“Iran has used the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies,” Centcom (U.S. Central Command) said, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran later fired missiles at U.S. forces in Jordan, and the IRGC said in a statement that it was targeting jet fighters staged at the Muwaffaq Salti air base. 

Since Friday (Sept 4), Iran has fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier, Navy destroyers and at least one Marine ship. Even though all the attacks have failed, Iran’s bold attempts to hit American naval assets are raising alarms that the regime is using more sophisticated weapons and could be getting assistance tracking the warships from China, Russia or both.

The attacks highlight Iran’s willingness to go on the offensive as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports weighs on the country’s economy. Iranian officials have claimed they are using new missiles with advanced features to target the American warships. Such missiles could have electro-optical seekers, enabling them to maneuver toward a moving target using imagery, weapons analysts say.

However, Iran would still need to know the approximate location of U.S. warships when its attacks began, raising concerns that China and Russia could be helping Iran track the locations of American warships. In May, the U.S. sanctioned China-based entities for providing satellite imagery to Iran during the war. China has every reason to help Iran – to learn the U.S. strategic and tractical response, and to find vulnerabilities.

The fact that Iran is able to target warships at all after the U.S. degraded its ability to see the battlefield is a key concern, according to retired Vice Adm. John “Fozzie” Miller, who commanded U.S. naval forces in the Middle East. “They don’t really have the capacity to reach out and find someone out in the Arabian Sea on radar any longer,” – he said.

The next Wednesday morning (Sept 9), oil prices finally hit the US$100 mark after the U.S. destroyed five more Iranian crude tankers and Iran targeted U.S. forces in Jordan. These latest attacks appear to be a continuation of the policy Admiral Brad Cooper outlined on Saturday when he said – “If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost – taking out three of yours.”

Brent is up more than 60% this year, and has risen above the US$100 mark for three periods so far in 2026. In the first weeks after the first US-Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, oil prices soared past US$100 a barrel and peaked at US$126 in April during the conflict but later fell back amid hopes of a ceasefire in the region. The price then began to climb again after a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran fell apart.

Washington hopes that the blockade and economic sanctions will bring the Iranian regime to its knees, but so far, the regime has refused to back down and is stepping up threats against U.S. Navy vessels. The U.S. has 19 warships supporting operations in the Middle East. By striking Iranian tankers, the U.S. aims to further punish Tehran and crack down on the regime’s ability to ship oil and fund its weapons programs. 

While civilian ships – merchant ships, container ships, fishing boats, and passenger liners – aren’t typically lawful targets, they lose their protected status if they contribute to an adversary’s military action such as direct participation in hostilities, carrying military goods or troops, intelligence gathering, refusing interception, or breaching a blockade.

Iran’s strategy is obvious – escalate the conflict by targeting U.S. mighty warships to push up oil prices, spook the stock markets, damage Trump administration as the U.S. heads into midterm elections, spike the inflation, and bring down American economy. However, in the midterm elections on Nov. 3, U.S. President Donald Trump will not be on the ballot. He doesn’t really care about elections that won’t affect his power.

And unlike previous Tehran’s escalations where Iran had benefited from higher oil prices, where its tankers could still sell oil to China, this round it has nothing to gain if Trump – calling Iran War as “small potatoes” – continues to respond aggressively. No Iranian crude has crossed the blockade since it was reinstated by the U.S. Navy in mid-July, according to ship tracker Kpler.

Yes, Iran’s oil export revenue is drying up as a U.S. naval blockade strangles shipments from the Persian Gulf and offshore stockpiles feeding China dwindle, putting more pressure on Tehran’s already battered economy. While Iran is still loading small amounts of oil onto tankers, those barrels remain trapped inside the Gulf thanks to the U.S. blockade.

The volume of Iranian crude already on vessels outside the blockade – a trove that is still generating revenue for Tehran – has fallen to around 29 million barrels from around 90 million barrels in mid-July and could run out next month. This is another reason why Tehran thinks it has nothing to lose by retaliating, therefore, hitting the U.S. Navy warships.

But six months into the war, the oil squeeze is depriving Tehran of its main source of foreign currency as the value of the Iranian rial plunges, inflation soars and the economy slides deeper into crisis. Roughly a third of Iran’s state budget is funded by oil revenue. Oil sales also directly help finance the regime’s military. This is the regime’s Achilles’ heel.

The U.S. Treasury says the armed forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, use dedicated companies and shadow-fleet networks to sell crude and supplement their budgets. Iran loaded 255,000 barrels a day on vessels inside the Gulf in August, 85% below the February-April average. Those newly loaded barrels remain trapped behind the blockade line and haven’t made their way toward buyers. 

The diplomatic effort to end the war that led to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran in mid-June, including a weekslong pause in the blockade, allowed Tehran to move substantial volumes of oil overseas for later delivery. The country is still living off the profit from those barrels. But now that lifeline is disappearing fast. 

Kpler, a Brussels-based commodity and maritime data intelligence platform, estimates that current deliveries of around a million barrels a day – which mostly go to China – could exhaust the store of Iranian oil on the water by mid-October. Worse, payments for previously delivered cargoes would likely dry up by mid-December.

Even those payments could become harder to collect. Sanctions under Washington’s new economic pressure campaign are targeting banks and other financial channels that facilitate Iranian transactions. As a result, some Chinese buyers are turning to Saudi, Iraqi and United Arab Emirates crude, Gulf energy officials said. In some cases, Iranian oil now costs refiners more than competing supplies due to its relative scarcity.

It  was already bad that Iraq has offered discounts of nearly US$30 a barrel on some grades. It becomes worse when the U.S. blockade is forcing Iran to cut some production. Oil stockpiles haven’t risen much, suggesting Iran has brought its output down closer to what it needs at home – cutting output to keep its backed-up oil from hitting the “tank tops” of available storage.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, overland routes offer little relief to Iran. It is only possible to move small amounts of oil by truck or rail compared with seaborne exports, and Iran mostly lacks wagons designed for crude or refined products. Iran could move no more than 40,000 barrels a day via trucks, a sliver of its prewar exports of close to 2 million barrels a day.

The pressure extends to petrochemicals. The sector, Iran’s second-largest source of foreign-currency earnings after oil, also depends heavily on seaborne exports. By August, loadings had fallen by about two-thirds from early 2026, Kpler estimates. By contrast, other Gulf producers have kept significant volumes flowing despite the conflict, with the U.S. guiding convoys through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian export squeeze is deepening the economic crisis in a country where official inflation is running at more than 80% year-over-year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts a 5.4% economic contraction this year, the country’s worst since the 1980s. Falling exports deprive Tehran of the hard currency it needs to support the rial and pay for imports, including raw materials for factories – making imports more expensive and fuels inflation. 

Sure, Iran’s overall trade hasn’t stopped entirely. The regime exported nearly US$15 billion of non-oil goods between mid-March and mid-August, according to Iranian media. But a major commercial gateway has recently narrowed. Official trade through the U.A.E. has largely stopped after the country said last month it would suspend financial and economic transactions with Iran.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Calm Before The Storm – Iran’s Secret Plan To Escalate The War
• Trump, Truck & Decoy Plane – The Ruse To Evade Iran Threat
• Why Iran Thinks It Has All The Cards To Check-Mate Trump
• No More Safe Havens – Israel’s Airstrike In Qatar Sends New Message To Countries Harbouring Hamas Terrorist
• Paying The Price For Hamas Attacks – How Trump Misled Iran Before Israel Sends 200 Jets To Attack
• Ran Out Of Luck And Place To Hide – Here’s How Israel Trainee Squad Accidentally Killed Hamas Mastermind Sinwar
• Playing A Dangerous Game – Here’s Why Facebook Removes News Of PM Anwar Meeting With Hamas Terrorists
• Hamas Is Game Over – How The Terror Group Miscalculated, Betrayed, Abandoned And Made More Mistakes
• Human Shields – How Hamas Cleverly Wins Propaganda War, But Was Stunned By “Fire Power” Unleashed By Israel
• Told You So!! – Congrats To Anwar For Radicalizing School Kids As Potential Hamas Terrorists Playing With Guns
• An Eye For An Eye!!! – No One Can Stop Israel From Reducing Gaza To Rubble And Erase Hamas Terrorists

The post Oil Hits $100 – But Iran’s Economy Hit Hard As Oil Dollars Dries Up first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

Let Akmal Saleh attack the Chinese as we need to help UMNO regain Malay votes, which in turn would benefit Pakatan Harapan – Prime Minister Anwar warned Transport Minister Loke. Again, DAP, despite being the largest party with 40 MPs in not only PH, but also in the entire Unity Government, kept as quiet as a church mouse and allowed the UMNO Youth leader to terrorize the Chinese community.

Praise and publicly support the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – Mr Anwar lectured Mr Loke as they happily attended the 2023 UMNO General Assembly at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur on June 9, 2023, marking Anwar’s first return to the event in 25 years after being sacked from the party in 1998.

Thereafter, Loke did not need more instructions from his political master Anwar. The fast learner knew what to do. Both he and Anwar sincerely – and naively – believed that they had found the formula or the Holy Grail to win many more elections in the future. Their historic attendance – with thunderous applause – at the UMNO general assembly was proof of a so-called “eternity cooperation”.

While the People’s Justice Party or PKR president Anwar was under the fantasy that he could control Zahid, who happened to be once his protégé, and milk UMNO’s Malay votes to his advantage, DAP Loke was equally under the delusion that the Chinese voters, of whom 95% supported DAP in the 15^th General Election, would continue to blindly vote for Pakatan Harapan come rain or shine. 

Their math calculators show that UMNO-Malay votes would be more than enough to offset any Chinese votes lost due to frustration as a result of Anwar’s anti-Chinese policies. Even if the ethnic Chinese become very angry, they have the weapon – spook the Chinese with the same warnings – “PAS Islamist extremists will take over the country if Chinese do not support Anwar” and “If not Anwar, who else”.

And so, for almost four years, DAP under the spineless leadership of Anthony Loke kept quiet as Anwar went on a rampage – converting a Hindu youth to Islam, throwing away Zahid’s 47 corruption charges, slashing ex-UMNO president Najib Razak’s jail sentence from 12 to 6 years, and bullying a female Indian university student for asking about replacing the Bumiputera quota system with meritocracy.

DAP also pretended as if nothing had happened when the PM protected and extended three times the contract of Azam Baki, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner caught with his pants down in shareholding and corporate mafia scandals, not to mention covering up Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor’s corruption scandal despite a series of exposé videos released by a whistleblower.

Likewise, the silence was deafening over Anwar’s Cabinet award to Bestinet with an “extension” in early 2024 after lobbying, despite an earlier promise to terminate the monopoly contract for the company known for exploiting migrant workers. The PM had also defended his trusted aide, Shamsul Iskandar, despite being exposed for issuing a letter of support for six contractors involved in a hospital project.

Afraid of offending UMNO, the Madani government swept under the carpet the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) scandal involving RM9.14 billion contract to build six warships for the Royal Malaysian Navy. DAP also shamelessly closed both eyes on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s former aide-turned-crony, Farhash Wafa Salvador, involvement in corruption and corporate mafia scandals.

Demolishing Hindu temples and mocking the Indians’ house of worship as “kuil haram”, which Anwar later apologized at the eleventh hour before the Negeri Sembilan state election, and cracking down on pig farming in Selangor were met with similar silence from Loke and his lieutenants. But that was not the worst part as DAP leaders were drunk with power, positions, and perks.

Tax regimes like the expansion of SST, the troublesome e-invoicing system, and the deliberate tax refund delays were just some unpopular economic policies affecting small traders and SME (small and medium enterprise), especially Chinese business owners. Still, the clueless and arrogant DAP leaders did nothing to protest against these bad policies.

But DAP was not the only one having lost touch with reality on the ground. Anwar’s party PKR too kept quiet for too long. In fact, PKR was so cocksure of another 5-year term that PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail expressed his hope in early 2024 that Anwar Ibrahim would serve a second term as prime minister. DAP warlord Hannah Yeoh also believed – even prayed – that Anwar would get a second term.

Then Kaboom!!!  The wet dream was scattered when Zahid, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, showed his true colours by competing with Anwar’s bloc in recent Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections. Pakatan Harapan, especially Anwar’s own PKR, suffered crushing defeats. Barisan Nasional secured landslide victories – winning two-thirds majority in both states.

Despite the PM personally taking charge of both election campaigns – boosted with a 52% approval rating that made Anwar the most popular political leader – PKR was almost annihilated. PKR struggled – and humiliated – in the July 2026 Johor state polls, ending up with only 1 seat in the final tally. The party won only 2 out of the 15 seats it contested during the August 2026 Negeri Sembilan state election.

Barisan Nasional’s (BN) alliance with opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) to retain Johor and to snatch Negeri Sembilan, whilst at the same time enjoying perks, power, and positions at the federal level with Pakatan Harapan (PH) was a masterstroke. Anwar’s PH pays the price for foolishly abandoning its hardcore supporters, and Zahid’s BN reaps the rewards by doing nothing.

Not only narcissist Anwar, despite the bragging rights as the most popular political leader, lost to a junior UMNO leader, Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz, but arrogant Anthony Loke likewise lost his stronghold Chennah, which he had served three consecutive terms from 2013 until his defeat in August 2026. Crucially, both Anwar and Loke lost Negeri Sembilan – a slap in the face.

Since losing Johor and Negeri Sembilan, not to mention Sabah, the Premier has become a very angry man. Like his sidekick Loke, who is still licking his wound and could not believe that his UMNO-Malay friend Zahid had called for silly Loke to be “bungkus”, Anwar felt betrayed, humiliated, and played. The Anwar-Zahid relationship is now so bad that the last few cabinet meetings have been shorter than usual.

Malaysia’s 16th general election must be held by February 2028. Encouraged by huge victories in Johor and Negeri Sembilan (and soon Melaka), UMNO leader Zahid has started making his tactical moves to force Anwar’s hand – calling for a general election to be held as soon as possible, a shift from his earlier statements that his coalition was happy to see out the current term.

The premier, who wants to delay elections to the second half of next year to allow time for measures to regain public support, could only say calls for early polls will be considered. Obviously, Anwar is trying to buy time whilst at the same time avoiding an open war with Zahid. The PM is due to table the next national budget on October 9, and can’t afford to see his Budget 2027 fails.

Zahid knew that Anwar desperately needed a headcount to ensure parliamentary support for reform and the 2027 budget. If the PM does not have the numbers, it would be seen as a loss of confidence in the Parliament, and his Madani government could collapse. Anwar is also under pressure from his coalition’s DAP to pass legislative reforms by the end of the year, even though lackey Loke could cook up some excuses.

While the PH coalition has enough votes to survive and pass a budget without Zahid, his support would be needed to deliver the supermajority required for legislative reforms like a term limit for the prime minister. But the bad blood between Anwar and Zahid is now public, and the pair’s ties have deteriorated because of the rivalry of their respective political bases.

After keeping UMNO’s past corruption under wraps, it was not a coincidence that the prime minister suddenly declassified and released the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on Lembaga Tabung Haji on July 29, 2026. It was a tactical move to boost his anti-corruption drive, as well as to revisit mismanagement of Malaysia’s Muslim pilgrim fund Tabung Haji during a previous Barisan administration.

The arrest of former Lembaga Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah may be a political theatre to remind Malay voters about UMNO’s past corruption. It also serves as a “warning shot” to remind Zahid who’s the boss. But the timing – exactly four years after the RCI was completed – has blunted Anwar’s weapon.

Temperature up a few notches this week as Zahid publicly called for the government to address alleged payment delays faced by contractors appointed by his Ministry of Rural and Regional Development, which is largely responsible for rural infrastructure projects. The Ministry of Finance, headed by Anwar and is in charge of disbursing allocations to ministries, has instead blamed overspending by Zahid’s ministry.

The war of words suggests not only an increasing strained relationship between Anwar and Zahid, but also political maneuvers by UMNO to create a distraction from the Tabung Haji scandal and to create a justification for BN to exit – legitimately – the unity government using a narrative that Anwar has been targeting Malay contractors under Zahid’s ministry.

Chameleon Anwar has no one to blame but himself. His strategy – the only strategy – for power by using Barisan Nasional has backfired spectacularly. He cooked his own goose, exacerbated by the blind obedience of Ah Loke and DAP lemmings. As UMNO-led BN rides on the Malay tsunami towards 16^th General Election victory, Anwar suddenly realized he has been played by his own protege.

The best part is despite glaring backstabbing and betrayal, both pathetic Anwar and Ah Loke are still hoping that UMNO would somehow have a change of heart and choose to work with PH in the coming Melaka state election. Putting all eggs in one basket, they don’t have a Plan-B except to depend on Barisan Nasional for power. Some PKR and DAP leaders have begun making some noises, but it’s too little too late.   

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Why MIC Gangster “Ganja Saravanan” Charged With Corruption Now
• Why Hadi Wanted To Hide Tabung Haji’s Corruption & Ponzi Scheme
• How UMNO Bankrupted Tabung Haji, Cover Up With Ponzi Scheme
• RM38 Million Cash & 200kg Gold Seized – How MIC Gangster Saravanan Became Super Rich In Foreign Workers Scandal
• Corruption Scandal – How Anti-Corruption Chief Azam Baki’s Half-Baked Story Backfires & Implicates Him Even More
• Clueless PAS – Needs 40 Years To Fix Kelantan’s Water Supply When 770-km PLUS Highway Was Built In Just 13 Years
• Change Of Story – PAS Holy Men Have New Tales Why They Rewarded Themselves With Mercedes & RM50,000 Cash
• UMNO-Malay Cheated Malay Felda Settlers – How RM870 Million Was Stolen To Build Only 7% Of 20,000 Houses
• Serial Liar Hadi Trapped!! – Anwar Declares PAS Paid RM1.4 Million To Sarawak Report
• RM90 Million Scandal – Here’s Why Hadi Warned Muslims To Trust Muslim Leaders, Even If They Are Evil & Wicked
• 2 Million Muslims Scammed – Court Settlement Proves “Holy Man” Hadi Took RM90 Million Bribes

The post Anwar’s Strategy – The Only Strategy – For Power Using BN Has Backfired first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

But it’s not hard to see how Trump’s deal with Venezuela’s unelected interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, “looks less like a normal commercial transaction than it does the famous scene of U.S. businessmen meeting with the Cuban strongman in The Godfather Part II”. Trump warned Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice-president, she would face an even worse fate if she did not toe the U.S.

There’s a reason why American demonstrators have frequently used “Emperor” and “King” metaphors to criticize President Donald Trump’s exercise of power, most prominently during nationwide “No Kings” rallies. While they depicted Trump as an exposed or absolute ruler, activists argue that his style of governance challenges traditional democratic checks and balances.

Delcy Rodríguez was installed as interim president on 5 January, two days after the president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted by U.S. special forces during an “invasion” on Caracas. As Trump’s new puppet, Rodríguez claimed Trump’s oil deal had “endless” benefits and would help produce more than US$209 billion in revenues that could be used to improve healthcare and education.

A few months after capturing Venezuela’s leader, President Trump joked about making it the 51st state, the same way he threatened to make Canada the  “51st state” of America since returning to office. While Trump’s desire to annex Canada isn’t likely to happen, the POTUS has already made his move on Venezuela – annexing the country’s oil through his puppet.

Venezuela didn’t end up as American’s 51st state, it has become like a vassal, or protectorate, or a colony. Call it whatever you like, but it isn’t sovereign. Its interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, was installed by the Americans and serves at their pleasure. American troops come and go at will. Its oil revenue flows through the U.S. Treasury.

And last week’s declaration by Mr Trump that the U.S. had taken control of a sizable chunk of its oil reserves at zero cost demonstrates the most extreme manifestation of Trump’s “Donroe” doctrine. Under that reformulation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine – a United States foreign policy that opposes European colonialism and foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere – the U.S. seeks dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

Trump has intervened in Argentina’s markets to help an ally while meddling in the elections of Brazil and Colombia in hopes of defeating adversaries. In Venezuela, Trump is prioritizing control of oil over the restoration of democracy. A democratic transition or fresh presidential elections isn’t on Trump’s agenda. Washington’s goal in colonizing an oil-rich country has been achieved.

Trump’s treatment of Venezuela helps explain why Canada broke off trade talks with the U.S. Yet, American officials seem puzzled that Prime Minister Mark Carney would risk trade war given the disproportionate cost Canada is likely to bear. “He’s not doing what’s best for the Canadian people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared on Monday.

For Carney, it isn’t about economic cost, but sovereignty. “No Canadian leader wants to be the Delcy Rodríguez of the North,” – Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister, told CNBC last week. Since World War II, the U.S. has pursued trade liberalization as a way to generate mutual benefit and strengthen ties with allies. In that spirit, Canada in the 1980s took what it called a “leap of faith” and negotiated a free-trade deal with the U.S.

President Ronald Reagan described the resulting pact as a “model for the future of this country and the world.” A few years later, Mexico joined. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was followed by numerous new bilateral pacts slashing trade barriers, including with Colombia, Chile, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, as well as Central America.

However, when Trump came to office in 2017, he set out to reverse the free-trade tide. His trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, was anti-free trade and pro-tariff. But he also knew his counterparts had to be able to sell a deal politically back home. The resulting U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced Nafta, and deals with Japan and South Korea favored the U.S., but were nonetheless embraced by its partners.

In his second term Trump’s approach was completely different. Not only did he hit almost everyone with steep tariffs, he regularly linked the levies to political or territorial goals. He threatened Colombia with tariffs for refusing to take deportees, Brazil for prosecuting his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and Europe to make Denmark hand over Greenland. He even said Canada could avoid tariffs by becoming the 51st state.

The U.S., of course, has a long history of interfering in Latin America. Still, Venezuelan-born Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann says this was often to establish free market institutions and keep out the Soviet Union. Trump’s demands on Venezuela lack any such “moral compass,” he said, and are simply “an illegitimate power grab.” (The U.S. accused Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for drug trafficking.)

Canada’s stance in trade negotiations was heavily shaped by the threats against its sovereignty from Trump and his allies. In January, Bessent appeared to express support for Alberta secession. The province holds a referendum next month on the question. This led Canada to view U.S. demands through a different prism than in the past.

Once eager to prove itself a secure supplier of resources, Canada now worries about the leverage the U.S. could wield as the dominant customer of those resources. Canada feared U.S. tariffs on autos and trucks were intended to wipe out its industry, which Trump did little to dispel. “I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything,” – Trump said on social media.

Essentially, like Imperial Britain and Japan, Trump sees its neighbours as a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured products. This shapes his negotiations. While insisting on steep tariffs on Canadian-manufactured goods, Trump has kept tariffs low on Canadian oil whilst pressing for greater access. Though the U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer, Trump wanted to revive the Keystone XL pipeline from Canadian oil fields to American refineries.

Most problematic was what Canadian officials interpreted as demands for a veto over trade deals with other countries. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer disputed that, arguing the U.S. wanted to ensure cheap aluminum and steel, such as from China, didn’t enter the U.S. from Canada. In truth, Canada worries that recent U.S. actions in Venezuela could hurt Canadian oil sales and reduce its economic independence.

Canada had suggested a common approach toward China – “Fortress North America,” as Carney puts it. But the U.S. envisioned “a ‘Fortress North America’ where one ruler would have dictated what other inhabitants of the fortress could have done with the outside world, while feeling free to impose restrictions at will on them within the fortress,” former Canadian trade negotiator Steve Verheul wrote in a commentary.

It’s an open question whether Canadian defiance will outlast a brutal trade war. Its leaders may hope they only have to outlast Trump. Tariffs of some sort are likely here to stay; the Donroe doctrine, not so much. Congress didn’t clamor for control of Venezuela. It could be years before the U.S. reaps any tangible benefits from its oil reserves, even as resentment in Venezuela grows.

Trump has also pushed a series of high-profile proposals and executive orders to rename major international bodies of water and geographic landmarks. Already, large majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s tariffs on Canada and his changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” After trying to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”, he also wanted to change the Strait of Hormuz to Trump Strait.

Despite all the fears, experts point out major differences between the two nations. Unlike Venezuela, Canada has a stable legal system, strong democratic institutions, and a diverse modern economy. Besides, Washington has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s president since 2019, unlike the Canadian prime minister.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Uninvestable – Oil CEOs Unconvinced With Trump To Plunder Venezuela
• Maduro Game Over – How U.S. Captured Venezuela’s Untouchable
• More Than Just Trade Deals – Canada And Brazil Levies Show Trump’s Abusing Tariffs As Political Weapon
• Outsmarting Trump’s 145% Tariff – From Diverting China-US Imports To Canada To Smuggling In Black Market
• Learning Soviet’s Failures – How Xi Jinping Spent Decades Preparing For A Cold War Today With The U.S.
• China Too Strong For U.S. – Why Europe In Trouble As Trump Shifts Target To Bully EU With 50% Tariff Threats
• Trump Has Already Lost His Trade War Against China – But He Can’t Find Ways To Climb Down And Save Face
• Casualty Of Trump Bullying – PM Trudeau Fast Losing His Job After Tariff Threat & Mocking Of Canada As 51st State
• From Terminating Trade Deal To Cancelling $1.1 Trillion Debt Owed To China – Here’re Some Of Trump’s Crazy & Dirty Ideas
• As News Of US Military Invasion Spreads, Maduro Accuses Trump Of Trying To Steal Venezuela’s Oil
• Venezuela Now Has 2 Presidents – Here’s A Long List Of U.S. Involvement In Latin American Politics

The post US Colony – Canada Doesn’t Want To Be Like Puppet Venezuela first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

From Germany to France, and from Japan to the United States, the global bond market is seeing selloff going into the month of September – raising borrowing costs for governments and putting pressure on U.S. stocks. As oil prices continued to climb after the U.S. and Iranian militaries clashed over the weekend for the first time in weeks, worries that the conflict will keep inflation hot could lead to something more serious.

The Federal Reserve may raise the interest rates. Swelling fiscal deficits world-wide, increased competition from corporate borrowers and Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh’s reluctance to give forward guidance saw the 10-year Treasury note yield hit a 20-month high to 4.7880% – highest level since January 2025. That means the U.S. is paying 4.788% annual return to you for lending money to the U.S. government.

But that was the beginning. Japan’s 10-year bond yield jumped more than 6 basis points to 3% for the first time since 1996 after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at possible BOJ (Bank of Japan) rate hikes. The country is at the epicenter of a global bond rout driven by expectations of higher interest rates and worries around swelling government debt. 

Bond yields also rose to multiyear highs in the U.K., Germany and France. Britain’s 10-year yield hit its highest since 2008 above 5.25%, while the equivalent German yield rose to a 15-year high at 3.36%. France 10 Year Government Bond Yield, meanwhile, increased to 4.15%, the highest since November 2008. Data on Tuesday (Sept 1) showed euro zone inflation rose back above 3% in August due to higher energy cost.

A sustained move higher in yields will have consequences well beyond Wall Street. One of the most direct victims is the government itself, which will be forced to pay higher interest rates on its growing pile of debt as older bonds mature and are replaced by new ones. Now, nearly one in five dollars of revenue goes to interest payments – thanks to US$40 trillion U.S. national debt.

Essentially, the US annual interest expense now stands at a record US$1.25 trillion, more than four times the level seen in 1991. “I think really most of this (bond) sell-off has been a re-assessment of Fed policy,” said Andrew Lilley, chief rates strategist at Barrenjoey, an investment bank in Sydney. “I think the Fed hikes in September, and I think it’s the beginning of the three-rate hike cycle at minimum.”

Higher yields could put pressure on tech companies that are borrowing massively in bond markets to fund AI investments. The higher yields go, the bigger strain it provides to this particular sector, which is one of the largest growth drivers of equity markets. Therefore, if the cost of borrowing jumps, it could crush the AI investments, which in turn would crash the stock markets.

Five of the biggest AI hyperscalers – Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle – have issued a jaw-dropping US$220 billion of debt already this year as they fund investments in data centres and models. This is more than double last year’s total figure. Borrowing for AI investments has helped push global corporate bond issuance to a record US$4.9 trillion so far in 2026 – up 14% from this point a year ago.

Traders are pricing in a more than 66% chance that the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point later this month, according to CME data. It was just a week ago when the chances of a hike were just under 40%. Expectations that the central bank will raise interest rates jumped after Kevin Warsh struck a hawkish tone at Jackson Hole on Friday.

America’s rising borrowing costs have set off a battle between Bessent and bond investors, but the factors pushing up yields in the U.S. are also issues in other big markets. In many advanced economies, widening budget deficits, high debt levels and stubborn inflation have unnerved investors who believe that governments are either unable or unwilling to take steps to improve their fiscal situations.

The rise in oil prices since the start of the war in Iran has compounded worries about stubbornly high inflation. Mr. Bessent is meeting with international finance ministers this week in Asheville, N.C., for a Group of 20 meeting, as U.S. foreign policy continues to upend the global economy. Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, rose on Tuesday (Sept 1) to above US$92 a barrel, nearly 30% higher than prewar levels.

The jump in energy costs – the prices of refined fuels like gasoline and diesel have risen even faster – has increased expectations of accelerating inflation that could prompt central banks to raise the short-term interest rates they control. Higher fuel prices also add enormous costs to governments in Asia and Europe, which are big energy importers.

As far as investors are concerned, many politicians don’t appear worried enough about these debt levels. Instead, investors see government plans that are not likely to shrink budget deficits. Therefore, with expectations of more borrowing to come, investors are demanding higher returns to hold government bonds.

“The confrontation between bond markets and policymakers is becoming a battle of attrition,” Geoffrey Yu, a strategist at BNY Mellon, wrote in a note on Tuesday. “Persistent inflation, fiscal concerns and energy risk continue to push investors to demand greater compensation.” Yet, Bessent said the U.S. bond market remains the “best performing market” in the world.

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The post Global Bond Yields Hit New Highs As Investors Ready For Rate Hikes first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

It was a preemptive measure to create a perception that not only he was innocent, but also to align himself with the Prime Minister – hoping to enjoy special immunity and to intimidate the judiciary. Shedding crocodile tears, he claimed certain individuals were allegedly coerced into implicating him, and that neither he nor his family was personally involved in recruiting foreign workers.

However, by dragging Anwar into his personal corruption charges, it has actually done more harm than good. Saravanan’s public announcement seeking help from Anwar would create a narrative that the PM could pull strings to help the ex-HR minister escape prosecution by using his power, influence and connections to pressure both the Judicial and the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC).

Saravanan’s tactical error saw PM Anwar distancing himself, saying he has yet to receive the so-called letter from the former HR minister and would refer it to the MACC, the AGC, or the relevant authorities for consideration. If Mr Saravanan still hasn’t realized that he is being “targeted by design, and not coincidence” in the latest political manoeuvre, then he is stupider than he looks.

Yes, like former Lembaga Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, who were arrested, handcuffed, and detained by the MACC in the investigations of Tabung Haji scandal, Saravanan is joining the party because the Madani government needs to impress upon voters about its anti-corruption drive before the next 16^th General Election.

Pleading not guilty to three charges of corruption, 58-year-old Saravanan – who is also deputy president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of Barisan Nasional, which is part of Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government – is accused of receiving the money on three occasions to approve applications for a quota of 1,000 foreign workers for Kuala Lumpur-based firm TYKB Engineering Sdn Bhd.

According to the first and second charges, Saravanan received kickbacks of RM150,000 and RM350,000 in cash from Vectica Resources director Tan Teck Lim via Syed Amirul Syed Ahmad at Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resorts and at Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar, on June 16 and July 7, 2022. For the third charge, he received RM597,000 through a cheque from the same person, deposited into a Big Seven Ventures bank account at Maybank Jalan Klang Lama, Taman Desa, on July 7, 2022.

Saravanan Murugan, the Member of Parliament for Tapah since 2008, was appointed as the Secretary in MIC Federal Territory by former MIC president Samy Vellu in 1997. He had also served as deputy ministers under Abdullah Badawi and Najib Razak administrations. It was not until 2020 that he was made a full minister – Minister of Human Resources – that came with “golden opportunities”.

Born and raised in gang-infested Sentul, it wasn’t hard for Saravanan to click with the big boss of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of the corrupted Barisan Nasional coalition. After all, Samy Vellu was the infamous Godfather of Indian gangsters in the 1980s and 1990s, who served under the Mahathir leadership during his 22-year-iron-fist rule (1981-2003).

When Tamil Malar Daily exposed in 2017 how Mr Saravanan stole from the rental collection of the state MIC building, the then-Deputy Youth and Sports Minister brought mobsters to the media office and beat up its General Manager and staff. The attacks saw journalists and employees of the newspaper company left bleeding, injured and even suffered some broken teeth.

But unlike Bollywood movies, there was no happy ending for the poor owner and staff of the Tamil Malar Daily. The despicable MIC leader was as untouchable as former Prime Minister Najib, who himself had stolen billions in the 1MDB scandal before he lost power in the May 2018 General Election, and whose political party – UMNO – had ruled the country almost uninterrupted since independence in 1957.

Also known as “Ganja Saravanan”, he had never been arrested, let alone prosecuted, but was let go with a slap on the wrist – until now. As Human Resource Minister under the illegitimate backdoor PM Muhyiddin Yassin (March 2020-August 2021) and PM Ismail Sabri (August 2021-November 2022), the MIC deputy president boldly enriched himself through corruption and money laundering.

In fact, Saravanan was so corrupt that he actually did not deny the involvement of MIC members in the misappropriation of funds from “PenjanaKerjaya” involving a total of RM100 million. The programme-turned-scandal, under Muhyiddin’s National Economic Recovery Plan, offered financial incentives of between RM600 and RM1,000 to employers for each employee or apprentice employed for up to six months.

But the biggest “dirty money” machine was the hiring of foreign workers into the country. On June 16, 2022, Saravanan said that Bangladesh and Malaysia had agreed to a limit of 25 agencies to recruit Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia. However, the next day, Bangladesh’s Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad rubbished the statement.

Mr Imran had also clarified that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by both countries did not mention anything about 25 agencies. Worse, despite admitting that there was a surplus of illegal Bangladeshi workers in the country, Saravanan had pushed to bring in more Bangladeshis. And the disgraced human resource minister deliberately set a limit of 25 agencies to create monopoly.

The clueless, incompetent and corrupt regime of Muhyiddin saw the cost of hiring foreign workers shot up from about RM16,000 to RM20,000 per worker because various agencies involved had to “share the money at different levels”. The cost of hiring was incredibly ridiculous that Bangladesh had refused to send any workers in 2020 – till a transparent system was in place.

The Bangladeshi government wanted the Malaysian government to connect to their online system to detect irregularities, but was declined. If the Malaysian labour market is allowed to link directly to the Bangladeshi system, it would kill syndicates and middlemen, ending the monopoly and corruption. It’s not rocket science why Saravanan rejected it – he was on top of the food chain of the lucrative market.

To get an idea of how lucrative the business has made Saravanan and his cronies mega rich, look no further than the operation carried out by a Multi-Agency Task Force (MATF) led by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on July 24, 2023. Over RM38 million cash and 200kg of gold worth over RM60 million were seized along with 17 luxury vehicles such as Ferrari and Maserati.

Involving the police, Immigration Department, Customs Department, Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank), Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) as well as Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM), the special operation saw raids carried out in 34 locations in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor involving 315 officers. The man behind the crimes was “Dato Malik”, the proxy and bag carrier for Saravanan.

Abdul Malik Dasthigeer, commonly known as “Dato Malik”, was the trusted lieutenant of the former human resource minister entrusted to launder dirty money from the Bangladeshi recruitment business. Also known for distributing Indian movies and bringing in artists from India to perform Tamil concerts in Malaysia, Malik was arrested and grilled by the MACC.

Also arrested was businessman-cum-politician “Datuk V Saravanan Kumar”, who was linked to former ruling party Bersatu, and “Datuk Shafee Zaman”, owner of Tamil newspaper Nanban. More than 30 suspects had been identified by the anti-corruption agency, busting a syndicate involved in corruption, smuggling, money laundering, and illegal tax evasion.

Crucially, the MACC had also frozen funds amounting to RM500 million linked to Malik. If this crook has in his possession RM500 million, imagine the real wealth of ex-minister Saravanan? There’s a reason why Saravanan was known as “Ganja Saravanan”. In 2021, Malik was exposed by a local newspaper as not only a criminal involved in the illegal smuggling business, but was also a drug dealer.

Yes, the MIC gangster did not become a multi-millionaire (or even a billionaire) from his venture into an agricultural business – coconut cultivation – as he would like the people to believe. Rather, it was his venture into illegal businesses, using Dato Malik as his proxy and cover, and links to underground Mafia that made him super-rich, so much so he believed he could buy his way out with money.

However, the arrogant politician will not be able to count on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to bail him out this time. Saravanan was a traitor – one of Barisan Nasional MPs who had signed the Statutory Declaration to support rival Bersatu president Muhyiddin as prime minister after the 15th General Election that produced a hung Parliament in November 2022..

Not only had Saravanan betrayed the leadership of UMNO president Zahid Hamidi, but he had shown that he was an untrustworthy ally of Anwar-led Unity Government. In December 2022, he deliberately went out for lunch and did not return for the counting of votes in the deputy speaker election, causing Alice Lau of Pakatan Harapan to receive only 146 votes instead of 148 two-thirds majority votes.

Like former premier Najib Razak, who had been sent to prison for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering, Saravanan is another shameless crook who did not blink twice about stealing RM19 million disbursed for a chilli planting programme to Yayasan NAAM (New Affirmative Action Movement), a foundation led by himself.

Clearly, both Anwar and Zahid have no problems hanging Saravanan to dry. The Premier, desperate to boost his credential after he led Pakatan Harapan coalition to three crushing defeats in the Sabah, Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections, hopes to reverse negative perception about his empty promises on reforms and anti-corruption by charging big sharks like Saravanan. 

Zahid, meanwhile, hopes sacrificing Saravanan, not that the MIC leader was clean in the first place, could similarly arrest a decline in public trust in the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition due to systemic and deeply entrenched perceptions of institutional corruption and crony capitalism. It would also serve as a good distraction to UMNO’s past roles in the Tabung Haji corruption and Ponzi scheme scandals.

Interestingly, Syed Amirul Syed Ahmad, who was named in the charge sheets, had passed away. It doesn’t matter if Saravanan would eventually walk away a free man (he was not made to wear the MACC’s orange suit like Azeez and Serigar) in the political theatre. By the time his trial is over, which would take years, both Anwar and Zahid would have already milked Saravanan’s corruption for votes needed to win elections. Don’t hold your breath until the MIC gangster joins Najib in prison.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Why Hadi Wanted To Hide Tabung Haji’s Corruption & Ponzi Scheme
• How UMNO Bankrupted Tabung Haji, Cover Up With Ponzi Scheme
• RM38 Million Cash & 200kg Gold Seized – How MIC Gangster Saravanan Became Super Rich In Foreign Workers Scandal
• More Prison Time For Ex-PM Najib – Jasmine Loo Is Set To Sing Like A Canary As Witness In 1MDB Scandal
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• 2 Million Muslims Scammed – Court Settlement Proves “Holy Man” Hadi Took RM90 Million Bribes

The post Why MIC Gangster “Ganja Saravanan” Charged With Corruption Now first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

Lee Ka-young, a 25-year-old software developer, started investing in December, when her first paycheck from a new job left her convinced she would never earn enough to buy a home. She funded a trading account with around US$14,000 from her savings and crypto gains. Lee invested all of it into SK Hynix and later, into single-stock leveraged ETFs.

She started her own Instagram account to document her ride to riches. By May 2026, her account was up more than 58%, and her posts had drawn an average of 4 million views a month. South Korea became the world’s hottest stock market for most of the past year, powered by the AI (artificial intelligence) boom. Then it crashed. Lee lost all the money she made when stocks soared this year.

When the bull market started to turn, Lee held firm, looking for a rebound. “I got greedy,” – Lee admitted. “I kept thinking, what if it climbed even higher after I cashed out?” Her holdings are now worth 5% less than when she started in December. Her investments multiplied so fast – and vanished so quickly – it felt “like it was all a dream,” – Lee said. Like other ordinary investors, she was not alone.

Yoon Jae-Yi, a 30-year-old English teacher, lost US$19,000. She has since cut her living expenses – fewer taxi rides, less travel. Skipping meals, she tells herself, doubles as a diet. South Korea, which introduced Squid Game and K-Pop to the world, now hosts the planet’s craziest stock market, showcasing a stomach-churning volatility not seen in major markets in years.

Bank worker Yongjoon Kim lost 20 million Korean won (US$14,000) on the South Korean stock market last month. Kim’s money was meant to help buy a home, as he is getting married later this year. Instead, the value of his tech investments slumped by around 25% in July. “It’s going to sting and I’m going to have to work really hard to make up for this,” – Kim says. “But for others who have taken more risk, they’re going to feel the pain.”

The benchmark Kospi index more than tripled in value, driven by faith in the AI boom. Two South Korean companies, memory-chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, soared to trillion-dollar valuations and became the twin forces pushing record market gains. Then the KOSPI plunged around 40% over six weeks in June and July, burning hundreds of thousands of investors – a sober warning to those betting big on the AI industry.

The roller-coaster ride has continued though – the Kospi has since rebounded about 20% from its low. “The volatility is just too severe. This isn’t sound investing. It’s a gambling table, a casino,” – said 68-year-old Jung Eui-jung, who heads the Korea Stockholders’ Alliance, a group representing the country’s roughly 14 million individual investors.

The Kospi’s six-week collapse erased roughly US$2.5 trillion in market value. Individual investors – accounting for 60% to 70% of the Kospi’s daily trading volume – were hit the hardest. They are known as ants – weak individually but capable of collective power – and fed the market with a deep faith in Samsung and SK Hynix, the world’s two largest memory chip makers and fierce competitors driving the global AI infrastructure boom.

Making the market collapse worse was the introduction in May of South Korea’s first single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. Using financial tools such as debt and derivatives, these ETFs enabled an investors to double their bets on Samsung and SK Hynix. Meaning if one of the stocks went up 5% in a day, the leveraged ETF would rise by 10%. On the downside, if the stock fell 5%, the ETF would fall 10%.

The ants now blame South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration for loosening regulations to allow such potentially lucrative, high-risk funds. His government has since put in place stricter rules around trading the ETFs with the aim of helping curb market volatility. But it was too little too late. The damage is done.

A group of individual investors sent mourning wreaths to the country’s National Assembly that carried messages promising revenge at the ballot box, as well as an urgent plea – “Ants being slaughtered – National Assembly, respond.” The presidential office said the South Korean government has been making an all-out effort to manage the market’s volatility, including through the new trading rules.

The market fallout was not limited in the country, but stretched to the U.S., where bets on South Korean chip stocks likely contributed to July losses of some 67% at Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund. The hedge fund liquidated most of its public equities portfolio to repay lenders. Situational Awareness had held a large position in the Korea-listed shares of SK Hynix, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Yoon Kyung-min, a 44-year-old sound engineer, said he still can’t believe the financial disaster of the past two months. After quitting his job, he had invested half of his severance pay into semiconductor stocks and saw US$7,200 evaporate in a week. “If my wife finds out, I will be in serious trouble,” – said Yoon, who thought the market “would rise forever.”

{ Presidential Push }

President Lee talked up his stockholdings on the campaign trail last year and pledged to nearly double the Kospi to a record 5,000 points by 2030 if elected to reward retail investors and boost overall public wealth. He said his market reform push could put an end to the long-standing phenomenon of South Korean stock undervaluation due to weaknesses in corporate governance and a lack of market transparency – known as the “Korea Discount.”

After becoming president in June 2025, Lee – a self-described ant – accelerated capital market reforms aimed at propping up share prices. The push coincided with rising global excitement about AI and the prospects for Samsung and SK Hynix. Memory-chip prices grew sharply in the past year, with demand far outstripping supply.

The Kospi was the world’s top-performing stock market in 2025 alone, with a 76% gain. The surge made South Korea the world’s 5th-largest market by market capitalization, moving from 13th place a year earlier and surpassing the U.K. and France. By mid-2026, Samsung and SK Hynix accounted for more than 50% of the exchange’s value. But very few saw the danger as the bull kept charging.

Instead, more ordinary Korean investors joined the frenzy, including stay-at-home mothers, students, and retirees cashing in their pensions. That’s the first red flag that the stock market was driven by greed, creating an overvalued asset bubble. Many newcomers became stock-rich almost overnight. Margin loan balances rose by US$7.9 billion to US$27.1 billion in six months, as more investors tried to boost returns.

The boom drew the attention of U.S. investors. At the start of the memory chip supercycle last year, neither Samsung nor SK Hynix traded on U.S. exchanges. That meant most Americans with domestic brokerage accounts had no way to buy the stocks directly. In May, Interactive Brokers became the first major U.S.-based brokerage to offer direct trading in Korean equities.

Around the same time, a little-known asset manager called Roundhill Investments launched an ETF, known by the ticker DRAM, that focused on memory manufacturers. It offered any American with a major brokerage account access to Samsung and SK Hynix, which together composed almost half the fund’s value. Within weeks, DRAM became the most successful ETF launch in U.S. history, in terms of attracting new investor money.

The record demand surprised the ETF industry, which is dominated by such financial behemoths as BlackRock and Vanguard Group. Rather than selling through a network of financial advisers, DRAM attracted individuals who heard about the ETF on social media and institutional traders, Roundhill Chief Executive Dave Mazza said in an interview.

{ The FOMO Effect }

South Korea rolled out its new leveraged ETFs in May, teeing up the precipitous fall. ETFs typically act as baskets for various assets, such as stocks in multiple firms. The newer ETFs, however, were designed to hold shares in just a single company and allowed investors to pile on additional leverage that magnified gains or losses.

The country had previously allowed leveraged ETFs that tracked multiple firms or the broader Kospi index. Rules intended to shield investors from compounded losses ban single-stock leveraged ETFs. Supporters of the rule change cited single-stock leveraged ETFs in other major markets, including the U.S., saying they would encourage more investors to trade such ETFs and keep their capital in South Korea.

When the products launched on May 27, demand was so high that the website crashed for days from excessive traffic. By June, the Kospi crossed 9,000 points, more than three times its 2025 level. Then concerns over the strength of AI demand and encroaching Chinese competition punctured the semiconductor rally. Many individual investors, like Jake Cheong, a 30-year-old accountant in Seoul, got hung out to dry.

Cheong said he had never been big on stocks. He made small investments, mostly in conservative U.S. index funds. In the early stages of the chip rally, he cautioned friends and co-workers, convinced that unquestioned faith in skyrocketing South Korean shares would end in tears when the fall came. But even he could not resist the temptation.

In June, he decided the market surge was too good to pass up as a short-term investment. Cheong scooped up around US$21,000 worth of SK Hynix shares, using a significant chunk of his savings. Less than three weeks later, the stock had jumped by 40%. Unlike others who were under the delusion – and greed – that the super bull run would last forever, he cashed out. But his story didn’t end there.

SK Hynix planned to list on the Nasdaq via American Depositary Receipts, a move Cheong believed would help keep the firm’s South Korean-listed shares elevated for longer. He invested US$29,000 or so into a leveraged ETF tracking the firm. The added leverage meant that if SK Hynix’s stock fell, Cheong’s losses would be compounded. Then came the crash.

By the end of July an estimated 1.2 million South Korean personal investor accounts had faced margin calls, equivalent to about one in every 30 working-age adults in the country. His position has fallen 69% to roughly US$9,000. “My hard rule used to be that when too many people seem to be boasting about their stock gains, we’ve probably hit the peak,” Cheong said. “But FOMO (fear of missing out) got the better of me.”

{ All A Dream }

Some investors shrug off the volatility of what some call the “Rollerkospi.” Jonathan Pines, head of Asia at Federated Hermes, a U.S.-based asset manager, said the firm plays the long game with South Korean memory stocks. Given that elevated earnings in those stocks are expected to hold up for the next two years, he said, investors will eventually recoup most of their initial outlays.

South Korea’s president has suffered political losses in the past two months. Lee’s approval rating fell to 43.3% during that time, the lowest level since he took office in June last year. Members of the country’s main opposition party have called for inquiries into the ruling party’s handling of the market turmoil.

Presidential chief of staff for policy Kim Yong-beom, who once proclaimed that Korea “should be capable of doing what the U.S. stock market does,” faces a criminal complaint filed by an opposition party member alleging he improperly pressured regulators to approve single-stock leveraged products. He denies the allegations.

South Korean regulators recently rolled out a series of emergency measures to rein in volatility. Approval of new single-stock leveraged products has been put on hold, and a mandatory cash deposit required to trade them was tripled to roughly US$21,000. Authorities also expanded a mandatory online training course for individual investors that explains the risks and tracks mock investments through hours of trading exercises.

The Kospi 200 volatility index – a gauge of market risk and investor sentiment – fell to 56.76 this Monday from 86.18 on July 30, according to the Korea Exchange. Jung, the Korea Stockholders’ Alliance head, still wants regulators to delist the single-stock leveraged ETFs and devise rescue measures for individual investors who suffered deep losses.

The Kospi faced “one of the sharpest corrections” in its history between June and August, comparable to the drops seen during Covid-19 and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. At a recent legislative debate in Seoul, Jung called for a moment of silence for South Korean individual investors. “To return to a normal investing environment, the government must not sit back,” he said. “Major surgery is needed.”

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The post How AI Boom Tripled South Korea Stocks – Then It Crashed first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

But let’s cut through the aggressive marketing noise. Technology does not eliminate risk, and it never offers a guaranteed blueprint for wealth. Instead, it completely reshapes how independent participants analyze the market, shifting the focus from manual tracking to strategic decision-making.

The Reality Behind AI market analysis and Massive Data Processing

Every single trading session is a relentless firehose of information. Thousands of corporate earnings releases, regulatory filings, central bank statements, macroeconomic indicators, and social media trends hit the wires simultaneously. If you try to read, categorize, and interpret all of it manually, you’ve already lost your execution window. The sheer scale of modern data processing has simply evolved past human capabilities.

This is where machine learning shifts the balance. Instead of a human analyst scrolling through endless PDF filings or corporate disclosures, specialized algorithms parse unstructured text in milliseconds. They don’t just search for basic keywords; they read between the lines of corporate guidance, compare today’s CEO tone with transcripts from three quarters ago, and instantly spot structural shifts in corporate communication.

It’s a matter of scale, not magic. By deploying natural language processing, modern software detects hidden patterns across the entire stock trading universe. It flags unusual relationships—like a sudden drop in shipping volume correlating with a future drop in retail earnings—that humans miss because they cannot monitor 5,000 different stocks at the exact same time.

But don’t mistake rapid data ingestion for absolute fortune-telling. A solid predictive market analysis framework gives you mathematical probabilities, never certainties. If the underlying data quality is flawed or delayed, the output becomes actively dangerous to your capital. The system maps out historical tendencies and statistical setups, but navigating real-time volatility still forces you to make the final executive call.

Where AI trading Actually Protects Your Capital

Let’s be completely blunt: raw speed matters, but emotional control matters far more. Institutional hedge funds have known this for decades, using heavy algorithmic trading infrastructure to reduce emotional decision-making during execution. Some retail traders now use automated bots to strip that same panic out of their execution and maintain strict portfolio discipline during high-stress market regimes.

When you deploy AI for trading, you aren’t turning over your life savings to an autonomous sci-fi computer. You are building a highly sophisticated analytical filter. Smart trading systems focus heavily on identifying anomalies, managing risk exposures, and tracking fast-changing market conditions:

• Spotting early momentum trends and volume spikes before they show up on basic technical charts.
• Running massive sentiment analysis across forums, news outlets, and financial reports to gauge shifting consumer behavior.
• Isolating statistical flaws, pricing mismatches, and arbitrage opportunities across heavily correlated assets.
• Generating mechanical trading signals based strictly on hard numbers, entirely ignoring fear and FOMO.
• Monitoring multiple global financial markets 24/7 without the exhaustion that ruins human judgment.

Then there’s the inevitable breaking point. When an extreme market event hits, standard historical models break down entirely. Think of the famous 2010 flash crash. On May 6, 2010, major U.S. equity indexes plummeted nearly 1,000 points within minutes, wiping out a trillion dollars in market value before recovering just as fast. Subsequent investigations found that chaotic interactions between automated execution algorithms and high-frequency trading setups accelerated the panic sell-off instead of stabilizing it.

Look also at early 2021, when the historic GameStop short squeeze broke traditional risk management metrics completely. While advanced artificial intelligence tools could identify the surge in online discussion long before it was reflected in traditional market indicators, the subsequent price action quickly moved beyond anything historical models had been trained to interpret. If a market move is driven by raw human mania, internet memes, or sudden regulatory interventions, an algorithm trained purely on peaceful historical data gets blindsided.

Evaluating Trading Tools Without the Marketing Hype

The retail sector is currently flooded with platforms promising impossible win rates, effortless wealth, and secret algorithms. Ignore the noise. The best retail trading tools don’t shout about artificial intelligence on their landing pages; they just solve specific operational friction points for the user.

If you are looking for a reliable analytical platform, look past the marketing buzzwords and audit these core operational traits:

First, verify data quality. If the underlying feed has gaps, bad prints, or latency, your strategy is useless from the start. Second, demand total transparency. You must know exactly why an algorithm flags an asset or generates a specific recommendation. Blindly trusting an unverified black box leads directly to catastrophic financial loss. Third, ensure the underlying model can dynamically adapt to changing volatility rather than relying on outdated parameters from a completely different economic regime.

Serious market participants want structural efficiency. They look for solutions that plug straight into their primary CFD trading platform, creating a single, clean workflow instead of forcing them to split their attention across multiple disconnected interfaces. Innovation means nothing if you can’t integrate it into everyday decision-making. The ultimate goal is to automate data processing while keeping final execution under human control.

Why Prediction Software Fails in Extreme Market Conditions

No matter how advanced an algorithm becomes, it remains a prisoner of its historical training data. This creates a severe structural vulnerability known as overfitting—the ultimate trap for automated strategies.

A developer can easily build a strategy that looks absolutely flawless on historical charts. It fits past data perfectly, producing a beautiful upward curve in backtests. But the moment it hits live, unpredictable financial markets, it crumbles. Why? Because the system memorized a specific historical regime instead of learning how to handle dynamic, live environments.

The stock market isn’t a closed game with fixed rules like chess. Consumer behavior shifts constantly, regulators rewrite frameworks overnight, and macroeconomic shocks occur unpredictably. Consider a model trained entirely during a ten-year bull market with near-zero interest rates; it will fail completely when central banks rapidly hike rates to combat sudden inflation. A rigid model executes catastrophic mistakes because it cannot apply human judgment to an unprecedented setup.

Automation without strict human oversight is an absolute liability. High-frequency setups and blind automation can amplify market stress rather than absorb it. The math gives you a clear statistical edge over thousands of trades, but human experience remains the ultimate circuit breaker when conditions turn chaotic.

The Modern Hybrid Workflow: Human vs Machine

To succeed in modern financial services, you need a disciplined, dual-layer framework. The machine handles the data processing grunt work; the human handles the strategic risk management.

The optimized workflow looks like this:

• Phase 1: Deep Screening. Let the software scan thousands of global assets simultaneously for volume anomalies, volatility breakouts, or sharp sentiment shifts.
• Phase 2: Automated Summaries. Use natural language processing tools to compress complex quarterly filings and economic reports into clear, scannable data points.
• Phase 3: Technical and Fundamental Verification. The trader steps in to manually check macroeconomic conditions, structural chart levels, and overall portfolio risk alignment.
• Phase 4: Disciplined Execution. The final order goes through standard software like MetaTrader 5, allowing traders to implement predefined position sizing and stop-loss rules.

This hybrid approach keeps your investment strategy grounded in reality. The technology can uncover hidden patterns and optimize your portfolio research, but it cannot evaluate your personal risk tolerance, capital constraints, or long-term financial goals. As technology continues to evolve, the objective isn’t to replace human decision-making—it’s to remove the manual friction from it.

Artificial intelligence is changing how traders collect, filter, and interpret data, but it doesn’t change the underlying reality of risk. Lasting advantages come from combining fast data processing with a disciplined trading strategy and independent human judgment.

The post How AI market analysis for Retail Changes Everyday Trading first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

Two clubs can sit next to each other in the standings while having very different strengths, weaknesses, and styles of play. One may rely on a strong defence and narrow victories, while another may score freely but concede too many goals.

Wins, goals scored, and goal difference are three of the most useful statistics for understanding these differences. When analysed together, they provide a clearer picture of how efficiently a team earns points, how dangerous it is in attack, and how balanced it is across the pitch.

Why League Position Does Not Tell the Whole Story

League position is important because the Premier League table is ultimately determined by points.

However, position shows where a team currently stands, not necessarily how it has performed.

Consider two teams with the same number of points:

League position is an important starting point when comparing teams in the premier league standings, but it does not explain how each club reached that position or what separates teams with similar points totals.

Start by Comparing Wins

Wins are one of the clearest measures of a team’s ability to turn performances into maximum points.

A Premier League victory earns three points, while a draw earns only one. For this reason, teams that consistently convert close matches into wins can climb the table quickly.

What a High Number of Wins Can Indicate

A strong win total can suggest:

• Consistent performances.
• Good game management.
• Effective finishing.
• Strong defensive organisation.
• Ability to perform under pressure.

Compare Goals Scored

Goals scored measure a team’s attacking output. A club that regularly finds the net usually has a better chance of turning draws into wins and recovering when it falls behind.

Suppose one team has scored 58 goals while another has scored 43. The first team clearly appears more productive in attack.

However, raw goal totals can be misleading if the teams have played different numbers of matches.

Use Goals Per Match

A simple calculation can improve the comparison:

Goals per match = Goals scored ÷ Matches played

For example:

• Team A: 50 goals from 25 matches = 2.0 goals per match
• Team B: 54 goals from 30 matches = 1.8 goals per match

Team B has scored more goals overall, but Team A has been more productive on a match-by-match basis.

Understand Goal Difference

Goal difference measures the difference between the number of goals a team has scored and conceded.

The formula is:

Goal difference = Goals scored − Goals conceded

If a team has scored 60 goals and conceded 35, its goal difference is +25.

A positive number means the team has scored more than it has conceded. A negative figure means the opposite.

Goal difference is valuable because it combines attacking and defensive performance in a single number.

Consider this example:

Both sides have scored the same number of goals, but Team A has been far stronger defensively.

Now consider another comparison:

Compare Wins, Goals and Goal Difference Together

The clearest analysis comes from combining all three measurements.

Suppose three teams have played 28 matches:

Team A looks strongest overall. It has the most wins, the highest scoring total, and the best goal difference.

Team B appears more defensively controlled. It has scored fewer goals but conceded the fewest.

Team C is dangerous going forward but less reliable defensively. Its 57 goals are impressive, but conceding 46 reduces its overall advantage.

Why Goal Difference Matters in Tight Races

Goal difference becomes especially important when teams are close together on points.

During a title race, teams that consistently win by larger margins can build a significant goal-difference advantage.

The same principle applies to European qualification. Several clubs may be separated by only a few points, so a stronger goal difference can become valuable late in the season.

At the bottom of the table, goal difference can also influence the relegation battle. Two struggling clubs may have similar points totals but very different defensive records.

For example:

Consider Matches Played

One common mistake is comparing totals without checking how many fixtures each club has completed.

If Team A has 48 points from 27 matches and Team B has 51 points from 30, Team B is ahead in the table. However, Team A has three games in hand.

For a more balanced comparison, consider:

• Points per match.
• Wins per match.
• Goals per match.
• Goals conceded per match.
• Goal difference per match.

Check Home and Away Performance

Overall statistics can also hide major differences between home and away form.

A team may collect most of its wins at home while struggling badly on the road. Another club with the same number of victories may perform consistently in both situations.

For example, a team with 12 home wins but only three away wins may be highly dependent on home advantage. By contrast, a side with eight home wins and seven away wins demonstrates greater balance.

Look at Recent Trends

Season totals are useful, but they do not always reflect current form.

A club may still have an excellent goal difference because of strong performances earlier in the campaign, even if its recent results have declined.

Useful short-term indicators include:

• Wins in the last five matches.
• Goals scored recently.
• Goals conceded recently.
• Changes in goal difference.
• Size of winning and losing margins.

A Simple Method for Comparing Two Teams

When comparing Premier League clubs, follow this sequence:

1. Check how many matches each team has played.
2. Compare their points and total wins.
3. Compare total goals scored.
4. Examine goals conceded.
5. Calculate and compare goal difference.
6. Review home and away records.
7. Check recent form.

Final Thoughts

Wins, goals scored, and goal difference each reveal something different about Premier League performance.

Wins show how effectively a team converts matches into maximum points. Goals scored indicate attacking productivity. Goal difference shows the overall balance between attacking strength and defensive reliability.

The best comparisons use all three statistics together, while also considering matches played, home and away form, and recent results. No single number can fully explain whether one Premier League team is stronger than another. By reading the table in context, however, it becomes much easier to understand how teams are performing, where their strengths lie, and why clubs

The post How to Compare Premier League Teams Using Wins, Goals, and Goal Difference first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

By manufacturing a false narrative that the government was selectively enforcing anti-corruption, therefore unfairly targeting Islamic institutions like Tabung Haji, the despicable PAS president was shifting the fault – from a corrupted pilgrimage fund board to political rivals. The Anwar administration is accused of tarnishing the religious branding just because Tabung Haji’s mismanagement, corruption, and whatnot is being unveiled.

Had the Anwar government kept quiet and continued its cover-up of the Lembaga Tabung Haji Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) findings on its management and operations from 2014 to 2020, the Malay-Muslims would not lose face as its corruption culture would be hidden and the Islamic financial institution mismanagement would not be ridiculed. That was Hadi Awang’s twisted logic.

Because Tabung Haji is a fully government-owned Islamic financial institution in Malaysia, and the management board entirely consists of Malay-Muslims, Mr Hadi could not directly blame non-Malays, especially the Chinese. Still, by hook or by crook, he has to blame the non-Malays – indirectly – with a comical spin that Muslims are less involved in corruption compared to non-Muslims.

But the religious bigot knew he could not prove his twisted argument – either statistically or religiously. So, instead of providing data, he blamed the government for not providing an honest statistic, which he insisted would show corruption involving non-Muslims was higher. Still, he acknowledged that some Muslims with weak religious education do become involved in bribery.

His argument that Muslims are less corrupt than non-Muslims was both hilarious and insulting. The fake holy man argued that “faith and belief” in accountability makes Muslims less likely to engage in graft than non-Muslims. Coming from the same man caught with his pants down taking RM90 million bribes, Abdul Hadi Awang is the real insult to Islam and Muslims.

Political and economic studies indicate that higher corruption in many Muslim-majority countries stems from weak democratic institutions, authoritarianism, nepotism, cronyism, and governance frameworks rather than religious doctrines. In other words, faith and belief, as argued by Hadi, have very little to do with lower corruption committed by Muslims, let alone a Malay like him.

On August 21, 2022, right before his final court appeal, ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak – the same disgraced man who bribed Hadi with RM90 million – swore on his faith at the Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur. In this oath, he explicitly denied knowing that RM42 million deposited into his account came from SRC International, a former subsidiary of the 1MDB state fund.

In fact, Najib also recited variations of the Islamic oath on December 20, 2019, during High Court proceedings in July 2020, and on December 8, 2021. Amusingly, despite repetitively invoking Allah and swearing on the Holy Quran, the God didn’t come to his rescue. The crook was ultimately sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million in July 2020.

Perhaps snake oil salesman Hadi, whom his gullible followers believed was the private secretary of Allah entrusted with golden tickets to the heaven with 72 virgins thrown in, could explain why Najib was sent to prison while his partner-in-crime, Jho Low, remains free? If a Muslim like Najib Razak was less corrupt than Jho Low due to the so-called “faith and belief” formula, why Allah punished only Najib?

Does that mean Allah had rejected the faith and belief of a Muslim like Najib Razak? Does that also mean Jho Low’s God is more powerful than Najib’s God? Based on Hadi’s logic, either Jho Low is less corrupt than Najib, contradicting with his lecture that a non-Muslim is more corrupt than a Muslim, or his argument that “faith and belief” plays a major role in corruption is nothing but bullshit.

Make no mistake – Tabung Haji was not singled out for scrutiny specifically because of their religious branding. In truth, calling a spade a spade, PM Anwar did try to cover up Tabung Haji’s corruption in the past four years for political reasons. But that didn’t change the fact that financial mismanagement, governance breaches, corruption, and even Ponzi schemes had been committed by some Malay-Muslims.

The recent public release of the Tabung Haji Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report revealed unlawful profit distributions (“hibah”) despite net losses, questionable share transfers, and deep-seated fiduciary failures that drained billions. To cover up the financial trouble of Tabung Haji, extraordinary “hibah (dividends)” were declared to hide investment misconduct, mismanagement and incompetence.

Even if financially illiterate Hadi and his minions do not understand the basic assets and liabilities accounting, they should understand that the pilgrim’s fund had been illegally distributing “hibah” to depositors since 2014, contravening the Tabung Haji Act 1995 where the fund is not allowed to declare dividends if its liabilities are more than assets. This is a simple Islamic teaching.

Ahead of the 14th general election on May 9, 2018, the pilgrim’s fund even cooked its books to justify paying a 6.25% dividend, amounting to RM2.7 billion. The Pilgrims’ Fund Chairman, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, had conspired with the board of directors to dip their hands into depositors’ savings to pay the dividends – leading to a nearly RM13 billion bailouts using taxpayers’ money.

Trying to divert attention from Tabung Haji’s scandal by dragging the Penang tunnel project to create a perception that Malay-linked Tabung Haji is being given more public discussion than Chinese-linked Penang tunnel also does not change the fact that corruption, financial misconduct, mismanagement, and Ponzi schemes had indeed occurred in Tabung Haji, whilst nothing has been proven in the Penang tunnel project.  

Exposing Tabung Haji scandal is not targeting a Malay-Muslim institution with an intention to tarnish Islam’s image. Covering up and pretending that RM13 billion belonging to 10 million depositors of the pilgrim fund was still there when it had already been “songlap” or siphoned, on the other hand, is a bigger cancer that would engulf Tabung Haji if the scandal is “swept under the carpet” as preferred by Mr Hadi.

By exploiting and manipulating race and religion, the PAS president hopes to put not only majority ethnic Malays and minority ethnic Chinese at loggerheads, but also to rally Malay voters against non-Malay communities through hatred, xenophobia, Malay supremacy and all forms of bigotry in his evil attempt to gain power. But that was not the worst part.

The worst part is Hadi always gets his way in utilizing ethnoreligious rhetoric to frame political contests as a battle for Malay-Muslim supremacy because the Malays (at least majority of them), the Prime Ministers, the government, and the authorities – even the Monarch and DAP – have been playing a role in shaping PAS’ extremism and racism, whether they realized it or not.

For example, when PAS extremists spewed false narrative that the Malay-Muslims and Islam were under attack just because the Tabung Haji scandal was being exposed and discussed, the “majority of Malays” kept quiet. Their silence is seen as an endorsement or approval to Hadi’s false claims, further emboldening the PAS president to stir up racial and religious sentiments among the Malays.

Had the majority of the Malays courageously – and openly – condemned Hadi’s politics of bigotry, extremism, and lies from the beginning, do you really think Hadi is still interested in stoking racial and religious divisions in the country? The fake holy man still plays the same game because it sells like hot potatoes, knowing that the highly insecure Malays, despite their majority numbers and dominance, would fall in line like lemmings every time Allah, Muslims and Islam are being invoked.

To make matters worse, Hadi believes he is “untouchable”, so much so he actually enjoys immunity because not a single government or authority dares to charge or arrest him, let alone send him to prison for deliberately threatening national security. He could say anything he likes without repercussions because he knew the weak Anwar government has no balls to take any actions against him.

Yes, despite 28 police reports being lodged against Hadi Awang in 2022 alone, not a single prosecution has been brought against him. In comparison, a normal netizen of non-Malay ethnicity would have been hunted down, arrested, handcuffed, charged, and sent to prison in less than a week for expressing political, religious, or social views online that were 100 times less threatening than Hadi’s.

For almost four years since Anwar Ibrahim was installed as the 10^th Prime Minister, his cowardice saw how both PAS and UMNO leaders were allowed to bully, attack, intimidate, and terrorize non-Malays, leading to the perception among the Malays that it was perfectly fine to do so. Heck, even Anwar had to meet and seek the Agong (King)’s consent, before the PM dares to announce a thorough investigation on Tabung Haji’s RCI findings.

In the same breath, the Monarch was equally responsible for creating the “untouchable” Ayatollah Hadi Awang. Who was the King who awarded the “Tan Sri” title to the man who was banned from entering Saudi Arabia due to his “extreme ideology” and affiliation with terrorists’ groups? Hadi has in the past mocked, ridiculed, contradicted, and insulted Sultans, but the Monarchs could only keep quiet with tail between legs.

Likewise, DAP under the spineless leadership of Anthony Loke Siew Fook has been keeping quiet for the past four years – despite volleys of attacks from PAS extremists on not only Chinese, but also DAP specifically. To cling to power, like his political master PM Anwar, Ah Loke’s childish argument was not to spook the Malay Muslims. Now DAP is paying the price for being a coward.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• PKR & DAP Weekend Drama – Pretending To Decide Whether To Quit Or Stay
• How UMNO Bankrupted Tabung Haji, Cover Up With Ponzi Scheme
• Do Pro-UMNO Malays Realize They Will Be Bailing Out Tabung Haji To The Tune Of RM20 Billion For The Next 10 Years?
• We Know What You Did In Hawaii – As Najib Golfs With Obama, Rosmah Splurges RM500,000 On Chanel
• 2 Million Muslims Scammed – Court Settlement Proves “Holy Man” Hadi Took RM90 Million Bribes
• Meet “Mamak” Abdul Azeez – The Crook Who Disguised As A Good Muslim To Steal, Loot & Plunder
• Congrats UMNO & PAS – How Najib Regime Transformed Tabung Haji Into A Ponzi “Get-Rich-Quick” Scheme
• Al-Jazeera Interview – How Mary Ann Jolley Skillfully Skins & Grills Najib Till He Runs Away
• Swiss A.G. – Najib’s 1MDB Scammed At Least $800 Million Using “Ponzi Scheme”
• Bandar Malaysia Has Become “Bandar China” – The U.S. & Malays Conned By Najib
• One Big Family Of Crooks? Najib’s In-Law Took Hermes Bags Without Paying

The post Why Hadi Wanted To Hide Tabung Haji’s Corruption & Ponzi Scheme first appeared on FinanceTwitter.

Ordering directly from overseas has never been easier. Drawn by rock-bottom prices, doorstep delivery and automatic consolidated shipping, Malaysians are flocking to cross-border e-commerce giants for everything from gadgets to sofas. If you think Shopee or Lazada was cheap, wait till you try Pinduoduo or Temu, which is rewriting consumer habits and squeezing domestic traders.

The business model – group-buying sourced directly from factories and wholesalers, cutting the middle men in the process – is creating such a huge havoc that local retailers are now sounding the alarm, even demanding government intervention to level the playing field before they are forced to close shop entirely. The impact is real and the disruption is massive.

The Hungry Ghost Festival was expected to be a peak sales period for Lee Chuan Wei, 47, who owns a Chinese prayer materials business in Penang. Observed during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the festival began on Aug 13 this year and is traditionally an important period for these goods. But there’s something scarier than the opening of the gates of the underworld to allow spirits roam the living realm.

Mr. Lee said sales of offerings and other ceremonial items in the week leading up to the festival were just 60% of those in the same period last year. “At least there were some inquiries close to the eve last year. Now, there isn’t even a single query. It saddens me,”- he told The Straits Times on August 6. He blamed the business decline on Pinduoduo’s entry into Malaysia in late 2025.

The Chinese e-commerce giant retails some items, such as joss sticks, for half of what Lee pays his wholesale suppliers. Pinduoduo is able to keep prices ultra-low by using a “C2M” (Customer-to-Manufacturer) model that cuts out traditional middlemen, wholesalers, and physical retail markups – connecting “buyers directly to factories”.

Pinduoduo operates under the same parent company – PDD Holdings – as Temu, a global online marketplace widely known for its rock-bottom pricing and mass-market, unbranded goods. Mirroring Temu’s high-volume, direct-from-factory strategy, Pinduoduo provides free shipping from China to Malaysian shoppers, even for a single item priced below RM2.

This stands in contrast to established regional e-commerce players such as Shopee and Lazada, which require a minimum purchase to qualify for free shipping. Such direct factory-to-consumer shipping methods, which eliminate middle layers, are increasingly popular among shoppers. In 2025 alone, 54% of Malaysian online shoppers bought from overseas retailers.

However, the trend is putting pressure on Malaysia’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which employ nearly half of the nation’s workforce and contribute nearly 40% of the country’s gross domestic product. For small retailers that rely on selling everyday goods at a margin, the influx of ultra-cheap products shipped directly from China makes it harder to compete.

{ Local Retailers Under Pressure }

Among retailers feeling the pressure from low-cost overseas goods is Ipoh supermarket owner Wong Yeong Jin. With price-controlled essentials such as cooking oil, flour and sugar generating only single-digit profit margins, 50-year-old Wong relies on higher-margin products, such as towels and other household items, to sustain his business.

“They (Pinduoduo) hurt our profits. We can barely survive if consumers can buy a nail clipper for RM1 with free shipping,” – he said. Backing his concerns, Hong Chee Meng, national president of the Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia, said the influx is undercutting neighbourhood shops. The association represents 4,000 members nationwide.

“(Anecdotal) feedback from members in Johor and Kuala Lumpur indicates that sales dropped by up to 30% after Pinduoduo entered the market. Previously, (seasonal) sales would drop by 10% at most before rebounding.” An industry insider revealed – “State subsidies from Beijing help Chinese e-commerce platforms keep their prices ultra-low.”

Securing government support for cross-border logistics costs remains a top priority for the platforms’ management team, said the individual, who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. Citing such early retail impact, local business groups have urged the Government of Malaysia to address what they perceive as unfair competition.

Eugene Sing, president of the Association of Praying Material Traders Malaysia, warned that without regulation, many independent retailers could face closure, threatening jobs and tax revenues in the long run. By shipping ultra-cheap goods directly from Chinese factories to global consumers, PDD Holdings bypasses traditional retail supply chains.

“In Indonesia, all online shops must be registered, with local hires and warehouses required, to protect domestic businesses. Allowing ‘dumping’ will hurt Malaysian workers while benefiting mainland Chinese workers,” – said Sing, whose association represents 300 members and 2,000 retail shops nationwide.

To protect its own domestic economy, Jakarta has mandated that e-commerce platforms prioritise local MSME products over imported goods in search results, among other measures aimed at shielding more than four million Indonesian online merchants. Indonesia is also preparing new regulations to standardise service fees on e-commerce platforms in an effort to improve fairness for MSMEs. 

Concerns from the business community have prompted calls for tighter regulation in Malaysia. Member of Parliament Tan Kar Hing has called for Pinduoduo to be suspended from app stores, arguing that the e-commerce platform has no physical footprint in Malaysia, unlike established players such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop.

“At least the trio have registered themselves in Malaysia. They have a logistics, supply chain, and business ecosystem that employs locals. Pinduoduo does not,” the Perak MP told ST on August 7. The government has said it is addressing the concerns. The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister, Armizan Mohd Ali, said a new law is being drafted to regulate e-commerce platforms and better protect local MSMEs.

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong met major e-commerce platforms on August 6 to discuss creating a “level playing field” for Malaysian and overseas sellers while ensuring the quality and safety of online goods. He highlighted extreme price undercutting as the primary threat – a pair of earphones priced at RM50 in a local shop that sells for just RM2.30 – doorstep delivery included – on Pinduoduo.

“They sell furniture, electronic items or even coffins and other products that can be sent directly to customers’ homes,” – Liew said. “Of course, consumers must be selective when shopping on these platforms. Cheap does not always mean good quality.” Roughly 150 containers are arriving daily to Malaysia to meet growing demand for bargain goods.

SME Association of Malaysia president Dr Chin Chee Seong warned that domestic small businesses face mounting strain. He said – “These platforms can offer products at prices that many local businesses simply cannot match because of their massive economies of scale, highly efficient supply chains and aggressive pricing strategies,”

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) data, e-commerce transaction income reached RM1.288 trillion in 2024, an increase of 8.8% from the previous year. Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) chief executive officer T. Saravanan said abnormally cheap goods should serve as a red flag regarding safety, quality and regulatory compliance.

{ Can’t Restrict Foreign E-Commerce }

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Not everyone agrees that the government should interfere and disrupt the ecosystem. The government should focus on lowering the cost of doing business in the country to make local businesses competitive against Chinese e-commerce platforms, says Parti Warisan vice-president Junz Wong.

Instead of imposing restrictions or protectionism, the Tanjung Aru assemblyman argues that the Anwar government should address the fundamental question of why Malaysian businesses are so expensive to operate. “The government also has to ask why ordinary consumers are increasingly forced to search overseas for cheaper alternatives,” – challenged Junz.

He said that protecting Malaysian businesses must not come at the expense of consumers already struggling with rising living costs. “Do not make Malaysian consumers pay more to compensate for the failure to make Malaysian businesses more competitive,” – Wong said, arguing that the real issue over foreign e-commerce platforms goes far beyond cheap imports.

“If Malaysian businesses are becoming less competitive, the answer cannot simply be to make foreign products more expensive. We must also ask what the government can do to make Malaysian businesses cheaper and more efficient to operate,” – Wong said, urging the government to review the cost of taxation and regulation on businesses, particularly SMEs, including the impact of SST expansion, licensing requirements, logistics costs and overlapping compliance procedures.

{ Lower Prices Benefit Some Traders }

Interestingly, the platform that is squeezing some Malaysian businesses is helping others cut costs. A Kuala Lumpur-based Chinese paper offerings manufacturer, who wanted to be known only as Daniel Lee, 40, said he has reduced raw material costs by more than 20% by purchasing through the platform. Previously, he sourced lanterns and paper effigies from several traders in China via phone calls, paying them in cash.

“Now I can get a lamp for RM13 on Pinduoduo instead of RM22.50 through a middleman. Same quality, less cost,” – he said. Nearby, workers busily stuck coloured paper onto human effigies to be burned during the Hungry Ghost Festival. But the trade-off for Pinduoduo’s ultra-low pricing is longer delivery times, with shipments taking at least three weeks, said regular user L.W. Siew, 60.

Other major problems associated with the budget e-commerce platform Pinduoduo include severe security and malware concerns tied to its application (the App is banned in Google Store, but not Apple Store), regulatory crackdowns over deceptive marketing, and widespread complaints regarding counterfeit or substandard merchandise, not to mention delays in refund.

“For local products that are needed urgently, I prioritise Lazada and Shopee, which offer two-day delivery. I once ordered a steel ball for about RM10 on Pinduoduo, but it was not delivered. I did not seek a refund as it was not worth the effort,” – said the Ipoh-based administrative assistant.

Facing this intense competition, Penang merchant Lee has pivoted, offering same-day delivery for Chinese prayer items on orders above RM100. “We can’t compete with Pinduoduo on price, so we compete on delivery speed, hoping to retain as many customers as we can,” – he said. Instead of whining and complaining, perhaps business owners should start thinking about value proposition to differentiate from Pinduoduo.

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The post Pinduoduo – How This App Creates Havoc To Small Businesses first appeared on FinanceTwitter.