Nafeez Ahmed – Is an Economic Oil Crash Around the Corner?

A report by HSBC shows that contrary to industry mythology, even amidst the glut of unconventional oil and gas, the vast bulk of the world’s oil production has already peaked and is now in decline, while European government scientists show that the value of energy produced by oil has declined by half within the first 15 years of the 21st century. …

Michael T. Klare – Debacle at Doha

Sunday, April 17th was the designated moment.  The world’s leading oil producers were expected to bring fresh discipline to the chaotic petroleum market and spark a return to high prices. Meeting in Doha, the glittering capital of petroleum-rich Qatar, the oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with such key non-OPEC producers as Russia and …

Global spending on health is expected to increase to $18.28 trillion worldwide by 2040

Global inequities in health spending are expected to persist and intensify over the next 25 years, according to a new study that estimates total health financing in countries around the world. Published in The Lancet on April 13, 2016 “National spending on health by source for 184 countriesbetween 2013 and 2040” draws from a joint research collaboration between the World Bank Group …

Emerson Urry – The Department of Defense Is the Third Largest Polluter of US Waterways

Advocacy group Environment America has “crunched the numbers” in an effort to reveal who the largest polluters of American waterways are. The culprits that crack the top-15 list may very well surprise you. If you ask people on the street who America’s biggest water polluter is, for many, oil Goliaths like Exxon or Chevron might be first to come to …

Trends This Week – Keep your eye on the banking crisis – 02.10.16

Don’t the buy the media line that the volatility in global markets is all about oil. It’s not. Not even close. The fast-moving meltdown in those markets resulting in global recession is the eventual price world economies will pay for chronically injecting cheap money into the market for the last decade, artificially pumping up the economy and masking the spreading cancer below the surface. Now, six weeks into the new year, the mad swings in the markets will more and more center on the banks. Watch the banking crisis as it unfolds. Global stock indexes have plunged into bear territory, currencies are crashing – and as commodity prices tumble, resource-rich nations going broke are begging the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to bail them out. Neither “The Panic” nor the Global Recession, one of our Top Trends for 2016, will spare any country, large or small. We are looking at a Global Recession turning into a Global Depression. And when all measures fail to revive the economy – “they take you to war.”

Andre Vltchek – Please Do Not Poison My Brain With The US Elections!

I am consecutively stuffing my ears with various airline earplugs, in order not to hear the news blasted on the radio. I am closing my eyes when the topic appears on TV, even on RT or Press TV. I skip newspaper headlines. I beg my friends, comrades and relatives not to bring up the subject in front of me. I don’t …

F. William Engdahl – What’s Really Going on With Oil?

If there is any single price of any commodity that determines the growth or slowdown of our economy, it is the price of crude oil. Too many things don’t calculate today in regard to the dramatic fall in the world oil price. In June 2014 major oil traded at $103 a barrel. With some experience following the geopolitics of oil …

Gareth Porter – Iran Changes the Regional Dynamic

The achievement of “implementation day” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), when for both sides the central elements of the nuclear bargain went into operation on Saturday, means that it is going to be a fact of life in global and regional politics for many years. But will it have a profound impact on regional politics? That is …

Gareth Porter – Iran Changes the Regional Dynamic

The achievement of “implementation day” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), when for both sides the central elements of the nuclear bargain went into operation on Saturday, means that it is going to be a fact of life in global and regional politics for many years. But will it have a profound impact on regional politics? That is …