Baltic Dry Index. 961 Friday Brent Crude
56.01
"In
economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension."
John
Kenneth Galbraith.
We
open the day with better news from Japan for Japan. The stronger US dollar,
weaker Yen of Trumpmania, is helping Japan’s auto exports, which in turn is
helping boost Japan’s auto production. An unintended consequence, I think.
There was better news from Vietnam too.
Japan auto production up 6.6% on year in November
By Chieko Tsuneoka Published:
Dec 28, 2016 12:48 a.m. ET
TOKYO--Production of cars, trucks and buses in Japan increased
6.6% year over year in November, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association
said Wednesday.
Vehicle output rose to 840,330 vehicles last month from 788,431 vehicles
in the year-earlier period, the association said.
Website: http://www.jama.or.jp/eng/
Japan's auto exports up 2.0% on year in November
By Chieko Tsuneoka Published:
Dec 28, 2016 12:48 a.m. ET
TOKYO--Japan's exports of cars, trucks and buses increased 2.0%
year over year in November, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said
Wednesday.
Exports totaled 422,981 vehicles last month, up from 414,870 vehicles in
the year-ago period, the association said.
Website: http://www.jama.or.jp/eng/
Vietnam Defies Asia Slowdown as GDP Growth Holds Above 6%
by Nguyen Dieu Tu UyenKey Points
- Gross domestic product increased 6.68 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, up from 6.56 percent in the previous three months, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi Wednesday
- The economy grew 6.21 percent in 2016, compared with the median estimate of 6.3 percent in a Bloomberg survey
Big Picture
Vietnam ranks among the world’s fastest-growing economies as its exports remained resilient to a global trade slowdown that’s hurting Singapore and China. Companies setting up plants in the country, such as Samsung Electronics Co., are transforming the nation into a manufacturing hub for electronics goods, including smartphones. The Asian Development Bank forecast Vietnam’s economic growth at 6.3 percent in 2017.
More
Staying with Asia, highly
respected Asia commentator Stephen Roach, has a warning for President-elect
Trump and his team. Starting a trade war with China risks disaster. The whole
article is well worth the read. As China loses, Vietnam and others will pick up
their loss.
Trump’s tough China talk fails one key reality check
By Stephen
S. Roach Published: Dec 27, 2016 12:20 p.m. ET
It is foolish to think that the U.S. holds all the cards in this economic relationship
NEW HAVEN (Project Syndicate) — During his campaign, U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump used foreign trade as a lightning rod in his
supposed defense of the beleaguered American middle class.
This is not an uncommon tactic for candidates at either end of the
political spectrum. What is unusual is that Trump has not moderated his
antitrade tone since winning. Instead, he has upped the ante and fired a series
of early warning shots in what could turn into a full-blown global trade war,
with disastrous consequences for the United States and the rest of the world.
Consider Trump’s key personnel decisions. Industrialist Wilbur Ross, the
Commerce Secretary-designate, has been vocal in his desire to abrogate
America’s “dumb” trade deals. Peter Navarro, an economics professor at the
University of California at Irvine, will be the director of the National Trade
Council — a new White House policy shop to be set up on a par with the National
Security Council and the National Economic Council. Navarro is one of America’s
most extreme China hawks. The titles of his two most recent books — “Death by China” (2011)
and“Crouching Tiger: What China’s
Militarism Means for the World” (2015) — speak volumes about his
tabloid-level biases.
Ross and Navarro were also co-authors of an economic-policy position
paper published on the Trump campaign website that stretched any semblance of credibility.
Now they will get the opportunity to put their ideas into practice. And, in
fact, the process has already begun.
Trump has made it clear
that he will immediately withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
in keeping with Ross’s criticism of America’s trade deals. And his brazen willingness to challenge the 40-year-old “One
China” policy by speaking directly with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen
— to say nothing of his subsequent anti-China tweets
— leaves little doubt that his administration will follow Navarro’s
prescription and take dead aim at America’s largest and most powerful trading
partner.
----But the story doesn’t
end there. The Trump administration is playing with live ammunition, implying
profound, global repercussions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the likely
Chinese response to America’s new muscle-flexing. The Trump team is dismissive
of China’s reaction to its threats, believing that the U.S. has nothing to lose
and everything to gain.
Alas, that may not be the
case. Like it or not, America and China are locked in a co-dependent economic
relationship. Yes, China depends on U.S. demand for its exports, but the U.S.
also depends on China: the Chinese own over $1.5 trillion in U.S. Treasury
securities and other U.S. dollar-based assets. Moreover, China is America’s
third-largest export market (after Canada and Mexico) and the one that is expanding
most rapidly — hardly inconsequential for a growth-starved U.S. economy. It is
foolish to think that America holds all the cards in this bilateral economic
relationship.
More
Stephen S. Roach,
a faculty member at Yale University and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia,
is the author of “Unbalanced: The Codependency of
America and China.” This article has been published with the
permission of Project Syndicate — Trump’s Gathering Trade War
Quoting Mao, China says Taiwan, HK independence supporters will fail 'like flies'
Quoting a poem by the founder of Communist China Mao Zedong, China's
government said on Wednesday that the efforts by Hong Kong and Taiwan
independence supporters to link up were doomed to fail, as they would be dashed
to the ground like flies.
Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about a fledgling
independence movement in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned
to mainland rule in 1997 with a promise of autonomy, and recent protests in the
city.
China is also deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen,
elected earlier this year, who Beijing suspects is pushing for the self-ruled
island's independence.
She says she wants peace with China, which considers the island an
unruly, breakaway province.
Beijing has already warned about independence activists in both places
linking up - Hong Kong activists have visited Taiwan this year - and went
further at a routine news conference by China's policy-making Taiwan Affairs
Office.
"A small coterie of Taiwan independence forces are trying in vain
to link up with Hong Kong independence (forces) to split the country, which
cannot succeed," spokesman An Fengshan said.
"It's just like that saying 'On this tiny globe, a few flies dash
themselves against the wall'," An said, quoting a 1963 poem by Mao, lines
usually taken to mean that China does not fear its enemies.
"In the end they'll find themselves broken and bleeding," he
added, without elaborating, using words that are not in the poem.
The comments come amid renewed tension over Taiwan, following U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump's telephone call with Tsai that upset Beijing.
More
Despite Trumpmania, 2017 looks to be a very rocky road.
If
all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
John Kenneth
Galbraith.
At the Comex silver depositories
Tuesday final figures were: Registered 36.15 Moz, Eligible 147.43 Moz,
Total 183.58 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, more on how the American War Party intends
to make World War Three inevitable. From London it doesn’t look much like
incoming President Trump can do much to stop it, assuming he were so inclined.
Supplying “manpads” to anyone in Syria is USA madness. They’ll quickly get sold
on and fired at commercial planes all across Europe and North Africa.
Russia calls U.S. move to better arm Syrian rebels a 'hostile act'
Russia said on Tuesday that a U.S. decision to ease some restrictions on
arming Syrian rebels had opened the way for deliveries of shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles, a move it said would directly threaten Russian forces
in Syria.
Moscow last year launched a campaign of air strikes in Syria to help
President Bashar al-Assad and government forces in a conflict with rebels, some
of whom are supported by the United States.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the policy change
easing some restrictions on weapons supplies to rebels was set out in a new
U.S. defence spending bill and that Moscow regarded the step as a hostile act.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed the annual defence policy bill into
law last week.
"In the administration of B. Obama they must understand that any
weapons handed over will quickly end up in the hands of jihadists with whom the
sham 'moderate' opposition have long acted jointly," Zakharova said in a
statement.
"Such a decision is a direct threat to the Russian air force, to
other Russian military personnel, and to our embassy in Syria, which has come
under fire more than once. We therefore view the step as a hostile one."
Zakharova accused the Obama administration of trying to "put a
mine" under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump by
attempting to get it to continue what she called Washington's
"anti-Russian line."
During his election campaign, Trump said he was keen to try to improve
relations with Moscow and spoke positively about President Vladimir Putin's
leadership skills.
A back-and-forth exchange between Trump and Putin over nuclear weapons
last week tested the Republican's promises to improve relations with Russia.
MoreU.S. committed to NATO, Baltic security: McCain
The United States is committed to the security of the Baltic region and
NATO, Republican senator John McCain said in the Estonian capital on Tuesday,
during a visit seen as a bid to soothe concerns over the policy of
President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump unnerved many in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia by saying on the
campaign trail he would consider a country's contributions to the NATO alliance
before coming to its aid.
Russian military involvement in Ukraine and Georgia has stoked fears in
the Baltics their former Soviet master might eventually try something similar
there.
"I think the presence of the American troops here in Estonia is a
signal that we believe in what Ronald Reagan believed, and that is peace
through strength," McCain told reporters in the Estonian capital.
"And the best way to prevent Russian misbehaviour by having a
credible, strong military and a strong NATO alliance."
The U.S. stationed about 150 troops in each of the three Baltic
countries and Poland in April 2014.
On a three-day visit to the Baltics with fellow Republican senator
Lindsey Graham, McCain said he did not expect the U.S. to remove sanctions
against Russia, imposed after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
"That is certainly not the case today as I know it", he said.
He also said that the United States, regardless of who was its
president, would have "a strong and significant response" as long as
Putin continued "to occupy Crimea and has invaded eastern Ukraine and
continues to threaten other nations in the region."
More
Solar & Related Update.
With events
happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap
AC or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC?
A quantum computer next?
Panasonic to invest over $256 million in Tesla's U.S. plant for solar cells
Japan's Panasonic, which has been retreating from low-margin consumer electronics to focus more on automotive components and other businesses targeting corporate clients, will make the investment in Tesla's factory in Buffalo, New York.
The U.S. electric car maker is making a long-term purchase commitment from Panasonic as part of the deal, besides providing factory buildings and infrastructure.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two companies said they plan to start production of PV modules in the summer of 2017 and increase to one gigawatt of module production by 2019.
The plan is part of the solar partnership that the two companies first announced in October, but which did not disclose investment details.
Tesla is working exclusively with longtime partner Panasonic to supply batteries for its upcoming Model 3, the company's first mass-market car. Panasonic is also the exclusive supplier of batteries to Tesla's Model S and Model X.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished November
DJIA: 19124
+53 Up NASDAQ: 5324 +41 Up. SP500: 2198 +58 Up
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