presidential election

European stocks declined for first session in five ahead of Wednesday's Dutch elections, debt ceiling expiration and the conclusion of the Fed's 2-day meeting where it is expected to raise rates by 25 bps. Tightening concerns emerged, also dragging down Asian shares and S&P futures, while the dollar continued its rise for a second day. Crude oil has ended its six-day drop. The pound tumbled 0.8% to the lowest since mid-January in a delayed reaction after Theresa May won permission to trigger the country’s departure from the EU.

While president Trump has not repeated his stunning allegation from last weekend that Obama bugged the Trump Tower before the election, on Saturday House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) submitted a letter to the White House demanding that it offer any evidence showing Trump Tower was wiretapped by Monday the AP reports. 

South Korea's disgraced president struck a defiant tone on Friday morning when a constitutional court unanimously upheld the decision to impeach Park Guen-hye: she did not appear in court and a spokesman said she would not be making any comment nor would she leave the  presidential Blue House residence on Friday. "For now, Park is not leaving the Blue House today," Blue House spokesman Kim Dong Jo told Reuters.

A new poll suggests people think President Trump tweets too much and has a bad temper, but his approval ratings are higher than opposition Democrats and the mainstream media that has united against him. The figures are ringing alarm bells in the Democrat camp, with D.C. insiders referring to the data as a “disaster poll.” A USA Today/Suffolk University poll, conducted in the first week of March, shows Trump’s approval rating at 47 percent, and his personal favorability at 45 percent. Sixty percent of respondents disapprove of his temper, and 59 percent think he tweets too much.

Authored by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Can you see those swans coming in for a landing on Pond USA? They’re not exactly black swans, because you knew they were out there circling, but they’re dark enough against the twilight’s last gleaming to give you the heebie jeebies.