Date: 18-10-2017
Source: YaleGlobal by Louis René Beres
Donald Trump won the US presidency with less than a majority vote and governs with a level of support that struggles to reach 40 percent. The administration’s ineffective policies reflect a larger society that thrives on “an unrelenting barrage of crude and voyeuristic entertainments, most of which now center on sex, sadism, torture, murder and dreary profanity,” explains author Louis René Beres, professor emeritus of political science and international law at Purdue University. The Trump administration has satisfied a public desire for quick fixes and easy answers while many Americans are markedly less ambitious to dedicate the massive amounts of time, research and hard work required – so often with little guarantee of success – to tackle major global, national, cultural or industrial challenges let alone understand them. Both conservatives and liberals, rich and poor, are deeply unsatisfied with American governance. A solution, according to Beres, is for Americans to resist giving up on improving themselves intellectually as individuals, to embrace reason and to rediscover an appreciation for serious reading, thinking and debate. Otherwise, American society will encounter more inequality, substance abuse, conflict and despair and become „a vast wasteland of irretrievably lost human opportunity.“ – YaleGlobal Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Valdis Dombrovskis sees ‘targeted adjustments,’ not push toward financial sector deregulation
Valdis Dombrovskis, who leads financial-services policy work at the European Union’s executive arm, said fears about President Donald Trump’s financial deregulatory agenda haven’t been realized.
WASHINGTON—European officials see cooperation with the Trump administration on financial sector oversight “developing in a positive way,” according to a top official who met with U.S. regulators on Friday.
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in an interview said European Union fears about President Donald Trump’s financial deregulatory agenda haven’t been realized. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Der Dow Jones auf neuem Rekordhoch, der Dax sicher über 13.000 Punkte – da gesellt sich auch die Wiener Börse mit etlichen Rekordkursen ins Rampenlicht dazu.
16.10.2017 um 15:59, diepresse.com
Die Rekordjagd an den Börsen geht ungebrochen weiter. Der Dow Jones in New York legte am Montag gleich mit einem neuen Allzeithoch von 22.934 Punkten los, der breiter gefasste S&P-500 mit dem Rekordwert von 2558 Zählern, die Technologiebörse Nasdaq mit bislang unerreichten 6627 Punkten. „Der Markt will weiter optimistisch sein“, sagte Robert Pavlik, Chef-Anlagestratege beim Vermögensverwalter Boston Private Wealth. Starke Quartalsbilanzen könnten grundsätzlich ein guter Grund sein, um Gewinne mitzunehmen. „Das ist aber nichts, was langfristig ausgerichtete Investoren beunruhigen sollte.“ Die große Mehrheit der Firmen hat bislang mit ihren Bilanz für das Sommerquartal die Erwartungen der Analysten übertroffen. In den nächsten Tagen werden zahlreiche weitere Ergebnisse erwartet. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously served as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department (2001-2003), and was President George W. Bush’s special envoy to Northern Ireland and Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan. He is the author of A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order.
Dealing with an ambitious and powerful Iran entails a broad range of open-ended challenges that define the ever-turbulent Middle East. Without the 2015 nuclear deal, however, those challenges are likely to become even more daunting.
NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump has announced what was long anticipated: that he will not certify that Iran is complying with the July 2015 “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA) signed by the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Iran. Nor will he certify that the suspension of sanctions undertaken by the US as part of the agreement is justified and in the vital national interest of the US. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Amerika erlebt einen politischen Hurrikan, dessen Zentrum sich zwischen State Department, Weißem Haus und Capitol Hill in ständiger Bewegung befindet und dessen Thermodynamik wir in Europa bald zu spüren bekommen. Es geht um Fragen zu Krieg und Frieden, auch wenn sie sich derzeit hinter einer Nebelwand von persönlichen Anschuldigungen zu verbergen scheinen.
Kaum hat Außenminister Rex Tillerson seinen Präsidenten in vertrauter Runde einen „Deppen” genannt, meldet sich via Twitter der dem Außenminister eng verbundene Senator Bob Corker zu Wort, seines Zeichens oberster Republikaner im Auswärtigen Ausschuss des Senats. Es sei eine Schande, dass sich das Weiße Haus zu einem „adult day care center“,einer Seniorentagesstätte, entwickelt habe.
Im Interview mit der „New York Times“ begründet der Mann seine harschen Worte so: „Ich weiß aus gesicherter Quelle, dass die Mitarbeiter im Weißen Haus an jedem einzelnen Tag alles geben, ihn einzudämmen.“ Ihn – den Präsidenten. Eindämmen – damit waren einst die Russen gemeint. Mit seinen unbeherrschten verbalen Angriffen auf andere Länder riskiere Trump, dass sich die Nation „auf den Weg in Richtung eines Dritten Weltkriegs begebe“. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Here’s a surprisingly profound question: What is a promise? Dictionaries offer various definitions. I like this one: “An express assurance on which expectation is to be based.”
That definition captures the two-sided nature of a promise. One party offers an assurance, which the other converts into an expectation. You deposit money in your checking account, and the bank assures you that you can have it back on demand. You expect that the bank will fulfill its promise when you visit an ATM.
Governments likewise make promises, but those are different. Government is the ultimate enforcer of promises, but we have no recourse if it chooses to break them – except at the ballot box.As we’ve seen in recent weeks regarding public pensions, that’s ineffective when the promises were made long ago by officials who are no longer in office. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Joseph E. Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979, is University Professor at Columbia University, Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and chair of the US president’s Council of Economic Advisers under Bill Clinton, in 2000 he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. His most recent book is The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe.
A Trump administration staffed by plutocrats – most of whom gained their wealth from rent-seeking activities, rather than from productive entrepreneurship – could be expected to reward themselves. But the Republicans’ proposed tax reform is a bigger gift to corporations and the ultra-rich than most had anticipated.
NEW YORK – Having failed to “repeal and replace” the 2010 Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Republican congressional majority have now moved on to tax reform. Eight months after assuming office, the administration has been able to offer only an outline of what it has in mind. But what we know is enough to feel a deep sense of alarm.
Today we’ll continue to size up the bull market in governmental promises. As we do so, keep an old trader’s slogan in mind: “That which cannot go on forever, won’t.” Or we could say it differently: An unsustainable trend must eventually stop.
Lately I have focused on the trend in US public pension funds, many of which are woefully underfunded and will never be able to pay workers the promised benefits, at least without dumping a huge and unwelcome bill on taxpayers. And since taxpayers are generally voters, it’s not at all clear they will pay that bill.
Readers outside the US might have felt smug and safe reading those stories. There go those Americans again, spending wildly beyond their means. You are correct that, generally speaking, we are not exactly the thriftiest people on Earth. However, if you live outside the US, your country may be more like ours than you think. Today we’ll look at some data that will show you what I mean. This week the spotlight will be on Europe.
First, let me suggest that you read my last letter, “Build Your Economic Storm Shelter Now,” if you missed it. It has some important background for today’s discussiion, as well as a special invitation to attend my Strategic Investment Conference next March 6–9 in San Diego. With so much change occurring so quickly now, next year’s conference is an event you shouldn’t miss. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, chaired President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984. In 2006, he was appointed to President Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and, in 2009, was appointed to President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Currently, he is on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Group of 30, a non-profit, international body that seeks greater understanding of global economic issues.
The proposed shift to a territorial tax system is likely to have far-reaching effects on US corporations’ behavior. But that change, together with a reduction in the 35% corporate-tax rate, could trigger another round of tax reform among developed countries seeking to improve their attractiveness to internationally mobile capital.
CAMBRIDGE – The United States Congress is likely to enact a major tax reform sometime during the next six months. Although the new rules will apply only to American taxpayers, they will have important consequences for companies and markets around the world.
The most important changes will apply to US corporations rather than to individual taxpayers. Of these reforms, the one with the most obvious and direct international impact will be the change in the taxation of US corporations’ foreign subsidiaries.
The current US rule is unique among all major advanced economies. Consider the example of a subsidiary of a US corporation that earns profits in Ireland. That subsidiary pays the Irish corporate tax at Ireland’s low 12% rate. It is then free to reinvest the after-tax profits in Ireland, in financial securities, or in operating businesses anywhere in the world – except the US. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Growth lifting some communities but leaving others stagnant or sinking
The U.S. economic expansion is lifting a handful of vibrant communities to new heights but also leaving broad tracts of the country stagnant or sinking, according to a new report.
The study, by the Economic Innovation Group, finds that a small number of high-growth cities and towns are fueling U.S. growth and masking economic struggles in decaying industrial towns, swaths of the rural South and other areas of the country.
“The prime years of the national economic recovery bypassed many of America’s most vulnerable places altogether,“ the report said. ”Far from achieving even anemic growth from 2011 to 2015, distressed communities instead experienced what amounts to a deep ongoing recession.”
The Washington policy group set up shop in 2015 with funding from Silicon Valley, tech and financial entrepreneurs, and an advisory board that included Kevin Hassett, now President Donald Trump’s top economist, and Austan Goolsbee, a former chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Much of the group’s work focuses on how business in the private sector can help distressed communities. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump has announced what was long anticipated: that he will not certify that Iran is complying with the July 2015 “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA) signed by the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Iran. Nor will he certify that the suspension of sanctions undertaken by the US as part of the agreement is justified and in the vital national interest of the US. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »