Who took credit for the unemployment # just prior to the Obama vs Dole (or what was the guys name he ran against) in 2012? Even though those guys from Chicago inflated the numbers.
Trump talks down dollar, pivots on labeling China a currency manipulator
- Thread starter Tsing Tao
- Start date
By some, the financial crisis was recognized as on the way by 2007, it hit full force in 2008 with the market crash. The S&P hit its low (the devils bottom, 666) in the first week of March 2009. That's the unofficial start of the recovery. By the time Obama arrived on Pennsylvania Avenue the emergency measures put into place by Hank Paulson at Treasury and Ben Bernanke at the Fed in the waning days of the G.W. Bush administration were underway. Obama was faced with continuing the long dig out of the mess created by Greenspan, Wall Street, and 8 years of costly and damaging Republican leadership under Bush-Cheney. After four years of QE and slow progress, Obama ran for re-election against Romney and Ryan in 2012. It was ridiculous to think you could recover from the deepest recession since the great depression in just 4 years, nevertheless that's what people expected. In 2012, in the minds of the public, Obama owned everything. There was no more blaming Bush and Cheney. Obama was able to pull out a substantial victory with the help of his rival, the stiff, uncharismatic Romney. Romney's gaffe, caught on videotape, sealed his fate.* It was difficult for the American public to imagine Romney hosting Saturday night live, whereas they had no trouble visualizing Obamba in that role.
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*I think the reason this was so damaging, leaving no possibility for recovery before the election was that Romney's disparaging remarks were directed at an important component of the Republican party base; the very segment of the population that the republicans must have in their camp to have any chance at being elected. There are simply not enough wealthy people to elect anyone, and a major fraction of the wealthy support democrats. The republicans have formed a coalition of low information, lower middle class Americans and evangelicals to round out their natural constituency found among military personnel. Republican profits from the defense industry and the interests of military personnel align well. It is the interests of other segments of republican support that don't align at all well with the true interests of the wealthy at the top of the party, i.e., low taxes. The republicans, however, must have these latter groups in their camp to get elected. This is why the Republicans are forced to lie. The republican leadership can't tell the truth and still hold onto the Tea Party, the Freedom Coalition, the evangelicals, and Joe the plumber --the unemployed one. These latter segments of the uneasy republican coalition are where one will find the highest concentration of voters susceptible to conspiracy theories, and Reagan's pitch "Government is not the solution. it's the problem!". Consequently this is where a huge portion of republican campaign funds and effort are focused.
The wealthy want to pare down the parts of government they don't need, even though those are the parts that benefit the very segment of society they prey on. The republicans have carefully hidden cannibalistic tendencies! They don't want to cut military expenditures because there are huge private profits to be gleaned from the most inefficient and socialistic of all government enterprises. This works to the republicans advantage at the polls because military personnel form a substantial part of the republican voter base. On the other hand, the low information voters they prey on need good government; the very parts of government that the wealthy would just as soon see done away with! The republicans therefore have their work cut out. They must convince the low information, non-military segment of their base that their problems are caused by government and therefore the solution is to get government out of their lives.
Even though lying is an art form difficult to perfect, the republicans have done it! They are masters at convincing the low information voter that if only there was less government they'd be better off. It's a bold faced lie, and completely counter to the best interests of the lower middle class, but the republican stump spiel has, nevertheless, proved highly successful. When you realize how well it works you can't help but admire it.
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Tell me about Venezuala. I know nothing. Never been there. I have heard he government is very fucked up. Hugo Chavez, populist, socialist. Right? Oil prices collapse. Economy collapses. Then he dies, and someone else takes over. And so I'm told by the media, horrible mismanagement in government. and lots of poverty. big problems.
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You're more knowledgeable about venezuala than you give yourself credit for.
How come you don't know about America? You think the public is being lied to when really it's just the wrong people administering free mkt capitalism. When we get the right people, we'll see the maximum benefits of free mkts and how much better it is than big gov't.
How come you don't know about America? You think the public is being lied to when really it's just the wrong people administering free mkt capitalism. When we get the right people, we'll see the maximum benefits of free mkts and how much better it is than big gov't.
Outside of Steve Bannon, Trump's entire cabinet and set of advisors have made billions off globalization. Trump himself has earned (and will continue to earn) hundreds of millions as a direct result of globalization. I would be surprised if all these guys suddenly found "religion." It's unlikely he will follow up on his anti-Globalization rhetoric.
More Trump flip flops. He ran on the campaign that a strong dollar was good for the United States. Promised to label China a currency manipulator. Looks like now he gave that to Xi in hopes Xi would play ball on North Korea. So I guess that's something.
Also said yesterday he would consider reappointing Yellen to the Fed. Another thing during his campaign he said he would not do. One could argue that Trump has done a decent job negotiating to get some action from parties like China, etc. But that's not the point. What he ran on and what got him elected was one set of commitments, which he is now changing.
Greenback Stabilizes After Trump-Induced Slide
- President Trump's comments are the main talking point today
- The heightened geopolitical worries appear to be easing for the second consecutive session
- US economic data include PPI, initial jobless claims and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment
- Brazil cut rates 100 bp, as expected; Chile is expected to keep rates steady at 3.0%
- MAS and BOK left policy unchanged, as expected
The dollar is mixed against the majors as markets calm after Trump’s comment late yesterday. The dollar bloc is outperforming, while the euro is underperforming. EM currencies are mixed. KRW and TWD are outperforming, while ZAR and TRY are underperforming. MSCI Asia Pacific was up 0.1%, with the Nikkei falling 0.7%. MSCI EM is up 0.5%, with China markets rising 0.2%. Euro Stoxx 600 is down 0.4% near midday, while S&P futures are pointing to a lower open. The 10-year UST yield is down 2 bp at 2.22%. Commodity prices are mixed, with oil flat, copper up nearly 1%, and gold up 0.1%.
President Trump's comments are the main talking point today. His claim that the dollar is too strong is not new, but it is the first time he has ventured down that path since the inauguration. His comments follow a three-month decline in the broad measure of the dollar. If a leader of another country said what he did, they likely would be accused of manipulating their currency. That said, in the US Treasury's criteria of currency manipulation, jawboning does not count. Still, it seems a departure from the G7 and G20 agreements, and like areas, this is an example of unilateralism.
Trump made several other revelations that may be important for investors. He revealed that China will not be cited as a manipulator, but refused to be drawn into a discussion whether this was partly in exchange for cooperation from China on the North Korea issue. A few hours before Trump's interview was released, China abstained from the UN Security Council resolution condemning the chemical attack in Syria. Since 2011, China has vetoed US-sponsored Security Council resolutions on Syria. Russia vetoed it yesterday. Abstaining sent an important diplomatic signal.
The US President also changed his stance regarding NATO. He said it is no longer obsolete. However, he still harangued NATO head Stoltenberg about compensation for the US carrying the load for NATO. Two overlooked points should be noted. First, Germany's Vice Chancellor has argued that in addition to the country's 1.2% defense budget, it spent around 0.7% on dealing with refugees in part from past military efforts, like in Libya. Second, in a ground war, Germany and Europe will likely pay much more than 2% of GDP. The US may pay in advance, Europe later.
Trump also reversed his earlier opposition to the Export-Import Bank. He also returned to an earlier position that health care reform needs to precede tax reform. He also had spoken well of Yellen and kept the door open to her reappointment. Volcker, Greenspan and Bernanke, the last three Fed chairs, were each appointed by the President of one party and reappointed by the President of the other party. His admission of preferring low interest rate policy is not surprising, though he accused Yellen during the campaign of keeping rates low to help Clinton. Preferences do not drive exchange or interest rates, and low rates seem to run against the stronger growth that he is advocating.
The republican politicians are not telling us we don't need more of their bullshit, we are telling them, and a republican is very conservative, as in slow to learn the new dance everybody but you and Bernie recognize as necessary. The only difference between a big money democrat and a big money republican is the donor who is the same for both and the favor they owe him which is the same for both. So your idea that somehow republicans are more accomplished liars and public persuader is confused with the fact that anybody with common sense can see that all the promises and dreams are more bullshit while people like you dream we can turn lead into gold and make government good. Government will always be bad. Government is necessary, and in limited forms can serve the people, like weed killer or chemo. But more of a bad thing which sometimes helps does not make it good. That is why we are conservative. We prefer a very limited use of government, not a liberal approach which firsts looks to the government to fix everything. Now why don't you give me several examples of how socialistic we are and how much I need government. You are getting more predictable than you are old. I tried. I embraced the Soros "if man thinks government is bad he will create a bad government" line, when are you ever going to admit that almost everything the government does over and beyond what most Americans agree is legitimate is a total failure with unintended long term consequences that need more and more fixing money. Republican propaganda is not slick. It's just a refreshing and easily understood change from years and years and years of leftwing propaganda.
ha ha ha . If you go back to what I wrote you'll realize I did not comment on the lying skills of republicans relative to other good liars. i merely made note of their impressive skills when it comes to hoodwinking the ones they are going to screw the most into voting for them. You gotta admit, it's impressive.
OK, fine, lets try bare bones government. Do the experiment. See what happens. I'll be dead by the time you find out. (The experiment has already been done, but the lessons learned apparently did not get passed down.) I am even more in favor of just paring down to what "most Americans agree is legitimate," as you say. Go ahead please with that one, but don't come an cry on my shoulder when you run head long into that bitch called "democracy."
You did yourself a favor by reading Soros. You can't do better than that. Those of us who have learned to learn from those who have already been there, done that, and thought about it, will always be well ahead of those who are still trying to figure things out on their own.
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That's what I say, we can slash and burn government from here till the cows come home and it still won't even be remotely as conservative as it was once envisioned and hoped it could be and neither of us or anybody will ever live to see it.