GEAB N°68: Global Systemic Crisis – Autumn 2012 – Welcome to the Weeks of the Big Swing / Geopolitics, Trigger of a Big New Global Shock!
- GEAB N°68 is available! Global systemic crisis – Autumn 2012: Welcome to the weeks of the big swing / Geopolitics, trigger of a big new global shock!
by http://www.leap2020.eu/
For several months we have anticipated a major shock for the economy and global political stability for Autumn 2012. We are maintaining this “Red Alert” and will take stock mid-November 2012, at the same time as our annual analysis of the 2013 “risk-countries”, and on the state of the world at this time.
–
These last few weeks, as predicted by our team, the world geopolitical situation has rapidly deteriorated: the Syrian conflict has become a regional conflict in which the major powers are now trying not to be drawn in beyond the limits that they have set (1); to the North of the Sahel (Mali, Niger, …) a new military confrontation between Islamists and the West is in the offing (2); the China Sea has been turned into zone of “tepid” conflicts across the board with Japan and China in the middle of brewing chaos (3); the major world economies are all entering recession (4); social unrest is growing just like tax pressure,… and there is no more liquidity available (even QE has an effectiveness in freefall (5)) as was still the case in 2009.
–
In this issue, our team thus takes stock of Western real estate prospects out to 2013 and adds a special anticipation “Netherlands Real Estate” due to the real estate crash in progress in this country. At the same time we continue to explore the socio-political consequences for 2013 of the increasing unrest in public opinion, concentrating here on the United States (6). Finally, after a review and a schedule of the main trends for the next few months, we expand on our recommendations concerning real estate, gold and the stock exchanges.
–
At the same time, against a backcloth of these Asian or Arab-Muslim conflicts, we are witnessing the widespread use of tests, by their allies and adversaries, of the extent of the weakening of US power (7). And each new week illustrates the increasing impotence of the “master of the end of the 20th century”: “the maker of Middle Eastern kings” of the 1990/2000 period must henceforth limit itself to contain the rejection of its presence and be on its guard against any obvious military action (8); and the “Pacific superpower” is from now on reduced to “counting the punches” between Japan, its historical strategic ally in the area (9), and China its principal geopolitical competitor but especially its principal economic, monetary and financial partner (10). And, for that matter, it really is here that the US “Achilles’ Heel” has increasingly serious consequences each day (11).
–
In addition to the extract of part of our analyses on the American real estate, which really confirms the entry of the Western property market into a long-term depression, we have chosen, in this GEAB N°68 press release, to present a number of graphs illustrating the smokescreen and manipulatory character of US economic statistics.
–
Our team has appreciated the fact that the electoral argument over the “official” US unemployment figures for September 2012 (a 0.4% fall) has allowed a far-reaching debate in the principal media on the “strange methods of calculation” of the US Ministry of Employment. It’s not the only one to massage the numbers but given the international media importance granted to these results, it appears useful that a greater number of players should be aware of it; and not only the enlightened readers of the GEAB and other teaching sites.
–
As regards China, the political transition in progress is proceeding with difficulty due to the global economic crisis which has finally caught up with the country (12) (and all the BRICS (13)) and of the need to invent a new course for the country’s strategy in order to face the double internal pressure of the risk of social explosion (we will return to this in detail in the November issue of the GEAB) and of regional and global geopolitical positioning. It’s not only the United States which has radically changed since 1990/2000!
–
The world order’s third major pillar (and in fact perhaps the most constructive for the future) is the European Union or, more exactly, Euroland. As anticipated by LEAP/E2020, the Eurozone is the only bearer of good news this Autumn. Of course, it’s very strongly overshadowed in the short run by the economic and budgetary consequences of the global systemic crisis (unemployment, recession, austerity,…), but for the medium to long term Euroland has finally committed itself to a “road which leads somewhere” after months of political impotence: powerful instruments are now available, the common political will to exit together (14) has finally gained a foothold (15) (as each Member State feels the impact of the crisis henceforth).
–
In terms of a schedule, LEAP/E2020 estimates that from now the timing is very clear:
. by the end of November 2012, the United States and China are each entering a double phase of historical domestic socio-political tensions before having to come to terms with the end of the period of “peaceful economic and commercial coexistence” of these last decades
. by December 2012, Euroland exits, jogging along, as it usually does, from the “Euro crisis” and finds itself facing the triple challenge of its economic revival against the background of a global crisis, its institutional structuring against a background of imperative democratization (16) and, coupled with that, the long term settlement of the British problem (in fact 26 versus 1) (17).
–
read more!
end