Showing posts with label CNBC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CNBC. Show all posts
Friday, February 13, 2026
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Feds declare victory in Minnesota immigration enforcement operation and begin withdrawal, cutting their losses
They leave two murdered civilians in their wake, a permanent stain on the Trump administration.
... “We have greatly reduced the number of targets for enforcement
action” in the Twin Cities region as a result of the influx of thousands
of officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and
Customs and Border Protection agencies, Homan said at a press
conference. ...
U.S. House votes 219-211 to overturn Trump tariffs on Canada
House votes to override Trump’s Canada tariffs
... the effort is likely symbolic. Even if the Senate approves Meeks’ resolution, Trump would likely veto the legislation. ...
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Federal government employment in Jan 2026 is down 324k since Trump took over, with local government employment up 140k and state government employment down 72k
That's a net hit to government jobs at all levels of 256k in Trump's first year.
The federal government last averaged 2.69 million employees in 1966. The Jan 2026 level is 2.686 million.
Ford Motor blames tariff timing and fires at an aluminum plant for earnings miss when it was its electric vehicle business
... On an unadjusted basis, the company’s net loss of $8.2 billion last
year was its largest since the Great Recession in 2008, according to
FactSet. That included $15.5 billion in special charges during the
fourth quarter largely related to a pre-announced pullback in its
all-electric vehicle plans.
Automakers commonly exclude “special items” or one-time charges from their adjusted financial results to provide investors with a clearer picture of their core, ongoing business operations.
Ford reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $11.1 billion, or a loss of $2.77 per share, compared with net income of $1.8 billion, or 45 cents per share, in the same period in 2024. Adjusted for the one-time charges, the company reported earnings of 13 cents per share.
Representatives Massie, Kiley, and Bacon revolt against House GOP and vote with all Democrats to take back Congress' Article I tariff power from the president
Expect tariff votes in the U.S. House in the near future, but not necessarily victories.
... The House Rules Committee on Monday approved language that would block
any House votes disapproving of Trump’s tariffs through July 31. ... The Senate has on multiple occasions voted to strike down tariffs issued
by Trump, while the House has blocked votes on tariff-related
resolutions. The latest prohibition on tariff votes expired at the end
of January. ...
Monday, February 9, 2026
Why did Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lie about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein?
Lutnick and Epstein were in business together, Epstein files show
... Lutnick, the former chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald who at one point lived next door to Epstein, told the New York Post in October that he and his wife Allison had cut ties with Epstein in 2005, deciding after taking a tour of Epstein's New York townhouse, "I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again."
However, it appears Epstein and Lutnick continued to maintain contact and emails show they arranged calls and planned to have drinks in 2011.
The following year, the couple and their four children planned a visit to Epstein's island, Little St. James, emails show. Lutnick was invited for lunch on Dec. 24, 2012, and later, Epstein's assistant wrote on behalf of Epstein, "it was nice seeing you."
Their Adfin deal was signed four days later. ...
By the time Epstein and Lutnick agreed to buy stakes in Adfin, it had been more than four years since Epstein agreed to enter a guilty plea to Florida state charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. The case brought forth allegations of far broader sex trafficking and victimization of girls, but it wasn't until 2019 that Epstein was charged with federal felonies including trafficking. He died in jail in the weeks after his arrest. ...
... Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., urged Lutnick to step down after The New York Times reported the Trump ally interacted “regularly” with Epstein, according to files released by the Department of Justice relating to the notorious sex offender. Massie was the lead Republican on the Epstein Files Transparency Act that compelled the release of the Epstein files.
“He should just resign,” Massie said on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.” “Howard Lutnick clearly went to the island if we believe what’s in these files; he was in business with Jeffrey Epstein, and this was many years after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted.”
He added: “He’s got a lot to answer for, but really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign.” ...
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Trump's corrupt state capitalism, but I repeat myself, is anti-American, anti-competitive, and advances long-standing Democrat objectives, which is one reason big business is keeping its big yap shut
When the Democrats can't get what they want, a Republican chump comes along who does it for them.
The power of existing businesses will only get stronger thanks to Trump, so mum's the word.
The Trump administration’s portfolio of equity stakes in U.S. companies has reached a scale that is unprecedented outside economic crisis or wartime....
“It is a invisible barrier to startups and new market entrants,” said Scott Lincicome, an international trade lawyer affiliated with Cato Institute. “Why would you ever want to enter a market that you know your chief competitor is backed by the U.S. government?”...
The Trump administration’s approach is a major ideological departure for the Republican Party, which has traditionally championed free market capitalism and excoriated government intervention. The Democrats have typically been the party of industrial policy and intervention in markets.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, introduced an amendment to Biden’s CHIPS Act that would have allowed the government to take stakes in companies that accept federal funding for semiconductor manufacturing. The measure ultimately died in the Senate....
Top executives have voiced virtually no public criticism of the Trump administration taking stakes....
Before the U.S. took its stake in Intel, Trump said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was “highly conflicted” and called for his resignation over his ties to Chinese companies. The comments sparked a brief sell-off of Intel shares....
Trump bought 433.3 million shares of Intel in August 2025 at $20.47, about $3 off its recent lows around $17.66, risking taxpayer money, not his own.
America's bailouts of banks and then businesses in past crises have paved the way for Trump's full-blown state capitalist interventions in the private sector, buying company stocks with the people's money, making loans, and taking direct control
Trump is turning America into China, but all America cares about today is the Super Bowl.
The Trump administration has made unprecedented equity investments and obtained other stakes in at least 10 companies over the past year. ...
In the past, the U.S. has taken temporary stakes in companies in the context of bailouts, said Peter Harrell, who served as the senior director for international economics under President Joe Biden.
“With these companies, it’s a very different thesis,” Harrell said. “The government is kind of acting as a strategic investor to put capital into these companies so that these companies can achieve both a commercial return but also, at least in theory, some kind [of] national purpose.” ...
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Trump is setting records at Rasmussen Reports for record high disapproval at 57%, record low total approval at 41%, record high strong disapproval at 47%, and record low approval index at -20
I dunno, was it something he said lol?
To be entirely fair, these low numbers were already achieved on Feb 5, the day Trump posted the Obama ape video. The low numbers went up in the morning and reflect polling from the previous day(s).
The Obama ape video was just a coincidence.
I think the low numbers are a reaction to Trump's Monday call for federal interference in the coming elections.
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Hi yo sil . . .
... Spot silver prices were trading almost 12% lower at 8:32 a.m. ET, at around $77.42 per ounce ...
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Gold and silver rebound but remain well off their highs, about -12% for gold, almost -29% for silver
Gold and silver bugs view it as a buying opportunity.
Gold and silver rebound, pulling global mining stocks and precious metal ETFs higher
... Spot gold was last up about 5.5% to $4,921.29 per ounce. Gold futures in New York gained more than 6%, hovering at around $4,936.60 as of 4:48 a.m. ET.
Spot silver rose over 9% to settle at around $86.70 per ounce. Silver futures in New York were up 12% at $86.49. ...
Gold had hit a record high of $5,594.82 on Thursday January 29th, silver
hit a record high of $121.64 the same day.
Friday, January 30, 2026
The wealth inequality of today's K-shaped economy goes back to the Reagan Revolution
They take vacations and buy luxury goods. You struggle to pay for food, shelter, and transportation.
K is not OK.
... A key measure of wealth concentration called the Gini coefficient sits at 60-year highs, according to a report from U.S. Bank published earlier this month. ... The net worth of America’s top 1% hit a record share of nearly 32% in the third quarter of 2025, the Federal Reserve reported. By comparison, the bottom 50% cumulatively held 2.5% of overall net wealth.
The portion of U.S. GDP heading to workers in the form of compensation tumbled to its lowest level in its more than 75-year history, per data tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means the average nonfarm business worker is seeing an increasingly small slice of an economy that has largely boomed over the last 15 years. ...
Total relative “outlays” — a broad measure of spending and nonmortgage payments — by U.S. consumers in the top 20% hit multidecade highs last year, a data analysis conducted by Moody’s Analytics found. The other 80% tumbled to new lows, the data shows. ...
While the “K-shape” term became popularized as an explanation for the uneven economic recovery seen during the pandemic, economists say the origins of this breakaway can be traced back decades earlier.
This type of diverging economy stems from the economic reorganization seen during the Reagan administration, according to Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at tax firm RSM. About two decades later, the structural break that created the K-shaped economy, as it’s now understood, was more clearly observed in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000s, he said.
That was in part due to the loss of wealth tied to the historic housing market crash, Brusuelas said. On top of that, he said the jump in joblessness limited earnings potential for those without steady employment in their prime working years.
The Great Recession “created the conditions for the winner-take-all economy that emerged in its aftermath,” said Brusuelas, who first heard the K-shape term around 2008. “If you live, work and inhabit certain portions of the economy, you might as well live on the dark side of the moon compared to what goes on down-market.” ...
To make meaningful inroads, the U.S. would instead need to focus on tax reform and expanding social safety nets, according to RSM’s Brusuelas. ...
Gold and silver plunge after Trump picks more pragmatic Kevin Warsh to head the Fed over dove Kevin Hassett
Gold and Silver tumble as Trump’s Fed Chair pick Warsh seen as preserving central bank independence
... Claudio Wewel, FX strategist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that a “perfect storm” of geopolitical tensions had helped precious metals move higher this year, pointing to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Washington’s threats to use military force in Greenland and Iran.
More recently, he said, speculation over who would be nominated as the next Fed chair had been influencing metal markets.
“The market has clearly been pricing the risk of a much more dovish contender, that’s been largely helping the gold price along with other precious metal prices. Over the last 24 hours, the news flow has changed a little bit,” Wewel said, prior to Trump’s announcement. ...
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says economic activity has been solid lol
10-year Treasury yield rises after Fed keeps rates steady, notes ‘solid’ economy
... “Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization,” the post-meeting statement said. “Inflation remains somewhat elevated.” ...
“I think, and many of my colleagues think, it’s hard to look at the incoming data and say the policy is significantly restrictive at this time,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference. ...
The economy should be three times the size it is, $90.4 trillion in GDP instead of $31.1 trillion.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
The dollar is crashing is the stuff of hysteria
They do not remember 2008.
And they use an index, .dxy, which many now consider obsolete.
The dollar is strong.
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