President Trump's at times warm, at times contentious relationship with his Chinese counterpart has been an exercise in cognitive dissonance that's reflective of a broader truth about the relationship between the world's two largest economies. The veneer of economic cooperation belies deeper military tensions as China's expansionist military aims threaten US security in the Pacific.

After a week of trade headlines that has been dominated by President Trump's insistence that talks are seeing "their most significant progress yet" and that the US has been pressing Beijing to commit to keeping the yuan "stable" to preclude any tariff-offsetting devaluations, the progress on a "memorandums of understanding" has emerged as a primary point of interest for Wall Street.

Americans For Prosperity, a free-market advocacy group funded in part by the Koch network, has offered to help House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pass legislation that would limit President Trump's ability to unilaterally impose new tariffs.

"[W]e hope to work with your office to advance legislation to require congressional approval of any proposed tariffs," said AFP chief government affairs officer Brent Gardner and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Nathan Nascimento told Pelosi in a letter sent Friday and made public Wednesday.

The threat of a market catastrophe has pigeonholed the US into striking a deal with Beijing, the report suggests although many are confident that the situation is flipped.

"[Trump's] words further stoked the stock markets of the US, which reached the highest in two months and so increased pressure on the Trump administration to close the deal with China," said the Global Times in an Op-Ed, adding that if the Trump team "imposes more tariffs on Chinese products while China responds with fiercer countermeasures," it would "be a catastrophic strike to global stock markets."

"In terms of avoiding such blows, the Trump administration is probably the most pressured," the Op-Ed continues. "Thus in general, by the end of the trade negotiations, China and the US have become more psychologically equal" (according to the state-run outlet). As a result, "both sides would eventually lose," the Times warned.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Breitbart News exclusively that China’s intense international push for global dominance is the biggest threat that America has ever faced, even more substantial than the one that the Soviet Union posed in the 20th century during the Cold War.

THE EU’s trade agreements with Japan, Algeria and Turkey will not automatically still apply to the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Government has confirmed.

The revelation was made in the latest document released by Whitehall as the UK gears up its preparations to leave the Brussels trade bloc without a deal. The Government said it was “in the process of transitioning existing trade agreements of which the UK participates as a member of the European Union”. It is hoped a total of around 40 existing trade deals will roll over after March 29 in the event the Brexit deadlock is unable to be broken.

IT industry leaders say any H-1B visa curbs will affect US economy as it lacks skilled manpower particularly in the field of science, technology, engineering and maths

Europe is not interested in cutting off relations with Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated on 16 February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a statement that the country is not interested in the anti-Russian sanctions, as they were adopted for political reasons, stressing that it is necessary to work to change them.

"I personally think that we have no interest in sanctions", Altmaier said, adding that "we accepted these sanctions, because there were political grounds for this, repeatedly extended them. "the EU was united, but we have to work on changing political relations and arrive at other solutions".

JPMorgan Chase is developing a new cryptocurrency called JPM Coin whose value will be tied to the US dollar, the bank said on Thursday. The new private blockchain platform is designed to help large JPMorgan clients move money around the world. The new cryptocurrency will be built atop JPMorgan's Quorum blockchain technology, a variant of Ethereum that has been modified to serve the needs of a major financial institution like JPMorgan.

South Korea has untaken one of the most radical left-wing economic systems out there: a steep increase in minimum wage nationwide. But now, the country must face the dire consequences of that decision and the harsh reality that the regulations are destroying their economy.

South Korea is home to one of the world’s boldest left-wing economic programs. President Moon Jae-in’s flagship economic policy, “income-led growth,” has led to dramatic increases in minimum wages since he took office in 2017. Those increases are now driving a terrifying rise in unemployment, just as a slump in global trade is already buffeting Korea. The nation is now staring an economic crisis in the face.

According to the Wall Stree Journal, it isn’t just South Korea, but they seem to be the worst stranglers of their own economy.

Thousands of job cuts have been announced while demand for cars is dropping and debtors are defaulting on their auto loans in record levels. The failing automotive industry could propel the globe toward a worldwide recession in the coming months.

In addition to the trade war killing demand for automobiles, thousands of job cuts have been announced as manufacturers try to stay in business. According to Business Insider, Honda, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors have announced thousands of job cuts in Europe. Jaguar Land Rover has also begun cutting jobs.

Deutsche Bank's PR campaign to get out ahead of whatever "Kerosene Maxine's" subpoenas might uncover led to another not-altogether-unexpected revelation Wednesday morning when Bloomberg reported more details about the German lender's efforts to distance itself from the soon-to-be president.

We reported previously that Deutsche sought to limit its exposure to Trump during the run-up to his 2016 electoral victory for two reasons: it feared the public blowback that any association with Trump's divisive campaign rhetoric might bring, and it also wanted to avoid the eventuality of Trump defaulting on a loan while in office - which would force the bank into the uncomfortable position of needing to seize the assets of the President of the United States.

In a landmark ruling that sent a clear message to other banks battling misconduct investigations in French courts, a Paris court on Wednesday found UBS guilty of having actively helped some of its wealthy French clients hide money from French tax authorities in undeclared Swiss bank accounts, and ordered the bank to pay a $5.1 billion fine. The fine represents a record sum in France, and isn't too far below the $6 billion maximum allotted by French law.

The past five years have been baffling for gold bugs. In an environment of massive central bank money creation, rising government deficits and a populist takeover of many countries’ political systems – all of which should be great for safe haven assets – gold has spiked to around $1,350 four times, only to be smacked back down each time. Very demoralizing.

And now it’s gearing up for another try.

Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times warned - or perhaps threatened - late Tuesday that failed trade negotiations would have dire consequences for global stocks.

The threat of a market catastrophe has pigeonholed the US into striking a deal with Beijing, the report suggests although many are confident that the situation is flipped.

"[Trump's] words further stoked the stock markets of the US, which reached the highest in two months and so increased pressure on the Trump administration to close the deal with China," said the Global Times in an Op-Ed, adding that if the Trump team "imposes more tariffs on Chinese products while China responds with fiercer countermeasures," it would "be a catastrophic strike to global stock markets."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vigorously defended her role in sinking Amazon’s move to New York City on Tuesday in the face of bipartisan criticism, claiming the deal would have been "one of the biggest giveaways in state history" and would have priced people out of the local community.

"Frankly, the knee-jerk reaction assuming that I ‘don’t understand’ how tax giveaways to corps work is disappointing," she tweeted. "No, it’s not possible that I could come to a different conclusion. The debate *must* be over my intelligence & understanding, instead of the merits of the deal."

Russia’s foreign exchange reserves can now cover all of the debt owed by both the government and domestic businesses, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced.

“For the first time in history our reserves fully cover foreign debt, including government and commercial sector debt,” Putin said addressing the Federal Assembly in Moscow on Wednesday.

The country’s external debt amounts to $453.7 billion, while its international reserve funds stand at $475 billion as of February 8, 2019, according to infographics presented by the president.

Families of five American oil executives being held as part of the 'Citgo Six' say their relatives are living in overcrowded and inhumane Venezuelan jails.

Five American men, from Louisiana and Texas, have been sleeping in cramped cells and been starved since their arrest in Caracas in November 2017, their relatives claim.

The oil company they worked for is in the grip of a power struggle between Maduro and his rival for the presidency, the US-backed Juan Guaido.

A recent picture of one of the executives Tomeu Vadell, whose family live in Texas, shows dramatic weight loss and he appears extremely malnourished.

Almost 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck barely able to afford to put food on the table. That’s terrible news considering the predictions currently assume that grocery prices will steadily continue to rise during 2019.

Grocery prices are expected to rise by 1 percent or 2 percent this year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. It may seem small, but with so many U.S. households already living paycheck to paycheck, it could be just enough to have a real financial impact. Although food prices rose by just a fraction of a percent last year, and that was the first increase in three years, and it looks like prices will rise consistently during 2019, according to WCVB 5, an ABC News affiliate.

A full court press is taking place in Florida today (Presidents Day) with Republicans, Democrats, expatriates from Cuba and Venezuela and the warmonger ministry of propaganda that constitutes the US media all denouncing Maduro and blaming him for the hardships imposed on Venezuelans by Washington’s sanctions and attacks on Venezuela’s currency.

Even “liberal” NPR is reading off the same fascist warmonger script. NPR managed to report on Venezuela without mentioning the sanctions, without mentioning the theft of Venezuela’s gold foolishly entrusted to the US and British central banks, or the orchestrated protests funded by US-financed NGOs that are small in comparison with the crowds that support Maduro that are never mentioned in the US media. In other words, NPR is just another part of the whorehouse brigade.

Singapore, aiming high for the status of Asia’s unofficial capital, seems like the ideal venue for a conference to discuss how the Middle East could learn a few lessons from ASEAN’s multi-layered relations with China, especially involving partnership in the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

But first, let’s get things straight. The “Middle East” is, of course, a Eurocentric, Orientalist denomination. From Asia’s – and China’s – cultural and geographical point of view, the “Middle East” is correctly seen as Southwest Asia.

It’s enlightening to evaluate two Chinese informed perspectives on how China is deploying its geopolitical soft power across Southwest Asia in contrast to the Trump administration’s immensely muddled strategy.

The United States is lobbying Gulf states to hold off restoring ties with Syria, including the UAE which has moved closer to Damascus to counter the influence of its rival Iran, five sources told Reuters.

The opposing approaches are an early test of whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can gain political and diplomatic credibility after a nearly eight-year civil war turned him into an international pariah.

Many countries cut links with Syria at the start of the war.

Several Gulf states shut or downgraded their embassies, Syria was suspended from the Arab League, flights stopped and border crossings were closed. The United States and other countries imposed economic sanctions.

Washington, backed by Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Qatar, does not want Syria welcomed back into the international community until a political process to end the war is agreed.