Milton
Friedman once put it, if you’re spending your own money on yourself, you care
about price and quality. If you’re spending someone else’s money on yourself,
you only care about quality. If you’re spending your own money on someone else,
you care only about price. And if you’re spending someone else’s money on
someone else, you don’t care about either.
This weekend while we
await the World Cup Final on Sunday, and Monday’s summit between President’s
Putin and Trump, culminating President Trump’s reprise of the Mongol invasion
of Europe in the 13th century, another setback for Canada, and probably
a Brexit agreement too.
With 27 different national agendas, 27 national vetoes,
plus vetoes by the European Parliament, and the Belgian Walloonatics, why
bother to try cutting a deal with the dying EUSSR?
What lies ahead next
week. Intel preps for 5G in China. Who in the deep state is trying to sabotage
that summit? Why?
"We
can also do stupid."
Jean-Claude
Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of
Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. European Commission President. Scotch
connoisseur.
July 13, 2018 / 10:49 AM
Italy won't ratify EU free-trade deal with Canada - deputy PM
ROME (Reuters) - Italy will
not ratify the European Union’s free trade agreement with Canada, Deputy Prime
Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday, potentially scuppering the EU’s biggest
accord in years.
“Soon CETA (the Comprehensive
Economic and Trade Agreement) will arrive in parliament and this majority will
reject it and it will not ratify it,” Di Maio said at a farmers’ association
gathering in Rome.
“If so much as one Italian
official ... continues to defend treaties like CETA, they will be removed,”
added Di Maio, who leads the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which governs
with the right-wing League.
The CETA accord, the first
major trade deal the European Union has signed since an agreement with South
Korea was ratified in 2015, needs to be approved by all 28 EU member states to
take full effect.
The 5-Star/League government,
which took office on June 1, has pledged to take a hard line to defend Italian
speciality foods. Agriculture Minister Gian Marco Centinaio, from the League,
attacked CETA in a newspaper interview last month.
Of the 28 European Union
countries, Italy has the most food products with PDO (Protected Designation of
Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) labels.
These include Parmigiano
Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham. Under CETA, Canada has recognised
more than 40 Italian PDO and PGI labels out of a total of 292 for the
food-obsessed country.
The CETA treaty entered into
force on a provisional basis in September 2017, sweeping away tariffs on a
large number of goods and widening access to Canadian beef in Europe and EU
cheese and wine in Canada.
Its supporters say it would
increase trade between the partners by 20 percent and boost the EU economy by
12 billion euros ($13.96 billion) a year and Canada’s by C$12 billion ($9.10
billion).
Some farm associations and
critics in European states have expressed concerns about the threat of rapidly
rising pork and beef imports from Canada.
Coldiretti, the association of
Italian agricultural companies Di Maio was addressing, has called CETA “wrong
and risky” for Italy. It says Italian food exports, equal to 41 billion euros
last year, could triple with a serious fight against international food
counterfeiting.
July 13, 2018 / 6:11 PM
Take Five - World markets themes for the week ahead
LONDON
(Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of
investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/TRADE WAR GAMES
China releases quarterly GDP data next week and it should make interesting reading now that the first salvos have been exchanged in a trade war with the United States.It is expected to show growth easing very marginally to 6.7 percent — no big deal of course and perhaps even a positive if it is part of China’s multi-year drive to rein in over-zealous credit expansion and force discipline in less-regulated parts of the banking industry.
But the broader backdrop is the simmering trade tensions. Economists suspect the direct impact from the two sets of U.S. tariffs aimed at Beijing — the $50 bln underway and another set of targeted tariffs on $200 bln of imports — could drag China’s GDP down by 0.3 percentage points in the longer run.
It
comes too after data on Friday showed that China enjoyed its biggest ever trade
surplus in dollar terms with the United States last month, and following a 6
percent fall in the yuan since late March.
2/FLAT OUT
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver his semiannual monetary policy report to the Senate Banking Committee on July 17. Powell’s testimony will be closely watched as the Fed tries to navigate towards higher interest rates at a pace that keeps inflation under control but without going so far or fast that it slows the economy.Already, investors have been raising red flags about the U.S. Treasury yield curve, which is at its flattest in nearly 11 years and at risk of inversion. An inverted yield curve involves short-term interest rates rising above long rates, which is typically a precursor of recession as it reflects tightening monetary policy.
Powell’s
last response on the yield curve was: “It’s true that yield curves have tended
to predict recessions if you look back over many cycles,” before
suggesting that this time was different. Investors will see if he has changed
his tune.
More
Intel Buys a Programmable Chip Company to Prepare for 5G
July 13, 2018 10:06 am PT
Intel
is buying eASIC, a privately held programmable chip company based in Santa
Clara, California. The company’s entire 120-member team and CEO Ronnie Vasishta
will become part of Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group headed by Dan
McNamara. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Intel plans to close the
acquisition in the third quarter.eASIC makes structured ASICs, which is an intermediary technology between the field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and ASICs. The structured ASIC provides better performance and power efficiency with faster design time and lower costs
In a post from Intel’s McNamara, he said that demand for FPGAs is growing because they are versatile and can be programmed at any time, even after equipment has been shipped to customers. FPGAs are ideal for cloud and IoT applications, but they will be critical for 5G networks.
During a Bank of America Merrill Lynch tech conference with investors held in June, McNamara told investors that because of the complex processing that is needed in 5G basebands and base stations, FPGAs will play a key role in 5G networks. “5G is really a big opportunity for FPGAs,” he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
He also hinted about a trial that Intel is currently conducting with China Telecom in which China Telecom is using FPGAs to help the operator with traffic shaping, quality of service, and packet processing. “What we’re seeing is growth from the transformation of the wired network,” McNamara said.
In the first quarter, Intel reported that sales of FPGAs were up 17 percent year-over-year and up 150 percent in the data center environment.
ASICs and FPGAs
Structured ASICs are key to the growth of FPGAs because customers often begin deployments with FPGAs so they can quickly get to market. Then they migrate to structured ASICs because of their power efficiency and performance.McNamara said that adding a structured ASIC technology to the company’s portfolio will help it provide customers with a low-cost, automated way to convert from FPGAs (even those from competitors) to structured ASICs.
And longer term, he said that he believes the company will be able to architect a new type of programmable chip that combines Intel’s FPGAs with eASIC’s structured ASIC in one package.
Building on Altera Acquisition
Intel’s inroads in the FPGA arena came from its $16.7 billion acquisition of Altera in 2015. Altera made FPGAs for data centers as well as cellular base stations. McNamara previously was vice president and general manager of Altera’s Embedded Division.https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/intel-buys-a-programmable-chip-company-to-prepare-for-5g/2018/07/?utm_source=SDxCentral.com+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=aca69c085f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2b6e504a2-aca69c085f-81929953
Finally, according to
some in FIFA, this was the best World Cup ever. So whose deep state agenda was
it to try and sabotage Monday’s first summit meeting between Presidents Putin
and Trump?
The world is governed by very different personages
from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
Benjamin
Disraeli.
July 14, 2018 / 3:21 AM / Updated an hour ago
Reputations burnished, others buffeted at 'best World Cup ever'
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A stage for new beginnings, a cementer of
fortunes, a last resting place for life-long dreams, the 2018 soccer World Cup
was so much more than a month-long festival of goals and glory.
“The best
World Cup ever,” was FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s verdict, and there was
much evidence to support his view.
Host Russia
used the extravaganza to detoxify its global brand and enhance its reputation
by breaking down a number of negative stereotypes, and showcasing itself as a
nation that can host huge events and welcome tens of thousands of global
visitors.
The Russian
team, too, came out of the tournament having passed with flying colours. Ranked
a lowly 70th in the world at the start and on the back of a nine-month winless
run, there were real fears the team could fail to win a match.
The Russians
need not have worried as Stanislav Cherchesov’s men hammered Saudi Arabia 5-0,
finished second in their group, beat mighty Spain in a penalty shootout in the
last 16, before finally falling to Croatia in the same fashion in the quarters.
Croatia went
on to reach their first World Cup final, where they will play France on Sunday,
in a remarkable achievement for a nation of some four million people.
The
Croatians bettered their previous best of a semi-final spot in 1998 — their
first World Cup as an independent nation — with a thrilling extra-time victory
over England.
Gareth
Southgate’s young English side had been seeking to reach the final for the
first time since their victory in 1966, but the Croatians were too tough,
coming back from an early English goal to prevail. They had come from behind in
all three knockout games, showing admirable spirit and remarkable fitness.
Regardless
of what happens in the remaining two matches, the reputations of both Croatia
and England were greatly enhanced by their runs in the tournament.
By no means
were all reputations burnished in Russia, however, as some of the biggest names
in sport flopped on the biggest stage.
Champions
Germany suffered their earliest World Cup exit in 80 years when they finished
bottom of Group F following defeats by Mexico and South Korea, triggering an
inquisition back home.
More
July 13, 2018 / 5:39 PM
U.S. accuses Russian spies of 2016 election hacking; summit looms
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - A federal grand jury on Friday charged 12 Russian intelligence
officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most
detailed U.S. accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election
to help Republican Donald Trump.
The
indictment, which alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy involving sophisticated
hacking and staged releases of documents, raises the stakes for a summit next
week between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Officers of
Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, covertly monitored computers of
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic campaign
committees, and stole large amounts of data, the indictment said.
“In addition
to releasing documents directly to the public, the defendants transferred
stolen documents to another organisation, not named in the indictment, and
discussed timing the release of the documents in an attempt to enhance the
impact on the election,” Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told a
news conference.
Friday’s
indictment was secured by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe
into Russian involvement in the election. It was the first by Mueller that
directly charges the Russian government with meddling in the election, which
Trump unexpectedly won. The Kremlin denies it interfered.
“I
sometimes get the impression that many U.S. media outlets work according to a
principle which was common in the Soviet Union. Back then, people used to joke
that the newspaper Pravda [Truth] had no truth in it, and the Izvestia [News]
paper has no news in it. I get the impression that many U.S. media operate in
the same way.”
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. May 2017.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June.
DJIA: 24,271 +221 Down. NASDAQ:
7,610 +267 Down. SP500: 2,718 +169 Down.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March and April and May and continued down
in June. For some a new bear signal, for others a take profits and get back to
cash signal.
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