Friday 6 October 2017

Grab Bag Friday

The Markets:  The S&P 500 is up over 25% since Trump became the President of the United States. The markets have climbed based on two primary considerations - that Obamacare will be revoked, eliminating the embedded taxes on wealthy people that were designed to help fund it; and there will be a tax cut for US corporations, lowering their stated tax rate to 15%, from a stated rate of 35% (it is, effectively, 21% now.)
None of this has happened. None of this is going to happen, as the tax cuts that Trump has proposed have to be off-set by revenue increases from "somewhere". That somewhere, is nowhere. The market will wake up, smell the lack of progress on these issues, and drop back to where it was. Even if something in the way of tax cuts does happen, any increase in the markets has probably already been priced in. This froth simply cannot last.
Trump Investigation: Mueller and his 17 fellow lawyers are working away. Every day we get closer to the start of a cavalcade of charges. Time to start an Impeachment Pool?
Las Vegas: God be with the victims and their families. This is so sad. Having said that, we all know that the next American nightmare is being planned by someone, somewhere, right now. There will be another massacre, and another, and another. Is this about guns, or about something uniquely horrible on the fringes of American culture and society?
The Clintons: There is simply no question that Hillary Clinton will run again. She knows she got more votes, and the fact that she came very close to winning last year will convince her that it can be done. Her book tour is a tune-up for Round Three. Her running mate will be her daughter - "Clinton and Clinton" versus the World.

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