Month: October 2023

As we reported last week, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) has sounded the alarm on the effects of interest rate increases on overall debt, with a focus on government debt. The IIF being the lobby for the “financial industry,” they, of course, disregard the elephant in the room, i.e., the effects on the private sector. One gets a good […]

Although opinion polls in Slovakia had indicated that the left-wing nationalist Social Democrats of Robert Fico might win the parliamentary election, the result of the vote on Sept. 30 sent a shock through geopolitical circles in Europe. With nearly 99% of the electoral districts counted by early Sunday morning, Fico’s party “Direction – Slovak Social Democracy” (Smer) had 23.3% of […]

One year ago, on Sept. 26, 2022, a series of explosions destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russian gas fields and Germany. This outrageous act of terrorism against civilian energy infrastructure helped to usher in an enormously expensive winter for Germany and Europe generally, after energy prices increased by an order of magnitude for several months. Since then, energy-intensive industries […]

The Western world experienced an eerie moment in Canada, when the political leaders assembled in the Parliament stood in thunderous applause for an elderly WWII fighter against the Russians. The 98-year-old man, Yaroslav Hunka, had been trotted out for a “feel good” moment during the Sept. 22 welcome for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. All of those present may not have known […]

On September 28, the president of the unrecognized government in Nagorno Karabakh, Samvel Shahramanyan, signed a decree officially dissolving the state effective Jan. 1, 2024, and the local ethnic Armenian population was advised to consider the reintegration proposals being put forward by Azerbaijan. Although Azeri President Ilham Aliyev assured that their rights would be protected, ethnic Armenians have fled to […]

Proclaiming that “the new era calls for new ideas,” the State Council Information Office of China issued a 40-page White Paper on Sept. 26 under the headline: A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions. It is a major policy document geared to address the unprecedented crisis facing mankind with a proposal for an entirely new set of international […]