World press review: advice from Zbigniew Brzezinski to the new US President, Facebook will not pay $1 billion for Instagram and what will Warren Buffett spend $20 billion on?

Brzezinski: USA as a hostage of elections

American foreign policy has become a hostage to the election campaign on the eve of the country's presidential elections, writes the famous political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski in a column for the Financial Times . In his opinion, it is difficult for the United States to build rational relations with foreign partners due to the fact that the world has become much more complex than it was before. At the same time, the need to formulate important foreign policy theses in the heat of the election race forces candidates to simplify many semantic challenges.

As a result, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are making hasty calls for the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria without articulating the strategic goal of US policy towards Damascus. As a result, the candidates quickly demonstrate support for the Israeli ultimatum to Iran and their readiness to help its Middle Eastern partner with the country’s military might to strike the nuclear infrastructure of the Islamic Republic. As a result, Romney promises on the very first day of his presidency to take measures to prevent China’s currency maneuvers, which is also difficult to support with adequate argumentation.

Politically short-sighted and short-term plans carry with them the risks of destabilizing the international situation, even creating real chaos. This concern especially concerns the Arab-Israeli conflict: an attempt to create a “new order” in the Middle East through the strengthening of Israel and the forced “export of democracies” to Syria and Iran looks like dangerous and empty dreams, warns Brzezinski.

US geopolitical dominance in the region is coming to an end. At the same time, almost all Middle Eastern countries today look unstable, and without the intervention of external forces, the internal politics of even such giants as Iran and Turkey are rocked by ethnic and religious conflicts. America’s attempt to “establish order” in such an atmosphere will not lead to anything good, the political scientist is convinced. And you don’t have to look far for an example - Iraq has not yet recovered from the invasion of the US Army, the confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites in the country has only intensified without dictatorial suppression of the will of one of the parties. Syria and Iran will definitely not be able to avoid a similar fate. But in the neighborhood there are no less explosive Lebanon and Jordan.

A war in the region would provoke crisis consequences on a global scale. Thus, due to soaring oil prices and an uncertain future for the export of raw materials through the Strait of Hormuz, Europe risks being mired in financial problems for several more years. Moreover, the differentiation of the states of the Old World will continue to deepen, and Britain may finally separate itself from its continental neighbors and become an island ally of the United States in the Atlantic, similar to the role of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.

Russia, according to Brzezinski, has no point in getting closer to America today. Moscow can feel comfortable competing for influence in post-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia with a weak Europe, offering the EU an energy discount as an alternative. Anti-American rhetoric, which has escalated with the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, indicates Russia's readiness to move closer to China. For Beijing, this alliance could also be beneficial, especially against the backdrop of deteriorating relations with Washington, from where, during the presidential campaign, bellicose statements are made against China.

Whoever wins the election will have to make a number of important foreign policy decisions, Brzezinski states.

Firstly, the new head of state needs to convince Russia and China to support a resolution on Syria with the option of international control over the situation in the civil war-torn country in order to prepare for the elections of a new government.

Secondly, sanctions against Iran, subject to further escalation of the conflict, should be strengthened, and guarantees of a military strike against the Islamic Republic in the event of its disobedience to the demands of the international community should be publicly declared, as was the case during the Cold War with the USSR.

Third, the United States is obliged to provide maximum support to a united Europe. Fourth, Washington and Beijing, which will also soon change leadership, must agree on a clearly codified strategic dialogue at the highest level. The giants need to take into account mutual interests in order to avoid any conflicts that could lead to war, the political scientist concludes.

Buffett: big appetites

told CNBC “I’m salivating at the idea,” famed investor Warren Buffett . This is how one of the richest people on the planet commented on the question of whether he was going to spend the $40 billion of cash accumulated in the accounts of his company Berkshire Hathaway on new major acquisitions. According to the “Oracle of Omaha,” two $20 billion deals fell through this year alone due to price differences between the parties.

Buffett emphasized that he is not going to abandon the strategy of not participating in competitive races in order to overpay for the assets of interest. At the same time, an investor rarely sells companies acquired by Berkshire once and always prefers to negotiate a deal directly rather than participate in auctions or competitions. The result of the success of the strategy is obvious - today the capitalization of Berkshire, whose portfolio includes assets from a wide variety of industries, is estimated at $217 billion.

Almost all of the company's 70 businesses generate income. Four of Buffett's five largest assets, which last year generated $9 billion of Berkshire's $15 billion in pre-tax profits, were acquired in the past seven years. The last big deal came in early 2011, when Berkshire absorbed the chemical group Lubrizol for $9.7 billion. After that, due to suspicions of securities fraud, one of his supposed successors, David Sokol, had to leave the Buffett empire.

Today, the S&P 500 index includes 75 companies worth in the range of $15-20 billion. However, Buffett was not aware of any specific interest in any of them. At a Berkshire shareholder meeting in May, the investor promised a $30 billion deal next year.

Facebook: $1 Billion Deal

The pomp with which Facebook recently announced the purchase of the Instagram service for the beautiful and symbolic sum of $1 billion turned out to be an exaggeration, writes The Verge .

After the excitement subsided, we can state: the real cost of the mobile photo application for the social network will be $715 million. Facebook, however, managed to achieve such a discount not through management negotiations, but solely due to the fall in the price of its own shares.

Bloggers noticed that we are no longer talking about a billion dollars, having carefully studied the social network’s second reporting published this week since the May IPO, which delighted investors.

From the quarterly results, it follows that Facebook has already forked out $521 million - Instagram shareholders received $300 million in cash, and the rest in Class B shares of the acquiring company, the voting interest of which is ten times greater than Class A. At the same time, Class B is not allowed for public trading. Facebook will also transfer 11 million Class B securities with a total value of $194 million to Instagram owners.

What they don’t write about in Russia: why Facebook won’t pay $1 billion for Instagram