Europe must take on its own defense responsibilities - by Ian Bond

As they look at the state of their coronavirus-hit economies and U.S. President Donald Trump’s poor standing in opinion polls, many European leaders may be tempted to put on hold any plans to meet NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. But Europeans need to wake up. Trump is not a reliable ally, and the damage he has done to the trans-Atlantic partnership is likely to linger.

Trump’s hostility to NATO has been obvious since he called into question its Article 5 mutual defense guarantee during his last presidential campaign. We now know, according to former national security adviser John Bolton’s tell-all memoir, that Trump was ready to pull the U.S. out of NATO at its 2018 summit.

In recent weeks Trump announced without warning that the U.S. will withdraw 9,500 — more than one quarter — of the 34,500 troops it has stationed in Germany because the German government is not spending enough on defense. Then at a Washington press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump said a large number of NATO countries were “delinquent” and declared that Europe was taking “tremendous advantage of the United States on trade.”

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Europe must take on its own defense responsibilities

USA: There Will Be No Going Back: Wall Street's Confounding Optimism Over An Elusive Trade Deal With China - by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

A sharp disconnect is emerging between America’s economic reality and Wall Street’s curiously blind optimism about the future, reflected in another record-setting streak for US stock prices despite a weakening economic outlook.

US President Donald Trump’s multi-front trade war has raised recession fears and contributed to a renewed contraction in US manufacturing activity, forcing the Federal Reserve to react by reversing course on interest rates and cutting them again three times this year. The Atlanta Federal Reserve is now forecasting an alarmingly weak 0.4 percent annualized rate of growth in the fourth quarter.

Yet stocks are happy to keep on trucking to new heights on even the tiniest rumor suggesting some progress on the trade conflict between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies.

Long-term investors should be reticent, however.

For one thing, Trump has shown a distinct inability to stick to even any modest deals he does manage to strike. After pulling out of the long-standing North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada and following a painstaking renegotiation, 

Trump nearly torpedoed the entire process with a surprise threat, later recanted to introduce tariffs on Mexico based on immigration quotas.

Perhaps, and more importantly for those concerned about the long-term stability of the global economy, Trump’s erratic and roughshod behavior has likely damaged the world’s trading system irreparably.

That is not to say existing trade deals were perfect. Far from it. Most failed to address crucial issues around workers’ rights, the environment and even the democratic autonomy of nation-states. Hopefully, the next US president can and will begin to take on some of those concerns in earnest.

However, wrecking the system without any plans for what comes next as Trump is doing is even more destructive.

Read more at: There Will Be No Going Back: Wall Street's Confounding Optimism Over An Elusive Trade Deal With China - Emerging Market Views

Politicians out of touch with reality - social unrest spreads around the world - by RM

From Brazil to Turkey, Bulgaria to Egypt, Spain to India, Greece to Mexico,and so on, people are protesting against their governments. This comes as a result of many factors, accumulated anger, poverty, deprivation, disparity, exclusion and marginalization. The people in power are accused of arrogance, misrule, corruption, nepotism, and unwillingness to compromise.

People  interviewed watching the G8 leaders cosying up to to each other in Northern Ireland, surrounded by great luxury, attending "bla-bla" meetings and social events, said they felt absolutely no affinity with this "comedy". The general observation was that the G8 leaders were acting like prima-donas instead of elected officials, and did not tackle real pressing issues.

It is becoming more and more clear that the incapacity of traditional political representatives to deal with the new demands of a changing world has resulted in a disconnect between them and the public at large. This is a most alarming development. Looking back at history one can say safely that this is what usually causes public disturbances which eventually lead to revolutions and the established order.

One can only hope that the politicians presently at the helm of their governments around the world witnessing  the people they are supposed to represent openly revolt against them, will take this as a serious warning to take corrective action before its too late.

EU-Digest