WALLACE: "[The Chinese] may suffer consequences, but it's U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?" KUDLOW: "Yes, to some extent. I don't disagree with that.

"Washington is flirting with a debt crisis. No one has a plan to stop it": "As lawmakers trade fire over contempt votes and impeachment, there's been no progress toward reaching a budget agreement or extending the federal government's ability to borrow before September, when the money runs out.

"That's raising the ugly prospect of more than $100 billion in mandatory cuts as well as an unprecedented default on U.S. debt -- a situation that could trigger a worldwide economic catastrophe. It's a mess everyone knows is coming, and yet no one seems to have a plan -- at least at the moment -- for averting disaster." CNN

WALL STREET IS HAVING a bit of a freakout over President DONALD TRUMP'S trade war. Over the last few days, banks and their research arms have sent a flurry of analyses of the president's trade policy. Most are warning about dire consequences.

-- GOLDMAN SACHS: "New evidence on the effects of the 2018 tariff rounds from two detailed academic studies points to larger effects on U.S. consumer prices than we had previously estimated, for two reasons. First, the costs of U.S. tariffs have fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and households, with no clear reduction in the prices charged by Chinese exporters. Second, the effects of the tariffs have spilled over noticeably to the prices charged by U.S. producers competing with tariff-affected goods." The Playbook

I was in Central Virginia visiting family for the Mother's Day weekend. My uncle pointed out that his neighbors fields were empty. They used to be full of soy beans this time of year.

Trump has killed the soy bean market. Guess they'll start growing hemp.




[Post edited by Lazarus at 05/13/2019 07:32AM]