China and Russia both pursue mysterious policies and pose challenges to Western diplomats. Their relations are one of the most important topics in modern international politics.

The Sino-Russian relations did not develop smoothly. In 19th century, the Russian Empire used China’s weakness and seized a great amount of its territory, which caused indelible resentment among the Chinese. Although the Soviet Union helped Mao’s regime to come to power and both countries were communist, it did not averted conflicts in the mutual relations. Following the ideological tensions after Stalin’s death due to more liberal new Soviet policy and border wars in 1960s, China perceived Russia as a bigger enemy than the USA; the latter, by the way, also decided to ally itself with China against the strong USSR. A normalization in the Sino-Russian relations came in 1980s. In 1996 a “strategic partnership” was established and in 2001 a Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation was signed.In September 2016, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi proclaimed that “the depth and scope of coordination between both countries are unprecedented.” One of the reasons, China sees Russia as a partner is that the latter does not criticize the Chinese political system.

Geopolitically, both countries want to deprive the US of its globalleadership and bring about a multi-polar world with corresponding spheres of influence. China would concentrate on Asia and Russia on Eastern Europe.The two countries have already made steps against the present world order. Russia annexed Crimea and started supporting pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine; China resurrected maritime territorial disputes in the Chinese Sea and makes its military exercises, annoying the USA.An attempt to create a global governance without Western powers was the BRICS group, where Russia and China are the most influential actors. Continue reading →

The European Commission has resorted to STS’s with which it intends to effectively cope with the financial crisis. Yet, on closer analysis STS’s are likely to spark off another crisis.

What’s the mechanism? Banks grant credits and then they sell them on the general market as securities. In this way they avoid having bad credits on their hands while these are foisted on other entities. What do the banks do with the financial means they earn in this way? Well, they turn them into more credits and so the bubble becomes larger and larger. The securities created from the sale of credits are referred to as securitization; their American counterparts were the root cause of the 2008 financial crisis. Still, the European Commission wishes to make use of securitization, only this time is is supposed to be safe, simple, transparent, standardized; hence the abbreviation STS. The Commission says they will make it easier for small and medium businesses to gain financial resources and simultaneously will reduce the systemic risk (like bad credit). The risk, however, is only transferred from banks to other financial institutions. This will make it more difficult the supervisory institutions to fulfil their duties, since such securities are not open to the public nor is it easy to gather information which of the financial entities is running up excessive debt. It may turn out that the said transparency will only remain in words.

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Consider how Hollande’s victory was hailed in 2012 by the media: a man of change,destiny, a new start,for Europe and the return of growth.
The reality turned out not to be even remotely close to the promises: stagnating economy, no wages growth, rising unemployment and debt, both public and private.

Emmanuel Macron was the co-protagonist of the economic decline of France as Minister of the Economy under Hollande, yet 65% of the French voters opted to give the former a second run, endowing him as President with more powers, blaming entirely the latter, who ended the presidency with an abysmal approval rate of 4%,

Just like Hollande’s promise to reform the European Union was the “eurobond”,Macron’s goal is the “fiscal union”.Since Hollande was met with a deadly “nein” from Merkel and the Bundesbank, we see no reason why Macron could be more successful: while France is the second biggest economy of the Eurozone and thus its size and importance could provide sufficient leverage in negotiations, Hollande’s unwillingness to threaten to leave the negotiation table proved to be his downfall. Similarly, Macron can only be successful in his reform bid when he is ready to announce to dump the failing EU project if he can’t have it his way. As it is, his “Europe first” approach leaves no room for that, ensuring a failure equal to that of his predecessor.
The “fiscal union’’ is Macron’s only major noteworthy item on an otherwise incredibly vague political and
economic program. Hollande’s presidency was plagued with regular attacks by Islamist terrorists, yet Macron did not touch the topic during his political campaign, with the exception of the brush-off “there’s no such thing as French culture’’.

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Recently the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has seen itself called out to address some of the burning issues rankling the Swedish society.It is made in the form of questions or claims that arise on the part of the Swedes on the other hand and the government’s responses on the other. Reading through it, someone who spent half his life under a similar, socialist/Marxist system like the writer of this text, cannot fight off the impression of experiencing a déjà vu, since a few decades ago in central Europe in Comecon countries, you would watch TV informing you about nice weather, then look out of the window and see rain coming down in sheets. We were used to it. We even developed a strategy of interpreting the official communiques in a specific way, which basically meant reading the messages backwards, and construing good as bad and the other way round. So when I saw the document issued by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, my socialist past came back to me like it was yesterday. Let us delve into the text.

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Guest Author: Daniel Moscardi

Michele Valentini was the perfect nobody from nowhere. Even in his sleepy little town of Tarcento, tucked away in the north-eastern corner of Italy not far from the Slovenian border, anyone hardly remembers him. Quiet and mild-mannered, thirty-years-old Michele was the kind of person you would not expect to do anything that would bring the spotlight on him.

But he did, last February. He took his own life, leaving behind a long letter to his parents in which he explains the reasons for his choice of saying farewell to a society which he could no longer bear to live in.

Michele Valentini’s malaise was the infectious disease common to millions of other young – and not so young – Italians: the inability – better, the impossibility – of landing a decent, steady job. It can be officially defined as quiet desperation.

The letter was a final, desperate j’accuse towards society in general and the current Italian government in particular, since Michele chose to end his letter with a sardonic remark specifically directed at the current Italian Minister of Labour and Social Policies Giuliano Poletti. Continue reading →