America

As U.S. equity markets continue to surge to new all-time highs with each passing day, something you would expect to benefit the titans of high finance in Manhattan, demand for luxurious, multi-million dollar weekend getaways in the Hamptons has all but completely disappeared.

According to a new 4Q report from Douglas Elliman, the Hamptons real estate market is in full-on crash mode with average prices down 29.7% YoY in 4Q16 and volumes down 14.5%. 

Submitted by Bill O'Grady via Confluence Investment Management,

One of the key elements of global hegemony is the ability of a nation to project power. Ideally, this means a potential hegemon needs local security. In other words, a nation that faces significant proximate threats will struggle to project power globally. As a general rule, it’s easier to attack via land compared to the sea.

While the White House floated, then quickly backed off, a proposal for a 20% tax on Mexican imports to "pay for the wall", in addition to collecting an approximate $10 billion per year in tax revenues, there would be a notable flipside to a tax that would raise prices on Mexican imports by up to 20%, and would immediately affect a wide range of agricultural goods. Mexico exported $21 billion of food and drink north of the border in 2015, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making Mexico the 2nd largest supplier of agricultural imports to the US.

After threatening to "send in The Feds" yesterday - after seeing the "carnage" in Chicago - President Trump asked (rhetorically) during his address to Congressional Republicans today, "what the hell is going in Chicago?" He received a surprising one-word answer that seemed to sum things up rather well...

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/embed/97096038/

"Democrats"...