Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

June 3, 2023 · 00:58

It’s a BRICS house

That was the setting and it is not a new setting. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65784030) ‘Brics ministers call for rebalancing of global order away from West’. This is not new to me. I made mentions even before I wrote ‘Brain drain, by design’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/17/brain-drain-by-design/) which was November 2022. So this is not new. I am not happy that Russia is in the mix and I did not consider Brazil in that mix. But India and China were. And even more, which we also see here with “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “more than a dozen” countries including Saudi Arabia had expressed interest in joining the group”, which I saw coming a mile away. And I reckon that Saudi Arabia and China will then offer an inclusion to the UAE. It is now becoming a simple play that puts the US and the EU out of business. The UK still has its ties to India, as such it needs to play a very careful game to not be set aside, and it is possible that the UK will have some form of shelter, but the US is pretty much done for. It’s news cycle is all about avoiding defaulting from one point to another, and when that goes wrong it goes really wrong with the US and the EU, both Canada and the UK will feel that sting massively. Then as Japan goes Australia will be in similar dire conditions. A stage that was never speculative, anyone with a decent grasp of the abacus could work that out and the  biggest trap they went for was to shut Saudi Arabia out, to let (according to their ego’s) it become a pariah. All for a journalist no one gave a fig about. More importantly there was never any evidence, that much was clear in that United Nations essay and they tried it again with that cyber report that involved Jeff Bezos. Now that new house, that domicile made from BRICS and its members will become the new world powers. As I said, the fact that it includes Russia is not my choice and I am not happy about it. And now that we see more and more business outsourcing to India, that stage will change even more. Those in doubt better get a clue, because if I see my tactics correctly, the BRICS union will set stations so that there is no more debt raising for the US. I am not sure how they will pull it off, but if any of the BRICS members now or new will sell their US bonds it will all stop right quick. We were that close to the edge and now that edge is crumbling. I might not be in time to sell my IP, but I do have an alternative and that setting is close. I will not get much, if anything, but I will get out with my skin decently intact, which is likely more than most others can say at that point. 

So when we consider the BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) a new setting comes and with that the largest ass kissing contest in the EU will start with vonder Leyen on her knees. After that whatever allies the US had will be running for the hills, any hill for that matter. The rich people will already have plans in place, they will have locations ready and they will watch from a massive distance with family and friends how the US implodes upon itself. I reckon that 2024 will be the least comfortable place on the planet to be at that point. Yes, people will call me crazy, people will say that I am causing a panic. Yet these facts were out there for anyone to see, you merely thought that the western media would give you the goods, something they haven’t done in close to a decade. I gave several clues out on several matters on how the media was giving you the runaround going all the way back to September 2012. But you all thought I was crazy. Well, when this situation becomes a reality, you get to see how crazy I was. Did you actually think that someone can have a $32,000,000,000,000 debt and no one comes to collect? I have seen people hide under beds because someone was ringing the doorbell for an outstanding $750. And the final parts was seen a few months ago when Saudi Arabia closed the door on ‘saving’ with a simple “The head of Credit Suisse Group’s largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank (SNB), said on Wednesday it would not buy more shares in the Swiss bank on regulatory grounds” Did you think it was going to be that simple? They lost lost more than $26,000,000,000 in market value. That was the setting I did not initially see, but when we see the larger stage we see that it was more then a loss. I reckon that whatever BRICS has in place, or is about to have in place. The US is now in deep water, they are up to their neck and someone is adding water to the equation. For China it will work out rather well. You see after the US falls, Japan is pretty much next in line with a debt of $9,300,000,000,000, or 1,343.4 % of their GDP. A debt that is 13 times their GDP, without the US that will pretty much strangle them over night and whomever had those bonds can end that economy right there, right quick.

Did you think they were all too big too fail? 

A writer named Jenny Holzer wrote Truisms (1978-1983) gave us “Change is valuable because it lets the oppressed be tyrants.” I think we are about to see the impact of just how nasty that could end up being. 

Could I be wrong?
Of course I can be wrong, yet consider what is shown, and what was implicitly not shown. When you put those two together you get an image. Yes we can speculate that some are presenting a wannabe scenario. Yet two of these players (China and India) have the drive, the people and the will to push forward. Now add the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the mix and you get a massive unsettling concoction that no one in the west wants to try and that is what we see now. The next debt ceiling is January 2025, which might sound nice, but if some of these bonds are set to market in 2024 the US will be in much deeper waters and this is not a secret either. I wrote about this (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/12/i-honestly-dont-get-it/) on March 12th with ‘I honestly don’t get it’ and even before that. Who will push? I have no idea, because I do not know where all the US bonds are and the media wasn’t too sharing, were they? 

So you can look int this or consider moving to anywhere where this cesspool does not hit, which is another reason why I was eager to sell my IP to Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom Holding Co. I reckoned that a (starting) 5 billion annual revenue stream would appeal to them, apparently I was wrong there too. Will I be wrong again? Perhaps, but I have been correct a lot more times than I was wrong. As such I have a decent confidence in me being right.

Enjoy the weekend (or at least try to).

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June 2, 2023 · 01:36

Is it too little, too late?

That is at times the question. What I think does not matter, I can be opinionated. Yet that part is still part of the speculative side that I walk. Only those who are in power in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can actually state what is real. The rest including those think tanks are clueless. Well, think tanks have a deeper generic knowledge, as such it is no longer speculation, it is presumption. It is knowledge based on data and knowledge they have, it is more accurate than speculation, but how much more is depending on the political hands that they also feed. 

As such Reuters gave us (at https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/italy-ends-yemen-linked-embargo-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-2023-05-31/) ‘Italy ends Yemen-linked embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia’ this is good for Italy and it will help the EU, but how much? That remains to be seen. This 11th hour turnaround might have som impact, but will it be enough. For it to matter the UK needed to come across months ago and they didn’t and now China has the bulk of the orders ready for consideration. Italy as such might get some, but will it be enough and there the setting of ‘too little too late’ comes into play. Even as they include the UAE, the setting was always going to be the massive billions that the KSA had to spend and even as we consider that the KSA expenditure reached $75 billion last year, most of it is now going towards China. A safe bet is 40%-50%, but I reckon that China stands to gain up to 70%, all that revenue lost to the US, UK and the EU. The losses for these three are likely THAT big. Mine is not presumption, I do not have certain access. It is speculation at best, but how wrong do you think I am? We saw the courting by Chinese officials in 2021 and 2022 and now that they have made their impact Italy is now ending its embargo with a nice “praising Saudi Arabia’s recent peace mediation efforts”? Who are they kidding? The UK handed their revenue to the tea grannies of the CAAT, well a lot of good that did, China just took over and now none of them have anything to tell anyone. Well CAAT can state that they kept their heads high, so when OPEC adheres to the need of Just stop oil and 250K barrels a day go to China instead of the UK, what will have been achieved? I can tell you, nothing. Nothing will have been achieved, but the quality of life in the UK will go down further. 

We see now all kinds of changes and whilst the political arms give lame excuses all around us, the reality is that we opened our big mouths and there is a cost to that, but when the coffers are empty like most coffers in the US, the UK and most EU countries the cost of living will bite more and more. I tried to warn you all for at least three years and these options are all scuttled and they will not mature. So as Italy is making its step hoping there is some time left, I wonder if there was any time left. It is my speculative view that this is too little and it is way too late, but then my speculation could be wrong. You tell me, I honestly am not certain at present. 

Enjoy the day, the day before the weekend is merely one day away.

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May 27, 2023 · 12:47

Ding Ding, the premise is set

Yes, this is not new, I made mention of this danger several times over the last two years. And now the media is tarting to catch on. The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/26/russian-weapons-manufacturers-hosted-at-saudi-trade-event) gives us ‘Russian weapons manufacturers hosted at Saudi trade event’, you see, some might think one part, or the other part, but personally I believe that they were invited as a courtesy. There is the option that they were invited to make sure that the China offers are financially sharp, but that is the sales world for you. You see, they might offer Russian Helicopters, like the Ka-52 Alligator helicopter. Yet the Ukrainians have ben shooting them out of the sky by the dozens, so the options are speculatively not there I reckon and the way Russia is losing hardware, every machined piece of cavalry and artillery better come with a ballpoint (for write off purposes). This was the stage that was going to happen no matter how you slice it. The US thought it was clever and it is now (not so) cleverly losing billions in defence spending by Saudi Arabia and its allies. So when we see “Perhaps the most significant participant in the meetings with the Saudis is Rostec, a Russian state-owned defence systems” and we consider the byline “Companies with direct links to Russian military set to attend, which is likely to heighten tensions with US” no one seems to be noticing that Stephanie Kirchgaessner with her anti-Saudi writing is involved and the larger question is missing is “a similar trade forum with Chinese businesses had also been held recently, although those businesses did not involve firms with connections to the Chinese military.” Really? 

The Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has no links to the Chinese Military? Tell me another one. Then there is “What is different here, and these recent business events are just one sign of it, is a major reorientation of Saudi policy towards Russia and China, and away from the USA and west Europe”, which comes from some unnamed source. The fun part is that I have ben saying this for close to two years and the first year there was an option to turn this around, yet the US and UK were sitting on their hands and now it is seemingly too late. This is the consequence of a stupid game played by the Pentagon, US Congress, the White House (in and out of office) and the House of Commons. This is the result of stupidity and there is no “heighten tensions with US”, the US is about to lose so much revenue that certain banking moguls will cut up the US credit card (and lower credit ratings in the process). 

Another step achieved by ego grandstanding and inactions. So where will Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a few other players go to? My money is currently on the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, but it is a speculative view and I lack certain levels of industry knowledge in that direction. As such I could be wrong, but I do feel that the failures in the Ukraine makes Russia a non-player in this game. Merely a column C option and it is there to make sure that those in Column A and B keep their prices down. This make makes it (for me) about half a dozen predictions right on the nose. Not bad in this day and age I reckon.

Enjoy the Weekend

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May 26, 2023 · 15:04

Human rights versus?

That is at times the question. Don’t get me wrong, human rights is a good thing and we need to take heed, but hat happens when it stops life in other ways? In this case the setting is against Microsoft and here I do not oppose Microsoft, that is folly in some cases and this is one. It all started when early this morning I got ‘Saudi Arabia: Microsoft Should Suspend Data Center Plans’ via some newspaper (at https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/23/saudi-arabia-microsoft-should-suspend-data-center-plans). Why? Saudi Arabia is a nation and it is entitled to have its data centres. The text that is part is “Microsoft should suspend its plans to invest in a new cloud data center in Saudi Arabia until it can demonstrate how it will mitigate potential rights abuses, 18 human right groups said today. There is an enormous risk that Saudi authorities may obtain access to data stored in Microsoft’s cloud data center, thus posing unique and direct threats to human rights and privacy, the human rights groups said.” Really? Corporate America and governmental America have been treading all over EVERYONES privacy and rights for years, so where are those warnings? In other news. I personally do not care, you see Tencent with news (at https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/20230510-05-tencent-takes-steps-toward-chinas-biggest-data-center) gives us ‘Tencent Takes Steps Toward China’s Biggest Data Center’ and I feel certain that they are ready to step in and setup a Data Center for the Saudi government in Saudi Arabia as well, just a few more billion in revenue for China. This is simple, plain and out in the open. Tencent is hoping for more options in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the Human Rights groups are handing this to them. A nation that is now almost a week from financial collapse needs whatever it can get and losing jobs and revenue to China is not helping, especially after the clambake that Governor Ron DeSantis arranged and that is costing Florida thousands of jobs and a million in revenue, so making Microsoft lose billions as well does not help (but it does aid my prediction that Microsoft will collapse, or implode in 2026). As such, when we see “Microsoft needs to conduct a thorough human rights due diligence process and publicly detail how it will mitigate the potential adverse human rights impacts associated with Saudi Arabia hosting the data center”, we need to realise that Microsoft needs to keep its head above water, it needs to deal with governments and it needs to deal with them and sell stuff. For those Humane jokes, how many from Cambridge Analytics are in prison? How many people from the ECHELON system have been prosecuted? How many privacy laws did they break? The list of questions go on and this anti-Saudi rhetoric is quite simply a joke. Is Saudi Arabia perfect? No, it is not, no nation is, but there are bigger fish to fry. Iran and Pakistan are merely two on that list and then there are the Russian transgressions. How much visibility did they push on that front? The larger folly is not what they do now, but what options would open with Microsoft for a dialogue for diplomatic conversations is one (not all but at least one) and that too will aid to what they refer to as human rights. But that part is not nice enough, too long a track, but now, if this falls through Tencent technologies will step in and take that revenue too. This is seen with “At least 10,000 servers are functioning smoothly and all the cooling equipment is installed, Wang added. Upon completion, the number of servers should reach 800,000, and the computing power should be 10 times that of the world’s most powerful supercomputing center. The Yangtze River Delta hub will provide cloud computing services to the public, including instant messaging, image processing, and medical insurance payments. Moreover, the center supports Tencent’s ChatGPT-like HunyanAide project, per Wang.” Do you think Saudi Arabia (UAE too) is ready for that kind of data center power? How many jobs will the US and US consultants lose and how many will China gain? Did you think of that and that is when you realise how the HR groups are in China, how massively did these HR groups shoot themselves in the foot? 

It might seem like a cheap joke, yet at present these human rights groups are a much bigger danger than Russia has been in the last three decades, that is something to mull over I reckon.

Have a nice day and it is now less than 60 hours until the end of the weekend. 

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May 23, 2023 · 21:45

The two coloured fence

It is always nice to see fences in books, images and within the mind. They usually have one colour and more often then not it is a white fence. This is what our mind perceives, yet what happens when the fence has two colours, each side it’s own colour and the neighbour has the other colour. Both unaware as they both see one colour. This was my mindset when I saw ‘Assad in Saudi Arabia reflects the Middle East’s new normal’ (at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/22/assad-saudi-arabia-reflects-middle-easts-new-normal/) the issue here is that it is a decent version to hold, and it isn’t set to both neighbours, it is optionally seeing one side, not wrong, not at fault, it merely is. The thought sparked through when I saw “Assad, who experienced a rehabilitation arguably years in the making, but which was no less jarring for his critics and opponents. A decade ago, officials in the Gulf monarchies were conspiring on ways to oust Assad. They poured resources and arms into the civil war raging in Syria, backing a motley grouping of anti-Assad rebels. As Assad turned his guns on his own people, bombing Syrian cities and unleashing chemical weapons on civilians, they placed the regime in a deep freeze, casting it out of the Arab League” this happened, there is no denying it, so when we are given “British Syrian activist Razan Saffour told my colleagues, reflecting on the Syrian regime’s return to the Arab League. “Instead of holding Assad accountable for his heinous crimes … he is welcomed and even rewarded, as if the past 12 years of suffering and bloodshed never occurred,”” There is no denying this, but we all changed the circus of events. For the largest extent the west scuffled its feet, it jigged in place to avoid any actions in Yemen and Syria, even the chemical attack in Ghouta had no activity from anyone in the west. The Middle East is still reeling all over the place and Saudi Arabia with its own Ally USA who deserted them when they needed them the most had to change tactics. It cannot have a war on both fronts and the war in Ukraine opened up a new dialogue, uniting the Arab League nations, with Saudi Arabia strongly at the helm. With Syria it stands to get the side of Oman, Jordan and I believe Palestine, Egypt is already on the Saudi side and they pretty much deliver the dialogues with Algeria and Libya, Yemen is an unknown at present and the UAE should be a strong ally if Saudi Arabia brings a strong united front, but that is how I optionally (wrongly) see it. The more nations Saudi Arabia unites, the easier the other come along to the Saudi side. This now gives the west a much larger problem, because the trump cards Saudi Arabia holds is China and that is a massive part of the Middle East where China now gets a larger influence. There is then the larger benefit, it takes Russia out of the equation for all of them and that is what the league requires. Russia meddling is for them a problem and the Sudan has enough problems. The Middle East doesn’t need to be the clambake buffet that Russia serves. Saudi Arabia has larger plans and 2030 is merely kicking it off, it is not the destination for Saudi Arabia, it is only 6 years away and all this is coming to some kind of pinnacle (not sure what shape it ill take) but whenever it kicks off, the puzzle pieces will start to shape the image we will get. Egypt and it 5G alliance, the economic beachheads in Palestine and Syria pushing towards Jordan with the water investments, Saudi Arabia is shoring up all the borders of the Arab Leagues. You will see them as separate issues, but I am not certain. It is like watching a symphony unfold whilst the west watches the string section listening to its music, yet when you try to align the brass, woodwork and percussion, it doesn’t work yet. Why? I believe that they aren’t called to attention yet, when they do the entirety of the music will alter and to a decent degree, at that point the sections are all aligning to something more, something we haven’t heard anywhere before. The west was always about the diva’s, and they called their own form of attention drowning out the music. Here we see a different score, all about a symphony we weren’t ready for and that will alter the sound, because the stage is not merely assisted, it is a much larger front and the US blew its options. I reckon that Saudi Arabia is testing whether China could hold that place and that is the sum of the symphony we will get to see and I reckon that this starts in 2029 with the opening acts in 2030. 

Consider that I could be completely wrong, and my paraphrasing sounds nice, but it holds no water. Yet consider that Saudi Arabia has several trillions all over the league invested, we merely thought they had no connections, but I am not certain of that. You see, I always believed that Saudi Arabia will do what is best for ITS own nation and ITS own citizens, when that is accepted as true, then the investments change shape and we see that Iran and Yemen are merely disruptive sides, sides it cannot use and there Syria plays a second role. If Yemen and Iran are cast out when Russia does become desperate (it close to being that now) those nations feel the dangers of total chaos, Wagner made sure of that part of the brief. In this the war in the Ukraine opened doors for Saudi Arabia, it didn’t close them. This is how I see it, this is how I interpret the data, but then again I could be wrong, at present with all the IP and other settings I might say ‘There is a first time for anything’ I have ben right so far, even with my IP sides made public, in at least two cases the world is moving there and I can now sit and watch the unfolding of a few items. We all have to sit, watch and adjust our course. Every business does that, even when they leave billions on the floor. It is common sense to make sure that the mission and course are on track. A lesson I learned in the 90’s. I considered what was and I saw that it was short sighted, but I did not take into consideration the personal course of some, were merely on self focus, not on the company. As such I need to consider that as part of the course, not what is best for the company but what is best for the shareholders and the executives. I reckon the course of Governor Ron DeSantis is a perfect example. Whatever HE needs at the expense of nearly everyone in Florida. So whatever colour the fence has is whatever they think it needs to be, but there is the other side of the fence and when you see both colours you have a much better chance of seeing the whole playing field. It was never on the Washington Post, I merely noticed other elements and I personally believe that they were part of a bigger picture and it fits the timeline of 2030, but again, I could be wrong. 

Enjoy the day.

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May 21, 2023 · 23:53

The perception of others

This is a case, this is often a case and in this case. I am one of the others. You see the ‘news’ is no longer that, it is often filtered information. Information that is accepted by shareholders, stake holders and advertisers, as such the people are seen and treated more often than not as a distant fourth. This setting came to the forefront when I saw ‘G7 takes stand against China’s “economic coercion”’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65662720) where we are given “And in not one but two statements, the leaders of the world’s richest democracies made clear to Beijing their stance on divisive issues such as the Indo-Pacific and Taiwan. But the most important part of their message centred on what they called “economic coercion””  Now here we need to pause. These people do not lie (at least I hope they do not), but lets take a look at the evidence. The first is the ‘world’s richest democracies’, these nations are

1. Canada, debt around $ 2,100,000,000,000
2. France, debt around € 3,000,000,000,000
3. Germany, debt around € 2,600,000,000,000
4. Italy, debt around $ 3,000,000,000,000
5. Japan, debt around $ 9,300,000,000,000
6. UK, debt around £ 2,500,000,000,000
7. USA, debt around $ 32,500,000,000,000

Yes, they are really rich (in debt). To give a little consideration “As of April 2023 it costs $460 billion to maintain the debt, which is 13% of the total federal spending” for the US, their interest is $460,000,000,000 to pay for the interest and 13% of the entire budget is to pay for the interest. So all this talk about debt ceilings is close to null and void. Not unlike a Ponzi scheme the US government is taking out new loans to pay for the INTEREST of old loans. When did that ever go good? But that is not what this is about. The next stage is about ‘economic coercion’ something America and others have done for decades. Economic coercion is a political tool that the US pushed all over the middle east, and now that Saudi Arabia and other are pulling their contract with the US and giving options to China it is coercion? I mentioned it a few days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/05/19/the-stupidity-of-some/) in ‘The stupidity of some’, I made mention of some elements then and several other articles before that. One should not bite the hands that feeds you and I reckon that is why other players were invited to this party as well (no matter what they say). The US is broke and needs others to do some of the heavy lifting. This is OK, or at least that is why allies stick together, but the bulk is deeply in debt with Canada and Australia in a much better position. Germany had industrial revenues so it is not that bad off either. But this is not bout that, it becomes clear when we see “Now, they worry they are being held hostage. In recent years, Beijing has been unafraid to slap trade sanctions on countries that have displeased them. This includes South Korea, when Seoul installed a US missile defence system, and Australia during a recent period of chilly relations.” They worry? So are they being held hostage, or are they not. Lets be clear all these players have engaged with some form of economic coercion in the past, it is a valid political tool, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, the US is worried. It is losing its grip on the Middle East and as Saudi Arabia is uniting its nations and leagues with the added Syria, Egypt and now optionally Iran as well, the stage changes for the west in the Middle East. China has been invited there now and that worries all players of team G7. You see with them losing 5%-10% revenue to China due to all kinds of reasons they are now scared that someone (the big banks like the Rothschilds) will cancel THEIR credit card and that has them scared silly. I would be to, I really would. This is just a few reasons why I tried to sell my IP to Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Holdings (optionally the UAE too). Amazon and Google were asleep and not caring (perhaps they didn’t like my IP) and Microsoft is not invited to that party and optionally Tencent Technologies is.

You see, the stage, several stages are turning to China as an option. Does China have any less debt? I cannot tell, but they are drilling into new business like nothing we see and that has the G7 scared. 

So when we get to “They called for “de-risking”- a policy that Ms von der Leyen, who is attending the summit, has championed. This is a more moderate version of the US’ idea of “decoupling” from China, where they would talk tougher in diplomacy, diversify trade sources, and protect trade and technology.” We see the larger stage, the ‘west’ will diversify trade sources, so that new and emerging economies can only do business with them if they do not do business with China. Almost like Sony did with retailers in 1998/1999. Those who were showing the SEGA Dreamcast would not be getting the PS2. It scared a lot of retailers because PS2 was a winning system and it did. The same was done much earlier with VHS pushing out Betamax (which was superior). A tool used again and again. Yet the larger stage is not these emerging economies, they are a factor, it is what will Saudi Arabia and the UAE do, they are now aligning the next decade and they were the big spenders all over the place and that setting is now heading for China (not sure if it is a done deal) and in this Egypt is important. With them championing Huawei and their G5, Egypt aligns with Saudi Arabia and a lot of commerce and Egypt then becomes a 5G beachhead all over the mediterranean and Africa. This will benefit China a lot. And as we get to “The US is already doing this with its ban on exports of chips and chip technology to China, which Japan and the Netherlands have joined. The G7 is making clear such efforts would not only continue, but ramp up, despite Beijing’s protestations.” This is the stage that is evolving and it is a dangerous move to make. I get why it is done. In the first I am not stating that China is innocent, I am stating that they all used these tools and the debts are drowning their actions. The danger is that if there are any innovative people in China, they will come with an alternative. I have no idea what, but I recall a nice example. The US created a specific ballpoint pen that could be used in space, they spend millions on that solution somehow and Russia? They used a pencil. We saw the Huawei block by Google and now Huawei is rocking the Harmony OS which is available in 77 languages. It is different from both Google and Apple, so what happens when Harmony becomes the tool of choice in the Middle East? You can ban and block, but the danger is that someone finds another way just like Toshiba in Russia decades ago and there was no alternative, as such Toshiba grew and grew with an entire market where they had no competition. Will it happen again? I am certain of it, when one resource closes people look for another resource, it is a natural continuation. Only really stupid people think that no one can get around them and I wonder what will come next. As such I have issues and the BBC did nothing wrong here, they reported, they used quotes and they adhered to something (not sure what). I am showing you that what is said is not merely dangerous it is deceptive. It these are the richest democratic economies, why is there a 50 trillion dollar debt (actually it is decently higher at present). A debt of 50,000 billion and no one is asking questions. I get it (to some degree) Russia is now a problem, the Ukraine is dealing with it, but it can only do so much. It needs support and I agree they do need it and I believe they deserve all the help we can give them, yet across the waters there is no one dealing with the actual debt, they are merely prolonging a complete collapse that will have too many deep in debt for decades. Retirement plans will collapse, health care will collapse and we will all blame someone, but no one is looking at how we all let this happen and now those with the option will look towards the Middle East (including me), a lot are looking at China as an option and a global brain drain will be the consequence. All settings that the G7 will have to consider, because they all have a lot to lose.

Enjoy the start of Monday up to 12 hours (for some) from now. 

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May 19, 2023 · 10:42

The stupidity of some

Yes, we all see that and it has repercussions for these people. We might sit on the sidelines laughing, but it shows a dangerous premise, the stupidity of America, the stupidity of some Americans and how they scuttled their own ship called ‘Future of us’ and ‘us’ could also be seen as ‘US’. This is shown in two articles. The first one is from Yahoo Finance. There was a little better NY Times article, but that was behind a paywall, so you would not be able to read the whole text.

The article (at https://news.yahoo.com/disney-cancels-1-billion-florida-185105108.html) gives us ‘Disney Cancels $1 Billion Florida Expansion’. A setting that came because an idiot (aka Gov. Ron DeSantis) decided to start a war for a trivial reason. He wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (sorry Brittlestar, this is too good a slogan to pass up). And now Disney has cancelled an expansion where we get “The 10-figure office complex near Walt Disney World would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity” So not only does this governor rub any fat cat the wrong way. He now has grievance with the Commercial houses of Florida, his Republican back, the Democrats of Florida and a few other people. Along with the 2000 people not getting a job, up to 8 people connected to anyone losing that job, as such he is 25,000-50,000 votes down and there is likely a larger loss for the Republican side. An ego centric stupid act on the premise of perception that should not have existed in the first place. It is stupid for a few reasons more. The American have alienated Saudi Arabia, optionally the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon as well. Billions in defence industry is now going to China, building contracts in Syria and Saudi Arabia are now going to China, as such the EU and USA are losing out on billions more. The idea that the EU will cater to another Disney-world giving the EU billions more is not out of the question, all money lost to the US, in a stage where they have over 31 trillion in debt. An act too stupid to contemplate and this could have been avoided. In the 70’s my elders taught me ‘Do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and in 1968 we have the premise ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and the US seemingly only has walking left. In this day and age I saw the option for millions more in revenue in IT and it will likely go to the UK, the EU (Germany most likely) and Australia (weirdly enough). I am not ruling out Canada, but I know too little about their abilities in that field. Millions more and the list goes on. America dropped well over $5 billion a year on my recent watch alone. And all this before you realise the blunders that signify the USS Zumwalt with its $4 billion expense and the massive drop in abilities. Just to be clear, I am no naval expert, but I dit get a degree in ships engineering and navigation in 1979, so I am not totally in the dark here. The USS Blue Ridge that launched in 1970 outperforms it by a lot and the cost of that rubber ducky is a mere 5% of the failure that the USS Zumwalt represents. I reckon the idea that a congress would not order the smart bullets that the Zumwalt needs (at $800,000 per bullet) might have been the wake up call some people needed. In that environment we get to the second linked article. 

The second article is from the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2023/may/18/us-debt-ceiling-crisis-republicans) and here there is another side. I do not agree. You see, we can listen to the emotional ‘The US debt ceiling crisis is more proof of Republicans’ cynicism and bad faith’. Here I am on the Republican side. There is a folly to let 31 trillion fester and fester to something more. This is a pox on both houses and it has been for well over 25 years when a tax overhaul was needed and we all hear the same BS. Too hard, too complex. Well, they are close to default on whatever they have left and as Disney goes towards the EU they will open more doors. IBM, Adobe, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are already diversifying leaving the US with nothing (well almost nothing). And as they alienated the few allies left they see an exodus to China, China of all places. 

This is the act of stupidity, stupidity on both houses that would not act when they could and now they are in patters of indecision and they are all trying to find fat jobs in global corporations before the house collapses and it is close to collapsing. This, (and a few related items) was why I tried to sell my IP to the Middle East. In the first you go where the money is. In the second you find a place where you can enjoy your golden years. Because as I see it the US will be a very dangerous place to stay soon enough. Over 200 million desperate people? Yes, that is not a place for me and when the energy shortages hit it will get a lot worse soon enough, they had options there too, but they squandered those options in the last 5 years. 

So whilst everyone is pointing at me stating that I am the stupid one (a fair thought to have) consider that my IP was right in at least two cases, optionally two more that are now evolving. Yet I have a few more and they are all destined to go towards places like Huawei and Tencent technologies. And in all honestly between nothing and  few crumbs, ill take the crumbs, especially if that results in a view like below. 

This is not my 39 coins of silver. It is merely a retirement dream that could optionally be true. And what would you do when you have the choice between what I choose and a retirement home without resources? Because that is what the US (EU and UK too) created with their ego driven decision tree.
Dousing the mouse? When was that ever a good idea, especially when it decides to cancel a billion dollar expansion? Will it go to Euro Disney? With the economic setting the French have, that might be a realistic option for the minions of Walt Disney, and the US? Well it made its own bed, to bad for them that as the others leave that sinking ship well over 275,000,000 Americans will be caught in the middle. They had their options and they voted, or they did not vote and lost their right to complain.

Have a great Friday.

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May 15, 2023 · 14:39

The paper tiger

There is a tiger is the fields, the people aren’t afraid, they aren’t worried because the tiger is a paper one. That is the setting and it came to me from the Guardian. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/14/more-than-300000-syrian-civilians-died-any-attempt-to-rehabilitate-assad-is-utterly-shameful) gives us ‘More than 300,000 Syrian civilians died. Any attempt to rehabilitate Assad is utterly shameful’, is that so? Well, it is a point of view, and Simon Tisdall is not completely wrong, actually he sort of is. I cannot fault him for anything but the reality is a lot less appealing and that is the problem, the less appealing truth behind this. You see no one ever cared about Syria. The west did not because Syria has no economic value, it has no oil, just like Yemen. And for all intents and purposes America is already broke and the EU and Japan are right next to America in this. So whilst we saw the Ghouta chemical attack and we saw the news of what happened on 21 August 2013, almost 10 years ago now. Was something done? A week later investigators looked around and The UN investigation team confirmed “clear and convincing evidence” of the use of sarin delivered by surface-to-surface rockets. Nothing was done. That is the reality and we need to take notice. You see at present Syria is one step away from becoming a Russian satellite state. Now with the Arab League back in the fold they will get some of the rebuilding revenue and it will not all go to Russia, I reckon a better setting. So even as I understand the setting of Simon, making Syria a pariah is a lot worse and that goes nowhere. In addition to all this is that the Yemen side is there too, nothing was done by any of us, only now that the Ukraine is under attack things are done, not enough and not fast enough, but something is done. Basically the world did 100% more in the case of the Ukraine then it did in case of Syria or Yemen. I feel that the west is only acting because the Ukraine with its 21st largest army was able to stop Russia with one of the three largest armies in the world and the losses are adding up for Russia

And these numbers are staggering that the Ukraine with the army and hardware they had were able to pull this off and now the west is starting to become aware that there is no aftermath for them. Germany had been for the longest time been pussyfooting on hardware delivery, only to see that Pro-Russian politicians in Germany were stoping this. American politicians were no better here. In Florida we get “Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, a leader of a small but vocal wing of isolationist Republicans in the House, has introduced a “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution seeking to end “military and financial aid” to Ukraine.” And he is not alone in the US. America has (in my humble opinion) become a collection of pussies that were nice when they were nothing more than rich bullies, but that is now over, the wealth is gone and as such the field of superpowers is changing. It will soon evolve into a new setting with China (the force), Saudi Arabia (the bank) and India (the consumer), in that stage I want Russia to have as little options as possible and we might not like this, but it beats Russia having satellite nations making things globally worse. To prevent it actions were required, actions that remained absent in the west and that danger is still not over, because Iran is still a consideration and Russia likes a nation with so much anti-American sentiment. As such the evolution that the Arab League is making makes a lot of sense, I prefer these two listening to Saudi Arabia than taking snacks and ‘carefully considered actions’ from Russia, because that will surely make things a lot worse. 

And now as we see more and more technology interactions between Russia and the UAE, economic values will spread all over the Middle East, which is good. Yet they also fall away from American shores which is not that great, especially when you see that America remains one step short on defaulting on their loans. 

Yay, Monday!

Enjoy the day.

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May 12, 2023 · 00:17

Spend, spend, spend

Yes, that can be seen as spending three times over. We are of course referring to the debilitating debt the US has and now it is about to cost them a lot, in the larger stage this has had my attention for some time, but today three articles brought it to the top (yet again). The first one comes from the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/debt-ceiling-us-scrap-1.6836090) where we see ‘The U.S. debt limit is again stoking fears across the globe. Why not just scrap the thing?’ There are of course several answers to that part, but it is ““I don’t think there’s any reason to have it exist anymore,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, who is the current president of the right-wing think-tank American Action Forum.” I think that Douglas has been sniffing the alternative Gatorade. You see, if there was no reason to have credit limits, I would take out a $50M loan with my IP as collateral and move to Dubai. Have a nice one floor apartment and live of the rest with $300K a month at my disposal until the day I die. The reality is that we all have credit limits and most of us have a credit limit that is in the basement. As such nations and governments have limits as well. It is the idea that Americans think they do not have one, but that is a false assumption. It might have had a delusional ring of truth when they were a super power and when they had all the innovations, but they first off shored the knowledge they had because the board of directors had more bonus options, but they are now either retired or mostly dead. Now India has that power, now Saudi Arabia is the innovative player and now China is about to become the one true superpower. All negative things for the US, but this is what they wanted and they shunned Saudi Arabia too often and now they lose them as an ally as well. The one player that really has all the cash is shunned. Well done America! In the mean time spending went on and it was catered to by people who have close to no ash in the first place. Now the Fortune 100 have less American companies and several of them have a spin on what they really own. The largest players who really have things are Google, IBM, Amazon and Adobe. The rest are wannabe collapsing entities. There is Netflix, but they will be in turmoil for at least a year and there is no way to tell how they are pulling through. Facebook is under the gun and they are about to lose another segment, in the meantime Meta is nowhere near ready. 

So off to article two, this is Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/us-debt-standoff-overshadows-g7-finance-leaders-meeting-2023-05-11/) giving us ‘US debt standoff overshadows G7 finance leaders’ meeting’, which could be true. You see, Japan is in deep waters, optionally too deep, but that requires financial knowledge I do not have, what I think is the case, is that they are too deep in debt and when the US goes, so does Japan. The 7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Italy and France are already in deep waters, in part of the overspending my Mario Draghi, in part of a slowing economy. The UK has its own set of troubles which basically leaves Canada and they cannot hold the fort by themselves but that is the group that is in some kind of meeting and the conversation to raise the debt ceiling is a farce, they all know that the US is fighting of shadows of their former selves all alone, all because no one was willing to do something about overspending and they are decades too late in overhauling their tax systems. All these small issues line up to a setting where there is soon an America defaulting on ALL their loans, bonds collapse and that also pushes Japan over the edge. The Reuters article also gives us “U.S.-China tensions also cloud the outlook for the global economy that is already under pressure from signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy China.” This is a stage that I find debatable, from my point of view (optionally not a correct one), the Chinese economy is already surpassing America and now that they have the stage for the Middle East with larger venues into Saudi Arabia, they surpass America. The fact that Saudi Oil can now be bought with Yuan is the one push America never needed and never really could handle. With Saudi Arabia about to launch their own version (in English) of Al Jazeera will mean that advertisers have an alternative to Fox and CNN and when that channel branches out to Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh and India, the numbers will vastly surpass 500,000,000 viewers. In this I didn’t even consider Pakistan at present. As such where do you think Advertiser will go? America pushed the wrong buttons for years and now their birds are roosting in other nests. The third is also Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/yellen-warns-us-default-would-threaten-global-economy-undermine-us-leadership-2023-05-11/) giving us ‘Yellen warns US default would threaten global economy, undermine its leadership’ where we see “U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged Congress to raise the $31.4 trillion federal debt limit and avert an unprecedented default that would trigger a global economic downturn and risk undermining U.S. global economic leadership” in this I personally believe that the US hasn’t been a real economic leader for some time. It started just before the age of Trump as the US learned that they could no longer afford the things they were doing and now these accounts are all coming up empty all at the same time. So at the end we are given “Yellen said Republican brinkmanship on the issue amounted to a “crisis of our own making” and that just the threat of a default could lead to a downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating, as occurred during a debt ceiling fight in 2011.” I personally feel that this is totally bogus, the issue was overspending and both sides of the isle were doing that and both sides were doing that. In addition they alienated the one player who was loaded, the rich relative was made a pariah and that didn’t sit well with that relative. This is why I approached them with my IP. I feel better when someone with the cash pays for my IP than the fakers who have a maximised credit card, implying I would be without cash for too long whilst they walk away with my multi billion dollar IP. I will not allow Microsoft anywhere near it, as such I would have no issues selling it to Tencent Technologies (with a few attached clauses mind you). And I have reason. A clear solution that could have given Google and/or Amazon billions was shunned by them giving me the excuse to go wherever I needed to go to get my golden retirement. And they connect. You see, they are all about contracting economies, all whilst innovation will go where there was no one and in my case in several cases there was no one, only in one case there was someone (Gucci), but they are only on one side of one IP I had and I had several other venues connected to it, optionally to android phones as well. And you see that same issue here. We see ‘raise the debt ceiling’ whilst 4 presidents did not stop overspending, it was not an issue and now as they lose tens of billions in industries that are all headed for China, they are all up in arms with “Yellen wants G7 debate on restricting investment to China”, just like the Huawei issue and we never were EVER given any evidence regarding Huawei. That is the effect of a bully who lost whatever innovation they had to players who were truly innovative and now they are running out of time, they are running out of fairway and they have nothing left. Two elemental parts were ignored for too long the first was overhauling their tax system, the second was overspending and in 2011 the point of no return was reached, both Democrats and Republicans worked together in making that happen and China merely waited for it to collapse and that is now about to happen. Will there be another raise? I cannot tell, but this is not enough, after this one another one will come and that is how this game is being played, almost like bluffing in Omaha poker, the issue is that bluffing is too dangerous and can often fall flat, for someone to think that they can bluff for this long is a new level of delusion. 

No matter what, we are about to find out how much longer the US can play that game and they returns to the stage of tax the rich, another delusional setting, which by the way works out well for Monaco, the Bahamas and Dubai to name but three where the retiring rich could go to actually enjoy their cash. 

Enjoy your day unless you have a PacWest Bank account, at that point you are decently screwed at present.

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May 11, 2023 · 00:38

The bigger shift

The news that caught me today is (at https://dohanews.co/saudi-arabia-mulls-launch-of-english-news-channel-to-rival-al-jazeera-reports/) giving us ‘Saudi Arabia mulls launch of English news channel to rival Al Jazeera’. I actually originally got it from the Financial Times, but they are behind a paywall, so I cannot use them as a source. So Saudi Arabia is now considering an English News Channel. This changes things. First E-Sports, now sports (Messi And Ronaldo), Formula one and now we get “A Saudi state-backed media organisation is considering the development of an international English-language news station, seen as an effort to counter Qatar’s flagship Al Jazeera network and boost the kingdom’s media influence”. I personally think that there is another reason. You see, if tourism develops in Saudi Arabia, the need for an English Channel rises and it’s need will rise exponentially. It also allows to dig into advertisement funds that have been denied them for decades. You see, the advertiser goes to where the people and the money is. The money is already in Saudi Arabia, but soon so will be the people. The stages of sports will allow Saudi Arabia exclusive news channelling and that leads to more revenue and more visibility. Even as we are given “The Saudi Research and Media Group reportedly approached media consultancies to assess the viability and scope of the endeavour, according to a number of people familiar with the project, the Financial Times reported. They said it will be the second-largest English-language broadcaster in the Arab world, after Al Jazeera English, although the preparations are still in the early stages.” And this is not all, there is another reason. As western media ‘embraced’ their Share holder, stake holder and advertiser approach to filtering information. They lost credibility and the audience. Most places no longer call it news, they refer to it as information entertainment (Fox anyone?) In addition to this, the west would finally get real information on Aramco (not filtered by Brent), on SAMI (not filtered by the pentagon) and sports. It would even propel interest into things like Camel racing, the Emirates Ice Hockey League and from that we could see the development of a Saudi Ice Hockey league. We know that they are still not a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation, but to see Saudi Arabia grow teams in Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh, taking on the UAE teams from the Emirates Hockey League (EHL). We could see names like Abu Dhabi Scorpions, Abu Dhabi Storms, Al Ain Theebs, Dubai White Bears, Dubai Mighty Camels propel all over the western TV stations. 

If the west is embracing sports Saudi Arabia has the making to replace a whole collection of news channels that lost too much credibility. And it isn’t merely influence. As I personally see it the KSA lacks perception and awareness in the view of the non Arabian people and this could be a first step to open that door. Beyond that there are several markets where the KSA could set foot into and in this world in this current economic climate that will go a long way, what is important that the first steps are made setting the larger stage towards doing something and that is where it is at. Will it happen? This happening is a logical step after setting claims towards E-sports, Formula 1, Football and Ice hockey. Beyond that is the stage where the people will get first looks on the Line (that long building) and several other innovations coming towards us from Saudi Arabia. 

A bigger shift is underway and the US with their deceptive ‘entertainment’ like Fox and even CNN, they will have nothing to counter it. In the last 5 years they wasted too much credibility opening the door to other players and as I see it the KSA stands to add an audience of close to half a billion in the first 2 years, would you like to see the advertisement money on that pool? 

Enjoy the day before Friday.

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