Following his first interview since being confirmed yesterday with the WSJ, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke to CNBC's Becky Quick and repeated some of the key points he made yesterday, among which his hope to get tax reform done by the August Congress recess, however he again confirmed that there are too many moving pieces at this point saying it is "too early to give details" of the Trump tax plan.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to America's middle class that he would get rid of (since then the phrase has been amended to "repeal and replace" for various reasons) Obamacare as soon as he got into office. Well, Trump is out of his 30 day honeymoon, and the confusion and chaos over the future of Obamacare has never been greater, to a large extent due to growing pushback he has been getting in Congress.
Below is an update of the latest developments and progress, or lack thereof, regarding the repeal and replace, or perhaps repair and rename, of Obamacare.
Congress has vowed to prosecute former Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano for refusing to answer questions about Hillary’s illegal use of a private email server. Pagliano, a former State Department employee, had helped Hillary set up her unsecured private email server, which was then used to illegally transmit classified information. Foxnews.com reports: Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday asking him to convene a grand jury or charge Bryan Pagliano, the computer specialist who helped establish Clinton’s server while she was secretary of state.
The key economic releases this week are CPI, retail sales, and industrial production on Wednesday. In addition, there are several scheduled speaking engagements from Fed officials this week, including Chair Yellen’s semi-annual Monetary Policy Report to Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday (Humphrey-Hawkins).
European and Asian stocks, S&P futures, bond yields, the dollar and commodity metals are rose, in some cases making new all time highs, lifted by the latest reemergence of the "Trump trades" as hopeful investors once again bet that the U.S. president's tax reform plans will boost economic growth and corporate profits, despite another warning from Goldman that the president's fiscal plan is about to be derailed.