alanjjohnstone
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Will this trigger the next recession?
“Boom times in many global real estate markets are turning to bust. Australia, several Asian countries and North America are starting to see large price corrections that are leaving speculators racing for cover.”
https://www.dw.com/en/global-property-markets-on-the-turn/g-47234757
‘Indecisive’ Britain
May is seeking tweaks to the accord and to a parallel political declaration on future EU-British relations in the hope of belatedly winning domestic support. The remaining 27 EU member countries have meanwhile been intensifying their preparations for a no-deal Brexit. Italy’s Finance Ministry said last week that it had drafted no-deal measures to protect the country’s finance industry.
Britain risks an accidental crash-out of the EU, warned the deputy to EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday. In some of her toughest remarks, Sabine Weyand slammed Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of the divorce talks.
“There is a very real risk of crash out. Not by design but by accident,” Weyand told an audience invited by the European Policy Centre think tank. Weyand said that May had kept members of her own government in the dark during 18 months of intense negotiations.https://www.dw.com/en/brexit-britain-faces-accidental-no-deal-eu-warns/a-47270554
A Trade War POW?
Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, was charged with a series of crimes by the US on Monday, in an escalation of hostilities between the world’s biggest economic powers. The US justice department said Huawei had based its global expansion on “lies and deceit”. It accused the firm and its executives of stealing trade secrets, laundering money, obstructing justice and defrauding banks to elude US sanctions. Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, said criminal offending at Huawei went “all the way to the top of the company”. He announced that grand juries in Seattle and New York had issued indictments on 23 criminal charges.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the US homeland security secretary, said Huawei had operated a scheme that had been “detrimental to the security of the United States” by undermining sanctions against Iran. The company and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, are also accused of defrauding banks and lying to the US to get around economic sanctions on Iran. She is accused of personally making a presentation to a “major banking partner” in which she “repeatedly lied” about the company’s relationship to the subsidiary, Skycom. They claimed to have sold an Iranian subsidiary but had actually sold it to themselves.
The charges are likely to raise tensions between China and the US amid a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. They were unveiled shortly before trade talks between American and Chinese officials were due to resume.
The global edible insect market is forecast to exceed $520m (£395m) by 2023, according to recent research. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said at least 2 billion people regularly consume insects and they could help meet the food needs of the world’s growing population. More than 1,000 insect species are eaten around the world but they hardly feature in the diets of many rich nations.
Pasta, protein bars and granola bars made from insect flour are to go on sale in Selfridges.
Environmental experts have long recommended insects as a sustainable food source that could help end world hunger and reduce the damaging impact of meat production. Insects are also nutritious, containing essential proteins, fats, minerals and amino acids.
In November, Sainsbury’s became the first major UK grocer to stock edible crickets.
“Having sold over 10,000 packs of Eat Grub crickets in less than three months, we’re continuing to see Sainsbury’s customers explore edible insects as a new sustainable protein source,” said Katherine O’Sullivan, Sainsbury’s buying manager. “We’re always looking to provide our customers with new and exciting products such as these.”
Do what we say, not what we do
George Galloway reprimanded for not offering contrary opinions on his Talk Radio programme.
I rather enjoy GG’s style even though I strongly disagree but he has never ever claimed to be neutral, impartial or without bias which the BBC is forever claiming.
I think we can say that there is innumerable occasions that the BBC does not offer a counter-balance and when it chooses an ineffectual voice.
The sanctions screw tightens
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47036491
“US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the proceeds of the purchase of Venezuelan oil would now be withheld from Maduro’s government, but the company could avoid sanctions by recognizing Guaidó. Venezuela is heavily reliant on the US for its oil revenue – sending 41% of its oil exports there – while it remains in the top four crude oil suppliers to the US…The US action blocks all PDVSA property and interests subject to US jurisdiction, and prohibits US citizens from engaging in transactions with them. But Mnuchin said US-based subsidiary Citgo could continue operations if its earnings were deposited in a blocked account in the US..”
Ivan Briscoe, the International Crisis Group’s program director for Latin America, thought Maduro could survive additional sanctions. He warned that the situation for Venezuelans would get worse should the US, China and Russia continue to treat the country as a “football in a bigger political game”.
The Irish view
The Irish Government “does not know how many times it has to say it” before Westminster really believes the withdrawal agreement between the EU and Britain is not for changing, Tánaiste Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney says. “The withdrawal agreement from an Irish and EU perspective has already been negotiated. The compromises have already been made…The deal was thrashed out over two years and is no longer a negotiation, but a ratification process.”
The fear factor
Not just troops on the streets but empty shelves in the shops
The recipe for populism?
Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they felt their fellow citizens had become “angrier about politics and society” since the Brexit vote in 2016, Forty per cent of people think others are now more likely to take part in violent protests,
65% of Britons think the country is “on the wrong track”, the survey suggests. Amongst remain voters the figure is 82%, but even among leave voters the figure is 43%.
Or an opportunity for revolution?
72% of respondents said they thought life in Britain was unfair, 68% said they wanted to see change, and 53% said they thought the socio-political system was failing them.
Putting the fear of no-deal into people?
The Sunday Times cited unnamed officials as saying the government had been examining the powers at its disposal if a no-deal Brexit resulted in civil disobedience, including martial law, curfews, and the use of the army to quell rioting.
Still in denial
“Trump administration’s senior air pollution official said on Friday that he and his agency were still exploring the science of climate change and fell short of calling it a crisis. ”
Bill Wehrum, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)assistant administrator for air and radiation and previously a lobbyist for coal and oil industry interests, said at a public event in Washington that he supported a rollback of former President Barack Obama’s centerpiece climate change regulation. Asked if the EPA is trying to determine whether climate change is a crisis, he responded, “I’m trying to figure that out. I’ll admit I did not come to the agency as a climate change expert … I’ll admit, there is a lot I don’t understand about climate change,” he said. He added that he did not finish reading the National Climate Assessment.
The Polish View
900,000 Polish nationals live in Britain, the largest group of foreign nationals in the UK, and Polish is the second most widely spoken language in Britain after English. In a survey of 600 Polish business owners in the UK, 45% said they were considering moving back to Poland or to another country due to Brexit, while 30% said Brexit had already directly affected their relations with the surrounding community. Many cited a rise in hostility towards migrants in the wake of the referendum result. Rising living costs in the UK and a steep fall in the value of sterling is also making Britain a much less attractive proposition.
If people or their children experience some kind of prejudice, it affects them very deeply, says Bartosz Kowalczyk, of Polish Business Link, which conducted the survey. “The mood is very tense.”
“One moment May tells them that she wants them to stay, the next moment they hear of all these different conditions,” says Niko Cichowlas, who moved from Poland to the UK in 1981 and runs a construction company in London with a large proportion of Polish employees, many of whom have returned since the referendum. “They are feeling lost.” Cichowlas says: “When I hear the guys talking, they feel that the British are turning against them, they feel this rightwing antagonism, and some of them end up becoming quite anti-British themselves – the process works both ways. They feel under attack, it is very sad.”
“When I came here I was like: ‘Wow, the English are so tolerant,’” says Sławomir Kaczyński, 34, “But after five minutes they start crying that they pay for everything and that foreigners steal their jobs. After Brexit the country showed its true face.”
I think we have to emphasise that being Anti-America is not anti-capitalism. That it can lead to Pro-Russia or Pro-China positions.
The enemy of our enemy is not our friend.
The more we connect the economic gains and losses perhaps the easier our challenge.
Once again our position must be that when socialism is not on the agenda, we retain a commitment to democratic processes that express the will of the working class, even if it is for political parties that do not act in the interests of the working class.
Can I suggest that the pic of Marx and Abolish the Wages System on the front cover is turned into a badge
