Authored by Bill Bonner via InternationalMan.com,
Let’s turn to an economy getting doomier by the day: Venezuela.
Actions have consequences. In public policy, it is impossible to say what the consequences will be. There are too many delusions and too much smoke.
Take a policy said to eradicate city rats. Its real purpose is to reward a large political donor who owns a pest control firm. It ends up killing the pigeons.
After an uncharacteristic two-day social media silence, in which some wondered if White House lawyers had finally taken control of Trump's iPhone, President Trump broke a nearly two-day silence on Twitter Friday morning to slam James Comey as a "liar" and a “leaker” the day after the fired FBI director’s testimony before Congress.
In the tweet, which may be the first of many, Trump claimed "total and complete vindication" from the Senate Intel Committee hearing, in which Comey likewise accused him of “lies” and requesting the FBI end a criminal investigation.
It was supposed be a UK general election that solidified Conservative dominance, and boosted Brexit leverage. It ended up being the opposite, after British voters delivered a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Theresa May and her ruling Conservative party, depriving her of a majority, resulting in a "hung parliament" and thrusting the country back into a new period of uncertainty as it prepares to depart from the European Union.
A quick recap of what happened overnight:
Viruses, violent conflicts and a host of other regional calamities helped revive peoples’ desire to migrate permanently to another country between the years 2013 and 2016 as the number of potential migrants climbed to 710 million, according to a Gallup poll.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, creating a new crisis in the Arab world. U.S. President Donald Trump quickly waded into the row, lambasting Qatar in a series of tweets. Joining the Gulf states in labeling Qatar a funder of extremism, Trump tweeted that his visit to Saudi Arabia "was already paying off" and that Monday's developments could mark the "beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism."