War
Can the Russian invasion of Ukraine be avoided in the first place? Definitely, but the conflict was never about Ukraine to begin with. Russia was engaged in a bold brinkmanship game with the United States and NATO over their respective sphere of influence. And Ukrainian President Zelensky was foolish enough to believe that Russian Vladimir […]
... written on Mar 17 2022After the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions on Russia, it triggered a massive devaluation of the country’s currency – ruble. Russians lined up at ATMs to withdraw their money. The Bank of Russia immediately hiked the interest rates to 20% to slow the withdrawal, as the ruble plunged 30% against the US dollar after the […]
... written on Mar 12 2022Forget US$100 crude oil. We have passed that. Crude oil has already hit US$130 a barrel. Chances are the commodity will stay above 100 bucks as long as the Russia-Ukraine war does not de-escalate. And it appears the worst is yet to come. When will the Western powers realize that sanctions will not work on […]
... written on Mar 08 2022China is arguably the biggest winner in the current Russia-Ukraine war. And if it’s true that senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as claimed by the New York Times (which has been rubbished by Beijing), it means Beijing […]
... written on Mar 04 2022Colgate-Palmolive CEO Noel Wallace has warned American consumers to get ready to pay 10 bucks for a tube of toothpaste. Consumer goods companies like Colgate has started increasing prices last year as a result of rising war material costs and labour shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Russia-Ukraine war will certainly escalate the […]
... written on Mar 02 2022Putin might be a mad dictator to the Western countries, but he is not crazy, let alone stupid. On the contrary, he could be smarter than the U.S. and NATO, based on his political chess game so far. He tactically recognized the independence of two self-proclaimed and pro-Russian republics in eastern Ukraine, before sending troops […]
... written on Feb 25 2022With Ukraine surrounded in the north, east and south, the shelling and mortar fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine had begun. The attacks, including a car bombing, were quickly blamed on the Kremlin. Western leaders and Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of orchestrating the havocs to justify an […]
... written on Feb 22 2022When China sent two warships – Type 052D destroyer “Hefei” and Type 071 amphibious ship “Jinggangshan” – to deliver aid to Tonga and the Solomon Islands, they had to sail through the Arafura Sea between New Guinea and Australia. The Chinese Navy also knew that the Australian military would not let them pass by without some sort […]
... written on Feb 21 2022Donald Trump had been booted and Joe Biden has been crowned. The United States has seen a change of its president. Following the footstep of his predecessor, president Biden has continued the tech war against Chinese tech companies. Americans are being banned from investing in Chinese firms, including Huawei, China Mobile and even China General […]
... written on Feb 18 2022Stocks dropped on Friday – the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled 503.53 points while the technology Nasdaq Composite fell almost 3%. Oil prices, meanwhile, jumped with energy stocks like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips gained more than 2%. Defence stocks such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin jumped 4.5% and 2.8% respectively. But shares of travel […]
... written on Feb 13 2022
