“When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it.” – Frédéric Bastiat
The Pentagon's latest deployment forecast suggests more American troops may be sent to Europe amid the Russia-Ukraine War. According to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Biden Administration is “not taking that off the table, the possibility that we could possibly deploy additional U.S. forces to the eastern flank.”
100,000 service members are already stationed in Europe, although no further deployment plans have been announced. President Biden has been hesitant to involve himself with the conflict and stayed behind the scenes, often in his hometown of Delaware, throughout the war. This has led him to turn down Ukraine's requests for military equipment and the creation of a no-fly zone.
With a similarly dire warning, economic experts are continuing to predict a recession. Renown investor Carl Icahn told CNBC,
I think there very well could be a recession or even worse…
I have kept everything hedged for the last few years. We have a strong hedge on against the long positions and we try to be activist to get that edge… I am negative as you can hear. Short term I don't even predict.
Looking ahead, Icahn is betting against malls and commercial real estate. His predictions arise amid 40-year high inflation leading to disturbing price spikes, which are deepened by a troubled supply chain.
The Wall Street Journal chart below details worrisome food prices for Americans and the global market.
The rapid increase has created an international shockwave to markets, especially those in underdeveloped countries. Producers and sellers in places like Lebanon, Kenya, and Turkey have caused severe economic setbacks.
As reported by the WSJ,
In Kenya, bread prices recently jumped by 40% isome areas. In Indonesia, the government has imposed price controls on cooking oil.
In Brazil, the state-owned energy-giant Petrobras said earlier this month it couldn't hold off inflationary pressures and raised gasoline prices to distributors by 19%.
In Turkey, a sharp increase in the price of sunflower oil sparked panic buying.
As previously reported in a Liberty Rising Brief, the Russia-Ukraine War has impacted the global wheat supply. Many countries rely on imports to fuel their markets and feed their people.
According to the WSJ,
The Middle East and North Africa are particularly dependent on wheat from Ukraine and Russia. Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat, gets more than 70% of its wheat supplies from the countries, as does Lebanon. For Turkey, it is over 80%.
Meanwhile, the war is continuing to rage in Ukraine leading to humanitarian concerns and investigations into war crimes.
In his latest address, President Zelenskyy said over 100,000 people remain trapped in the city of Mariupol due to blockades. He described the conditions as “inhumane.”
In an interview with CNN, Putin's chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said nuclear weapons are not off the table if posed with an “existential threat.”
Putin has previously expressed likeness for deploying nuclear weapons. The spokesman continued, “No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats to our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be as you have never seen in your entire history.”
Thank you for reading today's brief.
