Currency War – The Misguided Understanding of the FOREX Markets


 

While the IMF chief Christine Lagarde has come out expressing her fear that not only a trade but also a currency war may emerge that could dampen the growth of the global economy, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed.  The problem with misunderstanding currency and its role in the floating exchange rate system can easily engulf even bystanders in this clash of the titans – US v China.

 

The background behind the smoldering trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, the US and China, demonstrates that there are serious misconceptions of the role of currency. President Donald Trump has fanned these flames for he too fails to understand the FOREX markets. Trump accuses China of unfair trading practices and theft of intellectual property. The People’s Republic is also accused of devaluing its currency against the dollar, which tends to widen the already high US trade deficit.

 

The dollar has been rallying against the yuan since the March low here in 2018. Clearly, the dollar is going to rise further for a trade war will hurt China more so than the USA. While we see critical turning points in January and March in 2019 followed by May, we must keep in mind that this pattern of a dollar rally is impacting the entire world. Trump FAILS to understand Capital Flows and his accusations against China is manipulating its currency to beat the USA in trade is NOT justified. Our models are showing the capital flight from China but also from Europe overall which contributed to the US share market rally into October basis the Dow Jones Industrials, which foreign capital buys looking always for the trophies.

We have tremendous Panic Cycles throughout 2019 and we see even the yuan is lining up with the targets concerning BREXIT. This is by no means a Chinese manipulation. What we see ahead in 2019 is anything but a nice steady market projection.

MAGAnomics – Walgreens Announces $150 Million Payroll Wage Increase in FY 2019….


For more than three decades all U.S. economic policy was elevating Wall Street and diminishing Main Street. As a result the middle America blue-collar workers have not had wage gains keeping up with inflation for over 30 years… Then came the era of Trump.

MAGAnomic policy is based around a very simple free-market process.  Increase domestic economic investment; expand new business and expansion in existing business; that expands the need for employment; drive those jobs, jobs, jobs and watch wages rise naturally as employers compete over an increasingly valuable labor pool.

Business Insider – The pharmacy-chain owner Walgreens Boots Alliance announced Thursday that it will make investments of about $150 million to boost mainly its in-store wages in fiscal 2019 in wake of President Donald Trump’s tax reforms.

[…] US retailers are scrambling to keep workers as they look for opportunities with higher pay and attractive benefits. The US unemployment rate fell to a 48-year low of 3.7% in September. According to the Bureau of Labour statistics, there were 757,000 retail-job openings across the United States in July, which is about 100,000 more than a year ago.

The surge in the number of retail jobs has allowed workers the opportunity to move around within the industry. As a result, companies are raising wages to try and retain workers. Earlier this month, Amazon hiked its minimum wage to $15 per hour, effective November 1. That followed wage hikes from places like Target and Costco.

On Thursday, the company said sales jumped 10.9% year-over-year to $33.4 billion, just missing the Wall Street estimate of $33.77 billion. It earned $1.48 a share, or $1.4 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.45.  (read more)

More than two years ago CTH began discussing the ramifications to a new emphasis on the economy outlined as a possibility of candidate Donald Trump’s economic policy outlook. Within the overall discussion we walked through the anticipated changes possible if A.) Trump won the election, and B.) Trump began instituting Main Street economic policy ahead of Wall Street policy (the past 30+ years).

We discussed the new dimension that would occur between two economic engines (Main Street -vs- Wall Street) as three decades of policy shifted. CTH outlined statistical and measurable KPIs that would become visible in the space between the policy shifts.

Part of those discussions focused on energy costs, product costs (we explained how inflation would be weird), and importantly, wage rates. It takes several months of policy emphasis (actual outcomes), before the labor market wage rates would grow. We anticipated seeing that impact in Q2 of 2018, which is April-June 2018.  Well:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released their second quarter analysis of wage and benefit rates for American workers. –SEE HERE–  This is only the beginning of what is to come:

(pdf link)

Overall wage rate growth in Q2 now at 2.8% year-over-year.  That is great news. However, the better news is the red emphasis, White and Blue Collar middle-class wage rate growth is well over 3%.  The wage growth is broad-based amid almost all sectors.  [Trucking and transportation at 3.4% (Table 8)]

As the wage rate increases, and as the economy expands, the governmental dependency model is reshaped and simultaneously receipts to the U.S. treasury improve.

More money into the U.S Treasury and less dependence on welfare/social service programs have a combined exponential impact. You gain a dollar, and have no need to spend a dollar – the saved sum is doubled. That is how the SSI and safety net programs are saved under President Trump.

When you elevate your economic thinking you begin to see that all of the “entitlements” or expenditures become more affordable with an economy that is fully functional.

As the GDP of the U.S. expands, so does our ability to meet the growing need of the retiring U.S. worker. We stop thinking about how to best divide a limited economic pie, and begin thinking about how many more economic pies we can create.

The economic models of the entire last generation+ are based on the assumptions of continuing globalist economics which advances, and has advanced, the interest of Wall Street over Main Street.  They were driving a “service-driven economy” message.

The investing class economy, ie. another name for a ‘service-driven economy’, has been the only source of historic reference for approximately three decades. These talking heads convinced themselves that a “service driven economy” was the ONLY economy ever possible for the U.S. in the future.

Back in January 2017 Deutsche Bank began thinking about it, applying new models, trying to conceptualize and quantify MAGAnomics, and trying to walk out the potential ramifications.  They began talking about Trump doubling the U.S. GDP growth rate when all U.S. investment groups couldn’t yet fathom the possibility.

It’s like waking up on Christmas morning every day to see the pontificating Fed struggling to quantify analysis of their surrounding reality based on flawed assumptions. They simply have no understanding of what happens within the new dimension.

Monetary policy, Fed control over the economy, is disconnected and will stay that way for approximately another 12-14 months, until Main Street regains full operational strength –and– economic parity is achieved.

As we have continued to share, CTH believes the paycheck-to-paycheck working middle-class are going to see a considerable rise in wages and standard of living.  How high can wages rise?… that depends on the pressure; and right now the pressure is massive.  I’m not going to dismiss the possibility we could see double digit increases in year-over-year wage growth in multiple economic sectors in several regions of the U.S.

Remember, as wages and benefits increase – millions of people are coming back into the labor market to take advantage of the income opportunities.  The statistics on the invisible workforce varies, but there are millions of people taking on new jobs in this economy and the participation rate is growing.

Winnamins.  We’ll need lots of them…

Forget minimum wage laws, they are inconsequential conversations when measured against the reality of how quickly wages rise in a free, fair, unregulated and growing economy.

Seriously, with full measure of optimism and appreciation – and tears of thankfulness that we are alive to experience it – these are exceptional times.

“To winfinity and beyond” !!

President Trump MAGA Rally, Richmond Kentucky – 7:00pm EST Livestream…


President Donald Trump heads to Richmond, Kentucky today for a packed house mid-term MAGA rally at the Alumni Coliseum.  The anticipated start time for President Trump is 7:00pm EST with multiple pre-rally speakers ongoing.

UPDATE: Video Added

RSBN Livestream LinkFox News Livestream LinkAlternate Livestream Link

President Trump Impromptu Presser Departing White House for Kentucky…


President Trump walks up to the White House press pool and gives over a twelve minute impromptu press conference prior to departing for a MAGA rally in Kentucky.

The level of unfiltered access President Trump provides the media is quite remarkable. Multiple topics are covered:

President Trump Meets With Pastor Andrew Brunson at the White House….


President Trump meets with Pastor Andrew Brunson after he is released from prison in Turkey.

ABC Interview: “Being Melania”…


ABC News executives used a video documentary and interview with First Lady Melania Trump as the baseline to construct their latest pre-election hit job against President Trump and policies antithetical to the ABC Corporate agenda.  The results were predictable.

ABC used the opportunity to create an extensive and heavily spun political narrative against the administration while inserting inconsequential edited snippets of an interview with the Fist Lady.

Part-1

Part-2

Part-3

President Trump Impromptu Media Remarks in Ohio….


President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson from prison in Turkey.  In addition President Trump remarks on the missing journalist rumored to have been kidnapped, perhaps killed, by Saudi dictate.

Richard Grenell

When I presented him with the US flag, he immediately kissed it.

President Trump MAGA Rally, Lebanon Ohio – 7:00pm EST Livestream…


Tonight President Trump heads to Lebanon, Ohio, for another mid-term MAGA rally.  holds a ‘Make America Great Again’ rally in Lebanon, Ohio.  The venue is the Warren County Fairgrounds and the anticipated start time for President Trump is 7:00pm EST.

UPDATE: Video Added

RSBN Livestream LinkFox News Livestream LinkAlternate Livestream Link

National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow Discusses MAGAnomics….


Very funny: “President Trump’s policies have re-jiggered the incentive system in the economy.”  …Well, that’s a slightly different wording than CTH has used since 2016, but what Mr. Kudlow is highlighting is how POTUS has uncoupled the U.S. economic engine from Wall Street investment and re-coupled it to Main Street investment. [Go Deep]

Then comes the funniest pundit question ever…. “where is this disconnect coming from?”

Too funny.  Long-term CTH readers likely joining me in laughing at the predictability of it all.   [“Disconnect” January 2016]  or [“Disconnect” July 2017]

.

The Fundamentals of MAGAnomics HERE

Understanding the “Disconnect” HERE

Three years ago CTH was talking about this:  [The Fundamentals HERE] and [The New Dimension HERE]

2016 […]  Understanding the distance between the real Main Street economic engine and the false Wall Street economic engine will help all of us to understand the scope of an upcoming economic lag; which, rather remarkably I would add, is a very interesting dynamic.

Think about these engines doing a turn about and beginning a rapid reverse.  GDP can, and in my opinion, will, expand quickly.  However, any interest rate hikes (monetary  policy) intended to cool down that expansion -fearful of inflation- will take a long time to traverse the divide.

Additionally, inflation on durable goods will be insignificant – even as international trade agreements are renegotiated.  Why?  Simply because the originating nations of those products are going to go through the same type of economic detachment described above.

Those global manufacturing economies will first respond to any increases in export costs (tariffs etc.), by driving their own productivity higher as an initial offset, in the same manner American workers went through in the past two decades.  The manufacturing enterprise and the financial sector remain focused on the pricing.

♦ Inflation on imported durable goods sold in America, while necessary, will ultimately be minimal during this initial period; and expand more significantly as time progresses and off-shored manufacturing finds less and less ways to be productive.   Over time, durable good prices will increase – but it will come much later.

♦ Inflation on domestic consumable goods ‘may‘ indeed rise at a faster pace. However, it can be expected that U.S. wage rates will respond faster, naturally faster, than any monetary policy because inflation on fast-turn consumable goods become re-coupled to the ability of wage rates to afford them.

The fiscal policy impact lag, caused by the distance between federal monetary action and the domestic Main Street economy, will now work in our favor.  That is, in favor of the middle-class.

Within the aforementioned distance between “X” and “Y”, a result of three decades traveled by two divergent economic engines, is our new economic dimension…

IMF Warns Their Forecast Was Wrong


COMMENT: It really does appear that the IMF is following you and repeating your forecasts. They first said the world economy was booming at the start of the year for the next several years. Now they have revised that forecast and saying we are at risk of a decline. Any comment?

HK

ANSWER: Yes, at the start of this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was very bullish. The world economy’s “broad-based momentum” was their call which produced an upgrade to its forecasts for global growth over the next few years. Now, they have admitted that they were “over-optimistic” and they have cut its projections down to where they were last year. They are warning that “the likelihood of further negative shocks to our growth forecast has risen.” What they have completely failed to take into consideration is the economic meltdown in Emerging Markets coupled with the failure of Europe as a whole under the EU