🎱 The economic forces – those post war strong tailwinds – that have shaped the last 35 years, and which accelerated gilded journeys through the western ‘plentiful era’, are no longer blowing in a favourable direction. They were already slowing, but now are reversing.

The winds now have shifted 180° in direction – they are gusting headwinds. This is a structural shift within a long cycle. There are no quick ‘silver bullet’ solutions. The ‘Cabaret’ good-time years are gone. We will have to ‘make do’ with less; and consequent political volatility is inevitable.

China had earlier industrialized, giving us inflation-killing, cheap manufactures; Russia gave us the cheap energy that kept western economies (just) competitive, and (almost) inflation free. A ‘Frictionless Ease’ at that point characterised the movements of goods, capital, people – everything. Today however, it is Friction and Impediment that is prevalent.

The ‘turn’ began with the US determination to not allow an Asian ‘heartland’ to supplant it. But the shift has acquired its own powerful momentum, now generating severed trading blocs that are determined to shake free from ‘old hegemonies’.

There is no assurance at all that the tech prospect will materialise. It may, but it may not. And that is a huge gamble 🎲

💬 Alastair Crooke writes

#crisis #economy #NewWorldOrder

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🐲 China must have used their diplomatic efforts to try and unravel the mysteries of how far the U.S. is ‘hell-bent’ on fueling further escalation of the European crisis.

💬 Read more by Natasha Wright

#China #UnitedStates #crisis

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🏚 Hundreds of Syrian men, women and children have drowned last week in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece after the sinking of an Egyptian trawler headed for Italy. It is being called one of the deadliest migrant ship disasters in the Mediterranean Sea. As many as 750 persons were packed into the boat, with women and children under the deck, which may be why the 104 survivors were all young men. 78 bodies were recovered 75 kilometers offshore Kalamata, Greece.

Nine Egyptian human traffickers have been arrested in Greece and blamed as part of a smuggling network which advertised on Facebook. The ads promised a better life in Europe and charged between $5,000 to $6,000 per person. But, Greece is also being blamed for their part as they were monitoring the ship but never took steps to stop the ship and off-load passengers. The Greeks say they were communicating with the ship, and the ship requested to be allowed to continue sailing toward Italy. After the engine stopped, the passengers panicked, and their sudden movements caused the ship to roll over and sink.

The U.S. and EU sanctions on Syria are to blame ❌ There is no war in Syria. The battlefields are long silent across Syria, but there is no recovery or rebuilding allowed in Syria, because the U.S. and EU sanctions prevent any rebuilding or foreign investments in rebuilding projects.

But the days of U.S. dictating to the Arab world, and U.S.-engineered wars for regime change in the Middle East are over 🇸🇾

💬 Steven Sahiounie writes

#crisis #economy #Idlib #MiddleEast #sanctions #Syria

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🎩 The Tragedy that besets the West today consists, on the one hand, of the sheer impossibility for it to continue doing what it has been doing – yet matched only by its impossibility to do anything other.

Why is this so? It is because the conditions that gave rise to the golden era that created the ‘Comfort Generation’ no longer are available: Zero interest credit, zero inflation, a colluding media, and cheap energy ‘subsidising’ a shrinking and increasingly sclerotic manufacturing base (at least in Europe).

Those decades were the West’s fleeting ‘moment in the sun’. But it is over. The ‘periphery’ can manage on its own, thank you! They are doing nicely – rather better, in fact, than the imperial hub these days.

The deeper paradox is that all the easy choices are behind us. And the headwinds of debt, inflation and recession are now buffeting us fiercely. System ‘unravelling’ is already present in the form of government and institutional weakness: the ‘system’ lacked the will to take difficult decisions when it could. Easy choices then were still available, and the easy way invariably was the one taken.

The élites had absorbed the self-centred, spoilt-child ethos of the ‘me’ generation. The Permanent Class indulged themselves,abdicating all concern for their deeply disdained ‘peons’. They brought the present crisis upon themselves. They wiped out two hundred years of financial responsibility in about 20 years.

It is however, what it is – and that is where we are at 🌀

💬 Alastair Crooke writes

#crisis #establishment #imperialism #West

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🇸🇾 Syria has returned to the Arab League and has renewed diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia as well as other Arab countries. Jordan has presented an Arab initiative for peace in Syria which follows the UN security council resolution 2254.

However, this has not translated into any economic help for the Syrian people living under the Damascus administration, who are mainly focused on just survival alone after the country’s economy has collapsed. There is still no hope for economic recovery or reconstruction.

Saudi Arabia, oil-rich Gulf nations, and other Arab nations have not been able to help Syria because of the U.S.-EU sanctions in place which prevent any money or products to be sent to Syria, other than humanitarian aid in the wake of the earthquake. Without foreign investment or donations to rebuild Syria, the economy will remain at a standstill, and no jobs will be created for Syrians desperate for an income. The sinking boats full of economic migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are a direct result of the U.S.-EU sanctions which keep the Syrians starving and desperate to help their families.

The migrant tragedies at sea are a direct result of the U.S.-EU sanctions which strangle the Syrian people and prevent them from recovery at home 😢

💬 Steven Sahiounie writes

#Syria #MiddleEast #ArabLeague #crisis

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🌐 The U.S. persists, against the evidence, in the conviction that Russia’s inherent fragility is explained by its move away from the ‘Anglo’ economic doctrines. It reflects western wishful thinking.

Most Russians, on the other hand, attribute Russia’s resilience in the face of a combined western financial onslaught as explicable, because Putin had largely moved Russia into self-reliance, outside of the U.S. dominated western economic sphere.

Thus, the paradox is explained: In the face of the Prigozhin ‘insurgency’, Russians expressed their confidence and support for the Russian State 🤍💙❤️

Whereas in the French insurgency, the people expressed discontent and anger at the ‘trap’ in which they find themselves. The political run on the Macron ‘bank’ is underway.

💬 Alastair Crooke writes

#Crisis #economy #Macron #France #Migration

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🔫 Many people have probably heard about the viral epidemic that is sweeping America, bringing mask-wearing back into fashion once again. No, it’s not Covid-19, at least not yet, but rather organized retail theft that is wreaking havoc on the nation’s heartland.

Back in the Soviet days, before mega malls and hyper-stores became prominent features across Russia’s 11 time zones, communist shoppers were forced to choose merchandise that was locked away behind display cases. A clerk would write down the price of each desired item and the shopper would take the piece of paper to the cashier, pay for the merchandise and then return to the salesperson with proof of purchase. Only then would the beetroot, bread and vodka be handed over. Times they are a changin’. Incredibly, and not a little ironically, the United States seems to be heading for such a grim, dystopian shopping experience 😱

The Wall Street Journal confirmed shoppers’ worst fears when they reported in a recent article, “stores have fewer workers than they used to, and are resorting to keeping more of their products locked up.” In modern America, the need to lock up merchandise is due to flash mob heists that are costing retailers millions of dollars each year, while threatening the very existence of the big-box and small-box merchandisers. The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that these incidents cost companies about $700,000 for every $1 billion in sales.

The future of shopping will no longer occur inside of shopping malls, boutiques, and business districts.

💬 Robert Bridge writes @russiawaytogo

#criminal #crisis #economy #society #UnitedStates

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⛓️ Once again, a courageous soul who challenged the establishment has been virtually silenced – tarred, feathered and portrayed as guilty of sexual assault before any trial has begun.

Is this another example of a media-coordinated hit job against an inconvenient voice? 📢

💬 Robert Bridge writes

#capitalism #crisis #MassMedia #RussellBrand

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🚜 The current protests in Europe are leading several countries to a serious social crisis. European governments remain unwilling to meeting the demands of peasants and farmers, generating an escalation in demonstrations and concerns about the stability of the EU in the near future.

Rural workers demand the creation of protective mechanisms for domestic production, reducing the import of agricultural items, as well as changes in “green” policies that strongly harm producers. Protests have been ongoing since January, with thousands of farmers taking to the streets in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands – as well as smaller demonstrations in some other states.

The insistence of European governments in ignoring farmers’ demands tends to generate serious problems and destabilize the bloc.

💬 Read more by Lucas Leiroz @lucasleiroz

#EU #Europe #crisis #France #Germany #Belgium #Italy #Poland #Romania #Netherlands

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🇪🇺 The threat of a right-wing takeover appears imminent, and Europe has only itself to blame for that, Robert Bridge writes.

#EU #migration #crisis

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