Donny's October Surprise: Dow down > 30%; USD up > 10%.
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Or, perhaps, the world is more than a bit concerned that the so-called ruler of the US has gone full-tilt foil hat (with just a touch too much of a side of Hitler).
A conspiracy against him?!? Really????
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Those with expensive, top level computer trading screens, and Deep Fascist insider access to financial information will only benefit from the instability created by the Trumpolini tsarist model. The rest of pensioners and the hopeful can continue to play nickel slots and deadly roulette with their pensions and 401k's, and ardently offer self-serving thoughts and prayers for their dismal futures, while their futures are clearly rigged. Just ask the Kochs and the Mercers, the Devos's and the Pruitts and the Tsarist Trumpolini family itself. Every deprecated moron loves a monarchy, and also hates to miss out on the pageantry. But they vote against their own normal children, again and again. That's the way of greed. That's the modern GOP. Greedy Old Pigs, perhaps. It's "Democracy" when the voters are duped by Fox-style newstainment. It's horrible, and it's happening now.
OMG....
I don't believe it.
He has been so lucky, so stupidly lucky.
But Trump's office is not, unlike opening luxury resorts not turnkey operations as long as you know how to outsource all the work.
Your brand, Mr. Trump, does not do the same work it does in the market. You can actually sell frozen steaks as premium in the market! But in government, power is locy, and -- seriously, what? -- are your policies? They flip and flop, tariffs to no tariffs, special bail-outs to sorry no special bail-outs, did you give my doctor some intellectual property trademarks, or did you not?
Sordid.
Thanks to Italy’s President for making it clear that voters are stupid and don’t count. The oligarchy prevents such clarity here.
The level of ignorance expressed in many of these comments about how stock and bond markets work is breathtaking...and disturbing.
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George Soros said this week he thinks we are headed into a recession or worse. That’s good enough for me. Batten down the hatches! That’s not in my definition of MAGA.
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Traders make money up or down. The only time they don't make money is when the market is placid. As for the Italians, they are understandably upset at Brussels' lack of help with the hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants washing up on their shores, but would be nuts to return to the Lira, and it won't happen.
It's only a matter of time before the bottom drops out as Trump makes America great again, May makes Britain great again, and now a clown in Italy makes Italy...well...again.
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Today's market drop was more about trade sanctions and China than Italy's troubles.
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I don't think this is only about the finance minister and a lack of honesty about economic plans on the part of the far right. Pres. Mattarella is, I have no doubt, exquisitely conscious of the mistake that General von Hindenburg made in 1933, and was not about to follow in von Hindenburg's footsteps.
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Italy was one of the founding members of the EU and Italians were the most pro EU in Europe. That sentiment turned in recent years; the anti EU attitude is now prevalent. Italians voted with the results that we know, that are now being ignored by the President of Italy. Why not let the coalition form a government including Savona? A new government with such a coalition might be short-lived , but a new election in the Fall will most likely become a referendum about The EU? Remember Cameron?
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Re : relative safety of German and American government bonds
Yield is a measure of perceived safety . Higher perceived safety, less yield (and for the issuing country lower interest payments on its National debt
Numbers
German 10 year bond : Yield 0.263 %
US 10 year treasury : Yield 2.8%
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So long, 2018 401k gains!
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Mildly humorous for one person, but a disastrous way for a whole nation to save for retirement. We are the sheep the traders shear.
When "the markets" start responding to the turmoil in this country then we'll know that a tad of sanity touched the masters of the universe. Until then, greed rules.
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The 10 year treasury bond was as high as 3.11% two weeks ago and its fall from Friday to today brought it down to 2.77%, the lowest yield in two months. While a lot can happen in two weeks (see above), it will be interesting to see if the Fed increases its rate by another 0.25% at its next meeting in two weeks. The yield curve has been flattening of late, and this rush into bonds, while indicative of "geopolitical" concerns, bears watching. Then again, Fidelity offers hundreds of online CDs, all FDIC insured, with a 14 month CD yielding 2.4%. There are also 3- year CDs with 3% yields.
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Good grief! Stop. I’d like to read headlines that scream workers suffer more wage cuts and loss of job security with pensions being stolen by greedy CEOs looking for another plane. That won’t happen because the CEOs run the country!
There is a desire to tell us all how the stock market is our lives but yet the same people tell us that we need to worship CEOs and support their every call for tax brakkes, massive salaries and perks and allow them to run our government. And then when they crash we need to bail them out!
The stock market doesn’t care about Italy. The stock market is run by computers programmed by manipulators that do what’s suits their bottom line.
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Certainly makes sense- not!
Political turmoil in Italy creates havoc on the US stock exchanges - ha! If I've learned anything about the stock markets, it's that there is no logic or rhyme nor reason as to when a market rises or falls!
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We should be thankful for markets- They control events as much as events control them.
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What was the cause of the political uncertainty in Italy?
That the democratically elected coalition government of Italy had their choice of finance minister undemocratically vetoed by the Italian head of state, which caused the collapse of the coalition government.
The Italian head of state owns any consequence of this undemocratic action.
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FALSE. The Italian Head of State used his Constitutional right of naming another interim prime minister after the two populist parties (5Star Movement and Lega) were unable to name a finance minister who backed the Euro system. The populists choice, prof. Savona, talked about his plan of getting Italy out of the Euro system and back to the Lira, the old currency: a plan the voters were not aware of when they voted for 5SM and Lega. Getting out of the Euro system would have meant a catastrophe for Italy. Thank God the Italian Head of State is a wise man and an experienced politician.
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Not true, Savona's writings against the euro are 20 years old. All known to the voters.
This is kinda like when Britain's King William IV bounced out a government because he didn't like one of the ministers.
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Thank you for explaining to the Americans that the President of Italy was elected and has vast executive powers enshrined in the constitution of the modern Republic of Italy. That said many people don't realize that Italy has a significant economy that plays a major role in Europe. Ms Merkel this is a wake up call. What you did to the Greeks and other eurozone countries is not going to work in Italy. Further the contagion to France, also highly indebted, could spell catastrophe for the Euro and the long-term viability of the EU.
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The richest 10% of Americans now own 84% of all stocks.
But Main Street will be expected to bail them out again in the next crash.
The three richest people in the US – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett – own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, or 160 million people.
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I long for the good, old days...when the markets crashed, and Wall Street geniuses jumped out of buildings.
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Why would anyone bail them out? Their losses will not cause much collateral damage, so there is no need for the government to act.
The richest 10% is still 32 million people, but even they don't have that much political power.
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Jonathan, are you really suggesting that the people who own 84% of this country "don't have that much political power"? Money is power in this country. It's the power to buy a whole bunch of lawmakers. And he who pays the piper calls the tune.
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The markets dropped because of the tariffs on China. Italy is the the number 9 economy. California has a bigger economy that Italy.
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Greece is the #48 economy. The prospect of a Greek default caused quite a stir. Italy is more than large enough to do the same.
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