The next recession will sweep the Socialists into power

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What I’m about to say may sound totally crazy at first. But keep reading, because I think you’ll agree that it’s dead-on accurate.

There’s a recession coming.

No, that’s not some Chicken Little “The Sky is Falling” statement. Far from it. It’s just a fact: economies and financial markets always go through boom and bust cycles.

There are good years and lean years, up years and down years. Continue reading

Chinese Space Station in Argentina Shrouded in Secrecy

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(Photo Credit: China Daily)

 

It’s not supposed to be used for military purposes, but there’s little to stop Beijing from doing so.

In a new report today, Reuters has noted that China’s military-run space station in Argentina remains just as big a mystery as it did several months ago when TruNews first reported on its existence. Continue reading

Pence: “All-Out Cold War” Coming If China Doesn’t Change Course; “We Won’t Back Down”

 

The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin has revealed stunning comments issued by Vice President Mike Pence during a conversation between the two aboard Air Force Two as the VP traveled for an official trip to Asia this week, where he landed in Singapore for regional summits highlighting Indo-Pacific security, trade and investment.

Pence reportedly said the White House is prepared to undertake take dramatic policy changes regarding China if Beijing does not capitulate to its demands as the trade war continues. In addition to the issue of tariffs, pressing security issues include the US demanding Chinese cessation of what’s reported to be widespread intellectual property theft and refusal to recognized America freedom of navigation through and above the South China Sea.  Continue reading

The Chicago Boy and His President

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BERLIN/BRASÍLIA (Own report) – German business circles are placing high hopes on Brazil’s President-elect Jair Messias Bolsonaro pointing to the economic program of Paulo Guedes, designated to head a super ministry. During Augustino Pinochet’s military dictatorship, he was a professor at the University of Chile and his program resembles the economic policy of the Chilean Junta. Since about a year, Guedes has been Bolsonaro’s advisor. The Brazilian business community is hailing Bolsonaro, particularly the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), where German businesses hold strong positions. CNI is the Brazilian partner of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). German companies had already cooperated with the Brazilian military dictatorship. Bolsonaro’s victory is a deathblow to the policy of cautious redistribution in favor of impoverished segments of society, pursued by Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. This policy was essentially ended with the May 2016 cold putsch – under applause of German business representatives.

Continue reading

‘Man-made crisis’: Venezuelan hell destabilizes region

Venezuelan refugees line up for food donations at Simon Bolivar Square in Boa Vista, Brazil. / Andre Coelho / Bloomberg

 

UNITED NATIONS — It didn’t have to be this way. An oil rich, economically prosperous middle class country, once a stable Latin American democracy, is disintegrating into a socialist dystopia plagued by hunger, corruption, hyper-inflation and churning political unrest.

While petroleum remains Venezuela’s major export, now tragically it’s the people too who are fleeing this twice California sized country. Continue reading

President: ‘We’re Going to Take Care of Venezuela’

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(Photo Credit: TruNews)

 

His comments at the United Nations come after reports the U.S. has devised several plans to unseat the government of Nicholas Maduro.

Following his speech at the United Nations General Debate on Tuesday, President Donald Trump was asked about his comments regarding Venezuela and the recent levying of new sanctions against members of President Nicholas Maduro’s government and family. Continue reading

BIS warns global economy risks crisis ‘relapse’

© AFP/File | BIS chief economist said central banks around the world had been administering “powerful medicine” to counter the effects of the 2008 crisis, with “unusually and persistently low interest rates,” which came with some “inevitable” side effects

 

ZURICH (AFP) – The Bank of International Settlements said Sunday the global economy risked a “relapse” of the crisis that rocked it a decade ago, warning there was little “medicine” left to treat the patient a second time.

“Things look rather fragile,” BIS chief economist Claudio Borio told reporters in a conference call.

“There is little left in the medicine chest to nurse the patient back to health or care for him in case of a relapse,” he warned. Continue reading

Meet China’s “Secret” Space Control Listening Base In Argentina Now Alarming US Officials

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Via The New York Times

 

A recent New York Times piece has sounded the alarm over what Washington perceives as China’s “expanding reach into Latin America,” related to a space mission control center located in the heart of the Patagonia region of Argentina.

It begins with an eerily beautiful description of an imposing structure, guarded by Chinese military personnel, unexpectedly rising out of Patagonian desert:

The giant antenna rises from the desert floor like an apparition, a gleaming metal tower jutting 16 stories above an endless wind-whipped stretch of Patagonia. The 450-ton device, with its hulking dish embracing the open skies, is the centerpiece of a $50 million satellite and space mission control station built by the Chinese military. The station began operating in March, playing a pivotal role in China’s audacious expedition to the far side of the moon — an endeavor that Argentine officials say they are elated to support. Continue reading

US To Create Several New US military Bases In Argentina

US To Create Several New US military Bases In Argentina

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At least three US military bases could be established in Argentina’s provinces of Neuquen, Misiones and Tierra del Fuego, the Mexican news portal Aristegui Noticias. Continue reading

Rickards: Here’s Where the Next Crisis Starts

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Shutterstock

 

So many credit crises are brewing, it’s hard to keep track without a scorecard.

The mother of all credit crises is coming to China with over a quarter-trillion dollars owed by insolvent banks and state-owned enterprises, not to mention off-the-books liabilities of provincial governments, wealth management products and developers of white elephant infrastructure projects.

Then there’s the emerging-markets credit crisis, with Turkey and Argentina leading a parade of potentially bankrupt borrowers vulnerable to hot money capital outflows and a slowdown of growth in developing economies.

Close on their heels is the U.S. student loan debacle, with over $1.5 trillion in outstanding debts and default rates approaching 20%. Continue reading

Latin America’s new geopolitical reality

Professor Niall Ferguson visited São Paulo in April to address Itaú’s annual MacroVision conference, and found time to sit down with Euromoney to talk fintech, social media and trade. In particular he focused on China and how it will impact Latin America’s future.

Experience

Euromoney meets with Ferguson later that day, a little uncertain about Ferguson’s range of knowledge and experience of Latin America. Such concerns were laid quickly to rest with Ferguson’s response to the opening question, which picked up on a point that he had made in his speech about the relative speeds of adoption of mobile payments in Asia (and China in particular) compared with the US. Could emerging markets in Latin America reach Asian levels of near-universal adoption of new payment technologies?  Continue reading

Britain makes battle plans for war with North Korea: Top brass could send new aircraft carrier BEFORE it’s had flight trials as Trump says ‘only one thing will work’ after 25 years of failed talks

Under one scenario, HMS Queen Elizabeth, pictured, along with 12 F-35B fighter jets, would be brought into service early to join US warships off the Korean peninsula 

Under one scenario, HMS Queen Elizabeth, pictured, along with 12 F-35B fighter jets, would be brought into service early to join US warships off the Korean peninsula

 

  • One option involves deploying UK’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth
  • Comes after Trump warned ‘only one thing will work’ when dealing with DPRK
  • A senior Whitehall source said: ‘We have plenty of ships to send’

The Armed Forces are preparing for a potential war with North Korea, sources have revealed.

Officials have been instructed to draw up plans for how Britain would respond if war broke out with Pyongyang amid heightening tensions between the West and dictator Kim Jong-Un. Continue reading

U.S. To Be A Top-Ten Oil Exporter In Three Years

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PIRA Energy has predicted that U.S. crude oil exports will top 2 million barrels by 2020, reaching 2.25 million bpd. That’s more than what most OPEC members export, the FT notes, citing the research company’s figures. As of 2016, the U.S. average daily export rate was just 520,000 bpd, although in May, the average daily was 1.02 million barrels, after the 1-million-bpd mark was passed early in the year. Continue reading

This Region Is China’s Next Target For Resource Deals

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South Africa’s chamber of mines officially filed suit this week to block the country’s challenging new mining charter. But elsewhere in the world, some of the biggest investors in natural resources are ramping up their financial commitments — to a new target region for mining and energy deals.

Latin America.

Specifically, Brazil. Where government officials announced that a major new infrastructure fund backed by China will begin accepting investment proposals this week. Continue reading

Royal Navy to Lose Amphibious Capabilities

HMS Ocean sails into the sunset

 

Possible cuts will leave Britain incapable of the offensive.

Under the cover of darkness on May 21, 1982, British forces landed on the beaches of San Carlos in the Falklands. The 2 Para, 40 Commandos, and the 3 Para and the 41 Commandos conducted an unopposed amphibious assault, assisted by special forces, in a campaign to retake the capital city of Stanley. By the time the sun rose, the rest of the 3rd Commando Brigade was onshore to repulse the Argentinian counterattack.

The British could not have won the Falklands War without using their amphibious capabilities. The Thatcher government received a great deal of praise for the war, and it was a moment that made Britain believe in itself again as a major power. Ironically, all of that would have been impossible if the Conservative government’s plan of cutting the aircraft carriers and amphibious fleet had come about earlier. The Falklands War saved the Royal Navy.

Remarkably, the current Conservative government is planning similar cuts, by retiring the Royal Navy’s last aircraft carrier, the hms Ocean. Continue reading