Newsweek (October 25)
“The power of a U.S. passport has plummeted under President Donald Trump. American passports have now fallen behind those of 18 countries in terms of global mobility—a staggering collapse…. In 2015, the United States tied for first place with the United Kingdom on the list; last year, it slipped to fourth place. Americans now trails 18 countries, including Belgium, Japan, Sweden and first-place Singapore.” Japan tied for fourth place behind Singapore, Germany, Sweden and South Korea.
Tags: Belgium, Collapse, Germany, Global mobility, Japan, Passport, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Trump, U.S., UK
New York Times (July 30)
“President Trump and Republicans in Washington have shaken the confidence of their supporters after a punishing and self-inflicted series of setbacks that have angered activists, left allies slack-jawed and reopened old fissures on the right.” The “seemingly endless sequence of disappointments and blunders” includes “Mr. Trump’s attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions; a vulgar tirade by his new communications chief, Anthony Scaramucci; and the collapse of conservative-backed health care legislation.”
Tags: Attacks, Blunders, Collapse, Disappointments, Health care, Republicans, Scaramucci, Self-inflicted, Setbacks, Tirade, Trump, Vulgar
Wall Street Journal (October 22)
“Much has changed since Beijing sparked a rare-earths panic in 2010. China was home to 95% of the world’s production, so when it tightened export quotas by 40% and then cut off shipments to Japan over a territorial dispute, buyers world-wide feared scarcity and prices rose tenfold.” Ironically, this spurred innovation, the use of substitutes and the reopening of mines in other countries. “By 2012 the world faced a glut of rare earths. Prices collapsed as much as 80%.” The rare-earths rollercoaster demonstrates “the ability of markets and human ingenuity to adapt to ill-advised attempts to hold natural resources hostage. When they’re allowed to work, markets always defeat mercantilism—a useful lesson for Beijing’s economic reformers.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Collapse, Export quotas, Glut, Innovation, Markets, Mercantilism, Natural resources, Prices, Production, Rare earths, Scarcity, Substitutes
Washington Post (August 26)
“First was the dot-com bubble, then the housing bubble. Now comes the commodities bubble.” The stock market’s current turmoil is “driven at least in part by a bubble of raw material prices. Their collapse weighs on world stock markets through fears of slower economic growth and large financial losses.”
Tags: Collapse, Commodities bubble, Dot-com bubble, Economic growth, Housing bubble, Raw material prices, Stock market, Turmoil
Institutional Investor (July 14)
Brazil hopes that a return of foreign capital might provide “an economic boost.” The country sure needs it. The economy has slumped “from 7.5 percent in 2010 to just 0.1 percent in 2014.” It is now in recession. “The end of the global commodities supercycle and the oil market collapse explain much of the decline, but domestic policy problems—including a growing deficit and accelerating inflation—are also to blame.”
Tags: Brazil, Collapse, Commodities, Deficit, Economy, Foreign capital, Inflation, Oil, Recession, Supercycle
New York Times (May 19)
“With North Korea in possession of nuclear weapons and a well-oiled machinery of oppression, a regime collapse may not happen soon. But the Kims will surely fall at some point, quickly and brutally, and when they do South Korea and its allies must stand ready to rescue a nation that has suffered horribly. In the meantime, the United States and America’s allies must remain vigilant and continue to search for ways to deter Mr. Kim.”
Tags: Allies, Collapse, Kim, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Oppression, Regime, South Korea, U.S., Vigilant
Forbes (April 15)
It’s easy to underestimate the loss of Greece. “While it may be true that the economic damage of a Greek collapse would largely be confined to Greece itself, it nonetheless would undermine the great post-WWII dream of a united Europe that would never experience another catastrophic war….. Thanks to remarkably bad leadership, Europe’s post-WWII order is in mortal danger, threatening unimaginable political and economic repercussions.”
Tags: Collapse, Danger, Economic damage, Europe, Greece, Leadership, War, WWII
The Economist (January 10)
“North Korea’s strange juggling act is becoming ever more precarious. The hubbub over The Interview has attracted unwanted attention. “Just because Mr Kim runs a paranoid, delusional despotism, does not mean that the outside world is not out to get him.” In fact, it increasingly seems “the comforting calculation for North Korea’s regime—that, painful though its existence is to its people and the outside world, its collapse would be worse—may not hold for ever in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.”
Tags: Beijing, Collapse, Delusional, Despotism, Kim, North Korea, Paranoid, Regime, Seoul, The Interview, Tokyo, Washington
Bloomberg (December 18)
Early this year, Kremlin aids advised Vladimir Putin that “Russia was rich enough to withstand the financial repercussions from a possible incursion into Ukraine.” Their advice and the subsequent invasion “now looks like a grave miscalculation. Russia has driven interest rates to punishing levels and spent at least $87 billion, or 17 percent, of its foreign-exchange reserves trying to prevent a collapse in the ruble from spiraling into a panic.
Tags: Advice, Collapse, Foreign-exchange reserves, Interest rates, Kremlin, Miscalculation, Panic, Putin, Ruble, Russia, Ukraine
Washington Post (December 16)
“The drama playing out in Russia on Tuesday was not pretty. The ruble’s exchange rate has collapsed by some 50 percent against the dollar since mid-June, with an accelerating fall in recent days….Russia now faces a full-blown currency crisis.” The crisis, however, did not spring out of nowhere. “For President Vladimir Putin, the crisis is his own doing, a direct outgrowth of a meddlesome adventure into Ukraine.”
Tags: Collapse, Currency crisis, Dollar, Exchange rate, Putin, Ruble, Russia, Ukraine
