I’ve been looking at William Hill’s market on who will be the Time person of the year and my tip is out of that lot is Robert Mueller at 25/1. With several convictions, guilty pleas, and assorted plea deals the so called witch hunt is rather effective and hunting down witches. All of this explains Trump’s recent behaviour where he has publicly criticised Jeff Sessions and privately been annoyed at FBI Director James Wray makes me think we’re headed for…
Under the US constitution, an American president has a virtually untrammelled power to pardon, or commute the sentence of, anyone convicted of a Federal offence (but not offences under State law). It is a power completely personal to the president, who can exercise it for any reason, or for no good reason, and it has been used surprisingly often: 1,927 times by Barack Obama, for example. Although there is a government department, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, through which…
But the NYT article will drive him deeper into the bunker Dysfunctional doesn’t begin to describe the White House. The high level of turnover among staff, the erratic decision-making, the presidential public streams-of-consciousness made with zero empathy for their subjects, the failure to actually deliver on key policies like The Wall: we knew all this and have done pretty much since Day 1, if not before. What we didn’t know before the sensational New York Times article[1] was the extent…
https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/1037428020401848320 This is probably the most astonishing article I’ve ever read. Two hours on and my jaw is still on the floor. The New York Times say The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdakzE5R9n8 So, after many economics and finance related posts, I thought why not do a politics one? It’s a simple question: will President Trump be re-elected in 2020? But while the answer will – Schrodinger’s cat-like – resolve itself when the box is opened in two years time, for now the answer is unknowable. Which is the stronger force: an improving economy or the drip, drip of scandals? What matters more: who the Democrats choose or whether inflation returns? And…
Three points about Trump:1) Virtually no one who didn't vote for Trump in 2016 is for him today;2) About 37% of Trump's 2016 voters are ambivalent about him and are far from hard core;3) Cohen's implication of Trump will have a corrosive effect on those ambivalent Trump voters — Geoff Garin (@geoffgarin) August 22, 2018 Is there value betting that he won’t be re-nominated? It is hard to take any other view than that the last few days have not…
BREAKING: Michael Cohen says he was directed to violate campaign law at the direction of a candidate for federal office https://t.co/kVdINYkpI3 pic.twitter.com/xa4XAexv1V — Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) August 21, 2018 Prosecutor says purpose of Michael Cohen's payments was to ensure individuals didn't disclose "alleged affairs with the candidate" https://t.co/PonBO1JIy2 — Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) August 21, 2018 Besides the $130,000 payment, Cohen admitted to making an illegal contribution of $150,000, which was how much Karen McDougal got from the National Enquirer’s publisher to quash…
The US runs a trade deficit with China of $375bn. It’s a staggering number, larger than the economies of Ireland or Israel. Little wonder than Donald Trump frets that the US is being taken advantage of. But how meaningful are bilateral trade numbers anyway? Should governments aim to balance volumes of trade with other countries, or is it all a bit irrelevant? And if you impose tariffs on countries with whom you have deficits, will your overall balance of trade…