The retail apocalypse has claimed 6,000 US stores in 2019 so far, more than the number that shut down in all of 2018(Source thisisinsider.com)

The retail apocalypse is raging on with almost 6,000 store closings announced so far in 2019 — more than the entirety of last year. According to a new report from Coresight Research, US retailers have announced 5,994 store closings this year, compared with 5,864 store closings in all of 2018. The recent announcement by the pharmacy retailer Fred’s that it would close more than 150 underperforming stores sees it join a growing list of retailers that are shuttering brick-and-mortar stores in a bid to save money during the rise of e-commerce.

Charlotte Russe, Family Dollar, and Abercrombie & Fitch are among these stores, announcing the closing of more than 1,100 stores in just 24 hours in March. Victoria’s Secret, JCPenney, and Gap have also announced plans to shutter dozens of locations.

 And some brands are closing all of their stores. Payless announced in February that it was closing all of its 2,500 stores in North America.

Coresight Research CEO Deborah Weinswig predicted that this trend would continue. “The flood of store closures will likely continue for quite some time,” she said. Coresight also noted, however, that some retailers were announcing new store openings. After going public earlier this year, Levi’s announced plans to open 100 stores in its fiscal year, which ends in November. There have been 2,641 store openings announced this year, Coresight said, compared with 3,239 openings in all of 2018.

UBS predicted that clothing stores would take the biggest hit, facing an estimated 21,000 store closings — 71% of all clothing shops across the US.

All roads lead to China: 17 Arab countries join Beijing’s new Silk Road(Source RT)

Beijing has inked cooperation deals on its multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with 17 Arab countries, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the results of a joint Sino-Arab forum. The second China-Arab Forum on Reform and Development, which was held in Shanghai on Tuesday, attracted more than a hundred businessmen, politicians, and academics from China and Arab states, including Egypt, Lebanon, Djibouti, and Oman. This year’s meeting, dubbed ‘Build the Belt and Road, Share Development and Prosperity’, was dedicated to boosting the project.

Arab countries have shown great interest in cooperation with Beijing. Apart from joining the Belt and Road Initiative, 12 Arab states established strategic partnerships, including comprehensive ones, with China. “The Arab representatives said the BRI cooperation with China brings immense opportunities to Arab countries to advance reform and accelerate growth,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told journalists at a news conference. The Sino-Arab cooperation on the project is to receive another “strong impetus” as many Arab state leaders are expected to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which will be held in Beijing later this month, according to the diplomat.

When Will the Dollar Collapse?(Source thetrumpet.com) No currency reigns forever. The same pressures that unseated the French franc in the 19th century and the British pound in the 20th century will unseat the dollar in the 21st century. What caused national banks to stop using the British pound for their transactions in 1919? It was primarily Britain’s debt. Governments looked at how much Britain owed, its economic output and the fact that its currency was backed not by gold but by the belief that it was valuable—and they stopped believing.

Today, America has a far worse debt, and it continues to borrow. Nations are losing faith in the dollar’s stability; they just have no other option—yet.

Until a good alternative emerges, nations worried about America’s debt must move slowly: They can only gradually decrease their dollar holdings as they reluctantly buy euros and yuan. But the status quo is ripe for change if the eurozone truly unites into a German-run superstate, or if China relaxes the yuan’s peg to the dollar. Many nations and individuals desperately want these changes. But if history is any guide, it will take a shock to overturn the world’s financial system. The shock that catapulted the dollar to dominant reserve currency status between 1913 and 1919 was a banking crisis in Europe that prompted central banks to load up on American currency. Ironically, it may be a banking crisis in America that prompts central banks to load up on European currency.

RUMORS OF WAR: WASHINGTON IS LOOKING FOR A FIGHT(Source blacklistednews.com)

The development of the United States as a hostile and somewhat unpredictable force has not gone unnoticed. Russia has accepted that war is coming no matter what it does in dealing with Trump and is upgrading its forces. By some estimates, its army is better equipped and more combat ready than is that of the United States, which spends nearly ten times as much on “defense.”

Iran is also upgrading its defensive capabilities, which are formidable. Now that Washington has withdrawn from the nuclear agreement with Iran, has placed a series of increasingly punitive sanctions on the country, and, most recently, has declared a part of the Iranian military to be a “foreign terrorist organization” and therefore subject to attack by US forces at any time, it is clear that war will be the next step. In three weeks, the United States will seek to enforce a global ban on any purchases of Iranian oil. A number of countries, including US nominal ally Turkey, have said they will ignore the ban and it will be interesting to see what the US Navy intends to do to enforce it. Or what Iran will do to break the blockade. But even given all of the horrific decisions being made in the White House, there is one organization that is far crazier and possibly even more dangerous. That is the United States Congress, which is, not surprisingly, a legislative body that is viewed positively by only 18 per cent of the American people.

A current bill originally entitled the “Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKA) of 2019,” is numbered S-1189. It has been introduced in the Senate which will “…require the Secretary of State to determine whether the Russian Federation should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and whether Russian-sponsored armed entities in Ukraine should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.” The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and is co-sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.