Tag: Margaret Thatcher

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Bears in the East, Bulls in the West

Market fears of a trade war appear to be easing but investors in China and South Korea remain cautious.

The Shanghai Composite Index is retracing to test resistance at the former primary support level at 3000.

Shanghai Composite Index

Dow Jones – UBS Commodity Index shows a similar retracement in commodity prices.

DJ-UBS Commodity Index

While crude oil prices have found support at the LT rising trendline.

Nymex Light Crude

South Korea’s Seoul Composite Index is in a primary down-trend but retracement to test the former primary support level at 2350 is likely.

Seoul Composite Index

Japan is more isolated and the Nikkei 225 is testing resistance at 23,000. A rising Trend Index suggests that breakout is likely, which would test the January high at 24,000.

Nikkei 225 Index

India is stronger, with the Nifty breaking resistance at its January high of 11,100 to signal a primary advance with a target of 12,000. But first, expect retracement to test the new support level.

Nifty Index

Europe

Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 600 was boosted by news that the EU-US trade dispute is settled. A Trend Index trough above zero signals strong buying pressure. and another test of 400 is likely.

DJ Euro Stoxx 600 Index

A bullish saucer pattern on the Footsie suggest further gains. The Trend Index trough above zero indicates buying pressure. Breakout of the index above 7800 would signal another advance, with a target of 8200.

FTSE 100 Index

North America

The Nasdaq 100 retreated when Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) reported disappointing growth for the quarter. Bearish divergence on the Trend Index warns of selling pressure but this appears secondary and support at 7000 is likely to hold. Respect would confirm another advance.

Nasdaq 100

Friday’s retreat is also evident on the S&P 500 daily chart. Expect retracement to test new support at 2800. A strong GDP result should strengthen support.

S&P 500

Canada’s TSX 60 retraced to test the new support level at 970. Respect would signal a test of 1000 but breach is as likely, testing support at 940.

TSX 60 Index

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Margaret Thatcher: Interventions

The habit of ubiquitous interventionism, combining pinprick strikes by precision weapons with pious invocations of high principle, would lead us into endless difficulties. Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.

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Margaret Thatcher: Terrorism (1985)

“….The terrorist uses force because he knows he will never get his way by democratic means.

Through calculated savagery, his aim is to induce fear in the hearts of people. And weariness towards resistance.

In this evil strategy, the actions of the media are all important. For newspapers and television, acts of terrorism inevitably make good copy and compelling viewing. The hijacker and the terrorist thrive on publicity: without it, their activities and their influence are sharply curtailed. There is a fearful progression, which the terrorists exploit to the full. They see how acts of violence and horror dominate the newspaper columns and television screens of the free world. They see how that coverage creates a natural wave of sympathy for the victims and pressure to end their plight no matter what the consequence. And the terrorists exploit it. Violence and atrocity command attention. We must not play into their hands…….

And we must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. In our societies we do not believe in constraining the media, still less in censorship. But ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, a code under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists’ morale or their cause….”

Margaret Thatcher
Speech to American Bar Association
1985 Jul 15

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China’s Deadly Miscalculation… | RealClearDefense

From Joseph A. Bosco, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

Effective deterrence requires both the will and the capabilities — and the proper communication to the adversary that we are armed with both.

…several U.S. China experts publicly say otherwise, that the U.S. would not and should not intervene. Such talk, taken with other factors, encourages China’s planners to reach the same conclusion. I believe they are wrong, but a major strategic miscalculation is in the making — not because of U.S. capabilities, which are far more than adequate, but because of the perception of the lack of U.S. will.

Without the credible threat of war, the world becomes a dangerous place, with rogue states invading other territories in the belief that a response is unlikely.

As Henry Kissinger says of the Korean War, “We did not expect the attack; China did not expect our response.” Of such miscalculation, devastating wars are made.

It is evident that US foreign policy is based on President Theodore Roosevelt’s maxim: “speak softly, and carry a big stick.” But you must demonstrate that you are prepared to use the stick for it to be an effective deterrent.

Margaret Thatcher (Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World) put it in a nutshell:

“Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.”

Read more at China's Deadly Miscalculation in the Making | RealClearDefense.

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Margaret Thatcher: Statecraft

For my part, I favour an approach to statecraft that embraces principles, as long as it is not stifled by them;
and I prefer such principles to be accompanied by steel along with good intentions.

~ Margaret Thatcher, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World (2002)

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Margaret Thatcher: Russia

She’s ruled by a dictatorship of patient, far-sighted determined men who are rapidly making their country the foremost naval and military power in the world. They are not doing this solely for the sake of self-defence. A huge, largely land-locked country like Russia does not need to build the most powerful navy in the world just to guard its own frontiers. No. The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet politburo don’t have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns. They know that they are a super power in only one sense — the military sense. They are a failure in human and economic terms.

~ Margaret Thatcher (1976)

In response to this speech, the Soviet Army newspaper Red Star labelled Thatcher “the Iron Lady”. Intended as an insult, Thatcher welcomed the moniker that would stick for the remainder of her political career.

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Margaret Thatcher’s free market legacy | Charles Moore

Margaret Thatcher’s biographer Charles Moore discusses the former Prime Minister’s legacy. Moore provides insights as to how Margaret Thatcher’s stance on the market economy developed and how she popularised it. He seeks to outline her approach to foreign affairs, in relation to the EU, the US, and her broad approach to the Cold War.

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