America, the land of the free and the home of the brave that wages wars to bring freedom and democracy to nations across the globe, and overthrowing “corrupt” leaders has slipped in the international corruption ranking index. In Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, the U.S. dropped two points to 27th place among the world’s...
Tag: 28 January 2020
Post
IRAQ: PROTESTS AND THREATS
Now in its fourth month, the countrywide demonstrations in which several hundred have been killed and thousands wounded continued this weekend, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens took to the streets. Lacking jobs and basic living standards, and calling for new elections and an end government corruption, the demonstrators were beaten and killed by...
Post
IRAN: U.S. ON THE WARPATH
While tensions between the United States and Iran have eased somewhat following President Trump’s assassination on 3 January of Iranian general/ number two political leader Qasem Soleimani, Washington has warned more killing of Iranian officials remain a U.S. policy option. Speaking at the annual Davos meeting in Switzerland last week, U.S. Special Representative to Iraq,...
Post
LEBANON: NEW GOVERNMENT, SAME OLD STORY?
The ongoing protests against lack of jobs, a decaying economy, and government corruption that began on 17 October last year, and forced its Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign, continues. Despite the announcement by Hassan Diab, the new Prime Minister, of his appointing 20 new ministers whom he vowed to work with to solve protesters’...
Post
VENEZUELA: GUAIDÓ FADING
Juan Guaidó, who with U.S. backing and that of some 50 nations, claims to be the legitimate president of Venezuela, received a cool reception at the recent meeting of government and financial leaders in Davos. Despite his recent meeting and endorsement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, as reported in the Trends Journal,...
Post
MONETARY METHADONE: REPO RESCUE TOPS $6 TRILLION
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has pumped $6.6 trillion into major financial trading houses in the last five months through the repo market (repurchase agreement) market, according to data posted on the bank’s website. The first week of the current repo rescue was last 17 through 24 September, when the repo interest rate...
Post
JUNK DEBT DUE SETS RECORD
Almost $1.2 trillion in speculative-rated corporate bonds – also known as “junk debt” – will come due over the next five years. This sets a record for the amount of risky loans to mature over such a short period, up 14 percent since last year. Looking at growing signs of an economic slowdown ahead, Moody’s...
Post
TRUMP: IN LA-LA LAND
Addressing the World Economic Forum at Davos last Monday, President Donald Trump told the gathering that the U.S. is “in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen.” He branded the economy “the great American comeback” and “a stunning turnaround” powered by “a whole new approach centered entirely on...
Post
NEW YORK CITY: BUY/HOLD/SELL?
The weakness in Manhattan real estate prices and store vacancies that we have been reporting on in the Trends Journal over the past year have spread across the East River to Brooklyn. The dollar volume of real estate sales in Brooklyn last year dropped 30 percent from 2019, to $5.1 billion. The plunge was driven largely...