Italy is one of the key economies within the EU. In the past several years, driven by both economic challenges and unfettered immigration challenges, the populist revolt has gained ground. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a nationalist-minded politician, has won the hearts of Italian voters.  Matteo Salvini is a proud Italian populist.
Several months ago Matteo Salvini challenged current Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to hold a snap election; and followed-up with continued pressure on the Italian government by advancing populist positions of economic patriotism, sovereignty and tougher immigration rules.

Amid a revolt against globalism writ large, it was not accidental that Nancy Pelosi traveled to Italy recently with a coalition of U.S. leftist politicians to organize a strategy to fend-off Salvini and assist Prime Minister Conte. Pelosi is an opportunist. Part of the plan for Conte to hold power was a shift within his party (Five Star Movement or 5sM) to form an alliance with the Italian left-wing Democratic Party (Pelosi’s ideological allies).
To pull off their plan, Conte and the Democratic Party would align; Conte would then resign and hold the snap election where 5sM and the far-left Democratic party would re-elect him. This approach would strategically counter the 36 percent of support currently held by Matteo Salvini (the League). Today Giuseppe Conte resigned.

(Wall Street Journal) […] Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced his resignation in a speech to the Senate on Tuesday, blaming far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for causing a political crisis as Italy looks to draw up a challenging budget to keep its parlous finances on track.

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CTH suspected this was going to happen. This was predictable if you have followed the fracture between Main Street (Trump) and Wall Street (multinationals).  Remember, there are trillions at stake.  This news today is part of the battle.
Here’s the cut through the BS motive behind the multinational association of Business Roundtable CEO’s (these are all pure Wall St.) suddenly saying “social responsibility should be put above profit“…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Top CEOs say companies should put social responsibility above profit.  Corporate America is responsible for providing economic benefits to all, not just its investors, the Business Roundtable group said on Monday.
The group’s “statement of corporate purpose” was signed by the heads of more than 180 U.S. companies, including the CEOs of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), American Airlines (AAL.O), the largest airline in the world; and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the biggest American bank.

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“Operation Fear” is the globalist, multicultural, left-wing operation aimed at trying to stop Brexit by any means necessary.   The promoters of Operation Fear include almost all EU and British media along with U.S. political EU allies such as Nancy Pelosi, the Big Club Republicans, Wall Street multinationals and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
We are moments away from watching all of the U.S. Democrat presidential candidates deliver their narrative enhancement aimed at supporting the collectivist argument.  No  threat is as significant to their ideological interests as deglobalization, nationalism and the sovereign respect for self-determination.  [See: U.S. Rivkin Project roadmap]

Against the October 31st Brexit deadline, Operation Fear is about to go into fully weaponized narrative distribution.  Predictably the deployment will likely be the largest psychological war carried out in the modern era.
Understanding how Operation Fear is carried out in Sept/Oct will prepare U.S. voters for a similar deployment in the 2020 presidential race.  As a consequence what is about to happen in Great Britain is well worth paying close attention to.

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will deliver his message on Brexit to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during visits this week, a government spokeswoman said on Monday.

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Earlier today President Trump, Melania Trump and Barron Trump arrived in Morristown, NJ, airport en route back to Washington DC.  Prior to boarding Air-Force-One the President delivered brief remarks and answered media questions for 36 minutes.
[Note: longer version of video provided to see young 13-year-old (very tall) Barron Trump as he arrives with Mom and Dad.  (Full Video (begin 6:45) and Transcript below)]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So, we had a lot of meetings yesterday on Afghanistan, on the economy — which is doing very well. We have the strongest economy, by far, in the world. The tariffs have cost nothing, in my opinion, or certainly very little. We have import prices from, and through, July — all the way through July. And they’re down 1.8 percent so that the import prices have actually gone down.
China is eating the tariffs because of monetary manipulation. And also, they’re pouring a lot of money into their country because they don’t want to lose jobs. They’re losing, as you probably know, because you reported it, but they lost over 2 million jobs in a short period of time. And they want to make a deal; we’ll see what happens. But they definitely want to make a deal.
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We are living in remarkable times.  Often we forget, amid the noise within the challenges, to pause and reflect on the accomplishments.

“The nation state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony”…

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For all intents and purposes Germany is the EU, because German economic policy dictates the outcomes of all EU economic policy.  So as the EU promises to engage in more central bank monetary printing (quantitative easing) simultaneously Germany promises to keep negative interest rates floating as long as possible. [EU Parliament pictured below]
Yes, the EU is in serious structural economic trouble; and that is likely the real reason why quivering Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to exit the political stage before the larger communal catches on.

Within the remarks by German Finance Minister Scholz it is the lamentation about the lack of investment into their grand collective economic scheme where you find the economic dissonance, and ultimately the hilarious punch lines:

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that he expected interest rates to remain very low for “the next few years”, adding that companies should seize the opportunity of near-zero borrowing costs to boost private sector investment.
The European Central Bank has already signaled even more monetary stimulus for the euro zone economy, hoping to arrest a downward spiral that could lead to an economic recession.

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An interesting article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) highlights how China is shifting their procurement priority from minerals used in manufacturing (cobalt, copper) to the acquisition of food and agriculture products.
The impact is being felt throughout Africa, where mining companies are shutting down operations because Chinese demand no longer exists.
Articles like this highlight the ancillary impacts of a weakened Chinese economy.
Despite the proclamations by Beijing about their ability to withstand the withdrawal of the U.S. as a primary customer for manufactured goods, reality shows they cannot.
There is a confluence of events all leading to radical changes just below the surface.  China has been burning cash to subsidize industries impacted by U.S. tariffs.  Simultaneously Beijing has lowered the value of their currency in an effort to eliminate the tariff impact in the cost of their finished goods. However, as the ideological economic conflict between the U.S. and China continues, Beijing cannot hold their position indefinitely.
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On Thursday June 20, 2019, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Washington DC for a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and democrat leadership.  After the political ideologues held the meeting, Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled the Canadian ratification on the USMCA trade agreement.
It was obvious both groups of avowed leftists agreed to stall the USMCA for politics.
On August 13th White House emissary National Security Advisor John Bolton met with Britian’s Chancellor of Exchequer Sajid Javid, and the public became aware of efforts toward a six month post Brexit U.S-U.K trade agreement that would become effective on November 1st, 2019; immediately the day after Brexit was official.
On August 14th Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly rushed a press release saying the House would never support that interim U.S-U.K trade agreement, using cover story of worry about Ireland/Northern Ireland peace accord.  Beyond all the talking points the baseline reason for Pelosi’s opposition is Democrats do not support Brexit.  Both the immediacy and the construct of the counter-maneuver by Pelosi were noted. [House in recess].
Immediately after the deal between President Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson became public; an intense international media effort began to push a narrative of the “U.S. heading to a recession”.  The group of corporate financial media interests; those who advance the interests of Wall Street and are adamantly adverse to a global trade reset; and the political opposition to Donald Trump, began using a recession talking point in unison.
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Finally an economic analyst gets prime-time media pundits to listen as he describes the fundamental difference between the U.S. “Economy” (Main Street) and the U.S. “Markets” (Wall Street).  Charles Payne understands most of this, but El-Erian has it nailed.
Allianz Group chief economic advisor, Mohamed El-Erian, accurately describes what is happening in an era where deglobalization is taking place. The U.S. economy is strong; however, the multinationals on Wall Street -invested overseas- are exposed.  Thus there’s a disconnect and accompanying market volatility.
This is well worth watching because this is the first well-regarded financial pundit that is speaking truth to Wall Street in terms the panel pundits will understand/accept.

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There is nothing that China and the EU can do to stop the de-globalization process; and efforts to stimulate their economy, more quantitative easing (pumping money) while the global supply chains are being shifted, are futile.
The more a nations’ economy is dependent on exports, the more exposure they have to the inherent downsides of de-globalization.   U.S. companies that are invested in these nations will lose their investment over time; some rapidly.  This will keep the stock market volatile, yet the Main Street USA economy is thriving.
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Early on Tuesday United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the modification of “next step” tariffs on Chinese products.  [See Here] “Products in this group include, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing.”

President Trump responded to the delay/modification when questioned in New Jersey.  President Trump noted a “very productive” phone call between Lighthizer and Vice-Premier Liu He of China:

[Transcript Segment] – […] Q Why did you make the decision on the tariffs, to delay the implementation of the tariffs?
THE PRESIDENT: Only to help, I think, a lot of different groups of people. And we had a very good talk yesterday with China — a very, very productive call. I think they want to do something. I think they’d like to do something dramatic. I was not sure whether or not they wanted to wait until a Democrat has a chance to get in. Hopefully that’s not going to happen because the economy would go to hell in a handbasket very fast.

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