Platinum Wealth Partner's Insights
What is bad news for McDonalds is fantastic news for the rest of humanity. As folks get more health-smart, then the golden arches now owns the worst brand on the planet, putting it high on our list of prehistoric companies needing a complete makeover. Or else, it too will become just another business museum piece of note.
China and Russia have plainly mapped out a geopolitical game plan to counteract the implicit long-term powers of a US led hegemony. Together their political, economic and military partnership now creates the world's "Second Super Power" with growing control over vital global physical and financial resources. This trend opens the door to a carefully crafted "New-World-Order" with a freshly inspired set of writers..
Meanwhile, the key energy source for western nations hits the flat-line and decline phases of oil production. Needless to say, energy capacities are closely related to political and other powers. You cannot have one without the other - that's historical gospel.
Times are a changing...
Good Luck, Be Careful Out There
McDonald's franchisees have never been this depressed
Just when you thought it couldn't get much worse for McDonald's, it did.
The six-month outlook for franchisees is at an all-time low, according to a small survey by Mark Kalinowski, a long-time restaurant industry analyst. (Tweet this).
Some 29 franchisees, who collectively own and operate 208 McDonald's restaurants in the United States, were asked to give their six-month forecast from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The average response was 1.69, the lowest in the survey's 12-year history.
Previously, the lowest rating was 1.81, which was recorded three months ago.
To be sure, the economic mess created in Greece – the result of government profligacy, official corruption, and widespread tax evasion – merited some international assistance. And the IMF did impose conditions on its loans to Greece – including fiscal austerity, privatization, and structural reform of its pension and tax systems – most of which were necessary to address the country’s insolvency. The requirements of the latest rescue deal are the toughest yet – even tougher than those that Greek voters overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum earlier this month.
When considering how this week hackers allegedly affiliated with the Chinese government stole the Social Security numbers of some 20 million Americans, we can’t help but wonder: Is this what cyberwar with China feels like? With that calming thought, here are some background pieces you may want to read. Maybe even print out. Just in case.
There is significant risk in the S&P 500 Index in spite of the fact that central banks and governments have successfully levitated the stock and bond markets.
Russia is aiming to retain its influence as the security guarantor in the region. This satisfies both China, which is wary of deploying troops beyond its borders, and Central Asian countries used to a Russian military presence. “Under this arrangement, China would be the bank and Russia would be the big gun”.
There's been a virtual blackout of news from this year's seventh annual BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia.
Saudi Arabia has long said that it has loads of untapped reserves and would, within a few years, be on track to increase oil production from 10 million barrels per day to as much as 15 million barrels of oil per day. But Saudi production has stayed stubbornly at 10 million barrels.
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