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Friday, January 30, 2026

30: United States

The Untimely Death of Civil Rights in America And what can be done to resurrect them. ............. “Every election brought changes, but the fundamental mission of our work remained the same. That’s why most of us planned to stay at the Division following the 2024 election. But after witnessing this Administration destroy much of our work, we made the heartbreaking decision to leave — along with hundreds of colleagues, including about 75 percent of attorneys. Now, we must sound the alarm about the near destruction of DOJ’s once-revered crown jewel.” ....... Rather than the federal government forcing state and local governments to recognize the civil rights of Black Americans, it’s now up to state and local governments to force the federal government to recognize the constitutional rights of all Americans.

The Lowdown on Debasement How seriously has investors’ confidence in America been shaken? .............. At current prices the value of the world’s above-ground gold reserves is around $36 trillion, more than a dozen times the combined value of all cryptocurrencies. ............... The skyrocketing gold prices we are seeing now are a consequence of what finance types call the “debasement trade.” While the effect of the debasement trade is shown most spectacularly in sharply rising gold and silver prices, it’s also visible in the falling value of the dollar and in rising long-term interest rates. ............. Now we have an administration that casually ripped up three generations’ worth of solemn trade agreements, has threatened to seize allies’ territory, and more. Who’s to say that one of these days Trump might not declare a Liberation Day on U.S. debt? It may not be the most likely outcome, but it’s no longer in the realm of the inconceivable. ................. the dollar is now significantly weaker than it was in the last two years of the Biden administration. ............... the debasement trade signals that financial markets are losing faith in the United States. It’s not a full-blown panic, at least not yet, more of a gradual erosion. And it doesn’t amount to an imminent crisis. In particular, fears of debasement would have to get much worse to dethrone the dollar’s role as the world’s preeminent currency .......... other forms of erosion, as the world signs trade agreements without America, as U.S. scientific preeminence is undermined by budget cuts and anti-science ideology, and more. .......... The diminishing band of Trump loyalists may believe that he is making America great again. But it’s not just liberals who realize that he’s doing the opposite. International investors are reaching the same conclusion.

The One Promise Trump Has Kept A Look at Trump’s 10 Biggest Campaign Promises

The World Files for Economic Divorce from America What you do when your (trading) partner is abusive ................... On Monday India and the European Union concluded negotiations on a breakthrough free trade agreement. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission — the EU’s executive branch — called it “the mother of all deals.” That description is somewhat over the top. Yet the agreement is in fact historic and important in ways that go beyond economics. For it shows that the world is becoming ever more estranged from an erratic, abusive United States. In other words, other countries are moving, step by step, toward an economic divorce from America. .............. Unlike Donald Trump, who thinks of international trade as a zero-sum game, the Europeans and the Indians understand that a free trade agreement between them is a very good deal for both parties. They are two very big economies. Although Trump administration officials like to sneer at European economic performance, the economy of the European Union is roughly the same size as ours. And India, which a few decades ago had a huge population but a small economy, has made massive economic strides and is now a major player on the world economic scene: ..............

this is a real trade deal, not some vague expression of intent.

................ The EU’s pledge of $600 billion, in particular, is almost pure vaporware. This is in stark contrast to the EU-India deal, which is a proper, detailed trade agreement with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. ................ the EU-India deal: It’s a major step toward economic divorce from the United States by the major global economies. ............ While the economic case for an EU-India agreement has been clear for years, closing the deal required overcoming special interests on both sides. What tipped the balance, clearly, was the fact that both parties are looking for ways to pivot away from trade with America. ................. Europeans have multiple reasons to feel aggrieved with the Trump Administration, from fake claims that the E.U. has been taking advantage of the U.S. through economic trade, to bullying tactics on behalf of the tech broligarchy, to interference in Europeans’ domestic politics on the side of the European fascist right, to the recent threats to seize Greenland. ........... Trump has imposed high tariffs on its exports, with an average rate of 34.5 percent, almost as high as the average rate on Chinese exports. It’s a bizarre move in both economic and diplomatic terms. Previous American administrations deliberately cultivated a relationship with India as a counterweight to China, which is a dangerous rival. But that was when the U.S. president was sane. .............. Access to the U.S. market just isn’t as important to other countries as he imagines. .............. the world needs access to the EU more than it needs access to the US. .......... The world trading system as we knew it lasted for three generations after World War II. It was a rules-based system, in which everyone considered the U.S. a reliable, trustworthy partner. But now US economic relations with other nations have turned abusive, and the world is moving toward divorce. And this will make Americans measurably poorer.

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