Baltic Dry Index. 1614 -47 Brent Crude 77.70
"The paper standard is self-destructive."Hans F. Sennholz
It is the end of the
media “silly season,” but yesterday’s news from America was anything but silly.
In a final attempt to breakout of the Stalingrad disaster of his own making,
President Trump went all-in in attempting to show that America can’t be trusted
on treaties of any kind, let alone trade treaties it itself promoted and
utilised effectively.
After renewing his
trade threats to impose more punitive tariffs on China next week, President
Trump set about trying to bully the World Trade Organisation the USA promoted
and helped develop.
As a policy to drive
the rest of the world into a financial and trade system that excludes the USA in the decades ahead,
it is all too likely to be an outstanding success. How that improves global prosperity
and raising the incomes and living standards in the way we have come to expect
in recent decades, is far from clear.
Below, bunker time,
the first stage phony trade war is ending. From here on out, this trade war has
nothing but bad consequences for all. As the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money
increasingly fails, especially in the USA, an increasingly baffled Trump trade
team keep irrationally making things worse. Sadly there is no sign of sanity returning
in the District of Crooks anytime soon.
John Kenneth Galbraith.
Trump Threatens to Pull U.S. Out of WTO If It Doesn’t ‘Shape Up’
Aug 30 2018, 9:23 PM
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World
Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the U.S. better, targeting a cornerstone
of the international trading system.“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Trump said the agreement establishing the body “was the single worst trade deal ever made.”
A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO potentially would be far more significant for the global economy than even Trump’s growing trade war with China, undermining the post-World War II system that the U.S. helped build.
Trump said last month that the U.S. is at a big disadvantage from being treated “very badly” by the WTO for many years and that the Geneva-based body needs to “change their ways.”
EU Offer for No Auto Tariffs Is ‘Not Good Enough,’ Trump Say
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said allowing China into the WTO in 2001 was a mistake. He has long called for the U.S. to take a more aggressive approach to the WTO, arguing that it was incapable of dealing with a non-market economy such as China.
Lighthizer has accused the WTO dispute-settlement system of interfering with U.S. sovereignty, particularly on anti-dumping cases. The U.S. has been blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body, raising the possibility that it could cease to function in the coming years.
In the Oval Office interview, Trump said at the WTO “we rarely won a lawsuit except for last year.”
“In the last year, we’re starting to win a lot,” he added. “You know why? Because they know if we don’t, I’m out of there.”
----Countries that bring complaints to the WTO tend to prevail and defendants in trade disputes lose.
But WTO data also shows that the U.S. does slightly better than the WTO average in both cases it brings and that are brought against it, said Simon Lester, a trade analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington policy group that favors more open international trade.
Of the 54 cases brought by the U.S. over the life of the WTO, Washington won at least one finding in its favor in 49, or 91 percent, Lester said. Of the 80 cases brought against it, a WTO panel had ruled against it in at least one aspect in 69 cases, or 86 percent of the time.
More
August 30, 2018 / 7:43 PM
Trump ready to ratchet up China trade war with more tariffs - report
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to quickly ramp up a trade
war with China and has told aides he is ready to impose tariffs on $200 billion
(153.76 billion pounds)more in Chinese imports as soon as a public comment
period on the plan ends next week, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The
White House declined comment on the Bloomberg report, which cited six
unidentified sources, and deflated markets. The S&P hit session lows, and
the U.S. dollar, Chinese yuan and U.S. Treasury yields also fell.
Trump
has credited his electoral success to his hard line on trade, which he has
argued hurts U.S. workers and favors foreign competitors. Washington is
demanding Beijing improve market access and intellectual property protections
for U.S. companies, cut industrial subsidies and slash a $375 billion trade
gap.
The world’s two largest economies have already applied tariffs to $50
billion of each other’s goods in a tit-for-tat trade war. Talks aimed at easing
tensions ended last week without major breakthroughs.
The new proposed 25 percent tariffs would affect consumer products
including home building supplies, technology products, bicycles and apparel.
A public comment period on the proposal is set to end on Sept. 6, and
Trump plans to impose the tariffs after that deadline, Bloomberg said.
Some sources said Trump had not made his final decision, the Bloomberg
report said. Trump administration officials have been divided over how hard to
push Beijing.
Trump, who has threatened to impose duties on virtually all of the more
than $500 billion of Chinese goods exported to the United States each year,
told Reuters in an interview earlier this month that resolving the trade war
with China would “take time” and that he had “no time frame” for ending it.
More
August 31, 2018 / 2:11 AM
Trump tweets are 'messages from some alternative universe' - China Daily
SHANGHAI
(Reuters) - Twitter comments by U.S. President Donald Trump accusing China of
hacking former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email server are an
attempt to cast China as a “scapegoat”, the official China Daily said in an
editorial Friday.
The
strongly worded editorial also took aim at Trump directly, commenting: “To the
thinking person, there are few things more disconcerting than a tweet by the
U.S. president as they initially seem to accord to reality but then quickly
turn into messages from some alternative universe.”
Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that China hacked the emails of 2016
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton but did not offer any
evidence or further information.
China’s foreign ministry has denied Trump’s allegation and the editorial
accused him of “smearing China’s image as he desperately needs a scapegoat in
the run-up to the midterm elections, so he can divert public attention from the
troubles the White House has become mired in”.
Trump faces potentially difficult mid-term elections in November as his
Republican party fights to retain control of both houses of Congress.
More
Asian markets fall as Trump pushes more tariffs against China
Published: Aug 30, 2018 11:02 p.m. ET
Asian stocks were broadly lower in early trading Friday, after a report that
President Donald Trump was pushing ahead with his plan for tariffs on an
additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened to withdraw the U.S.
from the World Trade Organization.Trump’s WTO criticism helped push the yen USDJPY, +0.03% higher overnight, pushing Japan’s Nikkei NIK, -0.17% down 0.2%. The index has risen for eight straight days, and is up 1.4% in August coming into the final trading day of the month. Export-reliant companies fell, with Honda Motor 7267, -1.55% down 1.5% and Kobe Steel 5406, -1.27% off 1.4%
.
Hong Kong stocks were sharply lower, with the Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.91% down 1.4%. China’s announcement that it would limit the number of new online games kicked Tencent 0700, -4.53% lower. Meanwhile, oil giant PetroChina 0857, -3.79% was down 3.8% following its after-the-bell earnings report. Embattled telecom-equipment maker ZTE 0763, +0.93% rose 2% after showing first-half revenue growth.
Chinese stocks dropped at the prospects of further U.S. import tariffs. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.08% was down 0.9% and the Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.54% was off 1.2%, even as PMI data for August held up.
Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.25% , which Thursday barely saw its nine-day run of gains come to an end, was off a further 0.1%. Steelmaker Posco 005490, -1.95% fell more than 2%, while Samsung 005930, +0.94% was down about 0.1%. Down Under, markets retreated slightly, with Australia’s ASX 200 XJO, -0.31% down 0.2% and New Zealand’s NZX-50 NZ50GR, -0.16% seeing a 0.4% decline.
Singapore’s stock benchmark STI, -0.18% was down only a fraction, while Taiwan Y9999, -0.70% , Malaysia FBMKLCI, -0.05% and Indonesia JAKIDX, -0.76% were down almost 1%.
Trump Makes Clear EU Won't Escape His Ire Over Trade for Long
By Shawn Donnan
·
August 30, 2018 / 1:02 PM
EU deeply disagrees with U.S. on trade despite detente
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s detente on tariffs with the United States has not put to rest “profound disagreements” on trade policy, the European commissioner in charge of trade said on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in July to refrain from imposing car
tariffs while the two sides sought to cut other trade barriers, in a move
described then by the European Commission chief as major concession.
Speaking to the trade committee of the European Parliament on Thursday,
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom discussed a group that she and
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead to determine how tariffs
might be removed on industrial goods.
“We are not negotiating anything, we have a working group. We have
profound disagreements with the United States on trade policy,” Malmstrom told
EU lawmakers.
A number of those lawmakers were fierce critics of a planned EU-U.S.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), negotiations on which
ended after Trump’s election victory in 2016.
“We are not restarting TTIP ... This could be a more limited trade
agreement, focused on tariffs on goods only,” Malmstrom said.
She also said the European Union would be willing to reduce its car
tariffs to zero, if the United States did the same, going beyond the
provisional agreement struck in July which referred only to “non-auto
industrial goods”.
“We would do it if they do it. That remains to be seen,” she said,
adding she hoped a deal could be finalised by the end of the Commission’s
five-year term running until October 31, 2019.
The European Union remains at odds with the United States over U.S.
blocking of the appointment of judges at the World Trade Organization, over
tariffs set for reasons of national security and over Washington’s tough stance
towards China.
More
August 30, 2018 / 10:29 AM
It's time for realism in EU-Russia ties - France's Macron
HELSINKI
(Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron urged the European Union on
Thursday to modernise its post-Cold War ties with Russia and pursue “strategic
relations” with Turkey as well as other close neighbours, including in defence
matters.
Macron strongly advocates Europe’s ability to defend its strategic
interests and assert its financial independence in response to the new global
economic and defence situation brought on by Donald Trump’s presidency in the
United States.
The French leader said Europe had long relied on U.S. protection and
that while the NATO defence alliance remained important, the EU needed to
bolster its own defence capacities.
“It is in our interest for the EU to have a strategic relationship with
Turkey as well as with Russia that brings stability, that will in the long term
and bring more strength and coherency,” he told a news conference on a visit to
Helsinki.
Trump’s questioning of the United States’ future role in NATO, the
mainstay of post-war European defence policy, if European members do not
increase their financial contributions has worried some members about how they
might deal with Russia.
Since coming to office in May last year, Macron has tried to improve
relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
----“It’s not about forgetting the last few years, that wouldn’t be right, but simply a realistic means ... to cooperate more deeply,” Macron said, adding that Russia would need to signal advances on issues including the Ukrainian peace process.
The EU’s relations with Russia needed to be “brought up to date”, he
added.
“On matters like cybersecurity, defence, strategic relationships, we
could envisage the outlines of a new relationship between Russia and the EU
which is coherent with the direction Europe is headed in,” Macron said.
“Stability in the whole region is in our interest.”
Finland, a member of the EU but not of NATO, has had a difficult
relationship with Moscow since it declared independence from Russia in 1917.
However, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who joined Macron at the news
conference, has been credited at home for forging a constructive relationship
with Putin.
More
"With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people."
F. A. von Hayek
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Below, where the fiat currency USA is headed. President Trump merely
wants to get there in a hurry.
"The fate of the nation and the fate of the currency are one and the same."
Dr. Franz Pick
Argentina's central bank hikes rates to 60% as the currency collapses
- Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America's third-largest economy could soon default as it struggles to repay heavy government borrowing.
- The peso is down more than 45 percent against the greenback this year, exacerbating pre-existing fears over the country's weakening economy and inflation running at 25.4 percent this year.
- "I know that these tumultuous situations generate anxiety among many of you ... I understand this, and I want you to know I am making all decisions necessary to protect you," Macri said.
Published 30 August
2018
Argentina
is struggling to cope with yet another financial crisis.Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America's third-largest economy could soon default as it struggles to repay heavy government borrowing. This comes after Argentina's government unexpectedly asked for the early release of a $50 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday.
The Argentine peso crashed to record lows on the news. It saw steep losses in the previous session and collapsed another 15 percent to hit $39 on Thursday morning.
The peso is down more than 45 percent against the greenback this year, exacerbating pre-existing fears over the country's weakening economy while inflation is running at 25.4 percent this year.
On Thursday, the central bank said it was increasing the amount of reserves that banks have to hold, in a bid to tighten fiscal policy and shore up the currency. It hiked rates by 15 percentage points to 60 percent from 45 percent
The IMF said in a statement Wednesday that it would look to "revise the government's economic plan with a focus on better insulating Argentina from recent shifts in global financial markets."
The Washington D.C.-based institute also added that its plan included "stronger monetary and fiscal policies and a deepening of efforts to support the most vulnerable in society."
"It is now unclear if that will be enough to stabilize the government's finances amid (a) persistent reserve drain," Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said in a research note published Thursday.
----But the world's highest interest rate levels as well as backing from the IMF have both failed to significantly improve market sentiment.
"Real rates are not tight enough to encourage capital inflows (so)
the economy is likely to contract this year," Reid said.
A number of emerging market countries, including Argentina, Turkey and
Brazil, are feeling the impact as tighter monetary policy from the U.S. Federal
Reserve has boosted the dollar.
More
"The history of paper money is an account of abuse, mismanagement, and financial disaster."
Richard M. Ebeling
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?
Watching two-dimensional materials grow
Date:
August 29, 2018
Source:
Vienna University of Technology
Summary:
The production of ultra-thin 2D crystals is difficult. In the past, different
techniques have yielded quite diverse results, but the reasons for this could
not be accurately explained. Thanks to a new method it is now possible to
observe the crystallization process directly under the electron microscope.
They are among the thinnest structures on earth: "two dimensional
materials" are crystals which consist of only one or a few layers of
atoms. They often display unusual properties, promising many new applications
in opto-electronics and energy technology. One of these materials is
2D-molybdenum sulphide, an atomically thin layer of molybdenum and sulphur
atoms.
The production of such ultra-thin crystals is difficult. The
crystallisation process depends on many different factors. In the past,
different techniques have yielded quite diverse results, but the reasons for
this could not be accurately explained. Thanks to a new method developed by
research teams at TU Wien, the University of Vienna and Joanneum Research in
Styria, for the first time ever it is now possible to observe the
crystallisation process directly under the electron microscope. The method has
now been presented in the scientific journal ACS Nano.
From gas to crystal
"Molybdenum sulphide can be used in transparent and flexible solar
cells or for sustainably generating hydrogen for energy storage," says the
lead author of the study, Bernhard C. Bayer from the Institute of Materials
Chemistry at TU Wien. "In order to do this, however, high-quality crystals
must be grown under controlled conditions."
Usually this is done by starting out with atoms in gaseous form and then
condensing them on a surface in a random and unstructured way. In a second
step, the atoms are arranged in regular crystal form -- through heating, for
example. "The diverse chemical reactions during the crystallisation
process are, however, still unclear, which makes it very difficult to develop
better production methods for 2D materials of this kind," Bayer states.
Thanks to a new method, however, it should now be possible to accurately
study the details of the crystallisation process. "This means it is no
longer necessary to experiment through trial and error, but thanks to a deeper
understanding of the processes, we can say for certain how to obtain the
desired product," Bayer adds.
----The
new findings will help to adapt the structure of the 2D materials more
precisely to application requirements in future by interfering with the
rearrangement processes in a targeted manner.
More
Another weekend and the last day of August to dress
up the stock markets month-end closes. But it’s also the Labor Day long weekend
holiday in America, so it’s anyone’s guess what happens in the extra thin
conditions today.
It’s also anyone’s guess if President Trump’s
tweets over Labour Day will be positive or negative. So far he’s done a great
job of forcing the rest of the world to back away from America. How that plays
out in the decades ahead, no one yet knows, but I suspect that it’s not a
positive development for America. Have a great weekend everyone.
"Gold would have value if for no other reason than that it enables a citizen to fashion his financial escape from the state."
William F. Rickenbacker
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July.
DJIA: 25,415 +213 Down. NASDAQ:
7,672 +259 Down. SP500: 2,816 +166 Down.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March and have continued down ever since.
For some a new bear signal, for others a take profits and get back to cash
signal.
