Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,
Since World War II, the two men who have most terrified this city by winning the presidency are Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
And they have much in common.
Both came out of the popular culture, Reagan out of Hollywood, Trump out of a successful reality TV show. Both possessed the gifts of showmen — extraordinarily valuable political assets in a television age that deals cruelly with the uncharismatic.
Trump Releases the Dollar Hounds (3 days)
via Vince Lanci and Marketslant. Last night the WSJ published an excerpt from its Friday interview with Donald Trump. The key market drivers were his dollar statements, and his dismissal of Paul Ryan's BAT idea. Both weakened the USD and drove up Gold. Note that until last night Trump was pro a strong dollar and gave indications he was pro the Border Adjustment Tax. On tap are 3 Fed speakers as George Gero reminds us, although so far their rhetoric has been muted on Gold.
Trump on the Strong Dollar
As traders get to the their desks this morning after a 3-day weekend, only to find a market bombarded by a barrage of overnight news from around the globe even as Theresa May is currently delivering her Brexit speech, (so far the most impotant thing she has said is that both houses of parliament will vote on Brexit, leaving a door open that Brexit may not happen at all), here courtesy of JPM's Adam Crisafulli is a recap of all the chaos that has taken place so far.
While traders eagerly await Theresa May's speech set to begin in minutes, even if it was largely leaked last night to minimize "market shocks" and set the stage for a big squeeze in cable which at last check was over 100 pips higher overnight, the big catalyst setting today's risk off mood was the previously noted Trump statement, published overnight by the WSJ, in which Trump called the US currency "too strong", and attacked the Border-Tax Adjustment, expected to boost the value of the USD by as much as 15% should it be implemented.
Angela Merkel and her MEP chums in Europe are calling for a new law that would class robots as “electronic persons,” granting them the same rights as human beings. The new law would mean that all types of artificial intelligence (AI) would be legally held responsible for their “acts or omissions”. Express.co.uk reports: The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted on the first ever report on robots on Friday.