The Dark Cloud Of Global Debt… The Perfect Storm Looms (Source Zero Hedge)

While everyone is debating the effects of possible trade sanctions on the global economy, few are paying attention to a far more serious issue. Enormous global debt, combined with low-interest rates, have set the stage for a global recession that has the potential for economic chaos.

Countries such as Brazil, India, and China have been busy issuing questionable credit. This dubious credit being issued in many emerging markets has come with extremely low-interest rates. If the borrowers’ default, the lenders won’t be looking at enough compensation to recoup their loses. Low-interest rates have become an overall global problem, including the rates in the U.S. high-yield bond market. Central banks around the world have been keeping interest rates artificially low while printing money with abandon. The current global debt is the direct result of this policy. $2 trillion in corporate debt will be maturing annually through 2022. A considerable amount of this debt may default and cause debt repricing. The damage caused by central banks and their policy of easy credit has been done, and there is little that can be done at this point to stem the tide. It can only be hoped that they are more aware now than they were in 2008.

Just prior to 2008, during the halcyon days of easy mortgages, homeowners jumped onto the debt bandwagon by refinancing their homes and incur more than $300 billion in debt as the value of their properties increased. Many used their new-found wealth to purchase furnishings, automobiles, vacations or reinvest in the stock market. By the time anyone realized that the homes and stocks were highly overvalued, the stock market took a tumble, major lenders declared bankruptcy, and the world suffered through a massive recession.

Europe and China Aim to Set Global Trade (Source thetrumpet.com)

Europe and China agreed on June 25 to update global trade rules and address problems that have arisen since United States President Donald Trump increased tariff restrictions.

The two blocs will form a group to discuss technology policy, government subsidies and other problems that are threatening international commerce. European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said, “Even though one cannot accept unilateral action—which is in violation of the principles and rules of the WTO(World Trade Organization)—once the U.S. engages in unilateralism, it tells us we have to update the WTO to be better suited for the existing environment.”

Mr. Trump continues to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. The most recent is the 25 percent tariff on 1,100 Chinese goods worth $50 billion in imports. China says it will place tariffs on American goods in retaliation. Mr. Trump said he would respond, in turn, with even moretariffs. In total, there are $450 billion in potential tariffs, which covers almost 90 percent of all the goods China send overseas to the U.S. The tariff war between these two world powers is starting to worry companies worldwide. Other governments may be drawn in and decide to barricade against imports with tariffs.

Katainen said the formation of this group doesn’t mean that Europe is siding with China, but that it is “taking action to protect the global system of regulating free trade.” The EU is trying to encourage other governments to join the wto by revising some of the regulations. “I don’t expect these negotiations to be easy,” he continued, “but if nothing is done, the environment for multilateral trade will vanish.”

As America continues to ebb away from world trade and recede to its own border, relations between other superpowers warm up. In this case, all eyes are on Europe and China. Few details have been released about this new trade body, but it matches a trend the Trumpet has been watching for nearly a decade.

Practically Everyone in the World Will See the Longest Eclipse of the Century on July 27. Here’s What to Know (Source Time)

The longest total lunar eclipse of the century is set to dazzle most of the world, except the U.S., just shy of a year after the 2017 solar eclipse created a path of totality across America. The July 2018 eclipse — which will happen on Friday, July 27 — will last about four hours and be visible across wide swaths of the world including Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. The totality, or when the earth’s shadow covers the moon and creates complete darkness, will last one hour and 43 minutes. While many people will be able to see partial views of the eclipse, areas in eastern Africa, the Middle East and some parts of Europe and Asia will have some of the best views of the moon turning red and when the totality begins to recede, astronomers tell TIME. Here’s everything you need to know about how to view the July 27 total lunar eclipse:

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth comes between the moon and the sun, causing the earth’s shadow to cover the moon. According to NASA, the moon often turns reddish during totality because the sunlight bending through earth’s atmosphere during sunsets and sunrises are then reflected onto the moon.

 How Long Can the Federal Reserve Stave Off the Inevitable? (Source globalresearch.ca) When are America’s global corporations and Wall Street going to sit down with President Trump and explain to him that his trade war is not with China but with them.  The biggest chunk of America’s trade deficit with China is the offshored production of America’s global corporations. When the corporations bring the products that they produce in China to the US consumer market, the products are classified as imports from China.

Half of US imports from China consist of the offshored production of US corporations.  Offshoring is a substantial benefit to US corporations because of much lower labor and compliance costs. Profits, executive bonuses, and shareholders’ capital gains receive a large boost from offshoring.  The costs of these benefits for a few fall on the many—the former American employees who formerly had a middle class income and expectations for their children.

In other words, to put it in the most simple and clear terms, millions of Americans lost their middle class jobs not because China played unfairly, but because American corporations betrayed the American people and exported their jobs.  “Making America great again” means dealing with these corporations, not with China.  When Trump learns this, assuming anyone will tell him, will he back off China and take on the American global corporations?

The loss of middle class jobs has had a dire effect on the hopes and expectations of Americans, on the American economy, on the finances of cities and states and, thereby, on their ability to meet pension obligations and provide public services, and on the tax base for Social Security and Medicare, thus threatening these important elements of the American consensus.  In short, the greedy corporate elite have benefitted themselves at enormous cost to the American people and to the economic and social stability of the United States. The job loss from offshoring also has had a huge and dire impact on Federal Reserve policy.  With the decline in income growth, the US economy stalled. The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan substituted an expansion in consumer credit for the missing growth in consumer income in order to maintain aggregate consumer demand. Instead of wage increases, Greenspan relied on an increase in consumer debt to fuel the economy.

The credit expansion and consequent rise in real estate prices, together with the deregulation of the banking system, especially the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, produced the real estate bubble and the fraud and mortgage-backed derivatives that gave us the 2007-08 financial crash.

US TO SPEND $1 BILLION TO INSTALL MISSILE DEFENSE RADAR IN HAWAII (Source The Duran)

A billion dollar antiballistic radar system is being planned for development in Hawaii in order to counter nuclear ICBM threats from somewhere. Even though, at the present moment, there aren’t any threatening postures from nations with ICBM tech, the need to spend 1$ billion on detecting and combatting those ICBMs is apparently greater than ever before, at least according to some congressmen.

The flat-face surface radar would “counter evolving missile threats in the Pacific Region”, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says. Although the timing of the radar’s construction seems curious given current efforts at rapprochement with North Korea, plans for the military installation actually predate the Trump administration. The radar system was mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law by Barack Obama in December 2016. The system would be able to differentiate warheads from decoys on the potential incoming missiles launched towards the US before relaying the trajectory to interceptors in Alaska to take them out. The proposed radar would help identify long-range ballistic missile threats mid-way through flight. Currently, the MDA is surveying two sites on the island of Oahu as the possible resting place of the radar that would be about 9 to 15 meters wide and 18 to 24 meters high, AP

reported.

Putin: New Russian weapons decades ahead of foreign rivals (Source ABC News) Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about his country’s prospective nuclear weapons Thursday, saying they are years and even decades ahead of foreign designs. Speaking before the graduates of Russian military academies, Putin said the new weapons represent a quantum leap in the nation’s military capability. “A number of our weapons systems are years, and, perhaps, decades ahead of foreign analogues,” Putin told young military officers who gathered in an ornate Kremlin hall. “Modern weapons contribute to a multifold increase in the Russian military potential.” The tough statement comes as Putin is preparing for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump set for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria, the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and differences over nuclear arms control issues. “We have achieved a real breakthrough thanks to the colossal efforts by science and design bureaus and industries, a real feat by workers, engineers and scientists,” Putin told the officers. The Russian leader singled out the new Avangard hypersonic vehicle and the new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which are set to enter service in the next few years. Putin also mentioned the Kinzhal hypersonic missile that has already been put on duty with the units of Russia’s Southern Military District.

Those systems were among an array of new nuclear weapons the Russian leader presented in March amid tensions with the West. Putin said then that the Avangard has an intercontinental range and can fly in the atmosphere at a speed 20 times the speed of sound. The Russian leader added that the weapon can change both its course and its altitude en route to a target, making it “absolutely invulnerable to any air or missile defense means.”

He said Avangard has been designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 Celsius (3,632 Fahrenheit) resulting from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. The Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-designed Voyevoda, the world’s heaviest ICBM, which is known as “Satan” in the West and which carries 10 nuclear warheads. Putin said in March that Sarmat weighs 200 metric tons (220 tons) and has a higher range than Satan, allowing it to fly over the North or the South Poles and strike targets anywhere in the world. He noted that Sarmat also carries a bigger number of nuclear warheads, which are more powerful than the ones on Satan.