Who or what may we even be talking about with this headline? It’s a sad reality when I’m sure many of us can come up with a number of names and institutions that warrant this question of “who to believe?” Do we believe the President or the Democrats? The Republicans or the Democrats? The White House or the Chinese Communist Party? One news outlet over the next? These questions continue and continue and continue. So, we take the time today to run through some recent scenarios and how to analyze them from multiple perspectives in order to hopefully arrive at the truth – whatever that means and whatever that may be. The same stories continue and they will persist well into 2020 – you know what they are. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Truth #Justice #Peace #Politics #Economy #Recession #EndTheFed #Impeachment #HongKong
Talk about trying to have your cake and eating it too! President Trump gave his much anticipated speech before the Economic Club of New York and while his comments were relatively muted, he did have to mention his discontent with the Federal Reserve and his desire for negative interest rates here in the USA. How does one have the greatest economy of all-time and then also need the “assistance” of the perverted and fraudulent policy of negative interest rates? It does not make sense. Negative interest rates are another form of theft. Just like inflation and taxation. Ironically, at the end of the speech, the President reiterated that as long as he is the President, the USA will never be a socialist nation. Too late. Then why would the President call on the Fed to adopt the monetary policy of the EU, which is basically comprised of socialists? None of this makes sense. That is, until you understand that President Trump is attempting to lay the blame for any coming economic and/or stock market downturn at the feet of the Fed. He will also likely continue to blame the Democrats for their “endless” investigations and perhaps even China for not making a deal. Trade was a talking point during the speech and the President noted that tariffs will go up significantly if there is not a Phase 1 trade deal. Of course it was only a month ago when we were told that a Phase 1 deal was agreed and some finer points needed ironed out and then there would be a signing ceremony. Has not happened. And it does not appear that it’s going to happen anytime soon.
On another front, yet still related, the Hong Kong protests continue. These protests are starting to take place during the weekday(s) shutting down commerce and becoming more violent. How much further can this continue without putting Hong Kong into recession and into quasi-political chaos, and and when will China get involved? If China gets involved, can Trump sign a deal?
Lastly, the public hearings for the impeachment inquiry are slated to start tomorrow. Keep an open mind and let the facts fall where they may. We must put aside the hyper-partisanship that exists and seek the truth and justice – no matter who may be implicated. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Economy #Recession #Impeachment #Truth #Justice #Peace #Politics #Protests #HongKong
While it was a relatively slow news day, there were a handful of stories worth discussing. Most of these topics were follow-ups to yesterday’s Week Ahead segment. The world is on pins and needles and is undergoing a massive sea change in the domain of politics. People are growing sick and tired of the corruption, abuses of power, nepotism, and the unethical and immoral treatment of their fellow citizens at the hands of their own governments. The truth must be known and justice must be served in order for this planet to heal and move on to the next phase of our journey. Which despite the current hardships, the next chapters may prove to be some of our finest – if, if we can work together. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Truth #Justice #Peace #Economy #Politics #Recession #Protests #Impeachment #EndTheFed
Much is likely to continue this week regarding global protests, especially in the Middle East, South America, and Hong Kong. In fact, as Hong Kong enters its 6th month of protests, today we witnessed a rare weekday protest in Hong Kong on Monday, and unfortunately, a protester was shot by the police. This individual is in critical condition, and regardless if the office was justified, this is not a good image, and is likely going to fuel further protests. Protests in Bolivia have caused the President to resign. This follows the resignation of the Lebanese PM and the cabinet shuffle in Chile. These protests are not transitory. This is history in the making.
On the economic front, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, is schedule to give his bi-annual testimony before Congress. President Trump is scheduled to give a speech before the Economic Club of New York, where his remarks on US/China trade talks will be highly anticipated. Why? All we get is noise and falsehoods and market manipulation, but we digress. Markets will nevertheless be paying close attention. There will also be a handful of important economic data releases. But hey, since the Fed is printing money again, who cares about the fundamentals? They don’t matter until they do.
On the political front, the impeachment inquiry will enter its public phase this week with Bill Taylor and George Kent testifying on Wednesday and Marie Yavonavitch testifying on Friday. Most people did not take the time to read through thousands of pages of testimony. However, the public will likely watch some of the public testimony. This will come down to public opinion on who they find more credible – a whole host of State Department officials who have served their country with integrity for decades, or the President of the United States? If public opinion starts to sway towards impeachment, this will not bode well for the President as this may open the door to on-the-fence Republicans who may privately want to impeach and remove, but are afraid of being attacked by the President and his base. Increased polling numbers to impeach and remove can give these Republicans the cover they need to vote in accordance.
Lastly, Nikki Haley, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations is out with a new book (as we predicted). In it she alleges that former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, attempted to “recruit” her to oppose Trump on several policies. We imagine she is auditioning for the role of Secretary of State as rumors are circulating that Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, may resign so that he may run for a Senate seat for Kansas. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Protests #Recession #Economy #Politics #Impeachment #EndTheFed #Truth #Justice #Peace
Again, The Kapital News is ahead of the curve when only a couple of weeks ago, we issued a warning around Boeing. The podcast, titled, “GE/GM: Trouble at the Plant?,” also covered a discussion of Boeing. At the time, the concern in question pertained to airline pilots with Southwest Airlines filing suit against Boeing for lost wages. The 737 model is the only model employed by Southwest Airlines and the model that has been grounded globally for months is the Boeing 737 MAX 8 airline. The reason for the plane’s grounding is directly in relation to the two flights that crashed last year within six months of each other – killing all on board. What has been described as a flaw in the computer software on the MAX, may now be turning into something a little more nefarious.
It is now understood in part, that the pilots of these two crashed airlines experienced difficulties with the new computer software and were either unable to override the software or were too late in doing so. What is now being reported, is that Boeing personnel from a few years ago were discussing concerns centered around the software and sensor system on the MAX.
The MAX came into existence following a move by Boeing’s main competitor, Airbus, to increase the size of the engine on the Airbus model A320 – a similar plane to Boeing’s 737. The larger engine was supposed to translate into better fuel-efficiency, thus saving airlines millions of dollars. Not to be outdone, Boeing also made the decision to incorporate larger engines on the 737 and thus the 737 MAX 8 was born. A key difference between the A320 and the 737 is that the elevation clearance from the ground to wing on the A320 is greater than that of the 737. Therefore, the larger engine was easier to install on the A320 as opposed to the 737. This led Boeing to have to move the engine forward, causing part of the engine to actually sit higher than the wing of the 737. This change made it possible for the pitch or the trajectory of the nose of the MAX to steepen to such a degree that the plane could enter a stall and potentially crash. This is what happened on both of the downed airplanes. This change in trajectory is most likely to occur during take-off, which is what transpired on the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airline flights – crashing shortly after take-off. In order to account for this steepening, Boeing updated their software in conjunction with sensors, to detect such a dangerous steepening and then correct the aircraft to a safer position. This unfortunately did not occur during these flights and the pilots were unaware as to how to correct for this error.
What now appears to be the case, is that Boeing may have been driven by revenue, profits, and delivering an aircraft in a “timely” fashion to compete with Airbus. We hope that profits and speed were not prioritized at the expense of safety. If this happens to be the case – the damage this will do to Boeing and the greater economy could prove to be immeasurable. Boeing is the largest US exporter and the industries that they depend and likewise the industries that depend on Boeing on will be heavily hit. These include, steel, aluminum, carbon-composite materials, computers, electronics, glass, rubber, paint, and several others. This could be an industrial/manufacturing contagion comparable to the collapse of Lehman Brothers that truly kick-started the collapse of the 2008-2009 financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession.
This issue is being investigated by the FAA, the Department of Transportation, Congress, the DOJ, the FBI, and other global regulators. There will be much more to come. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Boeing #Recession #Justice #Truth #Peace #USA #Airbus #EU #Europe #Airlines #Congress #DOJ #Economy #Politics
Sometimes it’s nice to take a step back from all the action and take a deep breath. That’s what we do in today’s podcast, as we simply list a handful of geopolitical risks that remain outstanding. They consist of: Brexit, US/China trade war, the Syria/Turkey conflict, the potential alliance between Turkey and Russia, unresolved issues relating to Iran and Venezuela, global central banks that are out of control, protests in Hong Kong, Spain, Haiti, Egypt, Ecuador, and others, also domestic policy concerns in Congress. These stories will continue to drive the news for the remainder of the year and some, well into next year and possibly beyond. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Politics #Justice #Peace #Truth #Economy #Recession
Lots to focus on this week and throughout this month as a number of data points and geopolitical events are set to unfold. The Federal Reserve is once again extending their repo agreements to 4 November. This started out as a “one-off,” and then quickly expanded to have a deadline of 10 October and now another moving of the goalpost to 4 November. This is due to a lack of liquidity in the system. The same system that saw the Fed pump trillions of dollars into the financial bloodstream over the last decade is now drying up. We fully anticipate that the Fed will soon begin future round(s) of QE – however, note that it is highly unlikely that they will brand it QE. This lack of liquidity is signaling something just isn’t right beneath the surface – and given not one but two deadline extensions, perhaps it’s not beneath, but right on the surface. This week will see a continuance of US-China trade talks. As we’ve been told for nearly two years – we’re sure everything is going just “great” and a deal is soon at hand (sarcasm). Not really much of a reason for the two sides to strike a deal, especially given the geopolitical climate and the domestic issues surrounding President Trump. Other items discussed include: Hong Kong protests, Brexit, the US jobs report, corporate lay-offs, and a potential 2nd whistleblower coming forward against President Trump. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Whistleblower #EndTheFed #Impeachment #Justice #Truth #Economy #Politics #TradeWar #Peace
So many headlines and so little time. The deadline for Brexit is now only a couple of months away and UK Parliament is no closer to striking a deal with the EU or amongst themselves to leave with a deal. PM Boris Johnson was shot down a few times already as the new PM – with Parliament voting to strike down the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal. This led the PM to call for a snap election for 15 October, which was also struck down by Parliament – at least for now. Given the many back and forth tactics and antics, we imagine there will be more calls for a general election. In Hong Kong, the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, has formally removed the highly contentious extradition bill from consideration. This bill is a main cause to the 13 weeks of protests, which have shut down several parts of Hong Kong. While this was a big issue for the protesters, the question becomes, will this be enough to end the protests and riots? On the US-China trade front, despite escalation from both sides, there has been a formal announcement that high-level talks will resume in Washington DC in October. All and any outcome is pure speculation, so we shall wait for the results. We lastly discuss the divergence between the main US equity indices against the bond market, the internals of the US stock market, precious metals, and commodities, given their movements, they cannot all be right. One group points to growth and the other, a slowdown. Well, which will it be? Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Brexit #HongKong #USChinaTrade #TradeWar #Economy #Recession #Politics
Where to even begin?…We have alleged sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein committing suicide while in a maximum security prison. Of course the suicide remains in question. This is likely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to many individuals soon to be prosecuted for sex trafficking and the like. The figures in Epstein’s social circle consists of politicians, business executives, and celebrities. It is not a far stretch to imagine that a few members of “high society” are also somehow involved. However, everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Clearly, something is amiss when a high-profile inmate commits suicide, is killed, etc… The question is, who benefits from his death? It is in this question that answers will be found. In global markets, we continue to witness a sell-off in equities, a flight to “safe-have” government bonds, and precious metals. Global yields continue to make multi-year lows and even all-time lows depending on the nation and the duration. The spread between the 10 and 2 year US Treasury is at its tightest spread in years and is nearly inverted. The 3 month and 10 year has been inverted for some time, yet, once the 10 and 2 year inverts, it’s basically a foregone conclusion that the end of this record-breaking expansion is drawing near. Protests continue in Hong Kong, leading authorities to shut down all out going air travel. This will be the 11th week of protests amid growing concerns that mainland China is seeking to exert more control over Hong Kong. This simply adds to the global uncertainty and may serve as another piece on the geopolitical chessboard, especially regarding the US-China trade war. Also, there was a surprise upset in the Argentinian elections – the market sold off 48% and the peso is trading at record lows against the US dollar. All corners of the globe are on edge and the bigger the bubble, the less the pressure that is needed to cause its bursting. Stay diversified, stay vigilant, and stay with The Kapital News. #Epstein #Justice #WakeUpAmerica #Economy #Politics #Investing #HongKong #Peace
