- Retired Green Beret Warns "There Are Destabilizing Forces At Work Here"
As of this writing a tremendous number of things are happening in North Korea and Russia. Although these are not events that seem momentous, they are quite profound when taken into consideration with the grand scheme: the worldwide plot to form a state of global governance. These behind-the-scenes maneuverings are not in the forefront of the news; however, they are having effects within the nations mentioned and influencing their current actions.
Almost a month ago, it was reported that one of the foremost militia commanders in the separatist-controlled Donbass area of Eastern Ukraine was assassinated via car bomb. Then almost immediately afterward, just a few weeks later, the Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army of the Kiev government mysteriously died on duty of a “heart condition” although he was in his early fifties. These “tit for tat” actions stimulated a new wave of fighting in the Eastern Provinces.
The truce between the separatists and Kiev government has been violated without ceasing, primarily by the Ukrainian military under the direction of the US-sponsored president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. At this time, there is an uneasy “stalemate” between the U.S. and Russia in a proxy war between the U.S-backed Kiev government and the Eastern Ukrainian separatists supported by Russia.
Next, we have North Korea, where Kim Jong Un is ramping up the bellicose rhetoric against the U.S. Yes, we have heard it before, but this time it is a little different. On Monday, 45-year-old Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il was assassinated in Malaysia. Here is an excerpt of a report on it:
“North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s half-brother was assassinated Monday in Malaysia, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported early Tuesday, citing a government source. Kim Jong Nam was attacked by two unidentified women who stabbed him with “poisoned needles” at a Malaysian airport before fleeing, according to cable TV broadcaster TV Chosun.”
Fox News World, 2/14/17
Sounds “cut and dry” but examine the simplicity of the method of assassination (overly simplistic), and it yet becomes more complicated, as reported in another article:
“The two female and four male suspects in the killing of Kim Jong-nam are hired assassins who did not know each other before they were brought together for the murder plot, a Malaysian security source has told the Telegraph. The six suspects, most of whom are thought to be sleeper agents, were all living in Kuala Lumpur and were recruited and briefed for the hit by a secret agent point man or woman, the source, who did not want to be named, said. Lawmakers in South Korea earlier cited their spy agency as saying it suspected two female North Korean agents had murdered Mr Kim. US government sources also said they believed North Korean assassins were responsible.”
www.telegraph.co.uk 2/16/17
A very complex plot for North Korean agents, wouldn’t you say? It sounds pretty much “par for the course” for a Western intelligence agency, such as MI6 or the CIA. The bio of the half-brother does not leave room for any “intentions” as reported by the US and South Koreans for the half-brother to try and displace Kim Jung Un. The narrative is being “crafted” little by little in Western News Media sources, and take note of this excerpted report. The article Navy fleet commanders: The next conflict hotspot is going to be in Korea, was released by Business Insider regarding developments with North Korea:
“SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Two top Navy fleet commanders said Tuesday that the next potential conflict hotspot would likely be in Korea. “If there’s a fight tonight, it’s probably going to happen on the Korean peninsula,” said Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of 7th Fleet, in a panel discussion at the AFCEA West 2017 conference.”
As the anti-ICBM missile systems are emplaced in South Korea and possibly Japan, the North Koreans have been test firing more submarine-launched ballistic missiles and have increased the war-rhetoric. We view it from a “North Korea BS” perspective; however, it is a hotspot that is fostered by the globalists toward their own ends: a small piece in the puzzle but a potential flashpoint to trigger a world war. North Korea may very well be the vehicle they use to initiate hostilities that ends the map of the world as it is now and places the ball in their court for global rule.
Finally, we have what has been occurring with Russian diplomats. There is an excellent report by Stefan Stanford at All News Pipeline released on entitled Are Russian Diplomats Being Assassinated? Globalists Continue March Towards World War 3 As Russian Ambassador To The UN Mysteriously Dies In New York.
This report summarizes everything in astounding detail concerning the astonishing number of Russian Diplomats “buying the farm” since December of 2016. There are no coincidences in “statecraft,” specifically the business of assassinations and counter-intelligence operations that “mutate” into those lines…specifically referring to those sponsored by governments. These deaths do not even include other “accidents,” such as the death of Vladimir Putin’s chauffer last year who many believe was killed as a warning to Putin by Obama.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) is a major contributing factor to the chaos we’re seeing in Ukraine and Russia. Cool heads are prevailing right now, and we have a President who is determined to make inroads with Russia and reset the relations with all of the nations that the State Department has left in shambles. Still, there are forces at work here whose destabilizing efforts may lead to a different reaction than hoped for. As long as globalist oligarchs such as Soros and the Rothschilds are operating, we can bank on continued destabilization and the creation of hot spots in addition to the three outlined in this article.
- Size Matters: Visualizing The Tallest Building In Each State
The United States has some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, but their distribution is extremely uneven. Today’s infographic comes from Highrises.com, and it covers the tallest building in each state.
As Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins explains, New York City alone has 6,229 highrises – more than the next nine cities combined, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Miami, and Dallas.
Surprisingly, multiple states don’t have a single building over 200 feet (61 m) tall. The tallest building in Vermont is an 11-story apartment building called Decker Towers. South Dakota is nearly as quaint – the CenturyLink Tower in Sioux Falls is the tallest building in the state, but it’s also only 11 stories tall.
TOP TEN LIST: THE TALLEST STATES
Here is the building that tips the scale for each of the ten “tallest” states:
TOP TEN LIST: THE SHORTEST STATES
Here is what ranks as the tallest building for the “shortest” ten states (also includes D.C.):
WHAT IS THE TALLEST BUILDING IN EACH STATE?
Courtesy of: Visual CapitalistNot surprisingly, about 76% of these highrises are office buildings, with one of every three named after a bank. However, the tallest buildings in some of states have pretty unique purposes. The tallest habitable building in D.C., for example, is the lengthily-named Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is also the largest Roman Catholic church in North America.
The tallest building in Nevada is The Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the respective State Capitol buildings of North Dakota and West Virginia tower above any other skylines in those states.
- As Bitcoin Surges To Record High, China Prepares Its Own Digital Currency
Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Bitcoin hit an all-time high over $1200 today.
Traders are happy because the SEC is expected to rule on a Bitcoin ETF by March 11.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports China Is Developing its Own Digital Currency.
https://www.bloomberg.com/api/embed/iframe?id=fd7ef38e-47f1-446c-b2c4-1cf2875e2f85
After assembling a research team in 2014, the People’s Bank of China has done trial runs of its prototype cryptocurrency. That’s taking it a step closer to becoming one of the first major central banks to issue digital money that can be used for anything from buying noodles to purchasing a car.
At the same time as it builds up its own capabilities, the PBOC is increasing scrutiny of bitcoin and other private digital tenders. It doesn’t want a bitcoin bubble to blow up. And since currencies have historically been issued by the state, not private players, it doesn’t want to cede the cryptocurrency space to companies it has no control over.
Chinese people have embraced online payments for just about everything. To buy a can of Coke, thirsty commuters scan QR codes on their smartphones rather than feed coins into a vending machine. At Lunar New Year gatherings, money is exchanged via a few presses on a smartphone instead of crisp notes handed over in red envelopes.
All of that poses a challenge to the PBOC’s status as the central bank of both the digital and physical realms. So if you can’t beat them, join them.
“Getting to know more precisely how much banks lend, where the money goes and the pace of credit creation is key to curbing money laundering and making monetary policy more effective,” said Duan Xinxing, vice president of Beijing-based OKCoin Co., one of the country’s biggest bitcoin exchanges. Issuing digital currency will make it easier for the PBOC to monitor risk in the financial system and track transactions economy-wide, he said.
OKCoin is among cryptocurrency exchanges that has recently taken steps to halt bitcoin withdrawals amid efforts to clamp down on capital outflows.
In January 2016, the PBOC said it will have its own cryptocurrency “soon,” but there has still been no formal start date announced. In the meantime, there’s been strong advocacy from senior officials, including Fan Yifei, one of the PBOC’s deputy governors.
“Cutting costs is an obvious benefit, but the impact of shifting to blockchain-based digital money from the current payment structure goes beyond that,” said Larry Cao, director of content at the CFA Institute in Hong Kong. “There’s a potential you can pay anybody in the system, any bank, and any merchant directly. Blockchain will change the whole infrastructure. This is revolutionary.”
Real-time data
For the PBOC, using blockchain, the technology that underpins the digital currency bitcoin, will allow it to trace transactions and collect “real-time, complete and authentic” data to compile precise monetary indicators such as money supply growth, OKCoin’s Duan said.
“The transparency of economic activities in every corner in the country will significantly improve,” Duan said. “The central bank will have unprecedented knowledge of how the economy runs.”
So instead of relying on monthly surveys of businesses, or collations of spending from the statistics authority, the PBOC and therefore the government would have real-time readings on the pulse of consumers. Policies could then be fine tuned on a day-to-day, even hour-to-hour basis, giving an unprecedented level of precision to monetary management.
Capital Flight
Bitcoin is a primary means of capital flight out of China. How long will that last?
Here’s one key thought on bitcoin from the article: “OKCoin is among cryptocurrency exchanges that has recently taken steps to halt bitcoin withdrawals amid efforts to clamp down on capital outflows.”
When China launches its own cryptocurrency, will it ban Bitcoin transactions?
If so, what happens to the price of Bitcoin?
Contrary Indicators
The launch of a Bitcoin ETF reminds me of those waiting for the launch of JDSU Leap Options in 2000 so they could “load the boat”.
During the 1990s, JDS Uniphase stock was a high-flyer tech stock investor favorite. Its stock price doubled three times and three stock splits of 2:1 occurred roughly every 90 days during the last half of 1999 through early 2000, making millionaires of many employees who were stock option holders, and further enabling JDS Uniphase to go on an acquisition and merger binge. After the telecom downturn, JDS Uniphase announced in late July 2001 the largest (up to then) write-down of goodwill. Employment soon dropped as part of the Global Realignment Program from nearly 29,000 to approximately 5,300, many of its factories and facilities were closed around the world, and the stock price dropped from $153 per share to less than $2 per share.
Blockchain Technology
I like the blockchain technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin. Blockchain is perfectly suited for recording mortgages, deeds, autos, etc.
Title insurance companies will cease to exist, at least as stand alone title companies.
Scalability
Every transaction is recorded on the blockchain so the requirement of resources to process and store the information continually grows.
This poses a scalability issue for high volume transactions. Recording every payment would certainly constitute high volume.
Scalability Articles
- The Real Blockchain Scalability Challenge
- Waves Platform Implements New Blockchain Scalability Approaches
- Blockchain scalability
If blockchain can scale to the point where governments can ban cash and record every transaction, expect instant tax collection and loss of privacy.
Digital Downside
- The government will know where every penny is at every second.
- The government will know every monetary transaction real time.
- You will no longer be able to give the babysitter, gardener, bartender, a friend, or anyone else an extra penny without the government knowing.
- Sales tax collection and VAT tax collection will be instantaneous.
- Governments can impose negative interest rates and other confiscation schemes at will.
If cash is banned, the blockchain will record every penny you spend, and who you gave it to.
Money laundering will become much more difficult, but the cost will be a loss of privacy, threats of negative interest rates, and other cash confiscation schemes.
- 78 Seconds Of Farage "Red-Pilling"
Warning – feelings will get hurt as Nigel Farage exposes the "liberal left's hijacking" of the education process…
They have "indoctrinated an entire generation that any 'other' point of view is detestable and should be banned…"
Bonus Clip: Nigel Farage spoke at today's CPAC Conference…
Your Feelings Are Largely Irrelevant
Seriously, nobody who has already graduated college cares about your feelings. That means that when you complain to your boss because your co-worker mis-gendered you, he’s probably not going to bend over backwards to bandage your wounds. Given feelings are entirely subjective in nature, it’s completely unreasonable to demand everyone tip-toe around you to prevent yours from being hurt. The reality is that people will offend you and hurt your feelings, and they won’t stop to mop up your tears because they shouldn’t have to. Learning to accept criticism, alternative viewpoints, and even outright insults will make you happier in the long run than routinely playing the victim card.
You DO Have The Right To Live As You Please — But Not To Demand People Accept It
By contrast, you do have the right to live however you please, so long as it’s within the confines of the law. If you want to cross-dress, smoke marijuana, drink lots of alcohol, have lots of sex, and, yes, even go to school for gender studies, then by all means, go for it. Government should not be allowed to legislate people’s behavior as long as it doesn’t infringe upon someone else’s rights, but that doesn’t mean society isn’t allowed to have an opinion. You don’t have the right to demand people keep their opinions about your lifestyle to themselves, especially if you’re open and public about it. I have as much of a right to comment on the way you live your life as you do to actually live it. Your feelings are not a protected right, but my speech is.
The Only Safe Space Is Your Home
No matter where you go in life, someone will be there to offend you. Maybe it’s a joke you overheard on vacation, a spat at the office, or a difference of opinion with someone in line at the grocery store. Inevitably, someone will offend you and your values. If you cannot handle that without losing control of your emotions and reverting back to your “safe space” away from the harmful words of others, then you’re best to just stay put at home. Remember, though: if people in the outside world scare you, people on the internet will downright terrify you. It’s probably best to just accept these harsh realities of life and go out into the world prepared to confront them wherever they may be waiting.
- White House Bars CNN, NYT, Others From Media Briefing
Just a few hours after Trump warned during his CPAC speech that “we’re gonna do something about the media”, he did just that after the White House barred a number of news outlets from covering Sean Spicer’s Q&A session on Friday afternoon. Spicer decided to hold an off-camera “gaggle” with reporters inside his West Wing office instead of the traditional on-camera briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room according to press reports.
Among the outlets not permitted to cover the gaggle were various news organizations that Trump has singled out in the past including CNN, The NYT, The Hill, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, BBC, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News.
Several non mainstream outlets were allowed into Spicer’s office, including Breitbart, the Washington Times and One America News Network. Several other major news organizations were also let in to cover the gaggle. That group included ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Reuters and Bloomberg, however AP and Time have boycotted the event.
The White House Correspondents’ Association sharply criticized the decision.
“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” Jeff Mason, the association’s president, said in a statement. “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not,” he added. “The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”
The New York Times’ Peter Bakersaid he “can’t remember any press secretary from Clinton, Bush or Obama canceling briefing and handpicking small group for gaggle.”
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
CNN’s political reporter Sara Murray confirmed that CNN has been blocked from attending a White House press briefing this morning.
Today the White House is handpicking the news outlets they’re allowing into the gaggle with @PressSec. CNN was blocked from attending.
— Sara Murray (@SaraMurray) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
CNN, New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico shut out of White House gaggle with Sean Spicer today. WHCA protesting
— Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Looks like @BrianStelter was right when he pointed out Trump’s comments today “we’re gonna do something about the media” — CNN just blocked
— Jason Morrell (@CNNJason) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Some boycotted the event due to CNN’s treatment.
AP and Time boycotted the gaggle today because of the way it was handled.
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
While some – including recently accredited – Breitbart were allowed in…
ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX were all allowed in. https://t.co/joYrhveGXQ
— Sara Murray (@SaraMurray) February 24, 2017
Breitbart, Washington Times, One America Network got into the gaggle.
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This follows President Trump’s earlier remarks At CPAC against fake news.
Trump at CPAC: “I wouldn’t miss a chance to talk to my friends.”
Trump literally skipped last year’s conference: https://t.co/MHbptPcM2K pic.twitter.com/IXQg1sUqyl
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 24, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Here is Sean Spicer saying “You don’t get to just yell out questions. We’re going to raise our hands like big boys and girls.”
This really just happened.
Spicer: “You don’t get to just yell out questions. We’re going to raise our hands like big boys and girls.” pic.twitter.com/OAuf4y7pNp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 23, 2017
* * *
This move by The White House is in sharp contrast to what Spicer said in December (via HuffPo):
Sean Spicer, the senior communications advisor for Donald Trump’s presidential transition team and a leading candidate to become White House press secretary, said Thursday night that the incoming president would “absolutely not” kick out news organizations in response to critical coverage. This is an understandable fear given how the Trump campaign blacklisted nearly a dozen outlets through much of the election. In addition to denying some news organizations press credentials, the campaign sometimes placed unusual restrictions on journalists once inside. During an interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Spicer said Trump would not “bounce” reporters from the briefing room and “has a healthy belief in the First Amendment.”
…
“So if the New York Times does a scathing editorial on President Trump, they’re still going to let the New York Times reporters in the press briefing room and have access just the same as all the other news organizations,” Kelly asked.
“They’re in the [press] pool right now and they still have scathing editorials and pretty poor reporting,” Spicer responded.
“So yes, the answer to my question is yes?” she continued.
“Yes,” Spicer said. “Absolutely.”
We now expect most if not all of the presidential press corps to boycott all future White House media events, as the war between Trump and the media goes nuclear.
- The Revenge Of Comet Pizza
Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
Remember that one? It was about as weird as it gets. A meme generated out of the voluminous hacked John Podesta emails that some conspiracy connoisseurs cooked up into a tale of satanic child abuse revolving around a certain chi-chi Washington DC pizza joint. I never signed on with the story, but it was an interesting indication of how far the boundaries of mass psychology could be pushed in the mind wars of politics.
Sex, of course, is fraught. Sex and the feelings it conjures beat a path straight to the limbic system where the most primitive thoughts become the father of the most primitive deeds. In our American world, this realm of thought and deed has turned into a political football with the Left and the Right scrimmaging ferociously for field position — while the real political agenda of everything important other than sex lies outside the stadium.
The Comet Pizza story was understandably upsetting to Democrats who didn’t like being painted as child molesters. Unfortunately for them, it coincided with the bust of one Anthony Weiner — and his infamous laptop — disgraced former “sexting” congressman, husband of Hillary’s top aide and BFF, Huma Abedin. The laptop allegedly contained a lot of child porn.
That garbage barge of sexual allegation and innuendo couldn’t have helped the Hillary campaign, along with all the Clinton Foundation stuff, in the march to electoral loserdom. I suspect the chthonic darkness of it all generated the “Russia-did-it” hysteria that cluttered up the news-cloud during the first month of Trumptopia. The collective superego of America is reeling with shame and rage.
On the Right side spectrum stood the curious figure of Milo Yiannopoulos, the self-styled “Dangerous Faggot,” who has made a sensational career lately as an ideological provocateur, especially on the campus scene were he got so into the indignant faces of the Maoist snowflakes with his special brand of boundary-pushing that they resorted to disrupting his events, dis-inviting him at the last moment, or finally rioting, as in the case at UC Berkeley a few weeks ago.
Milo’s battles on campus were particularly ripe because his opponents on the far Left were themselves so adamant about their own brand of boundary-pushing along the frontier of the LGBTQ agenda. The last couple of years, you would’ve thought that half the student population fell into one of those “non-binary” sex categories, and it became the most urgent mission of the Left to secure bathroom rights and enforce new personal pronouns of address for the sexually ambiguous.
But then Milo made a tactical error. Despite all the mutual boundary-pushing on each side, he pushed a boundary too far and entered the final dark circle of taboo: child molesting. That was the point were the closet Puritan hysterics went in for the kill. This is what he said on a Web talk radio show:
What normally happens in schools, very often, is you have an older woman with a younger boy, and the boy is the predator in that situation. The boy is like, let’s see if I can fuck the gym teacher, or let’s see if I can fuck the hot math teacher, and he does. The women fall in love with these nubile young boys, these athletic young boys in their prime. We get hung up on the child abuse stuff to the point where we’re heavily policing consenting adults, grad students and their professors, this arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys the understanding many of us have about the complexities, subtleties, and complicated nature of many relationships. In the homosexual world particularly, some of the relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming-of-age relationships in which these older men help those young boys discover who they are, and give them security and provide them with love…. [Milo is shouted down by his podcast hosts]
So that was the final straw. Milo got bounced by his platform, Breitbart News, and went through the now-routine, mandatory, abject ceremonial of the televised apology required by over-stepping celebrities — though he claimed, with some justification I think, that his remarks were misconstrued. Anyway, I’m sure he’ll rebound on his own signature website platform and he’ll be back in action before long.
His remarks about the “coming-of-age” phase of life prompted me to wonder about the boundary-pushers on the Left, on the college campuses in particular, who are encouraging young people to go through drastic sex-change surgeries, at an age before the development of that portion of their frontal lobes controlling judgment is complete. Who are these diversity deans and LGBTQ counselors who lead confused adolescents to self-mutilation in search of some hypothesized “identity?” Whoever they are, this dynamic seems pretty reckless and probably tragic to me. There ought to be reasonable doubt that an irreversible “sexual reassignment” surgery may not lead to personal happiness some years down the line — when, for instance, that person’s frontal lobes have developed, and they begin to experience profound and complicated emotions such as remorse.
Our sexual hysteria has many more curious angles to it. We live in a culture where pornography, up to the last limits of freakishness and depravity, are available to young unformed personalities at a click. We stopped protecting adolescents against this years ago, so why should we be surprised when they venture into ever-darker frontiers of sexuality? It was the Left that sought to abolish boundaries in sex and many other areas of American life. And yet they still affect to be shocked by someone like Milo.
I maintain that there is a dynamic relationship between our inability to act on the truly pressing issues of the day — energy, economy, and geo-politics — and our neurotic preoccupation with sexual identity.
The epic amount of collective psychic energy being diverted from what’s important into sexual fantasy, titillation, confusion, and litigation leaves us pathetically unprepared to face the much more serious crisis of civilization gathering before us.
- Meet China's Biggest Oil Trader: At 39, He Generated $38 Billion In Revenue
Ye Jianming isn’t a name that rings many bells… yet. But, according to SCMP, it will, considering what he’s achieved so far in a country where the state firms take all. As Fortune recently wrote, when it ranked Ye #2 in its “40 Under 40” list, he runs a $42-billion-a-year oil business in China, (No. 229 on the Fortune Global 500), yet few in China know anything about the mysterious tycoon or the firm he created, CEFC.
Ye bought a collection of oil assets in his twenties and secured loans from state-owned banks to expand abroad, a privilege for a private company. CEFC has oil agreements in Kazakhstan, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Chad and has gone into ventures with state-owned giants to transport oil to China, making him a rare powerful private player aligned with the Chinese government.
Little else is known about Ye: as of this moment, he is the sole private entrepreneur to win a stake in an Abu Dhabi onshore oil concession (whose lifespan is 40 years) with 4%. British Petroleum and China National Petroleum Corp got 10% and 8% respectively.
Why would state giants like CNOOC and Sinopec Group tolerate that? Simple: Ye holds a “full” licence in China’s financial industry – covering insurance, brokerage, banking, trusts, commodities and asset management, alongside state-owned Citic Group and China Everbright Holdings. Yet what’s so different here from the hundreds of firms that are queuing up for an insurance license?
Well, the money helps: his empire, CEFC China Energy, has seen its revenue double to 263 billion yuan (US$38.3 billion) between 2012 and 2015, becoming the largest oil trader in China. That was before the company won a lucrative permit to import oil.
But most important and puzzling of all – according to SCMP – Ye is only 39 years old.
Ye is now venturing into Hong Kong. Last week, he announced the HK$600 million acquisition of listed Runway Global with the intention to make it a financial conglomerate. In October 2016, he paid HK$1.4 billion (US$180 million) for three floors at the Convention & Exhibition Centre in Wanchai. Before putting a price tag on Ye and Runway, one question needs to be satisfied. How did he manage all this? Or rather, who is he?
It’s a mystery.
Ye Jiangming, the 39-year-old CEO of CEFC China EnergyHe calls himself Ye Jianming. Mainland media found a different name. He said he started as a forest police officer in a tiny town in Fujian. Local journalists said he was a carpenter. He told Fortune Magazine his business took off in 2006 after buying oil trader Xiamen Huahang at auction, which was once owned by smuggling king Lai Changxing. He was then only 27. He said he was funded by investors in Hong Kong and Fujian.
Domestic newspapers questioned how Xiamen Huahang, which is owned by the Fujian government, was linked to Lai’s circle and ended up in auction. It’s the same dark cloud surrounding almost every high-flying private player from China.
Yet what makes Ye different is the structure of his company; it’s that of a state firm. The company has a Communist Party Committee, a Disciplinary Committee and a Youth League. It boasts a middle management that largely consists of party members. It set up two think tanks in Hong Kong – China Energy Fund Committee that sponsors events and research advocating China’s territorial claims, and the China Institute of Culture, that pledges its support for Taiwan’s reunification with mainland China.
Add to this a Czech news report that Ye was a deputy secretary general with close associations to the People’s Liberation Army, and speculation runs wild: CEFC is a shadow state firm set up to win deals in sensitive areas; CEFC is a business of the People’s Liberation Army; or Ye is the grandson of revered Marshall Ye Jianying. Ye denied any army links.
No less puzzling is its financing, that doesn’t quite seem to match its fame and connections.
On December 15, its Hong Kong subsidiary borrowed HK$600 million from state-owned Huarong International Financial Holdings to pay for the Convention Centre office. It’s paying 7.5% interest – triple what other commercial banks charge.
On February 18, Huarong said it loaned US$45 million (HK$349 million) to CEFC to fund its US$880 million investment in the Abu Dubai oil concession. That is conditional on CEFC signing a letter of intent with the Hainan branch of the State Development Bank for a loan to pay off the difference. Huarong is charging 8% interest – plus 1% transaction fee – rising to 12% in case of extension beyond six months. That’s almost double the prevailing bank rate.
Ye is also borrowing to acquire Runway. Guotai Junan will provide HK$320 million, or 53% of the acquisition cost. There is no information on whether Ye will pledge his controlling stake in Runway for that loan.
None of these amounts are Big Money. A better question is why a company as “strong” as CEFC, has to rely on loans, which charge far greater than market interest rates, rather than choose cheaper, prevailing market rates at commercial banks.
* * *
While the question swirl, perhaps some answers can emerge in his background.
In a recent piece, Fortune profiled how over the course of just one week last fall, CEFC China Energy became Prague’s hottest investor, buying the Czech Republic’s top soccer club, Slavia Prague; a Czech publishing house; a couple of Renaissance-era historic buildings; one of the country’s oldest breweries; and biggest of all, a controlling interest in Prague’s J&T Finance Group, making CEFC the first private Chinese company to own a European bank. The company’s spending totaled $1.5 billion when all was said and done.
The shopping spree played out against a noteworthy political backdrop. The Czech Republic’s leftist government was encouraging Chinese investment. And China was launching diplomatic efforts to expand its world influence by reviving the old Silk Road trading route through Central Asia into Europe.
CEFC may be privately owned, but in Prague it was a cog in the Chinese government’s plan, and happy to be. In fact, aligning itself with the government has been central to the company’s strategy to become China’s newest oil power. CEFC ranks #229 on the Global Fortune 500 list, with $42 billion in revenue in 2015, double its 2012 total.
Its global reach has continued to grow: CEFC now owns a couple thousand European gas stations, many bought from Kazakhstan’s state oil company, along with a one-million-ton oil storage system in Spain and France that expands China’s connections with the world oil supply.
Behind the strategy is CEFC’s founder, Ye Jianming, who ranks at No. 2 on the Fortune 40 Under 40 list this year, thanks largely to his company’s remarkable recent rise. “We closely follow the national strategies. So we‘ll map out our corporate strategy according to the national ones,” Ye told Fortune this September, in his first interview with a Western media outlet. He speaks matter-of-factly, describing CEFC’s plans the way an American CEO might on a roadshow with investors.
* * *
The 39-year-old Ye stands out as much for the intrigue around him as for his success. He bought oil assets in China while only in his twenties, rarely makes public appearances, and avoids the typical lubricants of Chinese business, alcohol and smoking. Reporters and researchers have also raised questions about about ties between Ye and CEFC and nationalistic elements of China’s People’s Liberation Army — connections that can confer power and prestige in China, but can make for awkward optics in the eyes of potential partners overseas.
Ye’s rise illustrates in vivid terms how tightly aligned China’s government and private companies continue to be, especially when doing business offshore, and also how similar the country’s private companies can look to their state-backed competition.
Ye doesn’t seek publicity for that, he says. He feels more comfortable staying home studying Confucius or Buddhism than attending business dinners, which he avoids by sending lieutenants in his place. He has black eyes, a strong rectangular face free of wrinkles, and swept-back black hair. He speaks quietly and punctuates the end of sentences with a brief silence before a concluding, Ahh.
Ye founded CEFC in his twenties. After a brief stint with the forest police in his home southern province, Fujian, he says he bought oil assets from auction once owned by a businessman named Lai Changxing, who fled to Vancouver in 1999 to avoid arrest after authorities discovered that he ran a large smuggling ring. (Lai was eventually convicted and sentenced in China for smuggling and bribery.) Ye got the funds for the purchase from wealthy investors in Hong Kong and Fujian, a province with a reputation for producing astute businesspeople. Ye pitched to those investors an oil business that would operate alongside China’s state oil companies, in the gaps those companies left open.
At the time, China was hungry for crude, but its state-backed companies were having difficulty closing some deals abroad. The optics of China’s state-backed giants marching into a country to buy and extract oil weren’t great for central Asian politicians. This paved the way for private, under-the-radar firms like Ye’s, which can strike oil deals in Europe and the Middle East where SOEs would bring political liabilities.
CEFC has signed agreements for oil rights or done deals in Kazakhstan, Qatar, Russia, Chad, Angola, and Abu Dhabi, and gone into ventures with China’s state-owned giants to transport oil and gas back to China. CEFC doesn’t have the right to sell directly in China, so it either stores the oil or sells it to the market through one of China’s SOEs.
After several years of economic malaise in Europe following the 2008 global banking crisis, European energy assets started coming up for sale. “They decided to sell their refineries and gas stations,” Ye says. “This wouldn’t happen in China. In China, oil exploration, refining and sales are all monopolized by the SOEs.” CEFC is building an energy storage and logistics system in Europe from its second headquarters in the Czech Republic to create an exchange between China, Europe and the Middle East. That, in turn, serves China’s ambitions to have overseas storage locations connected with world markets. The alignment with Beijing has paid off. CEFC’s won a license to import crude into China in the last year, a potentially lucrative venture. China is the world’s second-largest consumer of crude behind the U.S., but declining profits and margins at the country’s oil SOEs are increasing the pressure for reform.
* * *
CEFC says almost two thirds of its $42 billion in revenues last year came either from the agreements it has with foreign governments to oil rights, the oil and gas transportation networks it runs, or its oil storage business. Its Singapore-based oil-trading desk is also one of the biggest affiliated with a Chinese company. “The Chinese government now wants to reform, and they are inviting independent companies to play a bigger role in the industry,” says Oceana Zhou, a writer at commodities research firm Platts.
Ye’s seldom-used office in Shanghai includes traditional and modern Chinese touches: a three-foot lounging Buddha statue on his desk; an expressionist Mao painting; President Xi Jinping’s framed calligraphy from his time leading Ye’s home Fujian province 15 years ago. The office also has three separate desk phones, including a clunky red phone that appears similar to a “red machine,” an encrypted phone service used by the country’s largest state-owned companies to keep their conversations secure from prying foreign intelligence agencies. (The company says this phone is actually tied to CEFC’s internal executive line.)
And then there are the military connections.
CEFC’s culture emphasizes military-style regimentation and promotion. In the past, it hired former military officers as consultants and managers. CEFC’s hiring of former military brass and its Communist Party influences can be interpreted a couple different ways. In one, CEFC is a de facto tool for the state to cut deals around the world, which would make it one of many Chinese private companies expanding abroad with the help of unclear government relationships. In the second, CEFC really is a private player, but casts itself as close to the government because it’s good for business.
The second explanation appears more probable, though conversations with Ye don’t do much to clarify the blurry lines. Ye says CEFC may not even be an oil company in the future, and might instead focus on its fledgling investment bank division, which already has investments in the energy sector. Such a strategy would explain CEFC’s Czech investments. But those same investments were also in tandem with the government’s $4 trillion One Belt One Road foreign investment program.
“We have to look at geopolitics,” Ye says. “If one day the Czech Republic goes against China, we need to pull back our investments to rethink our strategies there.”
In late 2016, Ye also opined on the outcome of the US election: “Once Madame Hillary steps into her office, because she is anti-Russia … oil prices will be coming down,” he says. “Because Mr. Trump is pro-Russia … if he’s elected the oil price will go up.”
So far, the latter has failed to materialize.
At times, having close links to the government has created tensions for Ye. CEFC runs a think tank called China Energy Fund Committee. One of its analysts was Dai Xu, a former senior air force colonel. Writing under the pen name Long Tao in 2011, Dai advocated using force in the South China Sea, a hot-button issue in those contested international waters, where half a dozen countries claim territorial rights.
But it is Ye’s own potential military ties that have generated the most intrigue. After CEFC’s weeklong investing spree in the Czech Republic, Czech news organizations reported finding an old biography listing Ye as deputy secretary general of an association close to the People’s Liberation Army. That group, the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), bills itself as a forum to connect high-level military and political figures in China with those abroad. But it is essentially an influence and propaganda platform, writes Washington, D.C.-based researcher Mark Stokes of the Project 2049 Institute. Stokes says that related departments engage in political warfare, including spreading propaganda and recruiting potential intelligence sources, to serve goals including China’s ultimate aim of reunifying China and Taiwan.
A connection to this group would cast a shadow over the perception of Ye and CEFC in some countries where the company operates. But in conversation with Fortune, Ye denies having such ties. He says he was invited to become a director on CAIFC, but declined. He believes CEFC’s smaller partners in China have tried to inflate his role with the government for their own benefit, which is why his name appeared in the old biographies.
“Actually,” he says, “I’ve received invitations from the People’s Congress, the People’s Political Consultative Conference, associations related to foreign affairs, the institute of international relations in China….all to undertake some role or duty in their organization.” He says he declined all the invitations.Even without such ties, CEFC’s close alliance with the government is likely to continue to generate concern as the company grows. China’s desire to hoard crude oil for its strategic purposes is no secret. And the fresh-faced Ye has positioned himself in the middle of China’s economic and political desires — the exact place he wants to be.
With China set to dominate the global oil market, having surpassed the US as the world’s biggest importer of oil, not to mention Ye’s grand ambitions to gradually roll up the financial world with Beijing’s backing, keep a close eye on the low-profile 39-year old who is quietly becoming one of China’s most important people.
- California, Nestle, And Decentralization
Authored by Antonius Aquinas, annotated by Acting-Man's Pater Tenebrarum,
Goodbye, Socialist Paradise
Nestle USA has announced that it will move its headquarters from Glendale, California, to Rosslyn, Virginia, taking with it about 1200 jobs.
The once Golden State has lost some 1690 businesses since 2008 and a net outflow of a million of mostly middle-class people from the state from 2004 to 2013 due to its onerous tax rates, the oppressive regulatory burden, and the genuine kookiness which pervades among its ruling elites.
There has been a remarkable reversal of flow of people and businesses – but California’s ruling elite seemingly remains utterly clueless as to why this is happening and/or doesn’t seem to care. When people and businesses flee from such a well-developed region with such a favorable climate, one should realize that something is probably very wrong. Here is a link to a comprehensive study of the flight of businesses and a million middle class people (net) since 2008 (PDF).
A clueless Glendale official is apparently unconcerned about the financial repercussions of Nestle’s departure saying that it was “no big deal” and saw it as an “opportunity,” whatever that means!
The stampede of businesses out of what was once the most productive and attractive region in all of North America demonstrates again that prosperity and individual freedom are best served in a political environment of decentralization.
That the individual states of America have retained some sovereignty, despite the highly centralized “federal” system of government of which they are a part, has enabled individuals and entrepreneurs living in jurisdictions that have become too tyrannical to “escape” to political environments which are less oppressive.
The routes people aspiring to become small businessmen in California can take….
This, among other reasons (mainly air conditioning), led to the rise of the Sun Belt as people sought to escape the high taxes and regulations of the Northeast to less burdensome (and warmer!) southern destinations.
This can also be seen on a worldwide scale. The US, for a long time, had been a haven of laissez-faire economic philosophy, which, not surprisingly, became a magnet for those seeking opportunity and a higher standard of living.
No longer is this the case as increasing numbers of companies and individuals are seeking to avoid American confiscatory tax and regulatory burdens and move “offshore” or expatriate to more favorable economic climates.
2016 state income taxes – to this one must add a more than 8% sales tax in California, all of which comes on top of federal taxes, plus onerous regulations and extremely litigation-happy “activists”. The only area in which California’s citizens got lucky (via referendum) are property taxes. On the other hand, the state has become extremely real estate bubble-prone, and low property taxes are probably not offsetting the drawbacks of the enormous, malignant housing boom-bust cycles the population centers are experiencing – click to enlarge.
Decentralization – the Key to Liberty and Progress
The idea of political decentralization as a catalyst for economic growth has become a part of a “school of thought” in the interpretation of how Europe became so prosperous compared to other civilizations.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe for centuries was divided politically among numerous jurisdictions and ruling authorities with no dominant central state on the Continent.
The multitude of governing bodies kept in check, to a large degree, the level of taxation and regulation. If one state became too draconian, it would lose population to less oppressive regimes.
Just as important, Europe’s governing system was aristocratic and monarchical which has proven to be far more conducive for economic growth than democracies.
Germany shortly before its unification in 1871 – a patchwork of competing small states. Note that this was well after an initial wave of consolidation and centralization – a century earlier, Germany actually consisted of more than 370 independent territories! We previously discussed why highly decentralized polities are the best possible political dispensation for the common man and how extremely conducive they are to liberty and the progress of civilization in this brief missive on secession.
Map via genealogy.net
While the economic oppressed can escape among the various states, there is no avoidance from the wrath of the federal government unless through expatriation and that option has become less viable with those leaving still subject to tax obligations. This, fundamentally, is the crux of the problem and has been since the ratification of the US Constitution in 1789.
The chance that a totalitarian state such as California or the Leviathan on the Potomac would actually reform themselves or relinquish power through legislative means is a mirage. Nor will revolution work as revolutionaries while appearing altruistic, typically get a hold of the machinery of government to plunder society for their own self interest on a far grander scale than the supposed despots which they replaced!
The only viable option for the productive members of society to seek redress of state oppression is to argue, work, and eventually fight for political secession and the fragmentation of states as much as possible.
Decentralization is the only hope for those opposed to the modern, omnipotent nation state. Moreover, any notion or effort to salvage the current centralized political system must be abandoned.
After Donald Trump’s election, many on the political left in California have begun to talk about secession – normally an idea libertarians (and some conservatives) are more likely to be sympathetic to. One thing the presidential election showed quite clearly was that regardless of the winner, about half of the US population was always going to be deeply unhappy about the outcome. In a patchwork of numerous completely independent territories, people would be free to move to whatever area had the political dispensation they preferred. We confidently predict that socialist experiments would be few and far between if they had to depend entirely on voluntary participants. It should be no surprise that Europe’s socialists are all in favor of centralization and “harmonization” (the latter is new-speak for “let’s introduce the most onerous taxes and regulations everywhere, then no-one can escape our clutches”).
Conclusion – The Ideological Battle Comes First
Naturally, before the breakup of the nation state can become a reality, the ideological case for political decentralization must be made. Public opinion must be convinced of the superiority of a world consisting of many states. Such a cause, however, will be considerably difficult after generations have been raised and made dependent upon social democracy.
When Nestle and other oppressed businesses and individuals can easily escape the clutches of totalitarian entities like California and, more importantly, the most dangerous government on the face of the earth for freer destinations, then will individual liberty and economic growth be assured.
- Baffled WaPo Still Arguing That Only Dumb, White Men 'Approve' Of Trump
The Washington Post, still supremely perplexed by how President Trump managed to win the White House, is apparently even more confused now as to why his approval ratings stubbornly refuse to drop into the teens. Nevertheless, the disaffected mainstreamers at WaPo seem to derive some comfort from a handful of recent polls which all peg Trump’s “approval rating” at under 50%, a statistic they victoriously used to declare the following:
“Most Americans don’t think that President Trump is doing a good job.”
Of course, as Gallup pointed out last month, half of the Presidents that have held the White House since World War II failed to win the approval of a majority of Americans over the course of their terms, including WaPo’s beloved President Obama who averaged just 47.9%…but we digress.
Still, dissatisfied with an approval rating anywhere north of 0%, the ever-skeptical WaPo figured there must be some nefarious explanation for why such a vile person like Trump could possibly avoid impeachment after a full month in the White House, nonetheless enjoy the ‘approval’ of 48% of the electorate (at least according to the Fox News poll).
So they set out on a mission to scour polling methodologies and demographics of respondents for a clue to the Trump approval enigma. Fortunately they were able to quickly focus in on a pleasant “narrative” that Trump’s sole support emanated from a consolidated group of white (a.k.a. “racist”), male (a.k.a. “sexist”) voters without a college degree (a.k.a. “dumb”).
Meanwhile, knowing that their efforts to diminish the President’s approval rating would be harshly received by roughly half of the population, they decided to preemptively mock all you dumb, racist, sexist people out there.
I know, I know: You and your friends think he’s doing a great job, and this is more fake news. Or maybe: No one you know likes Trump at all. Or the classic: LOL all the polls were wrong last year, who cares what polls say. To which I’d quickly reply, in order: (1) That’s your bubble, (2) that’s your bubble and (3) actually, national polls were pretty accurate.
And, of course, these same dumb, racist, sexist people who are propping Trump’s approval ratings today are the same ones that voted him into the White House in November.
Those of you who were paying close attention during the general election will recognize whites without college degrees as having always made up the core of Trump’s base of support. (We even wrote about it!) According to exit polling, about half of those who voted for Trump fell into the whites-without-a-college-degree category.
So far, it seems as though Trump’s strict adherence to the campaign promises he outlined for that group in the primary has not been successful at wooing many other people to his side. (Contrary to what White House chief of staff Reince Priebus might think, most people generally disapprove of what Trump’s done.) Trump won the primary with that core, powered through the general on the strength of that core of support and now enjoys it as one of the only groups to think he’s doing a good job.
That should be easy for anyone to accept — regardless of their bubble.
But, we’re sure you’re right WaPo…the national polls were spot on in November and dumb, sexist, racist people have suddenly overtaken the American electorate. In fact, we suspect that if you keep pushing hard on this narrative you’ll be right again in about 4 years.
Digest powered by RSS Digest
Saving...