Some Europeans Have Never Been Outside The EU

When it comes to holidays and travelling in general, Europe has a lot to offer.

Cosmopolitan cities jam packed with culture, pristine beaches, excellent ski resorts, you name it. Given all of that, it comes as little surprise that many Europeans never travel outside the EU.

As Statista"s Niall McCarthy notes, the most recent Eurobarometer data showing the share of people who have travelled at least once outside the EU was published in 2014.

You will find more statistics at Statista

The above infographic shows the results of the research, with Swedes most likely to have been outside the EU. That is more than likely due to the long and open border with neighbouring Norway which is not part of the EU.

The same story is likely true for Austria due to its proximity to Switzerland.

People in newer member states in Eastern Europe are least likely to have been outside the EU with Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Romania all towards the bottom of the ranking.

Interestingly, Portugal comes second last, possibly due to the fact that it only shares a land border with Spain. Only 18 percent of all Portuguese residents have travelled outside the EU.

Which Europeans Carry The Most Cash?

How much cash do you have in your wallet right now?

Historically, it has been found that the amount of cash people carry is a key indicator of their use of cash. According to research from the European Central Bank, people in the eurozone carried an average of €65 in their wallets in 2016.

You will find more statistics at Statista

As Statista"s Niall McCarthy notes, on a country by country basis, Germans tended to carry the most cash on average, €103.

People in Luxembourg had an average of €102 in their wallets while Austrians had €89.

People in France and Portugal had the least on average with €32 and €29 respectively.

The EU"s Biggest Standing Armies

As we detailed previously, the foreign and defense secretaries of 23 EU countries (out of 28 in total) agreed on Monday to take further steps towards forming a European defense force.

Five countries opted out: The United Kingdom (that"s is leaving the EU), Denmark, Ireland, Portugal and Malta.

The defense union has been on the agenda for a long time and is called the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO.

This chart shows the EU countries with the largest standing armies, according to data provided by GlobalFirePower.com.

You will find more statistics at Statista

It counts in all active military personnel, so-called "ready-to-fight" elements, but not civilian employees or reservists.

France has the biggest standing army, counting 204,000 Soldiers, followed by Germany and the relatively small Greece.

Visualizing The Rapidly Aging Western World

From issues such as declining fertility rates to the ongoing complications resulting from China’s famous “One Child Policy”, there are many demographic challenges that the world must grapple with in the coming years.

However, Visual Capitalist"s Jeff Desjardins notes one problem of particular importance – at least in places like Europe and the Americas – is a rapidly aging population. As the population shifts grayer, potential consequences include higher dependency ratios, rising healthcare costs, and shifting economies and cities.

EUROPE: A PRIME EXAMPLE

We’ve discussed Germany’s demographic cliff before, but it’s not only Germany that will be impacted by a rapidly aging population.

The above animation from data visualization expert Aron Strandberg shows the median age of European countries between 1960 and 2060.

Starting about a decade from now, you can see that the U.N. projects some European countries to start hitting a median age of 50 or higher. This includes countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece, and then later Germany, Poland, Bosnia, and Croatia.

The UK, France, Ireland, Scandinavia, and former Soviet countries will be younger – but only slightly so. Median ages in these places by 2060 will be in the early to mid-forties.

THE AMERICAS

Populations in North and South America are also graying fast, though not quite at Europe’s pace.

Here’s a similar map of the Americas that highlights median age between 1960 and 2060, based on U.N. projections.

Chile and Brazil, in particular, are trending older. Meanwhile, Canada is not far behind with an expected median age of 45 in 2060. Interestingly, the United States is anticipated to only hit a median age of 42 by 2060, which is lower than almost all Western countries.

While this makes the U.S. look younger in comparison, the country will still experience the same type of economic burden from an aging population. In fact, it’s expected that the population of Americans older than 65 years will nearly double from 48 million to 88 million over the coming three decades.

Jamie Dimon Should Learn About Lemons

By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at

A tale of two James".

What does this guy:

Captain James Cook

...have in common with this guy:

Two things:

1. Same first name, and


2. similar opportunities.

Let me explain.

Captain James was probably just another ruffian salty with poor hygiene and bad teeth. But you know what the catalyst to his fame was? And by extension what turned muddy old Britain into an empire?

These:

You see, the thing holding back Captain Jamie from extended ocean going voyaging was a nasty disease called scurvy. We know now that Jamie was dead eager to get out there and bring nasty European diseases to natives in faraway lands and upon arrival announce, "By George it"s nice and lush here, we"ll take it."

And so when Scottish physician James Lind figured out via controlled experiments that, in fact, a diet including vitamin C rich foods cured this pesky disease, the advantage presented to sailors was enormous. After all, those poor sods used to routinely lose up to 60% of their crews to scurvy on voyages.

Imagine setting out knowing such odds.

Da Gama, for instance, lost 116 if his 170 crew, and Magellan 208 of his 230. You"d have better odds skulling a bottle of Absolut and then playing chicken with Mack trucks on a freeway.

It took the Brits about 40 years to put this knowledge to good use, but it has been argued by historians to have been a catalyst to the founding of the British Empire. At the time, there were plenty other countries who could quite easily have stacked up some lemon juice in the hull, set sail, and begun planting flags. But they didn"t.

Isn"t that amazing? The bloody British Empire owes its fortunes to the humble lemon. And, by golly, old Jamie Cook took advantage of that didn"t he? And the rest, as they say, is now history.

And this brings me to the other Jamie.

You see, Jamie (the old Brit Jamie), used something quite revolutionary at the time to alter the course of history and become a major player in it.

And Jamie (the not so old yank), Captain of the JPM ship has a similar opportunity today.

It"s why he should learn about lemons.

It seems he knows little about modern day "lemons" and their properties. Here"s some major ignorance points he shared with us all on his views just recently.

I think Alex Gurevich said it best:

I was mentioning this all to my lovely wife the other night, and you know what she said?

She said that if he was a she (Jamie that is), he probably wouldn"t be so arrogant and may look at the manual. Which in this case is, of course, Satoshi"s white paper.

And, as usual, she"s right. When we got our last DVD thingy player she immediately pulled out the manual to learn about how it all works so that when she wants to, she"ll be able to play exactly what she wants without delay and mess and fuss.

Me? I stabbed away at the buttons, safe in the knowledge that even if I"m trying to get the Blu-ray to play, I"ll probably get the USB figured out, and who knows what excellent films are on the thumb drive I"ve shoved in there.

I console myself with the fact I"m male, and as such, reading the manual is against my religion. But I tend to make up for it by diving in and learning by doing.

Jamie, bless him, isn"t even prepared to do either, and that"s fine.

It just means that when Bitcoin hits another all time high and history books are written (by the robots, of course), he won"t even make the pages. He"ll simply be like all those other sailors in Portugal, Spain, France, and the Netherlands who, in the 1800s, were sailing around at the same time Captain James Cook was.

And you know what? We don"t know anything about them, and neither will future generations know anything about the present Captain of the USS enterprise JPMorgan"s Jamie "I don"t know isht about Bitcoin" Dimon.

And that"s probably how it should be.

- Chris

"Do just once what others say you cannot do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." — Captain James Cook

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Liked this article? Then you"ll probably like my other missives on

this topic as well. Go here to access them (free, of course).

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Where Private Security Outnumbers The Police

Private security guards have become a common sight across our society, whether they"re escorting cash in transit, patrolling shopping malls, conducting screening at airports or protecting VIPs. In many places, the guards dress like police officers and are equipped with firearms.

As Statista"s Niall McCarthy notes, private security is booming and the sector is worth approximately $180 billion, a number that"s expected to increase to $240 billion by 2020. That"s greater than the GDPs of 100 countries including Portugal, Romania and Hungary. An estimated 20 million workers are employed in the private security sector while its biggest company, G4S, has 585,000 employees and revenues of nearly $10 billion.

Research conducted by the Guardian has found that half of the planet"s population lives in countries where there are more private security workers than police officers.

You will find more statistics at Statista

India and South Africa have glaring disparities while in the U.S., there are over 1.1 million private security guards compared to 666,000 police officers.

Things are far more even in Germany, though private security still has a slight edge over the Polizei by a margin of 2,000.

When companies like Blackwater (now called Academi) flocked to Iraq more than a decade ago to fulfill lucrative contracts, the industry really started flourishing.

However, increasing levels of wealth and growing global inequality have proven the real driving forces behind its inexorable rise. The global pool of super rich individuals is bigger than ever, resulting in heavy demand for services like alarm monitoring and armored transport. That demand isn"t going to slacken anytime soon with the private security sector growing 6 percent every year.

Spanish Bond Yields Plunge To Record Lows As 'Economy Improves' (Just Don't Tell The Nation's Youth)

Spain’s two-year bond yields have collapsed to a record low -35bps this week and Portugal"s followed suit, plunging near record low levels as Draghi"s "whatever it takes" has benefitted all those front-running bondholders but left youth unemployment hovering still near record-high levels.

As a strong euro weighs on the region’s inflation outlook, it makes it harder for the European Central Bank to end quantitative easing and negative interest rates, said Peter Chatwell, head of European rates strategy at Mizuho International Plc in London, and sure enough today"s reports that Draghi"s Jackson Hole appearance will be a nothing burger has sparked more anticipation that QE isn"t ending anytime soon, despite better-late-than-never complaints from the Germans.

"Whatever it takes" to keep asset prices high!

Foxconn To Get $230,000 In Incentives For Every Wisconsin Job Created

To much fanfare, President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, best known for making the iPhone, will build a new plant producing LCD panels in Wisconsin that will bring thousands of jobs to the state. On the surface it"s a great deal: in what"s being called the largest economic development project in state history, Foxconn plans to build a $10 billion plant that will eventually employ as many as 13,000 people, according to the White House and Gov. Scott Walker.

"It starts today with this investment in Wisconsin," Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said at announcement in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

The plant is expected to open in 2020 and be on a 20 million square-foot campus on at least 1,000 acres, a campus Walker"s office has dubbed "Wisconn Valley" according to the Wisconsin State Journal.  The plant could be the first of several facilities the company intends to build in the United States and will start with 3,000 employees, a staff that could eventually grow by 10,000.

Furthermore, Walker"s office projected the project would create at least 22,000 "indirect and induced jobs" throughout Wisconsin and will generate an estimated $181 million in state and local tax revenues annually, including $60 million in local property taxes.

In making the announcement, Trump was near-euphoric: “This is a great day for American workers and manufacturers and for everybody who believes in the concept and the label ’Made in the USA,” the president said. “The construction of this facility represents the return of LCD electronics and electronic manufacturing to the United States, the country that we love, that’s where we want our jobs,” he continued.

Trump gave himself credit for the deal: “To make such an incredible investment, [Foxconn Chairman Terry] Gou put his faith and confidence in the future of the American economy,” the president said. “In other words, If I didn’t get elected, he definitely would not be spending $10 billion.”

The Foxconn chairman validated Trump"s boast, crediting the president with spurring the investment: "I met you three times. Each time you emphasized the importance of manufacturing in America and providing high-skilled jobs for American workers," Gou said about Trump. He also explained why here, and why now: “Why do it here? TV was invented in America, yet America does not have a single LCD factory. We are going to change that. And it starts today with this investment in Wisconsin. This is a win-win-win strategy,” Gou said, adding he is “committed to great, great jobs for American people.”

According to the State Journal, the deal with Foxconn was "a culmination of many months of discussion" between a team of Republicans from the White House, Wisconsin and Foxconn officials, a White House official said. The negotiations included Trump, his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief-of-staff Reince Priebus, Ryan and Walker.

* * *

And while superficially the agreement is a slam dunk for both Wisconsin, and US workers - especially in a high-tech sector that has over the years shifted to China - reading between the lines of the deal makes one wonder who is getting the best deal. 

While a White House official said there will be no new federal programs to provide new incentives for Foxconn to build in Wisconsin, he added that the company could be eligible for existing incentives offered by the federal government.

What subsidies? The "incentive package" contemplated as part of the Foxconn deal will total $3 billion over 15 years, including $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for job creation; up to $1.35 billion in state income tax credits for capital investment and up to $150 million for the sales and use tax exemption. In other words, just over $230,000 for each new job that Foxconn may (or may not) create.

To some this is a problem: "The bottom line is this company has a concerning track record of big announcements with little follow through. Given the lack of details, I’m skeptical about this announcement and we will have to see if there is a legislative appetite for a $1 to $3 billion corporate welfare package," Sen. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said, referring to the company"s 2013 announced plans to build in Pennsylvania that never materialized. Fitchburg Democratic Rep. Jimmy Anderson blasted the deal as a multibillion-dollar handout" and said "taxpayers should not be subsidizing private corporations at the expense of our children, school and roads."

Yet not all Democrats blasted the deal: lawmakers from the region where Foxconn is expected to locate were more receptive to the news. Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, called the news "a great thing for southeastern Wisconsin;" Barca hailed it as "an exciting opportunity." Barca, D-Kenosha, said he met with Foxconn officials earlier this month and has been in touch with the Walker administration about its discussions with the company. "I"ve heard that they are family-supporting jobs and that the wages, on average, are actually more on the high end of the spectrum," Barca said.

However, besides one"s view on incentives - which ultimately have to be funded somehow by taxpayers - there is another potential problem: this is not the first time Foxconn has come out with bombastic promises to create US jobs, only to quietly reneg on its pledge.

In 2013, Foxconn said it would spend $30 million to build a plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Then-Gov. Tom Corbett (R) personally helped craft the deal and hailed the plan in a statement, saying “Pennsylvania is once again leading the way through integrating technology into manufacturing.” The plant didn’t get built. The next year, Foxconn announced a $1 billion investment in Indonesia. The year after that, $5 billion in India. Though the announcements caused many excited headlines, the ambitious plans never came to fruition, according to an investigation published in March.

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a group that advocates for favorable manufacturing trade policies, applauded the Trump administration for trying to bring consumer electronics manufacturing to the U.S., but said he’s skeptical of Wednesday’s news. “I’ll be excited about this Foxconn announcement when I see actual paychecks going to workers in Wisconsin,” Paul said.

Furthermore, Gou has regularly made noise about bringing a Foxconn factory to the United States. Earlier this year, the company said it was considering several states for a new plant that would make digital display panels. An administration official said the deal had been in the works for months, with talks being led by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. At a speech in Wisconsin in June, Trump hinted an announcement could be on the horizon. "Just backstage, we were negotiating with a major, major, incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions, and I think they’re going to give the governor a very happy surprise very soon,” Trump said.

Whether or not the deal is real or just another mirage, remains to be seen, but another question involves relative wages: it is clear that Foxconn would not pursue US expansion if the economics were not right. Surely the generous incentives were a key part of the calculus, but from a bigger picture perspective, one wonders if - in at least one industry - the US has not reached wage parity with China.

As Forbes recently reported, "average wages in China’s manufacturing sector have soared above those in countries such as Brazil and Mexico and are fast catching up with Greece and Portugal after a decade of breakneck growth that has seen Chinese pay packets treble." That"s average: wages for highly skilled sectors such as LCD production are far greater; in fact, it is distinctly possible that they are now higher in China than equivalent all-in comp (with incentives) in the US, especially for a company like Foxconn.

Foxconn factory

Recall that this is the same Foxconn that not so long ago Foxconn replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots due to rising labor costs.

In a statement to the BBC, Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that it was automating "many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations" but denied that it meant long-term job losses.

"We are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, and through training, also enable our employees to focus on higher value-added elements in the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.

"We will continue to harness automation and manpower in our manufacturing operations, and we expect to maintain our significant workforce in China."

... and perhaps add to it in the US, with the proper amount of sweeteners of course. Because if the wage equivalency tipping point between high-tech jobs in China and the US has indeed been reached (or is close to it) the consequences for both the Chinese and US economy would be dramatic. If that is the case, Foxconn"s first foray into the US may be just the beginning.

Which European Nation Suffers From The Most Drug-Induced Deaths?

As highlighted by the latest edition of the European Drug Report, Estonia is the country with the most drug-induced deaths per million population in Europe.

You will find more statistics at Statista

At 103 - 82 above the EU average - only Sweden comes close with 100 deaths. However, at the other end of the scale, as Statista"s Martin Armstrong points out, Portugal, where drugs were decriminalised back in 2001, had only 6 per million people.

Looking outside of Europe, Estonia"s problems are pulled into sharp relief by the rate in the United States. In 2016, there were a staggering 185 deaths per million.

USA Plunges To 114th 'Most-Peaceful' Nation On Earth

The 2017 Global Peace Index was released last week and it found that the world has actually become a slightly safer place during the past year. However, as Statista"s Niall McCarthy notes, the divisive presidential election in the United States and its fallout has resulted in peace levels in North America deteriorating.

161 countries were analyzed in the index and the U.S. actually experienced the greatest decline in peace out of all them, plummeting 11 places to 114th most-peaceful country.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Iceland was named the world"s most peaceful country with New Zealand and Portugal coming second and third respectively. Unsurprisingly, Syria is has the lowest peace rating worldwide.

Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen also find themselves at the very bottom of the peace list.

According to the index, global violence in 2016 came to $14.3 trillion in purchasing power parity terms, equivalent to 12.6 percent of the world"s GDP or $1,953 for every person.

14-Year Veteran Undercover Cop Exposes Truth About The Drug War: "I Used To Believe I Was Doing Good"

Authored by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,

Yet another police officer is speaking out against the drug war, this time in the United Kingdom. Former officer Neil Woods worked as an undercover drug cop for 14 years, infiltrating some of the most violent gangs in Britain only to learn his tactics were worsening the drug epidemic. Now, he advocates ending the drug war and decriminalizing drugs as he admits his own role in fueling violence and the proliferation of narcotics.

Woods recently spoke with the Independent to make his case and recount the struggles he faced enforcing the British government’s drug war. He was first enlisted by the Home Office to tackle the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s, an effort that apparently ‘pleased the crown.’

Woods says the tactics he helped develop only exacerbated drug-related crime.

“The first place I was posted was in Derby and it wasn’t actually that difficult,” he says. “There were some proper gangsters selling crack and heroin but they weren’t used to the tactic, so although it was a bit scary it wasn’t tremendously difficult because they weren’t expecting it.”

By bringing in new police tactics, however, the dynamics started to change because, as he says, “the thing the about undercover work is that it doesn’t take long for criminals to learn the tactics.”

Woods recounted several close-call experiences, including one where he was forced to consume amphetamines to prove his credibility. In another, a dealer could sense Woods was a cop and repeatedly pressed him on it before he used intimidation tactics to neutralize the situation.  Though he escaped unscathed, he often put his life on the line only to find his work was futile.

“The ultimate defence against the development of police tactics is an increased use of violence to intimidate the community in which undercover police officers move,” he explained, describing the effects of government efforts to curb drug use.

As the drug war raged on, drug gangs became even more extreme, and Woods began to realize he wasn’t helping.

“I knew that I couldn’t win early on,” he told the Independent. “But I kept being tempted back into it because I was good at my job. The police departments would say ‘Woodsy, we need you. These gangsters are even nastier that the other ones. They’re burning people to death. They’re using rape as a weapon.”

Ultimately, however, he accepted his inability to make a difference as a cop.

“[I]t was because of me that organised crime was getting nasty. I was developing the tactics. I put dealers in prison for over 1000 years and I only disrupted the heroin supply for two hours. Policing can’t affect the demand so policing drugs is completely futile. I can’t emphasise that enough. More people die and it gets more violent. Drugs have got stronger and cheaper and more varied since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.”

He also described his experience getting to know drug addicts as he worked undercover. Asked what the biggest misconception about them is, he explained:

“When I went into policing I thought addicts had made the mistake of trying drugs and had no willpower to stop. Actually, problematic drug users – or at least all the ones I knew – were self medicating. Most of the heroin users I knew were self-medicating for childhood trauma, whether physical or sexual. As an undercover officer I spent a great deal of time getting to know these people. The more I knew someone the more I could manipulate them. They’re like puppets. And they trusted me and saw me as a peer.”

Describing one female victim of childhood sexual abuse, he explained, “To the law, she’s a criminal to the law and I as an agent of the state was there to capture people like that. But they were caught in the crossfire between the police and gangs.”

Though Woods doesn’t advocate a “free for all” on drugs, he does believe the war on them must end. “The answer is to regulate drugs and take the power away from organised crime,” he argues. “The illicit drugs market is worth £7billion a year. Our communities are ruined by organised crime intimidating populations to protect themselves so we need to regulate the drug supply like we do with alcohol.”

He cites Switzerland’s establishment of controlled heroin injection centers in the 1990s as an example, an approach recently adopted in Canada, as well. He also cites Portugal, which has had great success with his policy of decriminalization.

Woods seeks to live by his principles to undo the damage he helped inflict on drug-riddled communities by speaking out against past failed policies.

Woods launched the U.K. version of  Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization of officers who advocate against the war on drugs. There is also an American LEAP that works toward the same goal.

“…I used to risk my life doing the work because I used to believe I was doing good,” he says.

“Now I realise everything I did only caused harm. Now, I feel duty bound to continue taking risks because it’s a matter of principle.”

Outrage After At Least 5 EU Nations Elect Saudi Arabia On UN Women's Rights Council

In what may have been the biggest trolling of the United Nations in recent history, Saudi Arabia was elected via secret ballot in the UN Economic and Social Council to the 45-member UN Commission on the Status of Women last week. According to Reuters, twelve other countries were also elected by the council in Geneva to serve for a four-year term, ending in 2022: Algeria, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Turkmenistan, Ecuador, Haiti and Nicaragua.

The news promptly sparked mocking and ridicule. UN Watch, a human rights organization monitoring the performance of the United Nations, strongly condemned the appointment of Saudi Arabia to post,citing Riyadh’s poor women’s rights record and widespread gender inequality.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief. It’s absurd,” Hillel Neuer, the UN Watch chief, said.

Every Saudi woman “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars,” Neuer added.

Who voted for Saudi Arabia? At least 5 EU nations based on UN Watch math: "Neuer said that seven of the 54 council states did not vote for Saudi Arabia, and that, based on his count, five of the 12 EU states on the council voted in favor of Saudi Arabia. It received the least amount of votes out of all of the 13 newly approved members, he added."

At least 5 EU states voted FOR the Saudis.
Belgium?
Czech?
Estonia?
Finland?
France?
Germany?
Greece?
Ireland?
Italy?
Portugal?
Sweden?
UK? pic.twitter.com/e4FPK1PgMB

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 23, 2017

Twitter users were just as amazed at the news:

@HillelNeuer@UN_CSW@UNECOSOC I wish I could find the words to express how I feel right know. I"m "saudi" and this feels like betrayal.

— kh.oz (@khuludAu) April 23, 2017

Absurd! UN couldn"t have done bigger injustice to women"s cause
UN Elects KSA to Women"s Rights body https://t.co/Nk2ecKmxc0 via @unwatch

— Baqir Sajjad (@baqirsajjad) April 23, 2017

Insane! Saudi Arabia is elected chieftain over women"s rights by U.N? A country where women aren"t allowed to drive? https://t.co/mZZHfQvXGa

— Luna Safwan (@LunaSafwan) April 23, 2017

Do I understand this correctly? Saudi Arabia is elected chieftain over women"s rights by U.N? A country where women aren"t allowed to drive?

— Yradur (@nacktepoesie) April 23, 2017

According to its website, the CSW with Saudi Arabia now its latest official member, is aimed at "promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women,"according to its website. Saudi Arabia’s bid to be elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women was made in September 2016. At the time, the country referred to its record on women’s rights protection, which goes “in accordance with Sharia, which guarantees fair gender equality.”

No joke: Saudi Arabia is running for the UN Human Rights Council—and their campaign brochure cites the Saudi record on. . . women"s rights. pic.twitter.com/2xqO62V1GS

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 22, 2016

“Saudi discrimination against women is gross and systematic in law and in practice. Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia bans women from driving cars,” Neuer raged. “Why did the UN choose the world’s leading promoter of gender inequality to sit on its gender equality commission?”

While the answer was unclear, it involves a dollar sign, lots of zeroes and even greater promises for future "investment" in said 5 EU countries.

Visualizing America's $18 Trillion Economy (In 3 Stunning Maps)

The United States has a $18 trillion economy, which makes it the world’s largest by GDP.

To show its tremendous size, we previously published a visualization of the global economy that carved the world’s economic production into slices based on each country’s contribution to GDP. While this visualization helps to show how large the U.S. economy is in comparison to other nations, it still doesn’t seem to tell the full story.

After all, the United States is geographically vast and diverse, and population is spread out and unevenly distributed. This means production and innovation are both concentrated in some areas of the country, while other parts are clearly more rural.

How can we account for these differences to get a more accurate view of the U.S. economic engine?

3 MAPS TO VISUALIZE AMERICA’S $18 TRILLION ECONOMY

Luckily, Mark J. Perry from AEI’s Carpe Diem blog has done some heavy lifting here to help us better understand the size and scope of America’s economy activity.

Here’s three maps that will make you think:

The first map redraws state borders to make seven “mega-states” that each have individual economies the size of major countries. California, for example, has an economy the size of France. The whole Northeast has an economy the size of Japan, and so on.

But even states are very diverse in geography – for example, Arizona has 6.7 million people, but more than two-thirds of those people live in the Phoenix metro area.

The second map compares the economies of metropolitan areas with entire countries. As you can see, the aforementioned Phoenix metro area has similar economic output to Portugal.

Meanwhile, the whole corridor from New York through to Washington, D.C. is as big as Canada, Iran, Czech Republic, and Sweden combined.

The final map builds on this idea, showing that half of America’s economic output comes just from a selection of metropolitan areas. The other half of America’s $18 trillion economy is based in the large swaths of land in between, including thousands of rural areas, villages, towns, and cities.

French Prime Minister Argues For United States Of Europe, With Its Own Military

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, wants to transform the EU into the United States of Europe, complete with its own European defense force.

Curiously, Valls specifically says “We cannot build a United States of Europe”, but that is precisely what he wants to do.

“Member states have a choice: give up on the EU or transform it,” writes Manuel Valls.

Redefining Europe

Please consider Brexit Vote Pushes Europe to Redefine Itself, by Manuel Valls.

Let us face facts: the European project is in trouble. With the growing threat of terrorism, the refugee crisis, lacklustre economic growth and unemployment, the turmoil in Europe is unprecedented. Added to these, the Brexit vote deeply questioned the very meaning of Europe.

The other 27 member states of the EU have two options (this was the subject of my debate with Jean-Claude Juncker at the Jacques Delors Institute last week): either we give up and leave the European project to a slow but certain death, or we transform the EU.

Reasserting our European identity also means coming to terms with the fact that there are borders — that Europe starts and stops somewhere.

Too often the EU has appeared to be preoccupied with unnecessary regulation. Transforming Europe also means that member states must henceforth focus on the essentials, primarily defence and security — in Europe, of course, but also in the neighbouring region of the Middle East. The French army is already doing more than its fair share: it cannot remain the de facto European army forever. France expects Europe to implement a common security strategy, with fully operational border guards and an electronic system for travel authorisation of the kind already operated by the US.

Finally, transforming Europe means making a clear choice to foster growth that does not only depend on the European Central Bank’s monetary policy. Europe must finance new projects and invest in digital and environmental innovation more than it does already.

These sectors must be enabled to grow and to face competition from countries that have no scruples about protecting their own industries. The time for naivety is over.

For this reason, the negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) cannot carry on as they have been. If the EU is to grant market access to American companies, there has to be reciprocity.

The European market must not be a social jungle, where people are set against one another. Nor can it be a tax jungle. It is unacceptable for multi­national companies to do everything in their power to avoid paying tax in the countries in which they make profits. The recent ruling of the European Commission on Apple’s tax affairs was courageous and welcome, therefore. At the same time, member states must progress towards common European tax rates.

We cannot build a “United States of Europe”— each country has its own history, language and culture. But we can construct a sovereign Europe, a federation of nation states, strong and unashamed. We will not be the generation that buries the European project. We owe it to our young, who, for the most part, remain deeply attached to the European project. So are we.

Valls Wish List

1. Higher taxes


2. Unified tax rates (striking at Ireland and Brexit)


3. More tariff protections


4. More government spending, especially on environmental projects


5. A Sovereign Europe


6. A Federation of Nation states (all having to do the same thing at the same time)


7. Common defense system and an European army


8. Fully operational border guards

Hey, let’s just do all that and not call it the United States of Europe.

The main thing Valls got correct was “Too often the EU has appeared to be preoccupied with unnecessary regulation.”

Ironically, Valls proposed regulation in at least a half-dozen areas. and it won’t stop there.

What about agricultural tariffs to preserve the French way of Life? Valls wants to keep those for the sole benefit of French farmers at the expense of everyone else.

Great Nannycrat Transformation

Brexit happened precisely because the EU has been progressing along the lines Valls wants. Citizens are fed up in the UK, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and France, over various things.

Politicians like Beppe Grillo and the five-star movement in Italy, Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, and Victor Orban in Hungary feed off nonsense like Valls presented.

In Austria, anti-immigration presidential candidate Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party (FPOe) is ahead in polls. The election, scheduled for October 2 was rescheduled to December 4 due to problems with glue.

Problems with Glue

There are problems with glue all right.

Ireland is upset over taxes, the UK, Hungary, France, and Austria over immigration, Greece and Portugal over austerity, and Italy questions the Euro itself.

Valls did not address inane work rules in France, Greece, and Italy. Will those go away with more glue?

Instead of addressing obvious productivity issues, Valls concludes the EU needs an army.

The entire EU project is at risk of becoming unglued precisely because politicians like Valls, EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, and German chancellor Angela Merkel want to force more glue and more regulations into the system when the eurozone cannot remotely agree on a banking union, bailouts, a currency union, or a fiscal union.