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Why Mark Rutte is unpopular and disliked in most European Union countries but popular at home. The Dutch contribute $2.4 billion to the EU budget but says this report the Dutch have setup tax havens taking about $6.7 billion from the revenue that would otherwise go to the governments of Germany, France, Italy and Spain. This shows that the idea of the thrifty Dutch is only one side of the story. The clever Dutch may be more like it. This time France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and most other EU countries including Poland are critical of the Dutch and countries such as Sweden and Denmark for not showing solidarity with Europe during the pandemic. The real reason for Mark Rutte holding out in not supporting the European Recovery Fund of $500 billion of nonrepayable aid to EU's pandemic hardest hit countries is that after the tough election against the far right in 2017 he faces another challenge from right wing parties in Netherlands opposed to any aid or solidarity.  ...

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The German Constitutional Court established the legality of the eurozone bailouts under German law. It also stipulated that future bailouts would require the approval of a parliamentary committee. The Court ruled out any proposal that would pool Germany's debt with that of other countries in the eurozone. This rules out the issuance of eurobonds that are supported by the pooled resources of all EU countries. With no mechanism for firm budgetary discipline in place under the current structure of the EU, this is seen as an absolute no in Germany, and is opposed by all German political parties including Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats. ECB president, Jean Claude Trichet, is a strong supporter of the European Union, who actively participated in its creation over three decades. He insisted on budgetary discipline for all EU member states in his recent speech at a conference in Lake Cuomo resort in northern Italy. By leaving open other solutions over time that would still move forward the idea of a united Europe, the Court's view on this point coincides with that of Merkel and the ECB's current and future presidents, Trichet and Draghi. Merkel told the German parliament on Sept. 7, 2011: "Europe must come out of this crisis stronger than it went in, just as Germay came out of the crisis stronger." Merkel compared the difficulties today with the difficulties Germany faced as it tried to rebuild after World War II. Others have compared the difficulties to that of reuniting East and West Germany with their disparate and different ecoomic structures, attitudes and demographics....

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A call from German chancellor Angela Merkel to the Greek president to hold a referendum on Greece's participation in the eurozone. Political parties in Greece denounced it as considering Greece a "protectorate" coming from the Syriza party, to calling it "unacceptable from the New Democracy party. Karel De Gucht, trade commissioner of the EU, and Olli Rehn commissioner of economic affairs, issue conflicting statements. Gucht says the EU and ECB are working on preparations for Greece's exit, and Rehn says that this in not the case, that Greece is staying in.

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Current responses to China's different posture in international relations obscure the huge investments made by US and European Union business in China that lead to about $1 trillion in exports from China to US and EU in 2021. This could not happen without the hyper investment in China by business in the US and EU that not only neglected manufacturing technologies in the home country but did this on a immense scale that would end up shipping almost the whole of the manufacturing supply chains to China from the US and EU. Done as a carefully planned shift of some manufacturing operations it could have benefitted both China and the US and EU. In what way was this hyper move in pace and scale damaging? China's water, air and land was contaminated at a rapid pace never before seen in history, seen as early as 2005. And the hyper shift by 2015 and in 2020 is now showing the severe effects of climate change with droughts, floods and fires all over the world. The German Environment Ministry today counts the cost at 90 times in the use of coal and fossil fuels over time. On the scale that this massive and fast shift was done of manufacturing to China even more so- a hugely imprudent response of US and EU business management and executives. Instead of tackling and confronting head on the challenging problems of quality control and cost in the 1990's through 2000 and beyond at home, management at Apple and other companies simply shifted all manufacturing to China. The other ill effect of the imprudent response of American business was in the massive and wholesale shift of supply chain to China by offshoring practically the entire manufacturing base. It was to lead to the massive losses that workers, families  and communities in the US and EU that countries could not cope with as it moved on an accelerated hyper level and pace. The result was to lead to intense criticism of China and a level of rancor that has poisoned the relations with China. Some of this counsel to China was given to leaders of the Communist party who had little knowledge of American capitalism operating within constraints of social democracy in 1990. Some of that counsel was self interested given by investment banks to Chinese officials- investment bankers that have now disappeared from view- who themselves lacked an understanding of the social constraints of American and European democracies. It is that rancor that is now leading to China and the US disconnecting the supply chains leading to questions one is certain within China about how this will affect unemployment in China in the years to come. The pandemic simply accelerated this realization on both sides of this untenable situation. Still a trillion dollars in exports are taking place even as the political situation is now totally adrift -as the situation in Taiwan in August 2022 shows- the political and trading relationships at opposite ends and seemingly at war with each other. ...

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France and the EU countries have taken a positive attitude to wearing masks, distributing masks, learning from Asian countries. A positive development to tackle virus.

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This report in DW.com shows how the rebuilding of the European Union supply chain is happening with shift of manufacturing from China to Vietnam and India. This report looks at how Danish companies are investing in Vietnam. EU trade with Vietnam is now $64 billion. 

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At the G-7 in Italy Biden says- "he (Putin) cannot wait us out." A ten year pact on defense is signed with Ukraine by the US. A $50 billion loan is made to Ukraine with interest from frozen Russian assets in the EU.

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COSCO, CATL, Tencent and COMAC are companies that are added to a list of companies that are military in nature by the US Defense Department. This is signalling by the US government that regulatory actions can be anticipated, and inhibits investment from the US and EU.