This past Sunday’s elections were seen as a referendum on the extended street protests gripping Hong Kong for nearly six months. With 95 percent of the vote counted, all but one of the 18 local districts are now under the political control of pro-democracy councillors. Previously, all of the city councils were much more accepting of Beijing’s influence. Nearly three...

As Gerald Celente stated in a Publisher’s Note in last week’s Trends Journal, when it comes to the U.S. and Latin America, “It’s all about the bottom line: the money corporations can make by robbing and killing anyone that tries to stop them.”   In an interview last week, ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales stated the U.S.-led Organization of American...

Last Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Columbians throughout the country began a national strike. The protest is against proposed austerity measures that would specifically weaken the state-run pension program counted on by millions of workers, while at the same time offering a lucrative tax cut for the wealthy.   In addition, the proposals would cut funding for education and reduce...

For the first time in Israel’s history, a sitting prime minister has been indicted. Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest serving PM, has been charged with one count of bribery, three counts of fraud, and breach of trust. Investigation into Netanyahu began in 2016 and includes exchanging favors with media owners for favorable coverage and offering a bribe to an attorney...

The past two weeks of public congressional impeachment testimony saturating the U.S. mainstream media was whether President Trump had held back $391 million of military aid until the Ukraine government launched an investigation into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, pertaining to Hunter’s business deal with Burisma Energy, which earned him some $3 million as a member of its board. The...

The demonstrations that began last month to fight against the years of corruption, unemployment, and lack of basic services, which have plagued Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, continue to escalate. The violence spread out from the capital of Baghdad to the cities of Basra and Nasiriya, which are in the southern part of the country. This past weekend...

Peru has been experiencing worker strikes for most of this year.  But now the number and energy behind the strikes are picking up. Following the trends in Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, and Chile, the flames of discontent have spread to Peru. Last week, some 100,000 healthcare workers went on strike demanding more pay and more resources for hospitals they claim are...

The protests of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, who have been taking to the streets for the past five weeks had transcended sectarian divisions. The general public were united in their primary focus on fighting against government corruption/ruling establishment and demanding a share of the wealth, as unemployment soars, poverty increases, and living conditions deteriorate. But now that’s changed. Supporters...

While Americans are earning less, they’re going deeper into debt. According to the latest Brookings Institution study, despite a “record low” 3.6 percent unemployment rate, 44 percent of all workers age 18 to 64, or roughly 53 million Americans, have a mere $17,950 median annual income and a median hourly wage of $10.22.  The average household income for these low-wage...

As we noted in the 12 November issue of the Trends Journal, first-time homebuyers’ median age is 33, the oldest in records since 1981.  Median ages of all homebuyers rose from 31 years in 1981 to 47 years today.  Those who could find an affordable house in 2018 had a typical income of $93,200, but, as noted above, with 44...