Goldman Sachs' Chief US Political Economist Alec Phillips writes that tax reform faces a risk of failure, but tax cuts remain likely... in 2018 and investors need to stay realistic about the impact of fiscal stimulus.
With every other asset class roundtripping the November election outcome, it was only a matter of time before Japan's 10Y JGB - which on February 2 briefly peaked above the BOJ's "yield curve controlling" 0.10% yield ceiling, rising as high as 0.15% to the shock of a market ready to declare that Japan had finally lost control of its bond market - retraced the entire "reflationary" move from 0.0% to 0.1%.
It was almost exactly two years ago when a cash-strapped Venezuela quietly conducted its first, little-noticed gold-for-cash swap with Citigroup, as part of which Maduro converted part of his nation's gold reserves into at least $1 billion in cash courtesy of the US bank. As Reuters reported then, the motive was simple: convert $1 billion of the country's gold into much needed dollars to fund imports and keep the economy from sinking.
Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The Left is morally and fiscally bankrupt, devoid of coherent solutions, and corrupted by its embrace of the Corporatocracy.
History often surprises us with unexpected ironies. For the past century, the slide to fascism could be found on the Right (conservative, populist, nationalist political parties).
Authored by Nick Cuningham via OilPrice.com,
With oil prices seemingly on firm footing, Wall Street is pouring money back into the shale sector, expecting profits even at $50 per barrel.