Romanian Light, Rocket From The Crypt, Authoritarians For Democracy
No one imagined that Romanian elections would become a big spectator sport, but they’ve really proved us wrong. Remember the TikTok Secret Police Election? Well now Romania is back with a sequel: Ethno-Nationalist Hooligan for President.The question smart observers are asking is: why can the powers that be live with one, not the other? The smartest are keeping the answer to themselves. Meanwhile, if you’re passing through Ben Gurion International Airport, hang onto your drink. You wouldn’t want a slice of Houthi rocket in your arak. But bad news for the duty free counter is even worse news for the next twenty years in the global air defence industry. Finally, the AfD has been officially designated as 'right-wing extremist' by Germany’s spy agency. It’s eyes down for a full ban. Who knows, one day, Germany could even aspire to the democratic standards of Romania? You can get special paywalled premium episodes of Multipolarity every month on Patreon:https://patreon.com/multipolarity
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Premium Edition Teaser: 51st State of Mind, You Bloody Bastard, Wanging On
Three months ago, Pierre Poilievre was going to take 50 per cent of the total vote, a historic generational landslide. Now, he’s a pub trivia question. What happened in Canada? Did it warp beneath the enormous trade gravity of the Trump Presidency? And why did Canadians think that turning to a milquetoast former central banker would turn off the US electromagnet dismantling their country one bolt at a time? India and Pakistan are at it again. Early in the week, reports were of World War 3. Vishnu and Allah duking it out with nukes at the gates of hell. So far, it’s all sparks and no light, but this week’s rift shows how the region is both increasingly important and ever more a pawn of bigger powers. Finally, on Saturday Foreign Ministers from five central Asian countries met with China’s Wang Yi to talk over deepening trade ties. It may seem like just a bunch of bros jawing over the agree-to-agree communiquê, but this is the dawning of the Middle Corridor. You can get special paywalled premium episodes of Multipolarity every month on Patreon: https://patreon.com/multipolarity
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Moon Age Daydream, Iran So Far Away, The Empire Strikes Back
Gold is going to the moooooooon. Fantastic news for gold bugs. Until someone works out that this is a short against America, and the Wall Street types celebrating are effectively blowing the kazoo for the end of their own industry. After all, if gold remains on the moon, they’ll have to figure out whether they still need financial services consultants in space. Meanwhile - it’s a day ending in Y so someone in the Pentagon must be plotting an attack on Iran. It seems incredibly illogical and stupid. Which makes it all the more probable, by Pentagon standards. Finally, China has raised tariffs on American goods to 125 %, restricted the supply of rare earth metals, stopped investment in US private equity, and cut off its natural gas terminals. Tit has given way to tat - we’ll be weighing up who has cut off more of their nose to spite their face. You can get paywalled episodes of Multipolarity on https://www.patreon.com/multipolarity
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Special Edition: Bretton Woods 3
This week, in a special experiment, we've gone live on Twitter Spaces. As Trump's tariffs bite, and the current account deficit zooms to the front of modern political economy, we're revisiting the idea of a new Bancor, a complete resetting of the global monetary system.
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Special Edition: Tariffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week we scrubbed the decks and sounded the five bell alarm. Donald Trump had only gone and done it. Tariffs. Thousands of them. What could the greatest regression from the norms of globalisation since 1945 mean for a show called Multipolarity? Even better: what would it mean for the world? With the MAGA base both boisterous and uneasy in the face of this dawning reality, we wargamed out the answers. Until, at 20:10 local time, news came of a stunning reversal...
Charting The Rise Of A Multipolar World Order
Philip Pilkington is an unorthodox macroeconomist.
Andrew Collingwood is an equally skeptical journalist.
Lately, both have realised that - post-Ukraine, post-Afghanistan withdrawal - the old, unipolar, US-led world order is in its death throes.
In its wake, something new is being born. But what shape will that take? That will depend on a combustible combination of economics and geopolitics; trade and military muscle.
Each week, our duo take three off-radar news stories and explain how each is shaping our multipolar reality.
Ireland