One of India’s most popular banks, Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, with deposits of nearly $1.5 billion, lent most of its money to a Mumbai real estate company now in bankruptcy. As a result, the Reserve Bank of India had to step in and take control of PMC Bank. The central bank also announced depositor withdrawal restrictions of 40,000 rupees...

Following the drone strike on Saudi oil fields by Houthis on 14 September, Brent crude spiked some 15 percent to over $66 per barrel, the largest one-day increase ever recorded. As we go to press on 15 October, Brent crude is around $59 a barrel. With supply continuing to outpace demand and despite having cut oil production 1.02 million barrels...

The Average Joe’s Main Squeeze The U.S. labor market is trending down. The number of jobs created in August fell 4 percent from the same time a year earlier, to 7.1 million.  The job numbers in June and July also fell. The last time jobs dropped three straight months in a row was in 2009. New jobs are only averaging...

IMF data show that central banks are subtly ditching the dollar.  Goldman Sachs reports dollar reserves slipped 4 percentage points in 2017 and 2018. Still the coin of the global realm, two-thirds of world currency reserves and securities issuance are denominated in the dollar, compared to only about 20 percent for the euro and 2.1 percent for the Chinese yuan....

Joe Biden, a Democratic frontrunner in The Presidential Reality Show, with “More Murder, No Peace on Earth” as his mantra, he, too, attacks President Trump’s Turkish/Syrian policies. Biden, with his long track record of supporting and encouraging wars, declared, “He [Trump] betrayed our brave troops, who sacrificed alongside them…. He betrayed our word as a nation — raising doubts among...

Almost immediately after pulling out troops from Syria and pledging to “end the endless wars” and that it was “time for us to get out” of Middle East conflicts, President Trump got America in deeper.  Last Friday, he ordered some 3,000 additional U.S. troops and two squadrons of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.  The “official” reason for the troop surge...

Week 19: Massive anti-government protests continue to escalate and turn more violent. Stores, banks, and properties perceived to be connected with Beijing were vandalized, and a subway station was hit with gas bombs, shutting down service. Reacting to the anti-mask law, which the city government imposed to help identify protestors, demonstrators continued taking to the streets despite the increased police...

The UN World Food Program has issued a warning that Zimbabwe is “marching towards starvation.”  Decades of dictatorial rule and government mismanagement, and now faced with severe drought conditions, have created a serious national health emergency. This comes on top of the worst economic crisis in the country since the military takeover occurred in 2017.  Deep in depression, the new...

As reported in the 8 October Trends Journal, thousands of Ecuadorian workers, indigenous people, and students took to the streets to protest rampant government corruption and lack of employment.   Last February, Ecuador’s President, Lenín Moreno, made a deal with the IMF for a $4.2 billion loan. As part of the deal, he issued some $1.4 billion in government cutbacks,...