For some time now Syria and Iraq have been a place where interests of many players are clashing. The region is being devastated by civil war or a war by proxy, fought by a number of participants, where the borderline between friend and foe is sharp or vague as the case may be.

The military sorties, airstrikes and other activities are taking place on a day-to-day basis. Conflicting pieces of information that can be gleaned from a variety of sources may reflect both the factual status or the propaganda of the powers that be, hidden behind the media outlets. It is not easy to see the forest for the trees, to filter valuable data in this informational noise. Still, our readers deserve to be informed. With all this in mind, the Gefira team has made an effort to present the current situation in Syria and Iraq in an accessible graphic and textual way according to the best of our ability. Continue reading →

Officially, the paper is legally non-binding, so it does not count. What would happen if it did, though? What if it was enshrined in the constitutions of European countries? After all, it was voted by the overwhelming majority of them, with only Ukraine, Russia and Georgia abstaining and according to the United Nations it does “represent the dynamic development of international legal norms and it reflects the commitment of the UN member states to move in certain directions”.

Much of the document deals with the discrimination suffered by indigenous people due to imperialism or colonialism, nonetheless, just like any other declaration of the UN, it has the pretense of universality, it speaks for every indigenous people, thus including indigenous Europeans.

Let’s go through the declaration. Article 8 is of particular interest and it reads: Continue reading →

Ten times a year the Gefira Research Team publishes the Gefira Financial Bulletin, which is indispensable to investors and traders. We are the only ones who provide valuable information and in-depth analysis with a particular focus on the demographic impact on the world’s economy.

Investors need to have greater awareness that before long the developed world will have crossed the demographic Rubicon, reaching a point of no return, where economic growth will no longer be possible. Whatever we may choose to apply, whether Trump’s tax plan, Keynesian stimuli or modern money printing, it will not revive the global economy. Why?

Continue reading →

Once France was one of “the great powers”, dominating Europe and parts of the world in terms of culture and economy. The country’s demise started after the Second World War, though it still played a key role in the creation of the European Union and the euro, which was to prevent Germany from subjugating the rest of the continent. However, this strategy has failed and Berlin has become Europe’s capital, with France’s importance ever dwindling. France’s population is slowly being substituted for by people from Africa. Renaud Camus calls it the “grand replacement”. Paris, once a European, then a global is slowly turning into an African metropolis. If French elites, whose influence in Europe is fading, want to remain a world power, they can only opt for Africa. Qaddafi, the king of the kings, became a threat to France’s interests on the continent. It were not the Americans that pushed for Qaddafi’s replacement but the French elites.

Although the days of colonialism officially came to an end in the 1960s, Paris has not given up its position of a great power on the Black Continent.

France controls most of the countries in West and sub-Saharan Africa politically, economically and through a strong military presence.

Gendarme without backbone

France’s current zone of influence in Africa is the result of the policies of President Charles de Gaulle, who was unable to come to terms with his defeats in Indochina (1954) and Algeria (1962) and therefore sought to achieve the dominance of France in his former colonies. After de Gaulle, however, other presidents did not refrain from using military force and violence in Africa to defend their interests, on the pretext of protecting human rights and democracy. The French often achieved the opposite, because they made the same mistakes in their military actions as Americans made elsewhere in the world: they supported people who later became their enemies or violated human rights. Continue reading →

The EU needs an administrator for Italy who will not destroy the euro. The deal is pretty obvious; the devil you know is better than the devil you do not.

On November 22, the judges of the European Court of Human Rights meet to evaluate the appeal against the ban imposed on Berlusconi to hold a public office, resulting from the application of a 2012 law (legge Severino) and a subsequent conviction for tax fraud in the 90s based on it. The sentence might come after months, but the consequences of the decision will determine Italian politics for the next few years and EU ones as well.

The last 5 years of Italian politics. Let us consider one question after another:

In the second half of 2011, Berlusconi was driven out of office as the spread between German and Italian bonds was rising to dangerous levels. He was replaced by a strongly pro-EU technocratic government, headed by Monti, (a university professor and former EU commissioner), that implemented harsh austerity measures, making Italy plunge into recession.

The Monti government was initially supported by Berlusconi’s center right and the center-left, a government of “national unity” out of necessity. Berlusconi, however, soon became increasingly critical of the technocrat.

Before the February 2013 election, a first sign of treason emerged. Berlusconi’s party belongs to the “European People’s Party” the center-right of EU politics. But the EPP declared that for the 2013 election, their candidate would be Monti himself, running with a centrist civic list, refusing to endorse Berlusconi. Continue reading →