Today a legend who was asked by the Chinese government to give a speech to government officials in China sent King World News a powerful piece that warns about imminent global chaos. He also says that gold will surge $1,000 as havoc unfolds in financial markets.
By John Ing of Maison Placements (King World News) – Too much has been written what Mr. Trump can or can’t do. In his first days in office he ambitiously reshaped trade, healthcare, immigration and American law. Dodd Frank is next to be scrapped. And in disturbing everyone, the only certainty is uncertainty…
Trump’s “America first” policies of tax cuts, less regulations, infrastructure spending and building the Mexican wall will widen America’s budgetary deficits which could usher in the second of many rate increases by the Federal Reserve. Ironically a rate increase would lead to an even stronger dollar wiping out any possible advantage for Trump’s manufacturing proposals. Moreover, the multitude of conflicting Trump’s proposals on tariffs would certainly boost import prices, hurting his own constituency and aggravate his trade deficits, risking a worldwide trade war. And with the dollar rising to 14 year highs despite running up considerable trade deficits, he even started a war with the dollar bulls, signaling that the dollar is too strong. Since then the dollar has fallen for seven consecutive weeks of losses.
In less than a month, Mr. Trump has created wars on many fronts, sometimes with a stroke of the pen, others with a tweet. To his critics, of which there are many, he is reckless and dangerous. In fact, we believe the recent dollar correction is not because of his bully pulpit, but because of a growing Trump “uncertainty discount”.
In bypassing the media, his Executive Order photo-ops are vying with Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s daily press briefings as the ultimate reality show, leaving the country and the Democrats in a state of daily surprises. But the ramifications are all so real – ask the acting Attorney General who was fired. To be sure, Trump’s rise to power and his policies will have an impact on the global economy. However, the dilemma in the longer-term is that many of Mr. Trump’s ad hoc solutions to the complex problems are actually non-solutions. The classic Trump trade then, is to buy gold.
Trump vs Yellen
Overlooked by Wall Street is a potential war with the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve was set for a series of three rate hikes this year in order to “normalize” and shrink its bloated $4.5 trillion balance sheet built up after a near decade of ultra-loose monetary policies, five times pre-crisis levels. However, such a move would tighten financial markets at a time when Trump’s programs call for a boost in Treasury borrowing. Ominously, any unwinding would risk unleashing a hyper-style inflation because much of the trillions of cheap credit printed under successive quantitative easing programs, remain trapped on the Fed’s balance sheet, as excess reserves.
We believe the first battle will be at the next FOMC meeting on March 14-15 but already, it appears that the Fed has backed down, causing the dollar to slip. While Mr. Trump has signaled that he wants investment to jumpstart the economy no one, including Trump has said how he is to pay for this. The Federal Reserve, on the other hand does not seem ready to finance or give the economy another fiscal stimulus boost. Trump may have won the first battle with his tweets, but there are rumblings that the next battle is over the appointment of a couple Federal Reserve appointees, setting up an inevitable clash with Janet Yellen, Chairwoman of the Fed. To be sure his fight with the Fed would make the Mexican conflict seem quite small. Gold again will be a good thing to have…..more here