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Global Currency Reset Happening Now as Bitcoin Price Explodes

by Alan Yerushalmi
written by Alan Yerushalmi

A major risk to the solvency of the banking industry is the notional amount of financial instruments such as interest rate swaps known as derivatives. A recent report stated that US banks have over $200 trillion of derivatives exposure. This shouldn’t be a surprise as Forbes covered global derivatives exposure over four years ago: 

the risk that is still staring us in the face: the lack of transparency in derivative trading that now totals in notional amount more than $700 trillion. That is more than ten times the size of the entire world economy. Yet incredibly, we have little information about it or its implications for the financial strength of any of the big banks.

Moreover the derivatives market is steadily growing. “The total notional value, or face value, of the global derivatives market when the housing bubble popped in 2007 stood at around $500 trillion… The Over-The-Counter derivatives market alone had grown to a notional value of at least $648 trillion as of the end of 2011… the market is likely worth closer to $707 trillion and perhaps more,” writes analyst Jenny Walsh in The Paper Boat.

“The market has grown so unfathomably vast, the global economy is at risk of massive damage should even a small percentage of contracts go sour.  Its size and potential influence are difficult just to comprehend, let alone assess.”

To understand the risk of derivatives to the global economy, one should understand the history of fiat currencies and how money is created by central banks. Mike Maloney has a great series that I recommend:
Mike Maloney’s Hidden Secrets of Money

While there are real industries that make real products, one can nevertheless sense that global markets are rigged and current economic wealth is really an allusion created by the central banks. 

Recently, there has been a parabolic price move in Bitcoin (along with several other cryptocurrencies). As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at over $2700!


According to investment manager Jeffrey Gundlach, China’s instability is one of the main drivers of this spike.

 

Bitcoin up 100% in under 2 months. Shanghai down almost 10% same timeframe, compared to most global stocks up. Probably not a coincidence!

A recent credit downgrade may have also had an impact according to The Telegraph and Bloomberg.

Forbes adds the following:

..it looks like Chinese money is going into bitcoin, global stocks and bonds. But not gold. Remember, the story of the latter 2016 and early 2017 period, out of China, has been the Chinese government’s efforts to restrict domestic capital from leaving China. It doesn’t appear that they are winning.

China has hinted at attempts to implement regulations to remedy the matter.

In a translated summary of his findings uploaded to Twitter by cnLedger, Xuedong stated, among other items, that “most Bitcoin investors are young people” and that exchange behavior such as faking trading volumes “should be examined and regulated.”

Bitcoin’s future in China “cannot work out without regulations,” he said, speaking in the wake of the US refusal of the first Bitcoin ETF.

The rise of bitcoin buying in China was simply a reaction to an inevitable currency devaluation. It was not the root cause of this devaluation. China is caught trying to balance competing interests: keep up with the latest technology to further grow its economy vs preventing a currency devaluation that could potentially lead to an economic catastrophe.

 

In addition, there is increasing implementation of Bitcoin recently on a global scale. Here are some examples:


The Japanese are Using Bitcoin More than Expected
Australia Will Recognize Bitcoin as Money and Protect Bitcoin Businesses, No Taxes
Bitcoin Coming To Russian E-Commerce Giant Ulmart Starting September 1 
India’s Zebpay Has More Mobile Users Than All Korean Bitcoin Apps Combined 
You Can Now Pay Bitcoin for Parking at 27 UK Airports 

 

Fidelity Investments is acknowledging the increased demand by allowing clients to see digital currencies on its website.

 

Incidentally, for years, rumors of China and Russia joining together to dump the US dollar have been discussed. If true, they could be holding up their economies until the right time to move towards a gold standard. This bombshell report from Zerohedge seems to confirm the idea.

 

Speaking on future ties with Russia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in mid-March that Sino-Russian trade ties were affected by falling oil prices, but he added that he saw great potential in cooperation. Vladimir Shapovalov, a senior official at the Russian central bank, said the two central banks were drafting a memorandum of understanding to solve technical issues around China’s gold imports from Russia, and that details would be released soon.

If Russia – the world’s fourth largest gold producer after China, Japan and the US – is indeed set to become a major supplier of gold to China, the probability of a scenario hinted by many over the years, namely that Beijing is preparing to eventually unroll a gold-backed currency, increases by orders of magnitude.

“We discussed the question of trade in gold. BRICS countries are large economies with large reserves of gold and an impressive volume of production and consumption of this precious metal. In China, the gold trade is conducted in Shanghai, in Russia it is in Moscow. Our idea is to create a link between the two cities in order to increase trade between the two markets,” First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov told Russia’s TASS news agency.

In other words, China and Russia are shifting away from dollar-based trade, to commerce which will eventually be backstopped by gold, or what is gradually emerging as an Eastern gold standard, one shared between Russia and China, and which may day backstop their respective currencies.

I suggested in a prior post that Bitcoin would be the best alternative for the US to counter the economic alliance between China and Russia. If there is a move toward some form of a gold standard (i.e. gold backed trade note), virtually all fiat currencies (those not backed by gold, silver, oil, etc.) will hyper-inflate. In that case, people will lose confidence in central banks and the only viable alternative will be cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

There are small hints that the Trump administration is pro-Bitcoin: 

CNNMoney reported:

His budget director, former US House member Mick Mulvaney, had been dubbed the “Bitcoin Congressman” by some of the currency’s backers.

And vice president Mike Pence’s chief economist Mark Calabria has given speeches in support of bitcoin as well. Calabria was formerly the director of financial regulation studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute before joining the administration.

In addition, there was a mysterious Sean Spicer tweet – Did Sean Spicer actually tweet a Bitcoin transaction?

But, there have been some like blogger Michael Krieger who think that President Trump is completely controlled by Wall Street. Maybe he has a point. Just look at the number of Goldman Sachs alumni in his administration. Also, the manipulation of markets (stock, commodities, bond, etc.) continues unabated. Others, like Brandon Smith, are adamant in spreading a completely bogus theory that President Trump has been selected by the central bankers to be a scapegoat for future economic calamity. No one with even a primitive understanding of economics can possibly blame President Trump for some future economic collapse. In that case, blame will be placed squarely on the FED. I easily refute Mr. Smith’s assertion and lay out the Trump strategy to end the FED in my prior post.

So, what is the solution? One approach, suggested by Dr. Ron Paul (back in 2011) would be to declare bankruptcy and return to a gold standard. The market manipulation could end with a new system in place. That would be an incredibly dangerous approach in my opinion. Imagine the 10-year bond moving up 300 basis points (i.e. from 3% to 6%) over a short period of time. With banks completely leveraged and holding trillions in derivatives, they would become effectively insolvent. The whole economy would then implode.

I think a better approach, which is maybe what the Trump administration has settled on, is to try to stave off bankruptcy (via Plunge Protection Team) until an alternate system (like Bitcoin) is in place. Ultimately, Bitcoin is an enemy to all central banks including the FED. As individuals opt to use cryptocurrencies (i.e. wire transfers, payments) and move away from using fiat currencies, the central banks lose their control over people. The central bank will effectively be irrelevant. This alternate system which is being implemented right now is part of the global currency reset that has been discussed for years.

The president of the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, made some interesting comments about Bitcoin recently:

“This is a topic a lot of people across the Fed are paying attention to and watching how it evolves.”

“The problem I have [with bitcoin] is while it says, by design, you’re limiting the number of bitcoins that can be created, it doesn’t stop me from creating NeelCoin or somebody from creating Bobcoin or Marycoin or Susiecoin.”

 

Perhaps Mr. Kashkari didn’t realize he was actually making an endorsement for Bitcoin with his statements. Central bankers shouldn’t be the only ones allowed to create money.

In fact, anyone can should be able to create their own cryptocurrency. You can get essential instructions from one of these articles:

How To Create Your Own Cryptocurrency
How Anyone Can Make Their Own Digital Currency


(Wow, maybe this can convince some unfortunate, misguided individuals that the Jews really don’t run the world and control all the banks.)

Back in 1980, as the price of gold and silver exploded higher, the FED raised interest rates several times. They also stopped the Hunt brothers from cornering the silver market. Today, a similar interest rate increase is not possible as the national debt (as % of GDP) is much higher than it was back then.

Although the precious metals markets are rigged, as evidenced by the Deutsche Bank settlement, highlighted in this Bloomberg article, Wall Street has limited resources for manipulating cryptocurrencies. There are no ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) approved by the SEC that directly track cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. So, there is limited potential of selling short Bitcoins. There could be future raids on one of the exchanges (i.e. Mt. Gox) but this will only be temporary setback and not stop the momentum of cryptocurrencies.

We can only hope that the transition is smooth. I wouldn’t count on it.

An earlier version of this article was posted on 5/25/15 at the Newswithchai blog.

 

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PoliticsRedemption WatchUnited States

Donald Trump, NWO, and the Deep State’s War Against Jerusalem

by Allan M. Coleman
written by Allan M. Coleman

Donald Trump’s first international trip, like the President himself, broke many previous policies of the USA in regards to major geopolitical issues.  The one that has been most noted is his visit to the Western Wall, which is a first by a sitting American President.  Beyond that, the White House YouTube labeled Jerusalem as part of Israel on their channel.  This is in stark contrast to his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and NSA head General McMaster who do not regard Jerusalem as being part of Israel.

Trump is certainly aware that his actions flew in the face of a globalist agenda, which seeks to destroy the Jewish link to Jerusalem. It is no accident that a peace deal favorable to Israel is coinciding with increased leaks from behind Trump’s back as well as a focused witch-hunt against his team.

The NWO (New World Order) and the Deep State, view Israel’s control over Jerusalem as a threat to their hegemony. Why? The global security state  seeks to undermine the miraculous nature of Israel’s existence and triumph, especially the gains made in just six days 50 years ago. By forcing Israel to give up their Divine connection to these lands, the globalists can prove that they and only they are the rulers of the world. G-D? The globalists want a world where they play that role.

By Israel continuing to do the impossible by returning to their homeland and holding onto their eternal capital, the ability for the globalists and their soldiers in the Deep State to cement their control over the hearts and mins of the world citizens remains elusive.

By Trump essentially declaring that Jerusalem belongs to Israel, he has out flanked the global elite.  By doing that, the President has pushed them to increase their animosity to himself and his agenda.  McMaster and Tillerson will try to derail Trump’s accomplishments he made between the Arab world and Israel.  Expect the leaks to increase and the investigations to begin to focus on the President himself. All the while the North Korean crisis will erupt and drag America into a serious war, leaving Israel vulnerable to attack.

Trump has done the unthinkable, but the Deep State and the globalist agenda have tremendous power behind it, enough to harm the President and his backers. The war over Jerusalem is beyond politics and intersects with who we and the world as people truly want to be. Children of G-D or servants of man.

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PoliticsUnited States

CREATING CHAOS: Did Russia Leak its White House Conversation to the Press?

by Allan M. Coleman
written by Allan M. Coleman

While Democrats, the Deep State, moderate Republicans, and elite media attempt to use Trump’s passing of intelligence to the Russian foreign minister as a reason to deem him unfit, a vexing issue abounds concerning the actual meeting itself: Who leaked the content of meeting to the press and why? I want to make it clear, there is really nothing illegal about the President passing vital intelligence to the Russians, if by passing it Americans are safer at the end of the day.

In terms of the leaker, there are a bunch of theories on who would leak such a sensitive meeting to the press.  Most people have assumed it is someone from the Trump team.  While this could be true, I believe it was the Russian team.

Once we break free from the idea that the Russians had a horse in the US presidential race we begin to see a pattern of creating chaos in the American political system.  What better way to do that than make it seem as if there is collusion on the part of the Trump administration when there is none. The meeting provided a perfect opportunity to leak routine intelligence sharing and allow the elite media to blow it out of proportion.

Chaos is the key objective for Putin and he is achieving it. With each passing day, Trump’s White House is under increasing pressure from its enemies both domestic and foreign. Putin knows a cornered Trump is no match for him. An American political system where all sides are ready to knife one another is a system in free-fall. The Russians have accomplished something far more important than a securing a friendly White House, they have created chaos and shattered an already troubled American political system.

Breaking the US-Israel Alliance

The leak achieved one other very important goal for Putin…crippling the alliance between Israel and the US.  If Israel, out of fear its intelligence will fall into the wrong hands pulls back on giving the US the intelligence it needs, America will be running blind in Syria since it has relied heavily on Israel’s intelligence gathering tools and agencies to understand what is going on there.

Putin is on the move.  It is time to stop playing into his hands and get united.

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Palestine FallingPoliticsUnited States

AMERICAN GREATNESS AND THE PLO

by Caroline Glick
written by Caroline Glick

The creation of a PLO state will not make the Middle East more stable.

Eight years from now, China will outstrip the US as the world’s largest economy. In three years, Israeli GDP per capita will outstrip Japan’s. These two data points are useful to bear in mind as we consider the Trump administration’s sudden decision to go retro and embrace the Clinton administration’s foreign policy on Israel from the early 1990s.

When then US president Bill Clinton decided to embrace Yasser Arafat, the architect of modern terrorism, it seemed like a safe bet.

The US had just won the Cold War. With the demise of the Soviet Union, US dominance in the Middle East was unquestioned. Even then Syrian president Hafez Assad provided symbolic support for the US-led war against his Baathist counterpart Saddam Hussein.

Assad had no choice. His Soviet protector had just disappeared.

The PLO, for its part, had never been weaker. The Gulf states reacted to Arafat’s support for Saddam in the 1991 war by cutting the PLO off financially. The Palestinian uprising against Israel, which broke out in 1988, sputtered into oblivion in late 1990 because without Arab money, Arafat and his cronies couldn’t pay anyone to attack Israelis.

As for the Arabs, operating under the US’s protective shield, in 1993 the Arab world appeared impermeable to internal pressure. No one imagined that Arab nationalism or the reign of presidents for life, kings and emirs would ever be questioned.

As for Israel, its decision to bow to the US’s demand during the Gulf War to stand down and do nothing in response to Iraq’s unprovoked Scud missile attacks was informed by a sense that Israel could not afford to stand up to America. While many debated the wisdom of this conclusion, the fact was that Israel in 1991 was economically weak. Its per capita income stood at around $15,000. Its economy was entirely dependent on the US and Europe.

With America’s power at an all-time high, Clinton and his people had every reason to believe that with minimal effort, they would be able to reach a peace deal between the Israelis and the PLO.

In the event, the assessment that peace would be an easy effort turned out to be entirely wrong. Arafat and his deputy Mahmoud Abbas played the Americans for fools. Worse, they humiliated Clinton.

In July 2000, when Arafat rejected Israel’s US-supported offer of peace at Camp David, it wasn’t just the notion of peaceful coexistence with Israel that he rejected. He rejected the notion that you cannot stand up to America.

Clinton aggravated the deleterious effect of Arafat’s action when rather than either retaliate against the PLO chieftain or at a minimum cutting his losses and walking away, Clinton spent the last months and weeks of his presidency pursuing Arafat and begging him to agree to a deal. Clinton went so far as to present his own peace offer to the PLO chief with less than a month left in office. And Arafat stomped away.

A lot of people were watching what happened. And a lot of people drew the logical conclusion: the US is a paper tiger. You can humiliate it. You can attack it. And the Americans, secure in their belief that unlike every other world power in history their primacy was permanent, would do nothing to you.

When Clinton left office, it wasn’t just the peace process that lay in shambles. America’s reputation was also massively weakened. In contempt of Washington, North Korea was racing toward the nuclear finish line.

Iran was taking over south Lebanon through Hezbollah and murdering Americans in Saudi Arabia.

India and Pakistan went nuclear.

And al-Qaida bombed two US embassies and one US naval destroyer.

How could Clinton pay attention to these things when he was captivated by the notion that once a peace deal was signed with the PLO, all the problems of the region would disappear?

He couldn’t.

And in time, neither could his successors. George W. Bush and Barack Obama each in time adopted Clinton’s near religious faith in the curative powers of embracing the PLO at Israel’s expense. Why should the world’s sole superpower deal with the difficult and bloody pathologies of the Islamic world? Why should it consider modernizing its alliances with its Asian partners as China rose seemingly inexorably? Why should it consider its inability to expand the US economy by 4% a year as a national security threat when all would be well the minute that the PLO agreed to a deal with a diminished and enfeebled Jewish state?

And so three American presidents have wasted 24 years ignoring serious and growing threats and changing global conditions while embracing the fantasy that the PLO holds the keys to global peace, or the ultimate deal or American exculpation of the sins of its past.

Israel for its part has followed its American friends down the garden path, even as the rationale for doing so has vastly diminished.

While the Americans surrendered their universities to the fantasies of anti-American multiculturalists and grievance mongers, Israel has modernized its markets, strengthened its society and revolutionized its economy.

One of the reasons Israel didn’t dare to question the Americans in the early 1990s was its terrible credit rating. In 1988 Israel’s credit rating was – BBB. And it needed to borrow billions of dollars to pay for the absorption needs of a million Jews from the former Soviet Union who moved to Israel from 1989 through 2006. US loan guarantees were the only way Israel could borrow money at affordable rates.

Over the intervening quarter century, those million Jews were the major driver in developing Israel’s information economy.

The main reason that Israel has maintained its slavish devotion to America’s PLO fetish is that our leftist elites, that dominate the media, share it. Like the American foreign policy discourse, Israel’s elites’ assessment of Israel’s priorities has remained frozen in time for the past 24 years.

The same cannot be said of the public.

The vast majority of Israelis have greeted President Donald Trump’s sudden embrace of his predecessor’s obsession with the PLO with surprise and at best bemusement.

“Well, good luck with that,” is the most polite response.

It isn’t simply that unlike the American foreign policy establishment, the vast majority of Israelis are convinced there is no deal to be had with the PLO. Most Israelis simply don’t care anymore. They view the PLO and the Palestinians as largely irrelevant.

When Israeli leaders outside the leftist elite’s echo chambers prefer to speak with foreign audiences about anything beside the Palestinians, it isn’t because they are trying to avoid an unpleasant conversation. It is because they don’t see the point anymore.

The notion that a PLO state will make the region more stable as far more coherent Arab states collapse is absurd.

The notion that it is necessary to empower the PLO to win Arab allies when the Arabs are beating a path to Israel’s door begging for help in defeating Sunni jihadists and Iran is ridiculous.

The notion that Israel’s ability to expand its markets is contingent on peace with the PLO when every week more world leaders descend on Jerusalem to sign trade deals with Israel is not even worthy of a giggle.

As for demography, the American hysteria is bizarre.

The Palestinians already have passports and vote – when they are allowed to – in their own elections. Why would Israel be expected to let them vote for the Knesset?

Beyond that, Jewish immigration to Israel remains high. Israel’s Jewish birthrates have surpassed its Muslim birthrates both within sovereign Israel and in Judea and Samaria.

So why would Israel give up Jerusalem for demography?

As for Israel’s Arab citizens, the truth it that but for the meddling of foreign governments, Israel’s Arab population would have integrated fully into Israeli society a decade ago.

Next week, President Trump will arrive here. His meeting last week with PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and statements by administration officials since make clear that Trump intends to be the fourth US president to get sucked into the PLO vortex.

Trump will arrive in Israel believing that his campaign pledge to “Make America Great Again,” and his goal of reaching the “ultimate deal” with the PLO are complementary aims.

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explains nothing else to Trump when they meet next week, he should explain to him that the two goals are mutually exclusive. And if he has any extra time, Netanyahu should give Trump the details of the massive price America has paid, since 1993, for its three past presidents’ obsession with the PLO.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post. 

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BordersPoliticsUnited States

OBAMA’S CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST

by Daniel Greenfield
written by Daniel Greenfield

Ticking time bombs from Syria to North Korea.

Democrats inherit the foreign policy crises of a thousand Republican presidential fathers, but the foreign policy crises inherited by incoming Republicans in the White House are always orphans.

Or at least that’s how the media likes to spin it.

If you believe your random mainstream media outlet of choice, North Korea and Syria were crises freshly spawned by this administration with no prior history. But these ticking time bombs are the direct result of the two terrible terms of his predecessor.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s years in the White House were the most dysfunctional, schizophrenic and senseless eight years of our national foreign policy. His domestic policy was a disaster, but it was a radioactive toxic waste dump with clear and consistent goals. ObamaCare, the abuses of the Justice Department, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency were the naturally terrible outcome of left-wing policies being implemented with inevitably terrible results.

But Obama’s foreign policy was a wildly inconsistent mess. The Nobel Peace Prize winner couldn’t quite decide if he was a humanitarian interventionist or a pacifist non-interventionist. He couldn’t make up his mind if he wanted to take the side of the Sunnis or the Shiites in their Islamic unholy war. He didn’t know if he wanted to appease Russia or sanction it, to pivot to Asia or run the other way, to play another round of golf or replace his defense secretary for the fifth time.

Obama could be consistent on domestic policy because there were few hard choices to make. Government had to be constantly expanded and every arm of it enlisted in pursuing left-wing goals. Republican opposition was largely hapless. The “Irish Democracy” of the public response to ObamaCare was more effective at sabotaging it, but by the time anyone understood that it was far too late.

The world stage was a much more dynamic place with players who didn’t fit into Obama’s ideology. The Islamist democracy proponents got Obama to kick off the Arab Spring. When Gaddafi shot the Islamists in the streets, the interventionists got him to sign on to regime change in Libya. But then Syria boiled down to Sunni and Shiite Islamists shooting each other and interventionism hit a roadblock.

Obama stopped at his own Red Line and couldn’t figure out what to do next. His foreign policy had somehow boiled down to helping Shiites kill Sunnis in Iraq and helping Sunnis kill Shiites in Syria.

He was bombing and arming the same Islamists at the same time to improve relations with them.

Even a guy who thought they speak Austrian in Austria and celebrated Cinco de Cuatro had to know that something had gone horribly wrong with his foreign policy. When the Russians stepped in and promised to clean up the WMD mess in Syria, he was happy to take them up on the offer without looking at the fine print.

Like a badly programmed computer, Obama locked up in Syria because Islamists fighting Islamists didn’t fit into his left-wing code. He feared alienating either Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile appeasement not only failed to defuse the growing conflict with Russia, but poured more fuel on the flames. And bluffing China with a hollow pivot only sent the message that America was impotent.

Obama’s tenure was marked by two inexplicable wars; a surge in Afghanistan that failed to accomplish any of its goals while killing and crippling thousands of Americans, and an illegal regime change operation in Libya that left the country looking like Iraq. Obama and his fans don’t talk about either of these wars. And you can’t blame them. They make ObamaCare look like a shining success story.

But they’re not the biggest Obama disasters that President Trump inherited.

President Bush left Obama a largely stabilized Iraq. All he had to do was keep the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds working together. It wasn’t a cakewalk, but it was far from the mess that it had been or would be again. A decade ago though Democrats had been as obsessed with Iraq as they would be with Russia. Obama, like the leading non-Hillary candidates, ran on being against the war. So he pulled out instead.

Pulling out alone might have been disastrous because it would encourage the Shiite majority to trample on the Sunni minority. But Obama combined a pullout from Iraq with backing for Sunni Islamists nearly everywhere else, including next door in Syria, who helped swell the ranks of ISIS.

The threat of ISIS and other Sunni Islamists helped Iran get a firm grip on Iraq and Syria. The Arab Spring wedged it deeper into Yemen. And Obama was too worried that Iran would walk away from a potential nuclear deal to do anything about it. The nuclear deal sealed the deal for a resurgent Iran.

And that means that Russia is the dominant power in the region.

Obama alienated Egypt by backing the Brotherhood.  President Trump has been trying to undo that disaster. Obama backed Turkey’s totalitarian Islamist tyrant even as he quarreled with and then sidled up to Russia. The only remaining strong ally in the region capable of defending itself is Israel.

Meanwhile possible alliances in Asia fell apart as Obama dithered. The Philippines has an anti-American government that Obama further alienated during his disastrous final months in office. South Korea has fallen back into political instability at a time when it can least afford it while Japan stands alone.

Obama’s Asia pivot was exposed as another gimmick when he proved unwilling to defy the People’s Republic in the South China Sea. His diplomatic efforts seemed to prioritize ideological gestures toward Vietnam’s Communist regime over meaningful strategic alliances. Aside from the risk of war over China’s expansionism, this failed policy was cutting off the non-military China route to resolving North Korea.

This is the route that President Trump is now struggling to reopen again by restoring leverage.

Perversely, Obama did more damage with his failed Asia pivot than he would have done by staying out of it. The non-military option, like so much of diplomacy, depends on the perception of what we might do. In Asia, as in Syria, Obama made it painfully clear that he would do nothing. And the average totalitarian regime has difficulty grasping that different American governments really are different.

The Iran deal once again sent the message to North Korea that nuclear weapons can only benefit it. And that, when combined with Obama’s failures in Asia, funnels us into the military option in North Korea.

Back in Syria, Obama’s Red Line stranded us in the middle of an Islamic civil war and credibility crisis. Obama had handed over the keys to the region to Iran and Russia. America is now stuck trying to get them back.

President Trump chose to do it by going back to the point of collapse and enforcing Obama’s Red Line. It was a controversial choice, but it made a clear statement that presidential promises mean something. It also sent a message to Syria, Russia and Iran that just because we don’t want yet another war, doesn’t mean that they have a free hand to do anything they want.

Obama saw foreign policy in the social justice terms of the left. Trump and his people see a geopolitical struggle. His predecessor believed that we had to atone for our historical crimes. Trump understands that at the root of local crises like Syria and North Korea is a larger contest with Russia and China. It’s the worldview that Obama had sneeringly dismissed as rooted in the Cold War in his debate with Romney.

And yet it’s far more useful than Obama’s incoherent foreign policy whose three pillars were Islamism, appeasement and global warming.

President Trump believes that global stability comes from the stability in the relationship between world powers. Syria and North Korea are just the ways that Russia and China test us to see how far they can push. His goal is to achieve stability from the top down by reaching an understanding with the other powers. And to do that he has to undo the credibility crisis that he inherited from Barack Obama.

Obama left behind plenty of domestic and international ticking time bombs, from ObamaCare to Iran, and Trump’s first years in office will be occupied with finding ways to keep the bombs from going off.

Published First in FrontPageMag.

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