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Debt Rattle July 29 2025

Jul 292025
 
 July 29, 2025  Posted by at 9:36 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  49 Responses »


Edvard Munch Ashes 1894

 

• Von der Leyen Defends US Trade Deal (RT)
• US Trade Deal Will Fuel EU’s ‘Deindustrialization’ – Lavrov (RT)
• EU-US Tariff Deal A ‘Positive’ Development – Italy’s Meloni (RT)
• US-EU Trade Deal A ‘Fiasco’ – Le Pen (RT)
• Medvedev: Trump ‘Steamrolled, Humiliated’ Europe With One-Sided Deal (ZH)
• Medvedev Tells Trump ‘Russia Isn’t Israel Or Iran’ (RT)
• Trump Reduces Russia-Ukraine ‘Deadline’ To 10-12 Days (RT)
• Russia Alone Against Entire West For First Time In History – Lavrov (RT)
• I Love The Russian People – Trump (RT)
• Trump Drops a Truth Bomb About the Epstein Files (Margolis)
• Jailhouse Blues (James Howard Kunstler)
• Trump Welcomes British PM Keir Starmer to Turnberry, Scotland (CTH)
• Who Funds the WHO? (Fleetwood)
• Six Months In, Here’s What Sets Trump 2.0 Apart (Charlie Kirk)
• ‘Godfather of AI’ Warns Governments To Collaborate Before It’s Too Late (RT)
• Doug Casey on Global Disintegration (IM)

 

 

 

 

poll
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1949609289951113683

windmills

Doug

maher
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1949814680135835806

https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1949812791164146145

werner

Ghislaine – do read the whole post

 

 

 

 

Ursula was not elected, but appointed. Her no. 1 priority is not pleasing the voters, it is keeping her job. Still, Trump was undoubtedly not happy that she gave him the whole deal and then some, before he could even lay on his art. Where’s the funn in that?

• Von der Leyen Defends US Trade Deal (RT)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has attempted to shrug off widespread criticism over the EU’s new trade agreement with the US. The controversial deal subjects most of the bloc’s exports to a 15% tariff while exempting American goods from retaliatory duties. The EU-US agreement was finalized on Sunday during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at one of his Scottish golf-resort hotels. ”15% is not to be underestimated, but it is the best we could get,” von der Leyen said, when asked by reporters whether the agreement offered relief to European carmakers. The compromise averts a looming 30% tariff Trump had threatened to impose on August 1. However, it falls far short of the EU’s original offer of zero tariffs on both imports and exports.

Trump has long accused the EU of exploiting regulatory barriers such as VAT distortions, and legal challenges in trade with the US. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the threat of tariffs was intended to “light a fire under the EU.” After negotiations stalled earlier this year, Trump escalated his demands, imposing a 25% tariff on cars, 50% on steel and aluminum, and threatening a 30% blanket tariff unless a deal was reached by August. The EU’s deal with the US has triggered a political backlash across the bloc. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou called it a “dark day” and an act of “submission.” Hungary’s Viktor Orban reportedly quipped that “Donald Trump ate Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast.” Numerous business associations have decried a “capitulation.”

According to Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, “Trump wiped the floor with Europe.” Still, the deal found support in Berlin and Rome. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described it as a necessary compromise to prevent a trade war and provide predictability for export-reliant economies. Before Trump’s return to office in January, the average US tariff on EU imports was roughly 1.5% while the bloc’s average imposed tariff was 1.35%, according to Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. Since then, a series of sweeping duties have been introduced.

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You get the feeling the warmongers in US and EU are trying to raze the entire continent in order to make it a war theater.

• US Trade Deal Will Fuel EU’s ‘Deindustrialization’ – Lavrov (RT)

The new US-EU trade agreement threatens to accelerate “deindustrialization” in Europe by redirecting investment to the US and increasing the bloc’s dependency on American energy exports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump finalized a controversial deal that allowed the EU and US to avert a full-scale trade war. Under the deal, the US has reduced its proposed 30% tariffs to a flat 15% on most European exports. The EU has committed to purchasing $750 billion worth of US energy, primarily liquefied natural gas and nuclear fuel, and agreed to invest around $600 billion into US industries. The bloc has also undertaken to increase imports of US-made weapons.

Speaking at the ‘Territory of Meanings’ forum on Monday, Lavrov described the arrangement as “clearly leading to further deindustrialization of Europe and capital flight.” He added that rising energy prices and investment outflows will strike a “very hard blow” to European industrial and agricultural sectors. According to Lavrov, von der Leyen was apparently “boasting” about the EU’s willingness to carry additional costs. “People like Ursula von der Leyen literally take pride in this path: yes, we will be forced to spend more money, yes, we will probably have fewer resources to address social problems, but we are obliged to defeat Russia.” He stressed that the trade deal is “obviously damaging for the Old Continent – it doesn’t even need to be analyzed.”

Lavrov’s stance was echoed by several EU politicians and the business community. Marine Le Pen, a key figure in France’s right-wing National Rally party, denounced the agreement as a “political, economic, and moral fiasco” detrimental to the EU’s sovereignty. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou concurred, calling it a “dark day” for the EU. German business leaders also voiced alarm. Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the executive board of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said the EU had sent a “fatal signal” by accepting high tariffs. “Even a tariff rate of 15% will have immense negative effects on the export-oriented German industry,” he warned.

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“There is a winner – US President Trump – and a loser, or rather two: The EU and Giorgia Meloni.”

• EU-US Tariff Deal A ‘Positive’ Development – Italy’s Meloni (RT)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the closest European allies of US President Donald Trump, has welcomed the EU’s trade deal with Washington despite criticism of the terms at home. After months of talks, the EU has reached a trade agreement with the US that sets a baseline 15% tariff on most exports, including cars, while steel and aluminum remain at 50%. The deal was reached at a meeting between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday. Both called it a “powerful” and “stabilizing” breakthrough. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Meloni called the agreement a positive development.

“I think it’s positive that there’s an agreement,” Meloni, who had previously criticized Trump’s tariff drive and pledged to pursue a zero-for-zero deal, said. Italy is one of Europe’s top exporters to the US, with a trade surplus exceeding €40 billion ($46 billion). Opposition leaders, however, slammed Meloni for failing to secure better terms. Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte wrote: “There is a winner – US President Trump – and a loser, or rather two: The EU and Giorgia Meloni.” He warned the tariffs could cost Italy €23 billion in exports and threaten 100,000 jobs.

Democratic MEP Stefano Bonaccini echoed the criticism, saying, “15% tariffs are better than 30% but worse than zero,” and warned of “tens of billions” in losses. Former Labor Minister Andrea Orlando called the deal a “rip-off,” saying Meloni’s friendship with Trump failed, while slamming von der Leyen as “either incompetent or acting in bad faith.” Meloni defended the deal, saying it helped avert a “head-on clash” with the US. She argued that the 15% tariff is “sustainable” as it will not add to previous tariffs, but will bring “stability.” Economists at the Kiel Institute warned of a drop in production and job losses across the EU, with Germany expected to take the biggest hit. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) called the deal an “inadequate compromise,” with the “only positive aspect” being the prevention of further escalation.

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“The least that could be done is to acknowledge this stinging failure rather than asking the French, who will be its first victims, to rejoice in it.”

• US-EU Trade Deal A ‘Fiasco’ – Le Pen (RT)

The new EU-US trade agreement is an economic and political “fiasco” that undermines the bloc’s sovereignty, veteran right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen has said. The agreement, finalized by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump on Sunday, averted a full-blown trade war between Washington and Brussels. Under its terms, the EU will commit to increased imports of US energy and military equipment, while the US reduces its proposed 30% tariffs to a flat 15% on most European exports. Le Pen, a key member of France’s National Rally party, the largest opposition group in the National Assembly, condemned the deal, calling it “a political, economic and moral fiasco” for the EU.

”Politically, because the European Union, with 27 member states, obtained worse conditions than the United Kingdom,” she said, referring to the fact that the UK agreed to 10% tariffs – which was widely regarded as a bad deal. Le Pen also accused Brussels of accepting unequal terms on exporting American gas and weapons that she claimed no patriotic French government would have agreed to. “This is an outright surrender for French industry and for our energy and military sovereignty.” She added that the deal sacrifices the interests of French farmers to benefit Germany’s automotive industry, pointing to “clauses forcing us to further open the single market to American agricultural products in exchange for reduced taxes on German automobile exports.”

“This globalization that denies and shatters sovereignty has been outdated for many years… The least that could be done is to acknowledge this stinging failure rather than asking the French, who will be its first victims, to rejoice in it.” Le Pen’s criticism was echoed by former Belgian Prime Minister and MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who called the agreement “scandalous” and “a disaster,” which failed to secure any concessions from the American side. Trump described the agreement as “probably the biggest deal ever reached in any capacity, trade or beyond trade.” Von der Leyen said the deal brings “certainty in uncertain times,” adding that a 15% rate “is the best we could get.”

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“This isn’t diplomacy. It’s surrender dressed in a suit.”

• Medvedev: Trump ‘Steamrolled, Humiliated’ Europe With One-Sided Deal (ZH)

Following high-stakes talks in Scotland between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the two sides reached a landmark deal which sets a 15% US tariff on all European Union goods. This new rate is significantly lower than the 30% import tax Trump had previously threatened, with the EU also committing to opening its markets to certain American exports with zero tariffs. Von der Leyen subsequently said, “I want to thank President Trump personally for his personal commitment and leadership to achieve this breakthrough. He is a tough negotiator, but he is also a dealmaker.” The Kremlin has reacted, with former Russian President and current deputy chairman of the country’s security council Dmitry Medvedev in essence mocking the EU for signing a deal he says benefits only the United States, and which leaves Europe behind, looking like a “humiliated” junior partner. He also deemed the deal ‘anti-Russian’.

He highlighted that Brussels agreed to terms that involve significant trade concessions, expanded defense obligations, and energy agreements heavily favoring American exporters. Did anyone think it would be anything different with Trump in the room negotiating it? Trump managed to “crush” Europe without firing a single shot, Medvedev said: “This isn’t diplomacy. It’s surrender dressed in a suit.” The heavily slanted terms of the deal meant Trump had “wiped the floor with Europe,” Medvedev stated further in the Monday social media post. “One can only feel sorry for ordinary Europeans,” Medvedev wrote, nothing that EU leaders are only motivated by their blinding anti-Russian sentiment, given Brussels’ intention to terminate all purchases of Russian oil and gas – which is part of the deal.

Below is the list offered by Medvedev on what the ‘deal’ with the European Union actually represents:
1) totally humiliating for the Europeans as it only serves the United States by leaving the European market unprotected and zeroing out tariffs on US goods;
2) creates huge additional costs for industries and agriculture in many EU countries stemming from the need to pay for expensive US energy; and…
3) diverts a massive investment flow from Europe to the US, Medvedev specified.

But ultimately, Medvedev wrote, “the deal is clearly aimed against Russia, as it bans Russian oil and gas purchases. However, while for Trump, it is largely about business, for the mad old wench Europe, it is part of its neo-Nazi ideas, which is harmful to the well-being of its own citizens.” This has been a constant talking point from Moscow going back years. Ursula, blink repeatedly if Trump just shafted you! Make ‘back door’ gesture if know US gas far dearer than Russian!— RT (@RT_com) July 28, 2025. The Russian Security Council deputy chairman has long been probably the single most outspoken official in the Kremlin, but it’s widely believed he plays ‘bad cop’ to Putin’s ‘good cop’ – in the sense that he often issues the more hawkish or even mocking point of view on any given geopolitical or economic issue. Or rather, he states the quiet part out loud, from Moscow’s viewpoint.

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“..every new ultimatum constitutes a threat and a step toward hostilities between Russia and the US. “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe [Biden] road!”

• Medvedev Tells Trump ‘Russia Isn’t Israel Or Iran’ (RT)

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told US President Donald Trump that Russia is neither Israel nor Iran, and that every one of his threats is another step towards a potential conflict. The US president on Monday issued a more extreme ultimatum to Russia, demanding that Moscow reach a ceasefire with Kiev within “10 or 12 days.” Earlier this month, Trump threatened sweeping secondary sanctions against Russia’s trade partners unless a deal was reached by autumn. Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that Trump was “playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10…” In a post on X on Monday, he suggested Trump should remember two things: first, that “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” and, second, that every new ultimatum constitutes a threat and a step toward hostilities between Russia and the US. “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe [Biden] road!” he wrote.

During his election campaign last year, Trump repeatedly criticized his predecessor Joe Biden’s handling of the Ukraine conflict, warning that US policy under the former administration had brought the world to the brink of “World War III.” While Trump has re-engaged Russia diplomatically and pushed for Kiev to enter direct peace talks with Moscow, he has increasingly expressed impatience with the pace of negotiations. Earlier this month, after issuing his initial ultimatum, the president resumed US military aid to Ukraine through NATO.

Russia has long condemned the US-led military bloc’s arms supplies to Ukraine, arguing they make Kiev’s Western sponsors party to the conflict, which Moscow sees as a proxy war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that although Russia is essentially fighting a war against the entire West on its own, it will not back down from its key security demand in the conflict. “No dragging Ukraine into NATO, no NATO expansion at all,” the top diplomat said on Monday. “It has already expanded right up to our borders.”

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Trump doessn’t want war, he wants to talk to Russia, and to trade with it. He’ll have to find a way amid the bellicose voices.

• Trump Reduces Russia-Ukraine ‘Deadline’ To 10-12 Days (RT)

US President Donald Trump has sharply reduced the time frame he set for Russia and Ukraine to agree on a ceasefire, warning that Moscow now has just 10 to 12 days to reach a deal or face sweeping new sanctions. “I’m going to set a new deadline… about 10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason to wait. I wanted to be generous, but we’re just not seeing any progress,” Trump told reporters on Monday in Scotland. He was sitting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The US president had originally given the two sides 50 days to negotiate an end to the conflict, threatening to impose 100% tariffs on Russian imports and secondary sanctions on countries and companies that continue to trade with Russia. That initial deadline was due to expire in early September.

Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and claimed he had come close to brokering a ceasefire on five separate occasions. “I’ve spoken to President Putin a lot – I’ve gotten along with him very well,” he added. The ultimatum, first issued on July 14, also included a warning that the US would resume arms deliveries to Ukraine, funded in part by NATO members, if no truce was achieved within the time frame. Moscow has responded by reaffirming its willingness to negotiate but said any talks must take into account the realities on the ground and the root causes of the conflict. Russian officials have dismissed Trump’s sanctions threats as counterproductive. “These signals serve only to prolong the war,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this month, urging Washington to pressure Kiev instead.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has stated that even new sanctions would not alter Russia’s course, insisting the country will “continue to move along our independent, sovereign, and sustained path.” Meanwhile, direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev resumed in Istanbul in May, following a nearly three-year freeze. The latest round of talks took place last week, with modest progress on humanitarian issues, including agreements on the exchange of prisoners of war and civilians. However, no breakthrough on a ceasefire was achieved. Trump had previously not ruled out imposing sanctions before his deadline, saying last week that action could come “at any time.”

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“In World War I and World War II, we had allies. Now we have no allies on the battlefield. So we must rely on ourselves and not allow any weakness,”

• Russia Alone Against Entire West For First Time In History – Lavrov (RT)

Russia is fighting the West alone for the first time in history and must rely solely on its own strength, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at the ‘Territory of Meanings’ forum on Monday, Lavrov highlighted the unprecedented geopolitical landscape Russia found itself in following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, which led to a heated stand-off with the West. ”The main task is to defeat the enemy. For the first time in history, Russia is fighting alone against the entire West. In World War I and World War II, we had allies. Now we have no allies on the battlefield. So we must rely on ourselves and not allow any weakness,” he said.

Lavrov stressed that Russia will not back down from its core security demands which led to the Ukraine conflict. “We insist on what is our legitimate demand… no dragging Ukraine into NATO, no NATO expansion at all. It has already expanded right up to our borders, contrary to all promises and documents that were adopted,” he said, adding that a settlement of the conflict should also recognize the new territorial reality on the ground.

Lavrov also likened the West’s behavior to that of childhood bullies. “When you’re a kid messing around with other boys in the yard, sometimes a big kid, three or four years older, shows up and starts chasing the little ones,” he said. “That’s roughly what the West is doing to everyone else right now.” Moscow has stated on a number of occasions that NATO expansion and Ukraine’s aspirations to join the US-led military bloc were among the key reasons for the conflict. It has also warned that Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine only serve to prolong the hostilities without changing the outcome, while making NATO a direct party to the conflict.

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But, like anyone else, they don’t love a bully.

• I Love The Russian People – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has expressed his “love” for Russians and called them a “great people.” At the same time, he threatened Moscow with more sanctions and set a new deadline for settling the Ukraine conflict. Trump maintained he had “always gotten along with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin” during a Q&A session with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Turnberry, Scotland on Monday. He praised Russia as a “rich” nation that could be “thriving like practically no other country” and spoke about the massive trade potential between Russia and the US. “I don’t want to do that to Russia, I love the Russian people,” he said when asked about potential new sanctions against Moscow.

He expressed his disappointment over the slow pace of the peace process between Moscow and Kiev and accused Russia of striking Ukrainian cities. Trump said he was “not interested in talking anymore” as his numerous “respectful and nice conversations” with Putin led to nothing. Trump’s words came as he set a new deadline for a Ukraine peace deal, which he said should be reached in “10 or 12 days” from Monday. Otherwise, Washington would impose new sanctions on Moscow. The previous deadline was expected to expire in early September. The new sanctions would include secondary restrictions and tariffs on countries and entities doing business with Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that it is open for dialogue and could start negotiations without any preconditions as long as the situation on the ground is taken into account and the root causes of the conflict are addressed. Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Ukraine conflict was a “difficult” one to resolve and cannot be settled “instantly.” Russia also warned that Trump’s new sanctions threats serve primarily “as signals to continue the war” for Kiev and called on Washington to exert pressure on Ukraine instead. Russia and Ukraine renewed direct talks in Istanbul in May and have since held three rounds of negotiations but have not reached an agreement on a ceasefire yet.

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“I was running against somebody that ran the files. If they had something, they would have released it.”

• Trump Drops a Truth Bomb About the Epstein Files (Margolis)

President Donald Trump dropped a truth bomb on Monday that Democrats desperately trying to weaponize the Jeffrey Epstein files won’t like: Nothing is incriminating about him in those records. And his explanation isn’t just compelling; it’s rock solid. Trump argued that if such evidence were real, the Biden administration would have already made it public. Speaking candidly during a visit to Turnberry, Scotland, Trump called out the handling of these files under the previous administration as a manufactured “hoax” designed to manipulate political outcomes, particularly the 2024 election. When a reporter pressed Trump on whether he’d been briefed on his alleged inclusion in the Epstein files, he didn’t hold back. He slammed former FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Joe Biden himself as “the worst scum on Earth” responsible for running the files.

“Those files were run for four years by those people,” he emphasized. “If they had anything, I assume they would’ve released it. Those files were run by these people; they were run by my enemy. If there was anything in there, they would’ve used them for the election.” Trump made clear that the files were handled by partisan operatives out to get him. “Those files were run by the worst scum on earth. They were run by Comey. They were run by Garland. They were run by Biden, and all of the people that actually ran the government, including the autopen,” he said. “If they had anything, I assume they would have released it.” Pointing to the 2024 election as proof, Trump noted, “I was running against somebody that ran the files. If they had something, they would have released it.”

The Biden administration has already weaponized the federal government to go after Trump. If there were anything incriminating about Trump in the Epstein files, the Biden campaign would’ve dropped that info during the campaign to destroy his chances. Trump went on to warn about the potential for manipulated evidence, drawing a parallel to the now-debunked Steele dossier: “They can easily put something in the files that’s a phony—like, as an example, Christopher Steele… wrote a… dossier. We call it the fake news dossier. And the whole thing was a fake.” Trump blasted the DOJ and other officials who controlled the Epstein records, calling them “bad, sick people,” and questioned why, if damaging material existed, no one used it earlier.

“Why didn’t they use it when I was killing Joe? And then he gave out because he was 25 points down.” Trump’s logic here is bulletproof. The Biden administration stooped to unprecedented levels to take him down: unleashing the FBI, pushing bogus indictments, and even raiding his home. If it had even a shred of real evidence from the Epstein files tying Trump to any wrongdoing, it would have plastered that information across every headline in America before voters cast a single ballot. The fact that nothing has emerged, despite full control of the files by his political enemies, isn’t just telling; it’s definitive.

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“Tulsi Gabbard didn’t assume the role of Director of National Intelligence to play ceremonial dress-up.” —Toresays.com on “X”

• Jailhouse Blues (James Howard Kunstler)

You must suspect there’s some game afoot in this Epstein business. Only days ago, it was “fuggeddabowdit . . . nuthin’ there . . . get over it.” But then, only days later, the second-in-command at DOJ, Todd Blanche, formerly the president’s personal lawyer, was down in Tallahassee deposing Jeffrey Epstein’s second-in-command, Ghislaine Maxwell. (Note: a deposition is testimony outside of court, recorded under oath.) The Deputy Attorney General deposed her for two days, Friday and Saturday, a total of nine hours. You can do a lot of talking in nine hours. And were you shocked to learn — as has been broadly reported — that through all these years of EpsteinEpsteinEpstein, Ms. Maxwell has never been interviewed by any state or federal law enforcement official or government lawyer? How was that possible?

By the way, no government official has interviewed billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein’s chief benefactor, over all these years, either? How is that possible? (Follow the money, as they say.) Meanwhile, down in Florida, as reported by Brian O’Shea of The Daily Clout, it turns out that the federal district judge, Robin Rosenberg, who just ruled against Mr. Trump’s request to unseal the 2005 — 2007 Florida Epstein grand jury transcripts, is married to one Michael McCauliffe, former Palm Beach County State’s Attorney (equivalent of district attorney, DA), who helped negotiate the special 2008 “sweetheart” plea deal that allowed Epstein significant freedoms, such as frequent travel, including to his Little St. James Island, despite being under house arrest. Are you going, “Hmmmmmm. . . ? Any conflict of interest in that ruling? (Note: Current US AG Pam Bondi did not become Florida AG until 2011.)

So, it appears that there will now be two sets of “Epstein files” to sort out: 1) the DOJ’s file curated under AG Merrick Garland, and 2) whatever follows from never-before asked questions put to Ghislaine Maxwell in late July 2025. One thing you might infer: if the Merrick Garland files contained any defamatory “kompromat” about Donald Trump, wouldn’t it have been used during the election of 2024? Mr. Garland went along with every other ploy used to defame and convict Mr. Trump under color of law. But not that? Ergo, fuggeddabowdit.

Where the Epstein business goes now is anybody’s guess, but you have to doubt that it will go nowhere. Ms. Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus, stated to reporters that she “answered every single question asked of her” over the two days, emphasizing that she responded “honestly, truthfully, and to the best of her ability” without invoking any privileges or declining to answer. There is chatter on the Internet that Ms. Maxwell’s testimony affords an opportunity for the FBI / DOJ to open an entirely fresh Epstein investigation, untainted by whatever Merrick Garland was sitting on.

Okay, I reckon that’s enough for you to chew on about EpsteinEpsteinEpstein for today. Let’s turn to the other giant stinking dead carp wafting its miasma over Washington DC: RussiaRussiaRussia. CIA chief John Ratcliffe promised on Sunday to disclose the so-called “annex” files to John Durham’s special counsel report. Mr. Ratcliffe implied that the material is rather serious. He also emphasized that the statute of limitations will not apply in any forthcoming RussiaGate cases because the matter represents an ongoing (until even now) conspiracy. Mr. Ratcliffe, you may recall, before getting elected to Congress, was a US Attorney for the eastern district of Texas (as Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security), so he knows quite a bit about prosecuting federal cases.

Dunno about you, but I would like to know a little bit more about Christopher Wray’s activities regarding both Epstein and RussiaGate during his long tenure, seven years and five months (2017 – 2025) as FBI Director. In previous testimony before various committees of Congress, Mr. Wray, uniformly invoked “ongoing investigations” as the reason for not answering any germane questions about, well, anything and everything. Does he not deserve a session or two of interrogation with Kash Patel’s FBI agents, or depositions under oath with lawyers from the DOJ now, without the shield of protecting investigations of an agency he no longer runs? He has a lot to answer for, including the J-6 business and associated pipe-bomb matter — both of which might be construed as part of an ongoing conspiracy against a sitting president (and three-time candidate).

Is all this some “conspiracy theory”? No, an actual conspiracy as spelled out in the federal statutes: Conspiracy under Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, Conspiracy to defraud the United States. . . 18 U.S. Code § 241, Conspiracy against rights. . . and 18 U.S. Code § 242, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law. Add to that: perjury under oath, obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI. It’s a pretty rich menu. Someone, maybe more than a few someones, will be going to jail.

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Welcoming a British PM in his own country.

• Trump Welcomes British PM Keir Starmer to Turnberry, Scotland (CTH)

Earlier this morning President Donald Trump welcomed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Turnberry, Scotland where the two leaders will hold bilateral discussions on trade and foreign affairs. The video is prompted to 16:20. The bagpipes stop eventually in the video at 19:30. President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer take questions from the assembled press pool. President Trump calls out the British government for rampant illegal immigration, as Starmer tries to say his govt is deporting illegal migrants back to their home country. Questions centered heavily around the Israeli conflict with Hamas in Gaza. The plight of the Palestinians is a key focus point for the British people; an outcome of the mass Islamic migration that has taken place for the past two-decades in Great Britain. The population of Islamists in the U.K now drives the political priorities.

Toward the end of the video 28:00, President Trump notes the Russia/Ukraine conflict has led to a “disappointment in Vladimir Putin,” and a possibility that President Trump will reduce the 50-day deadline he gave to Russia. The majority of politicians within Great Britain want to expand the conflict with Russia as much as possible and bring the full NATO contingent into the war against Russia. President Trump has been reluctant to support expanded war as requested by the British, French and German group who formed a “coalition of the willing.” In addition to London being the Jihad capital of the region, Great Britain is also the home of the Fabian Socialists.

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Big Pharma does. Just ask: cui bono?

• Who Funds the WHO? (Fleetwood)

A new BMJ Global Health study has confirmed that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) private fundraising arm—the WHO Foundation—has received tens of millions of dollars from pharmaceutical giants, Big Tech companies, and anonymous sources, with nearly half the funding now untraceable. The study findings come after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the United States will reject the WHO’s sweeping emergency powers treaty, warning that the same unelected body now seeking “global medical surveillance of every human being.” The BMJ Global Health study, published Wednesday, reads: “From its launch until the end of 2023, the foundation disclosed total donation receipts of US$82 783 930 overall, of which US$39 757 326 (48.0%) was from anonymous donations over US$100 000. In total, US$51 554 203 (62.3%) in anonymous donations were reported.”

The top-named donor was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, long considered one of WHO’s most influential funders: “Donations varied by sector, with the largest named donations coming from the private philanthropic sector, including the Gates foundation and other family foundations, followed by social media companies, medical device companies and the banking/finance and pharmaceutical sectors.” Secretary Kennedy recently cut off U.S. funding to Bill Gates’ vaccine syndicate Gavi, citing peer-reviewed evidence that the DTP shot it promotes “may kill more children from other causes than it saves,” and condemning the alliance for treating vaccine safety as a PR problem instead of a public health priority. Moreover, a Gates Foundation–funded trial injected South African children with live tuberculosis-causing bacteria, infecting 260 kids and causing serious harm—all while excluding early post-vaccine infections from analysis and following a prior Gates-funded gain-of-function experiment that engineered TB to grow unchecked.

The WHO Foundation (WHOF), launched in 2020 to accept donations from entities the WHO cannot receive money from directly, now also counts Meta (Facebook), TikTok, Maybelline, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Novo Nordisk among its known funders: “This included the announcement of a US$50 million commitment from the WHOF via contributions from Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, TikTok, Maybelline and a range of other partners.” A majority of funds aren’t even going to WHO programs—they’re going to the WHO Foundation’s own operational costs: “The largest overall category, by amount donated, was ‘WHO Foundation Operational Support’, which received just under US$40 million over the entire reporting period, representing a majority (approximately 56%) of all funding received by the Foundation to date.”

Even more concerning is the Foundation’s sharp drop in transparency, with its public reporting now rated as poor as controversial “dark money” think tanks. “In the first year of its operation… the WHOF would be rated ‘B’ for transparency… However, in the next two reporting periods, the WHOF would be assessed a ‘D’ for transparency…” “Nearly 80% of funds donated in January–December 2023 were from anonymous sources and in amounts of over US$100 000.” “Results show low and declining levels of transparency over time, potentially raising concerns about the level of outside influence and role of commercial interests in setting WHO priorities.” Though the Foundation claims to avoid tobacco and firearms money, the same is not true for fossil fuel, alcohol, sugar, or vaping interests:

“The current version of the WHOF gift policy sets out specific donor exclusions, yet only for tobacco and firearms manufacturers, while fossil fuel companies, alcohol producers, sugar sweetened beverage manufacturers and vaping companies, for example, are not mentioned in any form.” The Foundation even publicly advertises insider access to WHO: “Through its unparalleled access to WHO, the Foundation advances health equity by connecting and collaborating with visionary corporate partners to co-create solutions that have the highest impact.”The authors of the BMJ Global Health study—affiliated with the U.K.’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Edinburgh—warn:

“This analysis of WHOF donor disclosures indicates levels of donor transparency akin to oft-criticised free market think tanks, with attendant risks for both undue influence and/or reputational damage for the WHOF, and by extension the WHO.” In the end, the WHO’s private fundraising arm isn’t just taking cash from Big Pharma and Big Tech—it’s running on a flood of untraceable money, shielding its true backers behind a wall of anonymity while claiming “unparalleled access” to global health power. How can the WHO claim neutrality when it’s bankrolled by pharmaceutical giants, Big Tech firms under scrutiny for censorship, and tens of millions in dark money from anonymous sources?

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“..this administration really is committed to systematically throwing out the suffocating groupthink and stagnation that have ruled in D.C. for decades.

• Six Months In, Here’s What Sets Trump 2.0 Apart (Charlie Kirk)

On Sunday, the second Trump administration turned six months old. President Trump’s first four years in the White House were already a big success, which is why I fought so hard to bring him back for a second go-round. Yet I think Trump’s second has already surpassed it in just one-eighth the time. Completely and instantly securing the U.S.-Mexico border after the four-year Biden invasion is one of the most important and impressive accomplishments in American presidential history. TV news said the president’s tough trade talk would crash the economy in days; instead the stock market hit record highs this very week and blue-collar wages are rising faster than they have in 60 years.

Under any other recent president, I am convinced the June Iran crisis would have ballooned into a full regime-change war, with far more money spent and many American lives lost. But under President Trump’s measured hand, America managed to strike a crippling blow to Iran’s nuclear program while suffering zero casualties and even bringing a ceasefire between Iran and Israel as part of the bargain. Yet when I think about the events of the past six months, it’s not the big wins I think about the most, but actually the small ones. They’re the triumphs that don’t necessarily grab the largest headlines that show this administration really is committed to systematically throwing out the suffocating groupthink and stagnation that have ruled in D.C. for decades.

Over and over, this administration is doing things that past Republicans could and should have done, yet inexplicably never did. For instance, all the way back in 1981, the outgoing Carter administration engineered a court ruling that abolished the federal government’s hugely successful hiring aptitude test on the grounds that it was (you already knew this was coming) racist. Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, or Bush 43 could have fought to undo that and restore merit-based hiring. Yet they never did, and over 45 years our government went rotten as DEI replaced merit. Now, this administration is finally acting to bring back merit in government. Imagine that! From Harvard to Hennepin County, this administration has begun toppling the race and sex-based discrimination that had taken root all over America in flagrant defiance of both our Constitution and historic American values.

It is purging DEI commissars from federal agencies, imposing uniform standards on the military, and sending out warnings to the private sector as well. This isn’t superficial – it’s the destruction in detail of a rotten, anti-American ideology. It would have been easy for Donald Trump to make a few speeches and sign a couple symbolic orders about “protecting women’s sports” – past Republican administrations would have settled for exactly that. But this administration has genuinely done the work to protect American children from the transgender mania, one of the great evils of our time.

Across America, health care providers are ending their involvement in child mutilation and similar treatments because of the dramatic increase in regulatory hostility from this administration. Children’s National Hospital in D.C., Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Stanford Medicine, and more have all stopped providing surgeries or puberty blockers to minors in the face of this administration. Where it matters most, the Trump administration has stepped up to save children from predators calling themselves “doctors.” For my entire life, Republicans loved to make a show of complaining about America sending billions in aid to foreign countries. But they never stopped it – until Trump, who actually delivered by cutting USAID down to size and keeping more of America’s money in America. The same goes for defunding NPR, PBS, and Planned Parenthood: long years of talk, until the Trump administration fought to make it actually happen.

It was obvious for almost 20 years that the TSA’s policy requiring passengers to remove their shoes before boarding a flight was a pointless bit of security theater, yet Presidents Bush, Obama, and Biden all kept the policy around anyway. This administration finally got rid of it. While the Biden administration treated the cryptocurrency industry as a borderline criminal enterprise, Trump signed the GENIUS Act, which positions America to be at the lead of this innovative industry. The administration hasn’t just said the right things. It has done the right things, in detail, to make sure its promises are delivered at the micro level. The administration even made showerheads great again. And it’s that commitment to the small things and common sense that will pay dividends over the next three and a half years. Because an administration that cares about the details of governing will make all of America great, too.

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“..AI is likely to increasingly seek more control in order to achieve its assigned tasks..”

• ‘Godfather of AI’ Warns Governments To Collaborate Before It’s Too Late (RT)

Artificial intelligence pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Geoffrey Hinton has urged governments worldwide to collaborate in training AI systems not to harm humanity, warning that the rapidly advancing technology will soon likely surpass human intelligence. Speaking at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Saturday, Hinton said that despite divergent national interests, no country wants AI to dominate humanity. He noted that international cooperation is unlikely on offensive AI use – such as “cyberattacks, lethal autonomous weapons or fake videos for manipulating public opinion.” However, nations could form a “network of institutions” to guide the development of a highly intelligent AI “that doesn’t want to get rid of people,” Hinton added.

He compared this proposed cooperation to Soviet-US collaboration on nuclear non-proliferation during the Cold War. Hinton, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” likened AI development to “raising a tiger cub” that could become dangerous once it matures. “There’s only two options if you have a tiger cub as a pet. Figure out if you can train it so it never wants to kill you, or get rid of it,” the scientist said. He explained that AI is likely to increasingly seek more control in order to achieve its assigned tasks as it grows more intelligent, and simply “turning it off” when it outpaces humanity will not be an option. “We will be like three-year-olds and they will be like adults,” Hinton said.

Speaking to the press later in the day, he noted that it should be relatively easy for “rational” nations to cooperate on the subject, but said it may be “difficult” for the US under “its current administration.” On Wednesday, the White House announced its “action plan” to achieve “global dominance” in AI through investments, subsidies, and the removal of legal restrictions on the technology’s development. Beijing has announced its intention to establish an organization to coordinate international cooperation on AI. “We should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said at the WAIC on Saturday.

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“Although I never thought of him in such an overt role. I’d only credited the fact that he was a homosexual rental boy in Chicago’s bathhouses.”

• Doug Casey on Global Disintegration (IM)

Matt Smith: All right, good morning, Doug. I think the biggest thing in the news is that Obama is a traitor. I mean, we know this officially now. Although a lot of this information had been uncovered in years past—about RussiaGate and all of that—the connections weren’t as clear as they are now, based on Tulsi’s release of information and what she’s told Trump. So much so that Trump felt quite confident recently, in an open forum at a press conference, to just outright call him a traitor. He said, “I’d like to say let’s give it time and just see, but we know he was a traitor.”

Doug Casey: I can’t wait to find out. Although I never thought of him in such an overt role. I’d only credited the fact that he was a homosexual rental boy in Chicago’s bathhouses. Too bad that’s been pretty well swept under the rug.

Matt Smith: I was always fixated on the citizenship or birth certificate thing personally. But you know, bathhouses, birth certificate, Columbia University—no one knew him when he went there. There are a lot of weird things in his past.

Doug Casey: That’s true. There are a lot of indications that he’s a genuine Manchurian Candidate. They don’t just come out of nowhere. But anybody can be elected president—or installed as president today. We almost had Kamala Harris, a total nothing-nobody who can’t even string together words into a coherent sentence.

Matt Smith: And we had Biden, who was unfit—incapable mentally.

Doug Casey: Yes, and they almost ran him instead of Kamala. This is all crazy. I guess the question is: Are they going to be able to prove that Obama was conducting a coup in the US? I’m not surprised, because coups occur—different types—all the time in all kinds of countries around the world. So why not the US? Although the US used to be unique in that it was formed to defend the average citizen against the government, that’s ancient history. That’s what the Bill of Rights is all about, which is unique, actually. But it’s a dead letter at this point. Another question is: Will Trump pursue this thing right to the end? Can they mount evidence? Can they find a fair venue to try Obama? And even if they find that he’s criminally liable for treason, will they prosecute him right to the end? Major scandal. Much bigger than Benedict Arnold.

Matt Smith: Yeah, and it’s weird to make these declarations without—you’d assume there would be cases. Like, the declaration wouldn’t be made before there are actually cases filed.

Doug Casey: I agree. And Tulsi Gabbard impresses me as a very levelheaded person who wouldn’t just fly off the handle. Of course, she’s a hardcore leftist who believes in all kinds of standard leftist things, but they don’t have a lot to do with her current position running the so-called intelligence community. It’s funny they call it a “community.” That sounds so benign and beneficial. Everybody likes communities. Our intelligence community is full of hardcore killers and sociopaths. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. It serves as a good distraction from the Epstein mess, that’s for sure.

Matt Smith: You’ve got to wonder—do they take this approach and really be aggressive? Because they can. Obviously, there’s a conspiracy there, which means all kinds of people could be swept up by this easily, and arrests could be made. I mean, one of the most aggressive charges they used against the J6 people was conspiracy to overthrow the government, or something like that. Some major thing, and they went after them super hard—morning raids and everything. If they really believe this, they could go after Comey, Clapper, Gina Haspel, and a whole bunch of people right away without even touching the president. Of course, J6 was just little people. That was just the peasants. You can round them up. But it’s hunting big game when you go after these major-league criminals.

Doug Casey: I hope they don’t go after Hillary too hard and heavy. God forbid that Tulsi commits suicide or has an accident. She could be added to a list of—how many here? Forty-five or fifty other possible Arkancides, as they say.

Matt Smith: So what’s your best guess on whether or not this will be something that serves as political theater that motivates the base for the next couple of years—appointing a special counsel, for instance, to investigate it—or will this actually turn into something real?

Doug Casey: I think it’s a coin flip. But it’s possible that this will make the big time. I mean, look at Watergate. Watergate was a big nothing. It was just a break-in for political reasons.

Matt Smith: One could say that was a coup.

Doug Casey: You could say that. And in that coup, it wasn’t the coup itself that was the problem. It was the cover-up that was.

Matt Smith: Well, what I mean is I think a lot of people used it against him and told Nixon—like all the Republicans in the Senate told him, “You don’t have the votes. You’ve got to get out of here,” you know, and he just walked away.

Doug Casey: There is a difference between what’s going on now and what happened in the Nixon days. Of course, nobody liked Nixon. I certainly don’t. He was a creepy guy and a disaster for the country. But the Democrats are really out-and-out communists at this point. I know that sounds inflammatory to say, but when it comes to their philosophical beliefs—yes, they’re all Marxists, ultra-hardcore leftists, socialists, statists, and what-have-you. And we’re on the ragged edge, I still think, of a civil war in the US because the Red and Blue people hate each other. It’s not just a bunch of leftist students like in the ’60s. Nasty attitudes are widely inseminated throughout US society. Yeah, we could have a civil war. And if you do prosecute these horrible people, it’s hard to say what their supporters will do. These things can take on a life of their own.

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Debt Rattle July 8 2025

Jul 082025
 
 July 8, 2025  Posted by at 9:19 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  61 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Coffee maker 1943

 

• Tariff Time Again: Trump Sends Trade Letters Ahead Of Deadline (ZH)
• Bessent Explains MAGA Policy Intent on Growing US Economy (CTH)
• Trump Promises To Resume Delivering Weapons To Ukraine (RT)
• Ukraine Plagued By ‘Palace Politics’ And Purges – The Economist (RT)
• Ukrainian MP Blames Corruption For Troops Fleeing Army (RT)
• Tipping Point (Helmer)
• Steve Bannon Compares Trump To Lincoln And Washington (RT)
• Cage Match (James Howard Kunstler)
• Ex-CIA Chief Brennan Could Face Russiagate ‘Perjury’ Probe (RT)
• West Using ‘Russia Threat’ To Distract From Own Failures – Lavrov (RT)
• Brazil’s Lula Accuses NATO of Fueling Arms Race (RT)
• This NATO Fanboy Just Became Germany’s Army Chief (Amar)
• Lavrov Explains How NATO Threatens Russia (RT)
• EU Fears Losing US Military Software Support – NYT (RT)

 

 

Epstein

Bondi

 

 

 

 

Deadline has been pushed forward to Aug. 1. Start negotiating now!

• Tariff Time Again: Trump Sends Trade Letters Ahead Of Deadline (ZH)

The first two trade letters were sent to South Korea and Japan, imposing a 25% tariff on all goods, effective August 1. Here are the key points from the letter addressed to South Korea that was posted on President Trump’s Truth Social page:
• The U.S. views the trade relationship as unbalanced and non-reciprocal.
• The 25% tariff applies to all Korean goods, unless they are produced within the U.S.
• The tariff is separate from sectoral tariffs and will be increased if Korea retaliates with its own tariff hikes.
• The U.S. encourages Korea to open its markets and remove trade barriers—offering a possible tariff reduction if this happens.
• The trade deficit is framed as a national security threat.


14 countries were sent such letters: Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, South Korea, Japan, Tunisia, Thailand, Cambodia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

————–—
Trade tensions are once again front and center for investors as President Trump’s tariff deadline looms. On Sunday night, the president announced that the U.S. will begin sending tariff letters to major trading partners, warning of levies on countries that have yet to strike a deal. The president expects letters to be sent to 12 countries. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Trump will begin sending letters to U.S. trading partners, warning that if no agreement is reached, tariff rates will revert to April 2nd levels—set to take effect on August 1. Bessent noted that several major deals are nearing completion and that “big announcements” could be made this week. He added that around 100 smaller countries will be assigned a default tariff rate, many of which never engaged in negotiations with the Trump administration. Adding to the uncertainty, Trump said an additional 10% tariff will be imposed on any nation aligning with BRICS, the bloc of emerging market economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) seen as increasingly hostile to U.S. interests.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” The 10-member bloc of emerging-market nations has increasingly positioned itself as a geopolitical and economic contender to the US-led global economic order, which is seen as fracturing as the world stumbles into a dangerous bipolar state. BRICS seeks to reduce the dominance of Western institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and the U.S. dollar system. Trump has previously threatened countries that back a new reserve currency… “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar, while we stand by and watch, is OVER,” Trump wrote on X in late 2024.

Goldman analyst Nelson Armbrust commented on Trump’s tariff posts: “Trade tensions are back in view as the tariff deadline approaches, with Trump pledging to start issuing unilateral rates to dozens of countries in the coming days. Stocks retreated at the start of a potentially volatile week as U.S. trading partners rushed to finalize trade deals with the Trump administration ahead of a July 9 tariff deadline. U.S. officials earlier signaled August 1 as the date for higher levies to kick in. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated some countries may be offered a three-week extension to negotiate. On a side note, over the weekend BRICS leaders, including China and India, condemned U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and called for a “just and lasting” resolution to conflicts across the Middle East. President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning with “the Anti-American policies of BRICS”. Metals fell, the yuan weakened and the dollar rose 0.4%.” The inflection point appears to be the 2030s…

The broader message is clear: the Trump administration is drawing a very hard line—it will not allow BRICS to dismantle the dollar-based global order. This is shaping up to be a fight for economic and geopolitical survival, as the White House moves to ensure the American experiment endures the challenges of a bipolar world in the 2030s.

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“Big picture: Trump, Lutnick and Greer are now transmitting 1. Baseline tariffs (10-20%), 2. Reciprocity tariffs (trade imbalance) and 3. Section 232 tariffs (ex. Steel and Aluminum). Countries are notified and their tariff rate begins on August 1st.”

• Bessent Explains MAGA Policy Intent on Growing US Economy (CTH)

Appearing on CNBC to explain the big picture economics, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines how debt and deficit hawks are seemingly blind to the need for GDP growth to deal with federal spending. From the outset of President Trump’s MAGAnomic policies in his T-1 and T-2 platform, growing the U.S. economy, expanding the size of the GDP is a key facet to dealing with debt and deficits. President Trump has always promoted economic policy that expands the size of the pie rather than focus on making smaller portions of each spending slice. Secretary Bessent also explains the current status of the tariff’s as delivered by the Trump administration. The next few days are exceptionally busy with incoming requests to renegotiate trade terms, and avoid countervailing duties.

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We can’t admit defeat. We’d much rather prolong a losing battle and sacrifice thousands more young people.

• Trump Promises To Resume Delivering Weapons To Ukraine (RT)

The United States will continue supplying weapons to Ukraine, President Donald Trump said on Monday, a week after the Pentagon halted some deliveries. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” Trump told reporters during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” he said, without elaborating. Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the US will send “additional defensive weapons to Ukraine.”

He added that the review of military shipments worldwide “remains in effect and is integral to our America First defense priorities.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a pause in deliveries last week, citing concerns about dwindling US stockpiles. “This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the media at the time. Parnell said the agency was reviewing all munitions shipments, not just those to Ukraine. “We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world,” he said last Wednesday.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded by summoning the US deputy chief of mission in Kiev, John Ginkel, and stating that “any delay or slowing down in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor.” Trump, breaking from his predecessor Joe Biden, has resumed direct talks with Russia and is seeking to broker a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev. Russia has said that foreign weapons will not stop it from achieving victory. Last month, President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow considers Western states supplying arms to Ukraine as “de facto direct participants in the conflict.”

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“Ukraine’s leadership is increasingly mired in “palace politics,” bitter infighting, and purges that threaten to fracture the country from within..”

• Ukraine Plagued By ‘Palace Politics’ And Purges – The Economist (RT)

Ukraine’s leadership is increasingly mired in “palace politics,” bitter infighting, and purges that threaten to fracture the country from within, The Economist reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources. Much of the turmoil is reportedly linked to Andrey Yermak, the powerful head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, who is seen as actively sidelining other key figures close to the Ukrainian leader. While Russia continues to push back Ukrainian forces along the front line, the deepening political chaos in Kiev could spell even greater danger for Ukraine, the outlet stated. According to The Economist, the internal rift was illustrated by three developments last month: reports of an impending cabinet reshuffle with Yulia Sviridenko tipped as the next prime minister, yet another failed attempt to remove Ukraine’s spy chief, Kirill Budanov, and most notably, the corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Chernyshov, previously known for his efforts to repatriate Ukrainians from the West, was accused of fraud tied to a housing project he approved while serving as urban development minister. The charges emerged while he was on official business in Europe, leading to what The Economist called the “absurd image” of Ukraine’s minister for repatriating citizens contemplating his own self-exile. Three officials told the magazine that while there was no evidence Yermak ordered the probe, he allowed the case to advance while freezing others, effectively neutralizing Chernyshov. The outlet’s sources claimed that Chernyshov’s true “offense” was trying to position himself as an alternative conduit for relations with Washington, potentially undermining Yermak. Chernyshov’s fall from grace also reportedly paved the way for Sviridenko, described as Yermak’s protégé, to rise further.

According to the outlet, Yermak has also on numerous occasions tried to oust Budanov. Sources close to Yermak labeled Budanov an unstable “revolutionary” intent on building his own political machine, while insiders in the intelligence service portrayed him as one of the few willing to confront Ukraine’s leadership with hard truths. However, Budanov has managed to survive through a mix of pressure tactics and political maneuvering, The Economist reported, adding that repeated White House warnings not to fire him also played a major role. While The Economist described Yermak as “domestically… stronger than ever,” an earlier report by Politico suggested that the US has been “frustrated” with the official. American officials interviewed by the magazine described Yermak as abrasive, poorly informed about US politics, and prone to lecturing – with some fearing he failed to accurately convey American positions to Kiev.

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“..accused Ukrainian commanders of exploiting soldiers by falsely registering them as serving on the front lines in order to claim additional payments, which the officers then seize..”

• Ukrainian MP Blames Corruption For Troops Fleeing Army (RT)

Widespread corruption and extortion of combat pay by military commanders are driving Ukrainian soldiers to abandon their units, Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod has claimed. In a video posted last week on her YouTube channel, Skorokhod accused Ukrainian commanders of exploiting soldiers by falsely registering them as serving on the front lines in order to claim additional payments, which the officers then seize. According to the MP, the commanders also often use the soldiers to “build houses or renovate new apartments” while making sure they receive combat pay, which is then surrendered to their superiors. “Or the soldiers are simply being extorted, because they supposedly get 100,000 hryvnia [$2,400], but there is no command, so they are forced to give up money.”

Skorokhod said the soldiers have few ways to address these grievances, resulting in recurring AWOLs. “Because when there’s nowhere to turn, no one listens or wants to listen, people simply gather in platoons, in groups, and leave because they will not tolerate this.” Last month, Ukrainian journalist Vladimir Boyko reported that there have been more than 213,000 registered cases of unauthorized abandonment of military units in Ukraine. He noted that these figures only account for cases where criminal proceedings have been initiated, suggesting the actual numbers may be higher.

Meanwhile, there have been concerns in Kiev that the cash-strapped country, which is to a significant extent dependent on Western economic aid, could struggle to compensate its military. In April, Ekonomicheskaya Pravda reported that funds initially allocated for military salaries in the latter part of 2025 were redirected to purchase drones, ammunition, and other weaponry. In May, the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, suggested that Ukraine faced a 400 billion hryvnia ($9.6 billion) shortfall in defense spending, which he said requires budget revisions. In addition to recurring AWOLs, Ukraine has been struggling with its forced mobilization campaign, which often leads to violent clashes between reluctant recruits and draft officers.

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“The Russian calculus recognizes the tipping point [for US arms supplies to the Ukraine]. Until then the General Staff will grind away methodically, slowly. Then when the Western supplies run low, we will hit fast and hard.”

• Tipping Point (Helmer)

President Donald Trump thought he had gotten the deal terms and the cover story right, and also the prize for himself (the Nobel Peace Prize ). The deal was that under cover of an authorized leak to the press from Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eldridge Colby, that the US was running out of ammunition for Israel’s war with Iran, for the Ukraine war with Russia, and for US military stocks at their DEFCON levels, Trump would pause ammunition deliveries to the regime in Kiev, and then persuade President Vladimir Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire in exchange. That’s the ceasefire which, since February, Trump has been asking Putin to announce at a summit meeting between the two of them.

That’s also the fourth ceasefire in the row which Trump has been counting as his personal achievements – between Pakistan and India on May 10; between Iran and Israel on June 23; and between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on June 27. Only the scheme has failed. A Moscow source in a position to know explains: “The Russian calculus recognizes the tipping point [for US arms supplies to the Ukraine]. Until then the General Staff will grind away methodically, slowly. Then when the Western supplies run low, we will hit fast and hard. If you total the June attacks, the picture emerges clearly that Putin has chosen the Oreshnik option – without firing it yet — over compromising on Trump’s terms. The outskirts of Kiev are burning like never before.”

There are American exceptionalists who insist they thought of this before — in 1943, in fact, when Walter Lippmann spelled out what has come to be called (by Ivy League professors) the “Lippmann Gap”. This is no more nor less than the ancient maxim — don’t bite off more than you can chew. But in Lippmann’s verbulation: “Foreign policy consists in bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation’s commitments and the nation’s power. I mean by a foreign commitment an obligation, outside the continental limits of the United States, which may in the last analysis have to be met by waging war. I mean by power the force which is necessary to prevent such a war or to win it if it cannot be prevented.

“In the term necessary power I include the military force which can be mobilized effectively within the domestic territory of the United States and also the reinforcements which can be obtained from dependable allies.” From the Russian point of view, the first two of Trump’s ceasefires have been clumsily concealed rescues for Pakistan and Israel; the Congo-Rwanda terms remain undecided; and the “necessary power” to reverse the defeat of the US, its “dependable allies”, and its proxies in the Ukraine has already been defeated. It won’t be Putin, however, to announce publicly that Trump has no “comfortable power in reserve”.

That, however, was Putin’s private message to Trump in their telephone call on July 3. “Russia would strive to achieve its goals,” was the way Putin allowed his spokesman to disclose: “namely the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, the bitter confrontation that we are seeing now. Russia will not back down from these goals.” This is the reason Trump later acknowledged: “[I] didn’t make any progress with him today at all.” It’s also the reason Trump beat a retreat from failure. “I’m very disappointed. Well, it’s not, I just think, I don’t think he’s [Putin] looking to stop. And that’s too bad. This, this fight, this isn’t me. This is Biden’s war.”

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“Trump’s not leaving,” Bannon said. “He’s going to be in your head for a long time.”

• Steve Bannon Compares Trump To Lincoln And Washington (RT)

US President Donald Trump is reshaping America and will remain a dominant force well beyond his second term, former adviser Steve Bannon has said in an interview with the Financial Times. He suggested that Trump’s role in history is comparable to that of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In the interview published on Friday, Bannon predicted that Trump will not only run for a third term in 2028, but will win. He did not explain how it would be legally possible, given that the Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but insisted that Trump is a “world-historic” leader. “Trump’s not leaving,” Bannon said. “He’s going to be in your head for a long time.” He described Trump as the third transformational leader in US history after Washington, who founded the republic, and Lincoln, who “saved it.” Trump, he argued, is now giving the country its “rebirth.”

Bannon, who served as the president’s chief strategist during the early part of his first term, has continued to champion Trump’s political legacy in his podcast and public appearances. His remarks to the Financial Times come amid growing speculation over Trump’s intentions for 2028. Though a third presidential term is barred under the 22nd Amendment, Trump’s campaign store has recently begun selling ‘TRUMP 2028’ and ‘Rewrite the Rules’ merchandise. The items have fueled rumors about a possible attempt to extend his term. Trump has dismissed the idea, saying he will not seek reelection again. “I think we’re going to have four years and I think four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular,” he said. While acknowledging that “many people” have urged him to run again, he said he would prefer to hand power over to “a great Republican.”

Trump has not formally endorsed a successor, but has mentioned Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among a broader pool of potential candidates. Despite Trump’s public remarks, his administration continues to face strong resistance and repeated impeachment attempts from Democratic lawmakers. Last month, his mass deportation directive triggered unrest in several Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles, where National Guard and Marine units were deployed. California officials have challenged the legality of the military response, calling it unconstitutional. Amid the political turmoil, a recent YouGov poll found that 40% of Americans believe a civil war is somewhat or very likely within the next decade. The survey also revealed sharp partisan and racial divides in expectations about a potential conflict.

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“. . . [W}e are closing in on more disclosures and fixing past wrongs to personnel. We’re making sure this is done correctly. But it’s absolutely getting done.”
Dan Bongino, Deputy Director, FBI

• Cage Match (James Howard Kunstler)

Who knows what to believe these days? Well, what would you expect after years, even decades, of anti-reality operations by everyone from the CIA to The New York Times to Harvard U. Is it any wonder that reality-optionality is making the people both apathetic and insane? We are told now by the FBI that there is no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein ran a blackmail operation against the politicos of Western Civ, or that a “client list” existed, or that JE was murdered in his jail cell. It well might be true that there is no evidence, strictly speaking. Messrs. Patel and Bongino, coming into office rather late in the Epstein game, were apparently left with big bag of nuthin. What else can they truthfully report? So, they had to put it out there, knowing a whole lot of people would be miffed. “We’ve got nuthin, sorry.”

Were they chagrined to do that? Evidently so. Of course, this Epstein business has been going on for years and years and it is certainly possible that the most damning evidence has been destroyed by interested parties. Personally, I find it implausible that absolutely nothing ever leaked, no video of, say, Tony Blair or Bill Clinton violating a child, if it ever happened. Everything else in our world leaks, eventually. And there were supposedly how many cameras around the Epstein properties, and how many thousands of hours of video recordings? There is more video of Bigfoot than of compromised Epstein bigshots. Just sayin’. AG Pam Bondi, the FBIs boss, also has some ‘splainin’ to do. In February, she claimed to have the Epstein client list “sitting on my desk right now to review,” and hinted it would be released shortly.

That material, when released, turned out to be the old dog-eared flight logs that have been circulating through every news outlet for years. Did she not know the difference between an alleged “client list” and the old flight logs? Let’s face it: seems kind of dumb. . . seems like the AG got played. . . and now the mob on “X” is having sport with her. Among the miffed, apparently, is Elon Musk. At the height of his feud with Mr. Trump, on June 5, Elon put out a message on his “X” platform saying, “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”. This intemperate utterance naturally prompts you to wonder: how (or what) might Elon know about any supposed Epstein evidence? At this point, the FBI might send somebody to inquire.

Did Elon, who has more money than even Scrooge McDuck, somehow manage to buy up all those alleged blackmail tapes? Does he otherwise know where they might have disappeared to? Has he ever seen anything? Anyway, he didn’t produce any actual evidence. Is Elon losing it, a little bit. His grip, that is. Mr. Trump thinks so. He declared over the weekend that Elon has “gone off the rails” . . . has become “a train wreck.” Well, what you can see in this very public, very regrettable cage-match between two giant public personalities is that Elon has lost his cool and the president has not. For one thing, Elon is apparently incensed over the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) just signed into law because it ends the electric vehicle mandate left over from the “Joe Biden” regime, as well as the whopping $7,500 federal tax credit for new electric cars — loss of which which is apt to break Tesla’s business model.

The bill also calls for sunsetting subsidies for battery production by 2028, meaning Tesla’s Powerwall business is likewise affected. Mr. Trump took pains to explain that he’d informed Elon from the get-go (and repeatedly) that all those subsidies were done for when he got elected. Elon was visibly perturbed over the process that produced the OBBB, the proverbial political sausage-making (i.e., a nasty business you’d be appalled to watch). It appeared, he said, to un-do all of his DOGE spending cuts so laboriously made. Mainly, Elon deplored the failure to address the $36-trillion-plus national debt, widely recognized as a time-bomb on a short fuse liable to sink the whole USS United States. I will tell you a harsh truth: nobody will do anything about the national debt. The sheer math of our annual debt service is simply impossible. Our country is heading into some sort of bankruptcy proceeding, some kind of ferocious “work out” — as they say in the banking board-rooms.

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”John Ratcliffe is a genius,” a congressional source told Breitbart News in comments published on Sunday. “He just got career CIA officers to admit the 2016 ICA was corrupted and to offer up Brennan on a silver platter…

• Ex-CIA Chief Brennan Could Face Russiagate ‘Perjury’ Probe (RT)

Former CIA Director John Brennan could face a perjury probe over his role in the 2016 “Russiagate” conspiracy, which claimed Moscow worked to undermine Hilary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in favor of Donald Trump, according to US media. The current chief of the US spy agency, John Ratcliffe, has claimed that senior security officials manipulated aspects of the investigation, which was commissioned by then-President Barack Obama in 2016. Republican critics have long maintained that the final document was politically motivated and intended to damage Trump’s first presidency. Moscow has denied interfering in the US electoral process or “colluding” with Trump’s campaign.

Last month, Ratcliffe declassified an internal CIA review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which some media outlets claim proves that Brennan lied under oath during a closed-door congressional hearing in 2017. Allegations of this nature have circulated for years. ”John Ratcliffe is a genius,” a congressional source told Breitbart News in comments published on Sunday. “He just got career CIA officers to admit the 2016 ICA was corrupted and to offer up Brennan on a silver platter… The DOJ could have a field day with this.” A second source said lawmakers were “stunned” by the contents of the internal review, claiming Brennan “knew the entire time that he was trying to wreck Trump’s presidency before it even started.”

The declassified review, released June 26, includes testimony from an intelligence official who described Brennan’s influence over the inclusion of references to the Steele dossier in the ICA. The dossier – a collection of unverified allegations linking Trump’s campaign to Russia – was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The intelligence official said Brennan “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness.” The spy chief reportedly wrote to skeptics: “My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.” In his 2017 testimony, Brennan reportedly claimed he had not advocated for the dossier to be mentioned in the ICA.

Senior US intelligence officials are rarely prosecuted for misleading the public, even when the available evidence appears compelling. One notable example is James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, who told Congress in 2013 that the National Security Agency was not “wittingly” collecting data on millions of American citizens. Documents later leaked by Edward Snowden showed that the agency was doing precisely that. The former NSA contractor is facing prosecution in the US for exposing the mass surveillance program and was granted asylum in Russia.

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The cause of the failures, and the excuse for them at the same time..

• West Using ‘Russia Threat’ To Distract From Own Failures – Lavrov (RT)

Western leaders are deliberately painting Russia as a threat to distract their citizens from domestic economic and social woes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Monday, Lavrov dismissed claims made by Western intelligence agencies that Moscow is plotting to attack or occupy Europe. “Perhaps those who make such claims know more about Russia’s plans than we do. At least we are unaware of our plans to ‘attack Europe’, let alone ‘occupy’ it,” he quipped. Lavrov said he generally concurs with analysts who believe that the “ruling circles in Europe and North America are working hard to create an image of Russia as an enemy to rally populations tired of social and economic problems.” He accused Western governments of systematically “demonizing” Russia through media manipulation and pushing the notion of Moscow harboring some kind of “imperial ambitions.”

Among the issues Western leaders hope to deflect attention from are inflation, unemployment, falling living standards, illegal migration, and rising crime, he added. Lavrov went on to criticize what he described as the EU’s transformation into a “military-political bloc” and “an appendix to NATO.” “This is a dangerous trend that could have far-reaching consequences for all Europeans,” he warned. The minister’s comments come on the heels of the NATO summit in The Hague last month during which the leaders of the bloc agreed to work toward a target of spending least 5% of GDP on defense – something US President Donald Trump has insisted on – and continue to support Ukraine. Moscow has consistently argued that military shipments to Kiev will only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome.

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“It has become much easier to invest in maintaining wars than to invest in achieving peace..”

• Brazil’s Lula Accuses NATO of Fueling Arms Race (RT)

NATO is fueling a global arms race by pushing for massive increases in military spending, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said. The US-led military bloc endorsed a plan last month to raise its defense spending target from 2% to 5% of GDP. Speaking on Sunday at the opening of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Lula said the world is experiencing a record number of armed conflicts since World War II and warned that NATO’s policies are exacerbating the situation. “NATO’s recent decision [to raise military spending to 5% of GDP] is fueling an arms race,” Lula said. “It has become much easier to invest in maintaining wars than to invest in achieving peace,” the Brazilian leader said, referring to previous Western promises to provide 0.7% of GDP to aid developing countries.

While not yet formalized, the NATO proposal has been backed by Secretary-General Mark Rutte and several member states, including the US and Poland. A number of Western leaders have justified the spending increase as a response to what they claim is a growing threat from Russia. Moscow has consistently denied any intention to attack NATO states and dismissed such warnings as baseless fearmongering aimed at justifying militarization and distracting from domestic problems. In an interview published on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders and efforts to integrate Ukraine into the alliance constitute a direct threat to Russian security. He said these moves left Moscow with no choice but to launch its military operation against Kiev in 2022.

Lavrov also accused NATO of transforming itself into an offensive bloc, pointing to its past interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. He claimed that NATO’s militarization and demonization of Russia are being used to deflect attention from inflation, migration, and other domestic problems in the West. The minister has also warned that NATO’s proposed spending increase could end up being “catastrophic” and lead to the bloc’s collapse. Moscow, meanwhile, intends to reduce its military spending in the coming years – a process that will be guided by “common sense, not made-up threats like NATO member states,” Lavrov said.

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“Freuding is not just any die-hard bellicist. He also serves as a dis/information warrior in a class of his own. That’s why German mainstream media call him a “social-media star” and “the YouTube General” who went “viral.”

• This NATO Fanboy Just Became Germany’s Army Chief (Amar)

Berlin’s energetic, ambitious, popular, and resolutely narrow-minded minister of defense Boris Pistorius has just made some high-level personnel moves. By far the single most politically significant of Pistorius’ new appointments is that of Major-General Christian Freuding as the new “Heeresinspekteur,” the head the land forces (in German: Heer), that is, the army in the strict sense of the term. This is a position of major influence because of the structure of Germany’s military and current rearmament plans, both with a key role for the army. Formally, Freuding has not (yet) scored the highest possible military rank. That would be the “Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr,” responsible for all four current service branches (army, navy, air force, and the new cyber and information units).

But, in reality, Freuding may well already have more political influence than any other German officer. This is due to two factors: Freuding clearly is a favorite of Pistorius. Indeed, his predecessor, General Alfons Mais, was not. Ironically, Mais was no less Russophobic than the worst of them. His bizarre, simplistic, and stereotyped views of Russia as a country that doesn’t care about its casualties are now most welcome in Germany (again). But Mais also could be “inconvenient”: Instead of meekly waiting for the politicians to get debt-driven rearmament into economy-draining overdrive, this soldier had a habit of complaining about the wait and making demands. That is one reason Mais is out and Freuding is in.

Freuding is a driven as well as rapidly advancing careerist who already served as adjutant to Ursula von der Leyen in those good old days when she was still only devastating the German political landscape. He clearly knows how not to antagonize but please his superiors. One way in which Freuding pleases Pistorius – and virtually the whole German political and mainstream media establishment – is that he is a perfect hardliner with respect to Russia in general and, in particular, when it comes to the West’s proxy war against the latter via Ukraine. That has also made him a perfect fit to lead both a new, centralized Defense Ministry planning and coordination body established in 2023 and, at the same time, a special office busy, in essence, with pumping arms into Ukraine.

Yet Freuding is not just any die-hard bellicist. He also serves as a dis/information warrior in a class of his own. That’s why German mainstream media call him a “social-media star” and “the YouTube General” who went “viral.” Apart from Freuding’s presence on traditional TV, there are his frequent appearances on the German military’s YouTube channel which score hundreds of thousands of views, occasionally even a million. What seems to have made the often wide-eyed – quite literally – general so popular is a combination of overly optimistic (polite expression) assessments of the Ukrainian and Western position in the Ukraine War, a certain boyish (also polite expression) but – it seems – infectious enthusiasm for arrows and tactical signs on maps, and, last but not least, a relentless insistence to fight this war, in effect, through to the last Ukrainian. And who knows, maybe even beyond that.

In the fall of 2022, after Ukraine recaptured some territories at unsustainable cost to men and materiel, Freuding went wild, enthusing about “incredible successes” and “euphoria.” Euphoria indeed. Last summer, when Ukraine started its predictably self-devastating offensive into Russia’s Kursk Region, Freuding replicated every single daft Kiev propaganda point, including the alleged “psychological effect” of invading “core Russian territory.” Incidentally, the excitable general seems to have a traditional German blind spot for just how big Russia is: In reality, the area temporarily seized by Kiev’s forces was miniscule – never more than one hundredth of a percent of Russian territory.

Read more …

“..citing its interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. “From whom were NATO countries defending themselves there? Who attacked them?”

• Lavrov Explains How NATO Threatens Russia (RT)

NATO’s push to turn Ukraine into a foothold against Russia is a direct threat to national security, and left Moscow with no choice other than to start the military operation against Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet published on Monday, Lavrov argued that NATO has long ceased to be a defensive bloc, citing its interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. “From whom were NATO countries defending themselves there? Who attacked them?” he said. The US-led military bloc has also been expanding towards Russia’s borders for years while seeking to turn Ukraine into a “military foothold” to contain Russia.

“The appearance of NATO bases in Ukraine and its involvement in the military alliance represents an immediate threat to our national security. Such a state of affairs would be unacceptable for us,” Lavrov stressed.In 2021, weeks prior to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Russia sought to address its concerns by requesting security guarantees from the US and NATO, hoping to preserve Ukraine’s non-aligned status. “Our initiative was rejected,” Lavrov said, adding that the West instead continued to “pump Ukraine with weapons to forcibly resolve the issues of Donbass and Crimea.” In the end, we were left with no alternative but to launch the special military operation. I am sure that any self-respecting country would have done exactly the same in that situation.

Lavrov singled out what he called Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian minority as another reason for the conflict. In the wake of the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, Ukraine was “persecuting and killing Russians,” he said, pointing to the Odessa massacre that year in which dozens of anti-government activists were burned alive in the Trade Union House. Lavrov also accused Kiev of waging war on the Russian language and culture, saying it has pursued forced Ukrainization, which has harmed other ethnic minorities as well, including Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Bulgarians, Armenians, Belarusians, and Greeks. The Russian foreign minister stressed that a durable settlement is impossible without addressing the root causes of the conflict, including rejecting Kiev’s NATO ambitions, ensuring the status of human rights in Ukraine, and international recognition of the “new territorial realities.”

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“The EU has committed nearly €14 trillion ($16.4 trillion) to defense investments over the next decade..”

But that still doesn’t buy them control, no strategic autonomy…

• EU Fears Losing US Military Software Support – NYT (RT)

EU officials are concerned that Washington could one day stop providing critical software updates for US-made military equipment, according to a New York Times report. The fear stems from uncertainty over the future of NATO and the policies of US President Donald Trump. The EU has committed nearly €14 trillion ($16.4 trillion) to defense investments over the next decade. Last month, the European Commission authorized the use of around €335 billion in pandemic recovery funds for military purposes. In May, it introduced a €150 billion debt facility to support defense efforts. Ukraine has been granted access to these funds alongside EU member states. Russia has denounced the steps as evidence of continued hostility by the bloc.

However, the EU is embarking on the unprecedented military spending spree without the technology base to match its ambitions, the outlet said on Sunday. The bloc lacks viable alternatives to advanced US-made military systems, including the F-35 stealth fighter, which costs around $80 million per jet. The absence of such capabilities raises doubts about the EU’s ability to achieve strategic autonomy, according to the report. The bloc remains deeply dependent on American platforms – from missile-defense systems and rocket launchers to cyber warfare tools – all of which rely on regular software updates from the US.

Some officials fear that Washington could ultimately withhold essential software updates – a concern heightened by Donald Trump’s renewed outreach to Russia and his skepticism toward NATO commitments, the NYT said. NATO members have since agreed to spend 3.5% on core military budgets and another 1.5% earmarked for areas such as cyber defenses and the preparation of civilian infrastructure. Concerns over tech dependency have become more urgent since the Trump administration suspended shipments of certain weapons to Ukraine, leaving EU nations to fill the gap, the NYT noted. Moscow has welcomed the move, suggesting that the freeze could speed up the end of the conflict.

Discussions continue in the EU over whether to build its own military industry or remain reliant on US technology, the report said. The mixed approach suggests that the bloc may continue to depend on key American technologies, even as it seeks greater defense independence. The debate comes amid speculation in the Western media and among some officials that Russia is preparing to eventually attack NATO countries in Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such notions as “nonsense,” saying Moscow has no intention of invading NATO and that the US-led bloc is fueling an arms race and fabricating threats to justify higher spending.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Tucker Iran

Real
https://twitter.com/thesigmamindset/status/1941919825988849874

Rogan
https://twitter.com/LangmanVince/status/1942392076697514454

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 13 2020

Nov 132020
 
 November 13, 2020  Posted by at 10:27 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  29 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Les femmes d’Alger 1955

 

• PA Court: Secretary Of State Lacked Authority To Change Voting Deadline (Fox)
• Michigan State Senators Request Full Election Audit (ET)
• Trump’s New Pentagon Sets Up Clash Over Afghanistan Pullout (Pol.)
• Trump Could Be Banned From Twitter After He Leaves Office (Ind.)
• Obama: ‘Americans Spooked By Black Man In White House’ (JTN)
• This Is What Happens To Us When The Great Global Reset Comes (Kitco)
• Three-Quarters Of England’s Care Workers Earn Below ‘Real’ Living Wage (G.)
• Unemployment Fiasco in Europe Is Kept out of Official Rates (WS)
• Introduction to The New Economics: A Manifesto (Steve Keen)
• Watch This! (Dmitry Orlov)

 

 

Prof Appel Dominion

 

 

 

 

Limited impact.

• PA Court: Secretary Of State Lacked Authority To Change Voting Deadline (Fox)

A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9. State law said that voters have until six days after the election — this year that was Nov. 9 — to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.


“[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order. This was in line with the Trump campaign’s argument, which was that there was no basis in the state’s law to extend the identification deadline, and that Boockvar did not have the power to unilaterally change it. The court had previously ordered that all ballots where voters provided proof of identification between Nov. 10 and 12 should be segregated until a ruling was issued determining what should be done with them.

Matt Gaetz: Dead people don’t always vote. But when they do, they prefer to vote by mail.

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“Every citizen deserves to have faith in the integrity of the election process and its outcome..”

• Michigan State Senators Request Full Election Audit (ET)

At least two Michigan Republican state senators have requested a full election audit, asking the Michigan secretary of state’s office for a full recount before the election results are certified, according to a letter they sent to her office on Thursday. State senators Lana Theis and Tom Barrett wrote that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and canvassers that are reviewing allegations of irregularities and voter fraud made in lawsuits filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign. They are requesting a “full audit” of the election, saying it needs to be done before the state certifies the election results. “Every citizen deserves to have faith in the integrity of the election process and its outcome,” they said in letters.

“It is our responsibility, as elected public servants, to assure the people of Michigan of the process’s integrity through complete transparency and the faithful investigation of any allegations of wrongdoing, fraud, or abuse.” Their letters made reference to allegations made by Trump’s legal team, claims of witnesses about irregularities at polls, and a glitch that switched 6,000 votes from a Republican official to a Democratic official in Antrim County that was later corrected and acknowledged by the secretary of state’s office, although the Michigan GOP said the same software – Dominion Voting Systems – was used in dozens of other counties.

“The erroneous reporting of unofficial results from Antrim county was a result of accidental error on the part of the Antrim County Clerk. The equipment and software did not malfunction and all ballots were properly tabulated. However, the clerk accidentally did not update the software used to collect voting machine data and report unofficial results,” Benson said in a statement last week about Antrim County’s election results. Other allegations from the two lawmakers include ineligible ballots being counted, poll workers being told to backdate ballots, counting the same ballots several times, and other claims.

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The shameless backlash against bringing the troops home is stunning.

• Trump’s New Pentagon Sets Up Clash Over Afghanistan Pullout (Pol.)

President Donald Trump’s decapitation strike on the Pentagon this week is raising fears that the U.S. will accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, putting newly installed leaders on a collision course with top generals and others who are urging a more deliberate drawdown. Current and former administration officials say Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper Monday in part over his opposition to accelerating troop drawdowns worldwide, and especially in Afghanistan. The upheaval accelerated on Tuesday with the resignation of three high-level civilians and the installation of loyalists who are expected to ram through Trump’s agenda, and continued on Wednesday when retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, an outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan, was brought on as senior adviser to new acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller.

Any move to accelerate withdrawals would set up a clash with the nation’s top generals and other civilians, who have argued publicly against leaving Afghanistan too quickly while the security situation remains volatile. It would also complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to leave a small number of troops in the country to guard against terror attacks.

“A precipitous and what appears to be near total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan — not on a conditions-based approach advocated by our military, political and intelligence leadership but rather on an old campaign promise by President Trump now carried out by hyperpartisan Trump loyalists installed in a last-minute purge of DoD — is both reckless and will not make America safer,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA senior operations officer. Concerns are also growing within the national security community that the personnel churn portends other major policy shifts, such as military actions abroad and in the U.S. Yet current and former administration officials believe the moves were more about rewarding allies and punishing those who resisted the president’s agenda than they were about major changes in direction.

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And the New York Times will stop writing about him?

• Trump Could Be Banned From Twitter After He Leaves Office (Ind.)

Donald Trump will no longer be protected by Twitter’s public interest guidelines when he leaves office in January, meaning he will be suspended or banned if he continues to break the platform’s rules. Twitter’s policy regarding public figures, which was formalised last year, means only “current or potential member of a local, state, national, or supra-national governmental or legislative body” receive special treatment . The US President’s Twitter account was flagged more than a dozen times in the days following the election for posting misinformation and misleading claims about the election. Several prominent Democrats called for Twitter to suspend Mr Trump’s account until all states finish counting the votes, however the platform’s public interest guidelines prevent it from being suspended or removed.


After his lead in several key states began to dwindle to challenger Joe Biden, Mr Trump attempted to undermine the electoral process by calling for a halt to the counting of mail-in ballots. “They are trying to STEAL the Election,” he tweeted. Democratic Congressman David Cicilline described Mr Trump’s tweets as a “threat to democracy”, while fellow congressman Gerry Connolly tweeted, “This is pure disinformation.” Warnings placed on Mr Trump’s tweets meant they were not immediately visible on his timeline and engagement with the tweets was restricted. One warning explained: “Some or all of the content shared in this tweet is disputed and might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process.” The rate of violations would typically lead to an account suspension, either temporarily or permanently. However, public figures are protected by a “public-interest exception” policy.

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Not by his politics?

Oh well, Barry has a new book out.

• Obama: ‘Americans Spooked By Black Man In White House’ (JTN)

Just before President George W. Bush left the White House after two terms, he declared he wouldn’t be weighing in with thoughts on his successor, following the model of his father, George H.W. Bush. But Barack Obama made no such pledge. And now, just days after the 2020 election, the 44th president is hawking a new book so get ready to hear a lot more from him. Obama, the first biracial man to be elected president, makes an incendiary charge in his book, “A Promise Land,” which comes out Tuesday. President Trump, he claims, “promised an elixir for the racial anxiety” of “millions of Americans spooked by a black man in the White House.”

Those Americans – whom Obama implies appear racist – were prey to “the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican party – xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward black and brown folks.” Obama continues: “It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted. Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president.” Obama writes that “he came to regard Trump’s media ubiquity and characteristic shamelessness as merely an exaggerated version of the Republican Party’s attempts to appeal to White Americans’ anxieties about the first Black president – a sentiment he said ‘had migrated from the fringe of GOP politics to the center – an emotional, almost visceral, reaction to my presidency, distinct from any differences in policy or ideology,'” CNN reported.

The 768-page memoir is reportedly just volume one of his latest memoirs. Obama also writes about his shortcomings, like his failure to pass immigration reform, which he called “a bitter pill to swallow.” But he said his agenda was always correct, though voters swept out a slew of Democrats in the 2010 midterm election, two years into his presidency. “As far as I was concerned, the election didn’t prove our agenda had been wrong,” Obama writes of 2010. “It just proved that … I’d failed to rally the nation, as FDR had once done, behind what I knew to be right. Which to me was just as damning.”

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“..we have created so much debt and this is a worldwide phenomenon, so we can’t have normal interest rates anymore”

• This Is What Happens To Us When The Great Global Reset Comes (Kitco)

We’re in the end game of a dollar-based system, and a new monetary system will emerge with gold as the anchor, said Willem Middelkoop, founder of the the Commodity Discovery Fund. “We’re in a rough period. It doesn’t matter which president will be next, he can only avoid a deep depression by printing trillions and trillions. As an investor, we concentrate on that part of the story,” he said. Fixing the fundamental problems in our economy, including excessive debt, will require more than just a continuation of past policies. “I think we have created so much debt and this is a worldwide phenomenon, so we can’t have normal interest rates anymore. We have seen the IMF coming out with a statement last week saying that we need a new Bretton Woods moment,” he said.


“We had a cover on Time magazine calling for the Great Reset. We had the World Economic Forum calling for a Great Reset. I wrote a book on the topic, published in 2014, it was called The Big Reset.” A new global system will require an overhaul of many monetary pillars that we currently have, Middelkoop noted. “We need a debt restructuring. IMF and the United Nations have been quite clear about that; we need debt restructuring first for the poor countries but later for the rich countries, we all have too much debt on our books. We need to find a new anchor for the world monetary system,” he said. Until then, trillions more in stimulus will be issued by governments around the world to avoid a global depression like that of the 1930’s, Middelkoop said.

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Without COVID, this would have gotten zero attention.

• Three-Quarters Of England’s Care Workers Earn Below ‘Real’ Living Wage (G.)

Almost three-quarters of frontline care workers in England are earning below the “real” living wage, which experts say is the bare minimum to allow families basics such as a secondhand car and a week’s annual UK self-catering holiday, research has revealed. The proportion of care workers below the threshold is even higher in northern areas, where care homes have been hit hardest by Covid-19. In the north-east, 82% of care staff earned less than the England-wide real living wage of £9.50 per hour, while the proportion was 78% in the north-west. One care worker in Lancashire earning £8.72 per hour who recently had her pay cut told the Guardian some colleagues have been using food banks.

The figures apply to more than 832,000 frontline care workers, more than 600,000 of whom are earning below the minimum thresholds. In Hillingdon, the borough that contains Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip parliamentary constituency, more than 3,000 care workers earn so little that if they are the main breadwinner in a family of four with their partner on similar wages, they could not afford the £112 a week they require for food, according to analysis by Loughborough University that underpins real living wage calculation. When Johnson was London mayor he supported the London living wage campaign as “making economic sense”.

The figures were calculated by the Living Wage Foundation and come amid growing calls for reform of the social care sector to create parity with the NHS, where all nurses earn above the threshold. On Thursday, Jeremy Hunt, the chairman of the Commons health and social care committee, called for a 10-year funding plan for social care akin to the national consensus that established the NHS in 1948. New polling revealed 82% of the public now back government investment in social care to fund a pay rise for care workers according to new polling by Survation for Citizens UK.

Read more …

But what are the true rates?

• Unemployment Fiasco in Europe Is Kept out of Official Rates (WS)

In Europe, people who are furloughed are paid under government programs via their employers. Many of these programs have been created during the Pandemic. In theory, these people still have jobs. In practice, they’re not working, or are working heavily reduced hours. But they do not count as “unemployed” and are not reflected in the “unemployment” numbers. So throughout the Pandemic, the official unemployment rates barely ticked up, compared to the last crisis, and remain low for the EU era, despite tens of millions of people who’d stopped working due to the lockdowns (chart via Eurostat):

The UK adopted a sweeping job retention program at the beginning of its last lockdown. Each government pays companies, who in turn pay employees between 60% and 84% of their monthly wage. In some cases, the workers work fewer hours for less pay; in others, they don’t work at all. The workers take a hit to their income but their jobs remain intact, at least for the duration of the program. Under the UK program, businesses can claim 80% of a staff member’s regular monthly salary, up to a maximum of £2,500. The money must be passed on to the employee and can also be topped up by the employer.


But the unemployment rate has begun to rise as people come off furlough, and those whose jobs disappeared entered official unemployment. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8% in the three months to September, from 4.5% in Q2 and from 3.9% a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In London, the unemployment rate surged by 1.2 percentage points from the previous quarter, to 6%. It was the largest quarterly increase in unemployment since the ONS started tracking the data in 1992.

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“I’m writing a book for Polity Press entitled The New Economics: A Manifesto. It has a long way to go, but this is the reasonably complete first chapter.”

• Introduction to The New Economics: A Manifesto (Steve Keen)

Even before the Covid-19 crisis began, the global economy was not in good shape, and nor was economic theory. The biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression began late in first decade of the 21st century. Called the “Global Financial Crisis” (GFC) in most of the world and the “Great Recession” in the USA, it saw unemployment explode from 4.6% of the US workforce in early 2007 to 10% in late 2009. Inflation turn into deflation— inflation of 5.6% in mid-2008 fell to minus 2% per year in mid-2009—and the stock market collapsed, with the S&P500 Index falling from 1500 in mid-2007 to under 750 in early 2009. The economy recovered very slowly after then, under the influence of an unprecedented range of government interventions, from the “cash for clunkers” scheme that encouraged consumers to dump old cars and buy new ones, to “Quantitative Easing”, where the Federal Reserve purchased a trillion-dollars-worth of bonds from the financial sector every year, in an attempt to stimulate the economy by making the wealthy wealthier.

This crisis surprised both the policy economists who advise governments on economic policy, and the academic who develop the theories and write the textbooks that train the vast majority of new economists. They had expected a continuation of the boom conditions that had preceded the crisis, and they in fact believed that crises could not occur. In his Presidential Address to the American Economic Association in January 2003, Nobel Prize winner Robert Lucas declared that crises like the Great Depression could never occur again because “Macroeconomics … has succeeded: Its central problem of depression prevention has been solved, for all practical purposes, and has in fact been solved for many decades. (Lucas 2003 , p. 1 ; emphasis added). Just two months before the crisis began, the Chief Economist of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the world’s premier economic policy body, declared that “the current economic situation is in many ways better than what we have experienced in years”, and predicted that “sustained growth in OECD economies would be underpinned by strong job creation and falling unemployment.” (Cotis 2007 , p. 7; emphases added)

How could they be so wrong? Economists could be excused for this failure to see the Great Recession coming if the crisis were something like Covid-19, when a new pathogen suddenly emerged out of China. That such a plague would occur was predicted as long ago as 1995 (Garrett 1995). But predicting when the pathogen would emerge, let alone what its characteristics would be, was clearly impossible. However, the epicentre of the Great Recession was the US financial system itself: the crisis came from inside the economy, rather than from outside. Surely there were warning signs? As Queen Elizabeth herself put it when she attended a briefing at the London School of Economics in 2008, “If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?”

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Good to see Dmitry!

• Watch This! (Dmitry Orlov)

I first realized that the USA was going to follow the general trajectory of the USSR back in 1995. I also immediately realized that the USSR was rather well prepared for collapse whereas the USA was about to be blindsided by it, and so, as a public service, I thought I should warn people. “And a fat lot of good that did!” some of you might immediately exclaim. [..] And so I had my “Eureka!” moment in 1995, and a decade later, in 2005, I went public with my observations. I got a surprisingly sympathetic response from some particularly enlightened people (even if they said so themselves). And now, a quarter of a century after my initial insight, as the US enters national bankruptcy and institutional collapse, the whole world is being treated to an end-of-empire spectacular election extravaganza starring none other than the consummate showman and impresario extraordinaire Donald Trump.

He used to run beauty pageants, while this one is more of an ugliness pageant, but then beauty is rare and always fades while ugliness is commonplace and usually just gets uglier, making it a much safer bet. And so let’s accept it as a parting present to the world from a vanishing nation that gave us horror flicks, reality television and three-ring circuses with sideshow freaks. Within the sweeping panoramic tableau of the 2020 election, Trump (our hero) appears bathed in a golden sunset glow of nostalgia for lost American greatness which he forever promises to rekindle. Rest assured, Trump or no Trump, America will never be great again. But Trump’s magic halo extends out from his resplendent orange cranial plumage and enfolds all those who pine for the lost Pax Americana and fear and loathe what America is fast becoming—which is, to put it bluntly, a holding tank for degenerates of every stripe presided over by a freak show.

They pine for a time when men were manly and women womanly, when secretaries were flattered when their bosses took time away from their busy schedules to rub up against them, and when everyone was either a WASP, or worked hard on trying to look and act like one, or kept to their assigned station in life and knew better than to get too uppity. Arrayed against our fearless orange-hued leader, who at 74 is no spring chicken himself, is a ghoulish gaggle of geriatric gerontocrats. There is Joe Biden, 77, whose brain ran away and joined a circus some years ago but who imagines himself to be president-elect, or senator, or vice-president, or something. Having spent eight years lurking in the shadows as Obama’s VP, Biden is as fit to lead as a pig is kosher after rubbing its side against a corner of a synagogue. To assist Biden in his dodderings there is his party-appointed nanny, Kamala Harris, a mere slip of a girl at 56.

Also haunting the balcony of the American mausoleum is Nancy Pelosi, 80, who still runs the House of Representatives even though proper employment for her at this point would be up on a pole keeping the birds off the corn. There is also Bernie Sanders, 79, a sad pagliaccio whose permanent role in the political Commedia dell’Arte that the Democratic Party stages every four years is to simulate democracy by cheerleading crowds of young imbeciles in Act I, to feign death after falling off his pogo stick in Act II, and to stagger to his feet, wave and smile for the curtain call. Last but not least, there is the horrid harpy Hillary Clinton, who is relatively young at 73 but whose putrid smell and cadaverous, ghastly visage are not longer fit for public display except in most delicately contrived circumstances. Hidden even further backstage is the suppurating cadaver of George Soros who, at 90, is still pulling the strings and wreaking havoc in the US and around the world.

Read more …

 

 

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Debt Rattle January 18 2019

Jan 182019
 
 January 18, 2019  Posted by at 10:16 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  9 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Mother and child at the seaside 1922

 

• Demand For Credit Cards And Mortgages In UK Falling Fast (G.)
• May’s 10-Year Plan ‘Still Not Enough’ To Save NHS – (Ind.)
• May Tells Corbyn It Is ‘Impossible’ To Rule Out No Deal (G.)
• Run Down the Brexit Clock (Varoufakis)
• Nigel Farage Urges Brexiteers To Prepare For Second Referendum (PA)
• More Countries To Cut Down Their Belt And Road Investments (CNBC)
• China’s Slowing Economy Takes Hong Kong’s Housing Market Down With It (BI)
• Germany ‘Looks To Ban Huawei’ From 5G Build (BBC)
• Huawei Funding Suspended By Oxford University (PA)
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Teaches Fellow Democrats How To Use Twitter (Ind.)
• How We’ll Pay For Green New Deal Isn’t ‘A Thing’ – Nor Is Inflation (F.)
• Another Good Day For Putin As Turmoil Grips US and UK (CNN)
• Putin Stole Santa’s Home (F.)

 

 

It’s certainly true that Nancy Pelosi gets more popular because she opposes Trump. In the same way that the NYT and CNN got milliions more viewers and readers by echo-chambering their Trump ‘resistance’.

But still, if she refuses to hold the State of the Union, Trump simply takes her plane away. Being more popular in the echo chamber isn’t the same as being popular. So many Americans, in media, politics, and in the street, have lived in their echo chambers for so long, they think it’s the entire country. That is not true.

Yes, Britain should wean off personal debt as much as any nation. But do it too fast and your engines fail and bring you to a full standstill.

• Demand For Credit Cards And Mortgages In UK Falling Fast (G.)

Borrowing on credit cards is expected to plunge to the lowest levels since 2007 in the three months before Brexit, according to the Bank of England, in another indication of stresses facing the UK economy. According to the latest quarterly health check on credit conditions from Threadneedle Street, high street banks forecast borrowing on plastic will decline in the first quarter by the most since records began 12 years ago. It comes amid growing concern over consumer spending on the high street after the worst Christmas for retailers since the financial crisis, setting the economy up for a weak first quarter. The Bank said its measure of demand for credit card lending over the three months to the end of March dropped to -20.7 from -7.2.

Its gauge for mortgage lending also dropped to -17.5 in the final quarter of 2018, from -0.2 in the third quarter, its lowest level since the end of 2010. The looming threat of a no-deal Brexit in less than 80 days dragged down the UK property market further in December, according to a report from Britain’s top surveyors, with prices falling at the fastest rate in six years and the outlook for sales the weakest in two decades. Economists said that the drop in mortgage lending likely reflected banks reining in their lending in response to the risk of a no-deal Brexit, with Threadneedle Street warning that prices could drop by almost a third. Despite the warnings, prices have continued to rise sharply in some parts of the UK, including Manchester and Birmingham, even as the value of homes in London stalls or declines.

Read more …

May’s legacy: failed Brexit, hostile environment and murder of a reasonably well functioning health system.

• May’s 10-Year Plan ‘Still Not Enough’ To Save NHS – (Ind.)

The NHS is financially “unsustainable” and the government’s much-trumpeted 10-year plan is inadequate to rescue cancer, mental health and social care services, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. Years of underinvestment have resulted in longer waiting times, critical staff shortages and “substantial deficits” that have been covered up by raiding funds for long-term reform, an NAO review found. These factors “do not add up to a picture that we can describe as sustainable”, it said. NHS England’s recently published 10-year plan sets out how it aims to spend the pledged £20.5bn increase in its budget by 2023 to break this cycle.

But the NAO warns its success is dependent on the government producing – and funding – a long-delayed plan to reform social care and an estimated £6bn repair bill to fix run-down buildings. While NHS England expects to bring in thousands of staff from overseas to fill gaps, the report says ambitions to transform services will require significant additional growth. “The NAO has laid bare just how difficult it will be to achieve the ambitions of the NHS long-term plan given where the NHS is starting from,” Richard Murray, chief executive of the King’s Fund think tank, said. With health services finances “bedevilled by short-term fixes, fragile workarounds, and unrealistic expectations”, he said the NAO was right to make clear the government’s flagship investment is not an NHS panacea.

[..] key decisions about the future of waiting-time standards such as the four-hour treatment target in A&E departments have been deferred to a separate report. Auditors warned more than £700m will be required just to bring the NHS surgical waiting list down from a 10-year high of more than 4.3 million, to March 2018 levels. A workforce plan has also been delayed and the report says: “There is a risk that the NHS will be unable to use the extra funding optimally because of staff shortages.” This is because scarce funds are currently being squandered on costly agency staff to plug more than 100,000 vacant posts, and there could be too few people in key roles – like cancer or community services – to deliver its goals.

Read more …

May rules out a customs union and a second referendum, but not a “no deal”. Is that impossible, or merely her ‘principles’?

“..the prime minister was determined to stick to her “principles” on Brexit, including rejecting a customs union and a second referendum.”

• May Tells Corbyn It Is ‘Impossible’ To Rule Out No Deal (G.)

Theresa May has told Jeremy Corbyn his demand that she rule out a no-deal scenario as a prerequisite for Brexit talks is “an impossible condition” and called on him to join cross-party discussions immediately. In a letter to Corbyn on Thursday afternoon, written after the Labour leader dismissed her request for talks as a “stunt”, May said that she would be “happy to discuss” the Labour leader’s ideas. She urged him to “talk and see if we can begin to find a way forward for our country on Brexit”. Referring to Corbyn’s instruction to Labour MPs not to meet with her, May asked: “Is it right to ask your MPs not to seek a solution with the government?”

The proposed talks have been stymied by Corbyn’s insistence that a no-deal must be ruled out as a precondition and May’s insistence that doing so would not be workable. In her letter she wrote: “It is not within the government’s power to rule out no deal.” May has been meeting other party leaders in the aftermath of the resounding defeat for her Brexit plan in the House of Commons earlier this week. A number of Labour MPs have defied their leader’s instruction not to engage in discussions designed to find a plan that might command a majority. Earlier, Downing Street insisted the prime minister was determined to stick to her “principles” on Brexit, including rejecting a customs union and a second referendum.

With the clock running down to Brexit day on 29 March, May kicked off Thursday’s talks with the Green party MP, Caroline Lucas. May’s official spokesman insisted these conversations would be approached “in a constructive spirit, and wanting to hear what the various groups have to say”. But when asked whether May was willing to flex any of her negotiating red lines, he said they remained in place.

Read more …

Yanis inserts a bit of -much needed- game theory into the debate. A deadline defeats the process, because there will be nothing happening before the deadline.

• Run Down the Brexit Clock (Varoufakis)

Members of Parliament deserve congratulations for keeping their cool in the face of a made-up deadline. That deadline is the reason why Brexit is proving so hard and potentially so damaging. To resolve Brexit, that artificial deadline must be removed altogether, not merely re-set. [..] Once we are at, or close to March 29, heightened urgency will dissolve tactical procrastination. May’s deal will have bitten the dust, and Remainers will be closer to accepting that time is not on the side of a Brexit-annulling second referendum, perhaps turning their attention to the legitimate aim of a future referendum to re-join the EU.

At that point, government and opposition will recognize that only two coherent options remain for the immediate future. The first is Norway Plus, which would mean Britain would remain for an indeterminate period in the EU single market (like Norway), and also in a customs union with the EU. The second is an immediate full exit, with Britain trading under World Trade Organization rules while Northern Ireland remains within a customs union with the EU to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. Narrowing it down to two options will enable Parliament to choose. Once MPs acknowledge that freedom of movement between the UK and the EU is a red herring, the most likely outcome is Norway Plus for an indeterminate, deadline-free period.

Then and only then will Parliament and the people have the opportunity to debate the large-scale issues confronting Britain, not least the future of the UK-EU relationship. Norway Plus would, of course, leave everyone somewhat dissatisfied. But, unlike May’s deal or a hasty second referendum, at least it would minimize the discontent that any large segment of Britain’s society might experience in the medium term. And, because minimizing the discontent, along with a deadline-free horizon, are prerequisites for the people’s debate that Britain deserves, the overwhelming defeat of May’s deal may well be remembered as a vindication of democracy.

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It wouldn’t get more toxic that that.

• Nigel Farage Urges Brexiteers To Prepare For Second Referendum (PA)

Nigel Farage has urged Leave campaigners to prepare for a second referendum as Britain’s Brexit deadlock continues. The former Ukip leader spoke at a packed Leave Means Leave rally in London, alongside former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith, MP Esther McVey and Hotelier Rocco Forte. Mr Farage said he believed “it is now quite possible that we will see an extension of Article 50”. He added: “When I’ve talked in the past about being worried that they may force us into a second referendum. I don’t want it anymore than you do but I am saying to you we have to face reality in the face. Don’t think the other side aren’t organised, don’t think the other side aren’t prepared, don’t think they haven’t raised the money, don’t think they haven’t got the teams in place, they have.”

The audience at the Leave Means Leave rally were fired up and heckling throughout the nights speeches. Mr Duncan-Smith said Britain’s “greatness” lies in the post-Brexit future. He added: “I love this country dearly, I love it with all my heart. I love people whether they’re Remainers or Leavers, I don’t care. But I know one thing, this country’s greatness lies ahead of it and we have an opportunity and a duty to deliver it. I pledge to you tonight, I will not sleep, I will not rest, I will not wake to find a Britain that is otherwise than independent and free once again.” He branded the European Union a “political project that we have never fully been told the truth about” and described anti-Brexit arguments as “a load of rubbish”.

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As I’ve been saying for a while. “The phenomenon has been dubbed debt-trap diplomacy.”

• More Countries To Cut Down Their Belt And Road Investments (CNBC)

Some countries are scaling down or scrapping entire projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative amid mounting financial concerns over the continent-spanning venture. In recent months, developing nations such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone have either canceled or backed away from previously negotiated BRI commitments, citing worries over high project costs and their impact on national debt and the economy. That revised stance not only confirms global fears over the terms of BRI financing, it could also indicate that developing countries are now more willing to prioritize sovereign interests over their need for foreign investment.

The BRI — Beijing’s signature foreign policy program — is the superpower’s attempt to stretch its economic power across the globe through the construction of maritime and overland transportation links across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. But critics see it as a means to benefit China’s military, increase opportunities for Chinese companies and help Beijing gain political leverage. Under the trillion-dollar endeavor, Chinese state-owned entities flush with cash offer participating countries cheap loans and credit to build large-scale projects such as ports and railways.

[..] Many of these countries want to avoid the same fate as Sri Lanka. Shock waves rippled throughout the developing world when Colombo handed over a strategic port to Beijing in 2017, after it couldn’t pay off its debt to Chinese companies. It was seen as an example of how countries that owe money to Beijing could be forced to sign over national territory or make steep economic concessions if they can’t meet liabilities. The phenomenon has been dubbed debt-trap diplomacy

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The biggest housing bubble of them all.

• China’s Slowing Economy Takes Hong Kong’s Housing Market Down With It (BI)

One of the world’s most expensive housing markets is facing a major slowdown. Analysts at HSBC dimmed their outlook for Hong Kong’s real-estate market on Wednesday, according to a research note. Previously forecasting activity would plateau, they now estimate prices will fall from 10% to 15% over the next six months. “We expect the first half of 2019 to be a challenging period for the Hong Kong housing market,” the analysts said. “Prices have already corrected 8% from the recent peak in August 2018 due to macro uncertainties and several events occurring in the property market that concerned investors.”

Hong Kong was ranked the most-expensive housing market in the world for eight consecutive years, benefitting from capital controls in mainland China that incentivize real-estate investments closer to home. But activity has slowed sharply in recent months, with property values falling by the most since the global financial crisis in 2008 in November. With China’s economy expected to continue to lose steam in coming months, the housing market looks poised to fall further. [..] Also helping to bring prices down from August highs, a vacancy tax aimed at discouraging investors from holding empty Hong Kong homes was introduced last year. Still, some are confident residential real estate activity will start to recover despite a slowing economy, with HSBC predicting annual price drops to shrink to between 5% and 10% by the end of the year.

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It’s about our intelligence controlling us. We don’t want Chinese intelligence to do that, and the only alternative we have is the CIA, MI6 etc.

• Germany ‘Looks To Ban Huawei’ From 5G Build (BBC)

Germany is considering ways to block Huawei from its next generation mobile phone network, according to reports. Berlin is exploring stricter security requirements which may prevent Huawei products being used in its 5G network. Many countries have pushed against the involvement of the Chinese technology firm in their 5G networks over security concerns. The networks represent the next big wave of mobile infrastructure. The Chinese company, one of the world’s biggest producers of telecoms equipment, has faced resistance from foreign governments over the risk that its technology could be used for espionage. Huawei has denied claims it poses a spying risk.

Germany’s interior ministry had previously said it opposes banning any suppliers from its 5G network. But it may consider stricter security requirements and other ways to exclude Huawei, according to reports. Such a move would bring it in line with other Western countries. The Australian government has banned Huawei from providing 5G technology to its wireless networks, while New Zealand blocked a proposal to use its telecoms equipment over national security concerns. The US and UK have raised concerns with Huawei, and the firm has also been scrutinised in Japan and Korea.

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Some people have all the funding they need.

• Huawei Funding Suspended By Oxford University (PA)

Oxford University is suspending research grants and funding donations from Huawei, amid growing security concerns about the Chinese firm’s telecommunication technology. Existing research contracts already received or committed with Huawei will go ahead, but the university will not pursue new funding opportunities with the company. There are two ongoing projects in which Huawei has committed £692,000, the university said.

“Oxford University decided on January 8 this year that it will not pursue new funding opportunities with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd or its related group companies at present,” an Oxford University spokesman said in a statement. “Huawei has been notified of the decision which the university will keep under review. The decision applies both to the funding of research contracts and of philanthropic donations. “The decision has been taken in the light of public concerns raised in recent months surrounding UK partnerships with Huawei. We hope these matters can be resolved shortly and note Huawei’s own willingness to reassure governments about its role and activities.

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The Democrats have their own Trump. But they don’t understand how that works, and personal desire for power is far too great amongst the octogenarians (or soon to be) anyway.

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Teaches Fellow Democrats How To Use Twitter (Ind.)

There are some things, such as courage and a sense of humour, that you cannot teach. But becoming a titan of social media? That may just be possible to learn. Such is the hope, at least, of Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have undergone a class in how to tweet more effectively, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the veritable Twitter superpower. “With @AOC, @RepDebDingell, @jahimes, @davidcicilline, @RepCartwright & @Twitter representatives at training session on Twitter for Democratic Members of Congress,” tweeted California congressman Ted Lieu, after the lesson. “The below pic is called a selfie.”

Nobody in the Democratic party – Michelle and Barack Obama included – has as much Twitter power as the 29-year-old congresswoman of New York’s 14th district. Axios reported recently that from December 11 2018, to January 11 2019, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, had 11.8m Twitter interactions, second only to Donald Trump, – who had 39.8m – among politicians or the news media. Senator Kamala Harris was third with 4.6m, Barack Obama was fourth with 4.4m, and CNN came fifth with 3.1m.

Read more …

Robert Hockett is professor of Law and Public Policy at Cornell University. “How will we pay for it?” is not that interesting. “What’s in it?” is a much better question.

I don’t think I’m going to like the answer. Because I don’t think the people proposing the various Green New Deals can see sufficiently across the wide range of fields involved: finance, pollution, energy, politics, psychology etc.

• How We’ll Pay For Green New Deal Isn’t ‘A Thing’ – Nor Is Inflation (F.)

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s announcement of an ambitious new Green New Deal Initiative in Congress has brought predictable – and predictably silly – callouts from conservative pundits and scared politicians. ‘How will we pay for it?,’ they ask with pretend-incredulity, and ‘what about debt?’ ‘Won’t we have to raise taxes, and will that not crowd-out the job creators?’ Representative Ocasio-Cortez already has given the best answer possible to such queries, most of which seem to be raised in bad faith. Why is it, she retorts, that these questions arise only in connection with useful ideas, not wasteful ideas? Where were the ‘pay-fors’ for Bush’s $5 trillion wars and tax cuts, or for last year’s $2 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires?

Why wasn’t financing those massive throwaways as scary as financing the rescue of our planet and middle class now seems to be to these naysayers? The short answer to ‘how we will pay for’ the Green New Deal is easy. We’ll pay for it just as we pay for all else: Congress will authorize necessary spending, and Treasury will spend. This is how we do it – always has been, always will be. The money that’s spent, for its part, is never ‘raised’ first. To the contrary, federal spending is what brings that money into existence. If years of bad or no economic education make that ring counterintuitive to you, you’re not alone: politicians and pundits who ought to know better are with you. But the problem is readily remedied: just take a look at a dollar (or five dollar, or ten dollar, or … dollar) bill.

The face you see is George Washington’s – a public official’s – not yours or some other private sector person’s. The signatures you’ll find, for their part, are those of the Treasurer and the Treasury Secretary, not yours or some other private sector person’s. And the inscription you’ll read across the top is ‘Federal Reserve Note,’ not ‘Private Sector Sally’s Note.’ ‘Note’ here, note carefully, means ‘promissory note.’ Money betokens a promise. Hence money’s relation to credit. We’ll come back to this later. The money that Treasury spends is, in any event, jointly Fed- and Treasury-issued, not privately issued. That is to say it’s the citizenry’s issuance, not some single citizen’s issuance. It’s like a promise we make to each other. Hence the term ‘full faith and credit’ you’ll hear about when asking what ‘backs’ our currency and our Treasury securities.

Read more …

A narrative repeated so often most people will think it must be at least partly true. But then there’s this very curious line: “Whether the political distemper in the West was sown by a Russian intelligence operation masterminded by Putin may not matter because he is making a belated effort at winning the peace after the end of the Cold War.”

• Another Good Day For Putin As Turmoil Grips US and UK (CNN)

The news just keeps on getting better for Vladimir Putin. On either side of the Atlantic, the United States and Britain, the two great English-speaking democracies that orchestrated Moscow’s defeat in the Cold War, are undergoing simultaneous political breakdowns. And the Russian leader may have had a hand in triggering the turmoil.

The allies are experiencing the reverberations of populist revolts that erupted in 2016 – in the Brexit vote and the election of Trump – and are now slamming into legislatures and breeding division and stasis. The result is that Britain and the United States are all but ungovernable on the most important questions that confront both nations. That’s music to Putin’s ears. The Russian leader has made disrupting liberal democracies a core principle of his near two-decade rule, as he seeks to avenge the fall of the Soviet empire, which he experienced as a heartbroken KGB agent in East Germany. Russia has been accused of meddling in both the Brexit vote and the US election in 2016 – the critical events that fomented the current crisis of the West.

Over the last five years, Putin has defied Western scorn about Russia’s frayed economic power and made the best of a bad hand, working to re-establish influence in the former Soviet orbit. He has seized Crimea from Ukraine and restored Moscow’s former political beachhead in the Middle East. In the last two years, Putin has had a witting, or unwitting, ally in Trump, whose attacks on NATO and US allies and decision to pull US troops out of Syria played into Russia’s goals. Whether the political distemper in the West was sown by a Russian intelligence operation masterminded by Putin may not matter because he is making a belated effort at winning the peace after the end of the Cold War.

Read more …

Original headline was “The Magnetic North Pole Has Moved. Here’s What You Need To Know”, but obviously this alternative one, phrased by someone on Twitter, is so much better.

Other than that, I’m curious to know how this affects animals that use magnetic poles, like migrating birds and insects. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t address the issue.

• Putin Stole Santa’s Home (F.)

Earth’s magnetic pole is moving in the direction of Siberia and away from Canada. This is something that scientists have been tracking for a long time. It’s fairly easy to look up the location of the magnetic pole dating back to the early 1900s. The recent changes of the drifting pole are raising some concerns but the direction is not the problem. In fact, the direction of the drifting pole has been roughly the same for as long as scientists have been tracking it. The speed is the issue. Every five years scientists recalculate the location of the magnetic pole. This is important information for global navigation, which includes GPS satellites and other technology. These changes can make a big difference in our everyday lives.

The movement of the pole is caused by flows of molten liquid iron in the Earth’s core. This liquid and how it moves creates the Earth’s magnetic field. Variations in the liquid flow cause the magnetic field to change over time and cause the location of magnetic north to move. The global model was off because of a geomagnetic pulse the occurred beneath South America in 2016. This pulse just came at a bad time. The 2015 World Magnetic Model was brand new and not scheduled to be renewed until 2020. It seems that in the future we may not be able to wait as long between updates. The poles movement has sped up in recent memory from 9 miles a year in the 1990s to about 34 miles a year at present day.

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Debt Rattle July 27 2018

Jul 272018
 
 July 27, 2018  Posted by at 9:23 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  5 Responses »


Pablo Picasso The three dancers 1925

 

• The Mirage That Will Be Q2-GDP (Roberts)
• Household Debt In UK ‘Worse Than At Any Time On Record’ (G.)
• BRICS Nations Pledge Unity As Trade War Threatens (AFP)
• Facebook’s $120 Billion Rout Biggest Loss In Stock Market History (CNBC)
• Trade Deal With EU Greater In Scope Than Expected – US Official (R.)
• Macron ‘Not In Favour’ Of Vast New US-EU Trade Deal (AFP)
• EU’s Barnier Kills Off Theresa May’s Brexit Customs Proposals (G.)
• Trump Threatens Turkey Sanctions Over Detained Pastor (AP)
• US Government Misses Judge’s Midnight Deadline For Reunifying Families (Ind.)
• Taxation Strangles Greece’s Growth Prospects (WSJ)
• Death Toll From Greek Wildfires Rises To 85, Scores Stll Missing (K.)
• Only 13% Of World’s Oceans Are Still Untouched Wilderness (Ind.)

 

 

Another great piece by Lance Roberts. Here’s the part on debt. It now takes $3.71 of debt to create $1 of economic growth. That won’t last.

• The Mirage That Will Be Q2-GDP (Roberts)

With wage growth stagnant, corporations struggling to pass through rising commodity and tariff related costs and debt service requirements on the rise as the Fed continues to hike rates, the drag from the consumption side of the economic equation will likely dwarf the current boosts in the next two quarters. Furthermore, as I noted previously, tax cuts and reform, tariffs and other fiscal remedies promoted by the current administration fail to address the main drag to economic growth over time. The debt. “It now requires $3.71 of debt to create $1 of economic growth which will only worsen as the debt continues to expand at the expense of stronger rates of growth.”

In fact, as recently noted by our friends at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the U.S. deficit is set to surge. To wit: “The White House Office of Management and Budget recently released its annual mid-session review which updated deficit projections in its fiscal year 2019 budget request. The report projected deficits will reach $1.085 trillion in FY 2019 under their budget, which is double the $526 billion called for in the FY 2018 budget.” The report specifically addresses the biggest point of concern:

“The last time the nation experienced trillion-dollar deficits was during a serious economic downturn, no less – lawmakers took the issue seriouly. PAYGO laws were established, a fiscal commission was formed, new discretionary spending caps were implemented and policymakers entered a multi-year debate on how best to bring down long-term debt levels. This time around, with the emergence of trillion-dollar deficits during a period of economic strength – when we should be saving for future downturns – few seem to even take notice. On our current course, debt will overtake the size of the entire economy in about a decade, and interest will be the largest government program in three decades or less. This will weaken both our economy and our role in the world.”

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And more debt. And then some more.

• Household Debt In UK ‘Worse Than At Any Time On Record’ (G.)

British households spent around £900 more on average than they received in income during 2017, pushing their finances into deficit for the first time since the credit boom of the 1980s. The Office for National Statistics said the shortfall amounted to nearly £25bn – equal to almost a quarter of the NHS budget – and the overspend was mostly paid for with borrowed money, though households also ran down savings. The figures pose a challenge to the government, which was warned last year that Britain’s consumer credit bubble of more than £200 billion was unsustainable. A dramatic rise in debt-fuelled spending since 2016 has also taken place against the backdrop of the Brexit vote, which triggered a rise in inflation at a time of weak wage growth. .

Analysts warned that a squeeze on household incomes from benefit cuts, lacklustre wages and high inflation would continue to force poorer households to borrow more to pay basic bills. Tom Selby, a research analyst at financial adviser AJ Bell, said the figures presented ministers with a significant challenge as they sought “to build financial resilience in the UK”. Researchers at the ONS said the situation was worse than at any time on record after the £25bn deficit last year surpassed the £300m deficit recorded in 1988. British household finances also slumped from being among the most solvent in the 1990s to being among the most indebted compared with households in other major western countries.

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42% of global GDP.

• BRICS Nations Pledge Unity As Trade War Threatens (AFP)

Five of the biggest emerging economies on Thursday stood by the multilateral system and vowed to strengthen economic cooperation in the face of US tariff threats and unilateralism. The heads of the BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – met in Johannesburg for an annual summit dominated by the risk of a US-led trade war, although leaders did not publicly mention President Donald Trump by name. “We express concern at the spill-over effects of macro-economic policy measures in some major advanced economies,” they said in joint statement. “We recognise that the multilateral trading system is facing unprecedented challenges. We underscore the importance of an open world economy.”

Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China’s trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation. Trump has already slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars, as well as tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico. “We should stay committed to multilateralism,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said on the second day of the talks. “Closer economic cooperation for shared prosperity is the original purpose and priority of BRICS.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a controversial meeting with Trump last week, echoed the calls for closer ties among BRICS members and for stronger trade within group. “BRICS has a unique place in the global economy — this is the largest market in the world, the joint GDP is 42% of the global GDP and it keeps growing,” Putin said.

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For what it’s worth.

• Facebook’s $120 Billion Rout Biggest Loss In Stock Market History (CNBC)

Facebook on Thursday posted the largest one-day loss in market value by any company in U.S. stock market history after releasing a disastrous quarterly report. The social media giant’s market capitalization plummeted by $119 billion to $510 billion as its stock price plummeted by 19 percent. At Wednesday’s close, Facebook’s market cap had totaled nearly $630 billion, according to FactSet. No company in the history of the U.S. stock market has ever lost $100 billion in market value in just one day, but two came close. On Sept. 22, 2000, Intel shed $90.74 billion in market value as the dot-com bubble burst. Earlier that year, Microsoft lost $80 billion from its market cap in one day.

Other companies that have experienced similar one-day losses in dollar amount include Apple in 2013, when it lost $59.6 billion, and Exxon Mobil in 2008, when it lost $52.5 billion. Facebook’s enormous loss in value came a day after the company reported weaker-than-expected revenue for the second quarter as well as disappointing global daily active users, a key metric for Facebook. The company also said it expects its revenue growth rate to slow in the second half of this year. Several analysts downgraded Facebook’s stock, including Nomura Instinet’s Mark Kelley. “With stagnating core user growth, we think there is too much near- to mid-term uncertainty to recommend shares at this point,” Kelley, who downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, said in a note.

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But who’s winning?

• Trade Deal With EU Greater In Scope Than Expected – US Official (R.)

The U.S. administration got more out of a trade deal with the European Union than it had expected and the two will work together to deal with China’s market abuses, a top White House official told Reuters on Thursday. President Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, struck a surprise deal on Wednesday that ended the risk of an immediate trade war between the two powers. “The EU came into the conversation and they were open to the proposals we had made about getting rid of tariffs, non-tariff barriers and subsidies,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump agreed on Wednesday to refrain from imposing car tariffs while the two sides launch negotiations to cut other trade barriers. Europe agreed to increase purchases of U.S. liquefied natural gas and lower trade barriers to American soybeans. The official stressed on Thursday that Trump retained the power to implement tariffs on cars if needed and said there was no deadline for the completion of talks. He said Trump was committed to getting zero tariffs from the European Union.= As part of the deal, the United States and Europe will work together on China. The two powers in the past have cooperated on measures to deal with theft of company secrets by Chinese entities.

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France doesn’t want to include agriculture. It gets 100s of billions in subsidies. So Macron talks about steel instead.

• Macron ‘Not In Favour’ Of Vast New US-EU Trade Deal (AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday he viewed talks between US President Donald Trump and EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker as “useful”, but he was “not in favour” of a “vast new trade deal” between the European Union and the United States. “European and France never wanted a trade war and the talks yesterday were therefore useful in as far as they helped scale back any unnecessary tension, and working to bring about an appeasement is useful,” the French leader said after a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid. “But a good trade discussion… can only be done on a balanced, reciprocal basis, and in no case under any sort of threat,” Macron said. “In this regard, we have a number of questions and concerns that we will clarify”.

Macron said he was “not in favour of us launching a vast trade agreement, along the lines of the TTIP, because the current context does now allow for that,” referring to a transatlantic free-trade deal which stalled two years ago. And he reaffirmed his opposition to including agriculture in any such deal. “I believe that no European standard should be suppressed or lowered in the areas of the environment, health or food, for example.” Macron went on to insist that “clear gestures are needed from the US, signs of de-escalation on steel and aluminium, on which the United States have imposed illegal taxes. That, for me, would constitute a prelude to making further concrete headway” on trade.

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Rinse and repeat.

• EU’s Barnier Kills Off Theresa May’s Brexit Customs Proposals (G.)

Michel Barnier has warned that attempts to appeal to EU leaders over his head were a waste of time as he rejected Theresa May’s proposals on customs after Brexit, in effect killing off the Chequers plan. On Friday Theresa May travels to Austria to meet Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, before heading off on her summer holiday. May’s trip follows the EU chief Brexit negotiator insisting there was no difference of opinion in European capitals to exploit. “Anyone who wants to find a sliver of difference between my mandate and what the heads of government say they want are wasting their time, quite frankly,” he told reporters at a joint press conference with the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, in Brussels.

The British negotiators have become increasingly frustrated with the EU’s attitude to the white paper thrashed out at the prime minister’s country retreat. They feel that it will take an intervention by leaders, most likely at a summit in Salzburg in September, to move the dial in favour of a deal. A number of cabinet ministers have been despatched around EU capitals to make their case for greater flexibility. The impasse in the negotiations was laid bare in the press conference in the European commission’s Berlaymont headquarters as a thunderstorm broke outside. While Raab insisted that with “political will” a deal on trade and on avoiding a border on the island of Ireland was achievable by a crunch summit in October, Barnier offered a damning verdict on a major element of the UK’s vision of the future.

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And the lira plunges some more…

• Trump Threatens Turkey Sanctions Over Detained Pastor (AP)

President Donald Trump says the U.S. will hit Turkey with “large sanctions” over a American pastor detained on terror and espionage charges, and he called for the pastor’s immediate release. Tweeting from aboard Air Force One, Trump said: “The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being.” Trump said Brunson “is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!”

Just hours earlier, Vice President Mike Pence said that if Turkey does not take immediate action to free Brunson, “the United States of America will impose significant sanctions on Turkey.” Pence spoke at the close of a three-day conference in Washington on religious freedom. Brunson, 50, an evangelical Christian pastor originally from North Carolina, was let out of jail Wednesday, after 1 1/2 years, to serve house arrest because of “health problems,” according to Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.

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Hope Judge Sabraw comes down hard on them. When he set the deadlines a month ago, he said: “These are firm deadlines; they’re not aspirational goals.”

• US Government Misses Judge’s Midnight Deadline For Reunifying Families (Ind.)

US lawyers and activists have described “chaos and confusion” at immigrant detention facilities as the Trump administration scrambles to reunify the more than 2,500 migrant children it separated from their parents at the border in recent months. The government is rushing to meet a Thursday night deadline set by US District Court Judge Dana Sabraw, who ordered all of the families reunified as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union last month. As of Tuesday, officials said they had identified 1,634 parents possibly eligible for reunification with their children, and successfully reunified some 1,012 of them. The government was scheduled to provide an updated count to Judge Sabraw on Friday morning.

But the government also said more than 900 parents may not be eligible for reunification because they had waived their right to reunification, had criminal backgrounds, or were otherwise deemed unfit. Some 462 of those parents had already left the country, the administration said, though it was unclear whether they had volunteered to leave or had been deported against their will. Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney on the case, took issue with this number, saying the Trump administration was “unilaterally picking and choosing who is eligible for reunification”. “We will continue to hold the government accountable and get these families back together,” he said in a statement.

Immigrants’ rights groups warned that many of the parents who had left the country already may have done so under duress or coercion, or armed with bad information. Advocates described parents being pressured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to sign paperwork they didn’t understand, or being told that they would not be reunified with their children unless they agreed to be deported.

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The Wall Street Journal forgets to mention that consumers have nothing left to spend. Growth prospects?

• Taxation Strangles Greece’s Growth Prospects (WSJ)

Greece is scheduled to exit its marathon bailout this summer after hitting the tough fiscal targets set by its creditors. But the country has done so by raising taxes so high that they are strangling the small businesses that form the backbone of its economy. At the Dandy restaurant in downtown Athens, owner Charalampos Bonatsos said rising taxes have forced him to lay off half his staff and cut his remaining workers’ wages. He said he still struggles to cope with the last three years’ increases in corporate income tax, property tax and sales tax. “All that matters is reaching the bailout goals. No one cares whether doing business is possible with this policy,” Mr. Bonatsos said.

The tax increases have left Greece with some of Europe’s highest tax rates across several categories, including 29% on corporate income, 15% on dividends, and 24% on value-added tax (a rough equivalent of U.S. sales tax). Individuals pay as much as 45% income tax, plus an extra “solidarity levy” of up to 10%. Furthermore, workers and employers pay social-security levies of up to 27% of their salaries. The elevated taxes under Greece’s bailout program have fallen most heavily on small and midsize businesses and self-employed people. Lawyers and engineers, most of whom are self-employed, are fighting the government in court over having to pay what they say is up to 80% of their average monthly takings in taxes and levies.

Some also have to pay retroactive social-security contributions, to the point where professional associations say some of their members are having to pay more to the state than they make. The painfully high taxes reflect the tough demands of Greece’s main creditors: other eurozone countries led by Germany, and the IMF. Since Greece’s finances spun out of control, its bailout lenders have forced the country to cut its budget deficit from over 15% of GDP in 2009 to a surplus of around 1% in 2017. [..] The tax burden creates a serious disincentive for economic activity. It mainly hits the most productive part of the Greek society,” said George Pagoulatos, professor of economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business. “Greece resembles Scandinavian-style taxation, but its welfare state has nothing to compare to theirs: You don’t get anything in return.”

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Words fail. Yesterday, heavy rains flooded areas 25km from Mati.

• Death Toll From Greek Wildfires Rises To 85, Scores Stll Missing (K.)

The death toll from the deadly blaze that ravaged the coastal town of Mati in east Attica on Monday rose to 85 on Thursday, after a 73-year-old man who was in intensive care in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital died and two more bodies were discovered by rescue crews. Earlier in the day, a fire service spokesperson told journalists the number had risen to 82. Stavroula Malliri said rescuers are looking for missing people but have not yet entered closed houses in affected areas. About 300 firemen and volunteers combed through the area looking for dozens reported missing, among them two 9-year old sisters.

“Understanding the agony of the relatives of those missing, we inform you that the search to find them will not stop until all buildings and areas affected by the blaze have been checked,” she told journalists. Malliri called on the relatives of those missing to visit the forensics department of the University of Athens in Goudi until Friday (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) where they will be briefed about the procedure followed to identify the victims. The Infrastructure Ministry announced earlier on Thursday that 1,218 buildings (48.93 pct) out of the 2,489 assessed by its engineers since Tuesday were deemed uninhabitable.

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Don’t worry, we’ll get to that yet.

• Only 13% Of World’s Oceans Are Still Untouched Wilderness (Ind.)

The area of the ocean that remains undamaged by humans is tiny, according to the first ever comprehensive analysis of “marine wilderness”. Global shipping, fishing operations and pollution running into the sea from land have all taken their toll on the world’s seas, including some of the most remote areas. Areas of true wilderness are vital as they are some of the most diverse parts of the ocean and the last places on Earth still inhabited by sizeable numbers of large predators like sharks. Even the few fragments that remain are threatened as advanced fishing technologies and melting sea ice expose them to human activity. Most of the remaining wilderness, which covers no more than 13% of the world’s oceans, can be found in the polar regions and around remote Pacific Island nations.

The scientists behind the study have called for international agreements to recognise the unique value of these zones. Kendall Jones of the University of Queensland, who led the research, said they were “astonished by just how little marine wilderness remains”. “The ocean is immense, covering over 70% of our planet, but we’ve managed to significantly impact almost all of this vast ecosystem,” he said. Crucially, less than 5% of the remaining wilderness is officially protected. “This means the vast majority of marine wilderness could be lost at any time, as improvements in technology allow us to fish deeper and ship farther than ever before,” explained Mr Jones. “Thanks to a warming climate, even some places that were once safe due to year-round ice cover can now be fished.”

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