Genuine Report // 020

North America /

296 mass shootings in the U.S. set pace for the deadliest year in 2 decades, in Texas House Bill 1927 passes handguns to be carried without a license. Biden-Harris polices for the Southern Border have Republicans and Democrats in agreement it is being handled poorly, while Pentagon funds are no longer being reverted to build a wall.  

U.S. leaves 650 troops in Afghanistan with military foreign policy focused more on Indo-Pacific region. U.S. Census Data reveals new Congressional Seating for 10 years. Canada’s national identity grapples with history of residential schools and lost generations of indigenous youth, Mexican elections lose President AMLO and Morena party majority in congress. Cuba elects Miguel Diaz-Canel as its new leader. La Soufriere Volcano erupts in St. Vincent in the Grenadines

South America /

El Salvador President Bukele dismisses attorney general and 5 supreme court justices, while approving Bitcoin as an approved currency. Colombian’s protest tax reforms and President Duque. Peru elects Pedro Castillo as President. Brazil continues to be devastated by COVID-19 with deaths surpassing 500,000. Argentina shows renewed interest in taking responsibility of the Falkland Islands from the U.K.

Africa and the Middle East /

Ethiopia is facing worst famine in over 20 years due to political conflict, Iran claims Israel attacks Natanz Nuclear facility, Syrian election set to re-elect Assad, Idriss Deby Itno President of Chad was killed by rebels. In Israel a coalition forms to oust Netayahu from power, while the military pushes further into Gaza and the global reaction is not supportive.

Europe /

Prince Philip dies at 99, U.S. keeps troops in Germany and supporting NATO, Russian troops build on Ukrainian border as tensions build with Putin confirming an asymmetrical reaction to any force from Europe. Turkey linked to Ottoman Empire connection in the 1915 Armenian genocide. Moroccan Asylum seek help in Spanish enclave of Ceuta are turned away. Belarus grounds commercial airline to capture journalist dissident, creating blowback from EU.

Asia /

India’s delta variant of COVID-19 concerns world as country succumbs to surge yet still elections continued on with Modi and BJP gaining seats. Chinese Sinopharm vaccine approved by WHO for distribution, China suspends economic discussions with Australia in May 2021. Republic of Korea and U.S discuss vaccine programs and semiconductor plants in U.S. On the Sri Lankan coast, a Singaporean ship chemical spill becomes an environmental disaster.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on Inflation nowadays.

What is Inflation? Inflation is the general rise in price level for a set economic period.

What drives the inflation/deflation? And how does this apply to today’s current supply chains, wage disputes and pandemic subsidized economy?

The price of a Big Mac will increase year over year, where a Big Mac 20 years ago has jump from $2.39 USD to $4.59 USD today. As Inflation rises, your dollar’s purchasing power drops and you need more money to buy your goods and services.

Key factors are monetary inflation when growth in the money supply, that is the printing of more money. There is also Price inflation driven by a growth in demand and/or scarcity of supply for real goods and service.  

Today’s pandemic driven economy has the perfect mix of factors impacting inflationary measures, allowing everyone and their politics to call out the key factors, to predict how long this rise will last. Some have gone as far to raise the flag of concern this could expand into an uncontrolled hyperinflationary state utterly devaluing the USD and interlinked global currencies.

Supply Chains:  The fragility of global supply chains is showing with ports delays, transport backlogs, shipping container shortages. These delays have slowed the movement of raw materials, goods and commodities lowering supply across the world. When the Suez Canal was blocked in March 2021, the impact had effect on 9.6B of free-flowing goods.  

Wage Increases:   As the moratorium on the minimum wage starting to lift in North America, the calls for a living wage for service level jobs will carry through to the consumers purchasing from these outlets. Instead of a steady cost of living raise to the minimum wage, large increase shock the system as wages right size. With a significant economic growth outpacing productivity this cost-push may have a negligent impact on inflation.  

Government Back Subsidy Programs: To address economic shutdown due to the Pandemic, Government programs to support individuals, families, small business, and large industry players all come at the cost of excessive monetary inflation principles of increasing the money

The U.S. Federal Reserve advises the current inflationary increases are transitory by-products from the global pandemic, and a fixed 2% inflation growth will be the norm. Others disagree, in reference to the April and May index numbers for Personal Consumers Expenditure (PCE) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 5.3% showing trend for the year. Costco CFO Richard Galanti highlight these increases are tied higher labor costs, freight charges, transportation demand, with shortages in containers and port delays. The shortages in microchips, oil and previously lumber, drive commodity prices up and the products that rely on them.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and many others have warned inflation is raging and trending towards Hyperinflation. He notes that government policies are banking on a transitory inflation period, but if we are not careful we could see a return to 1970’s inflationary numbers and ultimately having a long term impact on the US dollar and in turn the global economy as its reserve currency.

While Hong Kong protests to remain independent, it is a matter of time that the financial hub will join with Shenzhen and Macau to form the mainland’s plan of a trilateral economic engine for China’s future.

Nearby the Taiwanese government watches as the mainland turns focus on their island just off the coast. If China takes military steps to take reunite the province of Taiwan with ‘one China’, this will ignite a powder keg on a global scale as the West would step in to secure their relationship with the Island. There is a view from mainland Chinese population “if all the people in the mainland turned and spit in their direction, they would be washed off the map”.

  Taiwan’s modern politics is seeded at the end of World War II, when Japan left the island and the rise of Mao’s Communist Party pushed the Chinese nationalist Chiang Kai-shek to find refuge and military protection through the geography of the island.

In 1971, the United Nations acknowledged China as ‘One Country’ including Taiwan, in need for support in the Russian Cold War. In 1979, the U.S. acknowledged the diplomatic capital Beijing, no longer Taipei – all a part of a storied history of the Sino-American relationship. 

  In the 1980’s Taiwan set itself apart by becoming a manufacturing powerhouse servicing the West, and ultimately defining a model the mainland took a few years to perfect. An example of Taiwan’s current success is their domination in the generation of semi-conductors which drive the heart of global technology. The pandemic has slowed the distribution of microchips, now with a 15-week order backlog – revealing Taiwan’s larger importance to global economy. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司)and Korea’s Samsung (삼성) represent 91% of the industry, they are responsible for fulfilling Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and Apple orders. Basically, any product needing a chip cannot function, from high-end vehicles to basic appliances.  

In 2027, the centennial anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army will be celebrated, and this has not gone unnoticed as an important date. Admiral Philip Davidson – Head of the US Indo-Pacific Command has called attention to this year and China’s military ambitions.

If China moves into Taiwan or the shipping lanes of the China Seas, concern will rise for South Korea, Japan and India and the world.  

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) struggles in rolling out of the Summer Olympics in Japan as the Pandemic still looms. Elsewhere in Europe and Africa, the reveal of two new leagues were met with polarized reactions and how to unite the communities over Sport.

In April 2021, it was released that top tier Football Clubs from England, Italy and Spain had signed a declaration to participate in a European Super League. Although German clubs had not yet signed up, the shake up to the Premiere Leagues were under attack and the fans were ready to revolt!

Despite abandoning the local communities and national Premiere Leagues, the structure of the new Super League guaranteed a fixed position, and portion of the league revenue that would make it difficult for other leagues and clubs to compete for talent. As Gary Neville of SkyNews notes this as disgrace to the history that built up these clubs, and to the sport by joining a league without competition of which they can never be relegated from. Similarly, The Premiere Boards, UEFA, and National Leagues to retaliate with threats of banning players who participate from National and FIFA Competitions.

“It is no coincidence that four founding clubs — Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, plus Italy’s AC Milan — have American owners, and a US bank is providing the financing. The league may also have US-style cost-control elements such as salary caps and spending limits.”  Financial Times Editorial Board

 In the end, the owners of the clubs backed down due to the pressure, but reputational damage has been done.

May 2021, the NBA and the IBF renewed the kickoff of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) at the Kigali Arena in Rwanda. The new League is comprised of 12 teams across the continent with a 26-game season. The initial debut of the league was planned for March 2020 but was postponed due to the global pandemic. In 2021, the entire season was localized to the Kigali Arena for safety.

 Champions from national leagues earned participation points and other through qualifying tournaments, to create a strong league of teams. May 31, 2021, the finals resulted in Egypt dominating a win over Tunisia and set a tradition for future teams and players to aspire towards.

The inclusion and expansion of the NBA into Africa is one more step to the sport attempting to challenge Football as the premiere global sport. 

Clothing for the Greener Youth

As the circle of cool runs through retro-90’s clothing, the Zoomer generation is properly playing around with revamping older clothes through Re-work Clothing Platforms like ‘Frankie’. These collectives will source vintage clothing to repurpose and tailor the clothing into a new style – think a ‘XXL’ FILA Jumpsuit transform into a Crop Top and Mini Skirt.

The re-worked clothing can cost a pretty penny, with a premium brand hoodie that may have $20.00 30 years ago, the refit may fetch $120.00 closer to the price for modern premium clothing.

The Rework product prevents one more piece of clothing into the landfill, and a creative re-use of the original manufacturing process.

Born on a U.S. Airbase in the United Kingdom, the son of an American father and British mother. McAfee spent his formative years in Salem, Virginia.

At age 15, his abusive alcoholic father commit suicide with a gun. At 22, he graduated from Roanoke College, and a year later was working the NASA Institute for Space Studies on the Apollo Program (1968-1970). In 1978, he worked for Computer Sciences Corporation, and then later for Lockheed where he received a copy of ‘Brain’, the first PC computer virus and led him to build software to combat viruses.

Despite his association with the anti-virus software he wrote in 1987, in later life he was a vocal critic of the ‘Bloatware’ program with a height of his sensationalism captured in a YouTube post displaying how hard it was to uninstall the program. 

In the 21st century, McAfee’s persona ballooned to cartoonishly eccentric and controversial with publicity stunts that were hard to determine if they were to grab attention or deeply insightful.

During the Great Recession, his wealth reportedly dropped from $100M to $4M. Despite the setback, in 2010 McAfee established QuorumEx in Belize with a mission to produce herbal antibiotics that disrupt quorum sensing in bacteria. Two years later, the Belize Police Department raided his home with concerns of unlicensed drug manufacturing, and later became a person of interest in the murder of his neighbour Gregory Viant Faull. McAfee fled to Guatemala, was accidentally exposed by Vice News, and deported back to the U.S., ultimately bypassing Belize. On his first night back in Florida, he met a sex worker Janice Dyson and then soon married.

In 2014, he released DCentral 1 (Cognizant) a Smartphone App to display the permissions of all installed apps, later that year at DEF CON in Nevada he suggested key apps were spying on their consumers. This was panned by the tech community as paranoia and another McAfee stunt.  

In 2016, as CEO of MGT Capital Investments he focused on blockchain technology, with a growing interest in cryptocurrency leading him to become CEO of Luxcore. At this time, his political ambitions and promotion of particular crypto coins linking him to charges of running ‘pump and dump’ schemes.

In 2019, he also claimed to have 31 Terabytes of data on corrupt politicians, by sending them compromised hardware that they used. He also linked this to a comment if he dies, this data may be the reason and may find release.

  In 2020, he followed up on his 2016 attempt to run for President under the Libertarian Party banner, his campaign was founded utilization of cryptocurrency. He had to suspend his campaign as he found himself in exile, to avoid tax-related felony indictments from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as supported by his own comments stating he did not agree with income taxes. He was arrested while in Spain and was set to be extradited back the United States for Tax Evasion.

On June 23rd 2021, suspicions surround his suicide in his prison cell as staged, as McAfee himself had left a trail of comments and even one post-mortem Instagram post ‘Q’ igniting connections with the conspiracy platform ‘Q’ Anon. The next day, June 24th, a building in Miami – 8777 Collins Avenue South collapses due to unknown causes a falsified Facebook posted attempted to link this location to the 31 TB of data McAfee was holding as life insurance.

With many questions looming around the man, one thing is for sure, John McAfee was an American showman.