Tag Archives: Parlance

Putin prepares the Russian empire to strike back | The Guardian

Posted by on December 2, 2011 3 comments

As prime minister for the past four years, Vladimir Putin never really went away. But his looming reincarnation as the all-powerful, executive president of Russia – the country’s “paramount leader” in Chinese parlance – poses a stark challenge for which the US, Britain and other beleaguered western powers seem ill-prepared. As president, potentially until 2024, Putin has one overriding objective: the creation of a third, post-tsarist, post-Soviet Russian empire.

Elements of Putin’s strategy to make Russia great again are slowly coming into focus. Much of the plan is defined by Russia’s opposition to the US, the traditional foe. …

…

On his eastern flank, meanwhile, Putin is busy reviving the idea of a remodelled union embracing the former Soviet republics of central Asia,…

Putin’s third empire project also includes, crucially, a tightening of Moscow’s politicised grip on Europe‘s strategic energy supplies.

Putin prepares the Russian empire to strike back | Simon Tisdall | Comment is free | The Guardian

So now we have the return of the Russian empire. A new cold war is starting with China. A covert war between Iran and the west is full steam ahead. Syria is plunging into a civil war that could potentially drag in Israel. Israel’s neighbors are primed and ready for war. There is a global financial crisis that threaten to bring down a large part of the world. And finally the US has pretty much started to go into decline.

Did I miss anything important?

Conflict looms over US military presence in Australia – Unleashed (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Posted by on February 21, 2011 1 comment

This month has witnessed a radical change in the tone used in defence discourse. It was triggered by a new paper by Professor Ross Babbage, calling upon Australia to completely reconfigure its defence strategy in order to deter China, or in his previous parlance, to prepare to “rip an arm off” China. The paper called for: the purchase of 12 nuclear powered Virginia-class submarines, instead of the locally-made conventional submarines currently planned; increased cyber-warfare capabilities; the acquisition of ballistic and cruise missiles with 20 “arsenal” ships to fire them; the reconfiguration of the army to perform long-range strike missions; and, most importantly, to increase the number of US military bases in Australia.

Defence hawks flocked to the idea. The Australian’s Greg Sheridan proclaimed it: “one of the most important, deeply considered and logically compelling strategic documents ever seen in Australia. It should be the starting point of a broad national debate.”

Conflict looms over US military presence in Australia – Unleashed (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Don’t believe the rosy forecasts – Fortune Finance

Posted by on January 1, 2011 Comments Off

The rosy forecasts might be right, but they could be equally just as wrong. Extrapolation of the past says that 2011 is going to be a good year. If the world economy decides to “revert to the mean” in 2011, then 2011 will be a lousy year. The real question is – when will the “revert to the mean” process start? Could it start in 2011?

Currently, Europe is shaky. The U.S. economy is not great but it’s growing slowly. China has a massive real estate bubble which could cause significant problems if it pops. Japan is shaky.

What does all this mean?

It means that we are not out of the woods yet, economically speaking.

Friedman’s lesson isn’t that forecasting is impossible, but that the best prediction is usually the basic assumption that prices and growth rates will go back to their historic averages, or in economic parlance, “revert to the mean.” What’s difficult is guessing when that will happen. Indeed, the timing is truly unpredictable. But it invariably does happen.

Don’t believe the rosy forecasts – Fortune Finance