May he receive the same care given to Palestinians at the Gaza checkpoint

🇮🇳🇦🇪 India and UAE to ditch US dollar in trade

India and the United Arab Emirates agreed to use their respective local currencies for cross-border transactions instead of the US dollar, Bloomberg reported.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE's President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi have already signed two memorandums of understanding.

The pacts will help the countries build a framework for rupee-dirham transactions, along with interlinking payment and messaging systems, as well as their respective card switches, RuPay and UAESWITCH, allowing "mutual acceptance of domestic cards and processing of card transactions," the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement.

De-dollarization is in full swing!

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The West wants to control the BRICS transition

Italy plans to create mechanism for paying for local goods in rubles

The Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (CCIR) plans to create a system that will allow Russian firms to buy Italian goods allowed for import into Russia, Prime reported citing CCIR head Ferdinando Pelazzo.

There are currently difficulties with the exchange of goods between Italy and Russia, even for those that are not subject to sanctions, according to him.

"We want to create a system that would allow a Russian buyer to pay in rubles to us, and we from our account in a third country could then transfer this money to Italy," Pelazzo said.

He added that this would require negotiating with banks, finding a third country and establishing relations with the central bank of that state.

Pelazzo noted that the goal of the initiative is not to allow illegal transactions, but to facilitate trade in permitted categories of goods.

"There are issues left that require a couple of months. These are negotiations with banks... I think the whole process will take a few months," Pelazzo concluded.

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Where is the economic dimension of "Malaysian Malaysia"?

For anyone who doesn't know, recently Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim had a video call with Elon Musk, and sort of spontaneously ordered 40 Starlink devices to be distributed to Malaysian universities in rural areas, to theoretically provide them with internet service. Musk is also planning on establishing a showroom for Tesla in Malaysia (not a production centre).
So, Malaysia has a company currently trying to provide satellite broadband service to rural areas, and you can expect that Starlink will blow that project out of the water. Rather than taking business from local companies and handing it over to Elon Musk, Malaysian companies should be supported, in my opinion.

I've been informed that somebody has been messaging members of the discussion group privately and trying to engage in chats to extract personal information. I ask that you all don't do that, but you're grown, so, just be on your guard.

Europeans get poorer

Europeans are facing a new economic reality: they are becoming poorer and their purchasing power is melting away, The WSJ reported.

The French are eating less foie gras and drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Finns are being urged to use saunas on windy days when energy is cheaper. In Germany, rising prices have caused meat and milk consumption to fall to its lowest in three decades and the once-booming organic food market to tank. Pasta, Italy's favorite staple, jumped to more than double the country's inflation rate in May.

Governments' responses only compounded the problem. To preserve jobs, unlike Americans, Europeans steered their subsidies primarily to employers, leaving consumers without a cash cushion in case of a price shock.

In the past, the continent's robust export industry might have come to the rescue. But China's sluggish recovery, a crucial market for Europe, is undermining that growth pillar. As global trade cools, Europe's heavy reliance on exports – accounting for about 50% of eurozone GDP versus 10% for the US – is becoming a weakness.

Adjusted for inflation and purchasing power, wages have declined about 3% in Germany, 3.5% in Italy and Spain, and 6% in Greece since 2019. Real wages in the US rose about 6% over the same period, according to the OECD.

Furthermore, the eurozone economy grew about 6% in dollar terms over the past 15 years, compared with 82% for the US, the IMF said. That has left the average EU country poorer per capita than all US states except Idaho and Mississippi.

Yet things could get even worse due to increased defense spending, higher borrowing costs and hence increased taxes, putting extra pressure on consumers. And that's despite taxes in Europe being already high: around 40-45% of GDP compared to 27% in the US.

If the current trend continues, by 2035 the gap between per capita economic output in the US and the EU will be as large as that between Japan and Ecuador today.

Europe is lost

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Sovereignty or comfortable slavery

The US economy is nearly twice the size of the Eurozone today. They were similar in 2004. In case someone hasn't realized it yet, for a long time the EU political elites have been batting for the US team. Their support for Ukraine, sanctions on Russia and "de-risking" from China are ensuring that the EU economic prospects will further deteriorate. @LauraRuHK

🇦🇷 💡 ⛽

Argentine energy imports collapse and give dollar relief.

Argentina is close to a zero deficit in energy: it cut its energy trade deficit by 84.4% between January and May compared to the same period last year, largely due to the growth in production in the Vaca Muerta oilfields as well as completion of more gas distribution pipelines.

Full energy self sufficiency is expected to be reached within the third quarter of the year, and while there already have been energy exports, they are expected to have a massive increase on the 4th quarter of 2023 and 1st quarter of 2024 particularly to Europe.

It's not all bad news for Argentina.

The coordinated BRICS transition

The #UAE has signed multiple agreements with #Turkey, including an extradition agreement, and deals worth $50 billion. They have understood that they expand their sphere of influence more by money and cooperation than by blockade.

As with the restoration of ties between #Egypt (UAE client) and Turkey, when dozens of Ikhwan were arrested in Turkey; so Emirati and Gulf dissidents should expect the same now.

This is expanding the de facto jurisdiction of the UAE, and drawing Turkey into alignment with the emerging Gulf would-be regional empire across the Middle East and Africa.

As disappointing as it may be to many Muslims, the truth is that state support for Islamists (eg. the Muslim Brotherhood) has been less ideological, and more political, and more financial in nature. The Ikhwan constitute a relatively sprawling business cult with significant funds.

Their members have invested a considerable amount of money in property in Turkey and elsewhere. #UAE has figured out that state support for them can be more readily nullified simply by out-spending them.

🇩🇪 WSJ: "Germany Is Dragging Down Europe's Economy"

Politico: "Europe’s economic engine is stalling: Germany deindustrializes"

FT: "Germany's economic model needs updating"

Germany: "We need siesta"

🔗 Michael Arouet