Soros was speaking in an interview entitled The Crisis of a Lifetime with the journalist and author Gregor Peter Schmidtz, published by Project Syndicate. He argues that “Donald Trump would like to be a dictator” but cannot because there is a constitution in the United states that people still respect though “that doesn’t mean he will not try”. “I put my faith in Trump to destroy himself, and he has exceeded my wildest expectations”.
Peter Isackson | Until January 31 of this year, there was both a tunnel linking Britain to the continent and a powerful (metaphorical) bridge called the European Union. Now the tunnel is all that connects England and Europe. Johnson’s engineers are hard at work dismantling that symbolic bridge, which may explain why Boris feels the still-united kingdom needs a new physical bridge — a symbol to replace a symbol.
Timothy Joseph via The Conversation | The U.S. Senate has made its judgment in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, acquitting the president. This process recalls the ancient Roman senate’s compliance with the autocratic rule of the emperors and its transformation into a body largely reliant on the emperors’ whims.
This article focuses on the 2020 US Election, which formally kicks off next week with the February 3 Iowa Caucuses. In this piece, experts at BNY Mellon Daniel Tenengauzer and John Velis explore how markets may react as political events unfold in the run-up to November 3.
José Ramón Díez Guijarro (Bankia Estudios) | The end of the year has served to dismiss some of the doubts that have distorted the decisions of the economic agents during the last months, ballasting the growth rates of the activity. Visibility has improved in the short term, yet uncertainty is here to stay
|Profiting from his return to Europe to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO, Donald Trump used the platform to launch the opening salvos in a new skirmish in his endlessly improvised “America First” trade wars. This time, Trump claims to be retaliating against France’s effort to resist the unfettered domination of the giant American tech monopolies that have spread across global markets, leaving little margin of maneuver to potential competitors who can’t match their size and reach.
Shaun Riordan | Is there a Manchurian candidate in the White House? While the US people decide who Trump is, Europe must decide whether it wants to be a player in the geopolitical chess game, or the chessboard on which others play.
Charles Hankla (The Conversation) | Just as America’s trade war with China may be winding down, its troubles with Europe seem to be growing.
Clinton Fernandes (The Conversation) | Silicon Valley may now be more popularly associated with software companies such as Google and Facebook but it takes its name from the material most used to make semiconductors. Semiconductors – or computer chips – power everything from mobile phones to military systems. The semiconductor industry sits at the centre of the modern world. This point is key to appreciating what’s going on in the US government’s battle with Chinese technology giant Huawei.
Shaun Riordan | We do not usually think of France´s dapper, sophisticated young president, the last hope of European liberal elites, pursuing the same objectives as America´s ageing and overweight bully, the sworn enemy of liberal internationalism. But both Macron and Trump agree on the need to end the conflict in Ukraine and re-integrate Russia into the international community.