Tag Archives: Donald Trump

GOP Seeks to Derail Moore, Salvage Senate Seat (WSJ) Army takes control in Zimbabwe (Reuters) Senate Tax Plan Guts Obamacare, Sunsets Many Middle-Class Cuts (BBG) Senate Republicans tie tax plan to repeal of key Obamacare mandate (Reuters) Trump’s Campaign Foreign Policy Team Under Mueller’s Microscope (BBG) Ryan Says Future Congresses Will Preserve Tax Bill’s Temporary Measures (BBG) Shareholders take aim at Murdochs with Fox voting rights push (Reuters) AT&T Engages Its Washington...

Who President Trump ultimately picks as the next Federal Reserve Chairman doesn’t really matter. Unless he goes really far afield to someone totally unexpected, whoever that person will be will be largely more of the same. It won’t be a categorical change, a different philosophical direction that is badly needed. Still, politically, it does matter to some significant degree. It’s just that the political division isn’t...

Xi Jinpings Doppelspiel: Freihandel predigen, aber China abschotten. Foto: Mark Schiefelbein (AP, Keystone) Im Jahr 2015 sah es in vielen Schwellenländern recht düster aus. Der grosse Rohstoffboom kam an sein Ende, China kämpfte mit einem Börsencrash, und Brasiliens Regierung geriet in den Sog eines Korruptionsskandals. Entsprechend sanken die Kapitalzuflüsse. 2015 erreichten sie den tiefsten Wert seit 1990. Die Grafik zeigt den Absturz der Zuflüsse klar auf (Quelle: IWF). Die Stimmung...

Cryptic Pronouncements If a world conflagration, God forbid, should break out during the Trump Administration, its genesis will not be too hard to discover: the thin-skinned, immature, shallow, doofus who currently resides in the Oval Office! The commander-in-chief – a potential source of radiation? - Click to enlarge This past week, the Donald has continued his bellicose talk with both veiled and explicit threats...

World stocks eased back from record highs and fell for the first time in eight days, as jitters about Catalonia’s independence push returned while bets on higher U.S. interest rates sent the dollar to its highest since mid August; S&P 500 futures were modestly in the red – as they have been every day this week before levitating to record highs – ahead of hurricane-distorted nonfarm payrolls data (full preview here)....

It has now been 318 trading days since the S&P 500 suffered a 5% drawdown – the 4th-longest streak since 1928… So everything is awesome… [embedded content] BUT…US ‘hard’ economic data has not been this weak (and seen the biggest drop) since Feb 2009… US Data Surprise Index, 2006 - 2017 - Click to enlarge Q3 Was a Roller-Coaster… Q3 was the 8th straight quarterly gain in a row for The Dow – the longest streak...

Commodities King Gartman Says Gold Soon Reach $1,400 As Drums of War Grow Louder - 'Commodities King' Gartman sees $1,400 gold surge in months- "Gold is the one currency that will do the best of all..."- Pullback below $1300 "is relatively inconsequential"- Use gold price weakness to be a buyer "no question"- Bullish on gold due to central banks and easy monetary policy and gold will be even higher in euro terms- Gold will be the best of all, as a result of QE and expansionary policies-...

Authored by Robert Parry via ConsortiumNews.com, Crossing a line from recklessness into madness, The New York Times published a front-page opus suggesting that Russia was behind social media criticism of Hillary Clinton... For those of us who have taught journalism or worked as editors, a sign that an article is the product of sloppy or dishonest journalism is that a key point will be declared as flat fact when it is unproven or a point in serious dispute – and it then becomes the...

​   Gold set to shine as Washington stumbles “Bet on gold’s diversifying properties rather than political stability” World’s largest asset manager believes Trump and political drama in the U.S. means gold likely to rise Real rates flattening out and rising political instability – Blackrock’s Koesterich “For now my bias would be to stick with gold” – Blackrock U.S. debt ceiling issue to be fractious as bankrupt U.S....

Why are profit margins persistently high? With decent earnings this quarter, corporate profits as a % of GDP will approach (maybe exceed) 10% again. That is abnormally high compared to the period 1960 to 2000. Margins actually started to rise in the mid-80s but really accelerated after 2000 and outside of the 2008 crisis have remained high. Why? What changed in 2000 to elevate corporate profits so much? Is this just...