China

Despite his constant threats to label China a currency manipulator last summer and endless complaints about the U.S. trade deficit with the manufacturing giant, President Trump is apparently a legend in China.  As Reuters notes this morning, Trump is expected to receive a hero's welcome tomorrow when he arrives in Beijing from adoring Chinese fans who admire that "he loves things splendid and magnificent" and that he "loves to show off."

Authored by Bryan McBride via Mises Canada,

Is Korea just a smokescreen?

Following an early shaky start, which saw the Hang Seng tumble as much as 1.6% driven by weakness in financials and real estate names following the latest warning by PBOC governor Zhou about "sudden, complex, hidden, contagious, hazardous" risks In markets and a decline in local real estate prices, and pressure global risk, US equity futures have recouped all losses and are back to unchanged on monday morning, as President Trump continues on his first official trip to Asia.

In a move that appears to validate Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford’s concerns about China’s strategy of slowly expanding its territorial and military footprint in the Pacific, the Chinese government unveiled on Sunday a “magical” island-building ship on the eve of Donald Trump’s visit in a move likely to renew fears about its claims to territory in the South China Sea, the Financial Times reported.

Authored by Stephen Kotkin via The Wall Street Journal,

In the 100 years since Lenin’s coup in Russia, the ideology devoted to abolishing markets and private property has left a long, murderous trail of destruction...