John Metzler

FPI / July 10, 2020 By John J. Metzler Beijing’s tightening noose on Hong Kong foretells many things both in the successful city state as much as throughout the opaque vastness of China itself. Clearly, the widening communist political crackdown on Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms was expected given the successful city-state’s thriving democracy. Despite […]

FPI / July 3, 2020 By John J. Metzler Seventy years ago, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops attacked South Korea launching an unexpected military blitz. Kim Il-Sung’s communists had as their aim the forcible reunification of the divided Korean peninsula, itself a recent legacy of Japan’s defeat in WWII. The South was stunned […]

FPI / June 25, 2020 By John J. Metzler It’s one of those rites of late Spring when members of the UN’s General Assembly come together to choose five new non-permanent members of the fifteen-member Security Council. But what’s usually a spirited but pro-forma election of candidates, this year was carried out in the shadow […]

FPI / June 18, 2020 By John J. Metzler In a surprisingly understated but inspirational address to the cadets on the historic Parade Field, President Donald Trump spoke to the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But the remarks to 1,100 newly minted second lieutenants in the U.S. Army was not […]

FPI / June 11, 2020 By John J. Metzler Defying all expectations, the U.S. job numbers surged back in early June in a surprise and stunning rebound. While the usual gaggle of “experts” were somberly predicting an additional eight or nine million job losses, the actual numbers showed 2.5 million jobs gained! Despite massive job […]

FPI / May 28, 2020 By John J. Metzler The World Health Organization (WHO) held its annual Assembly with barely a mention of the member state which brought this UN agency so much political grief — China. But this year’s Assembly convened not in the alpine splendor of its Geneva headquarters, but in virtual reality […]

FPI / May 22, 2020 By John J. Metzler After years of consistent economic expansion and growth throughout much of the world, the global economy is facing tectonic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic. For developed states such as the United States and Western Europe, the “unseen enemy” of the virus has shattered economic forecasts and […]

FPI / May 14, 2020 By John J. Metzler Can we economically sustain a prolonged lockdown? Well the stunningly high unemployment numbers for April, just over 20 million lost jobs, should answer that question and serve as yet another jolting wake-up call that while we are wisely protecting ourselves from wider exposure to the deadly […]

FPI / May 8, 2020 By John J. Metzler Syria’s devastating conflict continues despite the spread of coronavirus and calls by the international community for a ceasefire to stop the fighting which has continued for over nine years and killed more than 500,000 people. Now, an uneasy calm seems to be setting in as the […]

FPI / April 29, 2020 By John J. Metzler North Korea’s Marxist “Monarchy” could be at a critical crossroads as recurring rumors about the death or incapacitation of the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un swirl around the nervous Korean peninsula. Despite a wildfire of media speculation, pending the definitive outcome of Kim’s health, the hard reality […]

FPI / April 23, 2020 By John J. Metzler Since mid-March the American economy has been on pandemic lockdown. Commercial, social and educational interaction have faced a form of limbo, forced to follow a still uncertain script dictated by the deadly coronavirus and decreed by state governors. For many of us, the world seems suspended […]

FPI / April 16, 2020 By John J. Metzler It’s easy to point fingers during a deadly pandemic, and let’s do so. WHO first sounded the alarm? WHO downplayed real medical risks? WHO calmed or stoked irrational fears? WHO in this case, is the global medical monitor providing us with real time warnings and assessments. […]

FPI / April 9, 2020 By John J. Metzler The Coronavirus outbreak has closed down the world, at least as we know it. From the Far East into Europe and North America shutdowns, lockdowns, and stay at home orders are the norm. And for good reason; COVID-19 poses the most dangerous global Pandemic since the […]

FPI / April 4, 2020 By John J. Metzler What would happen if an alien force invaded the world? This was the hypothesis of many sci-fi films over the years in which warring countries and governments would somehow, suddenly, and urgently join together to fight the greater threat. War of the Worlds, (1953) based on […]

FPI / March 25, 2020 By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — It’s almost become a sad cliche to say that America is shutting down over the Coronavirus pandemic. Uncertainty and fear stalk the land, but the enemy remains invisible. The growing global effects of COVID-19 from China to Western Europe, and now North America, […]