A few issues dominate our thoughts today:
China and the tariffs imposed. It appears to us that China clearly backed off agreements sensing a weakness in the U.S. They are wrong with this President. He only appears to give Putin an out. China won’t get one.
Now did they think the pressure of North Korea, Iran and Venezuela would allow them to gain some advantages; or did they think the pressure of Democratic candidates gaining traction would help? Maybe it was the administration arguing that the Fed should reduce rates that had them thinking the economy could be slowing.
Well, whatever it was they are wrong and the President is not going to blink here and what’s more the American people are behind him on this.
Now, they can bet a stock market decline changes things, but I think they will be wrong there too.
Now the situation with North Korea is another issue that should be getting more play. In fact there was an event yesterday that didn’t get the play it should have.
N. Korea fired some missiles again. You heard that. They were short range and within the agreement, so Kim hasn’t yet broken the agreement not to fire long range missiles. However, just firing missiles has upset the progress and the administration is not happy. Within minutes of their test we fired missiles, saying they “were not in reaction”. They were.
But a bigger event happened that got no coverage. We conducted a stop seizure of a North Korean ship accused of smuggling coal and heavy machinery in defiance of international sanctions. We took this ship off the high seas. This ship is the second largest in North Korea’s fleet. So it was no minor move. We’re not sure why coverage hasn’t been greater, but it should be.
Now remember all this activity from N.Korea has occurred after Kim’s visit to Russia and meeting with Putin. It’s all related.
Keep a watch on this as Kim must now react to the ship being seized, and let’s see what Putin promised Kim when he told him to go ahead and fire the missiles.
Some Domestic Issues:
| Bernie Sanders proposed legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 15%, comparing the banking industry to “loan sharks”. He announced this alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What would it mean to you? For those who have cards for miles or cash return it means the companies would lower the benefit. Someone has to pay and in this case the conscientious user would lose again. |
| Speaking of the Democrats, theNational Committee set a June 12 deadline for qualifying for the first presidential primary debates, and outlined a tie breaking system in case more than 20 candidates qualify for the two- night event. So 20 is the maximum for the debate. Remember the media noise on rules for the 2016 Republican debates? Hear any yet on this? |
Democrats are also debating having a national minimum wage as part of their platform. It would not be controversial as living costs in some areas are far different than others. We would guess they will not do this.
One issue that was in the news yestderday is both domestic and international. The Pope made a statement on church sexual abuse. He basically said that “new church law orders officials to report misconduct to their superiors and empowers senior archbishops to investigate”. Really? You are just saying and now ordering this?
And by the way, it says nothing about punishment.
Have a great weekend.