Category: Global Economy

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Jibber-Jabber

Maybe 10% of media content is actual news. Most of what is happening in the country is not reported at all. If it’s not about Trump. International events maybe 1%. The rest? Jibber-Jabber. Editorializing. Speculating. Opining. Panel-speak. So weak.

Speaking of empty chatter. Zuckerberg is before Financial Services Committee addressing Facebook’s Libra Coin and other related technology issues. None of the members seem to know the topic. Yet. They talk anyway. It’s kinda like regulators policing banks. No clue.

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Eclipped

Solar Eclipse 2017. Truncated at 70% in NYC. It was basically a sunny turned gray day non-event. But lots of people were wearing weird glasses in Central Park.

Movie filmed on our block on election day last November. Just released. Not doing so good. The Only Living Boy in New York. Callum Turner. Cynthia Nixon. Probably left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, we are saved! Mike Bloomberg is assuming the helm. Snatching the tiller from Hillary & Co.

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Trump Under Wood

Is it just me or has Trump suddenly taken a liking to hiking in the woods at Camp David. Now talking about an Arab confab there to thwart terrorism. This the guy who prefers gold faucets and Toto toilets. 18 holes of pristine greens rather than a ratty old tee on a pine cone path. So. Why? Maybe because he watches House of Cards. Of course he does. President Frank Underwood endured a Bohemian Grove-esque weekend ‘men’s trip’ to unearth secrets and lies from the deep forest state around a camp fire to get a leg up.

Hmmm. Wonder when Don will buy a flannel shirt to match his squirrely hair.

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Global Pragmatism

Trump Doctrine? Global Pragmatism. Make deals. With Russia to help combat terrorism in return for a softer ouster of the House of Assad. Also allowing Putin to push boundaries in his own backyard. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson leverages Exxon-Mobil relationships to get key players around the table. Was strident Syria stand-off a ploy to divert attention from potential election collusion? To pave the way for a nouveau détente. Probably. And with China. Financial and trade deals in exchange for help with Syria and North Korea.

Of course. Trump could derail his own doctrine in a minute. In reaction to a perceived slight. With an errant press conference remark. Or a tweet.

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Worldwide JAM

No. Not Trump Tower & Times Square traffic at Christmastime. Nor gridlock in government. It’s the new global economic reality. Coined in the U.K.  JAM = Just About Managing. Families who are living paycheck to paycheck. Just getting by. At best. Brexit voters and Theresa May. France’s LePen backers. Italian anti-Renzi renegades. Trumpsters in the U.S.A.

It’s the economy all the way. Class stratification across ethnic, political and ideological labels. There were lots of non-white faces at that Carrier plant in Indiana. Get it elite donor class? Leave your safe spaces. Understand the working-class voters. It’s a new day.

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YERP-ean Vacation

American tourists’ stock proclamation. “We’re going to YERP this summer.” If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium. Guided bus tours and Viking river cruises. Groups going from one YERP-ean country to the next. Sweden? No. Switzerland? Where are we today? As in Bermuda shorts high-socks wearing wanderers. Then in 1992 it became an economic experiment. The EU. The Euro. Central Bank Chairs thought it could succeed. YERP. Despite centuries of ingrained cultures and histories. Former enemies financial friends. Nope. Never thought it would work.

Globalization is not in style, Hillary. Mark Cuban. Warren Buffett. Notwithstanding.

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NEXIT

BREXIT. NEXIT. Brits are preparing to vote on secession from the EU on June 23rd. Could the Netherlands be next? A whole domino effect may ensue. As migrants return over the summer, countries will hunker down into their respective cultures. Fear will return “Yerp” toward its original borders. Meanwhile, a petulant adolescent who may become President is stoking nationalism back in the U.S.A. Take stock of your 401k!

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Quantitative Resistance

Quantitative easing no longer works. Central Banks and The Fed have run out of pills for an arcane anemic global economy. Interest rates are at 0%. Sub-zero is not a fix to stimulate. Neither Cialis nor Viagra. It’s back to basics. Bump and grind. But, how and what? Robots replacing assembly lines. Retail on life support. Replacement therapy necessary.

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Disturbance in the Force

Shifting allegiances in the sands of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, our supposed ally, practices the most extreme version of Islam with violence against infidels and women. Iran’s antithetical Islamic theocracy reigns in a land of Persians. The two powerful nations have now come to loggerheads to fight for dominance in the region polarizing others along Sunni and Shiite lines. In between ISIS flourishes and refugees flee from its rise. Oil price volatility the new norm.

Meanwhile, North Korea is bomb rattling as China looks the other way, distracted by its own geopolitical paranoia. Bottom line? Stash that cash for 2016. Markets going to have a bumpy ride.

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Axis Tilt

As an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, Halloween looms large. That’s not the scariest prospect. Migrants and tax reclamation battles rattle the EU’s existence. As Germany’s solid state is shattered by its decision to accept so many streaming in from Syria, Netherlands and Luxembourg are being told to collect revenues from large corporations Starbucks and Fiat. A Euro tipping point?

Meanwhile, Canada joins the nationalistic global trend as it elects the populist son of Pierre Trudeau. What does this bode for the U.S. election? Domestic quake of our own. Trump v. Sanders? Could be. Who knows?