As we’ve long been reporting in the Trends Journal, the 2015 Argentinian presidential election of Mauricio Macri, despite all the rousing cheers from the White Shoe Boys, who thought the former engineer would be the perfect business guy to straighten out the country’s never-ending financial crisis, made a bad situation worse. Unable to salvage the deeply-in-debt, declining economy, he sold...

European Central Bank Eurozone bank lending slowed last month, with loans to financial corporations slipping from 4.3 percent in August to 3.7 percent in September.  Lending rates in the eurozone have been kept below pre-crisis levels. In 2007 and 2008, bank lending to business was at least 12 percent. Lending to households held steady at an annual rate of 3.4...

India’s shadow banks, non-bank financial groups such as Indiabulls and Dewan Housing Finance, are in crisis, setting off alarms for investors and analysts that could affect the country’s conventional banks and real estate companies.  The Reserve Bank of India cautions that failure of largest NBFCs and housing finance companies could cause two banks to default. According to the Finance Industry...

Another weekend, another week of heated protests in Hong Kong. Not even increased police presence could stop it. It’s the Hong Kong people against the Chinese Government. They know that if they lose, they’ll be living under government rule they would rather die than live under.  Angry at recent clampdowns on freedoms, directed by the Chinese government, for the past...

The Iraqi riots that broke out last month, in a nation bombed into ruin by the George W. Bush War which killed over a million citizens and destroyed its economic and social infrastructure, continues.   With no future and infuriated with government corruption, unemployment, and deteriorating public services, thousands continue taking to the streets.  Hundreds have been killed and thousands...

The Lebanese protests demanding a complete overhaul of a political system they deem as inefficient and corrupt continued on Sunday, as tens of thousands kept up a nationwide street movement that began on 17 October. Facing the largest street protests since Lebanon’s independence in 1943, anger over a faltering economy on the verge of collapse with high unemployment, low-paying jobs,...

As street protests continue to increase around the globe, Yemen finally may be experiencing a halt to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. After weeks of talks, the ongoing, devastating civil war that cost millions their lives and which has caused widespread starvation and destruction, may be coming to an end.  Last Saturday, the Yemeni government and leaders of...

Last week, over a million Chilean citizens filled the streets of the capital city of Santiago protesting low wages, high living costs, and government corruption. While many participating in current protests across the globe are young, in Chile, the street rallies also include many elderly citizens, angry over a failing pension system that promised them comfortable retirements.   The system,...

As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, millions of Bolivians were infuriated after President Evo Morales initiated a blackout of the vote count in a very close election and then claimed victory.   Last Thursday, a sizeable part of the country was slowed down by large demonstrations, including strikes and blockades.   A letter addressed to President Morales and military...

Last week, the Pentagon signed the largest contract yet for America’s most expensive weapon, the Lockheed Martin F-35.  Despite being rated by critics as one of the “5 Worst Fighter Jets Ever Made,” and suffering huge cost overruns, the Pentagon will take $34 billion of taxpayer money to buy some 500 stealth F-35 jets. Playing middle man for the military-industrial...