My
fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation
that will outlaw China forever. We begin bombing in five
minutes .
President
Trump, with apologies to President Reagan and Russia.
With America and
China imposing new tariffs on each other starting on Monday, the coming autumn
and winter will be interesting, and not necessarily in a good way for President
Trump’s “MAGA.” China, the global economy, or a Brexit headed GB and EUSSR.
For one reason, China’s
just decided against turning the other cheek. For another, US consumers are
just about to take a hit in the pockets right ahead of the coming Christmas
retail season.
For another, unless
President U-turn does a U-turn over Iran’s oil sales, from mid-October crude
oil prices will likely be 10 to 20 dollars higher. Neither the Saudis nor
Russia have an ability to replace Iran’s oil, and with the USA announcing new
sanctions on Venezuela, and rising production problems in Libya and Nigeria, price
rationing via higher oil prices looks to be the immediate future.
How all this plays
out in the US mid-term elections is anyone’s guess, but however they play out,
a very different political USA is shaping up for 2019.
Below, rising
trepidation as the real trade war is about to start.
“It’s better
to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is
better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
Warren
Buffett.
September 22, 2018 / 5:04 AM
China cancels trade talks with U.S. as tariff threats escalate: WSJ
SHANGHAI
(Reuters) - China has canceled upcoming trade talks with the United States and
will not send vice-premier Liu He to Washington next week, the Wall Street
Journal reported, citing sources.
The Wall
Street Journal said a mid-level delegation was due to travel to Washington
ahead of Liu’s visit, but the trip has now been abandoned.
Earlier this
week, China added $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list as it
retaliated against U.S. duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods set to go into effect
from Sept. 24.
Trump and Xi Are Destined to Divorce
The 2008 crisis set the U.S. and China on an inexorable path to confrontation.By Andrew Browne
In
their own individual ways, the leaders of the U.S. and China are products of a
moment when free-market capitalism imploded and Chinese-style “state
capitalism” shored up the global economy. The 2008 financial crisis helped make
both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. What observers don’t yet seem to
appreciate is how difficult that makes it for them to resolve their spiraling
trade war.
Financial markets wobble every time Trump imposes new tariffs on China, such as the 10 percent levy on $200 billion in imports he announced earlier this week, and then perk up on hopes of talks, as though this was a classic tit-for-tat trade war. It’s far from that. White House complaints about lopsided trade and Chinese theft of intellectual property are the pretext for a wider struggle. What we’re seeing are the opening stages of a strategic competition spurred by a sense of vulnerability in the U.S. and, in China, of national destiny.
This roots of this confrontation lie in the 2008 collapse. The crisis shaped the nationalist impulses of both Trump and Xi, while energizing their respective bases. The U.S. response — the emergency decision to bail out Wall Street and leave workers to fend for themselves — pretty much ensured that median wages wouldn’t budge for a decade. Post-crisis salary gains have disproportionately accrued to the top 1 percent on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.
Trump deftly exploited the distress this caused blue-collar and middle-class Americans to pave his way to the White House. “Make America Great Again” was born of defeat.
For his part, Xi manipulated, with equal finesse, the sense of self-assuredness that came over China after it witnessed first the humbling of Western capitalism, then liberal democracy buckling to the forces of populism and nativism. Xi’s signature “China Dream” gave expression to this triumphant nationalism. From the vantage point of Communist Party headquarters, there was no longer any need for caution in dealing with a West suspicious of Chinese intentions; Deng Xiaoping’s prudent advice to “bide our time and hide our capabilities” could be safely discarded. China’s moment had arrived.
Confidence morphed into assertiveness, and then into recklessness. Did Xi and his advisers really imagine that they’d face no pushback to the “Made in China 2025” industrial policy that has, as its explicit goal, the mercantilist objective of taking over swaths of advanced technology through subsidies and other incentives to state champions?
More
September 21, 2018 / 9:22 PM
Factbox - U.S. companies react on impact of Trump trade tariffs
(Reuters)
- China and the United States plunged deeper into a trade war on Tuesday after
Beijing added $60 billion (£45.88 billion) of U.S. products to its tariff list,
retaliating to U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned levies on $200 billion
worth of Chinese goods.
The tit-for-tat measures are the latest escalation in an increasingly protracted trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
The U.S. administration will begin to levy new tariffs of 10 percent on about $200 billion of Chinese products on Sept. 24, with the tariffs to go up to 25 percent by the end of 2018.
The following are comments made by U.S. companies after the Trump administration said on July 10 reut.rs/2m6Yu0r that it would slap tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports.
For a factbox on comments by U.S. companies on tariffs, click here reut.rs/2N2pn5x.
** Walmart Inc (WMT.N) warned that it may raise prices of products if the Trump administration imposes a tariff on Chinese imports. The company said the tariff would impact prices of everything from food products to beverages and personal care items.
** Target Corp (TGT.N) said it was “deeply troubled” and strongly opposed any consideration to add tariffs on basic imported consumer goods. The company also said the administration’s tariff policies are already forcing major vendors across product categories to raise prices.
** Chipmaker Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) said U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would weigh on its financial results for as much as a year.
** Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE.N) said it was disappointed with the latest outcome on the tariffs. The company said it relies on complex global supply chains and is bound to face various challenges arising from these tariffs.
More
With U.S. Tariffs on Chinese ‘Parts’, Advantage Goes to Canada in Auto Sector Investments
Alex Carrick
The
Trump Administration in Washington has recently imposed $200 billion in tariffs
on imports from China. Included in those new duty assessments are auto parts.
This
action, along with another key development in Mexico, has introduced a strange
twist into the dynamics of where, in North America, motor vehicle assemblers
may wish to carry out future capital spending.
----But it is the U.S. that has imposed tariffs on Chinese imports and that exceptional turn of events warrants studying the import numbers in Table 1.
How big a
role does the import factor play in total U.S. auto sector demand?
From January
to July of this year, the value of total U.S. motor vehicle and parts imports
was $211 billion USD. For the same time frame, U.S. retail sales of motor
vehicles and parts – a figure which includes transportation and profit markups
– was $720 billion USD.
Drawing from
another source, the unit numbers on assembled vehicle sales from the Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA) indicate that imports are a little more than 20% of
total U.S. car and ‘light truck’ sales. (This has nothing to say about ‘parts’
imports.)
Whether it
be in terms of assembled vehicles or auto parts, Mexico is the major import
supplier to the U.S. For the period January-to-July of this year, Mexico
supplied 30% of ‘car and light truck’ imports; 38% of ‘parts’ imports; and 34%,
or one-third, of total U.S. auto sector imports.
From the top
portion of Table 1, China is near the bottom of the ranking-list (in ninth
position) as a supplier of assembled cars and light trucks to the U.S.
It’s in the
middle portion of Table 1, however, where the more gripping plot line unfolds.
With respect
to ‘parts’ imports, China is in second spot as a foreign supplier.
The new
tariffs are 10% at present, going to 25% at the beginning of 2019.
There could
be a dramatic impact on U.S. motor vehicle costs. Auto industry executives and
analysts are warning that the price of some U.S. vehicles may rise by thousands
of dollars due to the tariffs on Chinese ‘parts’.
----Americans have long paid less for their modes of vehicular transport than Canadians. There have been longstanding price gaps for cars, SUVs and light trucks that have favored U.S. consumers.
In a strange
twist of fate, it appears the U.S. is ‘voluntarily’ reducing, maybe even
eliminating, that discrepancy.
Furthermore,
a trading agreement has recently been reached between the U.S. and Mexico that
will require a big boost in the wages to be paid to auto sector workers in the
latter nation.
If Canada
emerges unscathed (i.e., free of U.S. tariffs) from the ongoing NAFTA-upgrade
talks, the country will soon gain a notable cost advantage in motor vehicle
assembly operations from unfettered access to foreign parts sources.
Major auto
assemblers will have a new important reason to look to Canada when considering
future large-scale investments.
Finally, there’s a
rising banking scandal just getting underway in Europe, but still under the
radar. A whole lot of dirty laundry is
now about to get exposed, and not all of its Russian.
Only
when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
Warren
Buffett.
British Companies Used Baltic Banks for Laundering, Browder Says
By Hugo Miller and Frances Schwartzkopff
21 September 2018, 08:29 GMT+1 Updated
on 21 September 2018, 12:29 GMT+1
British-registered shell companies routinely used Baltic banks to launder
millions of dollars, American-born financier Bill Browder said a day after the
U.K.’s role in Danske
Bank A/S’s Estonian scandal was revealed.Browder, chief executive officer and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, made the claim Friday when the U.K.’s National Crime Agency said it would look into the role of British companies. The Danish bank said U.K.-based businesses and people accounted for the second-biggest source of foreign clients after Russia at its Estonian branch.
“These U.K. companies laundered tens of millions of dollars through Baltic banks, but reported zero balances and zero activity” in publicly filed documents, Browder said in emailed comments. “When we’ve reported this situation to the U.K. authorities, they’ve taken no action in the past."
Browder lobbied U.S. Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act in 2012. The law, named for his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, is intended to punish human rights offenders by freezing their assets and prohibit them from entering the U.S. Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison after opening an investigation into Russian tax fraud.
Estonian authorities opened a criminal probe in July after Browder filed criminal complaints.
Estonia Brings Out X-Ray to Pin $4.5 Billion in Suspicious Cash
Danske Bank says a large part of the Estonian branch’s operations need to be treated as suspicious. CEO Thomas Borgen resigned in disgrace and criminal investigations are ongoing, with the Danish government saying it could yield a fine as big as 4 billion kroner, or about $630 million. Only Russia accounted for more of the $234 billion that flowed through the Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015 than British entities, Danske Bank said. On Friday, the NCA acknowledged ongoing activity into the scandal.
“The threat posed by the use of U.K. company structures as a route for money-laundering is widely recognized and the NCA is working with partners across government to restrict the ability of criminals to use them in this way,” the NCA said in a statement.
The British Serious Fraud Office said in statement it can neither confirm or deny any interest in Danske Bank. A spokesman for the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates banks in the U.K., did not have any immediate comment and said he would look into the matter further.
According to an 87-page bank report into the affair, customers came from 90 countries to use the Estonian branch, with people or businesses from Russia, the U.K. and the British Virgin Islands being the main clients outside Estonia.
Browder said in his email that in his company’s investigation into Russian money laundering, “we found significant use of U.K. shell companies.”
The NCA’s comments come after the Financial Times reported that it had opened a criminal investigation into an unidentified U.K.-registered limited liability partnership with links to the Danske Bank branch at the center of the scandal. The NCA operates the U.K.’s Financial Intelligence Unit, which receives analysis and shares information gathered from reports of suspicious activity.
We begin bombing in five minutes
----This was not the first time Reagan had joked before
giving a speech or address.[6]
The Soviet official news agency, TASS, condemned the joke,
declaring that "The USSR condemns this unprecedented and hostile attack by
the US President" and that "this kind of behavior is incompatible
with the great responsibility borne by heads of nuclear states for the
destinies of their own people and mankind".
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment