Author: Christine Schier

Two major flash points dominated the strategic news this week. First, was the announcement by U.S. President Trump of blanket tariffs on imports to the United States, which set off a stock market collapse amid a mixture of warranted and unwarranted warnings about the collapse of the entire globalized system. The tariffs, that go into effect April 9, come on […]

On April 2, Donald Trump announced tariffs on imports from all nations, including a 20% tariff on imports from the European Union and a 34% tariff on imports from China. Attentive observers see this as consistent with the American leader’s drive to destructure the globalization system pivoted on the World Trade Organization and as a means to force trade partners […]

In her article posted on CGTN, Helga Zepp-LaRouche quotes from the White House official statement on tariffs, which mentions “China, Germany, Japan and South Korea” as countries that “suppress the domestic consumption power of their own citizens” to artificially boost their exports. But these are very different countries, notes Zepp-LaRouche. “While China has lifted nearly 850 million of its own […]

While the political class in the West is hysterically focused on whether the tariffs ordered by President Trump will blow out the world financial system, there are serious discussions proceeding on the implementation of a new development architecture. At the center of this process are Russian officials and their counterparts among the BRICS nations, including especially nations from the Global […]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Moscow March 31-April 2 for high-level talks on strategic issues such as the Ukraine war, BRICS and bilateral cooperation, and to prepare the upcoming trip of President Xi Jinping on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, celebrated on May 9 in Russia. The Russian President will […]

One of the most important and controversial panels at this year’s Moscow Economic Forum, April 1-2, was entitled: “Is it Time To Nationalize the Central Bank of Russia?” A very timely issue for the MEF, which was founded in 2013 by businessmen and economists, including from the Russian Academy of Sciences, as an alternative to the neoliberal-dominated economic forums dating […]

Tentative new Chancellor Friedrich Merz cannot avoid granting some concessions to the Social Democrats (SPD) in return for forming a coalition government with his Christian Democrats. But there are a number of rebels within his party who threaten not to vote for him as Chancellor if he does make those concessions. In an interview April 7 with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Johannes […]

Javier Milei, who took over the presidency of Argentina on Dec. 10, 2023, describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” and a strict adherent of the Austrian school of economics, of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek, who believes that the state must be reduced to a minimum, so that power is in the hands of a private, financial establishment. He […]

On March 29, the New York Times published an extraordinarily long, 13,000-word report entitled “The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine.” In the introduction, it reports that the investigation by Adam Entous, is based on more than 300 interviews with government, military and intelligence officials in Ukraine, the United States, Britain, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia […]

Over the past weeks, there has been a growing drumbeat around Washington urging the Trump administration to use the recent U.S. air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen as a prelude and practice run for delivering a knock-out punch to Iran. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz threatened on March 23 that Tehran had to change its foreign policy and “walk […]