This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Satellite pictures detail massive Buddhist on Muslim violence in Burma
- U.S. Navy moves destroyer off coast of Korean Peninsula
- Influence of extremist groups in the Balkans grows
- David A Stockman says our economy is in ‘End-stage metastasis’
Satellite pictures detail massive Buddhist on Muslim violence in Burma
We’ve reported on the massive violent attacks against Muslims byrampaging mobs of Buddhists around Meiktila, Burma (Myanmar), between March 20-22, killing dozens, displacing thousands, and destroying hundredsof residences and mosques. The extent of the devastation is showndramatically by the following before and after pictures:
Before and after satellite pictures, Meiktila, Burma (Human Rights Watch)
U.S. Navy moves destroyer off coast of Korean Peninsula
North Korea has made increasingly belligerent statements, goingfar beyond the tenor of similar statements, even declaring that Northand South Korea are already in a state of war. North Korea’s childdictator, Kim Jong-un, has gone so far that it may be impossible toback down without losing substantial credibility domestically.
As such, he may decide that it’s necessary to prove himself by making someattack, like the two attacks on South Korea in 2010. As things standnow, tensions are very high in both North and South Korea, and bothsides have made it clear that they will strike militarily at the slightestprovocation.
U.S. defense officials are confirming that the Navy has moved thedestroyer USS McCain to a location off the coast of the KoreanPeninsula. The destroyer is equipped with the Aegis defense systemthat’s capable of shooting down missiles.
From the point of view of generational theory, this ping-pong back andforth of threats and counter-threats is exactly the pattern that leadsto generational crisis wars. Fox News and VOA
Influence of extremist groups in the Balkans grows
Two kinds of extremist groups — Islamist extremists and far-rightneo-Nazis — are growing in strength and influence in theBalkans, albeit slowly. (The phrase “far-right” has differentmeanings in Europe and America.)
The Arab Spring has inspired therise of several Islamic extremist organizations in Kosovo, Albania, andSerbia. However, the huge international presence in the Balkans hasdenied them the basis for widespread violence, nor have they been ableto convince citizens that they are focused on solving problems, notjust selling nationalist rhetoric.
Far-right extremists in theBalkans region have been similarly unsuccessful, with the notableexception of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn in Greece, which holds 18 seatsin parliament and whose popularity is rising. Southeast Europe Times
David A Stockman says our economy is in ‘End-stage metastasis’
President Ronald Reagan took his budget director, David A. Stockman,that would simply benefit the rich. Stockman has been critical ofeconomic policies in all administrations since then, and now he’ssaying that economic policy failures — a bloated government economymired deeply in debt — have compounded themselves to the point whereAmerica is in “End-stage metastasis,” headed for a new GreatDepression.
According to Stockman:
The future is bleak. The greatest construction boomin recorded history — China’s money dump on infrastructure overthe last 15 years — is slowing. Brazil, India, Russia, Turkey,South Africa and all the other growing middle-income nationscannot make up for the shortfall in demand. The American machineryof monetary and fiscal stimulus has reached its limits. Japan issinking into old-age bankruptcy and Europe into welfare-statesenescence. The new rulers enthroned in Beijing last year knowthat after two decades of wild lending, speculation and building,even they will face a day of reckoning, too…
These policies have brought America to an end-stagemetastasis. The way out would be so radical it can’t happen. Itwould necessitate a sweeping divorce of the state and the marketeconomy. It would require a renunciation of crony capitalism andits first cousin: Keynesian economics in all its forms. The statewould need to get out of the business of imperial hubris, economicuplift and social insurance and shift its focus to managing andfinancing an effective, affordable, means-tested safetynet…
The United States is broke — fiscally, morally, intellectually –and the Fed has incited a global currency war (Japan just signedup, the Brazilians and Chinese are angry, and the German-dominatedeuro zone is crumbling) that will soon overwhelm it. When thelatest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse. Ifthis sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out incash, it is.
A different view of the situation, reaching the same conclusion,is provided by analyst Mark D. Cook:
I believe when the 1st quarter of 2013 is looked uponin a rear view mirror, it will go down as one of the mostoverextended, overbought markets of all time. Keep in mind thatthe complacency factors that I view have the bulls not seeing thesemi bearing down on them to flatten. A pullback of 200 to 300S&P points from this point to sometime in 2013 appears likelygiven the overextension. I feel like the person that knows theearthquake is going to consume all the terrain, but nobody islistening as they sip marguerites and purchase extravagancesbeyond normal common sense. Human nature will neverchange.
I guess he feels like me.
Generational Dynamics approaches the issues in a different way, butreaches the same conclusions. Both Europe and America are in adeflationary spiral, and a major financial panic and crisis, worsethan 1929, is coming with mathematical certainty. (NY Times) and UPI (April 13, 1986) and Mark D Cook
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Burma, Myanmar, Meiktila,Buddhists, Muslims, North Korea, Kim Jong-un,South Korea, USS McCain, Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Greece,Golden Dawn, David A Stockman, Ronald Reagan,Mark D Cook
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