The brief tenure of Anthony Scaramucci as the White House Communications director was brought to an abrupt end when the White House announced that the Mooch has resigned. It was interesting to see the theories in both the left and the right on my he was resigned or asked to resign. The Fox News discussed it and concluded Anthony will still have the President’s number and will play a role somehow in politics. That was particularly surprising considering he was a vociferous opponent of Trump’s view during the general elections and campaigned for Hillary Clinton. Further, Scaramucci has claimed to be for gun-control, for immigration and against the Muslim ban. So, how did this Wall Street sympathiser get picked in the first place?

If one looks at the Scaramucci’s public statements over the years, it is extremely easy to see the drastic similarities between him and Donald Trump. He changes his opinion quickly, disregards facts, has nil knowledge of government, keep cribbing about businesses not making enough money, flips positions on key issues, creates conspiracies, is loud mouthed, uses foul language to push his message and above all has no principles what so ever. He is not for Trump from Wall Street, he is another Trump in Wall Street.

People who have seen Donald Trump would know that he is attracted to conspiracy theorists and folks who disregard facts. The problem now is he found a person who takes screen time and limelight from him. Most of you who have seen the James Comey introduction after Donald Trump became the President. Trump said, “here is the guy who is almost as famous as me”. That is the attitude the President has on being famous. He wants to be in the news and the only person in the news. It is not acceptable for him to have someone just as bombastic in his White House. So, it is not a decision made on policy grounds or the White House regulation by the new Chief of Staff, it is a decision taken by Trump to quench his fear of sharing the limelight.

Candidate Donald Trump had abused almost every fellow Republican candidate running against him. Even the then House majority leader Paul Ryan and the respected conservative leader Senator John McCain weren’t spared. The only senator to side with him was Jeff Sessions. However, ever since he got elected every party member has aided him, even if he crossed boundaries which are otherwise unacceptable to even the low moral standards set by the Republican Party. This could even come at the expense of their house and senate majority. Why do they do this? Here are my thoughts.

Republican Party has been one of the worst institutions in the history. They have been on the wrong side of pretty much every social cause. In spite of all that, they were never at their evil best. They worried about reelection, perception to initiate some of the very blatantly callous policies. All of a sudden, they got Trump. He is unabatedly brash, openly racist, xenophobic, pro-rich, anti science, blatantly homophobic, Islamaphobic, anti woman, anti establishment candidate they ever had. While they initially worried, they have now found the Messiah they have been waiting all along, their alter ego and inner demon in human form. Here are the secret Republican movements under Trump which very few are looking into.

Immigration reforms

Donald Trump and his Camp of the Saints enthusiasts led by Steve Bannon have long wanted to prevent the entry of non-white people into the US. Republicans share the same view. Senator Jeff Sessions is comfortably the most racist senator around. With Trump’s election, the long awaited Republican wants of protecting their borders is going to be achieved. What more, the establishment Republicans will pretend like it wasn’t them who did it.

Conservative legal transformation

While the country is looking at the election of Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court, Trump has taken the opportunity to fill thousands of legal positions with very young hardline conservatives. Some of these people are going to remain in their position for the next 50+ years. They are going to enact their policies for years to come. The popular misconception is that conservatives don’t look at the long term impact of their policies. That holds good only for values like equality, distribution of wealth. When it comes to ensuring their personal wealth is maintained and the spread conservative values, they look way beyond the traditional left. This particular move will leave the US longing for any progressive legal reformation for decades.

Suppressing voting rights

The very first point Trump made after getting elected was illegal votes registered. The Koch brothers have for some time now initiated multiple movements which will make voter registration extremely difficult. This has forever been a Republican strategy, which started with black people and women getting voting rights. These movements are always camouflaged with legal sounding initiatives like voter Identification system, prevention of illegal voting etc. The implementation is always heavily biased against non-whites or in some cases even white females.

Civil rights

Abraham Lincoln, strangely a Republican abolished slavery and started the civil liberties movement in the US. That also paved way for the modern day Republican Party which doesn’t stand for any of Lincoln’s values. Equal civil rights to minorities are called out as reverse discrimination by many Republicans in the US. I truly believe they do not actually believe in that but have identified that as a great propaganda tool to use against minorities. Trump is the poster child of that propaganda machine. He is always keen on reducing any provision which will prevent minorities from being discriminated under the pretext of terrorism, crime or religious freedom. He will frame it in a way that opponents will be flabbergasted at the deceit.  The left will be left with nowhere to go as Trump goes on his unabashed maniac rant to his base.

Pro Corporations

Wall Street as with any other Financial services hub in the world is bereft any social, moral or economic values. Their aim is to drive the profits of corporations for the next quarter. They expect socialism for themselves and capitalism for the rich. This is the same setup which expected to be bailed out at the expense of tax payers. They converted their greedy private debt to public debt. For years without any understanding of cause and effect, the free market activists have been fighting for deregulation, claiming it is a cure for all malice. Trump is at the centre of this propaganda. He not only wants deregulation but also wants to make future regulation extremely hard. He wants to reduce corporate taxes to an all time low. Trump will do it at a scale which will make Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher proud.

Reducing liberties

The America Bill of Rights has 10 amendments. The first one guarantees people freedom of religion, speech, to protest and freedom of the press. Trump and his Republican friends are against all those when it opposes their view. While it is true that both the mainstream left and right have lost tolerance, the key progressive activists are still for free speech. For the right free speech is reserved for them, freedom of religion is reserved only to Christianity, freedom to protest is limited to their T-Party movement and freedom of the press is limited to right-wing conspiracy channels and Fox News. This is Trump in entirety.

Education

If you look at most of the GOP policies, they target two aspects of young people’s life. One is health care and the other one is education. There are two main reasons why funding for public education is always questioned. Unlike their popular claims, they do not want to remove government intervention in education, they actually want to divert funds to religious schools and rich private schools. By defunding public education sector under the pretext of balance, they generate continuous generations of people they can keep under check by their economic stranglehold. Trump as Betsy DeVos to do this for him. There can’t be a better-suited individual to strangle the education system in the US from reaching the poor.

Health care

I have to put most of the Democrats and all the Republicans in one basket as far as health care is concerned. As I write this the Senate has rolled back the Affordable Care Act and replaced it with an unknown policy. The health care policy is a mix of complete privatisation of the health care combined with regulations coming from Christian Fundamental rules. This means private health care would not be able to provide vaccination against some diseases or perform abortion or birth control. Trump lives and breathes these rules. He has never been to a public hospital in his life and probably thinks quite poorly about it. He is against abortion or any form of birth control. What is worse, he will say that in public in a way that will make it sound absolutely moral.

Pro Rich

The Republicans have been pro-rich for years. They have somehow connected the overall social development with the rich accumulating wealth which never trickles down. I can’t believe that a society which doesn’t want to pay taxes as that will reduce their wealth will be willing to pay living wages to their employees the fundamental point behind the trickle down Reaganomics. Trickle down economics is not economics but a political propaganda. Trump drives that propaganda with aplomb. No one since Reagan has been able to drive this message to the working class like Trump. It is a foolish message only if you understand the principles of economics.

Anti scientific

Scientific principles are built around evidence and consistency. It is hard for a scientist to convey a message without using facts. Also, it sticks to the boundaries of logic as a human brain can process. These have posed problems to the conservatives. From their economic theories to the understanding of the climate science, the conservatives have used myths and conspiracies to derail people from fact checking their views. The Republicans have largely been successful with this strategy. They have got enough conservative conspiracy theorists who help them. It is not possible to be a leftist conspiracy theorist. It is an oxymoron. Trump simply excels at this. He has a great ability to mix conspiracies with nationalistic populism at a rapid rate which makes fact checking impossible. He uses the same technique to negate any scientific views, especially on climate change.

Pro arms

Nothing excites Republicans than seeing the bodies of dead soldiers. The second amendment is their favourite part of the American Constitution. There are two main reasons why the like arms race. One, it satisfies the imperialistic desire to conquer sovereign nations. The second and the most important one is that the politicians are heavily funded by arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and BAE systems. The congressmen work for their donors. Trump epitomises the deep rooted fears in people which drive them to an arms race. He sells both fear and hope with such an efficiency that the Republicans cannot find an equivalent person to do it in their Party.

Trump is a bombastic, shameless, egocentric showman who can sell the Republican ideas like no one else can. He is aggressive, unfiltered and above all has the knack of connecting with his audience. He can create an alternate reality and make everyone believe in it. So, the popular belief that Trump will destroy the conservative values is not true. Trump truly represents those values and has just removed the facade. The naked Republicanism is just hard to watch and impossible to digest. The thing about the US politics is that most of the Democrats also fall under the same category. They are at best centrist Republicans rather than true progressives and Trump is truly their manifestation.

Vladimir Putin couldn’t have asked for better advertisement of his might than the one happening in the US now. For the first time since the beginning of the end of the USSR in the early 1980s, has Russia felt so much superior. So, what is this drama all about? Why are parties so eager to talk about Russia? Why make Russia so relevant again? What has driven this frenzy of fear mongering? I will break this down to the best of my understanding.

To understand this, we have to start with the collapse of the USSR. Michael Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin were all part of the communist party before the breakdown of the USSR. It is a very well known fact that Michael Gorbachev rushed into the process under the behest of the American government under both Ronald Reagan and George.H.W.Bush. It was a victory of years of American propaganda against communism. However, for people of Russia it was a partition poorly executed move. The NATO political engine run the US government was at the helm of affairs driving this collapse. This was the first major discontent for Russians after the fall of the communist regime.

It followed by the election of Boris Yeltsin, a very well known American puppet. Both the Republican Party under George Bush Sr. and the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton, were instrumental in getting Boris Yeltsin elected two times. Talking of collusion, that was a true act of collusion by the American Government. There are enough pieces of evidence in the public domain on this. This was the second major setback in the relationship between the two countries strictly caused by the actions of the US government.

Out of this chaos comes Vladimir Putin, the man who would have been a perfect accomplice for Joseph Stalin. He did what the US has been doing against Russia for decades. He started a propaganda machine against the influence of the US government in Russia. He started ruling by wielding his power and spreading fear. Considering how the economy of Russia has been dismantled and what the US has done to them and other countries across the globe, he didn’t have far to go. He has been waiting like a hawk for the opportunity to establish his might.

So, what is Donald Trump’s connection to Russia. Donald Trump has been a rich, spoilt man-child since very early days. Some of his interviews from 80s onwards are available in YouTube for people to view and judge. He has been meddling with the legal system for his personal gains all along. For all his talk of surrounding himself with not so smart people, he has always ensured he has the services of some astute business thinkers to guide his business. Trump success with this approach has been quite phenomenal. A similar act of his was to get money from Russia to invest in his properties globally and also reciprocating the same in Russia. It was a case of aiding money laundering. All of a sudden for people in Putin’s government, here is an opportunity to invest in places where they otherwise can’t. This has already been confirmed by the idiot sons of Trump from their interviews in 2007-2008. These are secret transactions that generally don’t get revealed. However, for Donald Trump and his sons, who take pride in doing shady activities which test legal and moral boundaries, this was an achievement worth the pride.

Moving on to the US elections of 2016, did Russia actually meddle with the election? The answer is possible but there is no evidence of their influence actually changing the result. Donald Trump’s willingness to not antagonise Russia was the only sane part of his otherwise despicable and insane campaign. There is definitely enough evidence to suggest Russsian government under Putin, wanted to get Trump elected but that doesn’t mean they hacked the voting machines and changed votes. The election of Trump was a result of factors I have already explained in another blog.

So, why is Trump worried? The US government has spends decades in spreading fear and hatred towards Russia. Even a neutral view is perceived unacceptable for most of the mainstream politicians. The ongoing investigation might reveal Donald Trump’s business ties with Russia and the favours they traded. This could turn out to be counter productive to Donald Trump’s political future. For Russia, having Trump at the helm means reduced sanctions, global acceptance, political favours and investments. Trump will do it to prevent Russia from revealing his business ties with them.

 Should rest of the world or even the US Citizens be worried? My thought on this is opposite to the mainstream media. I feel this could be the only positive aspect of Trump’s presidency. He will not go into a war against the will of Russians. He will stop NATO forces from threatening Russia. It will prevent another Cold War and a resultant arms race. This is better for the world and the US. For Russia however, it is a mixed bag. On the positive side, this will get investments into the country which has currently dried significantly. It will open up markets for their exports. The down side to this is Vladimir Putin is going to be more powerful than today. That might not the best situation for people fighting for liberation, true democracy,  freedom of speech and human rights in Russia.

What should the Democratic Party do? The US Democratic Party has been talking about Russia and collusion more like the Cold War  times. They haven’t done anything to help the people of the US. While their actions might help them with keeping Trump distracted and getting into his nerves, it won’t help them win elections. It is a strategy that can easily backfire. They need to show evidences to the people by enacting people friendly policies, holding Trump accountable and building grassroot progressive movements. Banking on Trump’s failure for their success is what Hilary did and it caused her downfall. They will repeat the same mistake at their own peril.

The investigation on Russia’s collusion with the US Election started out as an innocuous conspiracy theory and is now looming large over the White House, threatening to bring down yet another US president. Most sane people can’t understand what does this collusion conceal and exactly how it influenced the result of the election. It is also ironic when the US talks about other state actors influencing their elections when they have singularly meddled with many democratic processes in other countries. However, the purpose of my blog is not about the Russian investigation but the cry for impeachment which is going around the US Congress. I want progressives to realise that impeaching Trump at this stage could be counter productive.

Most of the base is still with Trump

Trump’s base is a set of disgruntled labourers, white nationalists, Republican loyalists and establishment sceptics. These people constituted over 40% of the population. They still believe Trump is better. They like Trump when he is on the offensive. They agree with Trump that the mainstream media is biased and untrustworthy. There is a percentage of this base which is not loyal to the Republican party.

If Democrats further their interest in impeaching Trump then this part of this voter base are going to go Republican. It will look like a very partisan approach deliberately intended to harm interests of Americans. Here is how you have to see it, every evil move of Trump is yet to see its full consequence. The American Health Act is as unAmerican as possible but the name says something else to people. Trump claims lesser costs and more jobs in all his moves even if there is no connection. It resonates with his support. Further, most of the voters don’t care about Trump or his Russian ties.

Further, most of the voters don’t care about Trump or his Russian ties. It doesn’t affect their way of life or their income. When Trump says it is made it and he does everything with America’s  best interest in mind, it is received better than what the media says.

Trump will cause more damage to Republican support

Leaving Trump alone and spreading a more progressive agenda will seriously dent Republican support. People will be able to see the truth behind the policies, they will continue to see an increase in income and wealth inequality. However, this has to be combined with a serious progressive movement, which looks after the welfare of the people.

You will get Pence

Vice President Mike Pence along with Senator Mitch McConnell are arguably the most down to earth and viciously corrupt people in the Government. The show a sense of satisfaction when millions die, they love their conservative values, they work for their donors and above all, they are profoundly corrupt. Here are some of the views held by Pence.

1. Tight control to ensure poor, non-white don’t vote
2. Remove abortion, women and LGBT rights
3. Prevent scientific research which will enhance understanding of the universe or contradict the Bible.
4. Deny climate change and give more power to fossil fuel industry
5. Reduce taxes on the rich
6. Remove minimum wage
7. Deny equal rights to non-white races and non-Christians
8. Prevent poor from getting educated

Corporate Democrats will come back

The corporate Democracts are just as dangerous as the Republicans. The centrists like Clintons, Obama are the main reason behind the current situation in the US. They have followed the neoliberal, pro-corporate, anti-labour policies which have resulted in a President like Trump. It is one step from a Donald Trump to a fascist dictator and the corporate democrats will pave way for that.

The world is celebrating the election of Centrist Elitist Banker Emmanuel Macron as the President of France. I already see the elites licking their lips and claiming a victory for centrist policies. Here is my breakdown of the election result.

Positives

Much like the US election, the choice was between the better of the two evil. Marine Le Pen much like her father is clearly a pro-fascist, racist and a very divisive person. Having her at the helm would have created a coalition of the despicables including Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin and Rodrigo Duterte. That could have been a devastating news globally.

Concerns

By electing a pro-banker and a self-admitted centrist, two-thirds of France have rejected the concerns of the remaining one-third. One among three French actually thought it is acceptable to vote for a fascist. To be very precise, I am not calling the voters fascist. Just by voting for Le Pen, we can’t call all of them fascist or racist. There are deeply rooted economic and social concerns amongst these voters on their survival and future. These concerns have to be addressed if the next election has to be any better.

Challenges ahead

Emmanuel much like Barrack Obama is an outsider with non-radical views. For most of France, he was a safe bet. However, Obama’s tenure created a political environment which led to Donald Trump. On the contrary, Obama had a party and enough members representing his party in the American congress. Emmanuel doesn’t have that comfort. The opposition parties which supported him against Le Pen are going to stand up against him now. Here are the challenges he is bound to face.

i. EURO currency is not defensible

This is a separate book in its own right but Euro is not a defensible currency. Here are the key reasons.

1. ECB doesn’t act as a central bank in spite of Mario Draghi’s best efforts. Its fundamentals are deeply flawed.

2. The Euro contract is skewed a lot towards the German economic beliefs. That principle works only if you are a developmental state focused on exports.

3. Euro takes away the one big hold that states have over individuals, a currency printing press. This leaves states at the mercy of each other.

4. The Euro countries have different socio-political-economic backgrounds. It is not possible to merge with them through a common currency. It works for banks but not for people. It virtually makes Finance Ministers powerless.

ii. Wealth redistribution

The success of the French system lies in its Social Democracy. For the last 20+ years, France has followed the rest of the world with policies favouring the creation of wealth over equality and distribution. This has created a massive income and wealth inequality in France. The basic second grader problem with wealth inequality is the longer it stays, the wider the gaps gets and wider the gap gets the harder it is to bridge. France has led itself into this problem and unless Emmanuel gets them out of it, they are in for serious trouble.

ii. Investment is all is key for development

Economics is fundamental for people to understand social behaviours. When people do not have control over their lives and feel the situation is not improving, they will start to react in ways they normally don’t. The wages have become stagnant and French are running austere budgets for the last few years. This has resulted in a massive reduction of public spending / public debt as the bankers would like to refer. Public investment results in improved employability for the next generation, it reduces anxiety among citizens, it gives people security and hope for the next generation. By reducing this under the name of the deficit cuts, France as with much of the other European nations are fostering anxiety amongst people.

iv. Too big to fail banks

This might be a known story. The french banks have become too big to fail. The last known figures indicate that the sum of the private debt (classified as banking asset) by the top 5 French banks(BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, BPCE, Crédit Mutuel) is worth more than 110% of the French GDP and growing. If the banks collapse, they are going to bring French economy. Adding Euro into the mix, it gets trickier. France cannot devalue its currency. The French government cannot print currency to clean up its debt, a comfort available for most countries.

v. No field workers for the party

Emmanuel has just started the party as a movement. Now he has to create an entire organisation and fairly quickly. Even if he identifies like-minded people to run for the parliament, he still has to create a massive team of party worker to take his message through. Without a proper field strategy, his movement will lose its impact faster than he anticipates.

vi. Lack of Parliamentary support

For enacting any of his policies Emmanual needs the support of the parliament. It would be a surprise if he gets a majority in the parliament for any of his moves. The parties which supported him against Le Pen are now going to oppose him in all aspects. He is going to see the true face of political opposition, bickkering and back stabbing. Though he was the Minister of Economy for a couple of years, it is not the same as being the President without the full support of the parliament.It feels like the recipe for a stalemate.

In summary, I am cautiously pleased with the election of Emmanuel Macron. It definitely was the better choice. It also throws a huge challenge in front of the President and his soon to be elected parliament. There are some tough decision to be made and made very qucikly.

Australia has a history of picking up the global cues slowly. This has been both an advantage and disadvantage. We have never been able to be at the forefront of innovation but were never impacted by big issues either. However, I see a horrifying pattern politically, something which Australia haven’t learnt from the political turmoil in the US and Europe. Let me use an example of last week’s parliament to prove this point.

Last week, the Coalition government under Malcolm Turnbull was busy trying to pass its Tax Cuts bill in the parliament. This bill will give tax breaks to enterprises, which will be transferred to the wealthy investors. On the other hand, they debated a lot about reducing the family tax rebate. The former according to them creates jobs while the latter creates lazy people. Can you see the trickle down economic theory in action? One would expect Labour to present a valid alternative for this, but their brand of politics has become despicably bad at the Federal level.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/jobs-lost-without-taxcut-plan-turnbull/news-story/0c39ef828553734b0e94c7cf2eadb2a7

http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/workers-miss-out-due-high-business-tax-pm/news-story/bd0f07a3f88c2fd1b770e4744e38b24e

On the other hand, Pauline Hanson and her team have gone on a strike, holding the Government to ransom. She wants to address the plight of Sugar farmers. She is demanding a national code of conduct for the Industry. Her point was to stand up for the people who voted for her. For the workers in the Sugar Industry or from other industries watching this, think who will look like a saviour?

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/03/27/pauline-hanson-go-strike-over-sugar

Pauline Hanson is known for the racist rhetoric. Her firebrand anti-immigration and anti-Muslim speech has drawn a comparison with Donald Trump. However, Pauline Hanson has been running this kind of politics since 1990s and has got much more political experience than Donald Trump. My friends who have lived longer in Australia are vouching that Australians will never elect someone like Pauline Hanson. My point to them is, 8 years back no one in the US thought they will elect Donald Trump. It is no racism folks, it is economics. Distressed people will automatically move to parties which recognise their problems. The increase in senate seats for One Nation party and emergence of the Shooters, Fisher and Farmer party in Orange is all an indication of how the ground is shifting beneath our feet. The progressives have to act or risk losing the hard fought social pluralism and harmony.

How do we arrest this slide?

The conservative party is a party for the wealthy. Their philosophy is to stand up for the rich under the name of employment. They lure everyone with wealth for all and hand them over to the wealthy individuals and enterprises. I don’t see that changing as any shift from that policy will mean they will no longer be a Conservative party. I have another detailed article to break the myths propagated by these parties through magazines like Financial Review. Financial Review is made to look like the magazine for intellectuals however, it is more a propaganda machine for the liberal(a.k.a. conservative/libertarian) principles.

The alternative to that is a real progressive party. A party which stands up for the workers and collective development. I don’t see the labour party in the current form do that. It needs a movement and systemic change where they move away from centrist ideas and expose the pitfalls in the policies. They need to have policies depicting real progressive ideas and support for the population. Remember, to get elected the wealthy can give you ads but people give you votes. Australia doesn’t have Koch brothers, Walton family or Murdoch family to invest in long-term systemic deterioration of the society.

The labour party has to cleanse its leadership team and identify a fresh set of people who can lead it to the next generation. They need concrete policies which will do the below.

1. Arrest outflow of jobs

Free market capitalism works only for the wealthy. There is a continuous outflow of both skilled and unskilled labour which has to be arrested. Australian consumers are not paying a lot lesser for goods manufactured outside. Unlike the popular perception, the wealth created as a result doesn’t go to other countries but to the top 1% in Australia. This approach which was initiated by Richard Nixon helps the creditor class but is not sustainable. Every country from the US to Australia, India to China need to create jobs locally to sustain its economy.

I am not against Globalisation or distributed form of working. I like the fact that countries in a way can support each other. However, from a macroeconomic stand point, it is not sustainable unless we address it locally. One cannot shift jobs outside at the expense of the local population, without providing a viable and rewarding alternative.

2. Investment to the next rural industry

The mining boom is coming to an end. The banking on accumulated minerals or fossil fuels is not a sustainable form of development. The government now needs to look at the next big industry for the rural Australia. The investment which will take Australia to the forefront of sustainable energy, infrastructure. This means we need to look at investment in Science and Technology. This means we have to invest in building up the infrastructure for the next set of industries in making this a reality.

3. Make companies pay their fair share of taxes

Financial Times is not a newspaper it is a propaganda machine. I will break their myths later but providing tax cuts to companies will not generate jobs. Most of these companies are Australian and will not move out. They have to pay their fair share of taxes so that we address the problem of dwindling government revenue. The conservative government makes us believe that we have a debt problem and we need to cut costs. It is factually untrue.

4. Arrest inflow of Foreign investment which drives local prices higher

A moderate inflation is an indication of collective growth, however opening up markets for investment without proper regulations will lead to hyper-inflation and hyper deflation. We leave ourselves at the whim of investors. Investors love hyper-inflation as it increases their returns.

Let us take the property industry in Australia. The price has been increased dramatically by foreign investment and government doesn’t want to arrest it. It has a massive macroeconomic aspect. The creditors want the price to go up as more people will take a mortgage to finance a property. The property industry wants this inflation as it drives their bottom line up. There are two fundamental points to be noted here.

1. The growth in property prices is not in line with growth in affordability. This indicates that the prices have been artificially inflated and is not sustainable.
2. Unless you control it, the fall is going to be dramatic and more definitely traumatic. It is going to impact every piece of savings which people have from Super to pension funds.

I have definitely seen this trend in other parts of the world, especially Chennai where property prices increased beyond the affordability because of factors from outside. It is not sustainable.

I want people to go through the below link. There is a callousness in the explanation which has to be discussed.

http://dfat.gov.au/trade/topics/investment/Pages/the-benefits-of-foreign-investment.aspx

The two key reasons for foreign investment mentioned are

1. Capital to finance new industries and enhance existing industries, boosting infrastructure, productivity, and employment opportunities in the process.
2. The higher growth supported by foreign investment pays dividends for all Australians by increasing tax revenues to Federal and State Governments and increasing the funds available to spend on hospitals, schools, roads and other essential services.

The first one is a simple problem to fix. Use public debt to finance the projects. Public debt is an amazing way to generate jobs and give money back to the public, instead of using foreign money to give returns back to the wealthy. The second one is an abject lie. Firstly, the Government is reducing taxes on these investments, thanks to taxation policies and free trade agreements. The effect is a reduction is spending on hospitals and schools as seen in our budget.

5. Diversify the trade portfolio

Australia is banking on trade from very few countries, the US and China hold the majority of it. Leaving protectionism aside, Australia has to derisk its revenue streams.

I suggest people go through this link for further details.

http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/trade-investment/australias-trade-in-goods-and-services/Pages/australias-trade-in-goods-and-services-2015-16.aspx

Just on the export front the top two countries China and Japan account for 40% of Australian exports. That poses a massive threat to the Australian economy. There is a need to diversify and derisk this portfolio. There is a positive correlation between Australian economy and Chinese economy at the moment.

6. Increase budget for Health Care, Education and Welfare Schemes

When you give tax cuts to the wealthy, your revenue goes down. In order to balance the budget, you are then left with two options

1. Devalue your currency
2. Cut the spending on key government funded programmes.

The first one will affect the wealthy while the second will affect the common people. The choice is obvious. The axe always falls on Healthcare, education and other welfare schemes. They can easily be covered through budget cuts. Above all the damage is not felt immediately but in the next generation. These schemes are promises to the next generation which the government makes. It is analogous to me buying a house today by taking a loan hoping it will pay for me when I retire. The promise kept by the previous governments are the reason why the current crop of people is doing well. This has to be continued for the sake of humanity, collective growth and scientific development.

7. Take bold steps on handling extremism

Staying silent and blaming few people post the incident will not help allay the fears of people when it comes to extremism. It is an imminent threat and needs a secular, inclusive solution. Australia can definitely be at the forefront of handling this.  I have already detailed this in my previous article on the same topic.

Understand terrorism before acting

In Summary, time is quickly running out. People have to recognise the depression we are heading into. It is time for action otherwise, we will soon start blaming racism, xenophobia etc.  There is a dire need to act in this regard.

I recently wrote an article on living with Narendra Modi’s past and the approach for the future. Can’t forget or forgive so, have to live with it. One of the points was to oppose him on the policy front. I didn’t have to wait long as he appointed  Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Here is my take on the situation.

Yogi Adityanath is not just a Hindu lover but a fundamentalist who wants the country to have one religion which is Hinduism. I have personally seen his mansion inside the Goraknath Temple in Gorakhpur in UP. It looks like a secret service building with strong men with firearms in Saffron standing outside. You need to wonder why a Yogi needs so much security.

I want to break this blog down to two parts. Part 1 is on the facts about Yogi Adiyantha and part 2 is why I think he was selected.

Facts

1. Born Ajay Singh Bisht, he is a product of the Ayodhya Temple / Babri Masjit demolition movement which happened in early 1990s.
2. Mahant Avaidyanath, who was the head of the Gorakhnath Temple, rechristened him to Yogi Adiyanath and made him the successor.
3. Adiyanath was first elected to parliament in 1998 and has been a member of the parliament from Gorakhpur since then.
4. He has got a series of criminal cases against him including the below
   1. Rioting – He was charged for the Gorakhpur riots in 2007 (smell Gujarat 2002!!!!)
   2. Attempt to murder
   3. Armed with deadly weapons
   4. Criminal intimidation
   5. Tresspassing of burial places
   6.  Promoting enmity based on religion, race, place of birth, residence etc
5. He supported Donald Trump’s muslim ban and wanted India to do the same
6. He wanted people who don’t do yoga to leave hindustan or drown in the sea
7. He shared stage with a person who requested hindus to dig up graves of muslim women to rape their corpses
8. He formed a group called Hindu Yuva Vahini, which is a nationalist hindu organisation with extremist views.
9. He led a ‘purification’ drive for conversion of Christians to Hinduism

Breakdown

I read an article in Rediff.com on whether selecting Yogi Adiyanath is similar to Advani selecting Modi. Advani hoped Modi will stay under him and it back fired. As much as there are similarities, my opinion is different.

Narendra Modi is a smart operator. Much like Vajpayee, he has two parts to his personality. The first one is administerial which claims of being inclusive and focuses on development. The other one which is religious. He gets the right religious people to ensure traditional divide and rule policy continues to work. People like Yogi Adiyanath fits into the latter.

Modi has a strong bond with people who don’t have a family. If you look at the Haryana, Assam and Uttrakhand all have chief ministers who haven’t married. It is lot easier for you to maintain your extremist positions and bridge the divide between  your personal and public lives if you are single. Modi definitely sees that in Adiyanath.

Adiyanath has a strong follower base in UP. He has won consistently since 1998. If BJP harbours thoughts of getting re-elected in 2019, then the state of Uttar Pradesh is extremely crucial. Modi needs a strong person over there who will by hook or crook get him seats.

If you put Modi and Adiyanath’s CV side by side, you will definitely find starking similarities. Both are hardcore hindutva supporters, firebrand orator, ability to incite violence, strong ability to create unrest and stay in power and above all association with the Sangh parivar. In effect, Modi could be grooming a successor for him at the national level in 10 years time.

So, unlike many people I want to give credit to Modi on this move. I don’t think it was done out of compulsion but it is a calculated move with elections in mind. This is also a move that should concern progressive. Yogi Adiyanath could become a serious contender at the national level unless there is a ground up movement to identify alternatives.

References

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/yogi-adityanath-up-assembly-polls-communal-bjp/story/1/16253.html

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/yogi-adityanath-uttar-pradesh-chief-minister-gorakhpur-bjp/1/907812.html

http://www.elections.in/political-leaders/adityanath-yogi.html

http://thepoliticalfunda.com/Politics/Detail/List_of_serious_criminal_charges_against_new_UP_CM_Adityanath21571

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/top-five-controversial-comments-by-yogi-adityanath/articleshow/57707151.cms

http://www.inuth.com/india/politics/heres-the-few-crime-records-of-ups-next-cm-yogi-adityanath/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Adityanath