Recall This?

I will remind you what I wrote in March this year once the whole thing with COVID-19 unfolded. 

As I stated earlier, I will still reserve my opinion on the origin of this Covid-19 situation but, if your read my comments, I was in no way distraught over the fact that Trump defunded WHO. Even RT gave the tribune to such an opinion. ....So, we may face ahead even larger adjustments which will change statistics of Covid-19 and social outlook dramatically. I don't think China necessarily lied, I think Chinese were simply trying to feed info as it was unfolding  and WHO did "cry wolf" before. Swine flu, remember? So, take it anywhere you want but do not forget which US political party is tightly connected to supranational structures under UN auspices and represents radically globalist.... Oops, I misspoke, never mind, never mind, wink, wink.   

Now, I can be more specific. Before being more specific I need to remind you couple things: 

1. You all well know that I am no Sinophile--I am on record, constantly, that Russian-Chinese "alliance" is a situational one, and that it is predicated on political and economic stability of China. Russia is a thing in itself and is civilization on her own. But modern Russia IS NOT an Asiatic country.

2. China is a great civilization with rich culture and an extremely complex ethnic and cultural composition. It also has a mind-boggling variety of dialects, which precludes any person without highly focused effort to study China, to be called a Sinologist. I am no Sinologist, not even close and I fully understand this. I, as well as many others in my line of writing, thus are forced to rely on the opinions of real Sinologists. 

I have couple of sources I use for insights into China's economic and political reality, one of those sources being Nikolai Vavilov (no relation to other Vavilov, a geneticist of Stalin-times fame) who has an excellent grasp of Chinese political and economic elites. Here is  one of his books on China (The Uncrowned Kings of China) in Russian, New one came out recently and Nikolai has a serious claim on knowledge on China, not only he lived and worked in China for many years, including work for Chinese Xinhua news-agency. He is fluent in many Chinese dialects, so when he speaks, I listen. And now important stuff. 

1. China DOES NOT offer world the alternative to globalism. China IS a globalist power and for many people who for years have been misled by China's massive scale economic plans, the recent G-20 address by Xi should come as an unpleasant surprise. Here are some points, we start with this:  

Xi expressed his opinion on the priority of the fight against the novel coronavirus. The G20 should respect the World Health Organization (WHO) and create a global mechanism coping with pandemics. Xi also suggested a specific measure that the G20 can take to bring the pandemic to a stop, which is an international recognition mechanism of the "health code." The code should be based on the global standard of QR code technology and the result of the COVID-19 nucleic acid test. He wished more countries can join the effort of creating a standardized "express passage" for people to travel between nations.

This is, for now, merely a suggestion but the nature of this suggestion is that the world should follow China's already in place and in active use code system which does this (In Russian):

a) Each Chinese city has its own "platform" on Alipay or WeChat, where everyone is obliged to register with their own "code";

b) The system tracks everyone by their QR-code and assigns the color in which "green" means that you can go pretty much anywhere, and then limitations are imposed if the code is "orange", let alone "red" which forbids any movements. 

Well, my friends, if this de facto electronic concentration camp (or ghetto) hasn't been implemented yet in your neighborhood, let's open Comrade Xi's remarks on the BRICS summit five days ago and here is what he said:

Around the world, COVID-19 is posing a grave threat to people’s life and well-being. The global public health system is facing a severe test. Human society is going through the most serious pandemic in the past century. International trade and investment have shrunk considerably. The flow of goods and personnel has been impeded. Factors for uncertainty and instability are numerous. The world economy is witnessing the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unilateralism, protectionism and acts of bullying are becoming rampant, and the deficit in governance, trust, development and peace is widening instead of narrowing. Despite all this, we remain convinced that the theme of our times, peace and development, has not changed, and that the trend toward multipolarity and economic globalization cannot be turned around. We must keep people’s welfare close to heart and pursue the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind. Through concrete actions, we will contribute our share to making the world a better place for everyone.

Wait a minute! No, no, no, no--this is NOT how it works--it is precisely economic globalization and the orthodoxy of a Free Trade which are in the foundation of the global economic crisis, for which grossly inflated threat of COVID-19, serves as a good excuse. Including a strange correlation between Chinese so called Komsomol (Hu Yaobang's Trotskist and globalist heirs) leaders getting to power with American Democratic Party Presidents being elected. Correlation doesn't mean causality, do not misinterpret me, but what is not open for misinterpretation is the fact that:

1. China needs globalism because...

2. Chinese economy, for all its gigantic size, is not doing that well

3. US Democrats are truly neo-left globalist cabal who also seem to "influence" Comrade Xi at BRICS Summit. Like this, as he himself states:

Fifth, we need to pursue green and low-carbon development, and strive for harmony between man and nature.

How not well, you may ask, is China's economy? Simple: China STILL is dependent on these two markets:

1. The United States--a lot of statistics is being faked to show China "reducing" this dependency. Reality, however, is grim for China and the US--the level of mutual dependency remains very high.

2. Japan. And then South Korea.

Remove them and China's economy collapses. But then, of course, there is this:

In this report, we show how China’s production of coal-intensive products is accelerating. In October, steel production rose 13% year-on-year, aluminium  rose 11%, cement rose 10%, and electricity production rose 7%. China’s GDP data confirms that the industrial sector provided a higher proportion of its economic growth this summer than at any time since at least 2016. Consequently, China has produced almost 60% of the world’s steel, aluminium and cement so far this year. In addition, steel and aluminium exports have collapsed, meaning China itself is using more of these products. Meanwhile, China’s coal-fired electricity generation is unchanged from last year, because of high electricity demand outpacing clean electricity investment. Coal generation in the rest of the world, by comparison, is expected to fall by about 12% this year, meaning China’s share of global coal generation will rise to 53%.

Pay attention to highlighted and remember, 65% of China's electricity generation is based on coal, which increasingly becomes scarce and increasingly expensive to extract with many mines in China already going as deep as 1,000 meters (1 kilometer). And we all know what that means, right? Just to give you some idea on generation--in the United States coal amounts to 22.8% of generating sources, In Russia--it amounts to around 16%, so you get my drift, right? Well, this also is not the whole story, costs for China will continue to grow and the shift from coal to gas, nuclear and other sources is a daunting task for the export economy the size of China's and which is dramatically vulnerable to fluctuations on markets. Let's remember what was the foundation of Trump's economic platform which he was running on--right, decoupling from China. Recall also an abrupt limitation to education of Chinese students and researchers in the United States. Nasty, aggressive? Undeniably so, typical arrogance BUT...give Trump, for all his bluster and being full of shit, a credit, he found Chinese cojones and grabbed them. And now the main part:

1. China's attempt to focus on domestic consumption to support her economy has failed (in Russian);

2. "Second circulation" policy is now in place, another attempt at internal market. Enter Nikolai Vavilov (sadly in Russian only). 

Right, 12 years China was effectively printing money, they went, right, right, right, into the real estate. Guess, China was becoming the US 2.0 by producing debt. Guess what this second attempt will be? Right, inflation and debt and "export", again. But now even more, while many praise recent RCEP signed by China and East Asian nations, many forget that this same RCEP, which originally was a Japanese idea, reduces 90% of tariffs not only for China-made consumer goods, but for such things, among many, as Japanese cars and parts for them, same goes for Korean automakers. Bye, bye Chinese auto-industry. Now that you know these peculiar facts, ask yourself a question if at least some influential parts of Chinese elites were not interested in removing radically anti-Chinese Trump and getting a democrat in the office? There is another funny fact, the origin and spread of COVID-19 somehow was limited to the cities and provinces which are managed by those very same representatives of China's Komsomol who made fortunes at the American market. Coincidences, coincidences. How can you remove Trump? Right. 

But in general, especially after Xi's remarks at BRICS' summit it remains patently clear that the only way China can remain more or less (primarily less) healthy, for now at least, economically is to continue to export until the whole thing collapses, because globalism and Free Trade are collapsing. Yet, Xi praises these moribund practices as if nothing what is happening in the world today is related to the subjects he praised. I will omit here the sheer anti-scientific idiocy of CO2 emissions. Of course, Chinese didn't congratulate uncle Joe with becoming a President-elect (and he is still not), in fact, the statement of Chinese Foreign Ministry (a level below official protocol) was down-right humiliating to Biden, who insulted Xi and China not for once. But behind globalist totalitarian mafia of the Democratic Party we all can see the silhouettes of the Clintons and the Obamas and their vast network of political operatives who want to turn the United States, the remnants of the flawed Republic, into the playground of the most destructive, amoral, anti-human and criminal forces which will stop at nothing, including high treason to get to power. Remember this? 

"I certainly do think that the Chinese government and central bank are making a smart decision by continuing to invest in Treasury bonds," she said during an interview Sunday with the popular talk show "One on One." "It's a safe investment. The United States has a well-deserved financial reputation." To boost the economy, the U.S has to incur more debt, she said, shortly before departing for Washington. "It would not be in China's interest if we were unable to get our economy moving," Clinton said. "So by continuing to support American Treasury instruments, the Chinese are recognizing our interconnection. We are truly going to rise or fall together. We are in the same boat and, thankfully, we are rowing in the same direction.

I do. It is a good idea to refresh sometimes a decade old statements, they contain so much in them. Recall who was China's President then? Right, and read what Hu Jintao's one of the main foreign policy "accomplishments" was during his term.

He improved ties with Japan, but effectively downgraded relations with Putin’s Russia, which repeatedly disappointed Beijing in terms of arms sales and energy deals. 

This phrase opens a whole new can of worms which allows to understand why Russians are really nonchalant about CREP and why all this blatter about Russia being junior partner in Russian-Chinese duo is just that--pure BS. There are many things we don't see, as it is supposed to be in the real life, but there is a reason why I constantly point out to a simple fact of China still preferring Russia to lead in geopolitical arena. So, do I say that COVID-19 is a global operation of influence? No, what I say it that there is a viable motive. And again, correlation does not mean causality but only sober and factual assessment of real strength of participants in the game can give good insight into intentions of everyone. 

Meanwhile.

While the whole world (not really) discusses Donald and Melania's Covid-19 infection, and some lowlifes from HRC's circle wish the President to die. 

Former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman says she 'hopes Donald Trump dies' after he contracts Covid-19 Zara Rahim said she hopes Mr Trump dies and said the diagnosis 'rules'

Which is no surprise anymore, and we all wish First Family a speedy recovery, by far the most important geopolitical event is approaching fast. Remember? October 18, the end of weapons embargo on Iran. Surely, the United States tried its best to "reimpose" those sanctions, but... 

Russia on Thursday dismissed the threat of US sanctions and attempts to isolate Iran, saying it intended to trade with Tehran once a UN arms embargo expires next month, AFP reports. The embargo on conventional arms shipments to Iran is set to expire on October 18. Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced an executive order and new sanctions against Iran aimed at enforcing United Nations sanctions... Speaking alongside visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed those threats as illegal. "Russia will in no way build its policies on the basis of these aggressive illegal demands which have no legal force," Lavrov said."The fact that the United States threatened to introduce sanctions on all those who will contradict the US interpretation of the current situation once again confirms that Washington wants to behave like a bull in a china shop," Lavrov added, according to AFP. "In my opinion, the current (US) administration has lost diplomatic skills almost beyond retrieve," Lavrov continued.

Those damn Russkies. How dare they to groom Iran for Russian weapons which will now start, together with other goods, flow into Iran. This is not speak of a massive $400 billion deal between China and Iran which--and there are some issues with this agreement, which will play to Russia's advantage--which also:

With the 25-year deal with China now moving ahead at pace, Iran has a buyer for all of the crude oil it can produce, albeit at discounted levels, so Tehran is pushing oil field development across the board. This includes not only the major fields in the huge West Karoun cluster – across which China has pledged to increase collective output by at least 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) within the next two years – but also the more challenging fields that nonetheless are rich in oil, especially those that are shared with Iraq. In order to meet these challenges, Iran is resuscitating a program of engaging top domestic universities to work on the scientific challenges of increasing recovery rates, in addition to utilizing human, technological, and financial resources from China and Russia as and when required, with the Azar field being a test-case for such co-operation. 

You see, the issue here is not just that China and Russia will not allow to sink Iran economically--this became clear long time ago, at issue is, obviously, a massive upgrade of Iranian defense capabilities, which explains not only Zarif's visit to Moscow, but Iranian military top brass, communicating with Russia's colleagues and taking part in military exercises, such as latest Kavkaz-2020 on a regular bases. Everybody understands what all this means, Iranians will be very happy and they are:

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:45 A.M.) – Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said on Monday that Tehran is interested in buying the latest Russian weapons, stressing that Moscow is a priority partner in military cooperation. “Of course this is the case,” Jalali said, in response to a question whether Iran was interested in acquiring new weapons from Russia. He continued: “We will consult with Russia about what we need in order to strengthen our defense capabilities. The Russian government and the Russian people have been and are still on our side in difficult times. Russia is also a priority partner for us. There are great opportunities in this field, and we hope that our relationship will be strengthened in this field over time.”

You see, Russians do not give a damn anymore about sanctions, Nord Stream 2, what have you--the arsenal of West's means of "influencing" Russia is practically non-existent, because as a series of latest statements from the very political top of Russia show, Russia doesn't want to be a part of the "West", in fact, her distancing from this so called "West" accelerates tremendously. It is not just economic choice, it is a metaphysical, and civilizational, one. Especially civilizational, since there is very little civilization left in the "West". As Lavrov stated recently--you cannot deal with the West as a whole. And yes, US lost, always feeble, diplomatic skills beyond retrieve, I agree with Lavrov here. But appearance of 3M54, P-800 Oniks and S-400 in Iranian arsenal, together with SU-30SMs or even SU-35s, boy, talk about bad day for Israel. So, I can only imagine a hustle behind the curtain between Israel and the US trying to figure out when the "window of opportunities" will shut itself completely. In the end, will the United States even exist as a normal state after November elections? Questions, questions... 

Meanwhile, former regiment CO who ended up as National Security Adviser, exposed himself to be dumb as fvck and that is the whole recent story with America's elites.  

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “aiding and abetting” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to sow doubt about the American electoral system. The stern warning from McMaster, who Trump handpicked to lead the White House National Security Council in 2017, came in an interview on MSNBC, after he was asked whether he agreed that the president posed the greatest threat to U.S. election integrity. “I agree that he is aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts by not being direct about this, right? By not just calling out Putin for what he’s doing,” McMaster said.

The country's "elites" are literally 90% morons and sore losers. And they are, rephrasing Lavrov, "beyond retrieve". It is a clusterfuck nation, ladies and gentlemen, using James Kunstler's lingo.

Sticky: Covid-19 Board.

People asked me to open this thread. Ok, here it is--I am not moderating it, because I simply have neither desire nor time to do this. Please abstain from mutual insults and posting some openly bizarre or profoundly anti-government shit, because I know many government people are trying their best to contain this pandemic. If something goes way out of control which I may not catch--please inform me in other threads. Fire away. 

Why I Am Not Surprised-2.0.

You gotta love these headlines.

 Stocks up slightly amid dismal economic data

And why shouldn't they be? Greed has no relation to reality, economic or human, for that matter. All this Wall Street gobbledygook was never designed to give clear sharp definitions of real things or processes. Just take a load of this:

That rotation from high-growth tech to value names also came alongside states reopening their economies and helping catalyze an uptick in activity, bringing investors back into a broader basket of equities.

Oh, what a load of pretentious contrived shit which serves only to cover for this data and it is horrifying, because it affects lives of millions of people who are not "into a broader basket of equities". 

The S&P 500 has crossed the 3,000 level again and investors are clearly riding high on hope for a second half economic recovery post the worst of COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean the market is immune to a pullback this summer primarily because the economic data will likely continue to be horrible. Remember bulls, the U.S. economy has been kicked in the face by the pandemic, and a rebound won’t happen overnight simply because states are reopening. Corporate sales and profits remain under severe strain, sending many off to explore bankruptcy or cut thousands of workers even with quarantines being lifted. “We think that the reported unemployment rate may be around as high as 20% in May,” Barclays chief U.S. economist Michael Gapen warned on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. The unemployment rate in April increased by 10.3 percentage points to 14.7%. Gapen believes the U.S. economy may contract a whopping 40% annualized in the second quarter, then surprisingly grow by 25% in the third quarter and 8% in the fourth quarter.

Yes, yes, it will "surprisingly" grow, never mind unsurprising 20% unemployment rate. And let's not talk, like absolutely not, about what was going on before the seasonal flu...I mean COVID-19 struck its blow at impressionable universe of social networks' slaves. The question is not about if the recovery is in cards--it is, at some point of time, at least--but about what will the country do once the full (real--I underscore it, real) scale of unemployment hits home. If there ever was a better way to demonstrate how a huge chunk of "white collar" jobs is not only useless but a burden on real economy, the COVID-19 was it.  

A new video, few days ago, caught my attention. Remember this?

I knew from the get go that this whole thing was nothing more than a "sell" for a bunch of uncultured nouveau riche class which spawned on the ponzi scheme of easy virtual money. "Respectable" people with real money usually reside in their castles and mansions in Europe, closer to actual, however degenerate today, culture and landscapes.  Middle Eastern shitholes covered with the glitz of oil money are for plebes, even if with money, virtual ones, that is. This is one of the suites on the "middle" floor of Burj Khalifa--a symbol of human post-modernist imbecility and ambition--during the storm, which are frequent guests in the region. 

Anyone who thinks that this "experience"of satisfying own ego in this building is so great--let them. No normal person, that is the person who has own two feet on the ground and values real things in life, be them emotionally, aesthetically or materially, would ever want to spend a day (or night) in this pretentious tower looking out at the desert, sea and ugly concrete jungles of Dubai, or any other location in the area. If I need to experience a desert (but it is just me), I know how to get to Nevada (driving through some of the most wonderful landscapes in the world), check into decent Holiday Inn or (all right, all right) Bellagio, and still be within easy driving distance to everything I really value in life--wonderful nature's sights, few hours of drive away lake Tahoe, being among (mostly) people of the same culture and good ol' Black Bear Diner or IHOP, for that matter. Excellent experiences and they cost order of magnitude less than any "vacations" in Dubai or whatever other radically un-touristy locations in backward Middle East. But, as I said, it is just me, many still think that if they could (not anymore, evidently) afford some, never materialized, mansion on one of the Dubai's "islands" that would set them apart, I agree. One has to be a complete moron to "invest" into the "real estate" in the place which goes (not will, but IS going) kaboom in the new economic reality where things of real value only matter.

What is this real "value"? Very simple, our families, our loved ones, friends, colleagues, our real skills in building, repairing, growing, harvesting things, maintaining the safety of our communities, leading truly healthy, in every sense of this word, lifestyles (not you, vegans and pot-smokers), reading, listening to good music, contemplating, creating, being human--these are real values. This is the way to contentment, in being satisfied with smaller but important things. Of course jobs matter, of course our houses matter, but normal person doesn't need Bentley or $4,000 a night suite, or $3 million mansion at the sandy isles in the midst of stinky water, in the area which goes bust, as was predicted, to be happy. As I say all the time, the economy is a consumer pattern. Yes, we all got screwed over by moneyed and subservient political class, nothing new here, it happened before (and was predicted), it is happening now and may happen yet again in the future--such is the nature of capital. But while being condescending (justifiably) towards this class' consumerism, much of it drowning in consumption of useless, wealth-signalling, luxuries, which is always a sign of a lack of true culture and real refinment, there is nothing wrong with us taking a look in the mirror at our own selves and asking the question if continuous consumer pattern is sustainable? I don't think so. But what is the normal pattern? How can it be defined, in what material and moral terms? We all will have to answer this question at some point of time. I, personally, do not need Bentley to be content, as long as my air conditioner and stereo in the car work, as long as it is clean and tidy, I should be fine, in material sense. I also can live without single cask Scotch $500 a bottle. 

In fact, even today, when looking at consumer patterns of modern "elites", one cannot fail to notice how much those "luxuries" are kitsch and tasteless in their attempt to emulate glorious antiquity and royal opulence of Renaissance while in reality most of those in the possession of that opulence have nothing more than a psyche of the small shop keepers. They may yet, many of them, experience a rude awakening. In the end, how can we balance out the need and the want, how does this proverbial "enough" in material sense look like? It is a known fact that Marx considered the United States to be the first country where socialist revolution will succeed. Marx may yet turn out to be correct but what we all, without exception, need to prevent is revolution in a sense of an outright physical conflict, however difficult this may seem now. But it is in everyone's interest to see evolution towards maybe, just maybe, more sane economically and, as a consequence, morally future. For everything else there is a new generation of weapons to help keep this all under control for now.

They Take My (And Others) Precious Bodily Fluids.

COVID-19 as an engine behind evolution of diagnostic process. These two charming girls are dealing with... well, see for yourself, and, what is most important, these girls know their, and others, shit, literally, really well and confirm what most of us knew long time ago--COVID-19 is way more spread than any testing shows. 

Enjoy, if you can. I meanwhile will go and assist in painting a more precise picture of a disease by contributing all I can for diagnostic purposes, after all, 4 20-oz lattes (yes, I abuse my espresso machine badly) today are calling, again. 

Necessary Evil?

You know all my attitude in general towards Western "economic science", which, bar few exceptions here and there, is nothing more than a variety of iterations on monetary theory and, in general, is not economic, per se, but financial only at its very core. As an example--many those "economists" with degrees in "economics" from a variety of Western economics programs are primarily (not all) people who deal in stocks, currency speculations, cooking of books, fraudulent valuations--it is them who introduced risible $23 trillion US GDP to us--many of them are downright bankers who know debit and credit and bank operations but who do not operate and cannot operate (due to lack of background) in a much larger framework of real economy, real politics, geopolitics, power balance etc. Those skills require a completely different intellectual and (true) scientific training. In the end, recall Michael Hudson's recent succinct statement:

The gunboats don’t appear in your economics textbooks. I bet your price theory didn’t have gun boats in them, or the crime sector. And probably they didn’t have debt in it either.

I happen to agree and may even add, that courses on physics, engineering, industrial design, real trade, foreign relations, organization of logistics, modern transportation, maritime security, military power also do not appear in economic textbooks. So, why have I brought this up, again. 

It is a truism now that Western "intelligence" on Russia, quoting Patrick Armstrong, is "very bad", and this is putting it mildly. It is easy to explain--imagine some Western "educated" (quotation marks are deliberate) journo or "economist", people who understand only Wall Street "economic" realities and subscribe to Western "interpretation" of human rights, getting into Russia. They are immediately presented with the set of economic and human patterns they not only never encountered in their lives but never heard of them. Most of those people, in their attempt to get a grasp of that find those who are "culturally" close to them in Russia and this is precisely a narrow strata of fringe Russia's liberals (aka liberda) who use same lingo and value same things as those Western journos, economists etc. use and value. Bingo, it seems that the issue is solved. Well ...no. In fact, this modus operandi is precisely the reason behind Western "analysts" of Russia being a laughing stock and being incapable to find their own ass with their both hands in the brightly lit room, forget about making any sensible predictions (or forecasts) on Russia. They simply have no instrumentation for that. Enter RT's today's piece by Ben Aris. 

I totally get it, that RT has to present a variety of opinions on Russia, including some which may not be positive at all, and we know that Russia is affected adversely both by Covid-19 and Oil Wars, but what Ben Aris of IntelliNews (formerly of Daily Telegraph) writes is a good insight into the minds and operational mechanisms of all kinds of similar fraudster publications pretending to provide "value" for "investors" (I know, it is such a funny term), Ben Aris "covered" Russia since 1993, and the term "covered" should be used cautiously here because British media are leading propaganda outlets in the West when providing a murky stream of BS. So, Ben Aris is no different and he opens with a broadside:

When the pandemic struck, Mishustin was still in the middle of reforming his team, and focused on a technical task: implementing the 12 national projects, not dealing with an economic meltdown. Ministers who performed badly when it came to implementing their policy goals have been sacked, and a new crop of bureaucrats was installed to take over. Mishustin drew heavily on his former colleagues from the tax service, which he ran to great effect for a decade. However, these people do not necessarily make the best HR choices when it comes to crisis management. Their skill has been to fine-tune the machinery of government to make it work more efficiently. The policies now needed are about squeezing an extra 5 percent of revenues out of VAT payments, not shock actions to put a floor under the collapse and reverse the fall.

Immediate first issue: Ben Aris, as well as most of his Western colleagues CANNOT have competent opinion on crisis management anywhere, let alone in Russia, because Western "economics" and experience knows only ONE way of dealing with crisis--it is to print money, period. The way even Covid-19 has been handled in EU and the United States is the best testimony not only to the impotence and incompetence of Western "elites", of which Ben Aris and his "way of thinking" are an exhibit A, but underscored a dramatic deference between the way Russian current elites and Western ones are brought up. One of those gigantic differences, which Aris never heard of, I am sure, is mandatory annual courses, ranging between two weeks-long to months, by top government officials and governors they take in the Academy of General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces. How mobilization plans are developed and implemented is also a thing Aris most likely doesn't understand, especially if one considers a collection of clowns running modern West today, they and Aris have common "education" backgrounds. So, Aris' any opinion on adequacy or otherwise of Russia's crisis management is as valuable as my opinions in Kabuki dramaturgy.

But Aris doesn't stop here and produces another peculiar point. 

Putin is afraid the nationwide vote, now slated to happen sometime in the summer, could be turned into a referendum on his ability to deal with the public health crisis. And that could go badly wrong. Consequently, he has pushed the responsibility for dealing with the crisis onto regional governors, who have put in a mixed showing so far. But even this political damage-control move has already cost Putin politically. More Russians approve of local officials’ coronavirus-response efforts than they do of those initiated by the president and the federal government, according to a newly published survey from the Levada Center.

There is so much to unpack here in what is a characteristic feature of most Western media--making shit up or just simply lying--that we need to start with the data by Levada Center. Levada Center was officially declared in Russia a foreign agent (in Russian) and is a classic example of MO of Western NGOs around the world--growing own "dissidents" and then using them as data sources which are allegedly "reliable" and fit Western "perceptions". I wrote about this so many times that I do not see any reason to dwell on that for much longer. Aris' "independent pollsters" are provided for by foreign governments and NGOs. The only good reason of using anything from Levada Center and similar orgs inside Russia is in affirmation of positive. E.g. "even Levada Center cannot deny this..."  Of course, I am not talking about the fact that Aris does what people like him do--he misinterprets, lies that is, events suited to consumption by people completely isolated from Russia's realities. See highlighted in yellow. Obviously, Aris never took even basic course in civics in any Russian public high school and he doesn't know how many Federation subjects are there in Russia, from Districts, to Oblast, to Krai and who are in charge of those and what is their relation to Moscow, but it is expected from such journalists as Aris. So, he "discovered" suddenly that delegation of authority, which is in the foundation of any practical governing since the times of Roman Empire, to state's subjects is the evidence of... political damage control? Is this Aris dude for real? It is especially fascinating against the background of Putin being omnipresent in Russian media. Including TV. Like yesterday. 

But our indomitable British journo doesn't stop here, he continues to misrepresent a situation and uses ephemera polls (polling is a fraud as an indicator in general, GIGO) to present what is not there forgetting what "Even Levada Center cannot deny..." Putin's still high level of approval which is almost 80% higher than disapproval. That is the only metric which matters. 

This is not to mention VCIOM's very own:

69% of Russians trust Vladimir Putin; 63.5% approve of his presidential performance.

So, what is exactly the problem here? A seasonal fluctuations of polls or that Russia's response to Covid-19 was extraordinarily effective? And even when Aris gets to more-or-less sensible argumentation (not that it is correct, it is not) he already "registered" himself at the onset of his piece as just yet another, run-of-the-mill, Russia "observer" whose only selling point is his fake "expertise" in interpreting political events in Russia from the Western point of view, which, as we could observe for years now, is nothing more than a wishful thinking by people who have zero knowledge and skills in fields which really matter for a nation such as Russia. In this case, the only question which remains is: will they ever learn? Why, in the same time, RT decided to publish this trash remains a complete mystery to me, albeit against the background of the collapse of Western economies and fraudulent "theories" behind them, any product of those in terms of world-view and "education", especially in relation to Russia, will come across as a pretentious ignoramus who needs to be pitied, not taken seriously. Or, maybe, to be taken as a necessary evil to remind us all how such "experts" royally fvcked Western civilization.  

P.S. Completely forgot (in Russian). Goggle Translate will help. 

Russia dramatically increased her oil export in April. Enjoy. 

On Mishustin And Conspiracy Theories (A Rant).

OK, OK, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has got COVID-19. So, what? Give the guy a break, let him recover, God damnit.

After all, BoJo also was infected and, actually, ended up being seriously sick. He is fine (if this term could legitimately be applied to any British politician) now. But the moment news of Mishustin going to self-isolation hit the waves the hydra of Russia's punditry, including allegedly of patriotic one, raised the head. I will not name a person--a very famous person in Russia--with whose some views on economy I agree, but it was this person who immediately took to every available media to declare that Mishustin is going to be removed, allegedly for some failures. Really? So, as I stated, this person is not a bad person but this person, as actually many on the "left" in Russia do, pushes a lot of conspiracies, including the ones which this person has no qualification of explaining. 

Just recently, this said person while being interviewed by one very popular Russia media, continued to push the theory that Russia is (was) secretly tied with some "obligations" to the West, through her liberal "elite", which would not allow Russia's development. On the question, of otherwise arrogant ignorant (manifestly pro-liberda) interviewer, how about Kalibr (this is the extent of their "knowledge" of military and industry), this, otherwise not a bad person couldn't answer with anything but platitudes. Obviously, the fact that R&D and introduction of many current weapon systems in Russia's arsenal started in early-mid 2000 somehow escaped both pundits. I cannot stand Alexei Kudrin, but it was on his watch as Finance Minister (2000-2011) when financing for such massive programs as Borei-class project 955 SSBNs, or massive upgrade of the Air Force inventory, among many other crucial programs, was provided fully and uninterrupted. So, what's the deal then with all those mythical "obligations" not to develop Russia which resulted in Kudrin doing his job, unlike it was the case then MoD Serdyukov and his sycophant Chief of General Staff Makarov, that strategic forces received this much needed boost, including financing programs for such weapons as Avangard. That was on Kudrin's watch. So, something doesn't add up with this "obligations" theory, which saw foundation of Russia's present military and economic power laid precisely in this period of time. 

Or, maybe, we should (as I always do) admit that we simply do not know all details of a rather complex policy kitchen in Kremlin before jumping to any conclusions? But even if to discount this obvious fact, First Deputy PM Andrei Belousov is now in charge of Prime Minister's functions and he is a bona fide' Gosudarstvennik (statehoodnik) not to mention being the main driver of increasingly visible economic policies of fusionism or, if one wishes, neo-Sovietism. One way or another, Russia has more than enough competent people running her economy and the issue Russia has, as it is always case historically, is not top echelon but middle-level bureaucracy much of which was planted in 1990s and early 2000s and the one who is actually a main source of sabotage of policies. The process of removing it is ongoing and it is visible. Meanwhile, let Mikhail Mishustin recover (he may go completely asymptomatic, unlike BoJo) and forestall any bizarre speculations about the Rothschilds having secret, invisible, noose around Putin's neck, or Mishustin being fired. In the end, even Kudrin is on record that Russian economy is going to be fine. As per Kalibr family missiles, they have been in development since early 1990s and, evidently, no "secret" obligations prevented Russia from deploying an astonishing array of hi tech stand-off weapons already early in 2010s. But then again, what do I know about it.

A Short Note On Covid-19-2.0

Let's recall what I wrote exactly one month ago on this Covid-19 pandemic. Let me remind you:

We have currently: 7,537 deaths out of "recorded" 199,122 cases globally. This is 3.94% mortality rate. But the main question remains unanswered: HOW MANY people with virus are not in this statistics? I am going out on a limb here and propose hundreds of thousands who already went through illness or are in the process and are not counted. Deaths are EASIER to count than infection cases, for obvious reasons. Thus I propose: deaths statistics is much more accurate than the overall count of cases of coronavirus. But this assumption will dramatically drive mortality rate down. Considering the fact that MOST cases pass either asymptomatically or as light cold (or flu)--make your own conclusions.

I am former military--I cannot act on unverified data, hell, I am presently (well, standby layoff) in aerospace and I cannot act on unverified data, because I am the one who decides what materials and parts are good and which are not, because people's lives depend on that. For that I ran a lab which has a shitload of funny technology which deals with uncertainties. So, if to put it into the most primitive form--I spent most of my adult life, from military to civilian capacity, dealing with the issues of metrology, statistical analysis and developing information into knowledge. Well, Stanford University has a world class medical school and look what they say:

Stanford researchers said they took blood samples from 3,300 volunteers recruited them from social media from all over Santa Clara County. They were recently tested over the course of two days at three different test sites. Researchers said that, while many who took the test were in fact concerned they had the the virus, it turned out that many of them did not carry the antibodies. The study also showed that the death rate may be lower than once projected — .12 to 0.2% compared to the state’s projection of 3%. Researchers said they hope to use the study to project death and hospitalization rates as the pandemic continues. Stanford’s research comes as state leaders begin to discuss the next phase of the stay-at-home orders and restarting the economy.

Guess what, the death rate is NOT lower, it is ORDER OF MAGNITUDE lower. Moreover, Russian Vzglyad today comes out with a piece titled symptomatically:  

Китай подставился в информационной битве с Америкой

       China framed herself in Informational battle with the US. 

Why, you may ask? Very simple--the issue is not that China under-reported the number of deaths from Covid-19, as it turned out by 1290, total number being 3,869. Those 1200+ Covid-19 related deaths were not included initially into statistics. But that is not what is a wowser. As it turned out, the Chairman of the National Health Commission Me Fen reported that only 20% of tested had symptoms while other 80% (five times more) were asymptomatic and were not reported initially, which makes the scale of pandemic much larger. It also makes it dramatically less deadly. Multiply those confirmed 82,000 with symptoms by five and you get 410,000 infected, and even this number can be grossly understated, but which also makes death rate from virus is 3,869/410,000 x 100 = 0.94%, more than 3 times lower than initially was projected. And this is, mind you, in an extremely dense population center in China. Many Russians are not happy. Understandably so. Initial numbers were in the foundation of many (not all) decisions which were made on state level. What are the sources of this virus is a whole other story, but as I stated, I concluded for myself that the Covid-19 is not a biological weapon. Evidently in Stanford statistics this "weapon" is less deadly than seasonal flu.    

As I stated earlier, I will still reserve my opinion on the origin of this Covid-19 situation but, if your read my comments, I was in no way distraught over the fact that Trump defunded WHO. Even RT gave the tribune to such an opinion. 

While Trump’s cut-off of the WHO was mainly to save his skin, the health watchdog is surely not above criticism. To repair its reputation, it should stop meddling in lifestyles & focus on health issues, and tackling pandemics.     

So, we may face ahead even larger adjustments which will change statistics of Covid-19 and social outlook dramatically. I don't think China necessarily lied, I think Chinese were simply trying to feed info as it was unfolding  and WHO did "cry wolf" before. Swine flu, remember? So, take it anywhere you want but do not forget which US political party is tightly connected to supranational structures under UN auspices and represents radically globalist.... Oops, I misspoke, never mind, never mind, wink, wink.   

Information For Thought.

Or as it is more conventionally known in the world not affected by 17 Moments of Spring and Stierlitz's thought process--food for thought. Let's start with a simple truism: by now only completely sublime (or complete morons) still think that US financial market is a viable part of economy. Of course, it is not, because it is a casino set up for enriching a very narrow group of people and financing their utterly destructive ponzi schemes by means of exporting otherwise insane inflation abroad by means of T-bills, yes, those US Treasuries which are the main instrument of US existence as a more or less functioning economy. More or less. Here is the "map" of the main holders of this, ahem, "treasure" as of today. I deliberately included only holders with $100 billion and above:

As you can see Japan and China are most "invested" into those papers today running a "balance" of more than $2.3 trillion combined. Ah, yes, about the balance. This is a hefty sum, even $1 trillion is a hefty sum and leads us to a very interesting conclusion which Russians, through a very reputable Ria.Ru arrived today and this conclusion will never make it to US media for a obvious reason. Get a load of this title: 

США готовятся объявить дефолт по долгам Китаю

The United States Are Preparing To Declare Default On Debt To China 

That's warmer and that is what largely behind anti-China campaign in the US in regards to Covid-19. I make a disclaimer immediately here: I don't know HOW Covid-19 originated, nor, at this stage, do I particularly care because I arrived to my personal conclusion that it is not any kind of bio-weapon and thus was not a deliberate act. But default on China's debt, and many things point in this direction, could be a desperate act of trying to save a collapsing pyramid of financial manipulations and issuing of worthless debt obligations which are... which are...so, nobody really knows if there is a serious interest for buying those anymore (especially short term) other than Fed and Fed is not talking. 

How probable is this scenario? I think it is fairly probable, and keep in mind, even financial information pouring out of US "analytical" financial orgs may still have a very low reliability, as it is generally he case with US economy whose statistics is simply a result of cooking the books for all kinds of rating agencies to present US economy as top of the line credible. Well, manipulation, you know. This is not to mention the United States demanding now some "compensations" from China for Covid-19. Remember US kangaroo court making Iran "guilty" for 9/11 instead of kicking Saudi's ass? Same shit, pardon my French. So, anyone has any doubts now on how it will all proceed? Mind you, China is not Iran, she is the largest economy in the world by far and she will be royally pissed. Well, she already is. But by now we know the quality of personnel in US "elites" who, as I state ad nauseam, can not properly juxtaposition cause and effect, it is totally conceivable that they will decide, possibly out of a complete stupidity, to push the pedal to the metal and destroy whatever is left of US economy by exposing it for what it is--a huge ponzi operation with zero trust (ahem, credit rating) and with it demolish whatever is left of US Dollar's attractiveness.

You may say, they are not THAT stupid. Actually, they ARE. Consider environment from which this cabal of financiers, analysts, economists and other moneyed people came from. I write about this non-stop. You think that they really know what is going on? I doubt it. They, certainly, can calculate debit and credit based on GIGO but most of them never worked a day in a productive capacity and never built anything of real value. This post-modern generation of Ivy League humanities sewer are all one-trick ponies fed non-stop monetary orthodoxy of laissez faire. They know how to "make money", maybe run a bank, what real economy is and how it works--no. They were not taught this intricate subject and that is why they think that defaulting on debt to China could be a good idea. Some common sense voices exist even there:

If the U.S. entered a steep recession or depression without dragging the rest of the world with it, users might leave the dollar. Another option would involve some major power, such as China or a post-European Union Germany, reinstating a commodity-based standard and monopolizing the reserve currency space. However, even in these scenarios, it is not clear that the dollar necessarily would collapse.

What is highlighted in yellow is precisely what is happening now and one of the major indicator of the new economic reality is the fact that in Russia, which also is affected by the whole clusterfvck, unlike it was the case in 2008, there is absolutely NO rush to buy USD, not even close compared to 2008. In fact, never in my life did I encounter such a condescending attitude towards USD, being given a title of "funny green papers" (zelyonye bumazhki). For years I wrote, economy and strength of a state is defined by a complex combination of factors among which currency and finances are but couple among huge number of factors defining national strength. I think now it is a good time to REITERATE Barnett's definition:

Needless to say, modern US meets fewer and fewer of those criteria. Simple as that, and that is an information for thought.       

Good Ol' Henry.

Dillon yesterday (thank you) dropped the link to Henry Kissinger's article in Wall Street Journal where Kissinger waxes geopolitical. For some reason Kissinger has reputation in US as a geopolitical thinker of scale, but then again Francis Fukuyama and Zbigniew Brzezinski also have the same reputation, which, in its turn, is an affront to the term "reputation", not to speak of the modern geopolitics as a combination of a broad spectrum of knowledge ranging from history, economics, international relations, geography, military, industry, technological development and some other funny things like theory of probability and other strictly math-physics related issues. We, of course, can all remember, among his achievements, his brilliant idea of "opening China" which resulted in the long run in stripping the US of its industrial might. In general, long term thinking is not a strong point among American geopolitical "thinkers" and Kissinger is an exhibit A of such a trait. Yet, good ol' 96 year old Henry, in his WSJ's piece on Covid-19 arrives to a funny conclusion:

The world’s democracies need to defend and sustain their Enlightenment values. A global retreat from balancing power with legitimacy will cause the social contract to disintegrate both domestically and internationally.

After I stopped laughing, I formulated a question: what ARE those Enlightenment values as Kissinger understands them? Last time I checked the main Enlightenment "value" which made combined West great was a rational thought. Everything else follows from it, including such a simulacra as man's freedom (whatever freedom is in each given historic age). The rest is up for never-ending philosophical debate on what those "values" truly are.  And here is the problem--modern West lost its ability to think and act rationally long time ago. In fact, Kissinger should know this very well--he was and still is in the midst of the decision making kitchen in the West which begins to increasingly look and feel like a psychiatric ward populated with people very many of who suffer from acute cases of sociopathic decease, while some are down right open psychopaths incapable of rational thought and even basic reasoning in principle. If Kissinger thinks that figures of Merkel, W, Obama, Mike Pompeo or Trump are representative of "Enlightenment values" then we certainly think about very different "values". 

But the next Kissinger's statement is altogether a wowser:    

Third, safeguard the principles of the liberal world order.  

My question is: did Kissinger actually study the history of "liberalism" and what it did both to the combined West and the world as a whole? This is what I wrote a year ago in my latest book:

Liberalism, in its different contemporary manifestations, such as globalist capitalism, also known as globalization, has a “stellar” record of using threats as a primary tool in international relations. Globalism is aggressive for a number of reasons ranging from purely economic interests to convictions of cultural superiority. These form a ballast for what goes on to become military aggression, easily resorted to because of the often complete inability to understand the practice (what really happens during warfare) and the consequences of the application of military power (what really happens as a result of that trauma and destruction) and accordingly an appreciation of how to achieve a global military balance precluding war.... There is no good life without peace and liberalism is not capable of defining that as a key component of a good life, due to liberalism and its scholarship living in a complete delusion about the predatory intentions driving its own economic and military (often grossly exaggerated) capability.

Even earlier than that, three years ago, I wrote:

Where does this leave us all on the globe in general and in the US in particular? There is no denying that the economic decline both in relative and absolute terms is a fact of life for the United States and the order it came to embody. This order is a globalist liberal vision—America’s crisis is a crisis of liberalism and of global financial capitalism. The utopian modern liberal orthodoxy (a euphemism for free trade) remains based on money and profit as a measure of everything. This doesn’t work anymore.

But forget about me, I wrote it in the times when the going was good and it seemed that everything will be fine. Well, it wasn't fine then already, in fact--it never was. And then, the man of a scale much larger than Kissinger ever was, and a geopolitical thinker orders of magnitude larger than him, stated:

The liberal ideology that has underpinned Western democracy for decades is “obsolete,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

So, Kissinger, using fuzzy platitudes doesn't want liberalism, or whatever passes today under this stupid term, as such to be preserved, he wants, behind this psychobabble of "geopolitical" doctrine-mongering, to preserve the world in which the United States is the only one force which sets up the rules. But this is this main issue with most American "geopolitical thinkers", Kissinger included--they still live in those halcyon days of America's self-proclaimed "exceptionalism" of early 1990s and they don't have required cognitive instruments to recognize the scale of the geopolitical balance's shift which happened since 2007. The world became much more complex and weapons evolved to the point of being unstoppable--a little fact they don't teach in political "science" courses. 

What will evolve in the aftermath of the Covid-19 and America's steady departure, due to both ideological and economic bankruptcy, from its self-anointed status of hegemon is a topic for a separate discussion, which will require non-stop application of the main Enlightenment Value of a rational thought and competent reasoning--the value long ago lost in deep dark recesses of the liberalism's mythology as an answer to humanity's real challenges in the XXI Century. The answer it is not and the emerging new world order may yet answer this challenge by creating a more just and more peaceful world, that task the combined West ultimately failed at.     

First Italy, Now Good Ol' USA.

You know, Russian perfidious treachery really has no bounds. First Russia invades Italy, now Russians set their sights on the most democratic democracy in space-time continuum.  

A cargo plane loaded with medical supplies and protection equipment may depart for the US by the end of Tuesday, the Kremlin said, after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The issue of protective gear was raised during the Monday phone talks, with Putin asking if the US needed help and Trump accepting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.Moscow suggested the aid in anticipation that the US will be able to return the favor if necessary, once its manufacturers of medical and protective equipment catch up with demand, Peskov said. The current situation “affects everyone without exception and is of a global nature,” he added.

But jokes aside, human lives is what really matters now. So Trump was right--it is a large planeload and this is the only way it should be. This is globalization which IS needed, not the "free flow of capital", a euphemism for robbery. So, we'll see how DNC will react to this Russian interference. But for some Americans this could be, indeed, the difference between surviving and dying. I am sure US media will report on that promptly.... nah, I am screwing with you;)

When I Hear (Read) Term "Analyst".

Especially in the context of fraudulent Western "economics", my hand automatically reaches for a gun, so to speak. As I said it many times, financial "analyst" occupation should be one of the first to disappear as a viable occupation. It is down right fascinating when all those "analysts" (such as from Bloomberg, among others) begin to discover reality which was around for a while. 

(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has the U.S. Treasury Department to thank for helping his country prepare for a global economic crisis. A steady deluge of economic sanctions and the constant threat of more to come has pushed Russia’s authorities to boost reserves and strip back debt over the past five years. As governments across the globe prepare for what’s set to be the worst economic slump since 2008, the fortress approach that had been pushing Russia’s economy into stagnation is starting to look like good foresight. S&P Global Ratings maintained Russia’s credit rating at BBB- with a stable outlook on Thursday, even as it downgraded a raft of emerging markets due to a plunge in commodity prices. “Previous crises have taught Russia’s Finance Ministry and central bank how to prepare for this one,” said Karen Vartapetov, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings. “They have a lot of crisis experience.”

The title of the article itself, Putin’s Economic Isolation Suddenly Doesn’t Look So Bad, should be changed to "Duh!" It is obvious that all those fraudulent credit ratings are absolutely meaningless because they cannot account for the most important principle which economic activity of any modern large country is based upon: "a  belief that a nation should be generally self-supporting…" Obviously, for globalist girls and boys "educated" in the pseudo-economic white-board theories detached from real life, the whole notion that real national interests may, and often do, come into contradiction with profit or bottom line is inconceivable. They are simply not taught like this, in fact, most of them have no clue what nation is, how it forms and how it operates. Nor, most of them, understand what REAL economic growth, not some books' cooking, is. How can they--most of them never work a day in a productive sphere and do not understand even basic principles of industrial operations and management which require a combination of meta competencies which are not taught in MBA programs. You remember Mishustin's excellent observation recently, do you?

That is why for many in the West facts like this come as "sudden" and, often, shocking:  

One of Russia’s responses to sanctions in 2014 was to place restrictions on imports of certain foodstuffs from the U.S. and Europe. While the measure led to a sharp rise in domestic prices, it also increased farm production, leaving Russia more resilient to distruptions in global trade. “Russia is well prepared for this very new phase of closed borders and closure of international trade and financial processes,” said Sofya Donets, a Moscow-based economist at Renaissance Capital. “It has abundant state buffers and a higher share of local products than it had previously for many consumer goods.”

Yeah, what a concept--to be self-supporting. And then, of course, what is known today (wrongly, I may add) as geopolitics begins to factor in and this geopolitical thingy is altogether beyond the grasp of most Western "analysts" who are taught to think within only one framework, Wall Street framework that is. In this sense, Covid-19 pandemic does all of us a very good service--it exposes a complete incompetence of the globalist financial, managerial, military, academic and other institutions and the so called "elites". No really, would anyone entrust your lawn to be mowed by Christine Lagarde, Angela Merkel or Emmanuel Macron? Being a night-guard at some storage facility? Well, even that requires some skills. Peter Van Buren decries the change which already came:

Only two weeks ago, I had an hourly paid, part-time job. That made me a lot like the 60 percent of the American workforce who are also hourly employees, not to mention independent contractors, adjuncts, and the massive undocumented labor force behind our farms, hotels, and restaurants. The government ordered us to stop working and we did. Nobody is entirely sure if they can just do that, but they did. Now we wait like baby birds for that same government to drop checks into our mouths. Overnight we went from workers to dependent on handouts. The balance of power between Americans and their government just changed dramatically.

Van Buren may decry it whatever he wants and he may criticize Orwell for not giving us a detailed account of how 1984's society of IngSoc sprung into existence, but the question he is supposed to be asking is this: why it took a completely rigged and wasteful economic system to last this long? The question is really simple and the one which most in American "elites" dread to answer publicly-- World War Two and the extended lease on life this War gave the system which was able to recover primarily by US government's interference in the systemic decline stock exchange was generating since 1929. Going to war was also a government decision. As for balance of power between "Americans and their government", it should be clearly stated that now "government" is the ONLY institution which holds this country from disintegrating completely, even if "shifting" this balance, which was inevitable and was ongoing in a less dramatic form anyway before Covid-19 struck. Could then, as Van Buren worries, US society degenerate into some version of Orwell's dystopia--well, it already did to a degree by denying, thorough its utterly corrupt media, political class and Wall Street simple truths about reality. Russiagate damaged what's left of the Republic in a much more profound and lasting way than any government check could ever do. Economically, the Unites States is bankrupt and is facing reality no "analyst" could have predicted.

The Fed announced Tuesday morning that it would be establishing a repurchase agreement facility for foreign and international monetary authorities (FIMA) that have accounts at the central bank’s New York branch. Through the FIMA repo facility, other central banks and monetary authorities unable to make smooth trades in the open market will be able to temporarily liquidate their positions in Treasuries. “Stabilizing foreign dollar markets, in turn, will support foreign economic conditions and thereby benefit the U.S. economy through many channels, including confidence and trade,” the Fed said in a statement.

In other words, putting it bluntly, Fed will be buying back its paper junk nobody in the world wants. I like the term "temporarily", but as we know, hope dies last.