Americans are losing their hard earned money while the occupant of the White House is singing, poor, poor, pitiful me!?
Pathetic.
Thankfully, my husband and I saw the Trump effect coming and moved our hard earned retirement savings out of the stock market before it plunged. How much lower will it go? As low as Trump, Mnuchin, Mulvaney, and their Wall Street buddies can drive it. Color me a skeptic, dollars to donuts the deplorable trio and their bros pulled out of the market long ago, now they’re waiting for it to hit rock bottom before they buy.
Hard to believe so many people voted, Trump, Make Americans poor again.
11
This totally inept, chaotic, corrupt and out of control administration is bent on destroying the economy and our world wide political stature.
You have a cabinet whose offices should have revolving doors because they are changing so much. You have a myopic President with the attention span of a three year old and the common sense of one as well and an ego the size of Texas.
If this continues for much longer, this country will be doomed to a major collapse economically, politically, and socially!
2
It's amusing to read things like "aides scrambled to assure the public...".
It doesn't matter what Trump's aides do or say, Trump will contradict, backtrack, betray, or simply blame them for his own misdeeds.
I do not understand how any self-respecting individual could work for this psychopath.
4
Trump could ruin a cup of tea. He sold his base on his soaring intellect and deep understanding of the economy. It turns out he defrauded them (most of America knew it all along). Instead of gaining a firmer grasp of the job, he gets worse at it every day. When members of his sycophantic GOP cohort begin to lose millions because of Trump's stupidity, may then they'll take measures to remove him. We can only hope. What a great holiday gift to America to rid the country of this fraudulent criminal. We deserve better than this. WAKE UP AMERICA!!
5
I knew that Trump was maniacally fixated on undoing Obama’s legacy — ACA, TPP, environmental protections, alliances, etc. But I never thought he’d go as far as undermining the long Obama bull run that our economy has been enjoying.
I guess this will just be another example of Trump’s “winning”!
7
Only trump would brag so arrogantly, taking full credit for the stock market when it was maintaining the trend established under Obama’s watch, and then blame others when it goes south on his watch.
And his mindless cult believes every word and chant “lock her up!”
5
Given the vast corruption in Trump's administration, is it too far a stretch to believe that Knunchin's comments benefited his former employer, Goldman Sachs? Remember the giant blood funnel squid of 2008 jammed down America's throat, being the only company that made money from the Crisis. He can't be the dumbest person on the planet (or is he? in which case we have a buffoon in a powerful position) for making that comment; the only alternative is to realize the intentionality of the comment. Neither choice bodes well for America. What a poor, poor state of the US to even think this writing could in fact have a basis in reality. We are a magnificent country that has fallen a long, long way.
5
Americans do not believe women when they tell the truth AND believe men who are liars...at the same time. I can argue that is a true definition of an insane peoples.
So go on about the billionaire gambling casino - it is all there is after the flying spaghetti monster.
1
"The Treasury secretary said he had contacted the chief executives of six major banks to ensure that their operations were running smoothly, and that they had “ample liquidity available for lending.”
--------------------------------------
Lehman Bothers, like other banks levered false misrepresentation about bank solvency that sparked the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Mr. Mnuchin,
What did you expect the banks to say in the absence of published current financial disclosure? You obviously had not learned about the lies that bankers trade during times of financial stress. I suggest you take responsibility for your actions and duties and call a meeting of the FED and all major banks TBTF, and make certain that disclosures are hardened and investors can have confidence in the financial system.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/on-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-lehman-brothers-2008-crash-can-it-happen-again/5654380
2
Remember all those people that you ignored or fired because you didn't like what they were saying? Two years of your "gut" decisions have sure left this great country in a mess. Thanks a lot.
P.S., way to burst a 7-year-old's bubble about Santa Clause, Mr. Grinch.
4
...Broght to you by the man who figured out how to bankrupt a casino. We should not be surprised.
4
so much winning!
2
Uncertainty will get you a 1% drop. Chaos, 20%. A madman at the helm, "Hello Davey Jones's locker."
1
Would someone in the West Wing, maybe Jared or Ivanka, throw on the automatic pilot switch. Everytime our captain in the Oval Office, takes over the controls manually, our national plane goes into a nosedive..
5
The best people!
2
Put political ideology aside, what's happening in Washington is cutting into investors, including retirees. The remaining members of the Trump Administration are either self-serving, ignorant of how government and the economy work, do not know history, have mental health problems, or some combination of these. Contrast this administration with that of Reagan or GHW Bush.
Although the stock market and the economy are not linked in the short term, a weak investment market will lead to less consumer and capital confidence, resulting in a recession. While the latter is likely anyway due to the strong bull market of the past decade, the Administration is increasingly its likely severity.
GOP, what are you going to do about it?
2
If Trump were smart he would point out that the Dow is up 6000 points since his election - the last year was freak show anomaly of ridiculous unsustainable stock rises. The last year was a rout, but the market has grown enormously since Trumps election and remains well above the levels that it would have reached had the rate of rise remained at preelection levels. The sky is not falling. The market has made many of us an enormous amount of wealth in the last 2 years. The buying will begin again after the new year as people try to get on the elevator at the ground floor again.
Any comment by the Trump administration is 90% plus likely to be a lie. The queried bankers could have said they had only rolls of pennies on hand, for all we know.
4
The worst losses in a decade. Hmm. What was it Trump said about how other presidents had failed economic and trade policies?
Oh, I remember that Trump stated, or boasted, that he alone can fix things. Yup, fixed trade (wars), had three shutdowns of the government in two years (presidents that have shut downs are weak Trump said), a scam of a tax reform and attacks the fed and the market drops.
Now, tell me again about all of that winning.
2
The market hates uncertainty. Trump's chaotic attempts at government are the only reason for this retreat. He has cost us our allies, now he is costing us our economy.
4
As a young investor who has only lost $3,000 in my retirement funds this past month, I pity those who are looking to retire soon and have lost significantly more. I have 38 years to go; I hope that whomever is looking to retire sooner will vote this goon out of Washington if he isn’t impeached in 2019.
5
If this were an episode in a sitcom it would be hilarious. Ann Coulter scolds Trump on twitter for failing to deliver a medieval wall of hate to the border, so he shuts down the government over Christmas. Stock market starts to crash. The white house intervenes and it crashes some more. All of our allies have been kicked in the teeth. All our enemies have been encouraged. Intelligence agencies have been ignored and discredited. The free press reporting all this drama is now "fake". The doors of our national security have been left wide open for another attack, which just might succeed in distracting people from the Mueller Investigation. McConnell (the real leader of the Republican Party) hopes Trump and the Democrats can work it out, and leaves. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, I hope.
5
Incompetence and arrogance may be the worst combination. Trump excels in both.
4
Serious money is being made today by short sellers. And futures markets betting on a crash.
What will bets on a Dow 16,000 pay?
He will get rid of everything Obama, including the Obama recovery.
It's all about short term money and the h''' with the rest of us.
3
You have to wonder about the intelligence of those running the "market" if it took them this long to find out what the majority of us all knew on Nov 9th, 2016.
Here's a "hint" about the future from all of us who were in the know back then - you ain't seen nothing yet...
Nothing.
4
Making money from money what is the stock market other then gambling at the expense of the average Joe? Get real.
2
Trump broke it. He owns it.
2
Trump and the Republicans exceeded expectations here - I thought it would only take 18 months for them to kill the Obama recovery.
Vote Republican!! Tax cuts for millionaires - the wealth will trickle down! really, trust us, it will..........
3
Congratulations voters. The evidence is clear that the Republicans tank the market and you still keep voting for them. Only eight years after the worst modern recession, you again vote for a Republican president. And not just any Republican but Trump, the most incompetent and corrupt US president in history. I do not care if the markets tank or what other calamities follow. The voters, whether those who stayed home or voted for Trump, deserve to face the consequences of their actions.
1
Humans try to impose order on chaos to make sense of the world. So we have a raft of writings and opinions that attempt to explain Trump's "logic" in governing.
But let's face it. Is there now any doubt? Trump has no idea what he is doing--except that his entire compass is self-aggrandizement. Every action has a litmus test for Trump: "How does it make me look?"
He stupidly took the tail-end rise in the stock market from the Obama administration, and claimed from the first month of taking office that it was his doing! Markets don't work like that. They go up and they go down. A president with any sense can celebrate the rise, but shouldn't be foolish enough to take credit for it, because the market will inevitably drop.
The market does respond to two things with some regularity: interest rate drops (positive) and uncertainty (negative). Trump has created the most uncertainty since Hoover with his tariffs, trade wars, unstable administration, and mercurial policy shifts.
So if he is going to own the upside, Sorry, Trump, you now must own the downside. No blaming the FED, because you never gave the FED any credit.
3
When Donald J Trump was given somewhere around 412 million and perhaps lost much of it due to hairbrained
egomaniacal ventures ,how the hell does anyone in their right mind believe that the whole deal for him is anything other than an ATM machine .
Reading the Forbes article from last yr about who is renting
in Trump Tower gives at least a 75% view of what this crew has
been doing. The Chinese bank on some floor.The Russian
whatever on another and ofcourse the Saudi's somewhere in between.
To this so called president the immolument clause is just another tiny bump in the road.hey he's gotten away with all this for so long he just figured he's protected .
for the new Year let's all of us show him he's WRONG !!!
3
Let's not confuse the rich man's stock market with everyman's US economy. The latter shows continued, if moderating strength starting from the Obama Recovery.
The former has been on a sugar high of the rich man's tax cut that accomplished yet more wealth redistribution - up. It's played-out and the market is adjusting to that reality. Poor market.
DiJiTs was right about one thing: the system's rigged.
2
Often I feel compelled to add my comments. They generally fall into the same category. But I'm running out of much to add about what a train wreck we have as President. We have a consensus. So I'm tapping out. Anyone who thinks Trump is good for our country please tell me why by replying to this comment. I promise to keep an open mind.
3
There wouldn’t be any implications for Trump’s survival if he hadn’t made the stock market the measure of his success. Everyone familiar with markets or politics knew that was a dumb thing to do, and not least because markets can go down.
2
Well lets see, the worst year in the stock market, environmental issues, national security issues, world security issues, world economy issues and all the country's political issues.
However it was the best year for presidential lies.
8
When the stock market rises, rich people prosper. When it falls, the rest of us suffer.
9
What else would you expect from a man that has had multiple bankruptcies. His history has not changed and neither has he.
11
Where is the moral authority in this country when it is needed most? Where are the ‘cooler, calmer’ heads who are supposed to prevail?
While we’ve finally begun to see, feel, hear, taste and smell the outrage, we’ve yet to truly muster the courage, determination and intelligence required to reverse the course of corrupt, destructive behavior threatening the future of our democracy.
Since 2018 might as well be written off and 2020 is still beyond the horizon, positive and pivotal change, albeit interim, must be begin today.
10
Maybe I'm being excessively paranoid (Though that's almost possible during this living nightmare), but I can't help but wonder if some of 45's big-money supporters aren't happy about the sell-off. It will present an opportunity for anyone with a large cash position to buy stocks very cheaply. Buy low, sell high is the only trading strategy that always works.
Follow the money.
9
How is the deficit doing under Trump? The tax cuts are paying for themselves, aren't they? How do the kids feel about this? How do Republicans stand with people in their 30s and 40s?
8
Yeah right, the market isn't turning down because of comments or phone calls. The market is unstable because our economic policy leads to an unstable market! Deregulation has lead to economic instability throughout history.
What do you call the subprime mortgage crisis? The people who were responsible for it still have their jobs. Meanwhile the american people cant afford rampant consumerism anymore. No wonder it's down for the year, how could it possibly not be? Economies are based on numbers sure, but they are based on real things too, like people spending money!
Our economy might not crash today, but according to the people who predicted the last crash, it's coming. Who is saying its not coming? Goldman Sachs! The people who had a hand in the last crisis. Who will you listen to?
9
The teck stocks pushed the rest of the market upwards with too much speculative exhuberance. Now, investors finding out it is not cut out as advertised. So, markets coming down from speculative world to real world. We hope it will be a soft landing.
3
Now we can say it: Merry Christmas! It was definitely worth it.
5
This is a marvelous opportunity to buy! Buy low, sell high. Cheers!
3
@Southern Boy
Yes, yes, marvelous! Thank you, Dear Leader, for this marvelous opportunity to sell high!
1
@Southern Boy
With Trump in charge of this economy, it looks like "buy low, sell lower, go broke." Are you tired of winning yet?
2
Well, so much for having a business man run our affairs. Next time someone says that government should be run like a business, run, don't walk, the other way.
28
Donald J. Trump is the Bernie Madoff of politicians.
U.S. citizens will be lucky to come out of his administration with what they had when it started... not just financial assets, but health care coverage, air quality, inflation, sanity, and peace of mind. It may take decades to recover to where Obama left us.
50
I have believed for long time most stocks in this market were highly over-valued. There are few bargains to be found in the current market. And so I welcome this correction with open arms and a readiness to jump back in when prices become more reasonable as a group. In the meantime, I am enjoying the profits I took earlier in the year and I will carefully buy in again when certain issues again trend in my favor.
3
I have to say that (1) telling us that unemployment is at a record low when I can't walk two blocks in any city in the US (I went round trip coast to coast this summer) without finding homeless people asking for money, or in some cases, tent cities, etc. and (2) we have never gone into a recession with $20 trillion in federal debt, how are we going to survive a downturn if we don't pay down debt now?
Forget messing with the Fed, how about running the government -- we are 10 years into a recovery and nothing has been done to prepare for the next recession. The last one was bad, we really haven't recovered from it (lots of folks are off the unemployment statistics because their benefits ran out, not because they are employed. I think this administration is setting us up for a much worse recession next time. This is not a reality TV show, it's our lives, our livelihoods, and our children's and our country's future.
I feel hostage to this President, he doesn't care about my challenges, and honestly I don't care about the borders, that's not a threat to me. I want to see a sane budget, put forth by a cabinet member who does not abuse his expense account. Merry Christmas.
48
I want the new democratic house majority to pass three measures on the first day of their business:
(1) Roll back all tax cuts for the rich and tax them at a punitive 25% on top of tax rate that existed before the heist cut. This punitive rate will remain existent for 10 straight years. In keeping with that theme, pass a measure that will give all major companies one chance to bring back all of their offshore savings (read: theft) back into the states at a reasonable tax rate. If they don't, make sure they are never ever able to bring that money back for any reason whatsoever.
(2) Impeach Trump and send the bill to the senate.
(3) Reinstate the individual mandate in the ACA, then send it to senate.
Let the republican majority in the senate show what anti-patriotic thieves and thugs they really are.
21
@Indisk
However you calculate it, a 25% tax rate on top of what existed before the trump tax cut would not be punitive. It wouln't even amount to the top tier of tax when Reagan took office and began the stagnation in the real incomes of most Americans who earn money from work rather than make money with money.
7
Trump has spooked the market through his erratic behavior and unhinged tweets. He assigns blame to others, never to himself. The mission of the Fed is to contain inflation and promote employment, not to juice the market, and it is an independent agency where Trump has no business interfering. Mnuchin was advised by his college classmates to quit a year ago. His recent calls to bankers indicate that Trump's mental instability is contagious.
20
We're tired of all this winning!
Seriously, does anyone want to bet on just how record settingly bad the year will be at the market's close on December 31st? Three decades? Four? More?
17
Harry Truman: The buck stops here.
Donald Trump: All credit stops here. Blame- elsewhere.
28
Harry Truman: “The buck stops here.”
DJT: “I don’t know the buck, I barely spoke to the buck. The buck was suggested to me by (insert scapegoat here).”
1
N.Y. Times liberals are reacting like they've never seen a market correction before. Were all of you born after 2009? Wow. The last time this happened I kept my cool, then I bought more shares on the cheap. This time I'm laughing as the headless chickens in the comments section are running around and providing me with some Christmas Eve entertainment.
3
I’d say this time was different but it sounds like you didn’t understand how interest rates impact valuation then, either.
27
I like the way anyone fearing the collapse of OUR country gets to labeled a "liberal." Maybe that isn't such a deplorable thing to be called.
2
@ Ed L
Since you profited so nicely off of others' losses (some people were driven to suicide, I seem to recall) when the "Great Recession" hit and bibles burst in 2008, you probably have enough in your stash to share with federal government employees forced into furlough or to work without pay during your hero's stubborn temper tantrum of a shutdown. Why don't you give a few million $ to pay rent and kids' healthcare and education bills for those hard working people who golden-gullet trump has robbed of their income?
Just saying....
2
We have been warned for a few months now, that a recession--as a "correction"--is around the corner. If we assume this is true, the obligation to our policymakers is to cushion the blow as much as possible. We forget there was a short recession in 2000 at the tail end of the Clinton Administration. I mention that only to bring up an example of a recession that was so *relatively* painless that we don't even think about it anymore. Perhaps we can make the supposedly inevitable 2019 recession just as unmemorable.
However, one could be forgiven for thinking that the goal of the Trump Administration was the exact opposite, given their actions and words. The global chaos Trump has personally created, the dysfunction of his administration, and his unwitting penchant for publicly displaying his total lack of understanding of basic monetary policy have the very likely potential to turn what might be a drizzle into a tropical storm.
13
Trump’s erratic actions on trade and governance are reducing the value of the 401 K’s of his base. It portends to be a worsening situation. This will turn out well for them, him or the rest of us.
5
@Pat Choate For the most part, Trump's base aren't invested in 401Ks. Until the market gets to the point of a serious downturn (as 2008) and hundreds of thousands are losing jobs every month, the base won't take notice.
14
His base doesn't have 401Ks.
They have shoeboxes
3
If this is winning, I shudder to think what a losing streak would look like.
24
In my view, the reason Trump turned on the Fed's the interest hike over sliding stock prices despite his knowledge of the inevitablity of tightening years-long expansive monetary policy to head off potential inflation amid a recovering economy is that he wants the scapegoat for negative economic effects from the trade war he is waging with China.
For his support base, he is eager to project the image of an anti-establishment fighter to carry out what he promised them on the campaign trail.
With political state of affairs increasingly stacked up against him, keeping his ardent fan base alive is critically important for the President in a uphill batlle.
It is crucial to make it appear that the so called fake media and reckless liberals have conspired to threaten his America First policy, which turned out to be a thinly-veiled Trump First manifesto.
In a clever move, attacking the Fed gives Trump critics and supporters what each of them expect from the President: opponents shake their heads throwing their hands up in the air with a sense of resignation while Backers with renewed righteous indigantion believe in the media and liberal conspiracy theory Trump has conjured up.
5
I can't imagine why the markets would be nervous and unsteady given the steady stream of dumpster fires and circus acts that try to pass as the Executive Branch of our government.
30
Oh how I am tired of all this winning!
13
@Steven
For those of you who are math- and markets-challenged, the Dow Jones is up 1965 points since Trump was sworn in.
2
@Ed L.
Seems mighty pale in comparison to the 27 k of not even a year ago, no? Oh, how they mighty stable geniuses have fallen. For the mathematically challenged, that’s more than 4,000 points dropped from the “Trump Dow” highs. Now tell me when that happended after Obama was two years into his presidency?
2
It’s not enough. He needs to do better. He needs to show he’s competent and not just a destroyer. Destroyers excite the lowest element, but in the end will be viewed within history... as a Destroyer. He has literally built not one single thing. Not one single thing.
1
Kind of reminds me of just what not to do when your kid is having a nervous tantrum. Saying “why don’t you just calm down” is sure to have the exact opposite effect.
5
Mr. Friedman, much of your piece suggests dire consequences that you think MAY occur. Many of us believe these consequences have already occurred. And we saw it coming in 2016, which is one reason why we voted for Ms. Clinton. We may not have foreseen every horrible action Mr. Trump or his staff would take, but we knew he was incompetent at best and that Americans would be very adversely affected.
One of the things we still don’t fully know is the extent of corrupt entanglements involving not only Mr. Trump and his family, but also Mr. McConnell and other Republican leaders. These, not just moral bankruptcy, likely account for the Republican inaction that you are only now questioning. But I am hopeful that we will find out the truth. I just hope it will not be too late when we do.
13
Who other than a twerp trying to sound like a powerful leader says "Today I convened individual calls...?" Were the White House physician to have out of the blue announced that he had convened a meeting of all medical specialists on his team and he wanted to let America know that the President was in fine mental and physical condition, would anyone be reassured?
10
The grinch who stole Christmas.
8
Donald Trump please note:
The buck stops with YOU.
YOU are the President of the United State.
YOU are responsible.
YOU need to start behaving like a MAN and not a whiney snowflake.
17
The “stable genius” strikes yet again.
9
President Grinch is such a financial genius he should now run The Fed and solve all economic woes.
In truth he couldn't run the numbers as well as Bob Crachit and Scrooge would've fired his sorry
Bah humbug and hope you enjoy your Mar Lago goose.
5
Finally, we're out of Obama's failing economy and now we can really Make America Great Again.
2
All you arm chair economists who are so critical of Trump and Mnuchin should turn their venom on Pelosi and Schumer. They are adamantly obstructing any compromise that would allow the shutdown to end. Didn't they all favor a wall a few years ago? They are playing to their left wing loonies. They care more for them than our country's stability.
2
@MCH
Obstruction is a two way street. Senator McConnell laid bare is plan to obstruct President Obama at the 2016 Republican convention. And, didn't the new Supreme Court justice use the phrase, "What comes around, goes around.", as his veiled threat to re-pay those who dared to critique his misbehavior?
So, right back at you. How does that feel?
10
@Ed Well, that's a very mature way to run our government. Best go to the playground and see what the other kids say.
1
@MCH
Unfortunately for "our country's stability," we have a stable genius in the White House who's killed all the horses and is now killing our economy -- along with our international alliances, our trade, our national security and our Kurdish allies in Syria.
1
Four points:
0. From "I cannot tell a lie" to "I cannot not tell a lie" in a mere 250 years.
1. If people can answer yes to "Am I better off than I was four years ago?" in 2020 the Republicans will win enough electoral college votes because of its non-proportional design.
And because of that . . .
2. Sorry to say, but I believe a recession is essential. Painful as it would be, it is the only way to be sure of being rid of this malignancy.
It's the economy, stupid.
Consequently, we need a severe cutback in consumer spending, and soon (because of economic lags).
3.This last point really goes against the grain of America: if the wealthy evade/avoid taxes, I've come to the distressing conclusion that in order to preserve the social safety net, society must simply confiscate excess wealth, whatever we decide that to be.
11
I am willing to sacrifice my entire retirement savings to rid the world of this president and his minions.
8
The Ghost of President Hoover lives. The Bear Market has returned and having a child in the White House isn’t helping.
7
Don’t blame this on Barron!
1
Pro Tip for Bob Mueller - Find out if Trump and Mnuchin are shorting the market and when they're placing orders. Bet they're goosing their profits every few days with another dumb announcement.
If you can't get Trump's buys, then look for Putin's - same thing.
18
Can't anybody here play this game?
2
Other than Mnuchin’s foot-in-mouth ineptitude, all you need to know about the Tanking of America is Trump’s tweet about “necessary Trade Wars” [sic]. Oh, and there is the inevitable golf metaphor, which is as deep as his intellect goes.
8
I wonder when this will all come to an end. I feel like I’m living the movie “Groundhog Day”.
6
Been out of the market since the inauguration, sometimes with angst obviously, but it's pretty simple; a clown, with absolutely no competence or integrity at the helm of the nation spells disaster. As the losses hit 25-35%, I'll consider buying in because at that point trump's history.
10
Thank god we did not support President George W. Bush's proposal to privatize social security. Where would seniors be now? God bless FDR.
16
THANK YOU Trump-Pence-GOP for this exciting close to the year.
Collectively you've demonstrated your uncanny ability to learn well from your previous from fiscal calamities (i.e. Hoover's Great Depression, Reagan's tax cuts + deregulations = S&L crash, GW Bush's wars without funding and deregulation of banks) to be able to repeat them precisely.
13
What I sense is there are a number of urgently needed investments that can only be made by the U.S. government, these investments will not be undertaken by private investors.
For example, free-market capitalism has proved unable to supply quality healthcare and education to all of our citizens.
Another area that seems unnecessarily gaited by lack of investment in our highway infrastructure. We have a huge problem in maintaining our surface transport system and the time is long past when we should be investing in the late Senator Moynihan's idea to use the rights-of-way of our national highway system to build a 300 mph, all-weather, national Maglev network for both passengers and freight.
His concept, see www.magneticglide.com , will save per person in the U.S. about $1,000 in reduced cost of goods, and travel costs, annually. When this logistics and passenger system is demonstrated and tested as a public carrier by the U.S. for an investment of less than a Billion dollars, it can make enough money by carrying just about half of the freight trucks between NYC and Chicago to finance a 2800 mile long national network that will connect all metro centers in Lower 48 and Canada. The Maglev equipment is fantastic and can evolve Amtrak service to a cheaper fare public carrier, without losing a single employee. James Powell, the inventor of superconducting Maglev has described this network, the technology, and its potential in Maglev America, Silent Earth, and Planet Earth.
1
@james jordan
Oooooops. The correct title is "Spaceship Earth:
How Long Before We Crash?" available on Amazon. NOT Planet Earth. Holiday stress
This is a potential solution to global warming. It will necessarily be a space based system financed by the international community. A system of cheaply launched solar satellites to collect and beam power to Earth can provide very low cost electric energy to power the future of the Earth rather than fossil fuels, which are finite, anyway. I recommend that we think of creating a investment effort similar to the I.M.F. or World Bank to test and develop this system.
James Powell's Maglev launch concept called StarTram and described in "Spaceship Earth: How Long Before We Crash?" can put the satellites in geosynchronous orbit to supply electric power for the projected 11 Billion people on Earth to live a decent life without fossil fuels that are finite and will be running out by end of the Century.
The satellites concept has been tested by Dr. John Mankins, formerly of NASA.
It is time to wake up Earth!
1
Perhaps the message from the Secretary of the Treasury had an opposite effect as Wall Street is beginning to look at everything the Trump administration does, as many of us do, with disbelief and skepticism and lack of trust.
9
I am quite ready for the Bear, we need it and it was long overdue.
Spare me the lines about the economy being great- not if you get your head of the Bloomberg Terminal and take a look at the real economy.
Governments, corporations and individuals are all deeply in debt and the load is increasing- not decreasing. This is the economy where everyone can get a job but nobody can get a raise and prices keep rising. All the so-called experts say there is no inflation, but I guess they do not go to the grocery store, buy houses, cars, clothes or pay tuition.
I would ask Ms Pelosi to introduce a bill into the House to repeal the GOP/Trump tax scam in it's entirety. Sure it will not pass the Senate, but it will make the GOP and Trump own the devastating deficits that will be run up as a result. Make them walk the plank on their corporate and wealthy tax cut.
25
Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs alum, probably knew better than to go along with Trump's order to call the big banks and then publicize it. Here were his choices:
a) stand up to Trump, tell him it would cause the opposite effect, and become the next target on Twitter
b) claim working for Trump caused a level of insanity that wiped clean his former banking brain after the markets crash
c) do what Trump wanted because he really doesn't care about anyone else's bank accounts other than his own.
We know what he chose. Thanks, Steve.
7
"I've got the best mind. I've got the best words. I've got the best people."
12
If the economy is good, why do the stock markets behave so bad? I don't believe Trump alone can single handily drag the markets down so much. Maybe the economy is not that good as we expect. Maybe the trade disputes with China exposed weakness in our economy now reflecting in the market performance. One thing for sure is that future economy doesn't look promising with this stock market performance.
5
" I don't believe Trump alone can single handily drag the markets down so much."
Um, I do.
13
The buck stops with you, President Trump. You can't shift the blame elsewhere. So quit whining and get to work! Our country desperately needs you to take the presidency seriously ... before it's too late.
For a start, here are four suggestions: (1) Limit or end your Twitter postings. (2) Stop watching TV and, instead, read your daily briefings. (3) Assemble a Cabinet with competent advisors; then listen to them. (4) Stop using rhetoric to divide us. You were elected to be President of the UNITED States; so behave accordingly.
21
Fat chance!
7
The Bob Cratchit family found starved and frozen to death in van covered with MAGA stickers.
32
A bunch of Inexperienced people are running this country, and I have lost track of who’s fired, replaced, resigned, or refused to take the position they’re offered. If the government, especially the White House, wasn’t in total chaos, it is now.
Many of us worked long and hard to put away a nest egg, so we’re not dependent on the government or our children when we get old. We invested that nest egg in the stocks, and thanks to the master (deal maker) who got us into trade wars, our stocks are worth nothing. I should have kept my money in our mattresses.
I long for a sane President who says what he/she means and does it. I long for a president whose cabinet members are intelligent and know their jobs, not people who contributed to his campaign, and now, they’re collecting the contribution, like Mnuchin and DeVos. I long for a President and a government that I respect. At my age, I thought I worked hard, did all the right things and now, I can relax and enjoy life. With a bunch of imbeciles in charge, I have no idea where I stand.
24
Time to calm down. Stock markets go up and down. It’s now where it was just 18 months ago, and double where it was 10 years ago. If you invested as diligently as you say then you’re doing very well.
@Mike
And rents are 4-6 times higher than they were 10-20 years ago, groceries up a hefty percent, housing prices much much higher, even the corner burger joint is charging close to double what it was 10-20 years ago. Salaries of non-tech and non-JD/MD/MBA jobs have not kept up.
7
A question remains. Will the Fake President's shadow cabinet of Limbaugh, Coulter, and Fox instruct him to fire Powell or Mnuchin first? Perhaps however, both will jointly be shown the door in a single tweet. This is how decision making proceeds on the highest governmental level.
10
@John Grillo I believe you provided us with who the "deep state" really is...
6
Trump tweets: "The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch - he can’t putt!"
Are we sure he doesn't drink?
11
The biggest scandal is how Trump cheats on the golf course and claims a 7 handicap. WikiLeaks and Julian need to reveal sources and story.
4
He *says* he doesn't drink, Leo. He wouldn't lie, now would he?
3
Dementia (natural or as result of past drug use) can look and sound a lot like the effects of alcohol abuse.
9
My old pal Skip said it best at lunch today, some people just shouldn’t play the market. It’s not something you can learn, it’s got to be in your blood.
Can’t quite recall who appointed this incompetent Fed chairman. Does anyone remember?
8
Tax Cut Act handed extra money to the wealthy. Now the market is driven down so they can all buy low. It's a plan. It's a scam.
5
Trump’s “analysis” is priceless. The stock market finally reflects the shaky economy that Trump has further hobbled.
5
Treasury's Public Affairs announcement has President Trump's clumsy fingerprints all over it.
Step 1: Put the President's words in the mouths of chairmen of America's largest banks "They all have ample liquidity for lending. This is Fake Panic".
Step 2: Convene a call with the President's Working Group on financial markets, so the President can press the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. "Everybody says that there are no real reasons for raising interest rates, so frankly, they should go down."
Step 3: Watch the Dow fall another 653 points in response to more "help" from very stable genius.
3
Welcome to The Great Recession 2.0, brought on by Trump's trade war with China, pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement (that facilitated regularised trade with Iran), Trump's Tax Heist for corporations, multi-Millionaires and Billionaires of December 2017, Brexit, and now a crazy Treasury Secretary and threats from Trump against the leader of US Central Bank. There is a lot happening to make this recession happen, and you'll note that 'Trump' is a ubiquitous factor.
10
Collapse of the Trump Kool Aid bubble.
Stock prices are still very high compared
to real earnings and GDP, and the historic
relationship between these variables.
1
Mnuchin made these calls at the direction of the president with the comb-over brain.
Cabinet members: Don't wait for the impeachment train to make its own sweet way down the tracks! The time is now to invoke the 25th Amendment ... while there's still time.
9
Before trump bankrupts this country the way he did various properties as a "successful businessman", will the Rs in Congress please have a lemon squeeze and convince him to STHU or resign. Enough is enough, fer cryin' out loud!
12
I have a suggestion, bring back Janet Yellen.
10
Where in the world is Larry Kudlow, trump’s chief economic advisor? If he’s not able to communicate with his boss, who is? “Please Larry, try to shake some sense into this monster. Your legacy hangs in the balance (if you care)”.
2
@HotelSierra Perhaps Larry, like his boss, is looking for a television camera to be in front of.
One wonders how long Putin and his cutouts have been short the equity markets.
2
..."Trump continued to lash out...."
I think I've read that 100 or more times at the NY Times or elsewhere. For some reason it always brings a little smile to my face, the visual of his plethoric face contorted in indignation and stupidity.
Keep it up. I love it.
And if you're worried about stocks, watch Charlie Munger's 2009 interview with the BBC. Keep calm and invest on.
1
My union pension fund is one of many that are approaching the critical and declining mode, and another severe downturn will essentially dissolve it. I am 60, and looking at my main source of retirement dissolving in the next 5 years while you laugh and tell Trump to keep it up. This fund has drawn 15 to 20 percent of my earnings over the last 35 years, and if this happens, there isn’t any waiting for it to come back up. You need to broaden your perspective.
5
In fairness people panicking selling now is what makes those who carry on investing rich, since we can buy at fire sale prices. So the lesson is... Panic! Sell now!
2
If you invested all that money for last 35 years then you’re in a great position. Moving 50% of your money into bonds/cash permanently would probably help you sleep better.
2
Men of Finance are not comforted by Men of Lies.
8
Not to worry.
The rich will be fine.
13
It just shows you how much credibility our administration has globally. It is amazing how many people who voted Trump argued how he will surround himself with brightest. I hate to say I told you, but we have nothing left than bunch of spineless fools lead by narcissistic egocentric president.
8
I don't mind Trump's culture war stuff, but when real money starts being lost, this is a problem. He's an incompetent buffoon, he should resign out of embarrassment.
5
@JackC5 It wasn't OK when a lunatic sent bombs to specific members of the press Trump singled out as "enemies of the people." Nor is the gratuitous misery he inflicts on transgender people OK. Nor is what's happening at the border OK. All that was and is no less real than the global financial crisis he may be triggering.
5
The Trump Market:
Making America Great(ly) Poor Again!
3
This administration keeps opening its mouth just to change feet. Why on earth would they raise the issue of liquidity on Christmas Eve? Why is [you know who] excoriating the Fed for doing what the Fed is supposed to do? How can you expect the market not to react negatively to trade wars? Do they not get that markets hum along with a STABLE government that makes PREDICTABLE policies - as in the government stays open and we don't spend tax dollars to furlough workers? The GOP cannot govern and is the party of fiscal IRresponsibility. 2020 can't get here fast enough.
11
This is a dark cloud. The silver lining is that an economic collapse is the only thing that might make the GOP congress turn on Trump and all impeach him. They don’t care about treason or obstruction or profiteering, the only crime they won’t abide is a failed economy.
10
After many personal and vicious attacks against Yellen, Trump did not ask Yellen to stay for another term. Instead he nominated and supported Powell for the chair. Whether or not we agree with Powell's decisions, we can agree that Powell is in power because of Trump. To now rail against him now, does nothing to help the situation. It only highlights what a terrible decision maker Trump is.
8
The Vile One inherited a golden economy from Obama and he, his Treasury Secretary, and his minions in Congress are doing their best to ruin it for the average American. Just as W did to the economy after Clinton.
12
The Dems need to start looking around for an FDR to follow this latest carnation of Herbert Hoover (with all due respect to Hoover as he didn’t tell 7,500+ lies in his first two years of office).
6
As always, it will take a DEM to clean up another GOP mess. Recovery from this drop will takes years, not months. It's not that the deploreables never, learn; they never care.
9
Whom do you like more - the indecisive or the decisive Trump, our stable genius? Fed Chairmen, generals, scientists, and negotiators are all inferior and unnecessary in the presence of a Dunning-Kruger wizard.
Welcome to a country run by an imaginary self-promoting business success with no wealthy father to rescue him any more. The BOP, Blind Obedience Party, will soon reap their rewards, deservedly so.
6
What is happening is so bizarre. You are therefore left with exactly the uncertainty the stock market hates. Worse, it is already well established that Trump will blame anyone in his administration and terminate him/her. And he's using this tactic to divert attention from the hammer that cannot fall soon enough from Mueller.
5
Well, did anyone really think Trump's chickens would not come home to roost?
9
When the President lets us all know that the Fed 'can't putt', well that is really saying something! He sure showed them didn't he!
1
The Bush Crash of 2008 pretty much destroyed the middle class forever. This may well nail the coffin shut and turn us into a permanent third-world country, with a very tiny percentage of the population controlling almost all the wealth and everyone else living a bare subsistence existence.
11
Now, we're left to wonder what might have happened to the stock market today if coulter-limbaugh weren't camped out in the president's head and he had signed the border security bill.
5
So let me see if I have this straight. When the stock market does well, Trump gets the credit. And when the stock market does poorly, the Fed gets the blame?
31
Let's not forget at any point that chaos is good for the wealthy.
Those with ample assets swoop in and pick up the stocks in our 401k and our houses for pennies on a dollar, and then profit after the recovery that is funded with, yes you guessed it, the tax dollars of the very people who were robbed.
Repeat ad infinitum. We handed the position of Treasury Secretary to an individual who made his money exactly this way. Why would he care at all if the economy crashes? It's all money to him.
21
@John I don't like chaos either, but if there's chaos, I intend to profit from it.
Chaos reigns - but isn't that what Steve Bannon promised when he was promoting Donald Trump? Isn't that what Trump himself promised? Well, I hope the people who voted in this crowd are delighted with the result. We have a Commander in Chief who takes his marching orders from talking heads on Fox News. We have someone in charge who didn't even realize Secretary Matis' resignation letter was a complete rebuke of his ability to manage national security (until said talking heads pointed this out). We have a President who would have made a great leader of the "No Nothing Party" - wait, maybe that is what the GOP should rename themselves as - it would certainly be appropriate at this point.
12
I'm so sick of all this winning!
I'm the co-author of a best selling book of regional history. The book was due to be delivered from Chinese printers in mid-October, but a stable genius started a trade war, and shipment was delayed until the end of November.
In short, we lost 6 weeks of pre-Christmas sales, something we quite simply can't make up, leaving us with an investment of years of work and capital unreimbursed. So, for all of you in the stock market, my condolences. Those of us who actually work for a living and depend upon a somewhat rational world - whose emperors, such as they are, actually wear clothes - we've been feeling the pain for months now.
22
If we look at the last three or four rate hikes by the FED, the market has indeed dropped, in the DOW a few hundred points. But then it bounced right back. This time clearly other factors are at play. The DOW has been dropping dramatically since the beginning of December when it was almost 26,000. Now it is below 22,000. How can our current president say that the FED is the major reason? Makes no sense.
9
Incompetents are running every single branch of our government at the moment.
Never before have we had a Presidency, an entire Cabinet, and all high level executive staff positions 100% filled with people who are unqualified and have no business being in these positions.
It's time to get the firehose out and clean out the stable. Followed by a VERY strong disinfectant.
Republicans have proven, yet again, that they are incapable of actually running a government.
19
@KM Or maybe the people have proven that they are incapable of electing a competent president.
1
Most Americans did NOT vote for Trump.
It took gerrymandering, electoral college and Putin's tampering for Trump to get elected.
3
Now that the poor are tapped out, the middle class is jumping off the cliff, perhaps the millionaires are next in the taxation without representation that individual-1 is unleashing.
4
I worry about Trumps ability to manage a recession.
I think Trump will make Herbert Hoover look good.
13
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my fellow Americans on this 24th day of December. It seems as if all we have is each other to fight this utter insanity within the single most inept and corrupt administration in modern times. Stock market tumbling, government shutdown, literally left defenseless both internationally and on the home front. What more? How much more does it take for this GOP Congress to grow a spine, to regain a moral compass if ever it had one? How much more does it take for avid Trump supporters at larger to awaken to how they are being exploited? Dr. Seuss must be rolling over in his grave with how his fable has become reality...The Grifting Grinch is indeed stealing XMAS from children and adults alike.
8
Trump always steps away just before the thing he runs goes bankrupt. Look for him to try to cut a deal so he can graciously spare us a removal vote and he gets off "scott" free. I say don't let him off, Trump for convict and jail.
16
@lou
Once Trump is out of office, he wil spend the rest of his life in court and/or prison. He’s not going quietly.
4
No more Bernanke, no more Geithner, no more Obama. God help us, and the world, if we encounter another crisis.
9
And those three did _so_ well handling the last crisis. No, those three are the names of just three reasons yo have Trump in the White House.
1
I'm thinking that during that phone call with the occupant of the WH Mnuchin was told to do what he did. Unlike Mattis who used to "slow walk" things like this he capitulated with the resulting chaos visible for all to see. Meanwhile his boss gets to blame him and everyone else for his antics that led us to this point. The occupant of the WH thinks he is saving money by shutting down the government and that he can use those "savings" to pay for his wall!
The country did not vote for this man. Is it too late for the people's voice to be heard?
6
The Trump-Pence 'administration', since the firing of Secretary Mattis, is now entirely staffed by rank amateurs. Little wonder why the global markets are plummeting.
The great question facing the USA and the world: When will the GOP Senate staunch this idiocracy by agreeing with the new Democratic House to impeach and convict Trump? There is no other alternative.
12
Think this one is bad?
Just wait 'till summer '19 for the debt ceiling catastrophe.
He won't be able to resist pulling that lever.
8
The markets are basically voting “no confidence” with this president and his cronies. If this was England we’d be contemplating an ouster of this failed regime. Alas, we have an electoral college.
14
This was an attempt to communicate to Failed 45. This is an answer to his recent irrational and incorrect babbling about illiquidity.
3
Trump's only concern here is that he escapes the blame by trying to place it elsewhere. Having a government filled with buffoons was bound to catch up with us eventually.
9
Please Munuchkin the markets are much more complicated than stealing homes from old people in California.
12
TRUMP DID THIS - MAKE NO MISTAKE. It's ALL him. Don't believe his lies and distractions.
Trump is ignorant, incompetent, petulant and thinks he is king of the world. That alone makes him incompetent to hold office - in addition to the countless other crimes and transgressions.
Trade war, total lack of a plan, virulent irresponsible over-spending to give rubles to the already rich, administrative incompetence and the UNBELIEVABLE ARROGANCE to think that he can control our Markets (he can't even run his own scam of a company). That is a perfect formula for economic instability and collapse - and here it comes.
Why did Mnuchin assure us that the banks had sufficient capitol to meet a crisis if everything is ok? HE knows what's coming and has just added a pile of fuel to the fire - but HE (and Ross, Trump, Koch, Hannity, Ingram, Pirro and the rest of the Cabal) has already banked his profits, probably off shore. Since law, ethics and rules no longer apply in Trumpworld, I would look under all of their couches to see where they've hidden their ill-gotten gains.
The Senate needs to get its act together and, in concert with the House, MUZZLE TRUMP - take away his ability to both destroy our economy and hand over our country to Putin in the process.
12
Should we expect any less from clowns when the federal government is a circus?
5
Mnuchin, like his Boss, doesn't know enough to be silent.
On this Christmas eve it seems appropriate to quote from the Christian Bible and the first Republican President:
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.” Proverbs 17:28
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." A. Lincoln
5
Donald Trump had nothing to do with Mnuchin's phone calls.
Trump doesn't know anything about them unless the EIB Network wizard gave him a heads up.
1
Pisani on CNBC talking about the possibility of a Santa Claus Rally.
Maybe just a dead cat rally.
Who knows?
My gut tells me that all the professionals took their profits in a slow and measured way before December, or hedged, and this is the poor suckers who trusted their brokers to let them know when to take profits -- or to rebalance in discretionary accounts -- getting slammed.
6
“Necessary trade war.” A new term in the economic lexicon.
3
It turns out that the liquidity was in the stock market and now it's running down hill thanks to munchkin brain Mnuchin.
3
It's good to sell to pay debts.
1
Please, Mr. Mnuchin. Turn over your duties to your wife. Her wardrobe choices are much less likely to impact the stock market than your incredibly ill-timed "reassurances" about the state of the economy.
3
Wait! I have the solution: let's add the three stooges to Laurel (Mnuchin) and Hardy (Trump) to the administration and it will be sorted out in short order.
3
While we're on the subject of downers take a look at oil prices. The fracking industry has borrowed billions, with a capital B, in the last ten years. I'm not sure they can cover the vig if oil stays in the $40 range.
9
If your money is in funds, you have been had, you are at the mercy of the other "investors." The market is not the economy, it is a reflection of what investors think the economy will be.
If you own equities, hang on, you do not lose until you sell, read "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. There are some good buys at the moment, at these prices many dividends are paying 5% or more.
Unfortunately funds drive the market, its investors panic, everyone in the fund loses, they stop spending, worse yet, with all this selling the fund has capital gains that are passed on to you, so you pay tax on them,even though you lost money.
To make matters worse, we have a swindler who's business practice is racketeering claiming he know what is wrong with the market and now trying to tell the fed how to operate.
Well all you enabling republicans voters and representatives, you have given this psychopath the means to bring chaos to the economy, our security, to alienate our friends, now tell us how wonderful you and your backwards ideology is, how it is going to make things better for all of us.
Come on regal us with your fairy tales and lies, tell us how lucky we are to have you running the economy, how we are all going to achieve the American Dream by spending the country into penury.
13
@David Underwood
A huge portion of mutual funds are held by institutions and for for IRA and 401k retirement funds. These are not bought and sold on the basis of panic or bubbles. Amatuers and speculators buy and sell on market “animal spirits “ and the madness of crowds. These speculators drive short and intermediate term volatility.
If you think the US equity markets now have a predictable “fair value” , please tell me what that value is so I can “go all in” at the bottom. Oh, then tell me when the new bubble high is reached so I can dadh to cash.
Neither you nor anyone else can call the turns , because such magic timing is a delusion.
1
@Thomas
In 1992 my 401K lost money, I was in the red. Institutions may not buy and sell as fast as individuals, but their managers have to keep on paying dividends. Who do you think is buying and selling hundreds of thousands or even millions of shares a day? Do you think it is investors like me?
Those amateurs and speculators do not have that kind of money.
If you do not understand the concept of value, you should stick to funds. Buffett is an example of someone who knows value, and he was taught by Graham. I am still holding equities I bought in 2002 like ED and MRK. I made my own fund of about 60 equities, some I have sold recently like GE. Red today's WSJ article on the Dogs of the DOW, I have a few of them. JUt look at the P/Es, any over 20:1 are overpriced. Any that do not yield at least 2.8% are not good buys, unless they are good profitable companies that keep cash on hand for improvements. Why should I pay some fund manager to buy the same equities I have? I get the dividends and do not have to share them with some multi billionaire.
1
True, investment managers have whole heartedly endorsed that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. However, that is different than the markets. There, sentiment often plays an important role - what investors think on any given day of the way things are. Right now, Trump has people in a state of panic deep inside. It has not yet fully come to the surface but it is there. That is determining the course of the markets right now. Really, there is only one course to take in this impending crises. GET RID OF TRUMP!!! (PENCE TOO). LOCK THEM UP.
13
Random thoughts:
Among other things, looks like the markets don't like unstable leadership. And the reckless and irresponsible tax cuts that corporations didn't need and haven't used to invest in production or R&D but instead cashed out have turned from a short-term false stimulus into a further drag instead. Like alcohol's effect, short-term high then depression (knock wood). It's a good analogy for a nation on substances.
Hmmm, tell us, Kamala Harris, why you declined to go after Steve Mnuchin's foreclosure schemes when you were AG in California. Hmmm? You've glaringly failed to address that hot potato so far. Why?
This is what we get when we get an administration of financial engineers, sharpies and business deadbeats. Why should we expect anything different? Thank you, Republican and Democratic parties, for really pushing the cream to the top. We are a grateful nation. Merry Christmas!
10
@Rocky
"You've glaringly failed to address that hot potato so far. Why?"
You know the answer to that, right? Soros was a big investor in One West and maxed out donating to her campaign. Why oh why was Harris being touted as a presidential candidate for 2020 before she even got elected to the Senate?
Like addicts on meth, Trump and Congressional Republicans juiced the economy when it didn't need it to win the mid-terms and line their pockets.
Now, the broad indices will be down 12 percent for the year.
And, when the crushing corporate debt comes to roost, hold onto your hats.
It is going to be a long, bumpy ride.
31
Who are you going to trust? Shall we trust Fed chairman Jerome Powell, Steven Mnuchin's odd reassurances from Mexico or Trump's use of a powerful golfer simile to explain the operations of the Federal Reserve? I am quite sure Mr. Powell will heed Trump's advise to work on his touch and short game. This sort of sounds like the old bird in the hand or two in the bush dilemma. I'll take Powell and stay away from the guys in the rough.
9
So now some will wait and see and then take out a second mortgage, throw it into equities, make a bundle, pay the tax man and still write off both mortgages in the coming three or four years? That's a goal worth going for but not with trump in office; no way.
1
It's official. For the SP500, Dec 2018 (if it finishes where the market closed today) is now the worst month since the Great Depression not named October.
Only two months have been worse: Oct 1987 (-21,7%) and Oct 2008 (-16,9%).
10
@abo
Both with Republican presidents in office.
6
At this point, Trump's strategy to reimburse Russian oligarchs without an obvious money trail could include generating dog whistles that identify virtually same-day market-shorting opportunities.
19
I'm sure he's manipulation the market not only for Russian benefits...
3
It takes a unique skill set to visit bankruptcy court as often has Trump has.
We're seeing that skill set in action - and IMHO things will likely get much much worse before they get better...
Trump: Doing for America what he did for his Atlantic City casino business.
106
@Matthew Carnicelli
Actually, it was skill. His companies went bankrupt, everyone else, including taxpayers, took a bath, but he somehow emerged whole. He is the perfect practitioner of doing business with other people's money.
Now he's at it again. It may work for a while, but at some point he will run out of "other people". We are the ultimate "other people", and most of us - but not yet enough - were smart enough to rumble him in November. It looks like the rest will have to really, really hurt before they understand they have been had. And it's starting to happen.
2
The "Hellter Skelter" president is at it again. For his entire life, Trump has escaped any and all consequences for his endless stream of blunders, disasters, and now, potential cataclysms that we will soon be paying for. For the safety of our country Congress should force Trump to resign, NOW.
45
Ugh. These people. The Fed did exactly what it was supposed to do. Eventually the tax cuts will lead to a huge deficit, a huge uptick in US debt and we will have to print money (inflation) or sell bonds to pay it back. I can't believe that a Goldman Sachs man was so stupid as to send this message. Unless he knew all those banks had short positions....
I would also not be surprised if 6 out of 6 bank CEO's he called said not to make any big announcements that would cause further concern and tank the markets further.
Others have said before that markets don't like uncertainty and we now have it in spades.
21
Will Mnuchin reimburse me for the losses my 401(k) account have suffered today because of his incompetency?
29
@JJ. He is still in Mexico living the high life. Let's build the wall so he can't cross back into the US.
3
Goldman Sachs gold-digger and executive movie producer Minuchin calls from luxury in Cabo, thinking his golden touch from the sunshine will calm the weary and restless and bring his golden light to break the clouds of fear. Can anyone be more stupid about optics and timing? Can anyone be more out of touch with how he appears? With this idiot lightweight in position at Treasury, God help us all if we have a real crisis.
28
Unfortunately, God won’t help with that. He’s probably busy somewhere else.
What will help is the american people taking concrete actions to try to get this Clown out of the Office. We, the rest of the world, are anxiously waiting for that to happen.
We used to be able to say that American politics wasn’t of our business, but this is not true anymore. The unthinkable stupidities that emanate daily from this White Palace is negatively affecting us all. ALL.
2
warning his closest banker friends he was about to do something stupid ..does anyone besides me believe they were able to cash in on this drop in the markets? a nice holiday gift for the well connected
17
Mnuchin and his wife revealed how they spend American taxpayers "Ample Liquidity". Give me a break, like trump he's a joke.
15
GOP has allowed Trump to spend like some drunken sailor on extended leave..Now he wants 5 BILLION more for that ridiculous wall of his...That deficit spending that was criminal by Obama is merely ignored as it climbs with Trump. Six bankruptcies by Mr. Trump assured them of his expertise in financial matters.
Throw in his hissy fit tariffs that are actually harming AMERICAN business and farmers and what did Wall Street expect?? These "fiscally conservative" GOP mental giants are once again, letting the Titanic hit the giant iceberg and send our ship to the bottom...They do have a real knack for taking a win and turning it into an epidemic of fear.
26
@Margot LeRoy
Under Obama the deficit was decreasing, and that doesn't even take into account the economy Obama inherited from day one in office.
At least you got the Trump story right.
4
@Martin Obama had the Fed helping him , lowering interest rates to zero. The current Fed actions seem calculated to hurt President Trump right before the Democrats take over the House. Powell is part of the establishment, Deep State, that wants to get rid of Trump. This is all rigged.
@samuel
So the fed, together with the deep state, is trying to destroy the country all because they want to destroy Trump? Sheesh.
How can a stable genius keep appointing people who are trying to destroy him? You think he'd learn by now to stop from rigging the system against himself. Eh?
4
It takes an ignorant fool to choose advisors of equal worthlessness. I have seen nothing more mature in Mr.Mnuchin than his early act of being photographed with his wife stroking single fresh dollar bills.
14
Hey everybody, just in case you were thinking about making a run on the banks, which of course no one is, I just wanted to assure you that there is plenty of money in the banks (since nobody asked) and that the Stock Market will end its free-fall as soon as we fire the Fed chairman.
Merry Xmas.
23
In a further effort to appease the coal companies, Santa put a lump of coal into the stockings of several thousand federal employees. Ho! Ho! Ho! Not!
5
OK, that's it. No one left in this administration knows what they're doing. No one is working on behalf of we the people.
As of Jan 3, the Dems in the House need to burn it all down. The punditry talks of being measured, and not appearing too aggressive. Baloney.
Know what burning it down will look like? Rolling back that stupid, harmful tax cut. Reuniting families on the border. Preserving and expanding healthcare. Getting out of the thrall of Putin, Kim, and Erdogan. And investigating every single crooked twist and turn of Trump, this administration, and him minions like Devin Nunes.
We need moral, sensible governance back and fast. We need it to be aggressive and rock ribbed. When that happens the markets will settle, but that's the least of it. We the people will have government working again for the commonweal. The government we voted for and deserve.
431
@LindaP, I also would like this to happen but it will not. As of Jan. 3, the Dems will control only the House. The Republicans will continue to control the Senate and the Presidency and the Supreme Court.
31
That's very true, @JerryV. But I recently reread All the President's Men, and caught on TV by chance, Robert Redford's documentary, All the President's Men Revisited. Indeed, it took a lot for the GOP to finally come to the side of right during Watergate, but they eventually did.
In reading the book and watching the documentary, one can feel almost hopeless at how bad it got before the GOP put country before party. Before they were willing to remove a criminal from the highest office in the land. It remains shocking how many were pulled into the vortex of Nixon's criminality to appease the man in power. To listen to the words of HR Haldeman, John Dean, Woodward, Bernstein, and the rest is to truly hear past as prologue.
What we are in with the Trump administration, by all indications, is child's play compared to Nixon. It has to end, or our country truly will. And not lost in the message of Watergate is that it took people in the streets to force the hand of the GOP. I think the country is getting there.
35
@LindaP Yes, the protests, maybe riots, are coming. Unless people become too broke to participate.
13
The Secretary made these calls from his beach towel in Cabo while 'Mare Nostrum' from Victory at Sea played in the background and the waiter brought him another margarita. This is the guy who has made a fetish out of putting his wealth in our faces. Meanwhile, Trump gets 'furious' over anything and everything. We are in great hands.
13
True to form DT is quick to blame anyone but himself for the latest disaster.
15
Seriously, what is wrong with these people? At some point we have to assume that this is calculated and malevolent, not just incompetent. Run up the national debt to unheard of levels then systematically destroy the stock market. Impeach now.
23
“Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”. But I freely admit that the degree of stupidity beggars belief.
2
It is a worldwide vote of ‘no confidence’ in America under Trump, who has been revealed as a simpleton, prone to irrational and childish decisions which may or may not be under the direction of Putin.
12
Worst Treasury Secretary ever, but then you could say that about most of the people in this dysfunctional, shambolic Administration.
9
While the proverbial buck never stops at Trump, the actual bucks are being stuffed into his pockets.
Don's not the only inmate in charge of the asylum -- witness Mnuchin. Only the best on this team -- best for themselves.
6
It seems to me that Jerome H. Powell was being prudent to call the banks to check on financial reserves during the violently rocky times of Donald.
The stock market is tanking because of the misaligned, misogynous, and malevolent Head of Crazy State that we have.
2
@MyOpinion -- did you not read the article? You got the very heart of it wrong: it was Mnuchin at the behest of Trump who declared all is well when no one knew anything was wrong, and it was done explicitly to antagonize FED Chairman Powell whose sole job is to steady the economic waters through which the ship of state sails. Sure the seas are getting choppy, but this tweet from Mnuchin is akin to him declaring from the watch that all is well, reminding us all of the mealy-mouthed understatements of froth the last time we entered a recession.
Initially I was blaming Mr. Mnuchin for this fiasco, but after some thought I believed he must have been ordered by Mr. Trump to call the banks and make the statement. After all, how could such a successful businessman who rose to be Treasury secretary, be so incompetent.
Then I reviewed Mr. Mnuchin's employment history with Goldman Sachs,IndyMac, Sears, OneWest, hedgefunds, ESL Investments, and I came to realize that Mr. Mnuchin is a mini me Donald Trump.
He avoided paying taxes via his hedge fund .1% purchased tax breaks, invested in Trump business via ESL, relied on the government to bail him out of bad business decisions, was sued for inappropriately foreclosing on people, and obviously thinks he's more important than the little guy.
Remember his request for air force jet honeymoon trip? Remember his solar eclipse trip via air force jet?
Mnuchin is in it up to his eyeballs with Trump. Partners in incompetence.
27
The market is showing a "vote of no confidence" in this administration.
12
It's good to know our astroid shields are fully engaged. Nothing to worry about...right? Administration incompetence worries me.
"Wall Street added to losses on Monday after an unusual weekend statement about the health of America’s financial system by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, prompted confusion about what would warrant such a comment."
3
Well, I know a guy out in like Perry County, in the Big Woods that run from there to Hudson's Bay. A fishin', huntin; shootin; Trump-votin kind of a guy. But he has a brain in his head.
I saw him 6 months ago and asked whether any of his pals were losing faith. He said
"...No. It would take a stock market fall for that...."
So, we shall see if economic collapse is enough to shake the MAGA hat guys.
8
Probably not, since the other MAGA hat guys don’t have the required brain to understand all of that.
1
Are any New Yorkers suffering from the fed shutdown?
Will Kushner Companies as landlord for THOUSANDS of rental units in NYC and beyond give a break on its rental contracts with these affected workers? ...we all know the answer to that!!!!
3
"Stocks are on track for their worst year since 2008." They're also on track to be the worst December since the Depression.
Hmmm.... President Obama was elected in 2008, and held office until 2016. Trump took over in 2017.
'Nuf said.
6
any reason we won't see Dow at 18,000 in 2019?
3
“Hey, everyone. Nothing is wrong!”
“Good to hear, Steve... but no one asked...”
4
"But Steve, since you brought it up ...what is wrong?"
1
Mnuchin is just as inexperienced in government as his boss!! Heaven help us, and he is going to be an "advisor" to this President....
1
"The gang who couldn't shoot straight" becomes more relevant every single day.
4
"I only hire the best people"
Donald Trump
2
Of course Mnuchin is being guided, nay shoved, by the rather visible hand of Trump. As Galbraith pointed out well over 40 years ago, there is no invisible hand, powerful humans control the markets to their benefit and neoclassical economists can go pound sand.
The arbitrary timing and odd nature of this "weird" announcement can be reasonably attributed to Trump's impetuous rule. He came out with his unforeseen Syria troop withdrawal, then he abruptly fired Mattis after Mattis quit, the list could go on back into the past two years.
So no worry, folks. This is not Mnuchin, this is just Trump, and since Trump is a know nothing, it follows that this oddity is of no real consequence: Only You Can Choose To Ignore Tweets. To be clear if it is not already obvious by this point: this is a broadside attack by Trump against FED Chairman Powell about whom Trump just started grousing.
Can you imagine what the big banks are thinking? On their conference call held shortly thereafter: "Jeez, guys, what a tool Mnuchin is! Ha, Ha, Ha! Send someone from the mail room to his working group meeting."
10
The best thing Trump and his financial advisors can do is shut up. They don't know what they're doing and every time they speak the market drops another 3-500 points.
"Let Them Eat Cake" Mnuchin especially. The sight of you on TV means another 1% drop. Buy your wife some jewelry, go check on the gold, find another eclipse but, please, shut up. We suspect your incompetence, every time you and your boss open your ignorant mouths you only confirm it.
9
Lucky this guy is not a doctor
Go into hospital with a broken leg, leave with a lung removed
8
Why anyone expects competence from the GOP is beyond me...
6
"Read my lips."
1
Looks like the Obama run is over...
7
Mnuchin is another of Donald's rich cronies who has more money then brains. I guess if you graduated from Yale, you are supposed to be bright. But I'd be more impressed if he actually had any additional education in economics, finance or business in general. He just seems like a stupid rich person who thinks his ideas don't stink.
He has no credentials to be running the Treasury other then he knows how to spend other people's money.
By the way, did he make his calls to banks while on vacation in some expensive resort setting? I bet he did!
10
When all fiscal policy is based on helping the rich get richer, the country will suffer.
8
Trump is on track for another record, ruining the economy in only 2 years. It took the last Republican administration 8 years to start a depression.
Hopefully the SEC will investage who shorted the market before Mnuchin press release.
I think President Pence will have a difficult time getting elected in 2020.
14
This is the kind of chaotic input you get when you let amateurs run the government, and they pay attention to their "gut" instead of the experienced experts (the "elites", in some cases). This is the kind of thinly-considered, casual statements, the kind of 'tweet-publicity' that roils and disrupts and scares markets. Mnuchin probably didn't realize just how much he can scare the markets with a few unconsidered words. Well, he's learning, I hope. Maybe he can talk to his boss, too.
10
I hope there is ample liquidity. The banks never lent out the bulk of the money the Feds gave them from TARP...made money on it..and paid back the funds. The homeowner facing foreclosure never got the relief they were theoretically promised .
10
Prior to the election, Mr trump said repeatedly that the national debt was not some 21 trillion but rather some 220 trillion and that all kinds of huge expenses aren't even entered into what is supposed to be the total debt of our country.That said, The trump administration has added over a trillion more as I have heard it said.
If there is any truth to the what I'm saying, how can the Fed say there is a lot of Liquidity ?
If the bottom of the market falls out, is there a way of dishing out Trillions of dollars - even if uncollateralized as in 2008 ? How high would such a bill be and how fast would it need to be
dished out to all the failing institutions and banks
and how to prevent a world-wide collapse.
Plenty of liquidity says Mr. Mnuchin ?
This is very scary to me as neither my credit or debit card would work and everything could collapse ??
Even scarier than incompetence is malice. Remember that you can make money by knowing in advance that stocks will go down. I don't believe that we're dealing with incompetence. I believe we are seeing our country's wealth mined and our markets used for personal gain. Crimes are being committed and covered up. This must've investigated!
20
@Skeptic
Looted, I think, is the correct word.
7
I happened to spend most of Friday buying up all the Analogies I could lay my hands on and who-ha! Sunday rolls around and the Treasury Secretary baffles the world with a message that pundits, reporters and economists are falling all over each other trying to explain in terms humans can grasp. I'm rich!
5
lol Thank you! Made my day.
Mnuchin wanted to verify the liquidity of big banks to assure they could cover a "run on banks" a la 1929?
11
Mnuchin is projecting his own fears about liquidity. He cannot close this Pandora's box he just opened. He just created a new problem not known to exist before now. It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look out!
14
I'm certainly not an economics expert other than what I have learned by living for almost 79 years and being involved with several small businesses. But I do know that the PE ratios of this stock market before the recent corrections were ridiculous. I can remember when my investment advisor worried when PE ratios got to 20! He would be over 100 years old by now and not the least bit surprised that the market started to get more reasonably priced. All the low interest rates from the FED did was encourage the big risk takers to borrow too much. That includes the Kushners and the Trumps. No wonder the Donald is imploding. The costs of his personal debts are rising dramatically. And businesses that over borrowed won't be expanding or raising wages of workers.
13
According to Trump, the buck stops at the Fed. And the latest increase in the Fed rate was unanimous by the way.
4
Looks like Santa Claus didn’t come to rescue the stock market in 2018 afterall. For all we know, he may of been held up in customs wrangling over tarrifs in his recent flyby over China with a sack full of cheap goodies destined for US delivery.
Santa's arguing that it's not all the FED's fault for the delay in toys and goodies, but the big cloud of uncertainty in trade tariffs causing headwinds.
9
Mr. Trump has said choosing Mr. Powell for the Fed job last year was .
No, the worst mistake of his presidency was taking the oath of office.
35
Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the Republican donors' backs.
13
Casting call!
Looks like our reality show President might be in need of an acting Secretary of the Treasury.
14
We have placed four people in charge of the economy, and only one of them understands economics.
President Donald Trump, who thinks that the economy is as simple as "high stocks, better economy."
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who thinks that money is a prop that's fun to print.
Economist Larry Kudlow, who holds such outlandish and out-of-the-mainstream views as to be horribly dangerous.
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, who seemingly does understand economics, and is trying desperately to keep the three other sailors from running the ship onto the rocks.
It's like the start to a bad joke.
"A President, a Treasury Secretary, a crackpot Economist and a Fed Chair are navigating a boat.
The President says 'Faster is better, just put the wind at our backs!
Fast is bigly!'
The Fed Chair sees this will aim them straight for the rocks.
The Treasury Secretary says 'I signaled all the other ships, and they say they have plenty of sails below decks, so do what the President says.'
The Fed Chair knows that this is irrelevant.
The Economist says, 'Trust me, all the other navigators are wrong, when we reach the rocks our boat will rise into the air and safely jump over them all, despite the hundred years worth of shipwrecks that lie scattered among them.'
The Fed Chair rolls his eyes in disgust, as he covertly eases the tiller right, trying to find a balance between maintaining speed and missing the rocks."
I can't bring myself to write the punchline.
91
@Bob
You forgot to mention Navarro and Lighthizer. Those guy's fingerprints are all over this dysfunctional mess as well.
13
@Bob The President fires the Fed Chair for being such a worrywart.
9
@rena
And blames the rocks.
5
Of course people are terrified! Mnuchin, in his typical Trumpian way, has added to the terror by conducting bank safety parameters, usually a sign of severe financial crisis.
If the administration doesn't have faith in the health of the US economy, despite what Federal Reservists say, well, why should we?
From tulips in Holland, a typical Ponzi scheme to the run on banks at the beginning of the Great Depression, financial crises tend to indicate a severe lack of confidence in the nation's economic future.
So which is it, Mr. Mnuchin? We're told we have a good economy despite all the DOW losses, but then you go perform financial checks more reminiscent of 2008 than now.
Thanks a bunch. Not only will this be a Trump-inspired market melt-down/recession, but also a Trump generated one from all these mixed signals.
18
The markets like stability and predictability. It's finally dawning on investors that this is not a normal Republican Administration run by grown ups who know how the economic works. This Administration is chaos where decisions are made by a tantruming toddler whose past performances have included six bankruptcies and failure to make a viable business out of a casino. Have fun, Trump supporter who have investments; you deserve every loss. It's just too bad that the majors of us who never were bamboozled by Trump's lies have to suffer along with you.
41
Should have been locked up long ago. Thanks, Kamala!
3
“Mr. Trump has said choosing Mr. Powell for the Fed job last year was the worst mistake of his presidency.”
Good lord, so many mistakes to choose from! You’d need a research team with a massive database to track them all. But for my money — what’s left of it — Trump’s worst decision was his decision to run for president. Kind of “trumps” them all, if you know what I mean.
27
I ove this country, every idiot can become president, secretary of treasury, defense, .......
Talk about equal opportunities.
14
Please excuse me, I think I'm going to hurl I'm so sick of winning
15
Sounds to me like Trump is scapegoating the Fed.
I am certain I am not the only American that knows how much the stock market has changed - fewer companies, and fewer stock holders.
We also see how banking has changed. It wasn't that long ago a simple savings account yielded 8% interest.
What happened?
Greed.
Acceptance of a carpet bagger mentality, that a sucker is born every minute and in order to really "win" there must be losers.
Win win was so much more fun. It made America Great.
12
We think the economy is fundamentally unchanged with steady progress since 2011.
But maybe not.
The potential problem I see is the deficit / debt after this last Republican tax bill.
The deficit went from $600 Billion to $1 Trillion.
The expected addition to the debt the next ten years is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per taxpayer.
I will get $a 1,200 tax cut, $50 a month, for seven years, for a total of $8,400.
And $80,000 put on my Federal Debt credit card.
I have seen articles predicting we will one day be paying more for interest on the debt than we pay for the military.
Wall St. knows these numbers and knows eventually we will have a problem.
31
When will we get rid of these crackpots?
15
The DOW is currently down 18.5% since January.
Come on Trump! You only have a week to get to 20%!
Trump-Pence 2020!
8
Favorite quote from a risk manager: "Just when you think you've made something idiot proof, someone invents a better idiot." I'd say Munchkin is certainly a leading candidate, right behind Trump.
72
Why are Trump and his cohort of losers dragging us all down with them? Are they just fools or in cahoots with our enemies? Is Mnuchin also indebted to Putin? I don't know the answers, but I'm looking a a serious blow to my retirement account and it shows no sign that the bleeding will stop anytime soon.
13
Trump and his band of grifters are going to implode the strong Obama economy they inherited.
Happens every time. Republicans mess everything up. Democrats have to be the adults and fix it while Republicans sit on the sidelines sniping. Then we forget the lessons and bring back Republicans to do their magic all over again.
What a mess.
61
Every single member of this administration is incompetent. Thanks for ruining everything.
28
That Steven Mnuchin, he's one mental Munchkin (aka: a mental midget). Such an allegedly bright economics kind of guy, thinking he could prop up the market? Is that some, new found conservative economic principle? Adam Smith is rolling over in his grave, you know the guy that wrote The Wealth of Nations! What's actually conservative about the so-called Republican GOP these days?
16
@neb nilknarf
Agreed. Republicans stopped being fiscally conservative with Reagan.
Deficits have gone up under Reagan, W Bush and deficits have gone down under Clinton and Obama.
Note, I am talking about deficits. As long as there is a deficit, the debt is always going up. But the first step is to get the deficit coming down.
And job creation was almost 50% more for Clinton that Reagan.
And job creation was almost 400% better for Obama than W Bush.
11
Everything this government does seems almost designed to make Vladimir Putin happy.
I say “almost” because to be doing this stuff deliberately, Trump, Mnuchin, and the rest would have to be incredibly sharp people playing buffoons. And then there are the Congressional Republicans, not one of whom — not one! — has acted to stop this man, beyond an occasional “no”vote. Surely, they cannot all owe Putin.
No, Putin is the clever one: he knew that a fool like Trump, aided by American ignorance and greed, would do more damage to his enemies than Al Qaeda and ISIS could ever dream of doing.
24
These clowns will do everything to drop this country and the rest of the world off a cliff.
8
eaping what we've sowed. The clown car and it's occupants are in WAY over their heads. The only "feel" we should be talking about is when we feel it's time to end this distasterous experiment and have our lawmakers put an end to it.
6
The Treasury spokesperson has to explain this tweet. The can't put this out, and then not expound. Was Mnuchin concerned that the Markets were worried about Bank liquidity? Should we all be concerned about Bank liquidity, or the Treasury's psychological state?
14
It continually revolts and disgusts me how Trump&Co think:
"I poured gasoline all over the house, then lit it with a match, but it's not MY fault the house burned down, it's the builder's for not making it fireproof enough!"
Trump has poured gas all over every mechanism he can and set it on fire and now is both blaming the fire on others: Democrats, Comey, but he's blaming the fireman now: Powell.
What is the functional difference between Trump and an arsonist? It's not Conan the Barbarian or Conan the Destroyer, but Donald The Barbarian and Donald the Destroyer.
11
This entire administration needs to be purged from the top down. They are are a gang incompetent, self-serving sociopaths, led by nihilist suffering from a very bad personality disorder, who is on team Russia. They are destroying the country, the planet and each and everyone of our life savings.
32
@6strings To quote that Trump sycophant, self- admitted felon, Michael Flynn, "LOCK THEM UP!"
3
"The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. "
And they don't understand Democrat shutdowns over Borders. Which apparently has something to do with the Fed.
Yeah, they are just ignorant about economics:
Mr. Powell - Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary of the Treasury under President George H.W. Bush, with responsibility for policy on financial institutions, the Treasury debt market.. From 1997 through 2005, Mr. Powell was a partner at The Carlyle Group.
Dr. Clarida - the C. Lowell Harriss Professor of
Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University, 1988 to 2018. 1997 until 2001, chairman of the Department of Economics at Columbia University.
September 2005 to November 2006, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance. April 2002 to August 2005, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Policy chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. U.S. Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Brainard was Assistant and Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury and Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury. During this time, she was the U.S. Representative to the G-20 Finance Deputies and G-7 Deputies
4
During his career, by contrast, Individual 1 was filing for bankruptcy, being bailed out of his failures by family money, committing fraud, and being such a poor businessman that he couldn't even make a success of a casino.
8
Dear Wall Street Wizzes:
You're supposed to be the smart ones. But after Individual 1 was put in the White House by the Electoral College, you ran up the markets on "irrational exuberance" resulting from the corporate tax windfall and destruction of common-sense regulations.
Now you're whipsawing down from your sugar-high, suddenly fearful that there are no adults left in the Administration. True enough. But please keep in mind that interest rates are currently still at the low end of historical norms, and that the Fed's policy-making committee, comprised of actual adults, unanimously voted to increase rates because of the strong health of the current economy.
So please get off your roller coaster. My 401K would appreciate it.
43
"The only problem our economy has is the Fed"
It's hard to respect a man who has run his businesses into bankruptcy numerous times. He is hardly the paragon of financial acumen.
Perhaps he should keep his mouth shut when he is so clearly out of his league.
41
Mnuchin's telephone calls to the big banks yesterday is equivalent to sending in a plumber to fix a nuclear reactor. It's beyond his expertise! Only bad things can come out of it.
So, Mnuchin, stop messing with the market (and tell your boss to lay off the Federal Reserve. What is he trying to do? Cause the dollar to collapse and initiate a global depression?)
36
@MVT2216 Yes. He is.
4
In our personal and professional lives, chaos is rarely a good thing. In the life of a nation, chaos and uncertainty usually spell disaster. Unfortunately, this administration, led by a stunningly obtuse individual who doesn't know the meaning of taking responsibility, keeps feeding the beast. The irony of all those Trump voters who voted for a "businessman" and the "businessman" who filled his administration with other "businessmen" should not be lost on anyone. Right now, this administration is in the lead as the most incompetent of administrations and although we are only half way through this president's term, it sure looks like this gang is also going to win top honors for the most corrupt of administrations too.
20
Amateur hour at the Treasury.
28
Is it possible? Did someone say that Trump actually attended a business school, in fact a prestigious one named Wharton?
Some study of economics must have been in the curriculum, but you would never know it when you hear Trump blabber about the stock market and the Fed chairman.
15
@srwdm
Donny missed the classes on economics. He was attending to his bone spurs!
7
He finished his last two mediocre years of college at Penn. in his typical lying fashion, he’d have you think he has an MBA, but no, alas not.
7
Famous Expressions:
"Markets Drop After Mnuchin’s Unexpected Assurance of ‘Ample Liquidity’"
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Titanic we've hit an ice-cube, and there is a small hole in the ship."
"When the shoeshine man tells you to buy stocks in the market, listen to him!"
" A share in the hand during a bull market is worth 10 that were sold"
"A fool leading the country and his money are NEVER
parted; he's playing with YOUR money!
"A president who is his own lawyer, has a GENIUS for a client"
7
AARGH! Can these people not do ANYTHING right? Why did he even post about it, on Twitter no less - what was he trying to say, "Hey guys, look, I'm doing my job?" WHO CARES?
Thanks for my $5K loss today, Mnuchin my bud. You just cut into my retirement liquidity! Maybe I can call up old Jamie Dimon and get it back, huh? He was certainly the most helpful fellow in 2008 - NOT. Stick to making the Lego Movie!
Apologies to fellow readers for one of my lamest posts but my god . . . AARGH! Merry Christmas everybody?!?
25
so odd.
I didn't know there even was a problem until i read this. So tired of children running the government. Sad.
9
Donald J. Chaos & Co. are all about making poor impulsive decisions and casting the blame on others. Adminstrative roller coaster with a revolving door, reckless tariffs, insulting allies, shifting troops pell mell, north korean love story between the dear leaders, insulting gold star families, ignoring our troops in the war zones, personal lawyer flipping for reduced sentence--- I could go on...
tired of winning yet?
9
@joe parrott This is what his base wanted, wasn't it, to have trump "blow-up" the establishment? Well guess what, when you blow up the establishment, you might also blow up the country. So sorry his base was motivated by bigotry, envy, hate and resentment and had so little knowledge of history and were anxious to believe this village idiot of a charlatan.
2
Message from Mnuchin: The wings are not about to fall off the plane. The engines will not burst into flames. Peace. Out.
13
Trump administration has ZERO credibility in managing economy or anything else. Every time they do something, they only damage the trust of the people. This will only get worse until Trump leaves the WH for good.
6
Yeah, but it's not officially a "depression" until Wall Streets start jumping out of their offices. Trump-Pence 2020!
5
Becoming President was the worst mistake of Donald Trump's life.
6
Fixated on Powell, huh? He should turn around and look in the mirror. The markets are falling because they've lost faith in Trump!
18
Is there a jail big enough to hold these people?
8
For every economic hiccup or upchuck, for every foreign policy tremor and tsunami, Trump finds someone to blame except himself. Whoever still stands behind him can only be people who think there is no amount of disruption to our government, suffering among people or world instability sufficient to alter their thinking.
Think about that.
8
Wow--Was this paragraph written by Mnuchin or by Trump?
"But the United States economy remains healthy, and there has been no evidence so far that the financial system is not functioning properly."
3
Maybe this was Mnuchin's way of getting Donald Trump to fire him so he wouldn't have to take the blame when the economy tanks
7
Apparently it is necessary to explain to Mnuchin et al that a Tweet, sent from Cabo and boiling down to, “Uh....everything’s fine, really, no...fine, just fine...why’re you looking at us like that?” won’t exactly calm anybody down.
I mean, you go to the doc, you wife gets there first, they have a long convo, THEN you go in and they’re both sporting fixed glassy smiles, and she says, “Uh...so...your tests came back, and you’re, you’re FINE really...just great, everything’s great! But hey, just as a precaution, we were thinking...a little chemo couldn’t hurt!”
Your day calmed down after that?
7
It's the theatre of the absurd.
6
The dumpster fire just gets bigger and stinkier. If anyone out there thinks this -must- be as low as we can go, be very afraid. It can and will, get so, so much worse.
10
Mnuchin is Trump's boy all right. Like his boss, he's fixing non-existing problems with solutions that roil the markets. Heck of a job, Stevie!
Meanwhile, back at the daycare center on Pennsylvania Ave, Trump is blaming the fed. Par for the course.
12
My thoughts: The people in place in the higher echelons of our federal government are absurdly ignorant and,I think, malevolent.
6
These are very inventive people, as it looks like they will not be able to committ a more inept stupidity .....they always find a way.
If I would perform my work that way I would not last a minute. Not so in the Trump admin, incompetence is the entrance ticket.
2
Might it be possible to put up Trump's border wall rapidly enough to ensure that Secretary Mnuchin will still be on the other side when construction is complete?
And perhaps some 'artistically designed steel slats' to surround Mar-a-Lago before the president's golf vacation ends?
5
Cadet Bone Spurs is making what to him is the Supreme Sacrifice and staying in DC while the partial shutdown is in effect.
1
How surprising! Why? Why can't the news media and practically every economist in the country not get it through their think heads that republican leaders crash economies. Every single time (someone, please prove me wrong!). Predicting trump and his band of idiots would get us into a horrible financial position as fast as they could implement their misguided policies should be an easy layup for anyone paying attention. Even democratic politicians seen to buy into the concept that republican are financial geniuses! How. Many. Times. do we need to go through this scenario before we catch on?
8
@Tim m
what Tim said, again. And Merry Christmas to everyone, right? I am fairly well off, for now! and I just want to stay in bed. I cry to think of furloughed workers, and then the effects their loss of income will have as it spreads out, to all low income folk, they are feeling this immediately- Let me just say, I am so ready to protest, march, whatever- I am a grandma, and I have had it. I am so disgusted that this man is Treasury Sec. he is so despicable! Right now, as I picture Mnuchin and his wife in Cabo- well I am beyond nauseous. It is time for protests that dwarf the Occupy and Women's marches.
3
Merry Christmas from Donald and the Grifters.
5
"Drive for show, putt for dough" With statements like this, Lee Trevino could have been President.
2
The Obama economy is finally over. He finally killed it.
15
If only Trump would shut up.
5
Having just turned 66 in September, I chose not to retire this year with my sufficient, but hardly ample investment funds, with the thinking the market was ripe for a fall - not entirely due to Trump policy, but certainly exacerbated by it. I'm miserable about being right and at the same time, relieved I made that choice. Now, watching a financial cliff dive, a West Wing clown show and a royal Presidential meltdown, I'm wondering if I will be able to retire when I'm 68. I am not at all convinced my American dream is not turning out to be an American nightmare.
7
I'd be willing to bet on two things:
1) Trump asked Mnuchin to make those statements
2) Now that those statements are backfiring Trump is considering firing Mnuchin for making those statements
27
President "Slats" is on the prowl to blame everyone else, as usual, except himself.
His stupidity and statements, along with that of the GOP which concocted the TrumpGOP program of giving virtually all, 83% of of the tax benefits to the wealthiest it individuals and big biz, brought this upon themselves.
Not to mention that the !% already are worth more than the whole rest of the country. Isn't that rampant, continued inequality, that has been increasing since the '60s/'70s until today.
Of course, we in the 17%, which Trump promised to throw a few bones to make our "tax cut" permanent, never materialized. But that's just one of Trump's 8 lies per day, as noted in the "real" news.
And after loosening the financial stress tests for the biggest banks and all of the others, are again playing "catch up" with derivatives, which can wreck havoc, if and when the economy continues to fail, and consumers realize they have to save what they have left to survive.
What happened to all of the IPOs and all of the newly increasing junk bonds?
Again, this is what happens when the few gorge in Trump's swamp in his trough of greed.
6
Xmas eve trading is usually quiet and mostly up because of the year end rally effect but all bets are off with someone as unpredictable as Trump in office. Down over 400 pts today with an hour to go.
Things can get a lot worse next year if Trump fires Powell or removes him as Chairman, Mnuchin resigns or is fired by Trump, we resume the trade war with China or what I think is most likely that we fall into recession.
4
The incompetence of the Trump administration is a stress test for the entire American financial sector, global economic systems and international political stability. As America withdraws from participation in world affairs, some country(s) will step in to fill the vacuum most likely for the worse. At some point the Senate must come together to stop this developing American Carnage. It is to no party’s advantage to see the country become a dumpster fire.
22
The markets are finally reacting to what many of us have known for a while--the President and his cohorts are incompetent, corrupt, unethical, and erratic. As long as Trump is in power, the markets will be nervous.
548
@JaneF
What else could be expected after the Electoral College ignored the popular vote and put an incompetent grifter in the WH. Minuchin was known as the foreclosure king after One West Bank foreclosed on mortgages given to people with no credit history. Dishonest brokers wrote mortgages guaranteed to fail; after they collected their commissions, the bad mortgage loans were bundled and sold to foreign banks. A few U.S. banks failed; some foreign banks also failed. Minuchin was part of that. He is one of the third rate members of Trump's Cabinet. Mattis stayed longer than he should have.
@JaneF
I would add "finally" nervous enough to sell off.
The equally corrupt market makers made as much money as they could by ignoring this president's corruption and incompetence for as long as they could.
They are still making money in the sell off at the expense of ordinary Americans.
1
Mnunchin is a man of no accomplishments (aside from investing in Avatar and Lego Batman) who coasted into his education and his Goldman Sachs job based purely on his family. What did we expect would happen?
Even a college econ student would have known better than to do this. And the optics! Teleconferences with banks from a luxury resort in Mexico.
42
@John
Mnuchin does have one accomplishment - he ran a bank that was very good on foreclosing on homeowners. He got a deal on it, so every foreclosure made him money. Trump's guy to the core.
6
So have I got this right ....
i) somebody, whose job it is to already know, asked the banks if they are sufficiently solvent to survive.
ii) he then accepts the banks answer without the slightest hesitation to ponder if they might even have been wrong about this before
iii) he then tweets the news that he needed to ask the banks if they were financially sound
iv) everyone on his team expresses surprise that the markets do not immediately become as calm as a sleeping baby
It is difficult to imagine a more amateur set of actions by anyone in such an important position.
The only relevant question is did he think up this fiasco all by himself or did his boss force him into such a self-destructive idea?
Given his boss' track record of behaviour ....
60
25th Amendment time. Now thru either sheer incompetence or carefully-executed malevolence (tip off the bakers in advance of whatever Muchin knows?), it's clear that neither Trump nor his minions are fit for office. Negatively, affecting the lives of 330,000,000 Americans through tariffs, market scares, and dangerous foreign relations moves ought to bring the government down. Wish we had a Parliamentary system. Of course, so long as the grifters can stay in office, there can't be a 25th Amendment option. Where else could Ben Carson work? How else could DeVos so easily destroy public education? Poor Donny. Stuck in the White House with nothing to do. Maybe he could read a briefing paper about Syria? Economics? Anything? Not a Merry Christmas for this nation.
18
Really, the markets dropped because of Mnuchin's statement? Sorry, but the markets has been dropping since September. Emerging markets peaked in January and have been dropping since, think China, Turkey, Argentina, South Africa, etc. The KOSPI down another -.3% (21% since January). This drop began before any trade war. It's called the end of the growth cycle. For the U.S. it literally started Sept. 26th when Fed. Powell opened his mouth and came out too hawkish; something that is still a problem. The global market doesn't care what Mnuchin says or Trump or CNBC. They care about growth, year-over year growth and it is shrinking. The Fed, as usual, along with the media are the last too see this. We are simply the last to fall. It's unfortunate to go through but healthy in the long run.
What the NY Times should really be writing about is asking the question: Why is the Fed raising rates into a slowdown at the obvious end of the bull market cycle and why didn't they instead focus on paying down their balance sheet of $4.5 Trillion dollars? How much confidence in the Fed will there be if there is another financial crisis and they've done nothing to reduce this balance?
2
@Cato Don't confuse a drop in the stock market with a slowdown in our economy. The stock market simply overshot and is now correcting. Unemployment is still at record lows, meaning that there are many people employed who you would rather have work at someone else's company.
The Fed is reducing their balance sheet to the tune of $50 billion per month. They are doing this by no purchasing new securities when existing securities mature. Granted this isn't the fastest pace, but it is something.
1
@Cato -- No one doubts we're at the end of the business cycle, where'd you get the idea people disagreed with that idea?
Also, no one debates the obvious fact that emerging markets are being stomped upon by the farmer who's walking right down the middle of the rows of recently germinated capital.
Everyone knows about the cleansing effects of a good fasting like the market correction that is coming, that is at hand, who do you think believes in the contrary?
Look, Cato, try as you may to cut the bale of straw and fluff it up and cover over the current White House administration, we all know that the incompetents and ignoramuses are making a bad situation worse, and you are in denial.
1
Did he speak with the two organizations for money center bank regulation before calling and tweeting, the NY Fed and the Controller of the Currency? If he did not, even for a Cabinet-level official, his actions are grossly negligent. If it's a choice between Powell and Mnuchin, I'll take Powell, without reservation. But Mnuchin a vowel and ship him back to Hollywood.
4
Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Mnuchin. Mr. Mnuchin made his fortune off of the last market crash. Where do you think this is heading?
19
Reminds me of an story from a friend about a restaurant in the Middle East: Owner standing outside trying to get tourists to come in saying "come in, come in, no scorpions here".
4
Now that the markets are well and truly spooked by this, open musings about making the Fed not independent, and the moronic shutdown, how long before the markets start looking at the March 2 date for the U.S. hitting the debt ceiling and start to wonder whether the U.S. is heading to default next quarter because talking heads on Fox News start blabbing about how the debt ceiling shouldn't be raised? Remember how Trump said on the campaign trail that U.S. debt should be "renegotiated" and how the right wing Republicans hate raising the debt ceiling?
I'd say the odds of a U.S default are skyrocketing as we speak.
9
@Doug K And Trump would claim that 'His Base Demanded the destruction of the Debt with the Election of Trump to begin with, so we are going to float a little balloon here about 'Liquidity and Banks' and see if they can pop that bubble.
Donnie is The Debt Default Guy, Mr Bankruptcy Expert from the Inside dirty track. So they expect him to blunder his way into That 22 Trillion Dollar Question and sink it too, along with all the profiteers, grifters, graft operators and complicit short selling groups aligned with getting the money into THEIR hands rather than have to be paid to those actually owed.
Theft on a grand scale. That is our Donnie.
1
How dare the sinking stock market disturb Mnuchin's Cabo beach vacation. Is our movie producer-turned-treasury secretary still that tone-deaf to the rest of America watching their 401k's shrink?
9
The only problem of the economy, everyone perfectly know what it is: the Trumponomics. Its such a total mess. Even the corporations who own the Republican party should open up their eyes, call their puppets on the Hill and ask them to cooperate with Democrat to build a two third majority to override Trump and stop this madness. Just write off the Tea Party and it will cut it.
9
I guess Mnuchin decided that in the spirit of the season he would try to recreate the run on the bank scene from "It's a Wonderful Life".
13
It's time to call an end to this student government nightmare!
11
@HANK With the number of truant students in this Administration, the ones who have only stayed on because they back the school bully, who now has the teachers and principles quitting on him (and he screams 'You are Fired' in their wakes) and the ones who are using the general mayhem to collect all the chalk, erasers and staples in the school and the speaker system blaring that "There is No Kegger going in the Lunchroom right now!"
They are acting like it is Seniors Day in High School or something, at a hyper-privileged, uber-rich boarding school where the teachers 'give up' once a year, allowing the students 'free reign'. Government A' La' Animal House, with people competing for Balushi's part.
I was that age and we dreamed of stupid stuff like that, but then again, even when I had High School we took Civics classes, and we Knew certain things were OK and others were Not Correct, (the kegger is strictly off campus and some things you just Do Not Do) even back then.
But the present group actually seem to think that this is what they are there for, to be so many Obviously Crooked people 'in charge' of nearly Every Single Cabinet Position in this 'administration.
At what point can the Referees call FOUL, and redcard the major players, all at once? When can the Adults, Parents and Teachers get together and stop this Tyrant Tot Trump. ( As a 'side' mention start calling em Tater Trumps; baked til golden yellow).
When do We, The People, get some Sane People in Charge?
Wow! Just when you think that the derp cannot get any thicker or any deeper, Mnuchin - who should know better, after all, the man did work for Goldman Sachs - goes and pulls an idiotic stunt like yesterday's. But this latest piece of Trump inspired ineptitude may ultimately work out well. Why? Because now Trump and his buddies are showing themselves to be an obvious threat to wealth. And anyone who hasn't been asleep for the last 40 years knows that the one overriding goal of the GOP establishment is to make sure that America's plutocrats thrive. So if a real big financial crash takes place, the GOP's paymasters just might order the Republican congressional delegation to abandon Trump in order to protect their fortunes.
A financial crash may be a very ill wind for the U.S., but unlike most ill winds, that particular wind just might blow some of us some good.
10
Isn't wonderful to have "all the best people" working for us?
7
Just what Trump voters wanted, someone different to stir the pot of government, someone who puts his base's self interests before what is good for the country. Little did they know it was a witch's brew.
7
Trump voters don't care because they are isolated from the real world by Fox News. As long as they receive their federal income transfer payments and can attend Trump's Nuremberg rallies, all is well. And, if something goes wrong, they can blame Hillary, Obama, illegal Hispanic immigrants, African Americans, and the Democrats for it
4
Of course the market continues to drop in spite of Secretary Mnuchin's assurances.
WHY should anyone believes what this Administration tells them when the President himself is a known and proven liar and his Cabinet is viewed as simply a team of enablers?
16
The current drama is not a surprise. Think about when Trump was elected and the markets shot up on Republican vapors. Well, now the fog is beginning to clear, and folks can clearly see the chaos leading this country. Not good for business. So sad. What did you expect? We are starting to return to rationality, but we are not quite there yet.
9
Incompetence rules in the Trump WH! Instead of worrying about liquidity, Mnuchin needs to reassure them/us about the stability of the POTUS... which of course everyone knows is impossible. Trump in control of our financial future should be terrifying to everyone!
6
The big corporate tax cut was sold as a supply side miracle that would actually increase the amount taxes taken in. They also promised that workers could expect a 4,000 dollar pay raise. This is typical hyperbole that greases the wheels for legislative supporters to pass the tax cut. Of course now there is now a 1.5 trillion dollar hole blasted in the national debt. Corporations mainly spent there cuts on stock buy backs, which as the market looks now seems like a potential money loser for said corporations. The Trump rally is now a thing of the past. The world economy is slowing down. As the article stated asset prices have gone from wildly overpriced to just merely overpriced. The Fed raised interest rates and money has not been made overtly expensive. Quantitative easing was implemented to get out of the 2008 recession but became the engine for the stock markets clime and the explosion in loans to developing countries to profit from the cheap money. Bernanke and Obama's original hope was that banks would increase lending to spur economic growth in the US. The banks instead concentrated on increasing their own profitability.
7
It looks like 2019 is going to be worse than 2018. Hard to believe it is possible but ....
7
It is like when a person goes to her annual medical checkup,
and her doctor casually says:
-No reason to worry, we have done great progress treating cancer.
-What!!!
4
I always laugh when they say these people on Wall St. are so smart.
They gave us the Internet bubble and they gave us the sub-prime meltdown which resulted in the greatest recession since the Great Depression.
My view is that stocks were pretty over priced with the high in August and now they are merely slightly overpriced.
1
This is like coming home and telling your family on Christmas Eve: Don't worry, we aren't going bankrupt, I'm not losing my job and you can still go to college. Really, don't worry.
5
Merry Christmas, America. It’s never “The Donald’s” doing, is it? Typical of a narcissist. I suspect the American economy isn’t doing nearly as well as the pundits would suggest. Real wages have not increased and the employment figures don’t really reflect the kind of jobs people are finding nor the number of people who have given up looking.j
6
The republicans will have to realise that it is their shutdown, their bad foreign policy decisions etc.
7
Democrat Shutdowns? What is Trump talking about? I really think he has a cognitive impairment. Very concerning.
"I am proud to shut down the government" - Donald Trump
So there's that.
Markets are reacting to this president's contradictions, incoherence, and erratic behavior.
21
I’m curious what exactly Trump thinks the Fed is supposed to do in order to compensate for Trump’s ‘necessary’ trade wars and a Republican-lead Congress shutting down the government. I mean, come on, his own party can’t even agree how to keep the government funded, but Trump thinks somehow the Fed is to blame when investors get nervous?
There is an air of uncertainty in America today and it doesn’t take a genius to see where it’s coming from. We had a great year and a lot of people made money, but we don’t know what will happen with a White House continually in turmoil, starting trade wars with business partners many of us rely on, putting federal employees out of work right before Christmas, pulling our peace keeping forces from various parts of the world with no notice, and ceding world diplomacy to the likes of China as we treat our oldest allies like enemies. Of course the markets are nervous. There could be a war coming or a isolationist decree that terminates all trade. What Trump doesn’t seem to grasp is that he alone is responsible thanks to his chaotic and erratic leadership. If we cannot rely of a certain level of surety from our government, what can we rely on?
8
@Mr. Adams
"to his chaotic and erratic leadership"
excuse me please, but what leadership?
Trump administration is not competent and not honest. Who would have guessed their economic chaos would not lead to success? Ray Sipe
7
Has everyone in this administration lost their intelligence in addition to their inner ethical core when they accept and continue to work for this abomination of a president?
Didn't Mr. Mnunchin ( formerly of Goldman Sachs), Secretary of the Treasury, think that such a ridiculous statement would continue to rattle, instead of calm, the markets.
Everyday I think it can't get any worse, but it does. I hope my meager IRA can survive this craziness.
312
@KarenCT
"Has everyone in this administration lost their intelligence"
You're assuming that everyone in this administration had intelligence to begin with!
36
@KarenCT, I'm going to respond to your last sentence "I hope my meager IRA can survive this craziness." Unless you're currently living off your IRA, you should consider investing more in your IRA, especially if you add to it on a regular basis. Buying stock in a bear market and holding on to it is a very good way to invest for your retirement.
5
Those few with "intelligence..." have either quit or been fired! What is left are the losers and "yes" men. This is clearly going to get much worst before the Republicans act to get rid of Trump and the dummies who are around him! God help us....
15
We have a large percentage of our retirement savings invested in stocks through our 401k plan like many, many other people. At the same time, my perception of the stock market is that it is like taking your nest egg to Vegas except that the psychological factors make every hiccup a self-fulfilling prophecy. Surely everyone remembers that just last week the news was full of speculation that the market might go down. Fear ensues and here we are. I know the inmates are running the asylum but that’s been true for two years without resulting in a bear market. Our system is screwy and scary.
1
@Rebecca
Sounds like you need to learn something about asset allocation. Having a target mix makes you do what you don't want to do - sell when everything looks rosy and buy when it looks dismal.
https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/how-to-invest/asset-allocation
1
The "Trump Bump" that started the day after he was elected had no basis in fundamentals, it was based on hope and expectations. Our economy did not change at all. All that has happened now is that the expectations have changed. Once again our underlying economy is virtually unchanged. The greatest error we can make is to assume that a bubble, like any other party, is normal and should last forever.
Trump blames the Fed, but then he is a life-long borrower. He has made a fortune off of low interest rates and inflation. Unfortunately those gains came at a cost to others - those that lent money. Basically if you make money via interest, Trump doesn't like you.
All that is happening now is that interest rates are returning to a more neutral position. This will re-balance the risk/reward between stocks and bonds. For the last decade bonds have paid very little and all of the gains have gone to stocks. The risk on stocks has been unusually low.
9
Why is it always Republican administrations that do this? Now the Democrats will come in and clean things up, people will forget what they did, and they'll turn around and vote another Republican into office. Can't we ever learn?
177
@Joanna Stelling. Apparently not.
13
@Joanna Stelling Republican voters are cattle who are bought and sold by gerrymandering GOP politicians funded by thier donors. Most of the Red states are on federal welfare.
2
Individual-1 is trying to do to the same thing to Wall Street that he did with his Atlantic City Casinos.
Run it into the ground.
He left creditors high and dry at his bankrupt AC playground.
Trump-
“Atlantic City fueled a lot of growth for me. The money I took out of there was incredible.”
Well, he's leaving millions of Americans high and dry as we are losing trillions in wealth from our retirement funds.
He "gave" the average American family an extra $1,000 a year with his lone legislative accomplishment: A very unpopular tax bill that most politicians wouldn't run on during the midterms.
He gives you a $1,000 so you can lose tens of thousands in retirement funds.
Very Trumpian.
62
@Howard Levine
Worse, the deficit went from $600 Billion before the tax cut to $1 Trillion.
The expected addition to the debt over the next ten years is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per taxpayer.
So for seven years, I get $1,000, less than $50 a month.
And the bill for that is $80,000.
8
Meanwhile back at the ranch in the US the EPA is being gutted, the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, huge chunks of public lands are being sold off, world free trade is being seriously assailed, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judge appointees, and all while the FBI is being disemboweled.
58
In his mind, or at least in his tweets, NOTHING is EVER Trump's fault. The market is reacting to Trump's loose-cannon erraticism: trade wars, the NAFTA debacle, gratuitous government shutdown—this list could go on and on, but I haven't the stomach for it.
58
"In his mind, or at least in his tweets, NOTHING is EVER Trump's fault."
That's par for the course for members of the Party of Personal Responsibility(tm).
5
Nice to see the Executive Producer of Wonder Woman on the case. I figure he's calling these guys to round up new villains for the next Avengers sequel. After Jay Powell is fired, Fed Chair Scaramucci will set everything right.
16
@Rich888
Sadly, Wonder Woman made a ton of money for Munchkin.
Regarding Trump's tweet:
I wonder how how much "feel" he had prior to each of his bankruptcies.
122
Yes, keep sharing your thoughts. Unfortunately, there are no adults with a conscience or spine left in the White House, so don't be surprised if your words don't lead to action. Our "leaders" just keep creating fires they can't put out. We can't rely on them to do what's right or just, so start planning for the Recession of 2019-20 and sock that money away.
28
The meaning that might be assigned to an incident like this, ie, calls from the administration to bank ceo's questioning the liquidity of their banks, is not what it would be if Trump and his crew were regarded as competent.
Trump is upset with powell because he is putting heavy downward presure on the US economy with his trade wars and his government shutdown, he has his tax cut but he needs all the economic support he can get to counter the effects of his own actions. So he tries to manufacture a liquidity crisis to stimulate Fed action.
And if that is not a big enough joke already, Mnuchin is calling the bank ceo's from Cabo, a holiday in Mexico. No need to come back, just a few calls from the beach ought to do it.
47
If this is a "correction," where is the bubble? A plain loss of confidence? A global slow-up? Slow up of what? I am confused. I also feel that stating that banks have enough liquidity is supposed to be an optimistic statement and one to encourage the Fed to encourage lending by lowering interest rates.
Anyway, I guess we'll find out the reason for this loss of value of major companies pretty soon.
2
RE: necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders.
As far as I am concerned there is no such thing as a necessary trade war. With correct policies you can avoid such a thing. A trade war is like running, what you do when all else fails. Or, in Trump's case, when you don't know what else to do.
And of course Trump said he owned the shut down. It was HE who changed his mind from the bipartisan agreement after his advisors at Fox voted veto. It is a 3 T shutdown.
(Trump Temper Tantrum)
13
Any remaining doubt that this administration doesn't know what its doing and hasn't had the interests of the average American citizen at heart? The damage to our nation both domestically and internationally is clear. How long will Americans let this go on? One more day is too long.
38
@Better4All I totally agree that this administration doesn't know what its doing and doesnt have the interests of the average American citizen at heart. We really havent had a serious challenge yet -- this will be telling, and scary.
3
@Better4All...what would be worse now...More Trump or a military coup?
2
Trump said he’d hire "top, top people" and would fill his administration "with only the best and most serious people."
Serious people, serious trouble.
28
@John Townsend
Like Mnuchin who remembered the Treasury Secretary’s actions in ‘08 and incompetently thought to do the same today. Except it isn’t the same, but he doesn’t know that. Pass the pinya collada and come on down to Cabo. There’s no wall to stop you!
4
You have to wonder if Trump and Co aren’t betting against the economy, and doing everything they can to undermine it so they can profit from the losses. After all, Trump took that position in 2008, gleefully proclaiming that he could benefit from others’ losses in real estate.
Isn’t this a form of treason?
86
@Appalled In a metaphorical sense, Trump's entire presidency is a form of selling short.
10
@marklee, well said.
2
... and we believe the banks and Treasury Secretary because they would never lie to us. It's not like greed or politics are their motivating factors. And the earth is flat, and the moon is made of green cheese.
11
Now it's been about two years since Trump took power. His decisions have been weighed in the markets and it's finally his economy from here until two years after he leaves office.
20
@Ying Wang. You think? If something is bad, it cannot be his. He is thinking about firing Santa Claus.
2
All of the bank chief executives know there is “ample liquidity” in the market and this was simply reaffirmed by the unanimous decision by the Fed to raise interest rates. The concern now is a loco president that everyone is starting to notice as he evermore tries to please his true-believer base. And the understanding Republicans in Congress are increasingly unable to contain him as he hires “acting” roles from his true-believer base over actual competence.
15
@dyeus
no losses booked by the company, stock valuation aren’t balance sheet items. But by buying back the stock, it’s bumped up the value, even if temporarily. Which for many executives, inflates their cash bonus bonuses. Which is a way of skimming the cream and leaving the rest for the ordinary shareholders who will see the losses if and when they sell their own shares.
2
The Fed is fine and doing just what it's supposed to be doing (ie. raising interest rates during an economic recovery to have room to lower them when the next recession arrives). Tariffs, on the other hand, are extremely misguided economic trade policy and in the early 1930's, led directly to the Worldwide Great Depression. Trump has accused the Fed of making him into another "Hoover," when in fact, Trump himself is another Hoover.
92
@Brainfelt
What no one is talking about is another motivation the Fed may have. If they had kept rates ultra-low (instead of just low as they still are) and kept a $4 trillion balance sheet in place, what do they do to stimulate growth when the next recession strikes? And we are assuredly closer to the next recession than we are to the last one.
The Fed is just trying to dry some powder for when they will need it. If the expansion can't continue without super-stimulative monetary policy, it was just a bubble and was always going to pop from something.
9
Maybe someone who is an economist can enlighten me. We know from a NYT story a few weeks ago that many companies put their tax savings into buying back their stocks. So the DJIA, NADAQ etc are falling wildly at a time when there is a few hundred billion (a trillion by some estimates) looking for a home. How is this going to look when we see the balance sheets for this quarter and this year? And what will be the effect of those losses?
3
@Andrew
An authorization to buy stock from a board of directors doesn't mean management will automatically buy that much stock. That is still a day-to-day operating decision. And companies aren't any more rational in their decisions than individual investors - no surprise given the people running companies are near-humans.
When their stock price is increasing and everyone in the company management feels happy, they increase the deployment of capital to stock buy-backs. When the stock prices tanks, and a buy-back could be most effective, they decrease or stop purchases of their own stock.
1
As the US falls deeper and deeper into dysfunction under Trump, the resulting instability will only get worse. What happens when foreign investors no longer view their investments in our Treasury or our stock market as stable? With Trump at the helm, such hyperbolic worries are becoming a distinct possibility, if not probability. The human wrecking ball is destroying our foreign policy, national security, and our economy in short order. Mitch? Other Republicans? Where are you?
25
He called the major banks and they said everything is fine? Somehow I don't find that very reassuring. That's exactly what they said prior to the 2008 recession.
25
Presidents ought to fire Treasury Secretaries who make such undisciplined remarks and precipitate a world economic crisis. Mnuchin's remark cancels the good news aspect of the Fed's view of the economy. The sky wasn't falling when interest rates were going up. The sky might not be falling now. However, who wants to risk not running for cover with such an executive branch of government succumbing to scandals, investigations, resignations, firings, mayhem with trade and with our relationship with our longtime allies? A little profit is better than a big loss and a lot of people are feeling that it's time to get out of the Trump economy and wait until cooler heads prevail. Who could blame them?
8
@Max & Max Sorry Max but the Scofflaw - in -Chief must have told Mnuchin to do his bidding. The stock market highs were his only really positive talking points he has used for 2 years now. And now as the author has said the Trillion dollar tax cuts that helped corporate America to do huge stock buy backs are over we could be in a tough place going into 2019, hopefully not.
3
Once again, Mr. EnTrumpy is trying to shift the blame to someone else for the on-going breakdown in the economy. President EnTrumpy is not knowledgeable enough about economics to understand that the Fed is stabilizing the long-term prospects of the economy with reasonable and expected fiscal policy.
When the recession hits, and it will soon, the only weapon will be to lower interest rates. We can't give more tax breaks to stimulate the economy, those were already given away this year.
8
The reasons for the stock market decline is obvious: it is greatly over valued. With the sugar high of the Republican tax rip off now wearing off, there is no where else for the market to go, but down. Giant corporations and the 0.01% had no where else to put their new-found riches. They simply bought back their own stock, inflating its value and further enriching themselves. Now that this artificial boost is over, the market is headed back down.
I certainly wouldn't want to be in any index funds now.
15
@Andy Beckenbach: Republicans pushed our annual deficit over the $1 trillion mark...and all we got out of the deal was a 6-month-long goose to stock prices. What a waste. We will pay for this debacle for the rest of our lives.
2
Financial institution liquidity.
Stress tests.
Sounds like 2008 again, when my house began its eight-year long underwater excursion.
10
Inductive reasoning: Mr. Trump (or perhaps Jared) thinks the Banks manipulate the stock market. Why else would they call the banks?
Ignorance is not bliss. It is dangerous.
38
What a bunch of amateurs. There's no planning, analysis, or deliberate execution strategy, just ham handed policy by tweet.
Watching from Canada, the US citizens' appetite for this two year chaos is disappointing.
The GOP has become Trump's puppet and shows no signs of meaningful revolt.
Pathetic and irresponsible.
746
@Bill Tiessen...while I agree, it should be noted that double the entire population of Canada voted for HRC...and also that Trump lost the popular vote. No appetite for this chaos at my house. Quite the opposite. Nausea would be the word.
86
@Bill Tiessen to Bill Can we join you in Canada? We are fed up with Trump and his petty; selfish; arrogant; ignorant ways. Ray Sipe
50
Well said, thank you.
25
To put Mr. Mnuchin's actions into more proletarian context: Imagine pulling into a car repair shop with three flat tires. Now, the mechanic, after "thoroughly" checking your vehicle but doing nothing about the tires announces, "You've got plenty of gas in the tank. You're good to go. And you don't owe me anything because I didn't really do any work."
How generous of him.
26
"...the worst mistake of his presidency". Now that's quite a statement, what with so much competition. In fact, where would you even begin? Better to judge the worst mistakes on any given day. That alone would keep you busy.
154
@Jeffrey Waingrow
Agreed! The worst mistake of Trump's presidency is Trump.
11
I don't know about anyone else, but I really am tired of a TV personality and a Hollywood producer running our government and financial system.
170
And neither one good at their original jobs.
Just as I feared this mass demonstration of incompetence (threatening the Fed chair, checking on bank liquidity, then flaunting your ignorance to the world in a tweet) has awakened the markets to the fact that the driver of the financial system bus is not licensed, knows how to step on the gas but didn't decide to check the brakes until he started down the mountain. Good luck everyone. We're going to need it.
141
@LeftCoastReader The Republicans' plan since Reagan first uttered "the government is the problem" has been to drive the car of government straight into a brick wall and then say "see, we told you this car doesn't work."
Trump is the malignant tumor, but the sickness has been festering among the radicals who call themselves "conservatives" for decades. They don't care about health care or causing a depression or food stamps because they wish they could exterminate the poor the way they are exterminating children at the border.
Only, they haven't thought it through. Who will clean their many houses, serve them food, extract their coal, raise their children? They haven't thought anything through and we will pay for it.
16
@ML
Easy answer. The new Servant class will be the former middle class!
7
Mnunchin’s hamfisted management looks an awful lot like big government inteterfering in the markets—to whose gain is the question—something that the GOP used to howl against along with big deficits, voter fraud, and all the other things they are now guilty of doing. Maybe shutting the current government down for a long time is a very good thing.
17
This president must be pretty weak if just one guy is to blame for the stock market free fall (and it isn't this president, he says).
So weak that it is just Nancy Pelosi who keeps him from building some Great Wall Of Mexico that Mexico is supposed to pay for it.
And as much as this president enjoys blaming Hillary Clinton for so much of his troubles, she's just one person.
So 3 single people out there who one at a time this president is very weak against exude such power over the Oval Office and the President Of The United States it appears this president has no power over this country.
20
@rubbernecking - If you want to blame one person for all of Trump's troubles, I'd say Hillary is a pretty good choice. If only Trump had lost the election (as planned), he would be so much happier conducting all his dubious activities outside of public scrutiny. So let's give credit where credit it due. Hillary was uniquely qualified to lose to the worst presidential candidate in history.
2
@W.G.L. What you forget is Hillary didn't lose. She won by 2.9 MILLION votes. This president who is blaming everyone else is the second after George Bush Junior to be given the keys to 9/11, Iraq WMDs and the financial disaster and bailout of AIG we watched unfold in 2008-
Nice try.
3
As someone in retirement with an IRA, I was stunned to hear that the treasury secretary made calls like this. This action was not well thought out and runs the real risk of frightening the markets, just as it frightened me. Mr. Secretary: why not go into you boss and tell him to sit down, shut up, stop with Twitter already and listen to people who actually know what they’re talking about. You may still have one or two in your cabinet, although I doubt it. This presidency is becoming toxic.
134
@P You think because, just perhaps, this particular "Mr. Secretary" is as incompetent as his boss? The blind leading the blind; the mute screaming at the deaf.
12
@P: I feel like I should send Mnuchin a bill for this one. These fools want to see how fast there support leaves? Retired folks with IRAs dropping in value and their resulting decrease in spending power get unhappy quickly. Many I am sure supported Trump. They will not allow themselves to be collateral damage in this farce.
Not to mention that us retirees do spend this money. We will slow that spending to a trickle with the account losing value and the increasing Trump caused uncertainty. A significant shot to the economy. And an unnecessary one.
Put this clown show behind bars.
10
@P It would take someone in Phoenix AZ to say "This presidency is becoming toxic." It is toxic, it has been toxic since Trump came down the elevator in Trump Tower to slur Mexicans and announce he was running.
Mnuchin needs to talk to the people he works for: the American people. NOT international banks who found his calls weird.
15
@VM
he can't talk to us. He wouldn't know how. This is the guy that uses government money to fly his girlfriend around. the country. What do you expect, competency too?
One attribute at a ime: Minimunchkin is busy grifting at the moment-he'll be back to us shortly.
2
Anyone think Mnuchin's comments from Cabo San Lucas ( that's MEXICO folks.....unsafe, dirty, terror-filled Mexico....who will pay for that stupid wall).....
Anyone think Old Steve had had a few Coronas before he made his comments?
36
Kinda like being on a cruise and suddenly a message comes over the PA, "Everything's fine, we're not sinking!"
357
@Garrett
Enlarge it a bit. "Everything's fine, we're not sinking. That was only a rumor. We don't think it's true."
5
@Frank
Or, “can all of you swim? Not that you would have any need to...just checking.”
7
One thing you learn from studying history is that it is indeed possible for one individual to destroy an entire country. It has happened.
With Donald J. Trump as President, it may now be America's turn.
153
@Bill Camarda, in the case of Chavez, it was one guy with a supine legislative body and stacked courts.
That sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? It's almost as if the Republican Party wants autocracy...
18
Just what greedy bull markets want to hear...
the same banks that lied and cheated in 2008 and that we taxpayers bailed out while we lost our homes and went bankrupt while the bank execs got huge bonuses....are now reported to have simply "ample" liquidity ?
How "reassuring"!
Buh Bye, Mnuchin!
10
Everybody is incompetent or worse except President Trump who has hired only the "best of the best" and who, and only who, "can fix it."
13
Trump says that the Fed doesn't understand???
Hahahahahahahaha.
Hahahahahahahaha.
Sorry i couldn't help it!
Holiday cheers from the Bizarro White House.
31
We are living through scary times.
It feels as if we, as citizens, are having to play singles tennis against at least two pairs of crazy opponents on the other side, each of whom are hitting their own balls wildly over the net. At some point, all you can do is duck and cover.
Trump doesn't want to go down as another Hoover but the signs are everywhere that he is headed in that direction. And he's taking us down with him.
12
It will take more than decade to regain the experience, knowledge and devotion of our federal employees who have abandoned this administration of fraud and grift.
The complicit ones should be sued and shunned.
18
@Deirdre Sued? How about jailed?
2
In case it isn't abundantly clear what's happened, this message was put out by Mnuchin at Trump's behest. Learning that he couldn't directly jigger lending by installing a crony as Fed chief, Trump tried to manipulate the second step of the interest rate chain by directly putting pressure on bank interest rates by using Mnuchin as his intermediary thug. Of course, these being "the best people," they butchered the operation and accomplished exactly the opposite of what was intended.
35
It takes a special kind of stupidity to think "calming" the markets won't have the opposite effect. Truly the blind leading the blind when it comes to Mnuchin and Trump.
472
@BoulderEagle to Boulder Mnunchin was on "vacation" in Mexico; this from a guy who foreclosed on grandmothers during the 2008 recession. America; the World; be afraid. Ray Sipe
44
If this is what it takes to get rid of Trump it may be worth it
18
@BoulderEagle: Not stupid, con artists who are grifting at a furious pace and have been before Trumpolini took office. They know the end is coming for them and real soon. They are now planning their escapes, undoubtedly to Moscow or another friendly ally of Puppetmaster Putin.
5
Looks like Santa is telling the Party of Trump they’ve been naughty.
It sure was nice when Obama was President.
112
Looks like trump is done coasting on, and taking credit for Obama's recovery.
56
Think its pretty safe to assume no one that's an investor has any confidence in this Administration. Further, if the government remains shutdown for a good part of January, and that is a good bet knowing how our dribble brained leader reacts, then the markets will be headed to mid year 2017.
After that who knows?
8
In an administration that is noteworthy for its astonishing incompetence, this maneuver does stand out as an extreme example. Maybe Mbuchin should not have interrupted his Mexican vacation to wreak financial havoc.
26
Yet another example of amateurs playing at running what used to be a professional government. The Trump administration is a disaster from top to bottom. Republicans in congress are complicit and his base while they might believe they are patriots are in fact traitors to everything that has made this country what it once was. We can only hope that this storm passes before it's too late. That leaders on both side of the aisle wake up to the demons we face and work together to chart a new course for this once great nation. This needs to happen with some urgency or I for one fear we'll crest the wave and never be able to return to a civil country that leads the world in everything that is good from technology and innovation to human rights and fairness. I lay my head on my pillow every night with the future of this country and the world weighing heavily on my mind. I know many others harbor these same fears. For those that don't, For those that believe what's happening is normal or otherwise an appropriate path for this nation I beg you to educate yourself and escape the fantasy that has been foist upon the world by a man in the white house who is arguably the most dangerous person on the planet.
Happy Holidays All... Chin up, Fight on, Resist!!!!
63
Business community made a deal with the devil, reduced regulations and tax cuts.
White working class made a deal with the devil to protect their so call privilege which they really never had.
So Call Christian Right, made a deal with the devil to protect their for profit rip off colleges.
"Just tell them all what they want to hear!" "What do you all got to lose!"
We all knew how this would end from the very beginning.
31
If Mnuchin was the captain of the USS Trump, he’d be interrupting the soup course of dinner to announce; “I’ve just contacted the skipper and everyone remain calm- we have plenty of lifeboats on this ship!”
23
Why is Mnuchin attempting to assure us? Are systemic flaws in American market structure about to be revealed, again?
12
Looks like the "blather-or-tweet-what-comes-to-your-mind"disease has spread from Trump across his cabinet members as well!
9
It is becoming clearer and clearer who really needs to be locked up. First off, Munchkin should keep quiet about things he does not understand....which pretty much implies he should start a self-imposed gag order.
The question is, has this jackal been involved in any short selling via friends and family members, or, even more stupidly, directly?
30
@Mark
Just what do you think those calls were Really about? "Oh, and, would you mind switching me to a secretary, I need to sell a chunk here..."
1
Elect a clown, expect a circus.
That the market has softened after 10 years isn’t a surprise.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s inept response to the market’s downturn isn’t really a surprise either.
Everyone, everyone, knew this was coming.
26
Mnuchin's comment issue basically the same as if you got a message from your Mom out of the the blue saying "don't worry, your dad has no plans on moving out, everything is fine"
22
He just called to out a "run on the banks"
When you do this the answer is the assets aren't there when the bills come calling.
Thanks...…….so it begins.
7
While some Trumpeters live in a world of denial, the majority of the country, including most corporate CEO’s, realize that the Trump administration is full of liars. So when one of them makes a statement most of the nation believes they’re covering something up and panic begins. Buckle up for a wild ride.
14
The president thinks he will improve the market by firing and replacing Powell as Fed chair!!?? Let's hope some adult shows up in his room.
8
"The wings are not on fire."
4
Check Stevie’s portfolio to see how well he did shorting stocks
17
Here's your "War on Christmas."
Worst Political Party. Ever.
31
Mnuchin's job qualifications are that he is looks the part, doesn't steal the President's headlines, and he possesses the requisite boot-licking qualities the President desires. Thank God that he wasn't in office in 2008 or our entire financial system would have collapsed.
11
People who don't understand the economy, such as Trump and others around him, think that the Feds should not be raising interesting rate in a so-called healthy economy. That thinking is wrong for two reasons, and the news media is helping to propagate the fallacies. Yes, the job numbers continue to be positive, but that is mostly because people are having to have multiple jobs to make a living. There are plenty of reasons to worry about the economy going bust - (a) a looming corporate debit crisis, (b) impact of the trade war, and (c) the drag of the energy sector. Companies like AT&T and GE have run up huge debts from years of cheap credit. These debts ($110B for GE and $180B for AT&T) continue to grow while profits are sinking. By raising interest rate, the Feds are doing the right thing by stopping companies from borrowing their way out of trouble. The trade war has put a brake on industrial output, and thereby energy consumption, which explains that drop in oil prices despite the lowered production from OPEC. The drop in oil prices has collateral impact on the broader economy (think drilling and refinery machinery). The only thing that can stabilize the stock market in the foreseeable future is to stop the trade war, which will accomplish nothing but to inflict damage on everybody.
7
@TW The bogus job numbers are derived from the number of people showing up at the unemployment office. If your unemployment benefits have run out, there is no point going to the unemployment office, and you are not counted as unemployed. The NYT has previously estimated that there are 20 million men, between the ages of 19 and 45, that have been unemployed for a year or more.
1
There are many behind-the-scenes mechanisms in the stock market that require constant liquidity.
If the Authorized Participants of ETFs couldn't get liquidity, they couldn't arbitrage to keep the market price of the ETFs in line with the NAV. If high-yield bond funds couldn't get liquidity, they couldn't handle redemptions and would have to dump bonds at ridiculous prices. If companies couldn't get liquidity, they couldn't roll over commercial paper.
The markets run on liquidity. You only have to look back to 2009 to see what can happen when liquidity disappears. Mnuchin is right to worry about liquidity, but the Dodd-Frank reforms should have made it a non-issue.
3
@Jonathan
Please define your acronyms. EFT? NAV?
"I've always made more money in bad markets than in good markets." donald trump; The Globe and Mail; March 20, 2007
Well, that makes me feel better.
28
Mnuchin has done little to address the impending major financial meltdown. His desire for self enrichment "trumps everything (up)" in the financial community. Will he be the next cabinet Secretary to fall?
11
If all it takes is 280 characters to rattle the markets and send the Merchants of Greed scrambling to divest, imagine what 300 characters would do...
22
"Washington officials typically make such assurances only at times of financial crisis."
"Stocks are on track for their worst year since 2008 amid a decline that has accelerated this month."
It is hard to feel the economy is strong, when you have the Fed, Trump and the Secretary of the Treasury, indicating different things.
The Fed - The economy is great; we are raising interest rates to tame inflation
Mnuchin - Banks watch out, you are in for a fall.
Trump - Blame the Fed
Trump appointed a questionable Mnuchin (Wall Street insider) to Secretary of the Treasury. And, guess what? With just a few words has sent panic through domestic and world markets.
It doe snot help that the US government is shutdown for probably several weeks, adding to fear and uncertainty.
As people now are losing value in their 401ks and IRAs, and now are seeing nearly all gains lost, since Trump took office, that is quickly going to put the breaks on the economy.
In the past, market factors, poor regulation, world events, etc. were root causes for recessions and depressions. This time is is just plain ignorance and stupidity of Trump, his cabinet and his party.
A 20% drop, in the markets, do not mean recession. The continued incompetence of Trump is on a trajectory to cause one. And, unlike the one 10 years ago, there is no way to bail out "too big to fail"
So, we can thank our incompetent, immature, idiot in chief for a nice large lump of coal fro Christmas and a recession for the New Year.
117
@Nick Metrowsky
Don't forget a complicit treasonous Republican Party that has done nothing to rein in the Liar In-Chief
65
I think at this point in time, we can begin to say (if you have not already) that Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” theory of economics is dead. Rather, let us start considering behavior as a driver in economics over some metaphysical limb that drives the economy.
What I can see, and I think what everybody else can see, is the irrationality of Trump is making people who invest more cautions about their investments and where they spend their money. This is not a “market correction” but an implicit degradation of an economy that was rebuilt during the Obama administration.
What took 8 years to build took less than 2 years to vindictively destroy.
234
@M The "invisible hand" always sounded like the weirdest aspect of the American religion of capitalism. It's time to admit that god is dead -- the voodoo god of the republicans -- and that rationalists must reject the blind worship of money and greed that these baby-men slaver over and get some grown ups (preferably women) in charge of things before there is no coming back from this disaster.
15
@M
Time to replace Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" theory with Donald Trump's "Invisible Brain" theory.
18
@Bob
“Non-existent Brain”
4
Seriously, how incompetent can a Treasury secretary get? It's like yelling "The theater is NOT on fire! Nothing to worry about!" in a crowded theater. That, of course, is guaranteed to get everybody worried. Was there? Why would one have to issue assurances about a problem that nobody was worried about? I hope the new house majority will investigate that, too. If there was a risk for a cash shortage at several major banks, how was it allowed to happen? If not, why would Mnuchin issue this strange, worrying assurance?
Well, maybe this is why: keeping the money supply stable and avoiding a cash shortage at major retail banks is a key responsibility of the Federal Reserve Bank. Insinuating that there might have been a problem that has been taken care of is one way of casting doubt on the ability of the chair of the Fed to do his job. And we know how Mnuchin's master feels about Jerome Powell.
48
How is the stock market doing in Russia? Trump policies, economic and foreign, seem designed to benefit that country and harm ours.
17
they seem to be going down, just not as much.
https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/stock-market
1
So now, after losing money on my kids college fund because of irresponsible fiscal actions by the WH and GOP, every person in my family should also pay the $16 EACH for the steel slats for Trump's wall? While there's talk in the GOP about cutting my social security and Medicare too?
Sorry, but those tax cuts for the rich, estate tax eliminations, maniacal tweets, flip flops daily, needless tariffs, upending trade policies, and military and foreign policy messes aren't helping my family one bit. Trumponomics is affecting my family financially in a negative way.
507
@DHG
Trump's policies are affecting an awful lot of families in a negative way.
His policies have helped the Billionaire Donors who line his pockets with cash, and that is what he cares about.
35
@DHG Try electing progressive democrats to replace the current plutocrats.
26
Actually each "taxpayer" would have to pay north of $200 for an incomplete steel slat fence. I'm sure the new one will perform as well as the old one which was also bought with borrowed money.
14
Investors in stocks, those who buy & hold, always accumulate wealth. The gamblers, who buy & sell, lose 95% of the time. Or is it 100%?
@JGSD: yes. Read Eugene Fama for the full picture. BUT: for the large number of people who have been buying and holding for all these years, perhaps in an IRA or a 401k, but who must now begin to SELL because they are retiring and need to live off what they've accumulated, a market like the present one - down 6 % over the year - is very discouraging and limits their spending power. As boomers retire, their restraint in spending will be very hard on the economy. Between declining markets and tarrifs, the "buy and hold" method - while still the best way to go - can also be a rather bitter pill to swallow.
17
@Steve Beall: Someday, maybe soon, the failure of 401(k)s as a primary vehicle for retirement savings will be recognized and we can get back to a sensible balance where pensions become prevalent again.
The average saver doesn't have the wherewithal to properly manage a large investment account. A smart person, who also has enough money, would have 2 years worth of expenses in a liquid asset so they aren't compelled to sell into a down market to get cash to live on. A large pension fund with diversified assets could do the same thing.
1
Could our Very Stable Genius-in-Chief have anything to do with the current market turbulence?
49
Hoover, Bush, and now Trump, for the Third Great Republican Depression?
235
@George Kamburoff While listing Republican presidents who were catastrophic clowns, let's not overlook Ronald Reagan, the true bozo who claims he didn't even know what his henchmen were doing setting up the massacres in Central America. Or that he 'forgot'. What sort of funny farm do we Americans think we can sustain?
16
Bush? That was nothing....
1
Two possibilities.
The better one is that this is simply the gang that couldn't shoot straight, and that this is only a precursor of the chaos to come in the next two years.
The alternative is that the market is telling us that the economy is about to go off the cliff and into Great Recession 2.0. And since we have already cut taxes and have a huge deficit, there is no help in sight.
66
@John Graybeard
I hope we'll still say 'Great Recession 2.0' and not 'Great Depression 2.0''. The can got kicked down the road in 2008+, and we were always going to have to pay the price (without any weapons in the economic arsenal, as you allude to).
3
@John Graybeard The help in sight that you ignore John is to increase taxes on those whose incomes have become so bloated since 2008
11
@Jerry B
FYI - W Bush got a balanced budget from Clinton. He gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators." We got 3 million jobs.
W Bush took the balanced budget, zero deficit and handed Obama a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit, not debt but deficit.
We also got the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Obama got us through the Great Recession. He cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion. He gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11.5 Million jobs, almost 400% more than W Bush.
And 20 Million people got health care.
W Bush also gave us the 2003 Iraq invasion that is having an effect in the Middle East and Europe for at least two generations including the rise of right-wing nationalism as a response to all the refugees.
12
Trump's terrific and effective plan with his loyalists is to cast blame here here here and here during any negative turn of events... and take credit for any actual positives that arise. I don't have it handy, but there's plenty of press from month ago wherein Trump was crowing about how great the stock market was doing, and drawing a dotted line back to himself as The Reason.
There will be a contraction, and it will ripple internationally. You cannot—simply cannot—have fast-and-furious Development of Luxury Housing while large companies like GM are slashing jobs. Eventually the developers will have to determine whether they can pay back all these giant multi-million-dollar loan packages... and then its "we'll see".
Its basically another form of the credit-default-swaps scenario, except more directly bank-to-borrower. So as I said: "We'll see." Enjoy the good times now, while we got 'em.
31
@K D
"Trump's terrific and effective plan with his loyalists is to cast blame here here here and here during any negative turn of events... and take credit for any actual positives that arise."
This is an accurate description, but it seems that unfortunately the large part of this country does not understand true leadership, which is the opposite:
A ~true~ leader gives away the credit to their people when something goes right, and a true leader falls on the sword for their people when things go wrong.
5
Why is it supposed to be a comfort to know that in order to keep my head above water I will have to BORROW money?
22
A perfect storm requires the emotional contagion that causes a run on the banks. Economic conditions in Decembers, Trump's stewardship, Fed's raising of interest rates, crises in trade, betraying the trust of our allies, and the government shutdown aren't able to cause a serious economic crisis. However, what can trigger a downward spiral is Mnuchin's remarks which he knows are reserved for a true crisis. All other negative indications are just different false indications of the wolf. Mnuchin's announcement that there is no wolf is only interpreted as meaning that there is a wolf and it's at the door, now.
72
Treasury has no liquidity to offer. Check with Federal Reserve for that.
13
That tax cut really worked wonders!!!
267
@Joe H
The "tax cut" helped the Billionaires that line trumps pockets with cash, and that was the purpose.
To believe trump's claim that it would help anyone else was to believe in a fantasy (like most of trump's claims).
26
An unforced error from Cabo San Lucas leads to a bear market.
87
The Trump Administration does it again -- the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight ran to the scene of the crime and shot an innocent bystander, not on Fifth Avenue, but on Wall Street.
234
@Occupy Government
There are innocent bystanders on Wall Street? The tourists, I suppose, but not the bankers and traders.
9
We, the general public, have our lives in the hands of greed mongers. They don't care about the nuts and bolts of daily survival. They care only about where their next limo is coming from.
184
That’s quaint. I think they measure themselves in terms of private jets, islands and remote climate change bunkers.
11
Dear Secretary Munchkin:. Please stick to kissing up to boss and leave the markets to the grown ups.
355
If there's a run on the banks, I'm sure President Trump will blame it on Mr. Potter.
158
@jrinsc Or Hillary Clinton and/or Obama.
7
According to WaPo, Mnuchin called the bankers after talking to Trump, who, apparently, blames him for the choice of Fed Chair Powell. Mnuchin, rather than stand up to his boss, went along with the hare-brained idea of making the calls and then tweeting about them. As someone who worked at Goldman Sachs, he should have known what effect those actions would have.
Dumb moves will keep being made. This is an administration of greedy megalomaniacs intent on self-enrichment and ego fulfillment, and not the common good.
Here comes the next depression... How many among us will be able to withstand it? Will Congress intervene on behalf of Main Street this time around, after the GOP ran our deficits up sky-high? The next Congress can't start soon enough.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
428
@Rima Regas What leads you to believe that anyone at Goldman Sachs has a lick of sense? Based on what I know they are the source of a lot of drama and little more.
17
It brings to mind the statements made by Mulvaney on Sunday morning news. It sounded like Trump told him every single thing to say, while all the while avoiding the questions.
I have doubts about his "effectiveness" of being independent.
18
@Rima Regas
Intervene on behalf of Main Street, you ask? There's not a shred of evidence that this would be so...might have hoped for it - only to have those hopes dashed - during the last (Obama) meltdown, but little-to-no hope this time around.
5