The Far-Right In Germany | Depress Like It’s 1929 | Silent Pope Stays Silent

SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE
 

“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.” – Robert Cialdini

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – Ibid.

 
 
 
IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
 

Depress Like It’s 1929Loss of investor confidence in the monetary policies of developing countries is fueling fears of a new global economic crisis that could rival the financial panic of the 1930s. Friday’s Daily Pnut reported on Argentina’s deflated peso, which joins falling currency values in Brazil, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia and, of course, Turkey. The Turkish lira has lost 40 percent of its value this year, and some economists say that is but a preview of debt problems to come. Few experts are predicting imminent widespread crisis. However, what should be taken seriously is that the massive increase in global debt in the last ten years could eventually have a substantial impact on US exports, and that could send the stock market plunging.

During the last decade, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank were keeping interest rates low, thereby encouraging foreign investors in search of higher returns to freely lend to companies in emerging markets for massive infrastructure projects, from bridges, roads and ports to hospitals and power plants.Total debt is a whopping $169 trillion, over two times the size of the world economy. And now that bills are coming due, borrowers in Turkey and elsewhere are becoming less and less able to repay those loans, due in part to the Fed raising interest rates amid a healthier US economy. Money is fleeing Turkey, and last week Moody’s cut its credit ratings on 20 Turkish financial institutions, citing “a substantial increase in the risk” that banks would struggle to finance normal operations.

China Invests in Africa: Chinese President Xi Jinping, host to more than 40 African heads of state at a two-day China-Africa Cooperation Forum, announced Monday he is making available another $60 billion in aid and loans with no political expectations in return. Xi’s current pledge adds to the $60 billion he pledged Africa three years ago as part of his broader Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to link 65 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa through trade and infrastructure projects. The only African nation not competing for China’s money is Swaziland, also the only African ally of Taiwan still recognizing it as an independent country. Taiwan has fewer and fewer supporters worldwide as Beijing refuses to establish diplomatic ties with nations that recognize Taiwan’s independence.

In Xi’s keynote address to the forum Monday he said “China’s investment in Africa does not come with any political conditions attached and will neither interfere in internal politics nor make demands that people feel are difficult to fulfill.” One expectation that Xi apparently does want fulfilled is the notion that the Chinese government is simply trying to share its experience of rapid industrialization with underdeveloped countries. Xi could also be hoping to counter critics who say that with many of his infrastructure projects, he is luring poorer African countries into “debt traps,” saddling them with heavy debt burdens they will struggle to repay. But the chair of the African Union, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, said rather than viewing the investment as a “debt trap,” other countries should ask why they’re not assisting Africa as much as China. Kagame said the forum “can show the world how countries can work collaboratively at a time when issues like trade protectionism continue to brew,” a not too subtle dig at President Trump.

 
 
 
MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS
 

Technically Helping, But Also Not Really: A small German hard-line anti-immigration group had a brainstorm about Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The group posted a slick video of a refugee camp on Facebook, asking for donations to help the Syrians remain where they were instead of coming to Europe seeking asylum.The Pay to Stay initiative, started last year, is called the Alternative Help Association, or “AHA!” for short. (NPR)

Far-Right Growth in GermanyFar-right extremists in eastern Germany claim their popularity is growing. Saturday saw residents of the city of Chemnitz, state of Saxony, dressed like Nazis carrying signs with forbidden Nazi slogans, rampaging in the streets, mobs chasing after their dark-skinned immigrant neighbors. Chemnitz, called Karl-Marx-Stadt before the Berlin Wall fell, is among many eastern cities that saw their industries collapse after German reunification in 1990. Many citizens don’t trust the federal government, which is still struggling to bring up the standard of living in the formerly communist region. Far-right groups are capitalizing on that dwindling trust by spinning facts and making up stories. It’s working. For the first time ever, their Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won seats in the German parliament last fall, it’s largest percentage of votes coming from Saxony. (NPR)

Just When You Think You Forgot Nazis, They Ring A Bell: An organist for a church in Herxheim Am Berg, in Germany’s southwestern wine country, discovered one of the church’s bells had a swastika engraved on it with an inscription “Everything for the Fatherland — Adolf Hitler.” She refused to continue playing for services unless the Hitler bell was removed. Some two dozen other towns in Germany subsequently checked, discovered swastikas on their own church bells, and quickly got rid of them. But in Herxheim, many villagers dug in their heels, wanting to keep their bell. Now some are calling the organist a “traitor”. Remember, all politics is local. (NYT)

Silent Pope Stays Silent: In 2013 Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in six centuries to abdicate the papacy. He has remained in near seclusion in a Vatican City monastery, steadfastly maintaining a vow of silence, refusing to comment on any church matters. Many people had hoped to hear from Benedict after the release last week of a letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, calling for Pope Francis’s resignation amid allegations of a coverup of sexual misconduct that had reached the highest levels of the church. Benedict refused to speak about the matter, which is in keeping with his effort to maintain a low profile. But it’s also noteworthy because the letter specifically cites Benedict and Francis as knowing for years about the sexual misconduct of a now-disgraced prelate, Theodore McCarrick. The letter alleges that in 2009 or 2010, Benedict privately levied sanctions on McCarrick after years of warnings about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct. But Francis, the letter alleges, “did not take into account” those sanctions and instead made McCarrick his “trusted counselor.”(WaPo)

Poachers Continue To Be Awful: Botswana had been described as the last sanctuary for elephants in Africa. With armed and well-managed anti-poaching units, incidents of elephant slayings in the country were rare. Then one month after President Mokgweetsi Masisi was sworn into office in April, the government disarmed its anti-poaching units. Now, as the carcasses of 90 elephants without their tusks have been found near a famous Botswana wildlife sanctuary, the scale of poaching deaths is the largest seen in Africa. Ivory hunters continue to wipe out herds across the entire continent. And then there were none. (BBC)

America’s Eternal War: The commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, four-star general John Nicholson, is departing. At a change of command ceremony in Kabul on Sunday, General Nicholson made an emotional farewell speech, saying “It’s time for this war in Afghanistan to end,” outright calling on the Taliban (and indirectly the regional players, specifically Pakistan) to “stop killing your fellow Afghans.” (NYT)

 
 
 
NUTS IN AMERICA
 

– “Insulin’s High Cost Leads To Lethal Rationing: ‘It shouldn’t have happened,’ says Nicole Smith-Holt of Richfield, Minn., gazing at the death certificate of her son Alec Raeshawn Smith.” (NPR)

– “Glenn Greenwald, the Bane of Their Resistance: A leftist journalist’s bruising crusade against establishment Democrats—and their Russia obsession.” (New Yorker)

– “Trash, class, and free cigarettes: My life with The Jerry Springer Show” JE-RRY! JE-RRY! JE-RRY! (AVClub)

 
 
 
LOOSE NUTS: FASCINATING NEWS
 

– “First day of kindergarten? Chinese school welcomes kids with a pole dancer” One of her moves kind of looked like a dance in Fortnite…so it’s okay. (WaPo)

– “Kuwaiti shop caught sticking googly eyes on fish” Maybe it’s the fish trying to make us think it’s not sleeping. (BBC)

– “How Three Tokelau Teenagers Survived Being Lost in the Ocean for 51 Days: Three boys. One boat. Fifty-one days at sea. A harrowing story of unlikely survival.” (GQ)

– “Slightly More Than 100 Fantastic Articles: A list of nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time.” (Atlantic)

– “The New Reading Environment:  The op-edization of all writing should have rendered its traditional purveyors redundant. Why read a Times columnist when you can read the same opinion delivered with more style and energy almost anywhere else?” (n+1)

– “Is There a Spy Camera in That Bathroom? In Seoul, 8,000 Workers Will Check” Just when you thought it was safe to “go” in the water. (NYT)

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