Tag Archives: China

China’s Trump Card: $1.1 Trillion in U.S. Treasuries

Saturday, 07 April 2018 05:36

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, April 6, 2018:

Flag of the Chinese Communist Party 贛語: 中國共產黨黨...

Flag of the Chinese Communist Party

In the nascent “trade war” between the United States and China, there is one option the Communist Chinese government isn’t considering using: its current stash of $1.1 trillion of U.S. Treasuries. Trevor Hunnicutt, writing for Reuters, said that, for the moment at least, “Chinese officials are holding back on taking aim at their largest American import: [U.S.] government debt.”

Hunnicutt posited that, if the Chinese did unleash what he called their “nuclear option,” it would devastate the American economy by forcing interest rates much higher and increasing the U.S. Treasury Department’s costs of financing its trillions in debt.

He also noted that, once liquidated, those assets would no longer serve as a threat to the United States, having already been expended. As Jeffrey Gundlach — known as Wall Street’s Bond King — said, “It is more effective as a threat. If they sell, they have no [more] threat.”

In his typically brash negotiating style, President Trump opened the bidding in March by

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Is the Bull Market in Stocks Over?

Wednesday, 28 March 2018 10:05

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, March 28, 2018:

Followers of the Dow Theory are having their faith in Wall Street’s oldest and most accurate market-timing model tested. Last week’s selloff triggered one of the last two indicators necessary for its followers to declare that the nine-year old bull market has ended.

Charles Dow never used his theory to trade stocks, but his followers have, with great success. It has outperformed the traditional “buy and hold” strategy by an astonishing 4.4 percentage points annually. Mark Hulbert, who watches the market watchers and publishes his results in his Hulbert Financial Digest, wrote that the key support levels to watch are 23,860 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and 10,136 on the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJT).

Near the close on Friday, the Dow broke through support, but

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Tariff Reality Ignites Stocks, Affirms Dow Theory Bull Market Signal

Wednesday, 28 March 2018 05:14

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, March 27, 2018:

The rebound in stocks on Wall Street on Monday and early Tuesday that followed last week’s sell-off was triggered by the reality that Trump’s tough talk on tariffs was little more than an opening bid to get China’s attention. It did, as was noted by Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: “We’re having very productive conversations with them. I’m cautiously hopeful [that we can] reach an agreement.”

It helped that over the weekend investors began to understand that Trump’s threat, even if fully applied, would have very little impact on the overall economy. Part of the initial confusion was the media’s constant repetition that Trump intended “to impose at least $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports” as the Washington Post expressed it. Whether deliberate or not, the Washington Post should have said that Trump intended “to impose tariffs on at least $60 billion worth of imports, particularly imports of steel and aluminum.”

That’s a vastly different, more accurate and less concerning statement.

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Navarro or Kudlow for Trump’s Chief Economic Advisor? Navarro in a Walk.

Wednesday, 14 March 2018 09:14

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, March 14, 2018:

Reuters reported that Trump is down to the final two candidates to fill the void left by Gary Cohn’s departure: Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow. Kudlow has an elegant public persona honed through years of practice while Navarro is known to be abrasive and harsh both in public and in private.

But Peter Navarro has the president’s ear, at least for the moment. Navarro persuaded the president that “free trade” agreements like NAFTA and the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) are Trojan Horses: all dressed up to look like “free trade” (who could be against that?), but hiding inside the machinery for regional and then international government. And he won the battle of tariffs, resulting in the departure of globalist Gary Cohn (CFR member and former Goldman Sachs CEO).

Navarro knows what Kudlow should know about China. Navarro wrote a book about the threat while Kudlow has yet to mention it on his CNBC show “The Kudlow Report.” The threat has been successfully hidden by the mainstream media for years until Navarro wrote

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Trump Considering Kudlow, Navarro to Replace Cohn as Chief Economic Advisor

Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:24

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, March 13, 2018:

Kudlow & Cramer

Kudlow & Cramer

The vacuum left by Gary Cohn’s departure last Tuesday will be filled shortly, either by Peter Navarro or by Larry Kudlow. Reuters reported that these are the president’s “top two candidates” to replace Cohn as chief economic advisor.

Navarro, as The New American reported, led the White House team that persuaded the president to keep America first by imposing tariffs to protect what’s left of the country’s vital industrial base. Kudlow, the Democrat-turned-Republican with a history of cocaine abuse (a $100,000-a-month habit until he successfully exited rehab in the 1990s) and supporting left-wing causes and candidates in his younger days, was grieved to learn of Cohn’s departure. As The New American reported,

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Venezuela in Default; Can the U.S. Be Far Behind?

Thursday, 16 November 2017 06:25

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, November 15, 2017:

Português: Brasília - O chanceler da Venezuela...

Marxist Dictator Nicolas Maduro

Marxist Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela owes the world an estimated $140 billion. It’s greatly diminished economy, thanks to his socialist policies, generates barely $400 billion in output. That puts its debt-to-GDP ratio at 35 percent.

The United States government, if government agencies are to be believed,

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Credit Agencies Declare Venezuela in Default

Wednesday, 15 November 2017 06:26

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, November 14, 2017:

English: Federal dependencies of Venezuela's Flag

Federal dependencies of Venezuela’s Flag

Following a meeting between some of Venezuela’s bondholders and Venezuelan officials in Caracas on Monday, Maduro’s government declared the meeting a success: “The process of refinancing Venezuela’s foreign debt began with resounding success. The start of this refinancing of our debt ratifies our full intention to comply, as we have always done, with all our obligations.” One observer of the 25-minute long meeting, Raymond Zucaro of RVX Asset Management, said, “Nothing of substance happened.”

What did happen is that Maduro’s government, which promised it would be making a number of bond interest payments, didn’t. According to both Moody’s and S&P Global,

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Maduro Blocks Opposition, Is Kept in Power by Banks and Marxist Allies

Saturday, 21 October 2017 05:55

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, October 20, 2017:

Days after the fraudulent election of mayors in Venezuela, Marxist dictator Nicolás Maduro banned the five mayors from the opposition party from taking office. He replaced them with party hacks, all but ending any opposition to his increasingly repressive regime. The election, in which 17 of the 23 mayoral races went to Maduro supporters, was widely criticized for being manipulated in order to give the country’s dictator the win.

Evidence that the election was fraudulent provided by the opposition is being ignored, with the head of Maduro’s National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, calling the elections

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Venezuela’s Maduro’s Election Victory Likely to be Short-lived

Thursday, 19 October 2017 05:29

This article was published by the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, October 18, 2017:

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Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicolas Maduro celebrated the phony, fraudulent election on Sunday as if it were real and meant something:

We have won 75 percent of the country’s governorships … Chavismo [the socialist policies that have driven once-prosperous Venezuela into the ground] is alive [and] triumphant.

He rejoiced in the election’s supposed slap against foreign devils, including the United States: “This victory is a moral and political feat of the Venezuelan people who have learned to resist the onslaughts of the oligarchy’s war and who have said ‘no to sanctions,’ ‘no to interventionism.’’’

He didn’t tell his supporters that his victory is likely to be very short-lived.

That his election was clearly manipulated was spelled out by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert:

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EV Revolution to Drive Oil to $10 a Barrel, Says Forecaster

Tuesday, 17 October 2017 05:42

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 16, 2017:

Chris Watling, the CEO of Longview Economics, told CNBC on Friday that Saudi Arabia should hasten the sale of part of its Aramco oil company while the price of crude is still high: “I think they need to get it away quick before oil goes to $10 [per barrel].” Added Watling: “We forget, don’t we? 120 years ago the world didn’t live on oil. Oil hasn’t always driven the global economy. The point is, alternative energy in some form is gathering speed.… Things are changing.”

Watling’s views coincide with those of Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in their just-released 2017 Long Term Electric Vehicle Outlook, which concluded that by 2040

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China Forcing Private Businesses to Support Failing State-owned Enterprises

Thursday, 12 October 2017 05:28

China Unicom

China Unicom

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 11, 2017:

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The latest report from Caixin/Markit should surprise no one watching China’s continuing economic decline. On Monday Caixin/Markit announced that its purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for China’s services sector fell in September to the lowest level since December 2015, and close to the lowest recorded since the survey began in 2005.

Its PMI for China’s manufacturing sector also fell in September, causing Zhengsheng Zhong, a director at CEBM Group, to add that these numbers “suggesting downward pressure on [China’s] economic growth may re-emerge in the fourth quarter.”

Indeed they might. As The New American and others have noted,

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China is Suffering from the Same Curse as the U.S.: Too Much Debt, Too Little Growth

Saturday, 23 September 2017 05:23

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, September 22, 2017:

Live video feed of Zig Ziglar speaking at the ...

Zig Ziglar speaking at the Get Motivated Seminar at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

When Zig Ziglar was trying to motivate salesmen, he would often tell them that “there aren’t very many problems that can’t be solved by sufficient production.” This, unfortunately, has been picked up by statist economists who have assumed that any production, at any cost, will solve any problem. Put another way, “We can grow our way out from under the massive debt we have. And we can grow the economy by stimulating it with borrowed funds.”

Zig would be appalled:

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S&P Downgrades China’s Credit Rating

Friday, 22 September 2017 05:21

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 21, 2017:

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Thanks to “diminished financial stability,” S&P Global Ratings downgraded China’s credit rating for the first time since 1999, adding, “China’s prolonged period of strong credit [debt] growth has increased its economic and financial risks. Although this credit [debt] growth had contributed to strong real gross domestic product growth and higher asset prices, we believe it has also diminished financial stability.”

The downgrade by S&P is the second one this year for China — Moody’s Investors Service dropped China’s rating in May — and was preceded by a warning from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August that China’s growing debt binge was putting its economy into jeopardy.

The response by Chinese officials was as predictable as it was silly.

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“You Can Trust the Communists (to be Communists)”

Saturday, 16 September 2017 05:30

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, September 15, 2017:

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The Australian physician, Dr. Fred Schwarz, filled the Los Angeles Sports Arena from August 28 through September 1, 1961 – capacity 16,000 – to hear him and other speakers expose the communist conspiracy. He educated millions, and his book You Can Trust the Communists (to be Communists) sold well over a million copies. As Morrie Ryskind, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, wrote at the time: “I can honestly say that in my 25 years in Los Angeles I have never known a local event that so completely captured the enthusiasm for the city.”

Schwarz founded and was active in his Christian Anti-Communist Crusade into his late 80s, passing away at age 96 in 2009.

Schwarz would have recognized the ploys the Chinese communists are using to extract high-technology from the United States by any means whatsoever. In their effort to overtake American technology, China is following a 10-year plan to

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Trump Halts Chinese Deal to “Protect National Security”

Friday, 15 September 2017 06:00

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 14, 2017:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on Wednesday that the proposed purchase of Lattice Semiconductor — the world’s second-largest manufacturer of simple and complex programmable logic devices — by China-backed Canyon Bridge Capital Partners was blocked by President Trump:

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Hurricane Harvey, President Trump Putting More Pressure on Venezuela

Monday, 28 August 2017 05:35

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Sunday, August 27, 2017:

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On Friday President Donald Trump once again ramped up sanctions against Venezuela’s Marxist dictator, shutting off his ability to sell new debt or equity in the U.S. financial markets. On Saturday, Hurricane Harvey, the worst hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in 50 years, has all but sealed Maduro’s fate.

Following Maduro’s installation of his illegal “constituent assembly” in July, President Trump placed sanctions on Maduro himself, freezing any and all of his assets lying within American jurisdiction. A week later Trump added a few of Maduro’s cronies to that list, and on August 9 he added a few more. At the time The New American expressed skepticism that they would have any effect on Maduro’s obstinacy and determination to continue policies that have caused Venezuela’s economy to shrink by 35 percent just since 2014.

On Friday the Trump administration broadened those sanctions to include

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Steve Bannon – Both Friend and Enemy of Freedom – Returns to Breitbart

Monday, 21 August 2017 13:01

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, August 21, 2017:

It didn’t take Steve Bannon – Trump’s chief political strategist – very long to bid adieu and pick up where he left off at Breitbart. On Friday he explained his widely anticipated departure:

On August 7th, I talked to [Chief of Staff John] Kelly and to the President, and I told them that my resignation would be effective the following Monday, on the 14th. I’d always planned on spending one year. General Kelly has brought in a great new system, but I said it would be best [to leave]. I want to get back to Breitbart.

On Friday night, he was back at work as Executive Chairman at Breitbart, saying:

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Bannon’s Ouster as Trump’s Chief Strategist Largely Self-inflicted

Monday, 21 August 2017 05:22

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Sunday, August 20, 2017:

Immediately upon his termination as President Trump’s chief political strategist last week, Steve Bannon returned to his former position as executive chairman of Breitbart News. In fact, within hours of his return he chaired an “all-hands” meeting to plan the future.

Bannon said it was all part of a plan: “On August 7th, I talked to [Chief of Staff John] Kelly and to the President, and I told them that my resignation would be effective the following Monday, on the 14th. I’d always planned on spending one year. General Kelly has brought in a great new system, but I said it would be best [to leave]. I want to get back to Breitbart.” Upon his return to Brietbart, Bannon said:

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With Nod to Sovereignty, Trump Dumps UN “Climate” Regime

Thursday, 01 June 2017 19:49

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, June 1, 2017. It was written by Alex Newman, a colleague of mine, and is reprinted here with his permission.

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After months of keeping the world in suspense about his intentions, President Donald Trump formally announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the United Nations “Paris Agreement” on alleged man-made global warming. Blasting the non-binding UN scheme as a counterproductive effort to disadvantage America and redistribute U.S. wealth rather than fix the “climate,” Trump portrayed the decision as one that puts “America First.” He also chastised foreign powers and their lobbyists for demanding that the United States continue to handicap its economy under the guise of doing virtually nothing for the climate. The withdrawal, Trump said, represents the “re-assertion of America’s sovereignty” and a fulfillment of his efforts to re-invigorate the American economy. It was also the fulfillment of Trump’s oft-repeated pledge to “cancel” the UN scheme.

However, frustrating some of his supporters and climate realists, Trump also indicated that he was open to either re-negotiating the Paris Agreement or creating a similar international “climate” regime that would be more “fair” to the United States. In fact, the president even offered to work with Democrat Party leaders to create a new global-warming scheme — provided

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China’s Surveillance State Now Monitors Foreign Companies, as Well as Citizens

Saturday, 27 May 2017 05:58

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, May 26, 2017:

A Cropped version of President George W. Bush ...

Xi Jinping, no friend of freedom

The Wall Street Journal’s claim that China’s surveillance state, which now records the behaviors of foreign companies operating there, is only intended to “monitor and rate” them falls far short of the communist government’s real intentions. Using sophisticated tracking technology — meters in chimneys monitoring air pollution, recording of excessive energy usage by a company’s meters, and so on — it intends to change the behavior of those companies to keep them in line with state policy and objectives.

China’s State Council — the government’s all-seeing eye — already monitors every citizen’s behavior.

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