Global stocks hit new all time highs overnight, with US stock-index futures, Asian and European stocks all rising overnight after the Senate adopted a fiscal 2018 budget resolution, paving the way for Trump's $1.5 trillion in tax cuts, while news that "dove" Jay Powell may be the next Fed chair added to the risk-on sentiment.
Senate republicans took a major, if relatively easy, step toward passing Trump's tax plan on Thursday night with the critical passage of a budget blueprint that would protect a $1.5 trillion tax cut from a Democratic filibuster. Senators narrowly voted 51-49 to pass the fiscal year 2018 budget after a several hour-long marathon on the Senate floor. The budget resolution could also pave the way for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration by ensuring that drilling legislation can pass with only Republican votes according to the NYT.
Since the federal government has been operating under a series of continuing resolutions for the last four years, it’s been a while since the Senate held an old-fashioned “vote-a-rama” – and yes, that is the technical term (have you not read Robert’s Rules?).
As we reported yesterday, as the media continues to lose their collective minds over $100,000 worth of Facebook ads allegedly purchased by Russians during the 2016 election, the Senate Judiciary Committee has finally decided they're going to take a look into a shady Russian deal - first profiled here last summer - that handed Putin 20% of America's uranium reserves, was approved by the Obama administration during an ongoing FBI investigation into charges of bribery, extortion and money laundering by the Russian buyer and netted the Clintons millions of dollars in donations and 'speaking fe
Inbetween firing off tweets and defending his decision to end cost-sharing payments to insurance companies, sending healthcare stocks sliding and eliciting accusations of sabotage, president Trump reportedly swallowed his pride and did something he’s been loath to do for months: he called Mitch McConnell.