The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
May 29, 2024A trade deficit must be offset by financial inflows to maintain a minimum level of equilibrium. The United States runs a significant and constant trade deficit, which they manage to finance through the sale of Treasury bonds, bought by China and other governments/central banks. The deal is as follows and is an integral part of…
Gaza 2035 : a clean slate ?
May 26, 2024Israel and the United States are working on a route that would allow heavy trucks to travel to the United Arab Emirates through Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In parallel, the normalization of relations between these countries will be crowned by a railway project (under study since 2017) linking the Israeli port of Haifa to…
K
May 23, 2024Remember this letter “K” well, a symbol of the massive imbalances that twist our Western societies. There is the tiny minority enjoying an absolutely unprecedented surge in financial markets and private investments, who—indifferent to prices—are thriving economically. They are represented by the rising and triumphant branch of the K. Then there are all the…
Iran: the Hidden Implications of Raïssi’s Death
May 20, 2024In Iran, the powers of the President are minor: he is like an Interior Minister who has no say over national security or ideological direction. Raïsi and Mojtaba Khamenei were openly competing to succeed the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba’s father. Raïssi’s death clarifies the situation and puts the Supreme Leader’s son in a…
European disUnion
May 16, 2024Graphs of exports from certain European countries to Kyrgyzstan, which then transfers these goods to Russia. After 13 EU sanctions packages against Russia, this is the reality. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the dysfunctions within the EU, whose members engage in unhealthy internal competition. Remember the grand statements about European unity?
Europe, the eternal indecisive
May 10, 2024The interests only on their public debt has cost the United States more than $1 trillion in the past 12 months, and these amounts are condemned to increase due to the maintenance, for some time still, of the current level of interest rates. But it doesn’t matter: they have the King $. While we…
When China Gives in…
May 9, 2024China is on life support: 18 units of credit in China only equate to 1 unit of GDP growth. A cornerstone of household wealth at 65% of their assets, the country’s real estate sector, along with indebted regional governments to the tune of $9 trillion (over half the national GDP), are faltering. Authorities…
Abusive share buybacks
May 7, 2024In 10 years, Apple spent $ 625 billion buying back its own shares. This astronomical sum is equivalent to the market capitalization of the entire major Standard & Poor’s index, which includes 492 companies ! Financial engineering at its most dubious.
Banks : must we regulate the regulator?
May 5, 2024Is it true that the more capital banks have, the more they lend? In many countries with financial giants, debates are intensifying once again, bringing to the forefront the delicate question of the adequate level of capital banks should have. Summoned urgently last year for Credit Suisse, the Swiss government is in the midst of…