Baltic Dry Index. 1450 +16 Brent Crude 81.82
Facts are stubborn, but
statistics are more pliable.
Mark Twain
Today, it is put up
or shut up time for the Fed. Will they or won’t they raise their key interest
rate. A third interest rate hike this year is dreaded by the deeply dollar
indebted emerging market economies, but the Fed only sets interest rates for
the USA. Based solely on what’s happening in the US economy, the Fed is already
lingering quite far behind in raising interest rates.
President Trump has
all but ordered the Fed not to raise their key interest rate, but that only
makes a rate hike all the more likely, if only to preserve the pretence of Fed
independence.
Below, a world awaiting
the Gospel according to Jerome Powell.
Asian Stocks Mixed; Treasuries Steady Before Fed: Markets Wrap
By Andreea Papuc
Updated on 26 September 2018, 05:18 GMT+1
Asian stocks were mixed as traders awaited the Federal Reserve meeting. U.S.
Treasuries were steady, with yields near the seven-year highs reached in May.Japan’s Topix index retreated from its highest in almost eight months. Stocks rallied in Hong Kong as traders returned from a holiday. Chinese stocks advanced after MSCI Inc. said it’s considering increasing the weight of the shares in its global indexes from next year. U.S. stocks were mixed as oil drillers rallied with crude while industrial shares lagged. President Donald Trump told the United Nations that the trade deficit with China “is just not acceptable,” in a reminder of deepening trade tensions. The dollar weakened slightly. Brent crude stabilized just below a four-year high.
Investors
are seeking direction in the face of mounting political, trade and policy
headwinds and what could be a long and bruising conflict between the U.S. and
China following the Asian nation’s decision to call off planned talks after the
latest round of tariffs. Traders now turn to the Fed’s policy meeting, which
will likely see the year’s third interest-rate increase and feature fresh
projections for the next few years.
Ten-year
Treasury yields are just below 3.10 percent, while two-year yields are at a
decade high ahead of the Fed statement and press briefing by Chairman Jerome
Powell.
More
Up next, a bad, if fun day in Gotham City. Well a bad day for all
excepting President Trump’s new best buddy, North Korea. How much longer before
all the bad rhetoric results in a major misreading, miscalculation, and war?
“If
you're not gonna pull the trigger, don't point the gun.”
James
Baker. United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan,
and U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President
George H. W. Bush.
Trump, Iran's Rouhani exchange threats, insults on U.N.'s world stage
September 25, 2018 / 12:55 PM
UNITED
NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani exchanged taunts at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday with
Trump vowing more sanctions against Tehran and Rouhani suggesting his American
counterpart suffers from a “weakness of intellect.”
Trump used his annual address to the United Nations to attack Iran’s
“corrupt dictatorship,” praise last year’s bogeyman North Korea and lay down a
defiant message that he will reject globalism and protect American interests.
But much of his 35-minute address was aimed squarely at Iran, which the
United States accuses of harbouring nuclear ambitions and fomenting instability
in the Middle East through its support for militant groups in Syria, Lebanon
and Yemen.
“Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death and destruction,” Trump told the
gathering in the green-marbled hall. “They do not respect their neighbours or
borders or the sovereign rights of nations.”
Rouhani, addressing the assembled world leaders later, sharply
criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 international nuclear
deal with Iran. He said he had “no need for a photo opportunity” with Trump and
suggested the U.S. president’s pull back from global institutions was a character
defect.
“Confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength. Rather it
is a symptom of the weakness of intellect - it betrays an inability in
understanding a complex and interconnected world,” he said.
Trump’s address was met largely by silence from world leaders still not
comfortable with go-it-alone views that have strained U.S. relationships with
traditional allies worldwide.
His speech, while delivered in a low-key fashion, was nonetheless a
thunderous recitation of his “America First” policies. He has disrupted the
world order by withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal and the
Paris climate accord, and threatened to punish NATO nations for not paying more
for their common defence.
---- Besides calling out Iran, Trump also criticized China for its trade practices but made no mention of Russia’s interference in Syria’s war or its suspected meddling in U.S. elections.
Rouhani was defiant in his speech to the world body.
“What Iran says is clear: no war, no sanctions, no threats, no bullying;
just acting according to the law and the fulfilment of obligations,” Rouhani
said.
More
Trump’s UN Handshake With Trudeau Suggests Lingering Resentment
By Toluse Olorunnipa and Josh Wingrove
If body language at a UN luncheon is any hint, Justin Trudeau is still
in Donald Trump’s doghouse.
The U.S. president and Canadian prime minister attended the same
luncheon at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, but it
was hardly a warm encounter. The two mingled near each other but didn’t speak
before Trump sat down for lunch. Trudeau then approached Trump, standing behind
him without the president appearing to acknowledge him. Trudeau tapped him on
the shoulder and the men shook hands in a brief exchange. Trump didn’t stand
up.
Later, Trump’s other Nafta partner, Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto, came by and the U.S. president stood to shake his hand. Trump also stood to greet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Trump spoke to both for longer than he did Trudeau.
The UN encounter comes as the countries bear down on a U.S. deadline for a new Nafta pact, but they remain divided on a handful of core issues. Trump and Trudeau initially had a warm relationship, before the Group of Seven summit in June where Trump erupted after a Trudeau press conference.
From tragedy to farce: How world leaders learned to laugh at Trump
It might be remembered as the moment when the world’s response to the
Trump threat shifted from paralytic horror to dismissive laughter.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to the United Nations General
Assembly in New York Tuesday morning contained many of the elements that left
the free world aghast in 2017: Promises to tear up crucial international
climate, trade and nuclear-peace agreements; threats of war (against Iran this
time, but not North Korea); kind words for strongmen and dictators with little
but scorn for the democratic world.
This time, however, the response from many of the other 100-plus world
leaders present was laughter and ridicule. Mr. Trump opened his address with a
flourish of characteristically ludicrous braggadocio (“My administration has
accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our
country”), cut short by very audible peals of laughter from the heads of state and
government gathered in the General Assembly.
Mr. Trump reacted with visible discomfort – “Didn’t expect that
reaction,” he muttered to the audience. After all, over the past decade he has
frequently denounced the Obama administration’s policies by declaring, in
speeches and tweets, that “the world is laughing at us.” For the first time, it
really was, at the highest level, and directly to his face.
One was reminded of Franz Kafka’s description of the type of person
whose “ludicrous aspect” inspires uncontrollable laughter among otherwise
serious listeners: “an individual in the public eye whose lofty position is not
solely a function of his own accomplishments.”
The laughter was more than an incidental backdrop to more serious
issues. It represented, in a way, an emerging global response to Mr. Trump’s
angry unilateralism.
While many countries remain threatened by Mr. Trump’s isolationist,
unco-operative United States, at this point they have effectively priced Mr.
Trump into his country’s share price – and the rest of the UN membership spent
the remainder of the day trying to devise a world order that can function
without the United States.
In the core of his speech, Mr. Trump denounced international
co-operation on peace, disarmament and environmental protection as an
intolerable manifestation of “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy,” as
a set of “threats to sovereignty” from “global governance.”
In his key sentence, a declaration with overtones rooted in the 1930s
that seemed to have been penned by one of his advisers on the extreme right,
Mr. Trump intoned: “America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of
globalism, and we embrace the ideology of patriotism.”
This sort of ultra-nationalist, isolationist rhetoric is nothing new to
the UN General Assembly: Although the United Nations was created, in the
aftermath of the Second World War, to prevent such ideas from rising to
dominance again, many leaders, both democratic and authoritarian, have used the
assembly to lash out at perceived conspiracies and plots directed by the world
community. Leaders of the far left and far right have denounced “globalism.”
The shock of such words coming from the mouth of a U.S. president was new and
palpable in 2017, but by now they have become a familiar, if disquieting, piece
of performance art.
---- What has changed, since Mr. Trump first articulated his pessimistic doctrine in 2017, is the world’s response. Aside from the laughter, much of the day was devoted to other major-country leaders outlining an alternative way of conducting international business – presumably without requiring U.S. involvement.
“I deeply believe in the sovereignty of people” – not of national
governments, French President Emmanuel Macron began in a very well-received
speech. “In the 21st century, we should only triumph through bolstered
multilateralism.”
Mr. Macron drew a sharp line between the Trump image of a global
conspiracy and the sort of co-operation that attempts to solve grave
international problems: “My point is, I don’t believe in generalized or empty
globalization … I believe in universal values. Those are two different things.
Here today, even [among] those who might criticize it, we have all benefited
from the way global order is structured around globalization.”
That remark was met, by most of the other leaders, with a lengthy
ovation.
More
At UN, more evidence that Trump is losing the world
President Trump's speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday morning
depicted a United States under siege, finally pushing back after years of
unfair trade pacts and free riding among allies. Clear warnings were
issued: He rejected the International Criminal Court — echoing John
Bolton’s speech two weeks ago — and the new global migration compact; from now
on, foreign aid would go only to those the secretary of state deems
friends.
The big picture: President Trump put his America First doctrine
forward as a model not just for the United States, but for other countries. He
advised them to embrace nationalism over internationalism. The rest of his
address hit familiar talking points: boasting about the American economy;
praising sovereignty; denouncing globalism, unfair trade, the UN Human Rights
Council, OPEC and the Iran nuclear deal; and vilifying China, Iran and
Venezuela.
Trump set out patriotism as incompatible with globalism, neglecting the
reality that many of the challenges confronting the United States this century,
including terrorism and nuclear proliferation, will require collective
action.
---- The principal exception to the dark tone of the speech concerned North Korea’s Kim Jung-un. The president continued to praise him and extoll what their diplomacy has accomplished despite evidence to the contrary.
The bottom line: At
one point during his speech, Trump boasted that “in less than two years my
administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the
history of our country,” a statement that met with laughter. It was more
evidence that he has lost his international audience — not just in the UN
Assembly Hall today, but around the world.
Richard Haass is president
of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “A World in Disarray.”
A person who won't read has no
advantage over one who can't read.
Mark Twain
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Not the usual suspects today,
bent banksters, seriously bent central banksters, and doubled over politicians,
they’ll be back in spades tomorrow. Today, how the world is fast changing with
new “facts” on the ground. News western mainstream media rarely reports and
politicians would rather you didn’t know.
Chinese contractor drills longest railway tunnel in East Africa
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-25 03:03:14|Editor:
Yang Yi
NAIROBI, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China Communications Construction Company
(CCCC) has drilled the longest railway tunnel in East Africa, the company said
Monday.
The tunnel is part of phase 2A of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that
runs from the Kenyan Capital city of Nairobi to Naivasha town.
An Aijun, general manager of SGR project head office at the CCCC, said
that during the excavation, the project team overcame the challenges of water
leaks, uneven pressure, shallow-depth excavation, surrounding rocks, structural
fault-line, and oil pipeline protection.
"With a total length of 4.5 km, the Ngong tunnel is currently the
longest tunnel in East Africa and the dominant work in SGR Phase 2A," An
said during celebrations to mark the breakthrough of the Ngong tunnel.
The Phase 2A which extends for about 120 km is set to be completed in
2019. The 4.5 km Ngong tunnel has been designed as a single-track railway
tunnel with a clearance height of nine meters and a width of seven meters.
CCCC engineers used the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) of drilling
and blasting to build the tunnel and it is the first time that such a method
has been used on such a large scale in Kenya.
The tunneling method is economical, efficient and has strong
adaptability for different geological and groundwater conditions. The method is
preferred because it controls surface collapse effectively, and enhances the
working environment during construction.
An said the construction team addressed the technical difficulty in
designing and constructing in the Great Rift Valley to ensure a safe
breakthrough of the tunnel and this means that the SGR Phase 2A has entered a
new stage, laying a solid foundation for inauguration next year.
The general manager said that with quality as a foundation and safety as
a lifeline, they shall maintain an all-round quality control system in the source,
process, methodology and management, and enforce strict safety management at
all procedures.
"We will continue to protect the environment, implement local
contents, and participate in social welfare, bringing real benefits to the
local communities," he added.
"Together with all our Kenyan partners, and building on what has
been achieved at the FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) Summit in
Beijing, we shall construct a time-honored railway that will stand the test of
time and operations, achieving greater success in a new era between our two
nations," he added.
According to Steve Zhao, the CCCC Kenya SGR Project Spokesperson, 146
refuge holes of different sizes have been built within the tunnel to allow
maintenance workers to take cover as the train approaches.
"There is one large refuge hole set up every 150 meters in the
tunnel, and one small refuge hole set up every 30 meters in the tunnel,"
Zhao explained.
A 533-meter wide emergency rescue channel has also been built within the
tunnel, to allow for vehicle access in case of emergencies.
"We have reserved space to install fans within the tunnel. Six jet
fans can be installed to ensure air ventilation once the tunnel is
operational," added Zhao.
He revealed that about 600 workers and engineers worked tirelessly
overcoming all odds for 24 months to accomplish the engineering marvel.
Michael Waweru, chairman of board at the Kenya Railways, said the SGR is
one of the most important transformational projects for the railway and entire
transport sector in the region.
"It is an ambitious undertaking by the government of Kenya
envisioned to revolutionize the social economic development of the
country," Waweru said.
The chairman said it is expected that as a result of construction of the
SGR line, it will lead to an upsurge in development in the towns along the
corridor, ease transportation of their resources and foster sustainable
development patterns.
EU to set up legal entity to facilitate trade with Iran
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-25 15:15:37|Editor:
mmm
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will set up
a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in
light of the U.S. withdrawal from the international agreement on Tehran's
nuclear program and the re-imposition of sanctions, said the EU's foreign and
security policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday.
The legal entity will allow European companies to continue to trade with
Iran in accordance with EU law and could be open to other partners in the
world, Mogherini told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York after she
attended a meeting of foreign ministers from Iran and from Britain, China,
France, Germany and Russia -- the five remaining powers of the 2015 agreement
after the withdrawal of Washington.
Mogherini said participants of Monday's ministerial meeting were
supportive of such a measure.
These initiatives are aimed at preserving the Iran nuclear deal, which
is in the interests of the international community, according to a joint
statement of the foreign ministers, whose English version was read out to
reporters by Mogherini.
"The participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and
develop payment channels, notably the initiative to establish a Special Purpose
Vehicle to facilitate payments related to Iran's exports -- including oil --
and imports, which will assist and reassure economic operators pursuing
legitimate business with Iran," reads the statement.
"In practical terms this will mean that EU member states will set
up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with
Iran," explained Mogherini.
The six foreign ministers and Mogherini met on Monday on the sidelines
of the UN General Assembly in a bid to save the Iran nuclear deal after U.S.
President Donald Trump decided in May to pull out of it and to restore
sanctions on Iran, including those intended to curb Tehran's oil exports.
"The participants considered ways forward to ensure the full and
effective implementation of the JCPOA in all its aspects," reads the
statement, using the formal name of the Iran deal, or the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action.
"They also took stock of the process of finding and
operationalizing practical solutions for issues arising from the unilateral
withdrawal of the United States from the agreement and the re-imposition of
sanctions."
The participants recognized that alongside implementation by Iran of its
nuclear-related commitments, the lifting of sanctions, including the economic
dividends arising from it, constitutes an essential part of the JCPOA, says the
statement.
The participants recognized that Iran indeed has fully and effectively
implemented its nuclear-related commitments, notes the statement.
They said that the JCPOA is a key element of the global
non-proliferation architecture and a significant achievement of multilateral
diplomacy endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council through Resolution
2231.
Participants underlined their determination to protect the freedom of
their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran, in full
accordance with the Security Council resolution.
The participants reaffirmed their continued commitment to their past
promises, including the one to pursue concrete and effective measures to secure
payment channels with Iran, and the continuation of Iran's export of oil and
gas condensate, petroleum products and petrochemicals, says the statement.
John Bolton and Mike Pompeo warn Europeans over evading Iran sanctions
National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened “there will be hell to pay” if Iran attacks US or its alliesJoyce Karam
Updated: September 26, 201
----The State Department’s new Iran Action Group has released a 48-page report that chronicles the country’s destabilising activities around the world.
But amid reports that the European Union, Russia and China have agreed
on a “special purpose vehicle” that would allow countries to deal with Iran
while avoiding US sanctions, Mr Pompeo opened fire on the Europeans.
“Unfortunately, just last night I was disturbed and deeply disappointed
to hear remaining parties in the Iran [nuclear] deal announce they are setting
up a special payment system to bypass US sanctions,” he said.
“This is one of the most counter-productive measures imaginable for
regional global peace and security.
“By sustaining revenues to the regime you are solidifying Iran’s ranking
as the number one state sponsor of terror.”
Mr Bolton echoed the message in his speech.
“We do not intend for our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody
else,” he said.
More
Patriotism is supporting your
country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain
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?
Wigner crystal -- not Mott insulator -- in 'magic-angle' graphene
Date:
September 24, 2018
Source:
University of Illinois College of Engineering
Summary:
Recently, scientists created a stir in the field of condensed matter physics
when they
showed that two sheets of graphene twisted at specific angles display
two emergent phases of matter. After a careful review of the experimental data
researchers say that the insulating behavior of the ''magic-angle'' graphene is
not Mott insulation, but something even more profound -- a Wigner crystal.
Recently, a team of scientists led by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a huge stir in the field of
condensed matter physics when they showed that two sheets of graphene twisted
at specific angles -- dubbed "magic-angle" graphene -- display two emergent
phases of matter not observed in single sheets of graphene. Graphene is a
honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms -- it's essentially a one-atom-thick layer of
graphite, the dark, flaky material in pencils.
In two articles published online in March 2018 and appearing in the
April 5, 2018 issue of the journal Nature, the team reported the twisted
bilayer graphene (tBLG) exhibits an unconventional superconducting phase, akin
to what is seen in high-temperature superconducting cuprates. This phase is
obtained by doping (injecting electrons into) an insulating state, which the
MIT group interpreted as an example of Mott insulation. A joint team of
scientists at UCSB and Columbia University has reproduces the remarkable MIT
results. The discovery holds promise for the eventual development of
room-temperature superconductors and a host of other equally groundbreaking
applications.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have
recently shown that the insulating behavior reported by the MIT team has been
misattributed. Professor Philip Phillips, a noted expert in the physics of Mott
insulators, says a careful review of the MIT experimental data by his team
revealed that the insulating behavior of the "magic-angle" graphene
is not Mott insulation, but something even more profound -- a Wigner crystal.
"People have been looking for clear examples of Wigner crystals
since Wigner first predicted them in the 1930s," Phillips asserts. "I
think this is even more exciting than if it were a Mott insulator."
Lead author of the U of I study, graduate student Bikash Padhi,
explains, "When one sheet of graphene is twisted on top of another, moiré
patterns emerge as a result of the offset in the honeycomb structure. By
artificially injecting electrons into these sheets, the MIT group obtained
novel phases of matter which can be understood by studying these extra
electrons on the bed of this moiré pattern. By increasing the electron density,
the MIT group observed an insulating state when 2 and 3 electrons reside in a
moiré unit cell. They argued this behavior is an example of Mott physics."
Why can't it be Mott physics?
Phillips explains, "Mott insulators are a class of materials that
should be conductive if electronic interactions are not taken into account, but
once that's taken into account, are insulating instead. There are two primary
reasons why we suspect the tBLG does not form a Mott insulator -- the observed
metal-insulator transition offers only one characteristic energy scale, whereas
conventional Mott insulators are described by two scales. Next, in the MIT
report, in contrast to what one expects for a Mott system, there was no
insulator when there was only 1 electron per unit cell. This is fundamentally
inconsistent with Mottness."
The accompanying figure displays the crystalline states that explain
this data.
What is a Wigner crystal?
To understand Wigner crystals, Padhi offers this analogy: "Imagine
a group of people each inside a large orb and running around in a closed room.
If this orb is small they can move freely but as it grows bigger one may
collide more frequently than before and eventually there might be a point when
all of them are stuck at their positions since any small movement will be
immediately prevented by the next person. This is basically what a crystal is.
The people here are electrons, and the orb is a measure of their
repulsion."
It is better to keep your
mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all
doubt.
Mark Twain
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished August.
DJIA: 25,965 +207 Down. NASDAQ:
8,110 +265 Up. SP500: 2,902 +168 Up.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March, but the S&P and NASDAQ have now turned
up. September will be critical for
confirmation of this change.
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