Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 8034 roomed enormously. That’s one thing to watch very definitely as to how the Chinese government is going to handle that. I really think that the days of Mr. Global are drawing to a close – days of getting everything his way and overthrowing governments and arriving on jets and saying, “We came, we saw, and he died,” and cackle and laugh. Things just can’t keep going on. I’m looking for at least some stability from this Chinese participation in the SDR. Fitts: When you listen to the G20 meetings, the folks are much more interested in creating growth than in controlling top-down. As the economy slows down globally, the friction in- creases from the controls. You have expenses going up from all the centralization rules and complexity, and creating more friction. Somebody said to me the other day, “No growth except growing friction.” That friction is making the whole system unbearable for the people try- ing to create more growth. One other thing matters before we leave the mul- tipolar world: the Transpacific Partnership and the other trade agreements – the services agree- ment and the European agreement – what do you think is going to happen, Joseph? Farrell: I think they’re dead. I really do. As far as the European agreements are concerned, France and Germany have both signaled that they’re dead. I think they were well on their way before Brexit happened. Regarding the Transpacific Agreement, what we have is a case of corporations trying to use copy- right law to shut down free speech. They were just handed a huge defeat in courts in India. I think the revolt is spreading there as well. The Philippines are now courting Russia and China, and that story is big. Of course, the Philippines government is basically a puppet government – a satrapy, in effect – of the United States. Whatever they may do to President Duterte will not change the course for the Philippines. He is expressing the outlook and opinions of the Phil- ippine deep state. Again, I think this is a large thing. For the moment, I think it’s dead. I noticed in the Presidential debate that Trump pointed this out about Hillary, “Are you for or against it?” “Well, I’m against it,” she said. But, no, she’s not. The record is very clear. I think it’s dead. They may be thinking that getting Hillary into office will revive it. I don’t think so. I really don’t. It’s clearly an agreement to benefit American corporations, and I can’t see Indonesia, Malaysia, India, or even Australia or China for that matter, going along. I just don’t see it. Fitts: Obama had indicated that he wanted to pass it in a lame duck. So between the election and the inauguration he would pass it, at which point it’s all on him and she doesn’t have to im- plement it. I still think they’re going to make a major push to do so. Farrell: They might, yes. Fitts: Now Congress had said that they won’t play, but we’ll see how many arms get twisted. Farrell: Exactly. Fitts: Another thing – just to keep going through the summary s that investment in space will con- tinue to grow, as you agreed, and, boy, have we seen it. Farrell: Yes. Fitts I thought we were ahead of the curve, but what has unfolded this year is explosive. Farrell: Yes, it is. It is expanding so fast now that it’s hard to keep up with it. NASA is pushing ahead with an outer space test of the EmDrive, which is interesting because four or five years ago NASA and certain scientists said, “The EmDrive is a hoax.” Now they’ve decided, “Well, no. There is something going on here, and now we need to test it in outer space.” You’ve Musk saying that he wants to go to Mars. The real problem now, Catherine, is that it’ that extended human stay in outer space gives II. News Trends & Stories TTP