The US’ spending problem is starting to become a major issue. According to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement, in June, the US collected $225BN in tax receipts – consisting of $110BN in individual income tax, $91BN in social security and payroll tax, $4BN in corporate tax and $20BN in other taxes and duties- a drop […]
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NAFTA Update: President Trump Notes Progress With Mexico on Bilateral Trade – Preparing Different BiLat Terms for Canada…
Earlier today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer messaged a warm birthday greeting to Mexican Foreign Secretary Louis Videgaray during ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican trade teams. Canada is FUBAR. No-one quite knows how FUBAR Canada is, because no-one has followed the brilliant Wolverine crew closely enough to spot the strategy. At the strategic […]
Lord Rothschild: The New World Order Is at Risk…
Over the past three years, an unexpected voice of caution has emerged from one of the most legendary families in finance: Lord Jacob Rothschild. Readers may recall that as part of the RIT Capital Partners 2014 annual report commentary, the scion of Rothschild family warned that “the geopolitical situation is most dangerous since WWII.” One […]
EU Spent a Trillion Dollars of “Cohesion Money” Seeking Unity: Where’s Is It?…
The European Union has spent nearly one trillion dollars to unify the continent by delivering highways and trains into places where there were once gravel paths. In current dollars, that is over eight times the size of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II. The EU has built airports and bridges, trams […]
Trump Pulls Trigger: U.S.T.R Announces 25% Tariff on $16 Billion Chinese Imports (Full List)…
Today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the second tranche of tariffs on Chinese imports (full list pdf below). The 25% tariff mostly includes chemical compounds and material parts used in the manufacture of finished goods. “Washington, DC – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released a list of approximately $16 […]
Wells Fargo Says Hundreds of Customers Lost Homes After Computer Glitch…
Hundreds of people had their homes foreclosed on after software used by Wells Fargo incorrectly denied them mortgage modifications. The embattled bank revealed the issue in a regulatory filing this week and said it has set aside $8 million to compensate customers affected by the glitch. The same filing also disclosed that Wells Fargo (WFC) […]
China’s Oil Futures Contract Is Beginning to Show Its Teeth…
Petrodollar will be showing signs of wear-and-tear in the very near future. We have been documenting the demise of the dollar hegemony for the past several years and the past two years the pace of the demise seems to be moving like a rocket. All the little details since the global financial meltdown in 2008 […]
U.S. Regains Top Spot as WORLD’S Most Competitive Economy…
The United States “dethroned” Hong Kong this week to take the top spot as the World’s most competitive economy; further signaling a robust US recovery under President Trump and the recently passed GOP tax cuts. “The U.S. dethroned Hong Kong to retake first place among the world’s most competitive economies, thanks to faster economic growth […]
Understanding Phase II of the U.S. -vs- China Trade Confrontation….
President Trump has moved into Phase II of the U.S./China confrontation. Part of that confrontation is to use the inherent weakness of the Chinese economy against them. To understand the weakness is to understand the China ‘One-Belt / ‘One-World‘ economic trade strategy. Here’s an outline of the economic battle-space we are witnessing. People often talk […]
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MAGAnomics: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs July Report – Private Employment +170,000, Government Employment -13,000, Net: +157,000…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the July 2018 employment report today (full pdf with tables below) highlighting continued growth in jobs. Overall private employment gained 170,000 jobs, while government employment decreased 13,000 jobs for a net gain of 156,000 new jobs. The BLS unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%. [*Note this footnote: “The change […]
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Wells Fargo to Pay $2.09 Billion Penalty for Mortgage Loan Abuses…
The Justice Department announced that embattled Wells Fargo, which has seen its name feature in virtually every prominent banking scandal in the past year, will pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) based on the bank’s alleged origination and sale of residential mortgage […]
Senate Defuses Trump’s Shutdown Threat by Passing Partial Spending Bills Ahead of Deadline…
Congress is taking big strides to defuse President Trump’s shutdown threat, working to pass as many spending bills as possible before next month’s deadline so most of the government will remain open no matter what Mr. Trump demands on border security. On Wednesday, the Senate cleared a $154 billion package that funds the Food and […]
U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Hits Record…
Crude oil and natural gas production hit a new record in June with the highest production ever in the U.S. Production of crude topped 10.7 million barrels per day with production of natural gas hitting 4 million barrels per day, according to an analysis released by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Highlights from the June […]
Who Needs the IMF: China Gives Pakistan $2 Billion Emergency Loan…
Following a July 12 report from the Financial Times that senior Pakistani finance officials were drawing up options for Pakistan’s new prime minister Imran Khan to seek an IMF bailout of up to $12 billion, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned against providing an International Monetary Fund bailout for Pakistan’s new government that includes […]
ADP Private Payrolls: 219,000 Jobs Gained, 23,000 More Manufacturing Jobs…
The ADP national employment report is a monthly measure of the change in total U.S. nonfarm private employment derived from actual, anonymous payroll data of companies served by ADP. The report measures approximately 24 million U.S. workers along with employment trends in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. For July 2018, ADP has calculated payroll increases of […]
Trump Green Lights Sale of Revamped Short-Term Health Care Plans…
The Trump administration issued a final ruling on Wednesday allowing insurers to sell short-term, limited-duration health plans on the insurance markets as soon as this year. President Trump, who has promised to lower the cost of health care, said the new offerings will increase competition and offer more flexible options for Americans who don’t want […]
NAFTA Development – U.S. and Mexico Plan Ministerial Session Thursday in DC…
Apparently our CTH suspicions were correct; this is interesting. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to leave Canada on Tuesday for a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Singapore…. Meanwhile U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and a high-level Mexican team -consisting of both incoming AMLO and exiting Nieto delegations- will be meeting again to […]
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Trump’s Economic Scorecard: 18 Months Into His Presidency…
The first estimate for June quarter’s GDP growth was released Friday morning, showing growth of 4.1%. This was a solid increase from the 2.2% first quarter print, but a little short of most projections. To smooth out any one quarter’s spike or drop, the U.S. economy grew 2.9% on a trailing four quarter basis, matching […]
BEA Estimates Quarter 2 GDP Growth 4.1%, Q1 Revised Upward 2.2% – Growth in Exports, U.S. Investment…
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has released the second quarter estimate in GDP growth at 4.1%, the highest rate of growth since 2014. Here’s the non-spin review along with an embed copy of the actual report [full pdf below] to include all tables: Gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of the goods and […]
Puerto Rico Asks Judge to Force Federal Board to Share Its Power…
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello is seeking to wrest back some of the budgetary authority that was ceded to the fiscal oversight board established by Congress to impose fiscal discipline on the bankrupt island and help pull it out of a long-running debt crisis. The attorneys for the territory made their plea during final arguments […]