So as we bask in the afterglow of the holiday season, peace and goodwill to all, and so forth, there’s neither down south in U.S. federal politics.
If you had any hopes that the new year and Democrats taking over the U.S. Congress was going to stabilize the political and economic environment, you can give them up now.
2019 looks like more of the same from the U.S., as President Donald Trump continues to take not only his own country but the rest of the world on a wild roller coaster of economic and social peaks and valleys with his ever-changing mood, narcissism and megalomania dictating some of the strangest behaviour this globe has ever seen from the leader of the most powerful country in the world.
It’s odd that an anti-globalist like Trump is providing some of the best proof that like it or not, what happens in one part of the world affects the rest.
When Trump announces that the partial shutdown of the U.S. government could last months or even years unless he gets what he wants — the kind of pronouncement you would expect from a five-year-old having a temper tantrum — the U.S. economy reacts, and all over the world, markets shiver in sympathy.
Trump raises trade barriers with Canada, the E.U and China — well, eventually everyone is going to be on that list — and the world pattern of trade is disrupted. Trump pulls the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement and one of the world’s biggest polluters continues to increase the amount of carbon being pumped into the air, to the detriment of all.
This doesn’t mean we need a one-world government, but it’s certainly clear that countries that work together on problems facing all of us, like climate change, are going to be more successful in the long term.
We’re all connected. It’s time we embraced that, as individuals and nations.
- Black Press
Do you have a comment about this story? email:
editor@wltribune.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.