: February 18, 2021: The financial situation is very bad, so bad that it has the attention of senior government officials as well as populist religious leaders who have supported the continuing public, and sometimes violent, protests again corruption and misrule in general. The government budget for 2021 includes a 20 percent deficit that is covered by expensive loans. Government income fluctuates depending on the sale price for oil and how much Iraq can produce. Because of the global covid19 recession the oil price fluctuated from $33 to $43 a barrel in 2020. Iraq had to cut production to about three million BPD (Barrels Per Day) for much of 2020 to maintain its membership in OPEC (the oil cartel) and to make up for several instances of overproduction since late 2019.
February 9, 2021: While the situation is relatively calm in Idlib province, in the east (Deir Ezzor province) there is a multi-sided battle between ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), SDF (Syrian Kurds), the Syrian army, Iranian mercenaries and Russian forces. The Russians are using a combination of special operations troops, military contractors and Syrian mercenaries. To simplify a bit, it’s mostly ISIL versus everyone else. ISIL survives because it still has access to millions in cash it stole during 2014-17 when the Islamic terrorist groups controlled much of eastern Syria and western Iraq. Another ISIL asset is that Sunni Arabs are the majority in Deir Ezzor and most of eastern Syria. These Sunni Arabs have been ruled since the 1970s by the Assad clan, a Shia group that maintained power using a combination of terror for those who resisted and relative freedom and prosperity for those who cooperated. The Assads were
February 11, 2021: China looks forward to becoming the largest economy in the world during the next few years, and a military superpower a decade after that. Longer term the outlook is less promising. Time is not on China’s side. There are numerous examples of this. One of the more obvious is the shrinking Chinese work force and population in general. The overall population growth rate peaked in 2016 at 0.59 percent and has been declining ever since. There is a worse problem with the shrinking labor force because of working age population declining. All this began in 2014 and will continue for decades. The biggest problem, though, is the growing shortage of workers. As the population ages, all those one-child families means there will be more elderly than the economy, and the shrinking workforce, can effectively support. Currently there are ten working age Chinese for every retiree. By 2050, there will only be two for each retiree
While the situation is relatively calm in Idlib province, in the east (Deir Ezzor province) there is a multi-sided battle between ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), SDF (Syrian Kurds), the Syrian army, Iranian mercenaries and Russian for
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There is much for our government to do to enhance the E&E industry, to bring it to the next level where design and development (D&D) and generating intellectual property to produce our own high-end products. – EPA pic, February 4, 2021.
INTERNATIONAL Trade and Industries Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali proudly stating Malaysia recorded the biggest trade surplus in 2020 in 23 years is an attempt to claim credit, but short on giving the correct picture for the surplus.
Understandably, the MITI minister has to say something in the light of the current negative reports by UNCTAD and the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.