Thursday, March 23, 2017
US Budget - There’s Almost Nothing Left To Cut / Politics / Government Spending
Every politician in every campaign talks about getting rid of government fraud and waste.
If we could only cut out all of that wasted spending, we would have money either to lower taxes or to spend on something more useful.
Except there is nothing to cut that is of any meaningful consequence.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Why The US Should Introduce VAT And Carbon Taxes Instead / Politics / Taxes
BY JOHN MAULDIN : Economists of pretty much every stripe will agree that a consumption tax has fewer negative effects than an income tax does. That’s because incentives matter.
If you want more of something, then tax it less; if you want less of something, tax it more. It’s about that simple.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Gold Prices See Seventh Day Of Gains After Terrorist Attack In London / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
– Gold prices higher seven days in row – best gains since Brexit
– Gold spikes to three week high after terrorist attack in London
– Global stocks fell yesterday after attack in London
– Stocks resilient today and start day flat
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stock Market Upward Reversal Or Just Quick Rebound Before Another Leg Down?? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Briefly: In our opinion, speculative short positions are favored (with stop-loss at 2,410, and profit target at 2,200, S&P 500 index).
Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:
Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Trends to Look Out For as a Modern-day Landlord / Housing-Market / Buy to Let
They say that property is always a sound investment, yet changes in the economy have led to some suggestions that life as a landlord is soon to get so much more difficult.
There is increased legislation, the markets are changing and in short, there's just a few more obstacles to contend with.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Cutting US Income Taxes Will Blow Out The Budget / Politics / Taxes
BY JOHN MAULDIN : The cost of health care runs well over $1.1 trillion. Social Security is almost $1 trillion. Defense spending is $620 billion.
Entitlement programs for our nation’s seniors and low-income individuals and families run $550 billion. (That includes food stamps, disability, affordable housing, earned-income tax credits, childcare tax credits, and so on.)
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Here’s Why Interstate Health Insurance Won’t Fix Obamacare / Trumpcare / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : Congress has a new healthcare plan to replace Obamacare. It may go nowhere since many Republicans aren’t happy with it… and the problems it tries to solve will remain.
Worse, anything that gets past the House and Senate may not matter if insurers refuse to play in 2018. The big ones haven’t committed yet.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
China’s Biggest Limitations Determine the Future of East Asia / Politics / China
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : As we wrote about in “China’s Strategy,” East Asia is split into four parts: The Pacific archipelago, the Chinese mainland, the Korean Peninsula, and Indochina. East Asia holds the second and third largest world economies: China and Japan. The relationship between them and the US define modern East Asian geopolitics.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Volatile Stock Market Session Ends Mixed / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The stock market indices volatile session today. They opened to the upside, pulled back, tested the lows successfully on the Nasdaq 100, while the S&P 500 made lower lows, and then they had a nice morning, sharp rally, got up to resistance, backed off and formed wedges. Late in the day they broke those wedges, but weren’t able to follow-through much, and backed off into the close, finishing mixed on the day.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Trading with Elliott Waves Doesn't Have to Be Complicated / Interest-Rates / Elliott Wave Theory
Start simple, with the basic 5 "core" Elliott wave chart patterns
Jeffrey Kennedy, a recognized expert in Elliott wave analysis and forecasting, explains why the Wave Principle is such a reliable and powerful way to forecast the financial markets.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
Low Interest Rates Helping Australia Transition from the Mining Boom / Interest-Rates / Austrailia
Australia’s transition from its reliance on mining exports to other sectors appears to be gathering pace as more businesses continue to take advantage of the low interest rates.The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced the base interest rate, popularly referred to as the cash rate, twice last year from 2% to 1.75% and again to 1.5%. The cash rate remains fixed at 1.5%, which when compared to many developed countries is still one of the highest.
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
This is About So Much More Than Trump and Brexit / Politics / Religion
I’ve been writing a lot about what I see as the mega trend right now… and what will make this economic winter season different from the 1930s.We’re not just seeing a classic debt and financial asset bubble that will unravel into a deflationary depression, as occurred in the 1930s and many times throughout history.
We’re not just seeing a populist revolution, as we saw with Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930s and World War II, and as has occurred about every 84 years throughout history.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Trump Stock Market Rally Over? 20% Bear Drop By Mid Summer? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The stock market has been on a tear since Donald Trump surprised nearly everyone by winning the November 2016 US Presidential election, including the markets. Since which time the Dow has gone from a November low of 17,883 to an early March high of 21,200. That's a near 19% bull run in just 4 months! During which time America's Alt-Reality thin skinned President has often stepped forward to claim success for the stocks bull market rally under his Presidency.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Trump Added $3 Trillion in Wealth to Stock Market Participants / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The “talking heads” in the media are saying that the markets are “not supposed to be this high”. Analyst are just now raising their targets for the SPX for the rest of 2017. My long-term target, as of now, is 2550 and possibly even higher. It is now heading into a corrective wave pattern before beginning its’ next new impulsive wave UP.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
What's Next for the US Dollar, Gold and Stocks? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
Two rate hikes since last year have weakened the dollar. Why is that, and what's ahead for dollar, currencies & gold? And while we are at it, we'll chime in on what may be in store for the stock market...
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
MSM Bond Market Full Nonsense Mode as ‘Trump Trades’ Unwind on Schedule / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
I’ve been watching the herds to try to determine just when the interest rate topic among the best and brightest (as chosen by the media) would start to pivot from ‘rising rates!’ hysterics that have been locked and loaded in the public psyche since the US election to a sort of ‘rut roh, maybe we got played again… ‘ realization that Rome – and a Great America – are not built in a day.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Peak Gold – Biggest Gold Story Not Being Reported / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
– Peak gold – Biggest gold story not being reported
– Gold ‘Mining Zombie Apocalypse’ caused miners to slash exploration budgets
– Decline in gold production at world’s top 10 gold mining companies – Byron King
– “No new big mines being built in the world today” – Glencore CEO Glasenberg
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Return of Sovereign France, Europe’s Changing Landscape / Politics / France
In France, President Hollande’s utter failure to foster broad consensus for structural reforms has paved the way for a contested election. While public debate focuses on Emmanuel Macron as the savior of France, the real story is that Marine Le Pen's agenda has shifted the French political landscape.Before TV debates, the French presidential election featured 3-4 viable candidates, which together accounted for 85-90 percent of the total vote. Until recently, the leader of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, and the centrist Emmanuel Macron, have garnered about 25 percent in the polls, followed by the center-right François Fillon (20%), and the socialist Benoît Hamon (15%).
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
G20 Dilemma: Falling Trade, Soaring Stock Market, Looming Contraction / Stock-Markets / Global Stock Markets
There is a deep chasm between America’s historical rebuff of G20 efforts, which seek to re-ignite trade, and markets, which remain at record heights. This rift is untenable.Historically, Baden-Baden’s spas are famous for their healing waters, which have healed ancient Romans’ arthritic aches, Prussian queens’ rheumatism and European aristocrats’ paralyses. Nevertheless, the G20 Summit is fresh evidence that even Baden-Baden cannot do miracles.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Stocks & Shares ISAs Delivering Strongest Performance Since 2009/10 Tax Year / Personal_Finance / ISA's
- The average stocks & shares ISA fund has grown by 15.8% during the 2016/17 tax year so far, the highest return since the 2009/10 tax year.
- This compares with an average cash ISA rate of 1.01% over the same period.
- The average stocks & shares ISA has delivered positive growth in eleven of the 18 tax years since the introduction of ISAs in 1999.