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Ten Indications Iran Wants Business Not Bombs
By Charles Glass
Longtime Middle East correspondent Charles Glass offers his droll, insightful, and entertaining personal take on the much-debated threat presented by Iran. He sees every indication that the country is much more interested in business than in war.
WHO
Obama Paid a High Price to Get Turkey to Fight ISIS
Turkey sat out the war on ISIS … until last week’s attack on Suruc forced the government’s hand. The subsequent domestic strife, along with key US pressure, not only led to a reversal, but it’s now being used to justify attacks on the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). The PKK has long fought for autonomy and/or independence from Turkey. Ultimately, this might’ve been the “high price” Obama paid to get Turkey to open its bases to America’s continuing air attack on Syria.
The Chinese Government’s Massive Stock Market Stimulus is Having the Opposite Effect
Earlier this month, government-imposed measures halted trading by 1,400 companies, restricted short-selling, suspended IPOs and pumped $800 billion of stimulus into the flailing Shanghai Composite. It led to a 14% rise. The market was recovering. Until today. This latest rout wiped away 8.5% of the market, sellers are “panicking” and it is stoking fears that the slowing Chinese economy could infect America’s tenuous economic “Recovery.”
WHAT
The Oil Crash is Not Over
Oil prices are dropping again and the world’s biggest companies are cutting 46 major oil and gas projects totaling 20 billion barrels of oil and $200 billion of investment. That decline in investment portends more industry job cuts, declining earnings and a global slowdown. Big oil is getting soaked.
The Television Election
While social media is the meme on the tip of everybody’s tongue—and at the top of everybody’s Facebook feed—the simple fact is that television is still king of the election cycle heap. Look no further than the desperate jockeying now going on in the crowded GOP presidential field as second-tier candidates try anything and everything to get intothe first debate on FOX News.
WHY
The Automation Myth: Robots Aren’t Taking Your Jobs— And That’s The Problem
Matthew Yglesias of Vox takes a decidedly contrarian stance on the topic of robot workers and fears that automation is going to displace human labor. The real issue, according to Yglesias, is the fact that economic growth is slow and a slower pace of automation is actually a bad sign for the long-term health of the economy. Interestingly enough, Japan sees robots as a cure for their slow population growth and declining labor force.
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