Forest fires and record heat ravage Europe.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Mario Economo, a retired banker from New York, London, Zurich, another money center banks and to bring us up to date, what the heck is going on in Europe and how hot is it in Europe?

0:14 Is it still hot? Done? Mario?

0:17 Speaker 2 Yes, good morning, cats, round table. It is warm, but it’s not as warm as it was. It’s dropped from about one hundred and twenty degrees in the south of Europe to somewhere around one hundred degrees, so it’s still very warm, but it’s nothing like it was. The winds are very strong and this of course is having a

0:33 negative impact on numerous forest fires that continue to burn throughout the south of Europe. They’re pretty extensive and unfortunately we’ve seen the destruction of thousands of acres of land and also herds of animals livestock, goats, sheep, cows. So the reality is this will have an impact as well on the food process, because we’re going to see an

1:00 increase in the price for milk and increase in the price for cheese across Europe, which of course is not going to help inflation, which brings us to the fact that the ECB, the European Central Bank. Earlier this week, and a day after the US Federal Reserve raised rates, the ECB also raised rates. However, now the ECB is

1:20 deciding that it may have to pause to see if, in fact, all these rate increases will have a positive impact on bringing inflation down. They’re also facing another problem, which is many people in Europe, and specifically some senators in Italy have now actually openly complained that the ECB is following the wrong path by continuing to increase interest rates,

1:42 which is only going to have a detrimental effect on local economies.

1:45 Speaker 1 I think it’s going to have a very detrimental effect, and I’ve said that about Chairman Powell, that it’s going to hurt the United States of America too. It could cause a recession versus causing a growth in both European and American communities. Thank you for saying that, Mario. What else?

2:07 Speaker 2 Yes, In fact, the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, did say that Germany will be the only G seven country this year to suffer a contraction, and I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that interest rates keep growing up and they’re starting to create tremendous havoc in industry, not to mention the fact that

2:25 the high energy prices which we’ve now seen also the price of oil slowly starting to climb back up, are having a negative impact on Germany. If we can just move to another point, which is the recent visit by the Italian Prime Minister with President Biden in the United States.

2:43 The Italian Prime Minister Italy will be assuming the presidency of the G seven next year, and it looks more likely than not that they will not be renewing their membership in China’s Belton Road initiative. This is something America wanted.

2:59 It looks like the Prime Minister of Italy, Miss Maloney, is not going to renew the membership in that However, she will continue to have trade relations with China. One interesting point, the whole issue of LGBTQ rights did not come up. We know that the Biden administration strongly supports this, and we know that she strongly opposes this, So the

3:25 issue was not according to her, The issue was not raised in any of the discussions or meetings.

3:30 Speaker 1 Well, in my discussion with a lot of the gay community, the gay community, you know, feels that he should be considered separately from the LGBQ crowd, and I don’t know why everybody’s mixing the two.

3:48 Speaker 2 What else, Mario, Let’s talk about Russia. In Saint Petersburg, Russia is hosting a conference for African nations. They were hoping for a good turnout of over participants, like they had at the last one I believe it was in twenty nineteen. Unfortunately for them, just under twenty countries have showing up. However, that being said, President Putin is there

4:10 and he has promised these countries that he will provide them with free wheat. This is because they are concerned about the fact that Russia pulled out of the grain agreement and they’re very concerned that they’re going to run into issues with respect to feeding their people. He gave them strong assurances that this would not be the case

4:29 and that he would continue supplying grain. We should also point out that at this conference, mister Pegosen was president. He is the gentleman that was running the Wagner group that we heard there was rebellion in the making, and that he was on his way to Moscow, and then at the last moment he stopped his various military soldiers

4:50 from going into Moscow and they actually moved into Belarus. Now a lot of people think and are starting to question if in fact this was a real coup attempt, or if in fact this was just an attempt by President Putin working with his very close friend mister Pegosen to actually see if there are any spies or any

5:12 traders within the military ranks in Russia.

5:15 Speaker 1 And they caught one Russian general. I understand that Putin quot him or asked him to commit suicide. Do you remember the name of the general? Uh?

5:28 Speaker 2 Well, I know the general you’re referring to. Uh, and he is the general that was actually responsible for the massive bombing campaign in Syria and the destruction of numerous cities there. I don’t know what’s happened to him. I don’t think anybody really knows. But we do know this that there’s no way, it’s very difficult to believe that

5:49 Pegosen would be at an event with President Putin in Saint Petersburg in the same building at the same time, if in fact there was genuine bad blood.

6:00 Speaker 1 I told I told ed Roster of Ridi’s act that it was a ploy between Progosen and Putin to find out which of his generals were would go along with a possible cope, And I guess I was right, And I think I told a former Secretary of State too.

6:23 Speaker 2 Yeah. I think this was also another move that President Putin did, along with progosen to get provided pretext for the Wagner Group to make its way into Belarus where they currently are and their training and the idea behind that is. And we’ve seen a lot of media covering this topic that if President Putin decides to make a

6:43 move on what’s called the Slwaukee Gap, he’s going to be able to use the Wagner Group to secure that road and essentially split the Baltic States away from the rest of NATO. Do I think he’s going to do it? No, I do not, because I think he realizes if he tries to do that, he will actually have a war

7:02 on his hands between NATO and Russia, and a war like that is essentially unwinnable by either side. So absolutely correct, go ahead and do that.

7:11 Speaker 1 I agree on one more thing, one more what else?

7:15 Speaker 2 One more thing before we close? Uh. The Russian Defense Minister Shoigu was recently in North Korea and he met with North Korea’s Premier Kim jong un. He had a huge, huge welcome, massive parade UH, and Kim Jong un showed him his latest intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as numerous high tech drones that North Korea has UH, and they discussed their friendship and their commitment

7:45 to work and help each other. So I think that that’s something that the US is going to need to look at very carefully, and as well as Europe for that matter, UH, and they’re going to have to see what can be done to prevent these two countries from actually getting closer together in defense terms, because that would

8:05 provide a very big headache for the US.

8:07 Speaker 1 Agree another one hundred percent. Mario Konamu, Thank you so much for calling in and bringing everybody up to date, and we’ll catch you up again real soon.

8:17 Speaker 2 Thank you. Enjoy your day.