Worried about climate change? Forget about it. Keep drinking the water in cities across the United States, and you’ll be long dead before the climate changes. Besides the tons of chemicals, pesticides, and industrial poisons pumped and sprayed into the earth, water, air, and food, the Defense Department has cited 401 bases in the U.S....
Author: support
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ARGENTINA: BORROWED MONEY, BORROWED TIME
Argentina has suspended all payments on its $57-billion debt to the International Monetary Fund. Vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced on Saturday that her country will not pay “even half a cent” until Argentina’s recession is over. The way a country ends a recession is through “a lot of state investment,” she added, which...
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INDIA: UP FOR SALE
India’s government has unveiled a plan to raise $30 billion in the new fiscal year by selling state-owned businesses and other public assets. Among those assets are portions of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, various government-owned banks, and the money-losing Air India airline. The fund-raiser is meant to help the government cut its deficit....
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BRITAIN: TRUMP FUMES AT JOHNSON
Donald Trump reportedly vented “apoplectic” fury at Boris Johnson in a phone call last week after the British prime minister’s decision to use technology from the Chinese tech giant Huawei in the UK’s 5G network. The U.S. government has accused Huawei of stealing sensitive American technology and has banned U.S. companies from selling technology to...
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OIL DOWN, GOING LOWER?
In early January, following America’s assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, tensions escalated in the Middle East driving Brent crude to $70 per barrel. Then, as data from the U.S., Europe, and Asia supported a slowing global economy, followed by Coronavirus fears, oil prices, now at around $54 a barrel for Brent crude, have hit...
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CHINA FIGHTS THE VIRUS WITH MONEY
The People’s Bank of China – the country’s central bank – offered $173 billion in cash to overnight markets as they opened last week after being closed from 24 January through 3 February for the Chinese New Year holiday. Because many short-term bonds matured the same day, the available cash nets to about $150 billion....
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DOUBLING DOWN ON THE CORONAVIRUS
Last Thursday, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said the Coronavirus has succeeded the U.S.-China trade turmoil as Europe’s main risk to growth this year because China has closed factories, restricted travel, and quarantined cities due to the virus. Her comment followed news that German factory orders fell 2.1 percent in January from...
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MANUFACTURING: STEADY-SLOW
The U.S. economy probably won’t grow this year at the Trump administration’s 3.1-percent target rate, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin admitted last week. Mnuchin blamed the Coronavirus outbreak and Boeing’s woes with its 737 Max jetliner. As of today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has reported, with great fanfare, the grand total of 13 confirmed...
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MARIJUANA: PAY HIGH TAXES TO GET HIGH
With the economy showing signs of slowing and government debt rising, more states and cities are looking to marijuana as a way to squeeze money from the public, in the name of taxes, to enrich government coffers. California’s counties, cities, and towns took in $1.86 billion in grass taxes in 2018 and about the same...
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DOW AND DOLLAR RIDING HIGH
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose last week, despite a 277-point dip on Friday that was attributed to worries about the impact of the Coronavirus. The gain reversed the 600-point drop on 31 January and set a record intraday high of 29,407 on Thursday. As we go to press, the Dow hit a record high...