TNT:

Tuesday UPDATE for May 5, 2020

From our citizen contact....

USA sends important message to the Parliament of Iraq via USA ambassador to Iraq saying do not fail to form the government of Kazemi. If failure happens, USA will do whatever it needs to protect and take care of the Iraqi people.

From news sources....

The Speaker of Parliament, Muhammad Al-Halbousi, called on the parliamentarians to attend a session of confidence in the government of designate Mustafa Al-Kazemi.

The Presidency of the House of Representatives announced a voting session on the ministerial program and the government cabinet for Wednesday, May 6, 2020, at 9:00 PM Iraqi time (which is 2:00 PM Eastern Time)

The United States is assuming a very urgent and significant need to form the government of Mr. Mustafa Al-Kazemi. Any weaknesses or concessions in the choice of ministers should be ignored when balancing them with the country’s horrific expectations. The caretaker government of Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi is paralyzed and unable to deal with many of the problems facing Iraq.

Tishwash:   News about a US message: Washington sees a very urgent need to form the Al-Kazemi government

 On Monday, the American ambassador to Iraq sent a US message to the Iraqi leaders urging them to support the formation of Mustafa Al-Kazemi’s government .. The obelisk could not verify the authenticity .of the message Obelisk publishes the text of the message:

The United States is assuming a very urgent and significant need to form the government of Mr. Mustafa Al-Kazemi. Any weaknesses or concessions in the choice of ministers should be ignored when balancing them with the country's horrific expectations. The caretaker government of Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi is paralyzed and unable to deal with many of the problems facing Iraq.

Like your friends and partners in the past 17 years, we are extremely concerned that the consequences for Iraq as a country and for the Iraqi people will be devastating if the government of Mr. Mustafa Al-Kazemi is not approved. If the government is formed, we will do our best to help .Iraq cope with future problems

The US attaches great urgency to the formation of the MK government. Any weaknesses or compromises in the selection of ministers should be overlooked when weighed against the dire outlook for the country. The caretaker government of AAM is paralyzed and incapable of dealing with the many problems facing Iraq. As your friends and partners of the last 17 years we are gravely concerned that the consequences for Iraq as a state and for the Iraqi people will be devastating if the MK government is not approved. If the government is formed we will do our .utmost to help Iraq face the problems ahead   link

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Tishwash:  The Washington Post: The Iraqi economy is on the brink of disaster

A report of the American Washington Post said on Tuesday that the Iraqi economy is collapsing due to the double strike of low oil prices and government-imposed closures due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus, as the entire country stands on the brink of disaster.

 The American newspaper emphasized that the outbreak of the epidemic led to a decline in global oil prices and oil revenues that keep Iraq alive, and then came the second blow by announcing the closing procedures that destroyed livelihoods and put some families under the poverty line and in the cycle of hunger.

 She hinted that this crisis is not a result of today, but formed over the past years, due to corruption, the politicians' preoccupation with their interests and the accumulation of their wealth. As a result of the embargo, millions of Iraqis who live in daily jobs have become stuck in their homes and unable to feed their families.

 Hossam Al-Qaisi, a taxi driver, who lives in a narrow house in the Al-Bunwak neighborhood of Baghdad, who rented it with the money of his borrower, confirmed that it was difficult for him to get food. "This year was really bad," said 29-year-old Al-Qaisi. "If things continue like this, we will die of hunger, not the virus."

He added that he used to work two jobs before the start of the closure, a free taxi driver in addition to working with the "cream" delivery company, but now he does not earn anything.

"Since the curfew began, I can barely get basic food for my family," he said. At the same time, the epidemic reduced the demand for oil. Just a few months ago, it was expected that about 90 percent of the state’s temporary budget for 2020 would come from oil exports, with a price of $ 56 per barrel. But as economies stalled, oil revenues fell to their lowest level in a decade, according to figures published by the Iraqi Oil Report.

 For his part, said Ahmed Tabakli, chief investment officer at the Asia Frontier Capital Fund for Iraq "AFC" , " I think the next two months will be very terrifying for everyone."

And in the post-2003 political system in Iraq, power is distributed among different ethnic and religious groups, and each side seeks to use state resources, especially in government jobs, to develop large-scale patronage networks, until the result is a bloated public sector, which drains what is estimated About 50 billion dollars every year for salaries and benefits alone, and they constitute the majority of the state’s budget.

He pointed out that even before the "Corona" outbreak, the Iraqi government was facing multiple crises, the most important of which was the escalation of violence between Iranian-backed armed factions and American forces, and the attempt by IS to return again, in addition to isolating former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi in the largest demonstrations I have witnessed The country.

Although the street was calmed down a little due to the epidemic, the problems that prompted tens of thousands of young men and women to protest remain unresolved, led by the high rate of unemployment. For his part, Jeffreys Institute for Financial Services estimated that Iraq will need external financing of about $ 40 billion in 2020, and while foreign governments and international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund are ready to provide support, their contribution alone will not be sufficient to provide this amount, according to Alia Moubayed, managing director of the fixed income strategy at Jeffreys.

 "Iraq is too big for the donor community to bear. The Iraqis will need to rely on themselves through painful financial control measures, reduce the size of the government, and perhaps weaken the currency more to reduce the rapid erosion of its foreign currency reserves," Moubayed said.

 As for Iraqi officials, they are concerned that the worsening economic crisis in the country could push more demonstrators to the streets in the coming months, as summer temperatures rise and power and water supplies falter, as they have done repeatedly in recent years.

 Although Iraqi officials say they are studying proposals to strengthen the country's financial position by reducing public sector salaries, experts say it is unlikely the government will make sweeping changes in the short term.

As for the solution to this crisis, Nabil Jaafar, an economist in Baghdad, stated, "The only solution is to reduce the salaries of employees, but reducing these salaries will have catastrophic results," in addition to achieving economic reviews, and this will not happen unless politicians give up favoritism, the most important A vital source of their popular standing. According to government officials, the controversy surrounding salary cuts revolves around who will reduce his salary and how much, and the salaries of public sector workers are usually supplemented by additional payments, individual compensation for travel or family expenses, and these additional payments have increased from $ 3.8 billion in 2005 to $ 36 billion Dollars today, according to a study by the London School of Economics.

 In turn, Abdel-Hussein Al-Hanin, advisor to the interim Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi, confirmed that there is a program to cut all government employees, and that the most important cuts will be on the salaries of employees and other high-ranking officials   link

Tishwash:  More than 70 countries have deleted their zeros, know the most prominent

If Iran is the latest country to resort to deleting the zeros of its currency, in a psychological game aimed at restoring some confidence in the national currency by trying to absorb inflation represented in the high prices and the erosion of purchasing value, then dozens of countries preceded it to measures of this type that exceeded the number of 70 since the mid-twentieth century.

On Monday, the Iranian parliament responded to a project approved by the government of President Hassan Rouhani at the end of July 2019, and referred it to the Shura Council several months ago, where it was subjected to extensive discussion and conflicting views on the feasibility of such a step.

A central bank official confirmed that the deletion of zeros is supposed to be dependent on controlling inflation first, warning that the possibility of higher prices for goods and services exists, as well as the possibility of returning zeros after several years.

The government, at that time, decided to delete 4 zeros from its deteriorating currency and replace the riyal with the toman in transactions, and this was approved by Parliament yesterday.

But it is not the first time that Tehran deletes zeros, since in 2017 the central bank had to delete one zero, and this time the decision means that one million riyals will equal 100 riyals only.

Multiple studies indicate that the cases of deleting zeros from currencies exceeded the number of 70 cases since 1960, including cases carried out by 19 countries that got rid of zeros that were made in one go, and 10 countries resorted to this step twice.

Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia

The Iranian decision comes at a time of the real deterioration of the riyal as a main result of the severe sanctions applied by the administration of US President Donald Trump, which have found deep resonance in Venezuela, which is also subject to harsh penalties.

The circulation of new banknotes of the Venezuelan currency began in August 2018, in the first stage of a recovery plan launched by President Nicholas Maduro, to issue "Sovereign Bolivar" by removing 5 zeros from the old currency.

As for Brazil, it got rid of between 1930 and the beginning of the twentieth century, from 18 zeros in 6 batches, most notably in 1993, when it suffered badly from the acceleration of inflation to the level of 2000% and crossed 3 zeros.

The recurrent major economic downturn in Argentina led to its authorities taking decisions to write off zeros from its currency 4 times. Bolivia has also recovered its zeros twice.

Turkey, Iraq and Sudan

Turkey replaced the old currency by canceling 6 zeros starting in 2005 with a decision issued in 2004, so that one million pounds equals one lira, and it was withdrawn from circulation, and instead the new zero-zero coins were put in the name of “New Lira” before re-adopting the name “Lira” separately And gave citizens 10 years to exchange their old currencies with the new currency from the headquarters of the Central Bank.

In Iraq, it was proposed in 2014 to delete 3 zeros from the dinar, but it was announced in 2015 to print a new cash category of 50 thousand dinars instead of deleting the numbers from the categories 1000 and 10 thousand dinars. Sudan also deleted Safrin from its currency in 2007.

Zimbabwe

This country omitted 3 zeros from its currency in 2003, and after only 6 years had passed, it came back and decided to cut 12 zeros, which means in practice that every trillion Zimbabwean dollars has become equivalent to one Zimbabwean dollar at that time!

Other countries

The former Yugoslavia (Serbia) wrote off 5 zeros, while the Netherlands removed 4 zeros from its currency after it issued in 1960 very large paper currencies. Ukraine resorted to crossing the zeros 3 times, and so did Russia, Poland, South Korea and Ghana.     link

Tishwash:   Việt Nam’s exports surge in four months despite pandemic

HÀ NỘI - Viet Nam's export value saw a year-on-year increase of nearly 5 per cent to an estimated US$82.94 billion in the first four months of this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Domestic companies generated $26.45 billion from exports during the period, rising 12 per cent year-on-year and making up 32 per cent of the country's total export earnings. Meanwhile, exports of foreign-invested firms hit $56.49 billion, up 1.5 per cent and making up 68 per cent of the total.

Fifteen groups of products recorded an export value of over $1 billion or equivalent to 80 per cent of the nation’s four-month total earnings. Of them, phones and parts earned the largest export turnover with $16.2 billion, up 1.1 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 19.5 per cent of the total exports. Electronics, computers and components came next with $12.4 billion, up 29 per cent year-on-year, followed by textile and garments ($8.9 billion, down 6 per cent); equipment and parts ($6.9 billion, up 30 per cent); and footwear ($5.5 billion, up 1.3 per cent).

Other staples with high export value included wood and wooden products ($3.4 billion, up 10 per cent); transportation vehicles ($2.7 billion, down 4 per cent); seafood ($2.2 billion, down 8.5 per cent); plastic-made goods ($1.1 billion, up 1.3 per cent) and products made of steel and iron ($1.03 billion, up 2 per cent).

From January to April, the US remained Việt Nam's biggest export market, spending $20.3 billion on Vietnamese goods, a yearly hike of 13.4 per cent. It was followed by China with $13.1 billion, up 27 per cent; the EU with $10.7 billion, down 8.1 per cent and ASEAN nations with $8.2 billion, down 3.4 per cent, the GSO said in a monthly report.

Per the report, the country's imports expanded 2.1 per cent year-on-year to an estimated $79.89 billion in the period. Domestic firms spent $33.6 billion on imports, up 1 per cent year-on-year while foreign-invested companies saw a yearly turnover rise of 3 per cent to $46.31 billion.

Electronics, computers and components accounted for 22 per cent of the nation’s four-month imports at $17.8 billion, up 13 per cent over the same period last year. Among others were machinery, equipment and parts at $11.5 billion, down 0.1 per cent; telephones and parts ($4.3 billion, up 12 per cent); cloth ($3.6 billion, down 11 per cent); steel and iron ($2.9 billion, down 6.5 per cent); automotive ($1.9 billion, down 23 per cent) and crude oil ($1.8 billion, up 35 per cent).

China was Việt Nam's largest supplier, selling $22.7 billion worth of goods to Việt Nam, down 0.1 per cent year-on-year. South Korea ranked second by shipping $15.5 billion worth of goods to Việt Nam, up 3 per cent year-on-year, followed by ASEAN countries with $9.9 billion, down 8 per cent. 

According to the GSO's report, Việt Nam’s trade surplus narrowed to $3 billion in January-April from the $3.74 billion recorded a month ago.   link

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Mot:  The History of Cinco de Mayo......... ((( What YOu Didnt Learn in History Class ))) .........

Did you you know that back in 1912, Hellmann's Mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 bottles of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great they declared a National Day of Mourning.

The National Day of mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as - SINKO DE MAYO.

WHAT??? You expected something educational from me?

You need a shot of Teguila!