Courtesy of Bill Gross' latest monthly letter "Show Me The Money", here are some perspectives on the only thing that has kept the global economy going since the financial crisis: debt, and lost of it.
Following the Trump presidential victory, two prominent macro strategists have undergone a significant change in their outlook: while David Rosenberg, who started off with a deflationary, and bearish outlook, then flipped to inflationary (and bullish), has recently once more "mean-reverted" and expects a further drop in yields as deflationary forces return, his SocGen peer, Albert Edwards - while still expecting a deflationary "ice age" in the longer-run (in case there is any confusion, he expressly states "make no mistake.
Update: the all-important inflationary forecast has been raised modestly, as follows: 2017 from 1.3% to 1.7%, 2018 from 1.5% to 1.6%, 2019 kept unchanged at 1.7%. He also said the council will continue to look through changes in inflation if judged to have no implication for medium-term outlook for price stability, and notes that substantial degree of monetary accommodation is still needed. As usual, he adds that the "ECB stands ready to increase asset purchase program in terms of size, duration."
As had been periodically leaked over the past several weeks, overnight both Poliico and the WSJ confirm that President Trump has offered former Utah governor Jon Huntsman the job of U.S. ambassador to Russia and is in the process of submitting paperwork to accept the position; Huntsman is said to have accepted the offer. This is the latest sign of backtracking from plans for Washington-Moscow conciliation, a development which will make future reports based on "anonymous sources" that Trump is a Kremlin puppet even more problematic.
Via Justin Raimondo of AntiWar.com,
Everyone is suddenly talking about the Deep State – the configuration of spy agencies, career bureaucrats, and overseas spooks whose murky omnipresence has been brought to light by President Trump’s contention that he was “wiretapped” by his predecessor.