Business

After a disappointing March for the auto OEM's, a hopeful wall street has set it's sites on a rebound in April with consensus SAAR estimates currently set at 17.25 million, up from 16.53 million in March.  Per the chart below, the March 2017 print for auto sales was the lowest in over two years, despite massive incentive spending by the OEMs.

Of course, OEMs didn't bother to adjust production levels to sinking sales which pushed inventory days to the highest March print since 2009.

So what do you do when a massive student loan bubble results in crippling leverage for an entire generation of your population rendering them financially unqualified to obtain mortgage financing and their 'God-given right' to a slice of the 'American Dream'?  Well, you simply change the rules to allow mortgage lenders to ignore all that pesky student debt...anything less would simply be evil and potentially racist, sexist and all sorts of other -ist words.

On Wednesday, the President will reveal a "broad-stroke" vision on his tax reform plan. Coutest of Citi and various media sources, here is a detailed cheatsheet of what is known, what remains unknown and what has been leaked.

All the latest: Tax reform, shutdown, protectionism & Fed buzz

The Chinese and U.S. stock markets are going in opposite directions, as an intensifying crackdown against leverage has slammed the recently 'stable' Shanghai Composite over the past week, erasing all post-Trump gains.

The relatsionship between the two markets is the weakest since August 2008 - just before the collapse of Lehman unleashed chaos on the global financial system.

Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

If you need some evidence that the echo-bubble in housing is global, take a look at this chart of Sweden's housing bubble.

A funny thing often occurs after a mania-fueled asset bubble pops: an echo-bubble inflates a few years later, as monetary authorities and all the institutions that depend on rising asset valuations go all-in to reflate the crushed asset class.