Tag Archives: EU

The Post-War ‘Consensus’ is Over – ‘Either We Reinvent Bretton Woods, or It Risks Losing Relevance’, by Alastair Crooke

Posted on December 17, 2019 | 1 comment

The US orchestrated global order is being questioned on many fronts. From Alastair Crooke at strategic-culture.org:

Kevin Baron, editor of Defense One (a leading US defence publication, funded by the defence industry) explains his anxieties about NATO’s future:

“NATO’s external threats, and internal leaders’ divisions are not what worries me the most … I expected panelists I spoke with over the past month to raise familiar issues … but I was surprised by their serious concern about the very fabric of the alliance: ‘This time it’s different’, many insist: “The philosophy on which this whole institution is built is profoundly challenged,” opined journalist Bobby Ghosh of Bloomberg Opinion (“in our pre-summit conversation at IISS”). [Emphasis added].

“His point was – that if leaders such as Trump and Erdogan continue to cosy-up to Russia – then what’s the purpose of this Cold War-era alliance? That’s a fair point. But I believe NATO’s biggest threat [comes from] its own inward-turning electorates. To global security leaders, from think tanks to the secure ‘tank’ inside the Pentagon, NATO is an essential organization and tool for the West’s ‘way of life’. It’s not even a question … Those leaders believe: How could anyone want to harm that?”.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Labor, Politics, Trade

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Three Lessons From The UK Elections, by Daniel Lacalle

Posted on December 16, 2019 | 1 comment

As in the US, the silent majority in the UK don’t much like extreme leftist economics. That could be because they don’t work, could it? From Daniel Lacalle at dlacalle.com:

The results of the UK elections have shown something that I have commented on several occasions: The widely spread narrative that British citizens had regretted having voted for Brexit was simply incorrect.

We already had the evidence in the European elections, where the Brexit Party won with 31.6% of the votes, but the general elections have been even clearer. The Conservative Party won by an absolute majority (more than 360 seats and 43.6% of the votes).

The failure of Labour’s radicalism led by Jeremy Corbyn has been spectacular, and his interventionist messages, reminiscent of the terrible Harold Wilson period, added to his vague stance on Brexit and how to finance his promises of “everything free at any cost” have led the party to its worst results since 1935 and losing key seats in constituencies that always voted Labour since 1945.

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Who’s Afraid of Johnson’s Big Brexit Win? by Tom Luongo

Posted on December 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

The next big question is what kind of Brexit deal Boris Johnson cuts with the EU. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

Boris Johnson finally cut the Gordian knot of British politics. With the massive victory in Thursday’s election Johnson ensured his Withdrawal Treaty will make it through the House of Commons and deliver some version of Brexit in the future.

The win was so big it was an embarrassment to those who obstructed Brexit for the past three years. Of particular delight was watching Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, lose her seat after betting the party’s future on revoking Article 50.

This one fact is more emblematic of the Westminster bubble politicos in the U.K. live in more than any other. Swinson seriously underestimated two things.

First there was the British people’s resolve to have their voice heard through the ballot box.

Second was the political acumen of Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party. Farage stood down his candidates in seats the Tories won in 2017 to ensure Swinson and her traitorous manifesto was knee-capped.

She went from someone angling to become Prime Minister to yesterday’s news in six weeks. Quite an accomplishment, actually.

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Get Ready For An Economic Wake-Up Call This Holiday Season, by Brandon Smith

Posted on December 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Is the economic slowly circling the drain? From Brandon Smith at alt-market.com:

If we are to measure the concept of “economic recovery” in real terms, then we would have to look at the fundamentals (not stock markets) and whether or not they’re improving. Unfortunately, not all economic data is presented to the public honestly. Very often it is mired and obscured in a fog of disinformation and false standards.

I would point out, though, that there is relatively accurate information out there in certain areas of the global economy, and it tells us our economic structure is destabilizing. Beyond that, even the rigged numbers are moving into negative territory. But what does all this mean for the holiday retail season, one of the mainstream’s favorite gauges of US financial health? And, if 2019’s holiday profits sink, what does this tell us is going to happen in 2020?

First, let’s start with what we know…

Since we live in a “globalized” economy where everything is supposedly “interdependent”, it helps to examine international export numbers. The US doesn’t manufacture and export much of anything anymore beyond agricultural products, but global markets do expect us to consume the goods of other nations. A decline in exports indicates a failing global economy, but in particular a failing US consumer economy.

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Germany is the Rotten Heart of Europe, by Tom Luongo

Posted on December 4, 2019 | Leave a comment

Germany has used the EU For its own ends. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me.com:

germany-rotten-heart-car-exports

The crisis in Europe will come from Germany. Germany has entered a period of political crisis that, as yet, has not exploded.

But the pyre is built, the torches lit and all that remains is dragging Chancellor Angela Merkel up and setting the whole thing on fire.

For those that want to understand the fundamental impulses which have led the European Union to where it is today and Germany’s central role one really needs to read Bernard Connolly’s “The Rotten Heart of Europe.”

It’s a book that damns pretty much everyone in their monomaniacal drive for the European Project but, Germany, in particular, to me, comes across the worst.

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Posted in Business, Currencies, Debt, Economy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Politics

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It’s the Federalist Fantasy of a Bolder EU Which Is ‘Brain Dead’, Not NATO, by Martin Jay

Posted on November 14, 2019 | 1 comment

EU devotees are doubling up on a bad bet. From Martin Jay at strategic-culture.org:

France’s Macron has burst into tears again and has used the British press to hold court and whimper about how he and his EU vision aren’t working out.

Oh to be Emmanuel Macron. The French president appears to be on the edge of some kind of meltdown, following his fatuous comment about NATO being “brain dead”. And glancing at the slow growth in the EU – which is hitting Germany for the first time, as well as of course France – you can see how Macron is starting to panic.

He recently warned in an interview with the Economist that America was turning its back on Europe and that he had no confidence in NATO anymore. Was this a dig at Trump or more specifically a vitriolic outburst at Trump’s policy towards Iran, which in a matter of weeks will turn to the EU for cash hand outs and support, as it pulls out all together from the infamous JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran Deal?

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Posted in Geopolitics, Governments, Politics

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The Court of Justice of the European Union Limits Free Speech, by Judith Bergman

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Free speech is just about dead in Europe. From Judith Bergman at gatestoneinstitute.org:

  • “This judgment has major implications for online freedom of expression around the world…. The ruling also means that a court in one EU member state will be able to order the removal of social media posts in other countries, even if they are not considered unlawful there. This would set a dangerous precedent where the courts of one country can control what internet users in another country can see. This could be open to abuse, particularly by regimes with weak human rights records.” — Thomas Hughes, executive director of ARTICLE 19, a non-profit organization that works on “protecting the right to freedom of expression around the world,” October 3, 2019.
  • The judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union… appears to give EU member states unprecedented power to determine public discourse online — to determine what citizens can and cannot read…. [T]he prospects now look even bleaker for the future of free speech in Europe.
A recent judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union appears to give EU member states unprecedented power to determine public discourse online — to determine what citizens can and cannot read. Pictured: The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. (Image source: Transparency International/Flickr

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Brexit: Parliament Tethers Britain To A Failing Experiment, by Kit Knightly

Posted on October 21, 2019 | Leave a comment

It looks like Brexit isn’t going to happen. Britain will not escape the clutches of the EU. From Kit Knightly at off-guardian.org:

Europe is crumbling, & Britain’s elite desperately want to be part of the wreckage

REUTERS/Peter Nicholls TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RC165ADC9380

Brexit isn’t going to happen. Left or Right – Lexit or Rexit – it’s over. It’s time to make peace with that idea.

Penned in by the absurd Benn Act, No Deal is off the table, which means Britain will be forced to either remain or accept a deal that’s Remain by another name.

The Letwin Ammendment and Johnson’s unsigned extension request are just morbid theatre. Unneccasary nails in a well-sealed coffin.

It’s all very Weekend at Bernies’ – A lame cast of characters, puppeteering Brexit’s corpse to keep up a tired joke that was never funny to begin with.

Parliament has become an absurd pantomime, where a clown Prime Minister – his majority willfully destroyed – sets up straw men that the “opposition” bayonet with increasingly maniacal glee. No thought is given to policy or consequences, only increasing the tally of Boris Johnson’s parliamentary defeats.

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Brexit “Surrender” Strategy: Winning Ugly, by Mish Shedlock

Posted on September 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

Taking a page from Donald Trump’s book, Boris Johnson and his political consigliori Dominic Cummings have branded their opposition’s Brexit strategy “surrender.” It is brilliant labeling. From Mish Shedlock at moneymaven.io:

Boris Johnson and his political strategist Dominic Cummings have labeled the efforts by Parliament a “Surrender” act.

Surrender Act

Boris Johnson labels the acts of Parliament to stop No Deal a “Surrender Act”.

This is correct, of course.

If you take away the EU’s incentives to negotiate, they are less likely to do so.

It’s not a complete white flag as Johnson has other, albeit undisclosed options, in which he proclaims two seemingly contradictory ideas.

  1. He will abide by the Benn legislation seeking an extension
  2. He will not ask for an extension

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Posted in Business, Geopolitics, Government, Immigration, Law, Politics

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Stopping Brexit Is About Saving the European Union, by Tom Luongo

Posted on September 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

The British people are getting the EU jammed down their throats and hang their vote to leave it. From Tom Luongo at strategic-culture.org:

Brexit and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered yet another setback after the Supreme Court ruled his proroguing of Parliament illegal. I’m no British legal scholar, and I certainly don’t want to be, but from what I understand the arguments used seem incredibly dangerous.

In effect, the plaintiffs argued that if the Prime Minister can suspend Parliament for any length of time, say three days, it would be legally no different then him suspending Parliament for a year or, even, indefinitely.

That’s a dangerous line of argument given the more than 300+ year history of this process, with the Prime Minister proroguing Parliament under far more dubious conditions in the past. This does limit the role of the Government to conduct business and set the agenda, especially if and when the day comes that Parliament is not staffed by people who are loyal to their constituents and not the political elite.

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