Saturday
The history of economics and war tells us that the world is in a bad place. Empires are in collision. It is 1914 – with nukes. The West’s softest and silliest ever generation, is about to get a real life lesson in Reality – the Big R. It will be an unrecognisable concept to most.
Despite the giddy euphoria of the stock market, we have entered a dark, deep depression. It is not yet clearly in focus as pupils have not adjusted from the sunlight that is now behind us. The fact that economies are not and cannot be managed by governments, and that wealth does not emanate from governments, will be a revelation to most. The severity of the depression will dwarf anything prior. Many will not survive the new economy, let alone the wars that it will unleash.
The chest-thumping, sabre-rattling belligerence of the Chinese Communists is building to a crescendo. The ease with which they took Hong Kong may encourage them to go for an all-out invasion of Taiwan. Communists are also unacquainted with the Big R and miscalculation is their middle name. The Chinese economy has been on a ‘building for war’ footing for the last forty years. Their economy is now collapsing (as everywhere), and this is as ready as they are ever going to be. At the very least, the whole South China Sea area will ‘go live’.
Meanwhile, Turkey seeks to ‘expand its influence’ in the world of Islam. Erdogan has delusions of grandeur and sees himself as a new caliph. Like China, Turkey’s thrust for military action is given impetus by a collapsing economy. As they both see it, it is now or never to achieve their ambitions.
Turkey will fail miserably; they always do. China will also probably, hopefully, fail. God help us all if they succeed.