Do you remember ?
June 4, 2025Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejects the recent U.S. nuclear offer, calling it a threat to the regime’s “national independence.” In a speech on the 36 anniversary of the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei today said: “Who are you to tell Tehran whether we should have a nuclear programme or not? The U.S. nuclear…
Europe: Out of Love
June 3, 2025The election of the nationalist Nawrocki in Poland? … even though the country is experiencing full employment and Poland is the largest beneficiary of European aid? Yes, indeed! A thriving economy is no longer a political life insurance. We must come to terms with the fact that Western Europe — hesitant and technocratic — acts…
France: The Price of Inaction
June 2, 2025The debate over sovereign debt can no longer ignore this simple truth: that a debt is sustainable only in an economy capable of growing and modernizing. Nothing is more credible than a country that invests to avoid decline. Moreover, privileging the quality of spending rather than being eternally fixated on numerical targets makes it possible…
Iran: A Nuclear Heart and Soul
May 28, 2025Oil revenues account for 40 to 50% of Iran’s budget income and 80 to 90% of its export earnings. The country is once again facing an existential threat, as the U.S. President’s aggressive stance on tariffs has led to a roughly 20% drop in oil prices this year so far. This has significantly intensified the…
29th among the bestsellers
May 26, 2025My Levantine Youth is ranked 29th in the History, Current Affairs, and Politics bestseller list! Histoire, actualité, politique – Les meilleures ventes du moment Histoire, actualité, politique : le classement des meilleures ventes de livres du moment – Livres neufs ou d’occasion – Les Best-sellers du moment Feel free to tell others about…
Trump Cracks
May 23, 2025A President: Who dictates his will to a company — and not just any company — telling it how to make its products. Who decrees 50% tariffs against the EU, the world’s largest economic bloc. The U.S. Congress must regain control!
My Interview with Radio Courtoisie
May 23, 2025Listen to my key points in this interview given on the occasion of the publication of my book ‘A Levantine Youth’. “Those who know the foundations of the Quran understand that a whole movement within the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to return to authentic Islam. And we must be aware of this! Secularism is a completely…
In the Land of the Rising Sun, 日本
May 20, 2025The Japanese bond market is imploding! The country now has to borrow at rates that represent a historical low point for it. With public debt reaching… 260% of its GDP, the good times when Japan could finance itself at low cost are now over. Prime Minister Ishiba describes the country’s situation as “worse than Greece’s.”…
Leo XIV, Donald Trump, and the Invisible Hand
May 19, 2025May 15, 1891. Leo XIII: the Catholic Church dives headfirst into the economic arena. Rerum novarum (“Of New Things”) is a theological uppercut against socialism, a fiery response to the shockwaves of the Industrial Revolution. In it, the pope smashes the idea of collectivism trampling private property, and declares the Church’s allegiance to the market…
India–Pakistan: A Geopolitical Wake-Up Call
May 18, 2025China has replaced the United States as the main arms exporter to Pakistan. As early as 2021, Pakistan integrated the Chinese long-range surface-to-air missile system HQ-9P into its air defense network. Although China accounts for only 5.9% of the global arms export market, 63% of its sales are nonetheless destined for Pakistan.81% of Pakistan’s…
Ali Khamenei : A fragile legitimacy
May 15, 2025Preamble The analysis that follows, centered on the figure of Ali Khamenei, reveals a fundamental truth: Iran’s nuclear program transcends mere geopolitical strategy to root itself in a deeply personal and ideological quest. Marked by a deficit of religious legitimacy since his rise to power in 1989, Khamenei has made the nuclear program a symbol…
First foreign official visits of US Presidents
May 14, 2025First foreign official visits of US Presidents: • Kennedy: Canada • Johnson: Canada • Nixon: Belgium • Ford: Mexico • Carter: UK • Reagan (term 1 ): Canada • Reagan (term 2): Canada • H. W. Bush: Canada • Clinton (term 1): Canada • Clinton (term 2): Finland • W. Bush (term 1): Mexico…
Hail the sacred neoliberal — the end is nigh
May 12, 2025Chinese surpluses are not eternal. Just as neoliberalism is not immutable. Even though nearly all economists, analysts, and journalists would cry out in outrage whenever a rare few like myself dared to question it. It was the absolute dogma, an irresistible force, a determinism that imposed a heavy, long-term continuity — against all odds. Jürgen…
The perfect illustration of the human comedy. Of the human tragedy.
May 9, 2025In September 1975, a 12-year-old boy accompanies a Saudi prince—destined to become the King of Saudi Arabia—to Mecca, a place forbidden to non-Muslims. “After all these years, I’m still moved by what I saw there in terms of devotion and what I experienced in terms of human solidarity.” This spiritual moment contrasts sharply with…
India-Pakistan: behind the scenes, another confrontation
May 7, 2025Pakistan has been reduced to publicly issuing nuclear threats, while its diplomacy is actively seeking conciliation with India, the world’s fourth-largest power. In the context of its long-standing conflict with India — dating back to 1947 — Pakistan is almost militarily depleted, having exported around $400 million worth of 155 mm shells and 122 mm…
Hey, Mr. Trump
May 4, 2025In yesterday’s world, the dominance of the dollar amounted to a Faustian dilemma: the United States could indeed finance itself cheaply, but at the cost of dependence on foreign entities, ultimately leading to its decline. A traditional definition of a reserve currency is that the country issuing it must run a balance of payments deficit.…
April 13, 1975: The Fuse Was Lit
April 30, 2025A bus triggers a war in Lebanon and changes the fate of a 12-year-old boy. A Levantine youth reveals a Middle East in flames through an intimate lens.Releases on May 7. Seven and a half years during which my destiny collides head-on with History. Buy it: in France: FNAC in Switzerland: PAYOT in Lebanon: ANTOINE…
The countdown has begun
April 27, 2025In just a few weeks, the White House and the United States have gotten themselves into a situation from which they will have the greatest difficulty escaping. Starting on April 10, trade between the U.S. and China progressively — but irresistibly — came to a halt. Cargo bookings, in fact, collapsed in the wake of…
Saudi Arabia is rising for good
April 25, 2025Saudi Arabia is pumping less oil and embarking on massive spending (cities of the future, major sporting events). The most important statistic to watch is its balance of payments, which—as you can see from this chart—turns negative in 2024. From being a lender to the world, it has become a borrower, and this is happening…
The message from “Une Jeunesse Levantine” to the ferocity of François’s detractors
April 23, 2025“How could a Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, have favored a Muslim invasion of Europe?A pope who defends the development of radical Islam.That red Jesuit.We need a European Pope who understands History and sees the difference between welcoming and invading… Welcoming human beings who respect us and want to integrate is a…
Make the Fed GREAT AGAIN!
April 21, 2025Unhappy with Jerome Powell, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, for not complying with his demands to lower interest rates, President Donald Trump is seeking legal ways to dismiss him. Trump believes it is necessary to ease U.S. monetary policy to offset the economic impact of his tariff policy. His attacks on Powell have now…
An exorbitant privilege — and a persistent one
April 17, 2025Asking what the world would look like without the USD as the unquestioned world reserve currency across finance and trade is a bit like asking a fish what the world would be like without water. There isn’t an obvious alternative to the dollar. There are a range of currencies that investors could diversify into,…
Auto goal ?
April 15, 2025China halting all Boeing orders! EU and Japan are winning the trade war right now. The euro and the yen have gone way up, making all their imports cheaper, which keeps their official inflation measures lower. The end result of the trade war will be a bigger trade deficit.
Flip-flop policy
April 13, 2025Trump has just lowered tariffs on smartphones, computers, and electronic devices imported from China. Every day, the White House backtracks, revises downward, cancels… In such conditions, where can one find the motivation to set up a factory and bring industrial jobs back to the United States? Tariffs are not a policy, but a tool…
April 9th., 2025
April 9, 2025In response to the United States, China is increasing its tariffs from 34% to 84%. It is not yielding to pressure. Globalization officially ends today.
Trump’s Tariffs: Economic Voodoo at Work
April 7, 2025“They are to economics what creationism is to biology, and astrology is to astronomy,” tweeted Larry Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. A statement that highlights the sheer absurdity — even outright foolishness — of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Why then has Lesotho, one of the poorest nations in Africa —…
Trump: on a record-breaking streak
April 5, 2025The tectonics of global investment are undergoing spectacular upheavals, to the severe detriment of the United States, which is experiencing a full-scale exodus. Foreign investors and speculators are liquidating U.S. assets at the most dramatic level of the CENTURY, accompanied by massive capital outflows being repatriated outside the U.S. Breaking news: According to Bessent, U.S.…
The Liberation According to Donald Trump
March 30, 2025In our hostile environment, it’s every nation for itself. The lubricant of economies—globalization—is on its last breath. While just yesterday, nations collaborated to draft laws and regulations they pledged to uphold, they are now breaking apart past alliances and consensus. Through subsidies and tariffs, they are scrambling to promote their own industries while undermining those…
Magnificent vs Maleficent
March 27, 2025All eyes are on the “Magnificent 7” (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia, and Meta), whose market capitalizations are shrinking. However, allow me to draw your attention to the “Maleficent 12″—arms companies whose stocks, in anticipation of future wars, have surged by 82% this year and have risen by 180% over the past two years.…
Trump: The Organization of Chaos
March 23, 2025Without explicitly stating it, Donald Trump draws a correlation between the undeniable reserve currency status of the dollar and its impact on the industrial competitiveness of the United States. In truth, the facts support his argument, as industrial jobs now account for only 10% of employment in the U.S., compared to 40% in the 1980s.…
The melting of…
March 20, 2025The Turkish overnight lending rate urgently raised to…46%. This move aims to contain, as much as possible, the dramatic collapse of the lira (see chart) following the arrest of the Mayor of Istanbul, a serious opponent to President Erdogan. Hence the question: Can we still trust the State?
Can we still trust the State?
March 16, 2025Kuwait is Purging its Citizens. For the past few months, this Emirate has been publishing lists of nationals stripped overnight of their citizenship. Some are even caught by surprise when they attempt to board an international flight, believing they are entering the airport as Kuwaitis, only to leave it stateless—not without having first been detained…
Central Banks: The Hidden Engine of European Rearmament
March 9, 2025In 2015, during a joint NATO exercise, German soldiers were faced with such a severe weapon shortage that they had to replace unavailable machine guns… with broomsticks. Ironically, their leader at the time, Ursula von der Leyen, now President of the European Commission, is now trying to embody the continent’s “rearmament” ambitions. Talking about money…
Musk fatigue
March 6, 2025Having shared a message on X suggesting that Carlos Slim might have ties to criminal groups, the latter immediately canceled all commercial collaborations of his companies with Starlink in Latin America, instantly causing Musk to lose $7 billion. An hour later, Slim announced that he was also canceling his planned projects with Starlink for the…
A Fatal March
March 3, 2025Trump’s Tweet and the Initial Reaction (March 15, 2025) On March 15, 2025, at 8:43 a.m., America is abruptly awakened. A tweet from Donald Trump, as brief as it is devastating, strikes the country like an earthquake: “America First! 20% tax on Mexican and Canadian oil, immediate. No more energy dependence!” This is not just…
But where are the translators of yesteryear?
March 2, 2025In the presence of a translator, who was not wanted by Zelensky, the Oval Office debacle could have been avoided. This translator would, of course, have allowed the Ukrainian president to be more precise in his communication. But, more importantly, they would have helped to defuse and calm tensions through their choice of words, their…
Champagne Shortage at the Kremlin
February 27, 2025As far as I know, I am not aware of any historical precedent, across the millennia of human adventure, where a hegemonic power has so joyfully and swiftly sabotaged itself.
“What did you do last week?”
February 23, 2025“What did you do last week?“—this is the form sent by Musk’s teams to all U.S. government servants. The American government is now run like a startup! Even more bureaucracy to ease bureaucracy, in the end.
Central Banks: The New Weak Link in Our System?
February 22, 2025The European Central Bank announces a loss, the largest since its creation, of 8.3 billion euros for the 2024 fiscal year. By choice, or by lack of rigor, it has paid to banks interest rates far too high in relation to the returns on the various bonds that it holds. At the current stage we…
Iran: A Suffering Population and Failing Rulers
February 15, 2025In Iran, food prices have skyrocketed by over 100% in a year, exemplified by the soaring cost of potatoes, which has sparked nationwide outrage. Last week, the price per kilo surged within days from 200,000 rials to 750,000, even triggering public discord within various branches of the Iranian government, with officials openly blaming each other.…
A crazy story with ChatGPT, MUST READ
February 11, 2025Before going to bed yesterday, not having a calendar in bed and making appointments with a friend, I ask ChatGPT to give me the calendar for February 2025, so the current month. RESPONSE: Here is the calendar for February 2025: February 1st: Sunday February 2nd: Monday February 3rd: Tuesday February 4th: Wednesday February…
Real Estate Speculation vs. The Citizen
February 10, 2025The West faces a major challenge. We do not want our society to be divided into two classes: wealthy property owners and poor tenants.” These were the words recently spoken by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Under his leadership, Spain will soon impose a 100% tax on any real estate purchased by non-resident nationals…
The exorbitant burden
February 3, 2025“We consider it unlikely that customs tariffs will be put in place. The weapon of customs tariffs will always be loaded and ready to be used, but rarely triggered. Another differentiated point of view that we have is that Trump will pursue a weak dollar policy rather than imposing customs tariffs. Tariffs are inflationary…
Trump and Arab Philosophy
February 1, 2025The White House confirmed tariffs will be implemented today: 25% on Canada, 25% on Mexico, 10% on China. Did you know that “tariff” comes from Arabic from the word تعرفة (ta‘rifa), which means a “list of prices”? Ibn Khaldun, in his Muqaddimah, discusses taxation and economic policies, using terms like المكوس (al-mukūs), which refers…
Enacting violence on others in pursuit of good aims
January 29, 2025The new libertarians in power in the United States are swimming in their contradictions. While they loudly advocate for unbridled liberalization in all areas, they are systematically putting in place surveillance technologies that will allow them to carry out their imperialist agenda. However, this exacerbation of American patriotism, these refrains glorifying and elevating…
War and business
January 27, 2025Last spring, I obtained confidential information that allowed me to write my article “Gaza 2035: A Clean Slate?“, which was picked up by the press in France and Switzerland. Trump has just called for the displacement of Gaza’s inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan as part of a peace plan aimed at “cleansing the Palestinian enclave,”…
The Price of Freedom
January 22, 2025The stock price of GEO Group has nearly tripled since Trump’s election. Why? GEO Group is a “private prisons” company. In 2021, Biden signed an executive order eliminating the very concept of private prisons. An order that has just been overturned by Trump. His Attorney General is Pam Bondi, who, before her appointment, openly…
Syria: Finally, the Return to Raison d’État
January 19, 2025The Syrian government has just increased customs duties on all imports from Turkey by a staggering 300%. Has Ahmad el Charaa, Damascus’ new strongman, drawn inspiration from Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened trade partners with sharp tariff hikes since taking office? Not quite. The recently installed Syrian administration is, in fact, harmonizing…
From Realpolitik to Empty Chair Politics
January 17, 2025Tensions Between Scholz and His Foreign Minister Baerbock at Breaking Point. She turned her back on him without even responding to him, and did so publicly and ostentatiously. What caused this volte-face? Scholz rejected a €3 billion aid package for Ukraine, concocted by Baerbock and Boris Pistorius, the Defense Minister. I myself attended meetings…