discussion comment
2 years ago
US and European companies are fleeing China as fast as they can. CoVid shut downs have killed its manufacturing industry. It is seeing its dollar reserves disappear, making it difficult to import food and energy. Its Belt and Road initiative is a shambles, with countries unable to pay their debts. It is experiencing the biggest real estate crash in history. Its banks are failing and refusing to pay account holders.
Due to the one child policy, it now has more retirees than young workers.The workers it does have are being paid 12 times as much as in 2,000, making China noncompetitive. It is a demographic certainty that their population will shrink from 1.3 Billion to 650 Million by 2050. That has never happened to any other nation except for the Plague.
discussion comment
2 years ago
![]()
Papi_ChuloMiami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
The tug of war is, and always has been, between two views of the role of government
1. Protect the country from external threats while enforcing a basic rule of law internally, or
2. Assure fairness and equity in all aspects of life
The country was founded, in reaction to an all-powerful monarchy, under the first theory. It has been trending, in fits and starts, toward the second theory. Half the country has now decided that government determined fairness is really tyranny by a false name. They’d like to return to the first view. Those in power are fighting like hell to keep the status quo.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Gas prices are about to go up.
The Biden administration has launched a full-scale pressure campaign in a last-ditch effort to dissuade Middle Eastern allies from dramatically cutting oil production, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The push comes ahead of Wednesday’s crucial meeting of OPEC+, the international cartel of oil producers that is widely expected to announce a significant cut to output in an effort to raise oil prices. That in turn would cause US gasoline prices to rise at a precarious time for the Biden administration, just five weeks before the midterm elections.
discussion comment
2 years ago
![]()
Papi_ChuloMiami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
The good news is that are a few policy changes that could turn this all around. Dramatically cut the level of government spending by eliminating green energy subsidies, eliminate the department of education, pull our troops back from Europe and Asia, fire a couple layers of bureaucracy in all federal agencies. Establish a large import tariff on any country that doesn’t have a trade agreement with us and use those monies to pay off our debt. Clear the red tape to allow investment in new manufacturing facilities and nuclear plants. Amend all welfare programs to require any able bodied person to work. Stop forgiving student debt, lower the size of loan the government will fund to encourage more efficiency in colleges, and put more funds into STEM and less into everything else. Modify the Federal Reserve to return to its original mission of stabilizing the dollar. Increase immigration quotas for young, skilled workers, secure the borders, use federal databases to flag illegal workers, and send illegals back to their home country. Authorize oil pipelines, new refineries, and oil leases.
discussion comment
2 years ago
![]()
azddOn the prowl in Tucson and Phoenix
How does someone even find a 2015 thread ? And, why would they bother ?
discussion comment
2 years ago
Currency rates are just a short term indicator of a deep, long term issue. While Germany has issues, the UK, post-Brexit, may be having the toughest time. Europe, as we’ve known it, no longer exists. This video gets to the heart of the matter:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zFSaMPrLe5M&feature=youtu.be
discussion comment
2 years ago
The sun was in the Russian’s eyes. The dog ate their homework. The Ukrainians cheated. The Russians weren’t trying their hardest. Ukrainians are poopy heads.
discussion comment
2 years ago
![]()
Papi_ChuloMiami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
For 15 years, Central banks around the world kept interest rates near zero which
- let governments accumulate trillions in debt
- kept money losing corporations in business long after they should have died
- kept unemployment low
- funded ridiculous green energy subsidies
For 70 years, the American military enforced safe global trade and reduced the regional border conflicts. The US has decided it is no longer in its interest to do this. This is already affecting the energy and food global markets.
For 20 years, corporations sent all their manufacturing work to China, shutting down domestic manufacturing.
This is all ending. It will take 5 years to transition to a new economic model. In the US , it will be painful and chaotic. In China, they will return to a pre-industrial economy and millions will starve.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Russian men in their 20s are either fleeing Russia, in the hundreds of thousands, or being sent to Ukraines to die. Either way, the Russian workforce will NEVER recover.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Except, energy prices in Germany this winter will be 2, 3, or 7 times higher than last winter. Many businesses will close down and those that stay open will have to raise prices. That may affect the experience more than the 20% drop in currency exchange.
discussion comment
2 years ago
The level of uninformed disinformation in this thread is staggering.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Under Russian law, conscripts in the military can only be stationed in Russia. By declaring parts of Ukraine as Russians, he can send those hundreds of thousands of conscripts to the front lines.
I think that was the main reason for annexation.
discussion comment
2 years ago
After WWII, we became the world’s policeman because the Soviet Union was an existential threat to the US. They no longer are. In fact, after they fail in Ukraine, they won’t even be a regional threat.
Despite its economic success, China is not an existential threat to the US. They have a huge military but lack the ability to project force very far from their borders. Additionally, their survival depends on importing food and oil from sources thousands of miles away. If China started a war with the US or one of our Allie’s, we could stop the flow of food and oil within a matter of days.
We will reposition our military to maintain peace in the Western Hemisphere, plus guard shipping lanes with a few key Allies. We no longer need to have 14 nuclear aircraft carriers or thousands of troops in Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Among the likely outcomes of the Ukraine war are the collapse of the European Union and the eradication of the modern economy throughout much of Europe, and all of Russia. All of this could have been avoided if not for the incompetent and delusional decisions made by the corrupt leaders in the US, Europe, and Russia.
Throughout Europe, countries embraced Greta Thunebergs green energy fantasies, closing power plants, building windmills, and relying on Russian energy. Their entire economy, their way of life, required the continued flow of cheap natural gas from Russia, which they assumed would continue forever.
Putin was clear that he was prepared to go to war if Ukraine became a NATO member. Despite this, the Biden administration announced that Ukraine was on the fast track to join NATO. Shortly after that announcement, Russia began building troops on the Ukraine border.
Based on what his stooges told him, Putin thought the Ukrainian people would welcome the Russians as liberators, resulting in a 3 day war. Wrong.
Now, we are locked in a war that no one can walk away from. Like two dogs fighting over a bone. We are only beginning to realize how much the western world will change as a result of a few horrible decisions by our leadership class.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Video of the new Russian recruits ( some in their 40sand 50s ) being told the only thing they will be given is a uniform and gun. They have to bring their own sleeping bag, medicine, etc. Good luck when winter comes, if they are still alive.
https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/29/dire-state-of-putins-ageing-army-laid-bare-in-line-up-of-new-recruits-17475310/
review comment
2 years ago
Phoenix clubs in September bear no resemblance to Phoenix clubs Jan-April.
review comment
2 years ago
So, you went to HL at 12:30 then came back around 3:00 on the same day ? Did anyone discuss what problem there was with the clientele earlier ?
discussion comment
2 years ago
There was a classic movie called Paths Of Glory which told the story of French troops during the First World War. All the generals got their position because they were social elite. Their incompetence resulted in the front line soldiers being massacred. But, in the end, the failure is blamed on the supposed cowardice of the troops, some of whom are executed.
I think that’s similar to what is happening with the Russian army.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Ukraine is consistently gaining back territory. Russia doesn’t have enough troops to hold the territory they previously captured. They can hold certain cities, so the Ukrainians pin them down, advance in the lightly defended farming areas, and encircle the occupied town.
It’s played out that way for a couple months and Russia hasn’t figured out how to oppose it. So, they are supposedly bringing in 300,000 conscripts, rushing them to the front, and telling them they will be killed if they surrender or retreat. That’s how Russia defeated Germany during WWII. They used millions of troops as cannon fodder and eventually won the numbers game.
I don’t that will work in the modern era, Hundreds of thousands of potential conscripts are fleeing, hiding, or shooting the recruiters.
discussion comment
2 years ago
I grew up in 7 different towns in 4 states. Not sure what my hometown is. By 21, it was an even 10 cities.
discussion comment
2 years ago
German inflation just went over 10% for the first time since WWII. With their energy situation, it’s only going to get worse. They are chopping down hundreds of acres of ancient, virgin forest for firewood. The green revolution. No nukes !
discussion comment
2 years ago
How long will these crazy economic times continue ? Well, we might ask why the Great Depression lasted 15 years. The answer is FDR tried to micro manage the economy rather than just letting the market sort things out.
https://www.ff.org/fdrs-policies-prolonged-depression-by-7-years-ucla-economists-calculate/
Biden is already taking the same road as FDR with Trillion dollar spending bills, selective loan forgiveness, destruction of the domestic oil industry, and regulating everything in sight, invoking the CoVid Emergency as his justification for over riding the constitution.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Putin and all his lieutenants come from the KGB/FSB. So do many of the Billionaire oligarchs who own the former state enterprises.That would be like the US President and all his cabinet, and all the Big Tech CEOs, being former CIA spys.
Realizing that explains a lot of what goes on in Russia.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Russian authorities are beginning to restrict the movement of Russian citizens into Russian border regions to cope with hundreds of thousands of Russian men attempting to flee the country. The Associated Press reported that over 197,000 Russians have already fled through land borders to Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia between September 21 and 28, causing miles-long traffic jams at border crossings.
That doesn’t sound like the actions of a winning side.
discussion comment
2 years ago
Blowing a pipeline 50 meters below sea level with a charge equal to hundreds of pounds of TNT can only be done by a nation with a modern military. Biden is the likeliest party. By blowing the pipeline, he fulfills his promise to end the pipeline if Russia attacked Ukraine. It also prevents a deal between Germany and Russia to sacrifice Ukraine in return for Russian energy.
The unintended consequences could be huge. An obvious next step would be for Russia to destroy pipelines delivering Norwegian energy to Europe. It opens the door for a war of survival for both Russia and Europe.