Operation Kill Iranians - Trump is looking desperately for a face-saving exit.

Trump is looking desperately for a face-saving exit. That CIA chief's visit to Moscow is seen by many as asking Putin for help to end the war. There were some speculations going around on social media that Trump is trying to put pressure on Putin with this visit by the CIA chief. That has been put to rest by Scott Ritter. Trump has no card to play against Putin, not to talk about pressuring him.

The other exit option by using economic strangulation of Iran died even before it started. China put paid to Scott Bessent's hallucination by refusing to be on board. Scott Bessent can threaten secondary sanctions on Russia and China to no avail. China's trade with USA is falling, while trade with the Global South is expanding, all done outside the US$. The use of the US$ for sanctioning is as effective as its aircraft carriers now rendered toothless.

Trump can twit all he wants about the Strait of Hormuz being opened for business, with no shipowners taking up the challenge to run the Straits. Iran just have to tell shipowners, the Straits is not open for business and they never doubt that.


Anonymous

Nepal landslide - Indian media China was responsible

Did anyone notice about the Indian media trying discreetly to start the mantra that China was responsible for the Nepal landslide days ago? They claimed that China knew about the glacier collapsing and had kept mum.

There are Chinese citizens among the victims as well, so why would China not sound the alarm and extricate its own citizens first if it knew about the collapse. Palki Sharma is back to her old tricks, lying with a straight face.

Coming back to SIA, getting involve with a snake is a never-ending tragedy. This year, its share of the cash infusion to keep Air India afloat, is about US$400 million based on its ownership quota. That is definitely not going to make Air India profitable. Next year, the same thing will happen.

The Indians know that if Air India collapses, SIA is going to suffer a US$2.02 billion write off based on its investment value as of 31st March 2025, give and take a few million for those planes it still holds.


Anonymous

The biggest blame must fall on the Saudis for pricing oil in US$

The biggest blame must fall on the Saudis, and the Gulf oil states for pricing oil in US$, which gives the backing for the US$ hegemony.

From then on, the USA saw the opportunity and weaved everything into the US$ hegemony - the conduct of trade and settlement, a godsend for them in fact. Today, untangling the whole system is an invitation to a messy affair. The USA knows that and the world knows that. BRICS is just doing it gingerly, not to upset the global financial system that affects every country.

China knows it well enough to not even resorting to dumping its treasuries too aggressively. That will cut both ways if China just dump treasuries too fast to punish the USA but will make what is left of anything it holds lose value which will not benefit China obviously. Doing it progressively is a much better choice, and China is doing exactly that.

But de-dollarization must continue, however slow and tedious it may be. The result may not be highly obvious, but looking at the fall in the global usage of the US$ over the last decade shows that the world is waking up.


Anonymous

Trump is a loony - Professor Jeffrey Sachs

 

16 min clip on the corrupt and dysfunctional American political system that voted a loony as the President. And no one is stopping this loony, not even Congress. And the hillbillies, rednecks and almost every American with a few exception, are very proud of this loony. Can't blame them as they are all loonies. But what about the Anglophiles, the non Americans? They are also very proud of this loony, they admire and respect this loony just as mad as the American loonies. Can you imagine world leaders are still talking affectionately of this mass murderer?  Oops, only a few silly ones, not all.

The loonies only believe in lies, believe in liars. They believe in all the lies the liars in Washington are manufacturing everyday. The Empire of Lies will not last long.

Calling Trump a loony is being polite or kind. Trump is a mass murderer, a war criminal, a pedophile, a depraved person with no morals and smells like hell. Anyone adoring Trump and like to stick around him must also be smelling like hell, a pariah.

DBS Bank India - Singapore's most successful overseas adventure

DBS most successful overseas adventure must be DBS Bank India. Since its incorporation it has been reporting profits every year, even after paying for bankrupt bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank's debt. It is now the most successful and profitable foreign bank in India. The secret formula is to let the Indians run the bank completely but with remote control from Singapore. 

Here is the Leadership and Board of Directors of DBS Bank India provided by Google.

Rajat Verma: Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Ravindra Bahl: Independent Director and Part-time Chairperson
Vikram Sud: Independent Director
Prabhat Gupta: Whole-time Director
Sanjoy Sen: Non-Executive Director
Anup Kuruvilla: Independent Director
Meera Nair: Independent Director
Latha Ayyar: Independent Director
Ravininder Singh: Independent Director 

Senior Business Heads
Ambuj Chandna: Managing Director & Head of Consumer Banking Group
Santanu Mitra: Managing Director & Country Head of Corporate Banking (Large and Midcap)
Nitin Chengappa: Managing Director & Head of Treasures and Wealth Management
Sudarshan Chari: Managing Director and Head of National Distribution and Business Banking
Rajesh Prabhu: Chief Financial Officer
Prem P Ranjan: Executive Director and Chief Compliance Officer 

DBS should duplicate this successful formula in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and other ASEAN countries, and there will be successful DBS Bank Malaysia, DBS Bank Indonesia, DBS Bank Thailand, DBS Bank Philippines etc etc.

The formula's success is based on the complete trust for the locals to run the bank by themselves, have confidence in the locals to do a good job and with Singaporeans overseeing the operations from Singapore head office. The motto, trust them. And the local govts will be very happy to support such banks as they not only provide good jobs for their nationals, and also a good and reliable bank like DBS, the world best bank with best practices with a lot of money to back them up.

The same formula and logic should apply to all foreign banks in Singapore so that all will be as profitable as DBS bank India. All foreign banks, starting with Bank of India, shall replace all their Indian nationals with Singaporeans. Oops, no talent Singapore did not have enough people to fill banking and finance jobs. Singaporeans also don't like these jobs, especially CEOs of banks. So how? Easy, just issue more pink ICs to foreign talents from third world villages. They will be the talents to fill up all the top banking and finance jobs in Singapore. QED.