Greece’s Bailout May Be Over, but Not Its Economic Woes

A ripped off Greek national flag flutters in central Athens on July 22, 2015. (Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Underlying obstacles to job creation and entrepreneurship remain

After eight years, Greece has finally exited bailout territory, and the European Union is making a strong case that the program was a success.

While Greece may have ended the bailout process, the underlying issues that wrecked its economy in the first place remain largely intact.

China tells world: It’s us or the United States ahead of President Trump’s Davos speech

US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have competing interests on the world stage. Picture: Fred Dufour/AFPSource:AFP

 

CHINA has given the world a blunt choice by asking global leaders to choose between Xi Jinping’s global outlook and that of US President Donald Trump.

In a strongly worded editorial by the state’s news agency, Beijing said the world needed to choose between “two fundamentally different outlooks” which included the Chinese President’s shared future and Mr Trump’s America First policy.

China is about to hold a giant meeting on spending billions to reshape the world

 

China has rapidly climbed the ranks to become the world’s second-largest economy. Now, the most populous nation on the planet wants to increase its influence by digging further into its pockets — flush with cash after decades of rapid growth — to splash out with its “One Belt, One Road” policy.

The initiative is meant to connect Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa to bolster trade and development. This weekend, hordes of foreign diplomats and business leaders are expected to descend on Beijing for a two-day meeting about the policy.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is “One Belt, One Road?”

China eyes global economic leadership as U.S. turns inward

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, Kenyan laborers and a Chinese foreman work to finish the construction of an existing bridge that goes across a corner of Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya. A controversial Chinese-built railway project involving an even larger 6km bridge that would go all the way over the beloved protected area in Kenya’s capital has divided conservationists in this East African country. (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

 

This year, a 300-mile railway will begin slicing through Kenya, cutting travel time between the capital, Nairobi, and one of East Africa’s largest ports, Mombasa, from 12 to four hours and breeding hopes of an economic and tourism revival in the region.

The country’s most significant transportation project since its independence in 1963 is being built courtesy of China.  China Road and Bridge, a state-owned enterprise, leads construction of the $13.8 billion project, which is financed nearly 100% by the Export-Import Bank of China.

The railroad is one of a host of infrastructure projects China spearheads around the world in an ambitious quest to reinforce its emergence as the world’s next economic superpower while President Trump turns his back on globalization.

Blockchain – Central Banks Banking On It

Source: Photosteve101 via Flickr

 

“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust …”

Satoshi Nakamoto (Unknown person or persons who designed bitcoin and created its original reference implementation, Bitcoin Core)

Fiat currency debasement and failure is why gold has survived and thrived for thousands of years  and indeed in recent years. It is why bitcoin is becoming more popular, with its growing market cap and ever-expanding ecosystem.

Diplomat says China would assume world leadership if needed

 

• China’s response came over Trump’s pledge to put “America first”.
• In Davos, President Xi Jinping portrayed China as leader of a globalised world.
• China is the world’s second-largest economy after the US.

BEIJING: China does not want world leadership but could be forced to assume that role if others step back from that position, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump pledged to put “America first” in his first speech.

Zhang Jun,, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s international economics department, made the comments during a briefing with foreign journalists to discuss President Xi Jinping’s visit to Switzerland last week.

China’s Xi Jinping Speech Seen as Move to Fill Global Leadership Role

China’s President Xi at the World Economic Forum, in Davos. He portrayed further globalization as a historical trend and outlined China’s contributions that had benefited the rest of the world. PHOTO: LAURENT GILLIERON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

 

DAVOS, Switzerland—Chinese President Xi Jinping’s strong defense of globalization at a speech at the World Economic Forum was depicted here as an effort to fill a vacuum being created by the U.S. stepping back from a global leadership role.

Mr. Xi was seen as reacting to growing concerns that the incoming U.S. administration of Donald Trump would shift the world’s largest economy toward protectionism.

European Governments Ignoring Security Warnings?

• “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law.” — From a leaked German intelligence document.
• The mayor of Molenbeek, Belgium ignored a list she received, one month prior to the Paris attacks, “with the names and addresses of more than 80 people suspected as Islamic militants living in her area,” according to the New York Times. “What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists,” Mayor Schepmans said.
• In October 2015, Andrew Parker, director general of Britain’s Security Service, said that the “scale and tempo” of the danger to the UK is now at a level he has not seen in his 32-year career. British police are monitoring over 3,000 homegrown Islamist extremists willing to carry out attacks on the UK.

The head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), Benedicte Bjørnland, was recently a participating guest at a security conference in Sweden, where she warned against further Muslim immigration.

Analyst: Impossible for Saudis to destroy U.S. shale industry

Because of its mid-cost nature, compared to the high cost of conventional drilling, shale will rebound quickly, according to Daniel Yergin, founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, who said groups are already in place to grab the assets of bankrupt U.S. shale drillers.

“The management may change and the companies may change but the resources will still be there,” Yergin told the Daily Telegraph.

Citi Economist: The U.S. Is the Least Prepared Major Economy for the Huge Changes Ahead

U.S. politics aren’t ready for this.

Citigroup’s chief global political analyst, Tina Fordham, and Chief Economist Willem Buiter have offered their outlooks on the global state of affairs at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. They did not paint a sunny picture.

World Economic Forum chairman predicts 1 billion refugees

(TRUNEWS) The executive chairman of the World Economic Forum is predicting mass migration of 1 billion refugees moving north into Europe, if the slide in commodities continues.

Klaus Schwab made the comments during an interview ahead of the Davos meeting, according to Bloomberg.

Panicked super rich buying boltholes with private airstrips to escape if poor rise up

In case you missed the memo (article updated):

 

With growing inequality and riots such as those in London in 2011 and in Ferguson and other parts of the USA last year, many financial leaders fear they could become targets for public fury.

Robert Johnson, president of the Institute of New Economic Thinking, told people at the World Economic Forum in Davos that many hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes.

EU has squandered last chance to make euro workable, warns Ex-Bundesbank chief

Further integration is always the answer Germany gives as it continues to takeover Europe piece by piece. It portrays continual integration as key to survival, but then chips away at the national sovereignty of other nations in exchange for being part of this ‘elite club’. If they choose not to continue membership, then it will lead to full-blown civil unrest as receiving no aide will cause economies to go into full depression. This doesn’t bode good for member states such as Greece where the political leadership wants to hold on to its power, yet ironically gives it up at the expense of citizens.

It’s quite clear by now that the ‘European Project’ was never going to work, but that was the intention from conception. In the end, guess who’s back? Germany. All roads lead back to Berlin and the Fourth Reich is here with a smarter approach.

 

The former head of the German Bundesbank has warned that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not succeed in raising inflation for years to come and is almost powerless to revive the fortunes of the eurozone on its own.

Axel Weber, now chairman of UBS and widely-regarded as Europe’s most influential private banker, said Europe’s leaders had squandered the chance to rebuild the eurozone’s foundations when the going was good and markets were calm.

In an ominous sign, he appeared to lose confidence in the euro altogether, cautioning that monetary union will be tested repeatedly and may not survive unless EMU leaders agree to bite the bullet on full fiscal and political union.

Central bank prophet fears QE warfare pushing world financial system out of control

In short, it’s past the the point of no return and will result in a global market crash — possibly in 2015. We’ve all heard this story before and it surely sounds like a repeat from the last ten years of warnings, however, you can now see the wheels falling off as the central banks throughout the world are running out of options. Moreover, the only option they have is what’s exponentially compounding the problem. You might wonder how they could be so dumb, but on the other side you know these are experts with years of experience handling the situation. This leads to the next question: Is destroying the economy intentional? You can’t make 300 mistakes in a row and be called an idiot.

 

Former BIS chief economist warns that QE in Europe is doomed to failure and may draw the region into deeper difficulties

The economic prophet who foresaw the Lehman crisis with uncanny accuracy is even more worried about the world’s financial system going into 2015.

Beggar-thy-neighbour devaluations are spreading to every region. All the major central banks are stoking asset bubbles deliberately to put off the day of reckoning. This time emerging markets have been drawn into the quagmire as well, corrupted by the leakage from quantitative easing (QE) in the West.

“We are in a world that is dangerously unanchored,” said William White, the Swiss-based chairman of the OECD’s Review Committee. “We’re seeing true currency wars and everybody is doing it, and I have no idea where this is going to end.”

Preparing For A Reset Of The World’s Reserve Currency

The eventual death of the U.S. Dollar is a given and not up for debate. This will, however,  sound alien and come as a shock to most living in the west who continue to go on living while turning a blind eye to current events.

Willem Middelkoop and Terence van der Hout of the Netherlands-based Commodity Discovery Fund believe that when the world’s reserve currency is reset away from the U.S. dollar in the next decade, gold prices will rise and mining equities will follow. Van der Hout and Middelkoop tell The Gold Report that by focusing on producers, near-producers ,and turnaround stories, they plan to capitalize on the opportunities in North America, Africa and beyond.

The Gold Report: Willem, your first book predicted the collapse of the global financial system a year before the 2008 fall of Lehman Bros. In your new book “The Big Reset: War on Gold and the Financial Endgame,” you’re predicting the demise of the dollar as the reserve currency by 2020. You said it can occur as a carefully planned event or as the result of a crisis. What would these two scenarios look like?

Willem Middelkoop: Authorities always prefer to act within a well-planned scenario. The U.S. and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) understand that the U.S. dollar has to be replaced one day. It could be 2020. It could be 2018. It could be 2023. It has to be replaced by another anchor to support the worldwide monetary system.