The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to withhold details about its most notorious public scandal in recent history.
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
In dumbed-down America, where nearly 45 percent of the people get what they call “news” from mainstream corporate TV and swallow the crap spewing out of the mouths of Presstitutes—media whores who get paid to put out by their corporate pimps and government whore masters—the vast majority have no clue of what in the world is going on.
ANTI-CHINA RHETORIC FROM G7 MEETING MOVES MOSCOW AND BEIJING EVEN CLOSER
China has warned European countries against following the U.S. down the path of confrontation in its zero-sum game to prevent the emergence of a unipolar world and to keep the current “global world order.”
EUROPE: FIRST AN ENERGY SHOCK, NOW A FOOD SHOCK
Europe’s cost of natural gas began rising sharply in the run-up to the Ukraine war as Russia curtailed gas deliveries to the continent in a show of political pressure; then gas prices skyrocketed again after Russia invaded Ukraine and the West slapped sanctions on Russia’s exports.
HUMAN “SYMBIOSIS” WITH AI: CHATGPT WANTS TO BE YOUR DIGITAL KEEPER
“The concept of a dream machine … the human-computer symbiosis … is exciting. We went from the bicycle to the steam engine with ChatGPT.”
RFK JR. BLASTS U.S. DECISION TO BACK F-16s FOR UKRAINE AS ‘DANGEROUS ESCALATION’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic challenger up against the incumbent President Joe Biden, criticized the U.S.’s decision to support F-16s for Ukraine as a “dangerous escalation” without much upside.
PUTIN FACES DOMESTIC PRESSURE TO CRUSH UKRAINE IN ALL-OUT WAR
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to use the full might of the country’s military in Ukraine to save Russia from the risk of a revolution and to bring the war to a quick end.
Economy
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA
China dominates lithium refining but has only 8 percent of the world’s raw lithium, less than Argentina, Bolivia, or Chile. Even the U.S. has more lithium ore than the Asian giant.
MEXICO’S CENTRAL BANK PROMISES NO MORE INTEREST RATE INCREASES
Meeting on 25 May, the governing board of Mexico’s central bank voted unanimously to hold its key interest rate at 11.25 percent, halting its fastest and steepest series of rate increases on record.
CORPORATE BUYBACKS: THE SPREE CONTINUES
The spate of corporations buying their own stock that we reported in “Company Stock Buybacks Set Record, Spark Investor Complaints” (23 May 2023) shows no signs of slowing.
Geopolitics
ANTI-CHINA RHETORIC FROM G7 MEETING MOVES MOSCOW AND BEIJING EVEN CLOSER
China has warned European countries against following the U.S. down the path of confrontation in its zero-sum game to prevent the emergence of a unipolar world and to keep the current “global world order.”
ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG: KISSINGER HITS 100
Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who has become an authoritative voice on foreign affairs, turned 100 years old last week.
U.S. RAMPS UP PRESSURE ON IRAN WITH INCREASED PATROLS IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
The U.S. continues to provoke Iran in the Strait of Hormuz as the two countries recently got involved in tit-for-tat ship seizures in one of the world's most strategically important waterways.
Top Trends 2023
TOP TREND 2023: CELENTE’S HOMELESS SOLUTION
Homelessness is still a top concern in cities across the U.S., and with poverty, crime and government corruption accelerating across the planet, waves of immigrants flooding into safe-haven nations has—and will—make the homeless crisis worsen.
TOP TREND 2023: ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT—NEW POLITICAL PARTIES
Get ready for new anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-immigration, anti-tax political parties to spring up across the globe.
TOP TREND 2023: ANTI-IMMIGRATION
Inflationary pressures, declining economies across the globe, lack of basic living standards... topped off by an expanding war in Ukraine will lead to more people fleeing impoverished countries for Europe and the U.S., which will, in turn, result in the continued growth of anti-immigration policies and movements in the West.
Hi-Tech Science
RECOVERING MINERALS THROUGH PHYTOMINING
Forward-thinking researchers are foreseeing a time when future generations of humanity are running short of minerals because their ancestors have used them up.
PARALYZED MAN WALKS WITH ELECTRONIC BRAIN-SPINE BRIDGE
Gert-Jan Oskam, a Dutch man whose spinal cord was damaged in a bicycle accident, is able to walk again, thanks to an electronic “bridge” that transmits signals from his brain to the spinal column below the injury.
BENCHTOP DNA PRINTERS: A NEW WEAPON OF TERROR?
Research biologists editing DNA have been buying their DNA samples from about 100 specialty suppliers. Those samples have been used to create new drugs, biofuels, and crops.