crazy" 12:40 CEO Alex Karp's emotional rant 13:01 (CLIP) Attacks "wokeness" & Zohran Mamdani 13:27 "Anti-woke" CEO is "triggered" 13:45 (CLIP) Alex Karp: why do they pick on us? 14:12 Delusions of grandeur 14:26 (CLIP) "Most important software company" 15:03 War on the short sellers 15:22 (CLIP) Alex Karp: "make them poorer" 15:41 Palantir executives sell their shares 16:28 Alex Karp sold $96 million 16:40 Shyam Sankar sold $37 million 17:32 Stephen Cohen sold $66 million 17:59 David Glazer sold $4 million 18:18 Ryan Taylor sold $4 million 18:33 Palantir execs keep selling shares 19:17 Alex Karp sold $1.9 billion in shares 20:04 Telling retail to invest in Palantir 20:49 (CLIP) "Experts vs retail" 21:27 Cynical exploitation 22:28 Outro
    29 November 2025, 8:46 am
  • 28 minutes 25 seconds
    AI bubble madness: Why Nvidia's market cap fell $600,000,000,000 in ONE DAY
    The US economy depends on an unsustainable stock market bubble driven by AI companies that are almost all losing money. Nvidia seems healthier, but serious red flags explain why its stock price is extremely volatile, and why its market capitalization dropped $600 billion in just one day. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZqYQBwWNY Topics 0:00 AI bubble & Nvidia 2:40 Magnificent Seven (Mag7) Big Tech stocks 4:01 US GDP growth depends on AI capex 5:01 AI circular financing scheme 6:28 OpenAI is losing money, but owes $1.4 trillion 7:38 Nvidia profits rise in earnings report 9:27 US investor madness 12:04 China challenges Nvidia's chip monopoly 13:43 Crazy volatility in Nvidia stock 15:08 CEO Jensen Huang's private comments 17:11 $600 billion drop in one day 18:13 Four customers make up 61% of Nvidia revenue 20:25 IOUs: Nvidia's accounts receivable rises 21:43 GPU demand? Nvidia inventories surge 22:37 S&P 500 falls $2 trillion in 5 hours 24:12 US economy built on financial house of cards 26:13 Markets can remain irrational... 27:01 Dangers of a recession or depression 28:13 Outro
    22 November 2025, 12:42 pm
  • 28 minutes 18 seconds
    Exposed: The US-Israeli plan to colonize Gaza
    Donald Trump vowed to "take over" and "own" Gaza. The US government plans to divide the Palestinian territory into a "green zone" run by Western allies, while trapping Gazans in a "red zone", which won't be rebuilt. The USA hopes investors will make hundreds of billions of dollars. Ben Norton reports on the colonial scheme. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW3wX4bVoU4 Topics 0:00 Colonial US-Israeli plan for Gaza 1:29 Israel's fake Gaza "ceasefire" 4:27 Trump vows to "take over" Gaza 4:49 (CLIP) Trump: USA will "own" Gaza 5:04 Plan to divide Gaza 6:00 Map of Gaza divisions 6:50 European troops will occupy Gaza 8:04 "Green Zone" in Iraq War 9:38 Leaked blueprint for Gaza 10:38 Benjamin Netanyahu 11:34 Colonial plan for Gaza 12:32 IMEC: India-Middle East-Europe Corridor 13:07 China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) 14:21 Gaza plan 14:54 "Investment" in Gaza 16:05 Colonialism 16:29 Geopolitical strategy 17:33 US vision of West Asia (Middle East) 18:18 Trump Gaza Riviera & Elon Musk zone 19:02 Corporations exploit low-paid Palestinian workers 19:57 Gaza's offshore natural gas fields 20:43 Colonial-style land leases 22:27 Tokenization scheme 23:07 "Voluntary relocation" of Palestinians 25:22 Jared Kushner is US "mediator" with Israel 26:10 (CLIP) Kushner on Gaza "waterfront property" 26:22 Western colonialism in Palestine 28:04 Outro
    17 November 2025, 1:02 pm
  • 43 minutes 33 seconds
    This is Trump's plan to steal Venezuela's oil
    Donald Trump admitted he wants to “take over” Venezuela and its oil. Marco Rubio is overseeing the war plans, aiming to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro and install US puppet María Corina Machado, who vowed to privatize Venezuela's natural resources and sell off $1.7 trillion of her country's assets to North American corporations. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QukbgnkuPVY Topics 0:00 US war on Venezuela 1:16 (CLIP) Trump wants to take Venezuela's oil 1:28 Venezuela has world's largest oil reserves 1:37 US coup attempt with Juan Guaidó 2:08 US support for dictatorships in Latin America 2:36 Venezuela has critical minerals, like rare earths 2:59 Colonialist Monroe Doctrine 3:31 Psychological war 3:58 (CLIP) Trump: Maduro's "days are numbered" 4:54 US war plans 6:15 "Cartel of the Sons" does NOT exist 7:44 Marco Rubio: war planner 8:20 US military buildup in Caribbean 9:26 CIA operations in Venezuela 10:18 Three options in US war plans 11:36 Chevron wants Venezuela's oil 12:26 Imperialist "Americas First" policy 14:11 War on Terror plus War on Drugs 14:44 Polls: North Americans oppose Trump's war 16:03 US government is an oligarchy 16:30 Coup leader: María Corina Machado 18:01 Nobel "Peace" Prize for US wars 19:17 Machado wants to privatize Venezuela's oil 19:44 (CLIP) Machado: US companies will profit 20:38 Machado speaks alongside Donald Trump 21:24 Miami Mayor Francis Suarez 22:01 (CLIP) Miami mayor praises María Corina Machado 22:13 US government supports Machado 22:49 (CLIP) Machado thanks US officials for support 23:41 Machado offers to sell $1.7 trillion in assets 24:22 (CLIP) Machado's "massive privatization program" 25:35 Machado's USA-first foreign policy 26:02 (CLIP) Machado attacks China, Russia, Iran 27:59 Next targets of US empire: Cuba & Nicaragua 28:40 (CLIP) Threatening regime change in Cuba & Nicaragua 29:18 Machado's Bloomberg interview 29:40 (CLIP) Machado vows to sell off natural resources 30:21 Privatizations create oligarchies 31:12 (CLIP) Machado: Make oligarchy great again 31:50 US-Venezuelan oligarch Vanessa Neumann 32:49 Obscene wealth of Venezuelan oligarchs 35:32 Thor Halvorssen: Venezuelan oligarch family 36:21 Leopoldo López: Venezuelan oligarch 37:04 Venezuelan oligarchs: corrupt tools of US empire 38:02 María Corina Machado conspires with USA 38:44 (CLIP) Machado admits US gov't support 39:53 Pro-war Nobel "Peace" Prize laureate 40:26 (CLIP) Machado supports Trump's war 40:56 Nobel "Peace" Prize: tool of US wars 41:25 (CLIP) Machado: Nobel Prize helps war 41:59 Summary 43:19 Outro
    12 November 2025, 1:13 pm
  • 37 minutes 16 seconds
    China is winning AI race, Nvidia says, as OpenAI begs US gov't for bailout
    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fears China will win the AI race, as OpenAI asks the US government for "federal guarantees" and a "backstop". The unsustainability of the enormous AI bubble is becoming clear to everyone, and Silicon Valley Big Tech executives want to be guaranteed a bailout. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4odSW2lSUyI Check out our related video on the AI bubble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXCVrLPTUHQ Topics 0:00 (CLIPS) OpenAI wants US gov't "backstop" 0:31 US-China AI race 1:13 Nvidia sells shovels in AI gold rush 3:05 China restricts Nvidia chips 3:47 Nvidia CEO: China is winning AI race 5:50 AI bubble 7:21 OpenAI CFO asks for federal "backstop" 8:11 (CLIP) OpenAI CFO on US gov't support 8:51 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman 9:22 (CLIP) US gov't as "insurer of last resort" 9:49 Too Big to Fail 2.0 10:53 Sam Altman backtracks 11:58 OpenAI letter asks US gov't for support 14:32 Banning Chinese AI competitors 15:31 Trump supports OpenAI & Sam Altman 16:19 (CLIP) Sam Altman at White House 16:36 Sam Altman donates to Trump 17:03 Chinese open-source AI models 17:56 US corporations want monopolies 18:58 Peter Thiel & Sam Altman 19:34 (CLIP) "Competition is for losers" 20:10 OpenAI's circular financing scheme 22:32 OpenAI owes $1.4 trillion 23:24 OpenAI is losing money 24:42 Silicon Valley's business model: monopoly 26:15 China's AI advantage: electricity 27:08 The "electron gap" 28:24 Electricity generation: China vs USA 29:30 AI data centers drive up electricity bills 29:52 Electricity price in USA 30:36 Electricity prices: China vs USA 31:49 BlackRock buys up US power grid 33:02 Trump closes solar power projects 33:48 Trump cancels wind power projects 34:39 US fossil fuel corporations 35:12 Summary 36:34 Outro
    8 November 2025, 2:37 pm
  • 27 minutes 26 seconds
    USA is isolated on world stage: Trump failed to pressure countries to support blockade of Cuba
    The US government is politically isolated on the world stage. This can be seen in the UN General Assembly votes demanding an end to the USA's embargo of Cuba. Almost all of the world opposes the illegal economic blockade. Ben Norton explains how the CIA has waged a terrorist war on Cuba, Venezuela, and other parts of Latin America for decades. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKF-jrrv5yA Sources and links here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/11/03/embargo-blockade-cuba-un-vote/ Check out our related video on Trump's neocolonial attacks on Latin America: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/27/donroe-doctrine-trump-neocolonial-plan-latin-america/ Topics 0:00 US government is very unpopular 1:21 World votes against USA at UN 2:06 USA has just 6 key allies 2:46 Viktor Orbán's Hungary 3:30 Javier Milei's Argentina 4:14 Trump's global pressure campaign 5:40 Past UNGA votes on Cuba embargo 6:45 Trump-Rubio campaign failed 8:27 Russia and Ukraine factor 9:54 Trump's international allies 11:16 Marco Rubio, coup-plotting war hawk 13:30 US economic war on Cuba 14:05 Stated goals of US blockade 16:30 Secondary sanctions 17:38 Trump & Rubio threaten Cuba 18:04 USA's fake "terror" list 20:41 Fidel Castro: 638 assassination attempts 21:27 Operation Northwoods: CIA terror war 23:04 US terror war on Venezuela 25:24 US military forced to sign NDAs 26:11 Donroe Doctrine: Trump's neocolonialism 26:48 Outro
    3 November 2025, 2:26 pm
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