Journalist, political economist, editor of Geopolitical Economy Report || Videos: https://nitter.cf/t.co/nttyf01Zr4 || Articles: https://nitter.cf/t.co/BzH3YrwfcQ
Joined September 2012
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A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered a police investigation into the support that a donor network co-founded by US Vice President JD Vance provided to the far-right presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro (who now lives in the US).
This is strictly illegal in Brazil.
The US blatantly meddled in Brazil’s election, supporting Bolsonaro against Lula in many ways, but still failed.
Lula's win is a massive victory for Brazilian sovereignty, and a defeat of neocolonialism.
Source:
washingtonpost.com/world/202…
Ben Norton retweeted
The top 0.1% now control about $28 trillion, roughly 15% of all US wealth, per WSJ
Ben Norton retweeted
Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami after fleeing his country.
This comes a day after they were granted United States visas by the Trump administration.
Brazil's failed far-right presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro fled to his true home in the United States, where he published a statement claiming to be "president-elect" of Brazil.
Meet the new Juan Guaidó.
He is now trying to change the official name of the country to "the United States of Brazil". (The actual name is the Federative Republic of Brazil.)
The corrupt Bolsonaro dynasty are US puppets, dedicated to helping the US empire try to colonize Brazil.
Ben Norton retweeted
The Sept. U.S. trade deficit in goods was $134.9 billion, the highest ever recorded in Sept. There were only three months in history when the deficit was higher, all under Trump in 2025.
Here are the facts. Measured by the size of our trade deficits, Trump has been the worst president in history on trade. The tariffs have been a complete failure. Not only have they failed to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., but the U.S. is now more dependent than ever on foreign producers. Not only are we importing more than ever, but we are now paying Trump's tariffs on those imports.
Trump says trade deficits represent a loss. Judged by his own standard, Trump is the biggest loser in the history of the presidency. Also, if the economy is booming as Republicans claim, why have our trade deficits gone way up? Why are the trade deficits under Trump so much larger than they were under Biden, when, according to Trump, we had the worst economy in U.S. history?
Here are the facts. When you compare Trump's first two years to Biden's last two, GDP growth and job creation are slower, inflation is higher, and budget and trade deficits are bigger. If Trump is right that under Biden we had the worst economy in history, and the Trump economy is objectively worse on all counts, then the Trump economy is now the worst economy in history.
The historic re-election of President Lula da Silva in Brazil is a victory for BRICS, Palestine, Latin America, & the Global South.
It is also a blow to the US government, US corporations, Israel, oligarchs, & dollar hegemony.
I explain in this article:
geopoliticaleconomy.report/p…
Because the models are wrong. They are based on faulty assumptions.
Many investors (and economists) believe the efficient-market hypothesis. They are blind to how markets are often driven by politics.
This is why emerging markets often rally when right-wing politicians win elections. It's not because fundamentals suddenly got better or because corporate earnings increased.
It's because wealthy investors overwhelmingly prefer right-wing politicians, who they assume will serve their interests by promoting deregulation and privatization.
We saw a ridiculous bubble emerge in Argentina's stock market immediately after the election of right-wing "libertarian" President Javier Milei, who has overseen an economic catastrophe.
In Brazil, wealthy investors wanted Bolsonaro to win. In fact, they assumed he would win, and this was priced in. When he lost, they panic sold. It was driven by politics, not economic fundamentals.
BREAKING: Brazil's -19.8% stock market crash on Monday was one of the rarest market events in the last two decades, according to our analysis.
Brazil's EWZ ETF plunged -19.8% on October 26th, marking an 8.4 standard deviation move.
For context, the ETF's average daily move over the last 20 years has been just +0.04%, with a standard deviation of 2.36%.
Under a normal distribution, the probability of a decline this extreme is approximately 1 in 58 quadrillion.
In other words, this event should be virtually impossible under conventional statistical models.
What just happened in Brazil was *almost* impossible.
Here are several other recent examples from Latin America:
Colombia's main stock market index, the COLCAP, massively rallied when far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella was declared winner of the 2026 election (amid serious accusations of fraud).
Chile's index the IGPA rallied when polls showed far-right, pro-Pinochet candidate José Antonio Kast would likely win the 2025 election.
The same thing happened in Peru, when polls showed far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori would likely win the 2026 election.
Investors in emerging markets are very often driven by politics. When right-wing politicians are projected to win elections, they often buy; and when leftists like Lula win, they often sell.
The US hosts criminals, drug-traffickers, and corrupt oligarchs from across Latin America.
Brazil's Bolsonaro crime family is propped up by the US.
The US government has admitted that it is giving a visa to corrupt Brazilian politician Flávio Bolsonaro, who is a fugitive from justice who fled an investigation into money laundering.
Flávio's father, the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, fled Brazil for Florida after he refused to accept his loss to Lula in the 2022 election and tried to launch a military coup, which failed.
Flávio's brother, the corrupt far-right former politician Eduardo Bolsonaro, is also a fugitive from justice who has been living in the US, and working closely with Trump's MAGA movement.
Jair admitted that Eduardo is even seeking US citizenship.
The Bolsonaro crime family is loyal to the US empire (and its own portfolio), not Brazil.
Ben Norton retweeted
"We estimate that Mr Trump’s policies will cost the poorest tenth of American households, with average income after taxes and transfers of around $37,000, almost 3% of their income. The richest tenth, with average after-tax incomes of nearly $500,000, will gain nearly 3% (see chart 1). Households in the middle, with average income of roughly $100,000, lose more than $400"
Ben Norton retweeted
"Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s," says new House Judiciary report.
Report has new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old + then promised her a visa & NYU admission, demanding she stay quiet.
Ben Norton retweeted
Top Secret US memo sent from Brazil on 27 March 1964 outlining programme to undermine democratically-elected social democratic president João Goulart:
"We are meanwhile undertaking complementary measures with our available resources to strengthen resistance forces. These include covert support for pro-democracy street rallies....and encouragement [of] democracy and anti-communist sentiment in Congress, armed forces, friendly labor and student groups, church, and business. We may be requesting modest supplementary funds for other covert action programs in near future."
The typical CIA playbook. In this case, the operation was successful. President Goulart was overthrown in a military coup which began 4 days later. A brutal US-backed military dictatorship was installed and ruled for the next 21 years.
Trump's CIA just failed against Lula though. Hope for the world. The US empire is eminently beatable in Latin America - and everywhere. Washington puppets Milei, Paz, Noboa et al are next.
The historic re-election of Brazil's President Lula is a victory for BRICS, Palestine, the Brazilian working class, and the Global South.
It's also a blow to US imperialism, Israel, Brazilian oligarchs, and dollar hegemony.
I explain in this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=xPszorpi…
Huge news for Latin America, and the world:
Lula da Silva has won reelection in Brazil, despite blatant electoral meddling by the US.
Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America, a major geopolitical power, and a founding member of BRICS.
The US empire wanted to put back in power the corrupt, far-right Bolsonaro dynasty, which is extremely pro-US and pro-Israel.
The Bolsonaros vowed to minimize Brazil's role in BRICS, serve the interests of Brazilian oligarchs and big landlords at the expense of the working class, uphold the global US dollar system, and let US corporations plunder Brazil's natural resources -- especially its rare earths and critical minerals, which the US wants to reduce its reliance on China.
In contrast, Lula comes from a poor family and has always put the interests of the working class first. He has a non-aligned foreign policy, 100% supports Palestine, strongly believes in the importance of Global South integration and cooperation, and was a co-founder of BRICS.
Lula will deepen Brazil's partnership with China and the rest of the Global South. He will also continue to push for the transformation of the international financial system and will challenge the global dominance of the US dollar, which infuriates Washington.
US Big Tech corporations are spending a staggering $1 trillion this year, or 3% of GDP, on AI capital expenditure (capex), largely for data centers.
China's tech companies are spending $123 billion on AI apex, which is just 0.6% of GDP.
But China's AI models perform just as well as US models -- and China's are open-source and much cheaper, and are thus becoming more popular around the world.
Keep in mind that China has 4 times the US population, but is spending 1/10th of what the US is spending on AI capex.
It is obvious that US AI capex is way, way too high, and represents extreme malinvestment. This is because the US AI sector is in an enormous bubble.
Looking at these two graphic images, I can’t help but think of the tale of “The Tortoise and The Hare” when it comes to the race between China and the US to dominate AI.
The US is still ahead, helped by its strong compute capabilities (ie access to all the chips it needs) and near-limitless access to capital. But Chinese models have been constantly tugging at their heels using a fraction of the spending.
Growing worries about the ability of today’s AI capex to generate meaningful returns might result in delays in US models that allow their Chinese peers to overtake them in the final innings of the game.
#OpenAI #Anthropic #Kimi #Qwen4 $BABA $SPCX $GOOGL $META $NVDA
Ben Norton retweeted
Trump here does a widdle baby voice to mock people who are complaining about high gas prices, explaining that the oil and gas industry is making “hundreds of billions, trillions.”
It’s never been clearer how much he hates the people who voted for him.
Ben Norton retweeted
TRUMP on HIGH GAS PRICES: We’re making money like we’ve never made before. They’ll say: President Trump is bragging about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. I don’t give a damn. We’re making a freaking fortune.
