Ramin Davoodi
21st November, 2014
The macroeconomic and geopolitical stakes are high in a stand-off between the global East, South and West. As the stakes rise on the world’s chessboard, so does Iran’s role.
Iran takes center stage in East-West struggle
Posted by seumasach on November 24, 2014
Posted in Global peace process, Iran, Multipolar world | Leave a Comment »
Return of geopolitics
Posted by seumasach on November 22, 2014
Maleeha Lodhi
18th November, 2014
A dominant theme at the recent World Economic Forum summit was that the return of geopolitics, turbulence and volatility were combining to shape today’s fraught strategic environment.
Posted in Multipolar world | Leave a Comment »
UK: Independent reveals extent of foreign takeover
Posted by seumasach on November 22, 2014
This is a tendency that can only intensify as Britain devolves control of finance. This effectively means we’re giving up our credit card since no regional or devolved administration is sovereign and will not be able to issue sovereign bonds as before. Nor will the UK government itself since it no longer controls its tax base. The SNP has already pointed out that Scottish government borrowing will be within a context of a balanced budget rather than the traditional rolling over of debt and coverage of interest charges only. This end of Keynesianism is accompanied, logically, by the demise of the Labour Party and the left.The UK is and has been for years totally dependent on capital inflows. However, the form these take is changing: rather than going into government bonds they are going into direct investment and purchase of assets.
Revealed: How the world gets rich – from privatising British public services
20th November, 2014
Foreign governments are making hundreds of millions of pounds a year running British public services, according to an Independent investigation highlighting how privatisation is benefiting overseas – rather than UK – taxpayers.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, End of empire, The Great British Sell-Off | Leave a Comment »
‘Anti-offshore’ law to bring billions back to Russian economy
Posted by seumasach on November 22, 2014
19th November, 2014
Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved an “anti-offshore” law requiring individual and corporate taxpayers to foreign profits. The Russian government aims to prevent capital outflow via “offshores,” estimated at $200 billion in 2014.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: russian oligarchs | Leave a Comment »
Medvedev: ban GMO
Posted by seumasach on November 22, 2014
Russian Prime Minister Calls for Complete Ban of GMO Food, Wants Organic Production
21st November, 2014
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently announced that Russia will no longer import GMO products, stating that the nation has enough space, and enough resources to produce organic food.
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: No to GMOs! | Leave a Comment »
Euromaidan 1st birthday: How the Kiev coup grew
Posted by seumasach on November 22, 2014
21st November, 2014
It’s been a year since thousands of peaceful protesters took part in the initial Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, hoping for a brighter future. Since that optimistic start, the state has been torn to shreds and now its very future is in doubt.
Posted in Ukraine War | Leave a Comment »
Australia, China see opportunity in free-trade pact
Posted by seumasach on November 15, 2014
13th November, 2014
CANBERRA, Australia—A free-trade pact between Australia and China likely to be signed within days is expected to provide new sources of growth for Australia, which is struggling to counter a rapidly slowing mining boom, while aiding China’s push for a broader role in regional trade agreements.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: China Australian coopeeration, Chinese soft power | Leave a Comment »
China has its way on APEC free-trade deal
Posted by seumasach on November 15, 2014
The US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is now dead in the water. The same fate can be expected for the TTIP, the corresponding US-backed free trade deal with Europe.
11th November, 2014
Beijing: APEC leaders agreed to work towards possible adoption of a “historic” free-trade deal proposed by China, in a victory for the Communist giant as it strives for a bigger role in formulating global trade policy.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Chinese soft power, Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), Stop TTIP!, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) | Leave a Comment »
The hawks’ solution to everything
Posted by seumasach on November 15, 2014
Throw More Weapons at the Problem
10th November, 2014
The Republican foreign policy agenda in the new year promises to be lousy:
Posted in Drive to Global War, Syria, Ukraine War | Leave a Comment »
Israel’s Iran bluster won’t unnerve Obama
Posted by seumasach on November 12, 2014
M.K.Bhadrakumar
12th November, 2014
Between optimism and pessimism stands ‘cautious optimism’ in the lexicon of diplomacy. But ‘relative optimism’? Yet, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Rybakov, one of the sharpest minds in the Moscow diplomatic armory, would have weighed his words with care and ingenuity when he remarked on Tuesday following the 2-day talks of the P5+1 and Iran talks in Muscat, Oman, that he is “relatively optimistic” about a nuclear treaty being concluded by the November 24 deadline. He added: “The glass is half full; (but) it’s not half empty.”
Posted in Iran | Tagged: Iranian diplomacy, Obama agenda, Obama's realist turn, US-Iranian rapprochement | Leave a Comment »
China aims for official gold reserves at 8500 tonnes
Posted by seumasach on November 11, 2014
9th November, 2014
China should accumulate 8,500 tonnes in official gold reserves, more than the US, according to Song Xin, President of the China Gold Association, General Manager of the China National Gold Group Corporation and Party Secretary. He wrote this in an opinion editorial published on Sina Finance July 30, 2014. Gold is money par excellence in all circumstances and will help support the renminbi to become an international currency as “gold forms the very material basis for modern fiat currencies”, Song notes. In the short term the Chinese will not back the renminbi with gold (establish a fixed renminbi price for gold), but support it with gold so it has sufficient credibility for the world to accept it as a trade and reserve currency.
Posted in Currency Wars, Multipolar world | Tagged: Chinese soft power, renminbi global reserve currency | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 