Mike McCready

Tag: china

  • No One Believes Trump Anymore—And the World’s Acting Like It

    No One Believes Trump Anymore—And the World’s Acting Like It

    Last night, Israel struck deep into Iran—over the quiet objections of the White House. Think about that for a second.

    It was a direct rejection of Donald Trump’s promise to negotiate a new peace framework with Iran. Netanyahu didn’t just doubt Trump’s ability to get it done—he didn’t even think it was worth pretending anymore. He moved without permission, and without Trump.

    This is what it looks like when the world stops believing the U.S. president has any real pull.

    Europe’s Not Waiting Either

    Across the Atlantic, European leaders have authorized Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons inside Russian territory. That’s a massive policy shift—one that would normally require careful alignment with Washington.

    But there’s no alignment. Because there’s no trust. Trump said he alone could end the war in Ukraine. NATO waited a while for that offer to play out and decided they’d rather take their chances without him.

    Putin Is Publicly Mocking Him—and He Doesn’t Even Notice

    Russian state television aired nude photos of Melania Trump as part of a grotesque propaganda stunt. A few years ago, that would’ve triggered diplomatic retaliation. Under Trump 2.0? Crickets.

    Either he doesn’t realize he’s being mocked, or he doesn’t care. Maybe he still thinks Putin respects him. Maybe he’s just afraid to break up with his last remaining bromance. Whatever the case, the message from Moscow couldn’t be clearer: we don’t respect you.

    Markets Are Screaming It, Too

    Gold is on a rocket ride—not because the economy is overheating, but because confidence in Trump’s economic leadership is melting like a popsicle in Mar-a-Lago. His trade policies shift by the hour. His tariffs are threats without timelines. His “art of the deal” these days seems to be: promise big, deliver nothing, move on.

    He said he’d sign 90 trade deals in 90 days. We’re on day 70-something. So far, we’ve got two vague “frameworks.” That’s political lingo for: everyone smiled politely and agreed to get back to each other. Someday.

    DOGE Was Supposed to Be the Fix—It’s a Punchline Now

    The Department of Government Efficiency was Trump’s shiny new hammer to smash waste and fraud. Musk was going to run it. Budgets were going to shrink. Swamps were going to drain.

    Instead, the whole thing is collapsing under its own irony. Cuts that were supposed to save money are actually costing money. Programs got slashed only to be reinstated under lawsuits or emergency exceptions. And Musk? He’s out. He quit DOGE, slammed the spending bill, and said he’s done being a political shield for broken promises.

    The Musk Breakup Says It All

    Trump once claimed Elon Musk would be a key partner in reshaping government. Now he’s threatening to revoke Tesla and SpaceX contracts, and Musk is saying—on record—that Trump can’t be trusted to manage a budget, let alone a country.

    It’s one thing to lose your enemies. But when you start losing your allies, your enablers, and your billionaire yes-men? That’s when the walls start closing in.

    The Big Picture: Nobody Thinks He Can Do the Job

    Israel ignored him. Europe bypassed him. Putin humiliates him. Musk walked. Gold’s spiking. Trade deals are MIA. And the big-budget reforms that were supposed to show “Trump means business” have turned into another bloated mess.

    This isn’t strength. This isn’t strategy. This is what weak leadership looks like on a global stage. It’s not that the world is in chaos despite Trump—it’s that the world no longer sees him as someone worth coordinating with at all.

    He promised to bring peace, prosperity, and power back to America. What we’ve got instead is confusion, rejection, and gold at $3,400.

  • Here’s How to Keep America #1—or How to Blow It

    Here’s How to Keep America #1—or How to Blow It

    America’s superpower status didn’t happen by accident. For decades, we’ve stood on two mighty pillars: unparalleled military strength and a vast network of global trade. Our Navy doesn’t just float around looking intimidating; it actively safeguards international trade routes, ensuring that goods flow smoothly for us and our allies. This protection isn’t just about economics; it’s about influence. From Hollywood movies to fast-food chains, our cultural footprint is everywhere, shaping tastes and ideas worldwide.

    But power isn’t just about flexing muscles; it’s also about building relationships. Through diplomacy, aid, and cultural exchanges, we’ve cultivated goodwill that benefits us on the global stage. Countries have trusted us, aligning their security and economic strategies with ours.

    Enter Trump. In just a few months back in office, he’s managed to shake this trust to its core. Our closest allies are now rethinking their ties with us:

    • Canada: They’re reconsidering their purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, exploring alternatives like the Swedish Saab Gripen, partly due to the unpredictable nature of U.S. policies under Trump.

    • European Union: The EU has launched the “Readiness 2030” strategy to reduce dependency on U.S. defense systems, emphasizing the purchase of European-made military equipment. This move aims to bolster European defense autonomy in response to shifting U.S. foreign policies.

    • Intelligence Sharing: The suspension of U.S. intelligence-sharing with Ukraine has alarmed European allies, prompting them to reconsider their reliance on U.S. military support and explore independent defense strategies.

    Now, some might say, “Well, isn’t it good that Europe is stepping up?” And yes—in theory, more self-reliant allies are a good thing. But not when they start buying their defense equipment from someone else.

    We want them buying from us—because it keeps our defense sector strong, our tech cutting edge, and our alliances tight. When they buy elsewhere, they start building loyalties elsewhere. That means fewer shared systems, less interoperability, and more opportunities for geopolitical rivals to wedge their way in.

    Losing our dominant position comes with a price tag that most people don’t see. If the world stops trusting the U.S., they stop trusting the dollar—and that’s where it gets real. De-dollarization means the U.S. loses its incredible financial leverage. It means more inflation at home, higher interest rates, weaker buying power, and less influence abroad. The dollar isn’t just currency; it’s part of what makes us the center of the global economy.

    When America falls from that perch, it won’t just be about bruised egos—it’ll be about a seismic shift in the global order. Less stability, more regional conflict, more power in the hands of authoritarian regimes that don’t give a damn about democracy or human rights.

    Building trust and dominance takes decades; destroying it can happen in weeks. Trump’s actions are pushing our allies to question their alignment with us, potentially weakening the very foundations of our global standing.

    If we want to keep America #1, we need to remember that leadership isn’t just about power—it’s about partnership. Undermining our alliances doesn’t make us stronger; it paves the way for others to take our place.

  • An Easy Way To Understand Trade Deficits (I promise)

    An Easy Way To Understand Trade Deficits (I promise)

    Okay, I know “trade deficit” doesn’t exactly scream edge-of-your-seat excitement, and I don’t want to presume you don’t already know this stuff. But I’ll keep it short. This matters. You’ll see why.

    Running a trade deficit just means we’re buying more from other countries than we’re selling to them. And why do we do that? Because they can make the products there and sell them to us more cheaply than we can make them here. We buy from them using our dollars, which they can’t really spend in their own countries so (for the most part) they reinvest those dollars in the US, putting them right back into our economy—buying our bonds, our real estate, funding our companies. That’s not a weakness on our part, that’s a power move. As an example, just think about how the cost of big flat screen TVs has dropped over the years.

    Think of it like this: we’re the house in the global casino. Everyone wants to play at our table, and they’re more than happy to leave their chips with us. That’s what being the world’s reserve currency gets you. For other countries trade deficits might not be a good thing. but for us? Hell yeah!

    Now about tariffs. Trump loves tariffs like they’re the Swiss Army knife of trade policy. But really, they’re just a tax hike dressed up as patriotism. When we slap tariffs on imported goods, prices go up—and we’re the ones paying. It’s like punching yourself in the face and calling it tough love. Trump says these tariffs willl generate $800 billion in new revenueue for the IRS, coming right out of the pockets of consumers. It’s a tax hike under another name.

    That said, not all tariffs are evil. Sometimes they make sense—like when they’re used to protect critical industries or level the playing field against countries that don’t play fair. And hey, bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S.? Totally smart. Especially if tensions with China get worse. We don’t want to be stuck relying on overseas factories if shit hits the fan.

    But going full throttle with broad tariffs? That’s not strategy, that’s just chaos. It invites retaliation, screws with supply chains, and freaks out investors.

    Side note: CEO’s of US companies that inport foreign parts are paying between $1m for a group and $5m to have a one on one dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago; likely to have their imports exempted or to lobby to have their competitors targeted but not them. Historicallly, tariffs have been the source of massive government corruption.

    So yeah, let’s have real conversations about trade and competitiveness. Let’s rebuild the parts of our economy that actually need shoring up. But let’s stop pretending a trade deficit means we’re losing. Most of the world would love to have our “problems.”

    We’ve got the leverage. Let’s not fumble it because ‘someone’ doesn’t understand how the system works – or understands it all too well.

  • What’s it like to fly to North Korea?

    What’s it like to fly to North Korea?

    One of the only ways into North Korea is through China. From Beijing there are daily flights on Air Koryo, the North Korean state-run airline. The planes they operate, at least for these daily flights to Pyonyang, are fairly new and modern, built in the 1990’s, and they feel just like any Boing 737 or Airbus A320 you may have recently boarded. But they are not. They are Russian-made Tupolev 204′s. We sat in the back mysteriously curtained-off quarter of the plane, which appeared to be reserved for westerners but I’ve been told that’s not the case and that it is not unusual to sit among the natives on these flights.

    The first thing you notice in this section of the plane is the presence of two uniformed government security officers. They don’t try to be discrete. They want you to know they are there and what purpose they serve. They observe you intensely throughout the entire flight. What are you reading? Are you taking pictures? Of what?

    It’s such a strange sensation to feel this watched. Our section of the plane wasn’t filled so my two travel companions and I each had a row of three seats to ourselves. One of the security officers sat down next to me about an hour into the flight as I was taking some pictures and video inside the cabin. He didn’t overtly object to anything I was doing but it did feel a bit intrusive and while he was there I became very self-conscious. We surmised their actions were meant to just send the message that eyes were upon us and we shouldn’t forget it.

    A North Korean Air Koryo attendant wears a pin showing portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, while she prepares the cabin before take off for Pyongyang from Beijing, China.Upon boarding, the odd and the curious began to stand out to me. Every North Korean on the plane, from the flight attendants to military personnel to the “businessmen” was wearing a lapel pin displaying the portrait of Kim Il-Sung, the founder and deceased eternal President of the country. Some pins also included the portrait of also-deceased former ruler Kim Il-Sung’s son, Kim Jong-Il. The pins are such a presence in the country that we almost never saw someone who wasn’t wearing one. To not wear a pin regularly might almost be seen as an act of disloyalty – and given that anyone’s friends and neighbors might report them for such acts, ordinary citizens tend to publicly overstate their devotion to the regime at every opportunity. I began to think of the entire North Korean society as a bit sect-like. And as on a commune where everyone might be referred to as brother this or sister that, North Koreans refer to each other as “comrade” and they generously salt their conversations with references to the Dear Leader. As in…

    pins

      “How was your day?”

    “It was hard, but not nearly as hard as that of the Dear Leader who has the weight of the Korean People’s future on his great and mighty shoulders.”

    These pins are not available to foreigners. You can’t buy them and they aren’t given as gifts. They are not trivialized. You are meant to be North Korean to own one and you’d better not go more than two days in a row without wearing one if you know what’s good for you! They are worn on the lapel of respectable clothing. Citizens are excused from sporting one if they are dressed for hard manual labor.

    The next thing I noticed was what was playing on the plane’s TV monitors. It was like bad 70′s TV variety show esthetics mixed with Stalinist patriotic propaganda. Idealistic scenes of North Koreans with happy and fulfilling lives wash across the screens. Young lovers walking among the flowers and beautiful landscapes of North Korean paradise are intermixed with shots of military parades and trainings meant to display the country’s readiness for anything. This is all set to music. Pop music? Rock music? No way. The country is on a pretty strict diet of hymn-like anthems and marches.

    It’s not that the people don’t love pop, rock, blues, soul, and funk. It’s that they’ve never even been exposed to it. Bruce Springsteen? They’ve never heard the name. Elvis? Michael Jackson? Nope. How about the recent pop sensation Psy from South Korea who sings Gangnam Style in their language? The song shocked one of our minders when we played it for him. He had never heard it or anything like it and didn’t seem too thrilled to hear of a South Korean who had become world famous – although, a friend of mine who travels to North Korea frequently tells me that most North Koreans are vicariously proud of the South’s international achievements and that the minders are a bit more versed in international pop culture than the average citizen, who would certainly be completely clueless.