Over the course of the last two and half years, the Chinese government has shown signs of increasing nervousness and wariness of the growth of Christianity.

In its latest grasp for control, the Communist government has taken Christian churches in Zhejiang province to task, by removing the crosses that adorn some 1,700 churches. Citing breach of building codes, the government sent in police SWAT teams to remove the crucifixes from spires.  Zhejiang is an important province of 55 million, adjacent to Shanghai, China’s and the world’s most populous city of 25 million.

Early last month, Xi Jinping made a speech on religious policy stating, “We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means and prevent ideological infringement by extremists.”

This stance is in line with the CCP’s long-held objective of controlling belief systems. A Pew Research Center report estimates that there are close to 68 million Christians in China — an astonishing number considering the growth of Christianity has largely been by way of faith conversion – while the BBC estimates there are as many as 100 million.

And it’s worth noting that Christianity is hardly a recent “overseas infiltration.” Chinese have been adopting the Christian faith since 635 AD during the Tang Dynasty.

Nobody rings a bell at the top of the credit supercycle, to misuse an old adage. Except that this time somebody very powerful in China has done exactly that. 

China watchers are still struggling to identify the author of an electrifying article in the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily, that declares war on debt and the "fantasy" of perpetual stimulus. 

Written in a imperial tone, it commands China to break its addiction to credit and take its punishment before matters spiral out of control. If that means bankruptcies must run their course, so be it. 

China's debt is approaching $30 trillion, 440% of China’s GDP of $6.8 trillion.  Popping a debt bubble that gigantic could be catastrophic for the entire world’s global - and over-globalized - financial system. 

This summer brings the 50th anniversary of the full deciphering of the genetic code — the four-billion-year-old cipher by which DNA’s information is translated and expressed.   The genetic code was the greatest of all the 20th-century’s scientific discoveries.

Fifty years on, the discovery of the genetic code has produced a cornucopia of good and very little harm. It has convicted the guilty and exonerated the innocent in court on a huge scale through DNA fingerprinting. It has enabled people to avoid passing on terrible diseases.

It has led to the development of new drugs, new therapies and new diagnoses. It has given partial sight back to a blind man through gene therapy. It has increased the yield of crops while reducing the use of chemical pesticides.

Yet still we are bombarded with scares about Frankenstein foods, biological warfare, designer babies, genetic discrimination and the return of eugenics. We have a virtual ban on GM crops and put huge obstacles in the way of GM vaccines.

The exhaustive and cautious new report from the American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine leaves no room for doubt that genetically engineered crops are as safe or safer, and are certainly better for the environment, than conventionally bred crops.

Global fund managers have almost no faith in the latest stock market rallies around the world and have begun to fear the worst from Brexit, putting aside near record sums of money in cash as they brace for a ‘summer of shocks.’

Investors have already lost confidence in China’s economic rebound this year and are shunning British equities like the plague, fearing a financial crunch if Britain votes to leave the EU.

Bank of America’s monthly survey of funds shows that 27% now think Brexit is the biggest ‘tail-risk’ for the global economy, overtaking neuralgic concerns about a devaluation by China or a wave of defaults by Chinese companies.

Longstanding fears that central banks are running out of policy ammunition or risk ‘quantitative failure’ have slipped to third place. The new worry is ‘stagflation’ in the US, a toxic mix of slowing growth and rising inflation at the same time.

What is puzzling is that this mood of deep alarm conflicts with clear evidence of accelerating monetary growth worldwide, usually a harbinger of better times ahead.

We all got it wrong.

Everybody who wrote Donald Trump off as a political charlatan destined to flame out; everybody who called Trump a clown who would return to his reality show and leave us all alone; everybody who suggested that this circus couldn't -- couldn't! -- continue...we were all wrong.

Now it's time to take away a few lessons.  Here are five.

First, failure to utilize ideological purity tests leads to the rise of leftist candidates within your own party.

Second, ignoring social issues means that the only way to appeal to disgruntled blue-collar voters is by moving left on economics.

Third, moral narrative is far more important than policy knowledge.

Fourth, when you believe there are no good guys, character doesn't matter.

Fifth, lack of institutional trust leads to the rise of protofascists, not to a general allegiance to liberty.

Let’s discuss each.