The ASEAN-Plus meeting of defense ministers fell apart on Wednesday, as Malaysia, chairing the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, and most of the ASEAN nations, stood up against Obama’s war-mongering thug tactics (through his Secretary of Defense Ash Carter), refusing to bend to Carter’s demand that the final communique include US-approved wording on the South China Sea.

The Information Office of China’s Ministry of National Defense said that “China had reached a consensus with Malaysia and other ASEAN countries on the content” of the proposed Joint Communique, drafted by host country Malaysia — meaning they had found a way to address the South China Sea that was acceptable to the Philippines and Vietnam (since all ASEAN decisions are done by consensus), or that the issue would be left out altogether. However, Carter rejected the draft, and demanded (with Japanese and Australian support, press reports indicate) that Malaysia present a new draft condemning China for its activities in the South China Sea. Malaysia and at least most of ASEAN refused — far more interested in the real problem of ISIS and terrorism and cooperation with China on both defense and economic development. As a result, there was no final communique issued at all.

The Chinese Defense Ministry said that “some individual countries outside the region ignored the existing consensus and attempted to forcefully add into the declaration contents not discussed during the meeting. Such behavior totally deviated the purposes and principles of the ADMM-Plus (ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus) and damaged the central and dominating role of ASEAN in the mechanism.”

Of course, the US blamed China for the meeting’s collapse. They claimed that it was China’s reclamation activities that are responsible for the disputes and that it was China had used it’s economic clout to armtwist the ASEAN nations.

The fact that it was Malaysia which led the fight against the US war policy is very significant. Malayisa also has claims in the South China Sea, and has expressed its concern about China’s claim to the entire area. Also, Prime Minister Najib is in deep trouble over a huge corruption charge over a state investment fund which is missing billions of dollars, and it was believed by many that Najib would do Obama’s bidding to sustain US support in the crisis.

But he did not. We can expect some nasty operations against Malaysia as a result of their courage in defending peace and development.

Ash Carter also took the opportunity of meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan at the forum in Kuala Lumpur to bluster, according to Carter’s aide, that “the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” and that “the South China Sea would not be an exception.” This again demonstrates that Obama is simply lying, again, in saying the US takes no position on the issue of sovereignty over the South China Sea, since the US destroyer’s breach of the 12-mile limit around the Chinese islands on Oct. 27 clearly shows they have taken a position against China, and are threatening war.

A wide range of factors have contributed to results shown in the recent Harvard study, showing a significant increase in middle-age deaths in America. In effect, since President Bill Clinton left office, the American people have gone through 15 years of Hell, parallel to the Hell that Russia suffered during the 1990s’ “lost decade” under Boris Yeltsin. In demographic terms, the process in the US over the past 15 years has mirrored the destruction of Russia. Since 2001, health care costs have risen by 20-30 percent a year, even under Obamacare, and many Americans simply do not have full access to the healthcare system.

From 2001 on, the US has been engaged in permanent warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Syria. The stress on families of soldiers who have served multiple tours in combat has been tremendous, with much of the impact hard to quantify, such as the effect on young children of being raised by one parent, with the constant financial pressures and concerns about combat injuries and deaths. The number of returning combat veterans with PTSD adds to the crisis.

Poverty has become a growing factor, with the poverty rate among young males in Washington, DC, growing by 5-12 percent per year. In New York City, 60 percent of the population is living at or below the poverty level, when real inflation of housing and other costs is taken into account.

Under the Fed’s zero interest rate policy, retirees and families attempting to save for retirement have been looted, through a loss of interest earnings. Alternatively they have been drawn into the stock market and other speculative investments, where they are vulnerable to outright theft by the vultures.

The Harvard study cited increasing middle-age deaths from drug and alcohol abuse, and this is truly reaching epidemic proportions. In July, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a study showing that heroin addiction in the United States has skyrocketed from 2011-2014, with the largest increases among women and non-Hispanic whites. Among families with an income of $50,000 or more, the rate of increase over that period was 60 percent. In Baltimore, which is known as the “Heroin Capital of the United States,” one in ten residents abuses heroin. The rise in middle-class heroin addiction was linked by the CDC study to the expanding use of prescription pain killers like OxyCondin. Increasingly, people addicted to pain killers are turning to heroin, which is one-fourth the price of the prescription drugs, and is now readily available in communities all over the country. The CDC study found that people using prescription pain killers are 40 times more likely to abuse heroin. Heroin addiction has gone up by 150 percent in the United States since 2007, aided by a massive influx of cheap and potent South American heroin, supplementing the Mexican and Asian heroin flows.

The same day that the New York Times reported on the Harvard study on middle-age death rates soaring, the Times also reported on an alarming rise in suicides, noting, from a May 2015 study published in JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Assoc.] Pediatrics that suicide rates in rural areas have gone up by 20 percent from 2004-2013 and by 7 percent in urban areas.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has done a study of some effects of seven years of global QE — including 660 consecutive interest-rate cuts by the trans-Atlantic and Japanese central banks — and found that the entire policy helped Wall Street, while damaging the real economy. The surprising thing is that the bank put the findings out, in a report by its chief investment strategist.

Michael Hartnett says “the results represent a clear victory for Wall Street over Main Street. Zero rates and asset purchases of central banks have proved much more favorable to Wall Street, capitalists, shadow banks … than for workers, savers, banks and the jobs market.”

Some of the report’s findings about investment:

* For every job created in the U.S. this decade (since 2010), companies spent $296,000 buying back their stocks.

* “An investment of $100 in a portfolio of stocks and bonds since the Federal Reserve began quantitative easing would now be worth $205. Over the same seven years, a wage of $100 has risen to just $114,” or 1.5%/year.

* For every $100 of U.S. venture capital and private equity funds raised at the start of 2010, they are now raising $275; but for every $100 of U.S. mortgage credit extended five years ago, just $61 was extended this year.”

* “Commercial real estate [values] gained 168% compared to a 16% increase of all U.S. residential property.”