United States

By Nicholas Colas of Convergex

E Pluribus Google (Trends)

The Mexican government denies a report by the Associated Press that alleges US President Donald Trump threatened President Enrique Pena Nieto with US military action to deal with the “bad hombres down there,” if Mexico was not willing to. Referring to drug trafficking across the border, Trump allegedly told Pena Nieto “You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared.

When it comes to the future of the US economy, capital markets, the strength of the dollar, and tax policy in general, few proposals are likely to have as much of an impact as the border adjustment tax, or BAT, which as we profiled before, could have a significant impact on the value of the dollar, pushing it as much as 15% higher, and leading to dramatic changes in global trade patterns. As a reminder, House speaker Paul Ryan is the primary advocate of the BAT, arguing this effective $1.2 trillion tax on imports is the only way Congress can pay for Trump's proposed massive tax cuts.

By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at

Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing.

Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity.

After a phenomenal 2015, in which JPM's head quant Marko Kolanovic as if by magic managed to correctly call every major market inflection point ahead of time, he found 2016 far more challenging, although toward the end of the year, he did get a second wind, and his key predictions since the Trump election have panned out, as he himself note in his latest note: