Misleading Headline of the Week

Today's headline from the AP:

U.S. Ends Philippines Anti-Terror Force

But the 15th paragraph of this very story reads:

The U.S. and the Philippines, which are defense treaty allies, signed a 10-year pact in April that will allow possibly thousands of American forces temporary access to selected Filipino military camps and enable them to preposition fighter jets and ships.

So the U.S. is ending a task force in the Philippines while simultaneously planning a decade long stay.  Washington's primary goal appears to be surrounding China with weapons of mass destruction.

Leave it to the outcast media to distort news to this extreme.

 

What Business does Washington have in the Philippines?

The U.S. is attempting to move thousands of heavily armed soldiers into the Philippines for the first time in over two decades.  The U.S. government people are theorizing that the Chinese government people are conspiring to take over the Philippines, or South Korea or D.C. or something.

In response to this illegal action attempted by the U.S. The Guardian reports that two former senators and ten taxpayers are suing the Philippine government people for violating their constitution.

Foreign military troops are banned from the Philippines unless a treaty is approved by 2/3 of the senate and ratified by the foreign state (in this case the U.S.).

So what is the real reason for the expanding U.S. military presence in the South China Sea?

Boko Haram's Motives, Only a Partial Story

The news of 29 people murdered in Nigeria over the weekend is simply tragic.  The likely culprit is a group called Boko Haram which Bloomberg tells us means:

“western education is a sin” in the Hausa language

Four paragraphs down in the very same article the authors state:

suspected Boko Haram militants killed a soldier and kidnapped 10 workers from China in a May 16 attack on a camp run by a Chinese engineering company in Cameroon. 

If Boko Haram's enemy is western education why are they targeting people from China?

Are we perhaps not hearing the full spectrum of the groups motives?      

 

Money Sloshing Around the Real Estate Market

For five year tenants of commercial real estate in the U.S. could thank the Federal Reserve and their loose monetary policy as a driving force behind rising rents.  In addition to the massive increase in U.S. dollar supply renters now have a second force to be aware of, foreign investment.

From Bloomberg:

Chinese developers are on an expansive shopping spree in the U.S. Completed commercial real estate transactions by Chinese investors in the six biggest metropolitan areas totaled almost $3 billion in 2013, up from $335.3 million the previous year, according to New York-based Real Capital.

Keep in mind that the sellers of these properties have seen a nice fat profit in large part to low-interest loans received from banks since the 2008 financial crisis.  Leverage can work wonders if your bet pays off.