Baltic Dry Index. 1555 -54 Brent Crude 78.22
Over a
long weekend, I could teach my dog to be an investment banker.
Herbert
A. Allen, President of Allen & Company.
Possibly why so many
became bailout dogs in 2008-2009.
Today, as we get
ready for Trump’s Travels to Europe to nuke NATO, and the whirlwind, non-state
visit of President Trump to his Scottish golf resorts, and on to a powwow with
President Putin, and as GB gets ready to free itself from the dying EUSSR, we
ponder the burning question “Is it (GB) a free country.” Scroll down for more on that burning question.
We open with more on
Trump’s vendetta against China (and everyone else.) If these new tariffs
actually happen, nothing good lies at the end of this road, and it’s not as if
this is anything new.
Interferences
with international trade appear innocuous; they can get the support of people
who are otherwise apprehensive of interference by government into economic
affairs; many a business man even regards them as part of the "American
Way of Life"; yet there are few interferences which are capable of
spreading so far and ultimately being so destructive of free enterprise. There
is much experience to suggest that the most effective way to convert a market
economy into an authoritarian economic society is to start by imposing direct
controls on foreign exchange. This one step leads inevitably to the rationing
of imports, to control over domestic production that uses imported products or
that produces substitutes for imports, and so on in a never-ending spiral.
Milton
Friedman.
U.S. Moves Forward on Proposed $200 Billion China Tariff List
Bloomberg News
Updated on 11 July 2018, 05:25 GMT+1
The Trump administration pushed ahead
plans to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods by
releasing a list of targeted products, escalating a trade war that may soon
directly hit American consumers. Hours later, China’s Commerce Ministry described the U.S. move as "totally unacceptable" and said it will be forced to retaliate. The statement on its website Wednesday didn’t give details of what retaliatory measures it plans.
The U.S. move sent markets skidding in Asia as Chinese stocks tumbled and the yuan weakened. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.9 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.4 percent. The yuan dropped 0.36 percent to 6.6646 per dollar.
The 10 percent tariffs could take effect after public consultations end on Aug. 30, according to a statement from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office Tuesday. The proposed list of goods includes consumer items such as clothing, television components and refrigerators as well as other technology products, though it omitted some high-profile items like mobile phones.
If the latest tariffs proposed go into effect, duties implemented by the
administration aimed squarely at China will cover nearly half of all U.S.
imports from the Asian nation.
Trump isn’t backing down from a trade war that members of his own
Republican party call unwise, American businesses decry and economists warn
could derail the strongest global upswing in years.
More
Asian markets slump after U.S. announces $200 billion in new tariffs on China
By Dow
Jones Newswire Published: July 10,
2018 11:07 p.m. ET
Asian stock markets fell Wednesday after the Trump administration announced
it plans to slap tariffs on a further $200 billion of Chinese imports. Read: U.S. unveils tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods
But benchmarks recovered from session lows, with indexes in China, Hong Kong and Japan all down around 1.5%. Australia’s S&P/ASX XJO, -0.65% , Korea’s Kospi and Taiwan’s Taiex Y9999, -0.77% narrowed their declines to less than 1%, while New Zealand’s benchmark NZ50GR, -0.16% was little changed. S&P 500 futures ESH9, -0.76% fell 0.8%
After three days of solid gains, Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -0.86% was last down 1.3%, with exporters hit the hardest. Automakers Honda 7267, -1.04% , Toyota 7203, -0.15% and Nissan 7201, -1.97% all fell, while chip-equipment maker Advantest 6857, +0.13% and imaging manufacturer Canon 7751, -0.59% dropped around 1%.
Tech and auto companies also weighed down South Korea’s Kospi SEU, -0.52% , with Samsung 005930, -0.65% and Hynudai 005380, -2.02% slipping about 1%.
In China, the Shanghai SHCOMP, -1.87% and Shenzhen 399106, -2.18% composites recovered slightly after falling more than 2% in early trading. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng HSI, -1.44% also stemmed early losses, with Tencent 0700, -1.76% and AIA 1299, -0.66% posting declines.
July 11, 2018 / 5:38 AM
China says plans by U.S. for additional tariffs completely unacceptable
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday the
proposed U.S. tariffs on an extra $200 billion of Chinese goods is completely
unacceptable, adding that Beijing will have to respond to the latest moves by
Washington.
In a statement, the commerce ministry said the U.S. actions hurt America’s
own interests, China and the rest of the world.
Trump continues to criticize European allies ahead of NATO summit
Xinhua | Updated: 2018-07-11 09:31
BRUSSELS - US President Donald Trump continued to criticize European
allies on the eve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in
Brussels.
Trump arrived in Brussels on Tuesday evening for the NATO summit
scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, after which he is expected to visit
Britain and later meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland's capital
Helsinki.
"The European Union makes it impossible for our farmers and workers
and companies to do business in Europe (US has a 151 billion dollar trade
deficit), and then they want us to happily defend them through NATO, and nicely
pay for it. Just doesn't work!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday evening.
"Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not
only short of their current commitment of 2 percent (which is low), but are
also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they
reimburse the U.S.?" he wrote in another tweet earlier in the evening.
The two tweets represented two major topics of criticism Trump has long
held against US allies across the Atlantic: one is his belief that the European
Union erected trade barriers against the US and as a result won surplus in the
trade of goods, and the other that European members of NATO are not spending
enough on defense.
Prior to boarding Air Force One for Europe, Trump already took jabs at
European allies by other tweets, including "NATO countries must pay MORE,
the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair!"
More
Premier Li, German president pledge to safeguard free trade
By HU YONGQI in Berlin | chinadaily.com.cn
| Updated: 2018-07-10 10:14
China and Germany agreed to take real actions to send a signal of firmly
safeguarding multilateralism and free trade, while the two sides should
strengthen cooperation in diverse fields, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday in
Berlin.Li made the comment when meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his fourth trip to the European country as premier.
The premier said the two countries have maintained high-level
development in bilateral relations. The fifth China-Germany intergovernmental
consultation earlier on Monday set a roadmap for bilateral ties in the next
stage, he said. Setting trade barriers is an outdated action in the 21st
century and China would like to strengthen high-level exchanges with Germany to
set an example of seeking common ground while reserving differences, and
maximizing common interests, Li added.
Steinmeier congratulated on achievements made at the fifth
intergovernmental consultation. As two large trading countries, both countries
do not want to see free trade being threatened, he said.
More
In this Great Trump
Trade War against China, or maybe because of it, it is opening up opportunities
for other nations, meanwhile the advancement of China continues apace. Trade
wars may be easy to win, but by whom? In our massively interdependent world of
cross border trade, are trade wars even winnable anymore?
Governmental
measures constitute the major impediments to economic growth. Tariffs and other
restrictions on international trade, high tax burdens and a complex and
inequitable tax structure, regulatory commissions government price and wage
fixing, and a host of other measures give individuals an incentive to misuse
and misdirect resources, and distort the investment of new savings. What we
urgently need, for both economic stability and growth, is a reduction of
government intervention, not an increase.
Milton Friedman.
10 July 2018 Updated 10/7/2018
Siemens, Alibaba to advance cloud-based business in China
By Plastics News Europe
German technology company Siemens AG and Alibaba Cloud, the cloud
computing arm of Alibaba Group, have joined forces to foster Industry 4.0 and
digitalisation transformation in China.
In a memorandum of understanding signed in Berlin 9 July, the two
companies agreed to leverage each other’s technology and industry resources to
create an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to support I4.0 and manufacturing
upgrade in China.
As part of this, Siemens’ cloud-based open IoT operating system
MindSphere will be deployed and operated by Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure for
the Chinese mainland market.
Under the MoU, the companies will start collaboration immediately and
aim to make MindSphere available on Alibaba Cloud in 2019.
“This cooperation is a landmark deal for bringing Industry 4.0-solutions
to China as the world’s powerhouse of manufacturing,” said Joe Kaeser,
President and CEO of Siemens AG.
Siemens expects the deal to strengthen its position in automation and
digitalisation “in the industrial world”.
Also commenting, Simon Hu, Senior Vice President of Alibaba Group said
the partnership would aim to speed up the adoption of IoT products and
services, and create “industry-wide breakthroughs”.
As part of Siemens comprehensive digital offerings, MindSphere offers a
wide range of device and enterprise connectivity options, advanced analytics,
and closed-loop innovation with digital twin solutions.
Alibaba Cloud offers cloud computing services to businesses online as
well as the Alibaba Group's own e-commerce ecosystem. According to the
company’s website, Alibaba Cloud has a network of 18 international data centres
across the globe.
Is Trump’s Car War a Bluff?
Welcome to the Atlantic City moment when his ambition outruns his skills.
Holman
W. Jenkins, Jr.July 10, 2018 7:06 p.m. ET
Truly the most challenging assignment in government today will be validating
Donald Trump’s suspicion that foreign auto companies threaten U.S. national
security.
We don’t envy Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose
department is tasked with making the case.
Let’s see, 56% of U.S. cars are already built in domestic
plants, and 78% if you count Canada’s and Mexico’s highly U.S.-dependent auto
industries.
Mr. Trump likes factories. Foreigners are huge
contributors to the U.S. manufacturing base, with 17 auto assembly plants here.
Mr. Trump likes exports. Germany is the single biggest exporter of cars made in
the U.S., shipping abroad 400,000 Mercedes and BMW cars a year.
The U.S. auto industry has been quietly aghast at Mr.
Trump’s threat of a new trade war by imposing a 25% tax on European cars. Car
makers have been pushing back in a low-key, white-papery way calculated not to
invite the kind of tweets that Harley-Davidson
elicited. Harley made the mistake of sounding as if Mr. Trump was at fault for
European retaliation. GM has used only passive verbs to discuss the possible
shrinkage of U.S. output and employment from a trade war.
Parts maker BorgWarner , in an official statement, carefully warned that
“our customers could request that we move production of these technologies to
another BorgWarner facility outside of the U.S.”
The main U.S. dealer trade group told Automotive
News: “The president is rightfully concerned about trade imbalances and
manufacturing jobs in the United States,” followed by a long “but” clause.
Then there’s this: What many of us would regard as a
Trump victory, i.e., getting Europe to drop its 10% auto tariff, would not be
regarded as such by the U.S. car makers if they had to give up America’s 25%
tax on imported pickups.
Morehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/is-trumps-car-war-a-bluff-1531264000?mod=mhp
Lord
Light, L.C.J.: This
is in substance an appeal by an appellant appealing in statu quo against
a decision of the West London Half-Sessions, confirming a conviction by the
magistrates of South Hammersmith sitting in Petty Court some four or five years
ago. The ancillary proceedings have included two hearings in sessu and
an appeal rampant on the case, as a result of which the record was ordered to
be torn up and the evidence reprinted backwards ad legem. With these
transactions, however, the Court need not concern itself, except to observe
that, as for our learned brother Mumble, whose judgments we have read with
diligence and something approaching to nausea, it were better that a millstone
should be hanged round his neck and he be cast into the uttermost depths of the
sea.
A. P.
Herbert. Uncommon Law. “Is It A Free Country?”
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
No crooks and scoundrels again
today, they’ll be back in droves tomorrow I’m sure. Today it’s an ill wind and
all that, though in this case that wind is a lack of rain in GB.
Roman forts and other wonders: Punishing heat wave reveals ancient settlements in Wales
It is a very exciting time to be an archaeologist in Wales
July 9, 2018 5:30 PM EDT
Archaeologist Toby Driver has, unlike his office-bound colleagues, spent
much of the current heat wave/drought afflicting the United Kingdom — the
seasonal average in Wales is 19 C, while present temperatures are 30-plus —
peering down at a rain-starved landscape from a small plane.Driver, a senior investigator for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), has been on the hunt for crop marks. Rings and whirls and squares and unmistakable marks on the land, visible from the sky, indicating the presence of ancient settlements — Roman forts, Iron Age farms and Medieval castles — buried beneath.
If you didn’t already know, hot and dry weather is optimal for crop mark
spotting. Wales’ ancient residents displaced soil and dug deep fortification
trenches to protect their settlements.
All their ancient handiwork created moisture traps beneath the ground
that the parched vegetation above has been drawing upon during the current
drought. Plant life growing where the ditches used to be is lush and green, in
contrast to a more depressingly brown landscape. And areas where there were
once stone structures are particularly parched.
Meaning Driver, in his plane, has been spotting oodles of crop marks,
including finding evidence of settlements previously not known to exist. In
short: it is a very exciting time to be an archeologist in Wales. Here are some
of Driver’s most amazing finds.
Castell Llwyn Gwinau
The old castle sits atop an isolated hill, all the better to see (potential) bad guys from. In its heyday, the castle would have included a keep and been surrounded by a protective ditch and palisades — trees, sharpened to points and arranged in a wall — to prevent attackers from climbing over them. This particular castle style was all the rage in England and Wales after the Normans, from present-day France, invaded in 1066. (See: Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror and the death of King Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, who assumed the throne after his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor died). For medieval history buffs on holiday in Wales — the crop mark/ruin is near the town of Tregaron.
The old castle sits atop an isolated hill, all the better to see (potential) bad guys from. In its heyday, the castle would have included a keep and been surrounded by a protective ditch and palisades — trees, sharpened to points and arranged in a wall — to prevent attackers from climbing over them. This particular castle style was all the rage in England and Wales after the Normans, from present-day France, invaded in 1066. (See: Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror and the death of King Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, who assumed the throne after his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor died). For medieval history buffs on holiday in Wales — the crop mark/ruin is near the town of Tregaron.
----Gaer Fawr Hillfort
Gaer Fawr is, or was, an Iron Age (think: about 800 BC — 100 AD) fort built atop a hill, an elevated view that, again, would have allowed its residents to see their enemies before they arrived at the fort’s ramparts. The ruin is about 33,000 square metres, has two entrances and a defensive wall measuring 10 metres wide by four metres high. Some, among the archeology in-crowd, have argued that the fort was actually unfinished. Its most recent attackers, meanwhile, appear to have been local farmers who, during an era of intensive ploughing in the 1970s, damaged the fort’s interior — assaults that continue to this day along what would have been the outpost’s western defences.
Gaer Fawr is, or was, an Iron Age (think: about 800 BC — 100 AD) fort built atop a hill, an elevated view that, again, would have allowed its residents to see their enemies before they arrived at the fort’s ramparts. The ruin is about 33,000 square metres, has two entrances and a defensive wall measuring 10 metres wide by four metres high. Some, among the archeology in-crowd, have argued that the fort was actually unfinished. Its most recent attackers, meanwhile, appear to have been local farmers who, during an era of intensive ploughing in the 1970s, damaged the fort’s interior — assaults that continue to this day along what would have been the outpost’s western defences.
More with a few pictures.
“It
cannot be too clearly understood that this is NOT a free country, and it will
be an evil day for the legal profession when it is. The citizens of London must
realize that there is almost nothing they are allowed to do. Prima facie all
actions are illegal, if not by Act of Parliament, by Order in Council; and if
not by Order in Council, by Departmental or Police regulation, or By-laws. They
may not eat where they like, drive where they like, sing where they like, or
sleep where they like.
A.P. Herbert, Uncommon Law, "Is It a Free
Country?”
Technology 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?
"World’s most efficient" bicycle drivetrain unveiled at Eurobike
Ben Coxworth 18 hours ago
Of
all the items currently on display at this year's Eurobike show in Germany, one
of the most attention-getting is CeramicSpeed's DrivEn pinion-style shaft-drive
system. According to its designers, it creates 49 percent less friction than
the high-end Shimano Dura Ace chain-and-derailleur setup.
At the heart of the prototype drivetrain is a cylindrical carbon fiber shaft, that reaches from the single chainring in front to a flat 13-speed cassette on the rear wheel.
Mounted on either end of that shaft are sets of very-low-friction ceramic bearings (there are a total of 21 of them), which engage the teeth on the chainring and the cassette cogs. As the rider pedals, the bearings transfer torque from the chainring through the shaft and into the rear wheel, turning it.
In its current form, DrivEn can't shift between gears, although BikeRadar reports that this could conceivably be managed using a wireless servo to move the rear bearing mechanism fore and aft relative to the cassette.
"CeramicSpeed has proudly accomplished what many have said couldn't
be done," says company CTO Jason Smith. "We achieved a 99-percent
efficient multi-speed drivetrain while eliminating the chain and complex rear
derailleur."
That efficiency is reportedly achieved due to the fact that the system
does away with the eight points of sliding friction that are present in a
regular drivetrain, where the chain articulates while passing through the
chainring, cassette and derailleur.
DrivEn was developed in partnership with the Mechanical Engineering
Department at the University of Colorado, and has just received the 2018
Eurobike Award. There's currently no word on commercialization.
And
for another take on the shaft-drive bicycle idea, check out the Alpha Bike concept.
“And least of all may they do unusual actions
'for fun'. People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is
no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament. If anything is said in this Court
to encourage a belief that Englishmen are entitled to jump off bridges for
their own amusement the next thing to go will be the Constitution. For these
reasons, therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this appeal must fail.
It is not for me to say what offence the appellant has committed, but I am
satisfied that he has committed SOME offence, for which he has been most
properly punished.
A.P.
Herbert, Uncommon Law. "Is It a Free Country?”
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June.
DJIA: 24,271 +221 Down. NASDAQ:
7,510 +267 Down. SP500: 2,718 +169 Down.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March and have continued down in April. May
and June. For some a new bear signal, for others a take profits and get back to
cash signal.
Rich is not a goal five million in three years is a goal.
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