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iran IS sanctioned wrt oil, but the biden admin is not enforcing it. Sure they started up somewhat after last October, but for THREE years they just let it slide.
Saudi oil dollars? We don't need them, whoever if they cut production it will affect you all over there a lot more...
Saudi oil dollars buy a lot of your debt, and there is a whole load of that, and under Trump will soar to new heights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paladin
You might not need Saudi dollars, Trump loves 'em, as does FIFA and other sporting bodies. How long before the Superbowl is played in Riyadh?
And you don't need Canadian pertroleum and its products? No need to go East to see oil problems, just look North.
Just note this. If the US economy crashes, everyone eles's will BURN. That's the 2nd half of crash 'n burn.
I am sure you remember when Speaker Paul Ryan had a 'Debt Clock' designed to undermine the Obama Presidency. Where is that clock, and why has nobody asked questions about the Debt?Quote:
Originally Posted by Paladin
Trump has been in debt ever since he took over daddy's firm; he thrives on debt, and enjoys either not paying his debts, or stringing repayments out over years. If he runs the US next time like he ran his companies, the US could go bankrupt, but I doubt it as he is not in total control of the economy.
What this has to do with the Middle East I don't know, but then it is not only the Arabs who own so much of the USA's debt, but China too. If the 21st Century is no longer an American Century, whose will it be?
Brief thought on the resurgence in Syria -Russia has had its naval base on the Syrian coast, but I wonder, if this current phase drags on, Russia, committed to supporting the Asad regime, will be in a state of 'strategic overreach' and if this will further undermine its campaign in Ukraine.
Syria: It's getting to be an unmanageable mess over there. russia is in over its head and this will not end well for them or the region.
US debt. It's out of control, but biden added MORE to the debt than trump has and he still has one more month to go.
Trump Paid his loans to Deutsch Bank - early.
The opposite is the caseQuote:
Originally Posted by Paladin
""As a result of the Trump Organization's failure to respond, Deutsche Bank decided to exit its relationship with the company." (this is in January 2020)
"The formal decision was made by three bank executives during a Skype call on the afternoon of May 27, 2021, another of James' filings reveals. It would take a year, until May, for Trump to retire most of his debt, as demanded.
Flush with cash from the $375 million sale of his DC hotel, Trump paid off the Old Post Office loan in full, and refinanced the $125 million borrowed for his 2011 purchase of Trump National Doral, his Miami golf course, as Forbes' Dan Alexander first reported in July.".
Trump's Secret, Ugly Breakup With Deutsche Bank Revealed - Business Insider
If you want you can read about the Deutsche Bank loans here, and note some of the loans were repaid with money Trump borrowed from other sources, not his own-
How Donald Trump got his Deutsche Bank loans
Deutsche Bank loaned Trump $2bn despite multiple red flags, new report claims | World Finance
Forbes has done a review of the money Trump currently owns-
Forbes Daily Briefing: Here’s How Much Money Trump Owes—And Who Stands To Collect | Former President Donald Trump owes more money today than he ever did during his first presidency, according to a Forbes analysis. Read more:... | By Forbes | Facebook
There is only one Middle East angle to this, given this is a thread on the Middle East. The Saudis or Kushner's mates in the Gulf dreaming up some scheme whereby Trump or some outfit gets the money he owes and pays them off, in exchange for some grubby deal on the Yemen, as Trump is now threatening to attack Gaza with even more ferocity than Israel, though it echoes the hysterical threats he made to North Korea before falling in love with Kim.
The man lives on borrowed money and borrowed time.
Not as a share of the economy, which is what mattersQuote:
Originally Posted by Paladin
Dec 2016 105% of GDP
Dec 2020 126% of GDP
Sep 2024 123% of GDP
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/amer...national-debt/
There was a time when Syria was thought of as the cradle of Arab Nationalism. The same Nationalism that developed in Europe after the Napoleonic era, was evident in both the emergence of 'Political Zionism' through Moses Mendelssohn and Theodor Herzl, and of Arab Nationalism, mostly in Syria in the last quarter of the 19th century.
The argument is that Arab Nationalism has been eclipsed by Political Islam, a phenomenon that was dormant in the region until the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, but that Islamist movements have been divided within and between themselves, and after scoring early successes have collapsed in an orgy of violence and misrule. The Syria dimension is particularly complex because of the diversity of its social fabric, the enduring appeal of Arab Nationalism for the secular forces in the country, and of course the external intervention in its domestic politics which makes any rational settlement almost impossible to achieve, not least because the country's resources are owned for the most part by one family and their cronies.
But if Russia is now stretched too far and cannot protect the Asad family indefinitely, the most likely scenario is comparable to Libya with geographical and political divisions exacerbating the absence of any unifying force in the country. Turkey would have claims of self-defence in the North where it retains a troop presence, largely to contain what it sees as a threat from Kurdish independence groups. Israel has annexed parts of Syria it occupied in 1967 -with the approval of the USA- and could see a collapse in Syria as the opportunity to extend its territorial acquisition which it will say is for reasons of 'self-defence', but what we don't know is how much longer the rebel forces can last, while Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, who got burned when they first tried to manipulate the Syria opposition to their advantage in 2011, could in theory have another go, but with whom as their candidate it is not known, unless they decide they are better off with Asad.
I suspect Syria will continue to melt down over the next year, with the grim thought that in reality few people care about the place to do anything radical.
If it's so great, then move there...