October 15, 2019
Commerce Secretary delivered a speech to the Federalist Society today as he explained U.S. trade policy under President Trump and the long-term goals and objectives.
Tag Archives: Political Corruption
The People’s POTUS….
October 15, 2019
We interrupt our worries and fret-filled daily programming for a brief respite.
Remember when President Trump had the boys and girls Little League champs at the White House last week?…
~ click the pics to enlarge ~
There’s a whole lot of fun happening there….
Come to think of it, President Trump has a remarkable ability to focus on the big picture amid circumstances that would likely overwhelm most people. His ability to live in the moment and compartmentalize challenges is a very significant strength.
It would be challenging for anyone to face complex global issues and geopolitics, while simultaneously battling domestic political adversaries…. let alone, stop mid-day and give 100% of your attentive self to celebrate with a group of kids and ensure they understood how valuable and important they are…. Yup, President Donald Trump can do that.
Moments later, back to the ‘complicated business‘.
~ Again, click to enlarge ~
Somewhere deep in the locked recesses of Pelosi, Schumer and crew; in a place they would never admit; I’ll bet you a donut they admire and respect a scale of fortitude and focus they have never seen before. Even through the hate and opposition, the gnats must wonder how come they cannot put a visible dent in this President’s focus and resolve…
Something special.
We now return you to the regularly scheduled fake-news crisis du jour.
Day #999 continues…
President Trump Welcomes NHL Champion St. Louis Blues to White House – 3:10pm Livestream
October 15, 2019
Today President Trump celebrates the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions, the St. Louis Blues at the White House. Anticipated start time 3:10pm EDT
UPDATE: Video Added
White House Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream – Global News Livestream
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Beyond Obtuse – ABC’s Heavily Edited and Shaped Interview With Hunter Biden…
October 15, 2019
Amid the scandal of Joe Biden’s son receiving payments from business deals in Ukraine and China related to his family influence, ABC steps in to run defense with an exceptionally obtuse interview with Hunter Biden.
Either the interviewer doesn’t know anything about how Corporate Boards pay members and the structure of business ventures, partnerships, capital fee repayment, board fees etc; or the interviewer intentionally didn’t challenge some of these ridiculous obfuscations by Hunter Biden; perhaps both.
During the Chinese deal Hunter Biden was in a partnership. Hunter Biden paid $420,000 for a ten percent equity position (a “capital call”) in the new venture AFTER the Chinese invested $1.5 billion [a 10% equity purchase would be worth $150 million]. The partnership could then pay the board members “board fees” or “capital investment fees” as the investment matures. The big payout doesn’t come until after the investment matures and Biden -as a partner- then sells his equity position back. That payoff is coming.
So when Hunter Biden says he “hasn’t made a dime” off the China deal, that’s because the investment fund hasn’t matured yet. In essence, he’s fibbing; and counting on people not to know how this stuff works.
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Here’s part two:
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Why is Socialism Dying?
Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics
Re-Posted Oct 15, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Martin,
You repeatedly say that Socialism is dying. I live in a rural area of Oregon. As a personal observation, what I see around here is that more people, and especially the younger, are indeed moving TOWARD Socialism. The influence of the media is so strong that even people we know who advocate gun rights and the Constitution are willing to give up both to see Trump out of office and love the Bernie rhetoric of free everything. So, with the “dying” part, is it referring to more countries moving away from it than are moving toward it? We seem to be heading that direction, and rapidly at that.
JB
ANSWER: Socialism is dying because other people’s money is running out. Yes, we see that socialism is rising in its extreme actions from climate change being usurped to justify the confiscation of wealth and control of the economy. It is also prevalent in the rise of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the USA and the Labour Party in the UK.
This is the final rally of socialism before the crash. It is more akin to the final Phase Transition of a market as it makes its fatal high like the Dot.com Bubble, 1929, or Tokyo 1989.
So do not confuse the rise in the outward demands of socialism. We are running out of other people’s money and the unfunded promises will reach $400 trillion by 2032. There is no possible way to fund that without a crash & burn.
We also see this manifesting in the stark political divide between left and right. The left in Britain is saying the Prime Minister should be jailed if he carries out Brexit without a deal. The people voted for Brexit. They lost. That does not matter.
We are in the collapse of government and the socialistic promises since World War II are all coming due. Economically, this is a battle to the end. The left wants to confiscate all the wealth of the right. This is the end of the purpose of civilization and the beginning of pure tyranny.
I for one have no desire to live in a socialistic world of tyranny. I will most certainly leave and move to Asia rather than live under such tyranny.
Changes are Coming in 2020
Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM
Re-Posted Oct 15, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: I have a question, you wrote :
“Those in Europe who have a position in cash, it may be better to have shares or a private sector bond or US Treasury. Given the policy in Europe of no bailouts, leaving cash sitting in your account could expose you to risk in the months ahead.”
For example, if one has a trading account with a bank, is leaving cash in the bank’s trading account immune to potential seizure indicated in your comment?
Appreciate your clarification,
AP
ANSWER: The risk in Europe is that there is no true rule of law. On the one hand, there is this policy of no bailouts for that would mean money could cross borders. Then there is the rising socialism which is turning into real hatred of the rich.
There is no definitive answer. Europe will do whatever it has to do when the time comes shy of doing the right thing. I have written before when Italy could not meet its debts on short-term paper, they simply decreed that your 90-day paper was now a 10-year paper.
Governments can do whatever they desire. We have no recourse against governments. No private company could act in such a manner. This is one primary reason why I believe governments should be prohibited from borrowing. People are fools for buying their paper and always expecting that this time will be different.
Categories: ECM
President Trump Announces Initial Economic Action Against Turkey – Erdogan Left Naked to His Enemies…
October 14, 2019
President Trump prefers to use targeted economic weapons instead of the U.S. military forces against foreign adversaries. In keeping with this strategy President Trump is announcing a set of economic sanctions and tariffs against Turkey for their decision to cross into Syria and create a crisis amid all regional interests. (Source)
One of the reasons this strategy is better than any military action is simply because Turkey is a unique NATO ally, and the NATO alliance within Europe is insufferably incapable of taking action to defend their interests.
European NATO members want the benefits of a perpetual U.S. military presence. That EU outlook is simply beyond the limits of what President Trump is willing to do. President Trump wants to bring our troops home.
You’ll notice the complete lack of action by the EU that would serve as a deterrent to President Erdogan of Turkey. All of the responsibility for counter-measures is being placed on the shoulder of Americans and the American taxpayer. The EU has not, is not and will not, lift a finger to impede the hostile activity by Turkey in Northern Syria.
Ultimately President Trump is highlighting the reason why the U.S. should withdraw from NATO by spotlighting the insufferable weakness of the assembly. NATO won’t even vote to defend their own interests, so why should the U.S. be their crutch?
With Europe refusing to stand-up to defend their own interests, President Trump is removing U.S. forces from the untenable position of guarding all the big cat cages, ad infinitum, to keep the zoo status intact.
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Instead, President Trump is going to support the Arab coalition and the GCC that has been assembling a military coalition to protect itself from the Muslim Brotherhood.
That is why President Trump is willing to support Saudi Arabia with more troops, while withdrawing from Syria where the U.S. was having to stand alone to protect the interests of Europeans who will not protect themselves.
In one regional area the U.S. will support and defend Israel, Egypt and Jordan. In the Southern region the U.S. will support the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain and Qatar).
Will political Islam likely have a resurgence in the region, and will Recep Erdogan rise as the head of the Ottoman Empire once again? The former is likely, the latter is unknown.
President Trump is correctly withdrawing U.S. troops from a position of adversarialism against a NATO member. Why should the U.S. protect the interests of allies who will not stand-up to protect themselves…
President Trump is correct.
President Trump will use economic weapons against Turkey…. And, in keeping with the doctrine, Europe better watch out. President Trump will likely use economic weapons against the EU for creating this mess and refusing to defend themselves.
President Trump will use military weapons to protect allies that are: (A) willing to protect themselves, and (B) willing to pay for the support of the U.S. military protection.
It is really a common sense doctrine… Help those who help themselves.
These two tweets below really are the nub of it; and stunningly transparent. President Trump is letting it be well known that Turkey is on their own with this decision. Any entity who wants to assist Syria in defending the Kurds, and or repelling Turkey, is free to do so.
President Trump is leaving President Erdogan naked to his enemies.
There are many consequences possible.
- The EU votes to kick Turkey out of NATO.
- The U.S. leaves NATO because the EU has shown a lack of resolve.
- Turkey gets hammered by Syria, Russia, Kurds, and/or any faction that opposes President Recep Erdogan.
- The U.S-Arab alliance will not be unhappy to see Turkey under fire due to Erdogan’s alliance with extreme political Islam, The Muslim Brotherhood.
This is one of those weird “be careful what you wish for” scenarios for President Erdogan, because in his lust to recreate the Ottoman Empire he just might get removed.
Ken Starr | Should We Impeach Donald Trump? | Oxford Union
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Forex Trading into 2021
Armstrong Economics Blog/Foreign Exchange
Re-Posted Oct 14, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Hi Martin,
I have been following you for about 5 years now and have been to 2 WECs. At the beginning of last year, I ventured into the forex markets with limited experience and some speculative money. I’ve have been adding money to my forex accounts over this time and thanks to you and Socrates I have just about doubled my money over this time frame. Now my forex accounts have become more than speculative money for me. I have been really looking forward to riding this dollar rally wave into the monetary crisis cycle into 2021/22 but some for your recent posts regarding the liquidity and European banking crisis brewing has given me pause. I have been planning on taking money out of my forex accounts gradually to at least withdraw all my seed money but naturally, my concern is the safety of the forex markets or brokers in regards to the crises ahead. Do forex brokers have any particular risk in the liquidity and European banking crises?
Thank you for all you do!
JXG
ANSWER: That is hard to answer. It all depends on the broker and where are they — Europe or America. I suspect you are talking about America. It depends upon the firm.
We are in a position where there is a crisis on the horizon and we will see a hard landing outside the USA. The impact of a European banking crisis can send the dollar significantly higher. The risks for accounts will be in Europe, for there are no bailout policies and others will claim that these policies would only bailout out the rich. So politically, Europe would present the far greater risk into 2021.
Central Banks Trapped by Their Theories
Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks
Re-Posted Oct 14, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Hi Martin,
I can understand how JP and EU backed themselves into a corner with negative rates. Happy to give them the benefit of the doubt when this all started 3-4 years ago even though it was obvious this was not going to end well.
However, what I don’t understand is the thought process that reserve banks today need to perpetuate eternal growth when I would think their role should be to smooth out extremes (debatable this is even possible).
RBA is a case in point as while the Australian economy is slowing, it is nowhere near terrible. There is talk that they will now also look to lower rates to near zero and start QE. I get that all reserve banks are looking to maintain lower exchange rates and so they need to keep pace with the rest of the world but one would think they would learn better from mistakes of EU and JP.
My question is, is this a global conspiracy or just plain stupidity?
Thanks for all ….
David
ANSWER: The original theory was to smooth out the business cycle. The political governments turned to the central banks and argued that they were responsible for the money supply. Therefore, it was allegedly their duty to control inflation irrespective of the spending of politicians. This was an inconvenient economic truth.
The problem is that the ONLY theory they have is the Keynesian Model. They really have no other theory to rely on. So they keep lowering rates, hoping to stimulate demand, and are oblivious to the economic reality that the political side is hunting taxes and becoming more aggressive in tax enforcement. The two sides are clashing and the central banks are now TRAPPED with no alternative. They are afraid to raise interest rates for they assume the economy may plunge. Yet, they are also looking at the national debts that governments never pay off. Raise the rates and the government budgets explode and that comes back as a political disaster.
A lot of people have asked me if I would step in and restructure this mess. To even do that you have to have the crisis first. There is no way they will allow anyone to come in and avoid this crisis. They will pray at the foot of their bed before each night that their theory will somehow work. That is not going to happen or prevent anything. We must experience the pain before they would EVER consider any reform.
This is sublime ignorance rather than a conspiracy. It brings the mind those famous last words: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!
Centinel2012 