If you believe that the United States is the “sole superpower” in the world, then you really need to read the rest of this article. Most Americans have very little idea what is actually going on in the rest of the world and how the global balance of power is shifting. For example, can you name the country that is the number one oil producer in the world, the number one oil exporter in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas in the world and that also has the second most powerful military in the entire world? In case you need a hint, it is not Saudi Arabia, it is not China and it is not the United States. The correct answer is Russia. The Russian Bear is back in a big way. Did you know that Russia is rapidly becoming one of the top suppliers of oil to the United States? Russia has vast natural resources, a national debt that is very low (ratio of publicly held debt to GDP is less than 10%) and an economy that has boomed over the past decade. Russia is busy flexing its muscles in many different ways. For example, many are pointing out that the “Eurasian economic union” that Russia is putting together is a significant move in the direction of a revival of the Soviet Union. Russia is also rapidly modernizing its military and developing very powerful new weapons systems. Most Americans believe that the Cold War is over and that Russia is a toothless bear that no longer represents a threat. It is difficult to find words to describe how wrong that assessment of the situation is. (Read More...)
World
12 Signs That We Are Getting Dangerously Close To War With Syria
Are you ready for another war? Now that Barack Obama and most of the other major leaders of the western world are publicly calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, we are getting dangerously close to war with Syria. It is not going to happen next week, and it is almost certainly not going to happen next month. But right now the U.S. government is going down the exact same road that it went down with Libya. There is all kinds of talk about how Assad has lost “legitimacy”, “human rights violations” have been declared, sanctions have been imposed and Syrian government assets have been frozen. But just like with Gaddafi, Assad has no intention of ever stepping down. He is not going to resign just because the U.S. and the EU ask him too. The opposition in Syria is certainly not strong enough to remove Assad, so just about the only way that it will be accomplished is through direct military action. Right now the U.S. and the EU are basically painting themselves into a corner with their bold declarations about Assad. But when the time comes will they be willing to risk starting World War III in order to remove him from power? (Read More...)
The United States Of Europe: A Proposed “Economic Government” Would Integrate Europe To A Degree Not Seen Since The Roman Empire
Are you ready for “The United States Of Europe”? The integration of Europe is about to go to another level. As the European debt crisis deepens, there are cries all over the EU for full economic integration in Europe. On Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy which stated that they want a new “economic government” for Europe to be formed. According to the letter, Sarkozy and Merkel want the leaders of the eurozone countries to “elect” a president for the new “economic government”. The idea would be that the president would hold twice-yearly summits to address the debt problems that Europe is facing right now. But many pro-EU critics are already howling that Sarkozy and Merkel have not gone nearly far enough. A whole lot of “experts” in Europe are proclaiming that without full economic integration and the creation of “eurobonds”, Europe is doomed. Jennifer McKeown, an economist for Capital Economics, put it this way when asked what would happen if eurobonds are not created fairly soon: “The likely outcome is the eurozone ceases to exist”. (Read More...)
How Globalism Has Destroyed Our Jobs, Businesses And National Wealth In 10 Easy Steps
As most Americans stand around waiting for the U.S. economy to return to “normal”, there is a never ending parade of jobs, businesses and wealth heading out of the United States. The jobs and businesses that are leaving are gone for good and will not be coming back. This is causing unemployment to soar and government debt to skyrocket but our politicians are doing nothing about it. Instead, politicians from both parties keep insisting that they will solve all of our problems if we will just give them our votes. Meanwhile, American families continue to fill up their shopping carts with cheap plastic crap made on the other side of the world. Globalism is slowly destroying the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen and most Americans don’t even realize it. Today, the U.S. government has surrendered massive amounts of economic sovereignty to global organizations such as the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. The United States has also entered into a whole host of very damaging “free trade agreements” such as NAFTA that are costing our economy huge numbers of jobs. Our politicians always promised us that globalism would bring us to a new level of prosperity, but instead that “giant sucking sound” that you hear is the sound of the U.S. economy being hollowed out. (Read More...)
Our Politicians Are Selling Off Pieces Of America To Foreign Investors – And Goldman Sachs Is Helping Them Do It
All over the United States, politicians are selling off key pieces of infrastructure to foreign investors and big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs are helping them do it. State and local governments across the country that are drowning in debt and that are desperate for cash are increasingly turning to the “privatization” of public assets as the solution to their problems. Pieces of infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for such as highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the time what happens is that the state or local government receives a huge lump sum of cash up front for a long-term lease (usually 75 years or longer) and the foreign investors come in and soak as much revenue out of the piece of infrastructure that they possibly can. The losers in these deals are almost always the taxpayers. Pieces of America are literally being auctioned off just to help state and local governments minimize their debt problems for a year or two, but the consequences of these deals will be felt for decades. (Read More...)
Austerity Riots – A Glimpse Of America’s Future?
Are the austerity protests and riots happening in Greece right now a glimpse of America’s future? The truth is that both nations are absolutely drowning in debt. It is just that the “day of reckoning” has already arrived for Greece but it has not arrived for the United States yet. Yes, there are some important differences between the situation in Greece and the situation in the U.S., but there are also some important similarities. Budget cuts and other austerity measures are being promoted by the political leaders of both countries. Greek citizens have reacted very negatively to the economic austerity programs that have been implemented in that nation. As budget cuts on the federal, state and local levels in the United States start to really become painful, will we eventually see the same kind of austerity riots in this country that we are currently seeing in Greece? (Read More...)
Could We Actually See A War Between Syria And Turkey?
In recent days, there have been persistent rumors that we could potentially be on the verge of a military conflict between Syria and Turkey. As impossible as such a thing may have seemed just a few months ago, it is now a very real possibility. Over the past several months, we have seen the same kind of “pro-democracy” protests erupt in Syria that we have seen in many of the other countries in the Middle East. The Syrian government has no intention of being toppled by a bunch of protesters and has cracked down on these gatherings harshly. There are reports in the mainstream media that say that over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 people have been arrested since the protests began. Just like with Libya, the United States and the EU are strongly condemning the actions that the Syrian government has taken to break up these protests. The violence in Syria has been particularly heavy in the northern sections of the country, and thousands upon thousands of refugees have poured across the border into neighboring Turkey. Syria has sent large numbers of troops to the border area to keep more citizens from escaping. Turkey has responded by reinforcing its own troops along the border. Tension between Turkey and Syria is now at an all-time high. So could we actually see a war between Syria and Turkey? (Read More...)
40 Signs The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The U.S. Economy
It is time to face the truth. The Chinese economy is simply beating the living daylights out of the U.S. economy. Whether you want to call it a rout, a slaughter or a thrashing, the reality is that the Chinese are absolutely embarrassing America on the global economic stage. At this point, the Chinese are playing economic chess while the Americans are playing economic checkers. China is poised to blow past the United States and become the largest economy in the world. Not only that, some economists are projecting that the Chinese economy could be three times larger than the U.S. economy by mid-century. The age of U.S. economic dominance is ending, and most Americans still don’t even understand what is happening. (Read More...)