Jack H Barnes's blog

What happens to Europe when DSK isn't there to rescue them?

Is the US FED about to roll out a surprise rate increase?

The Empire is stirring. You may not notice it initially and you may not care yet: in time you will.

Food inflation driven by freezing weather in Florida during December and in Mexico during February, is hitting the US supermarkets in the coming day’s. Sysco sent out an alert that announced an “Act of God”, to address their contracted supply issues.

The natural gas cartel, a dream of Russia’s just a few years ago, is dead. It died when a natural gas revolution broke out and Gazprom lost. Energy importing nations around the world are evaluating their own geology, currently, to see if they have shale reserves that can be tapped.

Today, history is being made in the Middle East. The Arabian streets woke up to the sound of sniper fire as a regime is defending itself, against the people of its own nation. The flames of anger have been fanned by decades of corrupt authoritative rule.

Global Wheat, China's drought and Historical Famine's

The announcement by Brian Cowen that he was resigning as the leader of the Fianna Fail party, but is going to stay on as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) until the March 11 election, has put the Irish bailout into question.

The US and China as the two current real world powers, have a push and shove relationship. This does not mean that it is directly combative, but it does mean that these two nations are bumping into each other, on all of the world’s stages, especially of late.

The trade imbalance between the US and China, a hot button between the nations for the last decade or so, is finally going to start to stabilize in the summer of 2011. However, it is doing so with a de facto devaluation of the US dollar and its buying power.

The Celtic Tiger has been on the economic ropes since the crash of 2008. In the first hours of the crisis, the US Federal Reserve provided emergency funding to Irish banks, pouring 10’s of Billions of US dollars into the Irish Banking system, providing funds as needed.

The European Union has become its own worst enemy. By design, there is no real leadership at the top of the structure. This is now undermining the unity of the Union, when it needs it most.

The US has its separately elected President of the United States while Russia has its Putin. Europe, however, has...

The League of Arabian states has just experienced its first populist revolution in modern times in Tunisia. The prime minister has announced that he is in control now that the President of the last 23 years or so has fled the nation.

The implications of the crash of 2008 have made one thing very clear. China has emerged as the engine of growth in the world. The US became the land of sub-prime loans, and Europe is the land of finely dressed paupers. The Europe of today is not the Europe of old.

The man Time Magazine named the Person of the Year in 2009, just stood in front of America and said that there realistically won’t be jobs growth during his era as the nation’s Chief Central Banker. What he didn’t highlight is that total jobs in America during his 10 year tour as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is expected to be negative.