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Dave Stuhlsatz's avatar

Oh wait, everything is fine now. We're fine, I'm fine....how are you? (I hope Kevin remembers his Star Wars)

Seriously, what the hell was that? And if he's still playing a game of chicken with China I think it's demonstrated that he'll swerve off the road first.

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Kevin Erdmann's avatar

Ha!

I think at this point instead of trying to analyze the madness, its best just to treat it like we're sitting at the blackjack table. Random cards will continue to be dealt, some good and some bad, as we experience the exciting process of eventually losing unpredictably.

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Dave Stuhlsatz's avatar

As I'm starting this message the markets are opening in positive trading territory, which I think reflects a second day of the dead cat bounce effect. The more serious news is in the 10 year bond market which points to a disintegration of the concept of American credit. The end goal of the Trump junta is a some sort of fortress America that is 100% self sufficient in energy and manufacturing, and devoid of immigration and anything resembling foreign influence. What we're actually moving towards is depicted in the painting "Raft of the Medusa."

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Mr. Pete's avatar

Hmmm. No. Brad Setser looked at the supposedly awesome corporate foreign investment returns plowed back into imports and turns out on net it comes down essentially to tax arbitrage...which ..I think is highly stupid to have a system based on that.

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Kevin Erdmann's avatar

There is some of that, but there has clearly been an increase in the global revenue footprint of U.S. based corporations.

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