Pence: Trump’s Tax Plan To Increase Deficit “In The Short Term”

Hours after Trump provided the broad framework, if few details, to his tax plan, conceived almost certainly by Goldman Sachs economists Alec Phillips and Jan Hatzius (and presented to the public by former Goldman employees Steven Mnuchin and Gary Cohn), the CRFB calculated its impact on both the US budget deficit and future US debt. This is how the CRFB phrased it:

“the White House released principles and a framework for tax reform today. We applaud the President’s focus on tax reform, but the plan includes far more detail on how the Administration would cut taxes than on how they would pay for those cuts. Based on what we know so far, the plan could cost $3 to $7 trillion over a decade– our base-case estimate is $5.5 trillion in revenue loss over a decade. Without adequate offsets, tax reform could drive up the federal debt, harming economic growth instead of boosting it.”

The CRFB summarized its math of Trump’s tax plan in the table below…

… and concluded as follows: adding interest costs, a $5.5 trillion tax plan would be enough to increase debt to 111% of Gross Domestic Product (compared to 89% of GDP in CBO’s baseline) by 2027. 

On Sunday morning, speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, VP Mike Pence confirmed that – as now appears virtually assured – not only will Trump’s tax plan not be budget, or revenue-neutral, but it will be debt-funded, effectively a continuation of the Obama status quo.

Specifically, Pence acknowledged that the Trump administration’s tax proposal could increase the deficit, at least at first. “Maybe in the short term,” he said during an exclusive interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

To be sure, Pence was confident that eventually the deficit would decline as it would be overcome by economic “growth” thanks to the tax cuts it will fund. However, even he hedged: “the truth is, if we don’t get this economy growing at 3 percent or more, as the president believes we can, we’re never going to meet the obligations that we’ve made today.” Here he is referring not only to the total US/credit of 350%, but the non-capitalized liabilities, which when added to the list of US obigations, make US consolidated debt/GDP rise to some 800%. Needless to say, that number will never be repaid absent hyperinflation. Indicatively, there has yet to be an empirical case in recent history in which debt-funded ‘growth’ led to a reduction in the underlying debt.

That said, Pence confirmed the Catch 22 the US finds itself in, and emphasized the need for economic growth and tax relief. “The American people are crying out for tax relief,” said Pence. 

The Trump administration last week rolled out its outline for tax reform, which included a cut to the top income tax rate for individuals in addition to lower corporate tax rates. The president, who reached his 100-day mark in office on Saturday, has billed the tax plan as one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history. Due to its budget-busting nature, Trump’s tax plan is expected to meet stiff opposition from both moderate and conservative Republicans in Congress.

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How Bitcoin, The Internet, and The Startup Societies Foundation Got One Man Out of Venezuela

Via The Daily Bell

Say what you will about Bitcoin–whether it is a real currency, a government conspiracy, or a Ponzi scheme–but for one Venezuelan man, it was a very real ticket out of a crumbling socialist country.

Guillermo Hernandez is now safely in Santiago Chile after The Startup Societies Foundation crowdfunded his travel out of Venezuela. It had to be funded with Bitcoin, as PayPal does not work in Venezuela. Bitcoin knows no borders.

The Venezuelan government has a bogus exchange rate, so in order to get the actual value of the Bitcoin when exchanging it for Venezuelan bolivars, Guillermo had to turn to the black market.

Before this, Guillermo had gone to the internet to make money since $1 a day wasn’t cutting it at his job in Venezuela. He was able to make $15 for a single task freelancing on the internet, and the only money he could accept was Bitcoin.

Still, he was only able to save about $20 a month, which meant having to spend possibly another year in Venezuela. And with government-aligned forces robbing and murdering in the streets, who knew when it would be too late to flee?

Thanks to Thibault Serlet, I soon began working at the Startup Societies Foundation, earning an additional income. After a few weeks, Thibault used the Startup Societies Foundation network to crowdfund Bitcoin donations for my ticket out of Venezuela.

Many generous, anonymous people helped me. I am forever grateful for their kindness.

I exchanged the bitcoin for enough bolivars to leave and then started my journey. I began an exodus through 5 countries, for a total of 6835 Km, from Venezuela to Chile.

Guillermo is a hard worker with marketable skills. Now safely out of a repressive country, he can reach his full potential, and not be hampered by destructive socialist policies.

The takeaway here is that Guillermo was able to remove himself from a terrible situation because of modern technology. He was able to make money online because of companies which connect people across oceans for freelance work. He was able to get paid because of crypto-currencies, regardless of the economic manipulation under the socialist regime.

Internet freelance, Bitcoin, Startup Societies Foundation and Guillermo’s defiance of the corrupt socialist powers controlling Venezuela made possible his escape from that socialist sinkhole.

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Homeownership Among US Millennials At All Time Low

After dropping to an all time low 62.9% in Q2 of 2016, the US homeownership rate rebounded modestly in the subsequent two quarters, before once again taking a step lower according to the latest Census data, released last week, and which showed that the percentage of US homeowners declined from 63.7% to 63.6% in Q1 of 2017, less than 1% from the all time lows in the series history going back to the mid 1960s.

A breakdown of the data by age group reveals that the primary driver for this latest decline was once again the youngest age cohort. While older Americans, especially those 65 and older, have predictably seen only modest declines in their homeownership in recent decades, it was the youngest age group, those 35 and younger, i.e. the Millennials, who once again decided against owning and chose to rent instead.

As shown in the chart below, the homeownership rate for Americans 35 and younger slumped from 34.7% as of December 2016 to 34.3%, in line with the lowest rate reported by the Census Bureau going back nearly a quarter century. Of note: the largest decline in the homeownership rate following the collapse in the house market occurred for households aged 35 to 44, although it appears to be stabilizing in recent quarters.

And since most young Americans are opting not to own, but rather rent, the latest data from the Census showed that in Q1, the median asking rent was flat at $864, just $6 below the all time high recorded one year earlier.

Broken down by region, there has been a sharp spike in asking rents in the Northeast region, which continues to closely compete with asking rents in the West, i.e., California, with the median rent in the two regions approximately $1,100 and well above rents in either the Midwest or the South.

That said, the contribution from owner-occupied households to overall household growth continues to increase, while the contribution from renters has stabilized after falling sharply in late 2015 and through much of 2016. On a year-over-year basis, the four-quarter moving average of renter-occupied households increased 599,000 in the first quarter, while the four-quarter moving average of owner-occupied households increased 441,000. The gap between the increase in renter- and owner-occupied households was the narrowest since the second quarter of 2007.

Finally, Census also revealed an increase of 158,000 households in the first quarter, following an increase of 47,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016. On a year-over-year basis, the number of households was up 1.219 million in the first quarter, up from 804,000 in the fourth quarter. The HVS data can be noisy, so we focus on year-over-year changes in four-quarter moving averages to assess trends in household formation. On that basis, the increase in households in the first quarter was 1.039 million, up from 878,000 in the fourth quarter.

Source: US Census

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Hedge Fund CIO: What Central Banks Have Done Is “Stunning, Unprecedented”

We start a quiet Sunday with a big picture anecdote from Eric Peters’ latest weekend note explaining why what central banks are trying to do is impossible, why the trend of inflation over the past 70 years is “stunning and unprecedented” and why “volatility suppression” always eventually fails.

“Anecdote“, by Eric Peters of One River Asset Management

“For all of history – prior to 1955 – there was roughly equal probability of inflation or deflation in any given year,” said the economic historian.

 

“But since 1955 we’ve experienced uninterrupted annual inflation. It’s a stunning fact, unprecedented. To an economist in 1955, the coming 60yr inflation would have appeared less probable than a catastrophic meteor impact.”

 

After enduring a series of world wars, and social upheavals, policy makers conducted an experiment, removing the deflationary left-tail of our economic cycles.

 

“We created history’s greatest volatility-suppressing machine, and it delivered breathtaking stability.” Of course, we endured volatile periods since 1955. But life is short. And we thus lack the reference points to compare our minor wobbles to the wild booms and busts of our great grandparents.

 

“Minsky taught us that stability begets instability. And it stands to reason that our volatility-selling machine will break one day. We saw a glimpse of this in 2008-09.”

 

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the severity of that crisis was the response of our body politic. “In 2007 if you had shown the top 100 economists a list of the extraordinary measures that central banking and economic elites would unleash in the coming decade, not a single one would have believed you.”

 

Politicians hate change. With very few exceptions, they stand for stasis. Our central bankers seek stability. And investors have learned to front-run them all, selling volatility into every spike using ever more complex strategies.

 

But volatility suppression at the lows is much easier in many ways than at the highs. In a crisis, our central banks simply go full-throttle. At the highs though, they seek the unattainable, which is perfect economic balance in a world that is inherently unstable – they attempt to crystallize the entire ecosystem. Which is as arrogant as it is impossible.”

And this is what central planning looks like visually:

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Trump Touts Achievements, Blames Dems For Disappointments, Blasts Media In 100-Day Rally

It was back to “campaign Trump” last night in Harrisburg, PA.

Donald Trump celebrated his 100th day in office on Saturday by holding a “freewheeling campaign-style rally“, touting the accomplishments of his first three plus months in office, ignoring the disappointments, and once again slamming the media. Trump held the rally with supporters as a contrast to the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, an annual star-studded gala in Washington that presidents typically attend.

“I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp, spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd and much better people,” Trump said, calling out The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC by name.

Speaking shortly after his WaPo op-ed hit, touting what in his own words were his biggest accomplishments, Trump said “my administration has been delivering every single day for the great citizens of our country. We are keeping one promise after another, and frankly the people are really happy about it.”

While Trump told the Pennsylvania crowd he was just getting started on meeting his campaign promises, he repeatedly attacked an “incompetent, dishonest” media, saying they were not telling the truth about his administration’s accomplishments. “If the media’s job is to be honest and to tell the truth, then I think we would all agree the media deserves a very, very big, fat failing grade,” he said.

“A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now,” Trump said to loud boos from the crowd. “If the media’s job is to be honest and to tell the truth, the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.”

Trump and his staff chose to skip the press dinner because of what he said was unfair treatment by the press. Trump said he was thrilled to be away from the “Washington swamp”.

Focusing on his tenure in the White House, Trump listed what he said were some of his key early accomplishments, including the successful confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Justice Neil Gorsuch and clearing away many regulations on the environment and business according to Reuters. He also listed his approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, killing a pending Asian trade pact, and enhanced security measures that have led to a sharp decline in illegal border crossings at the southern border.

“The world is getting the message: if you try to illegally enter the United States, you will be caught, detained, deported or put in prison,” Trump said.

At the same time, he shrugged off his more prominent failures on his core campaign promises, such as repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act and construction of a Mexican border wall. Trump’s ban on visitors from some Muslim nations was blocked in court.

He blamed Democrats for the legislative failures so far and said all of his promises would be kept eventually. “We’ll build the wall, people, don’t even worry about it,” he said.

Trump also took direct aim at Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, accusing him of leading the Democratic Party “to doom.” 

“Sen. Schumer is bad leader,” Trump said. “I’ve known him a long time. Sen. Schumer is a bad leader. Not a natural leader at all. He works hard to study leadership. When you have to study leadership, you’ve got problems…. Sen. Schumer is weak on crime and wants to raise your taxes through the roof. He is a poor leader – known him a long time – and he’s leading the Democrats to doom.”

On Sunday morning, Trump continued his assault on Democrats tweeting “The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction.They are only interested in themselves and not in what’s best for U.S”

He also said Obamacare, while seemingly stuck in Congress due to the Republican failure to get enough votes to repeal it, “is dead.”

Trump also said he floped on his promise to name China a currency manipulator because he wanted its help in trying to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.  In an excerpt of an interview with “Face the Nation” of CBS, set to air on Sunday and Monday and conducted during the trip to Pennsylvania, Trump said he would “not be happy” if North Korea conducted a nuclear test. Asked if that would mean military action, Trump said “I don’t know, I mean we’ll see.”

Trump left Washington as another in a series of protests against his administration was winding up. Thousands of marchers made their way through Washington’s streets during the People’s Climate March, a protest against Trump’s moves to roll back environmental regulations. Asked by reporters accompanying him to Pennsylvania what he had to say to the climate change protesters, Trump said: “Enjoy the day, enjoy the weather.”

* * * 

Meanwhile, back in DC, the White House press corps gathered for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to bow out in 36 years, according to Reuters.

Without Trump, who scheduled a rally instead to mark his 100th day in office, the usually celebrity-filled soiree hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association took a more sober turn, even as it pulled in top journalists and Washington insiders.

 

Most of Trump’s administration also skipped the event in solidarity with the president, who has repeatedly accused the press of mistreatment. The president used his campaign-style gathering to again lambaste the media.

While Trump was bashing the press in Harrisburg, in Washington, WHCA President Jeff Mason defended press freedom even as he acknowledged this year’s dinner had a different feel, saying attempts to undermine the media was dangerous for democracy. “We are not fake news, we are not failing news organizations and we are not the enemy of the American people,” said Reuters’ correspondent Mason.

Instead of the typical roasts, where presidents of both parties have delivered their own zingers for years,  the event returned to its traditional roots of recognizing reporters’ work and handing out student scholarships as famed journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein presented awards.

“That’s not Donald Trump’s style,” NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell told MSNBC, referring to the self-deprecating jokes presidents in the past have made despite tensions with the press.

The humor at the WHCA event fell to headline comedian Hasan Minhaj.

“Welcome to the series finale of the White House correspondents’ dinner,” Minhaj, who plays a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” program, told the crowd.

He also joked about Trump, despite organizers’ wishes, saying he did so to honor U.S. constitutional protection of free speech: “Only in America can a first-generation, Indian-American Muslim kid get on this stage and make fun of the president.”  Some more highlights courtesy of The Hill:

“I get it, I get it. We got to address the elephant that’s not in the room.The leader of our country is not here. And that’s because he lives in Moscow. It is a very long flight. It would be hard for [Russian President Vladimir Putin] to make it.”

 

“As for the other guy, I think he’s in Pennsylvania because he can’t take a joke.”

 

“He tweets at 3 a.m. sober. Who is tweeting at 3 a.m. sober? Donald Trump – because it’s 10 a.m. in Russia. Those are business hours.”

 

It wasn’t only Trump on the receiving end of Minhaj’s roast. The comedian also took aim at several media outlets, including C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

 

“It’s almost as if ‘The Daily Show’ should be on C-SPAN,” he said of the Comedy Central show’s frequent jokes about the Trump administration. “It has left zero impact.”

Minhaj also took a jab at former President Barack Obama, who did not attend the dinner but was present each year while he was office.

“Who would have thought with everything going on in the country right now that a Muslim would be standing on this stage for a ninth year in a row, baby,” Minhaj joked, a reference to unfounded accusations that Obama is a Muslim.

“We had eight years of Barack. What’s another year? I see you fam, I see you Barry. What you doin’ right now? You jet skiing while the world burns?”

Few other celebrities graced the red carpet, although some well-known Washingtonians, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, appeared.  In an interview with Reuters this week, Trump said he decided against attending as president because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media, adding: “I would come next year, absolutely.”

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Is GDXJ Killing The Market?

GDXJ 4

Source: stockcharts.com

The past few weeks, there has been a lot of fuss about the GDXJ ETF. An Exchange Traded fund issued by Van Eck which aims to track the index of junior gold mining companies. The ETF has always been extremely popular amongst investors as it provided an easy and low-cost access to gaining exposure to the junior gold space.

It didn’t take long before derivative-focused products took off as well, of which the Direxion-products offering a triple leverage on the GDXJ index ETF were very likely the most popular. When Direxion stopped issuing new units amidst a sky-high demand, several key people started to wondering whether or not the GDXJ became too popular.

With a net asset value of several billions, the ETF is definitely large, but it would be highly surprising if the current size (just $4B) would be such a disruptive factor in the mining industry, and the junior gold mining index. At least, that shouldn’t be the case, as the top-5 of GDXJ’s positions have a combined market capitalization of approximately $10B (this excludes the position in the GDX).

Whilst the GDXJ is absolutely popular for the right reasons, one might argue the GDXJ becomes too big compared to the size of the companies it’s investing in.

But perhaps this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s a positive thing, as it means there very clearly is a huge interest from the investing community to gain exposure to junior gold mining companies. An ETF is obviously the easiest and fastest way to get exposure to several companies in ‘one basket’, rather than going through the process to buy the companies separately.

So, even if the GDXJ would close its doors for new investors (by for instance suspending the creation of new units), the money would still flow into the sector, and the issues wouldn’t be solved at all. Only the ‘convenience factor’ would go down. In fact, the best way to solve the current size of the GDXJ is simply to wait for a market correction.

After all, most of the ETF buyers are investors who want to get exposure, but lack the time or resources to really investigate every company and pick the best amongst them. So these will almost per definition also be the investors who’ll sell their GDXJ units during the next correction on the gold market. The majority of those who got into the GDXJ will get out again.

Will this result in a higher volatility on the markets? Sure. But there would be no difference compared to how the market would have reacted if those ETF buyers would have bought the underlying stock. So it essentially is a non-argument. Another non-argument would be to suggest other ETF’s to investors, such as the smaller Sprott Gold Miners Trust. Not only would this just be ‘transporting’ the problem (after all, whether the funds are invested in ETF A or ETF B, the market positions will continue to be bought or sold depending on de market circumstances).

GDXJ 1

Source: Van Eck

The very best way to deal with this issue is very likely rebalancing the index that’s being tracked by the ETF’s. When the new index will be implemented on June 17th, the total amount of companies the GDXJ can invest in will increase from 48 to 69.

This increases the investment options for GDXJ, but will also have a very negative side effect, as the GDXJ will have to rebalance the portfolio pretty much overnight. It shouldn’t be an issue to liquidate the investment in GDX ($250M+) and use the existing cash resources, but some of the current holdings will have to try to accommodate Van Eck by arranging blocks to avoid their share prices being impacted too heavily.

GDXJ 2

GDXJ 3

Source: Toronto Dominion Bank

According to the two previous images from the Toronto Dominion Bank, some of the positions could take a few days to unwind, whilst some of the new positions will result in a tremendous buying pressure in the more illiquid names.

The solution is pretty simple; instead of ‘forcing’ GDXJ to start tracking the renewed index overnight, the Van Eck fund managers should allow themselves a week, or even several weeks to ensure an orderly update without risking to disrupt the market. And if that doesn’t happen: be prepared to take action right before and right after the rebalancing.

Our conclusion: The GDXJ isn’t ‘too big’. Its investment possibilities were ‘too limited’, and with rebalancing the portfolio in June, this issue will be solved.

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Talk to, Don’t Provoke, North Korea: New at Reason

A year ago, Donald Trump said he “would have no problem speaking to” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Where is that Donald Trump now? Instead we have sabre-rattling Trump, along with Vice President Pence and others on the national-security squad.

Yes, Kim—like his father and grandfather before him—is a tyrant, writes Sheldon Richman. But when has that ever stopped an American president from dealing with—and often befriending—a ruler? Never. American presidents have allied with some of the most ruthless heads of states of the 20th century. Kim and North Korea, therefore, are not unique in that respect.

But they are unique in another way, notes Richman. The U.S. government fought an undeclared war alongside South Korea’s own tyrant, Syngman Rhee, against North Korea and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, from 1950 to 1953 because President Harry Truman didn’t want the Republicans saying he “lost Korea.” The U.S. Air Force obliterated the country through carpet bombing after Truman decided atomic bombs were not practical, in contrast to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, a few years earlier. The bombing and shooting stopped with an armistice, but no peace treaty was ever signed to formally end the war. For decades, the North Korean government has sought that treaty and a nonaggression pact with the U.S. government, but the requests always fell on deaf ears.

View this article.

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Alex Jones Invites Media to Discuss His Child Custody Trial, Then Delivers His Magnum Opus

The media was gleefully cheering on the specter of Jones losing sole custody of his children. So he invited them to the front of the courthouse to discuss the facts about the trial, and then about 15 minutes in started to redpill them on things, like chimeras and other wondrous and nightmarish mutations.

This was his magnum opus.

Watch.

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

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Paul Craig Roberts Asks “Does Washington Plan To Nuke Russia & China?”

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

Not everyone likes to hear about the threat of nuclear war. Some find refuge in denial and say that nuclear war is impossible because it makes no sense. Unfortunately, humankind has a long record of doing things that make no sense.

In previous posts in recent years I have pointed out both written documents and changes in US war doctrine that indicate that Washington is preparing a preemptive nuclear attack on Russia and China. More recently, I have shown that Washington’s demonization of Russia and President Putin, the incessant lies about Russian deeds and intentions, and the refusal of Washington to cooperate with Russia on any issue have convinced the Russian government that Washington is preparing the Western populations for an attack on Russia. It is obvious that China has come to the same conclusion.

It is extremely dangerous to all of mankind for Washington to convince two nuclear powers that Washington is preparing a preemptive nuclear strike against them. It is impossible to imagine a more reckless and irresponsible act. Yet this is precisely what Washington has done.

Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, Deputy Head of Operations of the Russian General Staff has concluded that Washington in pursuit of global hegemony is implementing an anti-ballistic missile system that Washington believes can prevent a Russian nuclear response to a US pre-emptive attack

Careful studies have convinced the Russians that Washington is investing in and arranging components that have no other function than to devastate Russia and cripple the country’s retaliatory capability. In short, Washington is preparing to launch a nuclear war

As I explained previously, the theory behind this insane scheme is that after America’s preemptive strike Russia will be so devastated that Russia would not retaliate with any remaining forces out of fear that Washington would launch a second major strike. Washington also plans to use agents in place to assassinate as many members as possible of the Russian government, thus leaving the government in confusion without leadership.

Yes, the insane American/Israeli neoconservatives are this determined to exercise hegemony over the world.

Yes, Washington is sufficiently criminally insane to risk the destruction of life on earth based on the supposition that Washington’s offense will work perfectly and Russia and China’s capabilities will be so degraded that no retaliatory response will occur.

One might hope that the American and Western populations would be outraged that Washington is so power-crazed that Washington is subjecting all life to such risks. But there is no sign of an anti-war movement. The Western leftwing has degenerated into Identity Politics in which the only threat comes from white heterosexual males who are portrayed as misogynists, racists, and homophopes. The Western leftwing is no longer war-conscious. Indeed, the leftwing has become diverted into such silly irrelevancies as transgender rights to toilets of their choice. The impotence of the Western left is so overwhelming that the left might as well not exist.

Where then is the hope? Russia and China cannot simply sit there and await America’s preemptive nuclear strike.

Possibly Washington does not intend a preemptive strike, but only to convince Russia and China that Washington’s preparations give Washington so much predominance in a conflict that Russia and China will submit to Washington’s hegemony. But this interpretation of Washington’s intention implies no less risk. Why would Russia and China wait for Washington to complete its preparations for war, preparations that permit Washington to turn Russia and China into puppet states?

The US military/security complex has clearly prevailed over Trump’s intention to normalize relations between the US and Russia, and anti-Russian venom continues to pour out of NATO and Washington’s European vassal states. The majority of the American people seem to have accepted the propaganda that Russia is the number one threat to the United States. With propaganda controlling the explanation, Washington’s aggressive actions are explained as defense against a threat and not as a policy that will end life on earth.

The chances are high that life on earth is approaching its end. The responsibility lies heavily on the American people, whose success, due to the mistakes of others, made Americans think that they are exceptional and privileged. Unaware of the inhumane threat to all life that is embodied in the neoconservative claim that Americans are exceptional and indispensable, the self-satisfied American public is unaware of the consequences of such hubris. Hubris is leading them, and the entire world, to slaughter in thermo-nuclear war.

The neoconservative claim of American exceptionalism is the identical claim made for Germans by Hitler. If Americans are indispensable, everyone else is dispensable and can be “bombed into the stone age” as one US government official put it, or nuked as Washington intends to do to Russia and China. The claim of American exceptionalism is not accepted by Russia and China. Therefore, the insane, crazed monsters who rule over the West in Washington are bringing life on earth to an end.

And there are no protests. The idiot British, the idiot Germans, the idiot French, Italians, Canadians, Australians, Belgians, Greeks, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, rally behind the insanity that is Washington.

And so apparently do the American people, a population stupid beyond all belief.

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Global Reflation Trade In Trouble: Chinese Economic Data Plunges To 6-Month Lows As New Orders Dry Up

New Orders for Manufacturing and Services sectors of the economy tumbled to their lowest levels in at least 6 months, weighing down both PMIs to their lowest levels since October 2016. After Q1's record surge in new credit creation, it appears the rapid tightening in China's financial conditions is already having an impact on the real economy (as well as the bond and stock market).

As a reminder, for the first quarter, TSF reached a new record high 6.93 trillion yuan – equivalent to the size of Mexico's economy – and well above last year's first quarter total. At today's Yuan exchange rate, China's credit creation in Q1 amounted to just over 1 trillion US dollars.

 

And since then PMIs have plunged from multi-year high to six-month lows… and it's broad-based…

 

The manufacturing data shows and sudden sharp drop in New Orders, output prices (commodity crash), and

 

But Services data is even worse – the 4th month of contraction in employment and a drop in doemstic and export new orders…

 

The global engine of reflation just hit a wall…

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