Are You Ready for the End of the PetroDollar?

 Fallout from the war in Ukraine—what I call the New Iron Curtain—seems to be accelerating the shift away from pricing all commodities in US dollars. China and Russia have been working on this for a long time, but that’s now shifting into a higher gear with Russia demanding that «unfriendly» countries pay for oil in rubles.

COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Jump Among Vaccinated: CDC Data

 

Vials of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in Bridgeport, Conn., in a file image. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Rex Murphy: 'Greenism' has helped Putin fuel his war machine

 

A member of a pro-Russian militia mans a tank on a road in the Luhansk region of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. PHOTO BY ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS

Will the horror of what is occurring in Ukraine wake up the environmentally 'woke' governments of the world to their folly?

Rex Murphy: Trudeau's wild misuse of state authority

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the House of Commons to speak on his invocation of the Emergencies Act, on Feb. 17, 2022. PHOTO BY DAVE CHAN / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 Are there no hero MPs willing to denounce this gross usurpation of citizens' rights?

Visualizing the State of Global Debt, by Country

Since COVID-19 started its spread around the world in 2020, the global economy has been put to the test with supply chain disruptions, price volatility for commodities, challenges in the job market, and declining income from tourism. To analyze the extent of global debt, we’ve compiled debt-to-GDP data by country from the most recent World Economic Outlook report by the IMF.

What is the main risk of a high debt-to-GDP ratio?

A rapid increase in government debt is a major cause for concern. Generally, the higher a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is, the higher chance that country could default on its debt, therefore creating a financial panic in the markets. The World Bank published a study showing that countries that maintained a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 77% for prolonged periods of time experienced economic slowdowns. COVID-19 has worsened a debt crisis that has been brewing since the 2008 global recession.

Source: World Economic Outlook Report (October 2021 Edition)

The IMF Warns of Interest Rates

Global debt reached $226 trillion by the end of 2020, seeing the biggest one-year increase since World War II. Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly over half of the $28 trillion increase, bringing global public debt ratio to a record of 99% of GDP. As interest rates rise, IMF officials warn that higher interest rates will diminish the impact of fiscal spending, and cause debt sustainability concerns to intensify.

Read more.

Source: Raul Amoros, Christina Kostandi | Visual Capitalist

Jack M. Mintz: The measure of a model is how well it predicts

COVID-19 mandate protesters block the roadway at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing with the U.S. in Windsor, Ont., on Feb. 9, 2022. PHOTO BY GEOFF ROBINS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

With the trucker protest against mandatory health policies still in play, it is no surprise that the controversial Johns Hopkins economic study released last week made the front pages here. This is a far cry from Imperial College London epidemiology studies from almost two years ago that estimated lockdowns were needed to cut deaths by 98 per cent. The three authors, only one of whom, Hanke, is actually at Johns Hopkins, conducted a «meta-analysis» of 34 COVID studies focused on March 16-April 20, 2020. Comparing COVID deaths across jurisdictions, they concluded that mask mandates had the largest impact on mortality with rules such as shelter-in-place or school closings having only marginal effects.

Child Safeguarding Harms & The Pandemic Response

We must not aim simply to restore ‘normality’ for children. Many took to social media in the aftermath, trying to make sense of how the abuse of these defenceless children could have occurred. Some were vehement that Arthur’s death, was the result of lockdown and school closures, whilst others argued that such claims only detract from the culpability of the perpetrators. Thinking in such binary terms, however, does not advance our learning or help to better protect children in the future.

‘Between April and September 2020, the period in which Arthur and Star were both killed, there were 119 child deaths and 153 incidents of serious harm due to known/suspected abuse or neglect, as compared to 89 and 132 during the same period in 2019. During the first month of lockdown, calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline increased by around 50% . Fleeing domestic abuse will also have resulted in homelessness for many children, likely compounding their experience of trauma. In England, 15,370 households with children were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse between April 2020 and March 2021, reflecting an increase of almost 14% from the previous year.