America

Authored by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Authored by David Stockman via The Daily Reckoning blog,

In honor of the Donald’s “Mother of All Bomb” (MOAB) attack on the Hindu Kush mountains Thursday, let me introduce MOAD.

I’m referring to the “Mother of All Debt” crises, of course. The opening round is coming when Washington goes into shutdown mode on April 28, which happens to be Day 100 of the Donald’s reign.

Last quarter investors forgot the negative cash-flow, forgot the soaring cost of content, forgot the rampant competition, and forgot fact that Netflix slashed its domestic subscriber growth expectations, and just bought-the-f##king-record-high because international subscriber growth soared. This quarter, however, they may be less gullible because that surge in international subscribers not only did not happen, but missed by a whopping 370K subs, missing both the street forecast of 3.9 million and the company's own guidance of 3.7 million.

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

Regarding the Great Depression… we did it. We’re very sorry… We won’t do it again.

– Ben Bernanke

 

Waiting too long to begin moving toward the neutral rate could risk a nasty surprise down the road—either too much inflation, financial instability, or both.

– Janet Yellen

• Trump’s Renewed Focus on Health Bill Vexes GOP Tax Strategy (WSJ)
• Wall Street banker Cohn moving Trump toward moderate policies (Reuters)
• Trump Rejects Protests Over Tax Returns (WSJ)
• Merkel Calls on Erdogan to Open Talks in ‘Deeply Split’ Turkey (BBG)
• Turkish Opposition Plans Challenge to President Erdogan’s Referendum Victory (WSJ)
• Simsek Rules Out Turkey Elections Before 2019 on Erdogan Promise (BBG)
• Trump Is a Global ‘Instability Factor,’ Fillon's Top Aide Says (BBG)