The Unfolding Fallout of an Unhinged US
Canada, and Mexico, the USA’s two largest trading partners have been attacked with tariffs and sanctions, Canada is going to become a new US state, so too is Greenland apparently.
China, that holds $750 billion in US Trade Bonds (effectively holding the actual reins for US economic decisions) has been hit with tariffs over 200% or 75%, or 152% or whatever number it is today. Australia get’s a 10% whack.
NASA activities getting shut down, Women’s Health Initiative offices (ones that support cancer patients, dementia and more) to close, an already decrepit roads and bridges infrastructure country will see public works programs cut because, some guy that bought an electric car company off two inventors thinks that’s also a good idea.
The EU circle the wagons and China pretty much shrugs its shoulders, deciding what it might do instead – sell US Bonds causing the collapse of the US economy (probably not until they’ve secured some more business elsewhere in the world) but one thing China does have in spades that the US needs is rare earths for batteries. And computer chips – let’s not forget those. So that card is bound to be played pretty soon just as a nice reminder to the Trump offices.
Tourism bookings to the US have dropped by around 60%, especially since the ‘target any foreigner for deportation’ gang have started arresting tourists both at the border and inside the country.
And no we’re hearing hints of trumpian like ‘policies’ offered up in Australia’s election campaign (3rd of May).
How will this all end? Sadly for my friends in the USA, poorly
Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…
Read More >When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…
Read More >The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…
Read More >Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…
Read More >ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here. Some key points –…
Read More >South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…
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