United States

Authored by Saxo Bank's Head of Macro Strategy, Dembik Christopher, via TradingFloor.com,

• We expect softer-than-consensus 2018 growth
• Lowflation structural, not transitory
• Housing bubbles remain a concern (Bitcoin not so much)

The year 2018 starts with four main questions:

1. Is economic growth on a solid footing?
2. Will inflation ever come back?
3. Should we fear higher bond yields?
4. What could go wrong?

Is economic growth on a solid footing?

Shortly before 2am on Saturday, the Senate passed "the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, slashing the corporate tax rate and providing temporary tax-rate cuts for most Americans" handing Republicans a badly needed legislative and political victory. Senators voted across party lines in a 51-49 vote, ending days of debate and "hand wringing" as leadership worked frantically behind the scenes to win over holdouts and get the proposal in line with the chamber’s rules.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

It now seems evident that the Neoliberal Camp of the U.S. Deep State is highly vulnerable on an individual basis.

I tend to notice things like a year-old blog entry suddenly getting thousands of page views. The essay that received a surge of recent interest: Is the Deep State at War--With Itself? (December 13, 2016).

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

In the morning darkness of Wednesday, Kim Jong Un launched an ICBM that rose almost 2,800 miles into the sky before falling into the Sea of Japan.

North Korea now has the proven ability to hit Washington, D.C.

Unproven still is whether Kim can put a miniaturized nuclear warhead atop that missile, which could be fired with precision, and survive the severe vibrations of re-entry. More tests and more time are needed for that.