War Threeat Rises As US Economy

War Threat Rises As US Economy Declines (Source globalresearch.ca) Washington is now committed to blocking the rise of two large nuclear-armed countries. This commitment is the reason for the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine and for its use as anti-Russian propaganda. China is now confronted with the Pivot to Asia and the construction of new US naval and air bases to ensure Washington’s control of the South China Sea, now defined as an area of American National Interests. 9/11 served to launch the neoconservatives’ war for hegemony in the Middle East. 9/11 also served to launch the domestic police state. While civil liberties have shriveled at home, the US has been at war for almost the entirety of the 21st century, wars that have cost us, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, at least $6 trillion dollars. These wars have gone very badly. They have destabilized governments in an important energy producing area. And the wars have vastly multiplied the “terrorists,” the quelling of which was the official reason for the wars. Just as the Soviet collapse unleashed US hegemony, it gave rise to jobs offshoring. The Soviet collapse convinced China and India to open their massive underutilized labor markets to US capital. US corporations, with any reluctant ones pushed by large retailers and Wall Street’s threat of financing takeovers, moved manufacturing, industrial, and tradable professional service jobs, such as software engineering, abroad. This decimated the American middle class and removed ladders of upward mobility. US GDP and tax base moved with the jobs to China and India. US real median family incomes ceased to grow and declined. Without income growth to drive the economy, Alan Greenspan resorted to an expansion of consumer debt, which has run its course. Currently there is nothing to drive the economy. On the economic scene the dollar as reserve currency is a problem for the entire world. Sanctions and other forms of American financial imperialism are causing countries, including very large ones, to leave the dollar payments system. As foreign trade is increasingly conducted without recourse to the US dollar, the demand for dollars drops, but the supply has been greatly expanded as a result of Quantitative Easing. Because of offshored production and US dependence on imports, a drop in the dollar’s exchange value would result in domestic inflation, further lowering US living standards and threatening the rigged, stock, bond, and precious metal markets. The evidence is clear that there has been no economic recovery. With the first quarter GDP negative and the second quarter likely to be negative as well, the second-leg of the long downturn could begin this summer.

 

China and Russia Grow Even Closer

China and Russia Grow Even Closer (Source The Atlantic) Russia staged a grand celebration in Moscow to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the country’s defeat Nazi Germany in World War Two. The occasion—which featured a military procession through Red Square—did not include the leaders of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, who declined to attend out of protest of Russia’s interference in Ukraine. But of the 30 or so world leaders who did arrive, only one had the privilege of sitting beside Russian leader Vladimir Putin: Chinese president Xi Jinping. As Russia’s relationship with the United States and its European allies grows worse, its ties to China have never been closer. On the eve of the parade last Friday, the two countries announced 32 separate bilateral agreements, including a non-aggression pledge in cyber warfare. The deals complement a $400 billion deal made last May, when Russia agreed to ship 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year between 2018 and 2048 to China. And next week, Russian and Chinese naval vessels will conduct live drills in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Both Russia and China have sought to challenge American hegemony by creating new multilateral institutions. The Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union links together Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, economies with a combined GDP of more than $4 trillion. Meanwhile, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, headquartered in Beijing, has snapped up 57 members since its formation last year, including countries like the United Kingdom that joined over American objections. Major Chinese initiatives like the New Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—referred together as “One Road, One Belt”—will feature road, rail, port, and pipeline investment across 65 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe with a combined population of 4.4 billion.

Hundreds flee rumbling Philippines volcano, typhoon

Hundreds flee rumbling Philippines volcano, typhoon (Source AFP) Hundreds of people fled their homes on the slopes of a rumbling Philippine volcano on Friday as authorities warned of rain-driven mudflows from an approaching typhoon that could bury them alive. Around 500 residents of farming villages around Bulusan volcano boarded army trucks clutching sleeping mats and bags of clothes as Typhoon Noul bore down on the area. The typhoon was gusting at up to 115 mph and experts warned debris from two recent ash explosions could rumble down the slopes of the 5,115-feet volcano. Minor ash explosions alone would not normally prompt an evacuation, but authorities ordered one nonetheless because of the threat of mud flows from the approaching storm. Bulusan, on the southeastern tip of the main island of Luzon, is about 249 miles south of the capital, Manila. It is among the country’s 23 active volcanoes. Noul would be the fourth major storm or typhoon to hit the Philippines this year. The disaster-prone nation is lashed by an average of 20 each year, routinely killing hundreds of people.

Bond Market Sell-off Signals Mounting Financial Crisis

Bond Market Sell-off Signals Mounting Financial Crisis (Source globalresearch.ca) The instability of the global financial system and the potential for another crash have been underscored by a major sell-off of government bonds this week. Yesterday saw European markets display levels of volatility not seen since the euro zone debt crisis turmoil of three years ago. In the course of the day, the yield on the German 10-year government bond, which moves inversely to its price, jumped by 21 basis points (a 0.21% point rise) to 0.80 %, before falling back to its opening level of 0.59 %. In the middle of last month, the yield was just 0.05 percent, with predictions that it was on its way to zero. Other markets in Asia and the United States have also showed considerable volatility. The US bond market this week suffered its longest losing streak since 2011.

It has been estimated that in the last two weeks alone some $2 trillion has been wiped off global share and bond markets. The scale of the swing can be gauged from the fact that in normal times the yield on bonds only moves by a few hundredths of a percentage point in the course of a day. But normal calculations have been thrown awry by the near-zero interest rate regime of the world’s major central banks and the associated asset-purchasing programs, so-called quantitative easing. Consequently, market analysts were at something of a loss to find an explanation for this week’s events, as evidenced by a range of comments cited in today’s Financial Times. The worsening state of the global economy has also been highlighted by figures on the American economy, which show that it all but stagnated in the first quarter this year, recording an expansion of just 0.2 percent. It would have been negative but for a build-up of inventories, often an indicator of recession. But these figures could be revised down in the coming weeks amid further evidence of economic weakening. The US trade deficit for March rose by 43 percent to $51.4 billion, the worst figure since October 2008 and the largest percentage increase since 1996. These figures indicate that US export performance in the first quarter may have been worse than initially estimated, prompting a report by BNP Paribas that the American economy could have contracted at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the first quarter.

 

China says U.S. should look to rights problems closer to home

China says U.S. should look to rights problems closer to home (Source Yahoo News) China said on Thursday that the United States would be better to look to problems on its own doorstep rather than criticizing China over human rights, after Washington repeated a call to release a well-known Chinese lawyer. Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most outspoken dissidents as well as a lawyer, was arrested last June on charges of causing a disturbance and illegally accessing personal information in a case that drew international condemnation. The U.S. State Department said it remained deeply concerned by Pu’s continued detention and that he should be set free. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked about the remarks, said the United States had overreached itself. “I don’t know if everyone has the same feeling as I do upon hearing this: that some people in the United States have hearts which are too big and hands which are too long; they always want to be the world’s policeman or judge,” she said. “But actually, as everyone has seen, recently the domestic problems of the United States are not small. So we hope that they can first concentrate efforts on properly handling their own domestic problems,” Hua added, in apparent reference to recent protests in the U.S. in cities like Baltimore. China, frequently taken to task by the United States and other Western nations for its own human rights problems, rarely misses an opportunity to hit back, and every year issues its own report about the human rights situation in the United States. Last month, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said the demonstrations in Baltimore over the death of a 25-year-old black man exposed the fallacy of U.S. claims to being an equal society.

Energy, transport deals on the agenda as China’s Xi visits Russia

Energy, transport deals on the agenda as China’s Xi visits Russia (Source Reuters) Energy, transport and finance deals are likely to be on the agenda as Chinese President Xi Jinping meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during a three-day visit to Russia, where he will attend World War Two commemorations. The two heads of state will sign a joint statement on strengthening the Sino-Russian partnership and will also talk about plans to build a Europe-Asia trade and infrastructure network, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said this week, state media reported. Deals likely to be discussed during the visit include long-term crude oil trade cooperation, an eastern natural gas line project and accelerating a refinery joint venture in the coastal city of Tianjin, according to Chinese media. The topic of more Chinese financing to Russian firms, which have been hamstrung by Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, is also likely to be broached, reports said. The two leaders could also speak about cooperating to build a railway link between the Russian cities of Moscow and Kazan. Foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said on May 6 that China had offered to provide 300 billion euros ($335.82 billion) of financing for the project. Xi is in Russia to join in commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe. Other leaders, mainly from Asia, former Soviet republics and Latin America, are also expected to attend. The Chinese president has made a big public show of underscoring the importance of ties with Russia, and Moscow was the first capital he visited as president. In an signed article published in Russian media on May 7 and reposted on China’s foreign ministry’s website, Xi recounted Russia and China’s experiences and victories during World War Two. “China and Russia supported each other against the fascists and militarism, fought alongside each other, and cemented our friendship through blood and the loss of lives,” he wrote.

No big deal’: Senior Iranian commander says Tehran ready for war with US

‘No big deal’: Senior Iranian commander says Tehran ready for war with US (Source RT) A top commander warned that Iran is ready for an all-out war with US, alleging that aggression against Tehran “will mobilize the Muslim world” against it. The remarks follow Secretary of State John Kerry’s claims that military force was still an option. Brigadier General Hossein Salami, lieutenant commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), spoke Wednesday to a state-run TV channel as Western powers readied for a new round of talks on getting the Islamic Republic to curb its nuclear ambitions ahead of a June 30 deadline. He also stated, “War against Iran will mobilize the Muslim world against the US, an issue which is very well known by the enemy.” Iran recently agreed on a framework deal concerning its nuclear interests with the P5+1 group in Switzerland, which would pave the way for it to be finalized. However, Israel was highly critical of the move. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that it “would not block Iran’s path to the bomb. It would pave it.”

 

Russia’s Greatest Weapon May Be Its Hackers

Russia’s Greatest Weapon May Be Its Hackers (Source newsweek.com) In hacker jargon, it’s called a “cyber-to-physical effect.” It’s when a hacker reaches out from the virtual world into the real one—often with catastrophic consequences. The Americans and Israelis pioneered the technique back in 2009 when the Stuxnet program infiltrated Iranian computer systems and wrecked thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges. But now other players—especially the Russians and Chinese—are getting into the game of remotely using computer networks to destroy infrastructure and threaten human lives. Last year, according to a report by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, a blast furnace melted down in an unnamed industrial city in Germany after a digital attack on its control systems, causing “massive damage.” It nearly happened in the United States too, when unknown hackers succeeded in penetrating U.S. electrical, water and fuel distribution systems early in 2014. While old-fashioned, relatively low-tech data hacks make headlines—for instance, high-profile break-ins over the last 12 months to the email systems and databases of the White House, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and Sony Pictures Inc.—what has security officials seriously worried is the new and dangerous world of cyber-to-physical infrastructure attacks. “This is not theoretical,” National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers told the U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee recently. Hacking attacks on the U.S. and its allies are “costing us hundreds of billions of dollars,” Rogers warned, and will result in “truly significant, almost catastrophic failures if we don’t take action.”

Why The Powers That Be are pushing a cashless society

WHY THE POWERS THAT BE ARE PUSHING A CASHLESS SOCIETY (Source Washington Blog)

Martin Armstrong summarizes the headway being made to ban cash, and argues that the goal of those pushing a cashless society is to prevent bank runs and increase their control: The central banks are planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup. Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us.

96 Percent of Americans Expect More Civil unrest in U.S. Cities this summer

96 PERCENT OF AMERICANS EXPECT MORE CIVIL UNREST IN U.S. CITIES THIS SUMMER (Source theeconomiccollapseblog.com) According to a brand new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 96 percent of all Americans believe that there will be more civil unrest in America this summer.  That leaves only 4 percent of people that believe that everything will be just fine. In this day and age, it is virtually impossible to get 96 percent of Americans to agree on anything.  So the fact that just about everyone agrees that we are going to see more civil unrest should really tell you something.  The anger that has been building under the surface for so many years in this country has finally started to erupt. If you have been following my website for a while, you know that this is something that I have been warning about for a very long time.  Many people may have thought that I was exaggerating when I talked about the civil unrest that was coming to American cities.  But I was not exaggerating at all.  In fact, if anything I was downplaying it.  In the years to come, we are going to see things happen in our cities that are going to absolutely shock the world.