In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host, & author of 'The Scourge of Neoliberalism' to discuss the Federal Reserve's unprecedented raising of interest rate by 75 basis points for the second month in a row in order to rain a recession, the contraction of the GDP and the Biden administration's public relations campaign to redefine the meaning of a recession, why the focus on the job market as an indicator of a good economy by the Biden administration obscures the full picture of the economy, and why the situation for working and poor people is much more dire than how it is being talked about by politicians and the media.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by KJ Noh,a scholar, educator and journalist focusing on the political economy and geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific, a member of Veterans for Peace, and senior correspondent with Flashpoints on KPFA to discuss Nancy Pelosi's threatened trip to Taiwan and the risk it poses to sparking a kinetic conflict between the US and China, the extreme risk that the of the trip would entail and how that could further escalate tensions between the US and China, the recent history of the US lack of compliance with its commitments to the one-China policy, and how this escalation of tensions factors into the trend of global politics towards a multipolar world order. 

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jia Hong from the group Nodutdol for Korean Community Development to discuss the anniversary of the Korean war armistice which ended open hostilities but did not end the Korean war, how this armistice has allowed the US to continue its occupation of south Korea and levy devastating sanctions against north Korea, how the administration of Yoon Suk-yeol has complicated the movement towards peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula, and how the unofficial end to the war has brought great harm to the people of south Korea as a result of US occupation.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Richard Becker, author of “Palestine, Israel and the US Empire” to discuss the recent storming of the Iraqi parliament by protesters who opposed the nomination of Mohammad Shia al-Sudani as prime minister and the history of US and western interventions in the Middle East, Joe Biden's recent trip to the Middle East and his ignoring of the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, amd how the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement should respond to the current geopolitical moment of western contraction and decline.