“The statement from the Chinese embassy said Trump’s trade action was ‘self-defeating’ and would hurt American companies, consumers and financial markets. The administration said it would announce in the next 15 days which products would be subject to tariffs.”
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/22/news/economy/china-trade-war-response/index.html
“Rather than giving into the prevailing attitude among market participants that the nine-year-old bull market could continue indefinitely, Buffett’s latest annual letter to shareholders warns Berkshire investors that losses of 50% or more are not only possible but inevitable in the future.”
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buffett-berkshire-shareholders-prepared-lose-133100821.html
“Critics have compared the move to the disastrous redistribution of land in neighbouring Zimbabwe, which was often accompanied by violence and left farms neglected.”
“The Trump Administration is pushing for a $4.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2019 that would add $7 trillion to the already unsustainable federal deficit in order to sustain America’s military empire abroad and dramatically expand the police state here at home. Trump also wants American taxpayers to cover the cost of building that infamous border wall. Truly, Trump may turn out to be, as policy analyst Stan Collender warned, ‘the biggest deficit- and debt-increasing president of all time.'”
“The debt has increased 123 percent over the past decade as the nation sought to break free of the financial crisis and the tepid growth that followed. Total debt is now nearly 105 percent of gross domestic product, just shy of its highest level since World War II. The most recent Congressional Budget Office projections have the trajectory leading to a debt-to-GDP ratio of 150 percent by 2047, well past the point where financial crises typically occur. In addition, the budget deficit is likely to swell, with the CBO projecting an increase from 2.9 percent of GDP in 2017 to 9.8 percent in 2047.”
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/us-security-chief-calls-national-debt-a-dire-threat.html
“The U.S. attack is completely illegal under such international law as exists. The U.N. charter is very clear on that. One cannot help but reach the conclusion that something is dreadfully wrong in our system. Germany, Italy and Japan, when they were fascist-controlled, similarly launched expansionary and aggressive moves against various regions.”
Read more: https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/u-s-bombs-assad-forces-openly/
“The Defense Department is preparing for possible preventive attacks on North Korean nuclear and missile facilities, supposedly intended to prevent the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang from developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the continental United States. There are many indications that the Pentagon is putting in place the means to conduct such an attack—and recent enhancements to the GBU-57 bomb are among the most alarming of those.”
Read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-readies-father-of-all-bombs-for-use-against-north-korea/
“In what many will see as the latest sign of investor euphoria — and of our society’s oversharing epidemic — sharing your 401(k) balance on social media seems to have become a thing. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index hitting record after record since President Trump’s election in November 2016, the question, ‘How’s your 401(k) doing?’ has become a staple in his speeches at campaign-style rallies and fundraisers. And 401(k) balance shoutouts have become a staple among his supporters — and detractors — on Twitter.”
“Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said U.S. stocks and commercial real estate prices are elevated but stopped short of saying those markets are in a bubble. ‘What we look at is, if stock prices or asset prices more generally were to fall, what would that mean for the economy as a whole?’ Yellen said. ‘And I think our overall judgment is that, if there were to be a decline in asset valuations, it would not damage unduly the core of our financial system.'”
“The Treasury Department warned in its report to Congress that Russia’s sovereign debt market is too important to sanction without risking global financial turmoil, Bloomberg reported on Friday. That note can be seen as a sign of relief for Russian debt. The State Department did not hint as to whether the classified portion of its sanctions memo to Congress called for fines against those holding or trading in Russian securities.”
