Sometimes I forget just how brainwashed the NATO countries are until I try discussing the Ukraine war with levels of nuance and it infuriates them.

Saying that trump isn’t working with Putin to take over the world is apparently a very controversial thing with NATO libs. Makes me glad this site exists. Thankfully Guatemalans aren’t nearly as brain broken. We’re more suspicious of China but admiring of Putin (ugh)

So what was trump’s “big announcement”

Investors dare to imagine a world beyond the dollar

Investors are starting to imagine a financial system without the US at its centre, handing Europe an opportunity that it simply must not miss.

This exercise in thinking the unthinkable comes despite a cacophony of noise in markets. Mansoor Mohi-uddin, chief economist at Bank of Singapore, recently travelled to clients in Dubai and London. To his surprise, not one of them asked him about short-term issues like tech stocks or tweaks to interest rates. Instead, he says, “people were saying, ‘What’s going on?’ The free trade, free markets, globalisation era is over, and nobody knows what’s going to replace it.”

They refer, of course, to the new US administration. Within a month of retaking his seat at the White House, Donald Trump & co had all but trashed the transatlantic alliance, and ridden roughshod over the key checks, balances and institutions on which true US exceptionalism is built.

“It’s such a momentous change going on. If it continues like this, capital allocators will wonder: ‘Do I want to stay allocated to the US?’” Mohi-uddin says.

This cuts across asset classes. In stocks, the preference for Europe is clear — markets are streaking ahead of the US in a highly unusual pattern. But flighty stock markets are just the surface. The bit that really matters is the international use of the dollar, and dollar bond markets, as the supposedly risk-free bedrock of global finance.

This is already starting to show. On Tuesday, for instance, despite the shock of new US trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the dollar is not climbing in its usual fashion. Deutsche Bank says this in part reflects “the potential loss of the dollar’s safe-haven status”.

“We do not write this lightly,” wrote currencies analyst George Saravelos. “But the speed and scale of global shifts is so rapid that this needs to be acknowledged as a possibility.” What was once outlandish is now becoming plausible.

Economists close to Trump have been clear that they view the dollar’s status as the world’s pre-eminent reserve currency as a blessing and a curse — “burdensome” as adviser Stephen Miran put it. It remains a possibility — again unthinkable just a few weeks ago — that the US could seek to pull the dollar lower in an effort to support domestic manufacturing. But the US could also dismantle its own exorbitant privilege through accident rather than design by pushing the big beasts of bond markets — foreign central banks and other official reserve managers — into the arms of other nations.

The dollar makes up more than 57 per cent of global official reserves, according to benchmark data from the IMF, far in excess of the US’s slice of the global economy. The euro accounts for 20 per cent, and everyone else is picking up scraps.

Starry-eyed optimists have argued for years that the euro’s slice of the pie should be bigger, but they have been fighting reality. Europe’s bond markets are fragmented into constituent states, with Germany at the centre. The monetary cohesion is there but not the fiscal or strategic cohesion. No national market is simultaneously large, safe and liquid enough to suit a reserve manager’s needs. Super-sized trades leave a mark and in an emergency, these big hitters find only the slick US government bond market will do.

The EU has struggled to offer an alternative. That is where this moment in history comes in. Its urgent need for defence spending simply overwhelms the capacity of its individual national bond markets. Joint borrowing — easily said but devilishly tricky to do — is the obvious answer. The result could well be that Europe is thrust further to the centre of the global financial system.

The Covid-19 pandemic offered a taste of how pooling resources might work at scale. Then, bonds issued by the EU itself, rather than individual states, were met with enormous demand. The urgency of the present situation offers little choice but to move fast. “Collective action could be an answer, even if consensus has not built yet,” said analysts at rating agency S&P Global in a note last month.

If the EU could seize this moment, it would tap in to a deep well of willing buyers keen to trim US exposure. “Plenty of reserve managers could shift very quickly,” says Mohi-uddin. “There would be huge take-up.” US dominance of global debt markets does not have to end with a bang. Large, slow-moving investors would simply have to accumulate other assets rather than necessarily dumping their Treasuries. But over time, the result would be the same. Regime shifts of this kind do not happen often. But they do happen. Sterling was the global reserve currency once too.

Leave it to Comrade Trump to achieve the impossible, folks.

The question is what are they moving their assets into? Bitcoin and gold? lmao.

Some worrying events in the Middle East as of the past 48-72 hours. A United States Navy Carrier Strike Group, presumably the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), was spotted entering the Red Sea on ESA Satellite Imagery on March 2, and one of its planes was observed on FlightRadar24. So the US carrier is back in the Red Sea.

Earlier today (March 4) , the United States Air Force flew a nuclear capable B-52H Stratofortress bomber off of the coast of Israel and Gaza, descending down to a low altitude of 11 000ft at times. We know that this bomber (Registration 60-0037) is nuclear capable due to the presence of 'New START agreement' fins on it's fuselage, pictured below. If you're interested in reading the whole documentation of how New START applies to the B-52 fleet, the 240 page PDF documentation is available here. So yes, the USA did fly a nuclear capable bomber off of the coast of Gaza.

In response, Ansarallah (known as the Houthis in western media) have claimed to have shot down the 15th MQ-9 Reaper drone of the conflict so far, with the wreckage landing in the Red Sea. The US will be forced to fly their jet engined RQ-4B and MQ-4C drones again to carry out surveillance.

Twitter source

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/mar/04/europe-live-news-us-military-aid-ukraine-peace-talks-russia

Oh he is a sad dog, didn't last a day.

Anyone get their SOTU bingo card ready? My free space is Dem leadership (Jeffries, Pelosi) clapping at some ghoul shit Trump says like securing the border or sending more aid to

Bloomberg: China Sets GDP Target at About 5% Despite US Tariffs

Syria's industrial sector faces widespread closures under Al-Qaeda-linked government: Report

https://thecradle.co/articles-id/29180

Is there any historical parallel to something as large and complex as the United States trying to run on its own momentum while all the essential bureaucrats and government funding are being purged on a whim? Because that's the position we were in even before Trump decided to blow up the economy.

....is the JDPON Don meme real?

Anyone got a list, or know some trump 1 policy I can list that Biden didn' repeal?

Hours after No Other Land won the academy awards, Israel occupation forces handed a demolition order for a school in Masafer Yatta. Even Shakespeare couldn't have written such a travesty of justice. Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, and elsewhere, deserve liberation, they deserve to live free from occupation in their own sovereign state.

• Ofer Cassif Israeli Communist MP

Japanese jurist Yuji Iwasawa is now the new president of the ICJ, replacing Julia SSebutinde (RIP bozo, ) as of yesterday. Iwasawa seems to also be more critical of piSSrael and supportive of the legal case by South Africa, potentially bringing at least a marginal sense of legitimacy to the ICJ.

Also about 2 weeks ago, the African Union has been granted permission to participate in the genocide case, of which South Africa is a founding member and a leading diplomatic power of.

Germany’s ‘Whatever It Takes’ Moment Powers European Markets

• Merz announces historic plan to fund defense, infrastructure
• Stocks rally, bonds slump as investors assess spending shift

Germany’s extraordinary spending plans are shaking up the region’s markets, powering European equities past US peers this year and reviving the euro from the brink of parity with the dollar.

Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said Germany would do “whatever it takes” — a catchphrase made famous by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi — to defend the country and amend the constitution to exempt defense and security from limits on fiscal spending.

The move drove up Germany’s benchmark DAX stock index by as much as 3.8% and the prospect of more borrowing sent the country’s bond yields tumbling, both seeing the biggest moves since 2022. The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.8% to near a record set earlier this week, while traders bet on hefty gains for the euro.

“Big, bold, unexpected — a game changer for the outlook,” said Evelyn Herrmann, Europe economist at Bank of America Corp., adding that it represented a “paradigm shift.”

Making Europe Great

The historic plan, unlocking hundreds of billions of euros for transportation, energy and housing, is a dramatic shift that upends Germany’s controls on government borrowing. It invokes memories of Draghi’s 2012 speech to save the euro, which became a shorthand for policy determination.

Deutsche Bank AG strategist Maximilian Uleer — a long-standing bullish voice on European stocks — said the region was facing its own “Make Europe Great Again” moment — a play on US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan for America.

Uleer reiterated his overweight stance on European stocks overall, calling the German proposal “above even our positive expectations.”

Stocks geared toward the German economy jumped, with the country’s mid-cap MDAX Index surging as much as 6.9% — the most since March 2020. That was led by construction firms such as Bilfinger SE and Hochtief AG, up 24% and 18% respectively. Defense companies like Rheinmetall AG added to a stellar rally this year, while heavyweights Deutsche Bank and Siemens AG were both up over 8%.

“There’s a very strong dynamic in Germany,” said Frederic Surry, deputy head of equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management, who has reduced his overweight on the US in favor of Europe. “We’re looking at a broadening, notably on midcaps.”

Winning Stocks

European stocks have been among the best performers in the world this year, as investors bet on stimulus and a potential cease-fire in Ukraine. Cheaper valuations have also proved attractive at a time when funds are exiting pricey US equities, overshadowing concerns around a global trade war for now.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 is on course to outperform the S&P 500 by the most in a decade on a quarterly basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nine of the top 10 best performing stocks this year in the MSCI World Index — the benchmark for the developed world — are now European, data compiled by Bloomberg show. They include defense companies Rheinmetall, Thales SA, Leonardo SpA and Saab AB.

Euro Recovery

The euro climbed nearly 1% to its strongest level since November at over $1.07. Just a month ago, the common currency was a whisker away from parity with the dollar, trading almost at $1.02. This shifting dynamic could potentially reverse a multi-year US dollar rally, according to Julian Weiss, head of global Group-of-10 vanilla FX options trading at Bank of America.

Banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been abandoning predictions that the euro will slide to be worth the same as one greenback. Instead, some hedge funds are now buying options wagering the euro will climb another 12% to $1.20 in six to nine months, according to traders familiar with the transactions. “This is Merz’s ‘Draghi moment’,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. “The strong recovery in the euro suggests that Europe’s star is rising.”

Europe about to abandon its neoliberal fiscal “balance the budget” rule to invest heavily in military and infrastructure.

Is this the turning point for the European economy?

Meanwhile, Trump appears to have bought into the charlatans who told him that “dollar must weaken” in order to re-industrialize, which will prove fatal if it keeps going. I give it a few months before the US realizes the huge mistake it is in and will likely attempt to pivot by then.

cuck n chad ranking: blast from the past edition

Note: RUS vs UKR back in first row

Please let this be real:
https://xcancel.com/fresh_sadegh/status/1897010936499826692

Far news agency (an IRGC affiliate) reports about the formation of the “Islamic Resistance in Syria”, an umbrella group made up of resistance forces. Their aim is “to confront American-Israeli-Turkish plots to dismantle Syria with the help of the current militia ruling Damascus”

Russian Wage Growth Hits 16-Year Peak Amid Race to Find Workers

Russia’s real wages in 2024 increased the most in 16 years as the country grapples with a lack of workers and even seeks to import them from so-called friendly countries, including Myanmar.

Annual growth in real wages reached 9.1% last year, the highest since 2008, according to Federal Statistics Service data published late Wednesday. This contrasts with the 2.7% globally estimated by the International Labour Organization.

The salary spike reflects a still-acute labor shortage as the army and industries servicing military needs draw scarce workers away from other sectors of the economy, forcing companies to compete with salaries and benefits. Unemployment stood at a historic low of 2.3% at the end of last year, though edged up to 2.4% in January, the statistics service data show.

The workforce shortfall has fueled inflation and limited economic growth potential, spurring Russia to seek new sources of labor to plug the gap in its market. Measures have included attracting teenagers and pensioners to using prisoners and inviting foreigners from countries that maintain good ties with Russia.

In the current economic conditions, “it’s necessary to look at completely new countries” to attract labor migrants to Russia, Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said in the State Duma on Monday, as Moscow prepared to host a government delegation from Myanmar. Russia is discussing bringing in workers with the country’s leadership, Reshetnikov said, according to the state-run Tass news service.

Thousands of North Korean laborers were sent to work at construction sites across Russia last year amid workforce shortages due to the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported, citing the nation’s spy agency.

Running out of people to work in the economy.

The work report of the government from Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress is out on March 5th, summarized below:

Looking back at 2024

• 5% GDP growth
• Food production reached 1.4 trillion pound for the first time
• New employment in the urban area: 12.56 million
• Alternative energy vehicle production breached 13 million annually

Target for 2025

• GDP growth at ~5%
• New employment in the urban area: >12 million jobs
• CPI to reach 2%
• Food production at ~1.4 trillion pound
• Energy consumption per unit GDP to fall ~3%

Important work for 2025

• Budget: deficit spending to reach ~4% (from 3%, or +1.6T yuan from previous year)
• Government investment: to arrange new local government bonds at 4.4T yuan (+500B yuan), combined government debt to reach 11.86T yuan (+2.9T yuan)
• Special debt: to issue special extra long term government bonds at 1.3T yuan (+300B yuan), and new special government bond at 500B yuan
• Consumption: to implement targeted policies to raise consumption, to arrange extra long term bond at 300B yuan to support consumption (subsidies to trade in older goods with new goods)
• Nascent industries: to further propel the development of nascent industries e.g. commercial airliners, low attitude airspace economy. To cultivate biotech production, quantum technology, embodied AI, 6G and other nascent industries. To accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing sector. To develop AI networked EV, AI-powered phones and computers, AI-powered robots etc.
• Education: to increase the number of higher and middle education degrees, to gradually implement free pre-school education
• Market environment: to implement long term mechanisms to resolve problems with outstanding payments by corporations/companies, to increase law enforcement actions against corporate crimes
• Opening up: to push for the orderly opening up of internet and cultural spaces, to further the opening up of telecommunications, healthcare, education and various sectors
• Housing: to continue implement strong policies to slow the plunging real estate prices and stabilize the market. implement the redevelopment of provincial towns and aging residential housing units. to encourage purchase of stock houses (oversupplied units). to continue the good work on settlement/closing for housing purchases.
• Rural development: to revitalize the rural industries, to activate the central government coordinated inter-provincial food production compensatory policy, to increase support for food producing provinces, to expand on channels to improve farmers’ income.
• Urbanization: to push for guaranteed housing system for qualified citizens who are turning from farmers into urban workers. to continue the revitalization of urban and redevelopment of old neighborhoods in cities.
• Ecology: mechanisms to encourage healthy and green consumption, to encourage new green, low carbon production and lifestyles
• Employment: to enlarge the employment opportunities for high school graduates, to strengthen the welfare guarantee for gig workers and new hires. to improve benefits for tech talents.
• Healthcare: to optimize the drug procurement policy and strengthen the regulation and evaluation of drug quality (note: this was a huge scandal in China last year when many hospitals procured fake drugs to lower costs), to increase the per capita subsidies of citizens health insurance and basic public healthcare service by 30 yuan and 5 yuan, respectively
• Social welfare: to raise the minimum amount of urban citizen pension by 20 yuan, to formulate policies to encourage birth, to provide childcare subsidies

Overall, not that different from last year’s budget, with the exception on the new emphasis on AI. The budget deficit is still on the conservative side, breaking from the usual 3% to 4% this year. It may or may not be enough to boost the slumping consumption, but time will tell. Other than that, nothing indicates fundamental change from the usual policies.

Exclusive: US and Ukraine prepare to sign minerals deal on Tuesday, sources say

President Donald Trump has told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress Tuesday evening, three of the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.

Apparently he wants to sign it sometime in the next ~5 hours?