The most important announcement to come out of the recent G20 Summit was not still more economic and business voodoo. Thank God. The big message from Osaka was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration that “liberalism is dead.” The proclamation stunned half the world and raised applause…
Politics
USA in the World
15.07.2019
Ursula's Appointment: Can you Still be Popular, when Nobody Likes You?
In spite of the fact that the sitting Federal Minister of Defence, Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen has spent a considerable amount of time negotiating with the Liberal Group inside the European parliament, the latter is still not convinced that she could somehow make a decent…
Europe
15.07.2019
UK's Hysteria, Provocations and Accusations Do Not Make Oil Cheaper
Throughout centuries, one of the most distinctive features of British foreign policy has been its extensive use of disinformation that would be used to skew public perception of certain event in a way that would be advantageous to London’s imperial aspirations. Previously, this tactics allowed Britain to reap…
Middle East
14.07.2019
Will there be a Chinese Military Base in Vanuatu?
The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation, a part of the New Hebrides archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located some 1,750 km from Australia’s East coast. Before gaining its independence in July 1980, New Hebrides (the name of the nation before it became Vanuatu) was a colony of both Britain and France. Even after Vanuatu…
Eastern Asia - China
14.07.2019
Some Reflections on the United States and China
One of my favourite quotations is from the late former Prime Minister of China under Mao, Chou en Lai. He was interviewed by French television in the 1970s and was asked for his views on the effects of the French Revolution. Chou replied “too soon to tell.” That baffled his interviewer, but it points to an important difference…
USA in the World
13.07.2019
The Evolution of the US-China Face-off in the South China Sea
Today, the realities of the South China Sea have changed so drastically that we’re dealing with a whole new reality that is nothing like what we used to analyse or discuss. The tensions within this region were purely local in their nature and concerned China and its immediate neighbors…
Southeast Asia
12.07.2019
S-400 Undermines the Global Military Cabal
A great number of analysts these days would draw attention to the decision that both India and Turkey took to proceed with the purchase of Russia’s state of the art S-400 anti-air systems in spite of unparalleled political pressure Washington applied on both Ankara and New Delhi. Essentially, this decision represents a turning…
Middle East
Economics
15.07.2019
World Teetering on the Brink says Federal Reserve and EU Commission
“Don’t worry about the mule, just load the wagon.” – an old Southern American saying. We had an unusual double header last week with the Federal Reserve and the EU commission making two apparently uncoordinated statements, but that could not have come at a better time. I will…
USA in the World
13.07.2019
To the Moon!
Africa’s demand for water is set to rise by 300% by 2040; Plans to tow a giant iceberg could provide a year’s worth of water to Cape Town;Israel goes for desalination. These headlines spell out current concerns over climate change. But by 2007 according to Jim Hansen, who blew the whistle on global warming, world leaders had recognized that “we’re not going to…
USA in the World
11.07.2019
Railway Engineering Technologies are Helping Russia Consolidate its Position in Africa
Improving rail connectivity is one of the key priorities for African nations. The continent’s railway network is far from developed and consists of tracks built a long time ago by European colonizers or other foreign partners working on local initiatives. Train lines in the Northern…
Africa
07.07.2019
Is Baoshang Bank China’s Lehman Brothers?
Modern fractional reserve banking is ultimately a confidence game. If lenders or depositors are confident their bank is solvent, it stands. If confidence is broken, that historically leads to bank panics, deposit runs and domino collapse of a financial system or worse. The surprise collapse in late May of a small Inner-Mongolia Chinese bank…
Eastern Asia - China
05.07.2019
US vs China: Smartphone Wars
If Washington’s goal was to pressure and isolate China by targeting smartphone giant Huawei, it seems to have accomplished the exact opposite. In the process, the US has only accomplished in exposing its own growing weakness and unreliability as a trade partner amid a much wider, misguided and mismanaged “trade war.” While we’re only talking about smartphones…
Eastern Asia - China
02.07.2019
Why is The Financial Times Smearing Thailand?
Southeast Asia has become a defacto battleground for the wider war waged between the United States and an emerging China. The nation of Thailand, possessing the second largest economy in ASEAN and a pivotal partner for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has just emerged from turbulent elections in which…
Southeast Asia - Thailand
30.06.2019
Did the Fed Already Decide the 2020 US Election?
As of beginning July 2019 prospects look positive for a re-election of Donald Trump as President in November 2020. Headline stock market and GDP figures all look positive…at the present. The huge unanswered question is whether that can be sustained until the fateful elections. We see signs already that spell potential trouble…
USA in the World
Society
13.07.2019
BBC Says China Building Schools is "Bad"
China’s recent building-spree of schools in its underdeveloped and remote region of Xinjiang – in a saner world – would be good news. But for editors at the BBC it is being depicted as sinister and dystopian. The BBC’s article, “China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families,” attempts to depict boarding…
Eastern Asia - China
12.07.2019
Why are Anti-Migrant Arguments Pure Hypocrisy?
Almost every day we read about the latest outbursts in Europe, targeting pro-immigration policies. There are protests, even riots. Right-wing governments get voted in, allegedly, because the Europeans “have had enough of relaxed immigration regulations”. That is what we are told. That’s what we are…
Europe
06.07.2019
Social Psychopathy and Tyranny
Something spoken of only in whispers is talk of a military coup in Washington. Few are aware of the factions in America’s military such as “Dominionists” who run the Air Force or did until former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman JCOS Marty Dempsey “eliminated them.” You see, since the 1980s, religious extremism took root in America’s service…
USA in the World
04.07.2019
Washington's Destructive Use of Religious Sects
In recent years, an ever increasing number of countries started paying closer attention to the activities of various religious sects, as they started suspecting those organizations in advancing the agenda of other international players or terrorist organizations. Whenever this topic is brought up, one can’t escape mentioning…
Central Asia
02.07.2019
The End of Summers
Americans are taught to honor or blame based on “generations.” The “greatest generation,” America, the Soviet Union, Britain and so many other nations banded together during the last century to save mankind from a descent into tyranny and madness. Millions died, and that generation is almost gone, its greatness and failings passed on to what Americans…
USA in the World
01.07.2019
Tribute to Beirut Madness
Beirut is mad! It is thoroughly insane. And that is not an insult. The inhabitants of this Middle Eastern metropolis are proud of their own lunacy. They wear it as a coat-of-arms, as their identity. “Do you like Beirut?” “Yes. But it is mad,” you reply. “Yes!!!” They grin at you with delight. It means, you understand, and you are part of them. My life has been…
Middle East
29.06.2019
A League of Perpetual Peace: An Impossible Dream?
“Article 1. The High Contracting parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.” “Article II The High contracting parties agree that…
USA in the World
