Lars Karlsson: CapacityNow

The Boss. There is only one. Bruce Springsteen has released new live material. It is amazing.

I have written many times about how Brice Springsteen was my first hero. It was 1978. I listened to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ and I was forever lost. He was my working class hero. Inlistened to those lyrics, over and over again. Until I knew by heart. Still do. Maybe I always did, because it always felt like Bruce do. wrote about me. That is what a storyteller does.

Here is one of tha grande songs from the best album ever made, Racing in the Streets -Live 2009.

‘ Some guys they just give up living

And start dying little by little piece by piece

Some guys come home from work and wash up

Then go racin’ in the street

Tonight tonight the strip’s just right

I wanna blow ’em all out of their seats

Calling out around the world

Cause summer’s here and the time is right

We’re goin’ racin’ in the street’

While UK Government has agreed on a negotiation position designed by Theresa May and her inner circle team at the Checkers this weekend – and while the White Paper is being finalized for publication, there are still news every day rocking the boat.

Yesterday Brexit Secretary and Negotiator David Davies resgined. With him another Dexco Minister, Steve Baker, also left their positions.

Today leading Brexiteer Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also stepepd down and resigned from his post. All in protest for a too soft Brexit negotiation line. What is next? We will see within the following days. UK Business amd EU Private Sector need clarity on the way forward.

At the same time it is a very complicated situation for the PM and the political institutions in UK.

The EU Negotiator Michael Barnier has – in adition – been firm on the fact that EU is rwady to find a flexible solution for the ROI/NI border but it will not accept any special solution for the Channel cross border trade.

This is indeed a summer where Customs and Borders play the leading role in international news.

The World Trade Organization is urging nations to resolve trade tensions, warning that restrictive trade measures would have a harmful impact on the global economy.

The group refuses to weigh in on what appears to be the start of a trade war between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies. China has reacted to Washington’s decision to slap 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods by reciprocating in kind.

While the Geneva-based WTO will not comment on specific actions, the organization’s director-general, Roberto Azevedo, has sent out a series of tweets warning nations against giving in to protectionist impulses.

Azevedo says a new WTO monitoring report on trade measures enacted by the G-20 countries indicates a disturbing increase in trade restrictions by major economies. In his tweet, the WTO chief says recent developments show that more restrictive measures are on the way.

His spokesman, Dan Pruzin, says Azevedo fears the deterioration in trade relations may be worse than previously anticipated and is likely to have very serious consequences.

“The fallout from these measures is already being felt,” Pruzin said. “Companies are hesitating to invest, markets are getting jittery, some prices are rising. With further escalation, the effects would only grow in magnitude, hitting jobs and growth in the countries involved and sending economic shock waves around the world.”

President Donald Trump has threatened that the United States might quit the WTO if it is not treated fairly.

“I will just say that no U.S. official in Geneva has given any indication in any of the meetings here in Geneva that the United States intends to withdraw from the WTO,” Pruzin told VOA.

WTO chief Azevedo is urging all parties to sit down and discuss ways of tackling the issues at the root of the growing trade tensions.