Juggling Dynamite

Why are stocks selling off? Massive over-valuation, complacency, years of reckless financial gimmicks by corporations, and the fact that no price expansion cycle can last forever.  The more prices have been juiced up the harder the contraction that follows.  President Trump foolishly took undue credit for the market rally from his election into January, he will now try to distance himself from the bear market.  Good luck.  Classic stuff.

Jim Mellon, Chairman of the Burnbrae Group, talks international trade and the impact of a possible trade war.Here is a direct video link.

Jim Mellon talks the possibility of a trade war from CNBC.

After a couple of decades wasting scarce resources on non-productive consumption and financial gimmicks, future progress depends on increasing productivity (doing more with less spending) by lowering day to day friction costs in the most critical areas like energy, transportation, housing, food production and environmental harm.

Chicago has the right idea this week in embracing a new electric, high-speed train service promising to cut transport costs while halving travel times and reducing air pollution, carbon emissions and congestion throughout the metropolitan area.

Chicago, slammed by rating agencies for its fiscal woes, President Donald Trump for its violence and even its own governor for the school system’s debts, is getting a boost from visionary Elon Musk.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Musk, the billionaire chief executive officer of electric carmaker Tesla Inc., Thursday officially unveiled the plans for a high-speed train service that will make the approximately 15-mile (24-kilometer) trip from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport in 12 minutes, a fraction of the current commute…He’s bearing the cost,” Emanuel told reporters. “We get the upside with no financial risk at all.”  See:  Hounded by woes, Chicago sees Musk’s train as win for the economy.

Here is a direct video link.

Danielle was a guest with Jim Goddard on the Talk Digital Network talking about recent developments in the world economy and markets.  You can listen to an audio clip of the segment here.

As discussed in the segment, here is the chart of South Korean exports –canary-in-the-coal-mine for global demand (in black)–compared with global earnings per share (blue) since 1992. The decline in exports year to date is a ominous sign for corporate earnings over coming months.

Also here is Cory Venable’s updated chart of the Canadian dollar in US terms since it peaked out in 2011.  Further loonie weakness seems likely over coming weeks.