ATHENS – It is a tale of two realities. Later this week, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will give his annual speech to the nation – Greece’s equivalent of the State of the Union address — at the 83rd Thessaloniki Trade Fair.
This week my guest is journalist Paul Dobson of Venezuelanalysis. We had a wide ranging discussion on Venezuela, its current political and economic situation, and western media distortions. First, we covered the recent terrorist attack on President Maduro’s life on August 4th. We touched on the right-wing media operations out of Miami, which supported this terrorist act, as well as the role of ultra right-wing activists in Venezuela and Colombia.
India celebrates its independence from Britain on 15 August. However, the system of British colonial dominance has been replaced by a new hegemony based on the systemic rule of transnational capital, enforced by global institutions like the World Bank and WTO. At the same time, global agribusiness corporations are stepping into the boots of the former East India Company.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering his keynote speech, at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum, in Davos on January 23, 2018 [PMO, India]
India’s benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange SENSEX has continued to break records this week.
On Wednesday the 30-share exchange broke its record to reach 38,061 before settling just below the 38,000 mark. At press time Thursday it is at 38,012, marking the first time ever it has reached this level.
So now Washington is threatening the IMF. That’s a new one, as it’s typically used as a tool by Washington to keep tight reigns over cash strapped countries, and to push America’s foreign policy agenda. Mike Pompeo went on television to issue threats that any moneys loaned to Pakistan by the IMF ‘must not go straight from Pakistan to China’.
Express reports:
Compared to the performance of the Argentinian economy this time last year, economic activity is down by 5.8% as the government applies the IMF’s austerity measures, aimed at cutting government expenditures in order to make budgetary room to repay the international bloodsuckers. The Argentinian economy is looking more and more grim.
telesur reports:
BRICS is no longer in need of proving to the naysayers its sustainability and viability. The time has now come for it to expand its membership and reach among emerging markets.
South Africa today hosts the 10th BRICS Summit amid growing global trade tensions[PREUSS]
The world was in the grips of a growing financial crisis when Brazil, Russia, India and China first agreed to form an economic bloc in 2008.
QUITO, ECUADOR – Ecuador’s passionate re-embrace of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) offers one of the clearest and most dramatic signs that the country’s leadership is dead-set on shedding any vestiges of the “post-neoliberal” era it was said to have entered a decade ago during former President Rafael Correa’s Citizens’ Revolution.
