Both parties are happy with the spending deal reached Tuesday night between the Trump administration and the Pelosi-controlled House. The Trump administration will see defense spending going to $750 billion while the Dems (and, admittedly, some in the GOP) will see an equivalent increase in domestic appropriations.
China has the world’s largest debt at $40 trillion from 30 years of deficit financing its industrial growth. According to some analysts, China’s banks cannot withstand a downturn because it would expose trillions of dollars in bad debt. Now China is being prompted (Wall Street Journal) to return to stimulative policies because of slowing rates
. . . so writes Ben St. Clair in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal. The essence of St. Clair’s argument is that gold is down 4% this year and that lower prices have not generated buying. But, has gold lost favor as a safe haven? No, and here is one reason why
So far this year, gold has outperformed stocks, up 2.5%, about what the Dow Industrials are down, for a 5% difference. Still, gold’s performance this year has been disappointing to many investors considering the huge downside moves that stocks put in this year. For 2017, the S&P 500 gained 19.4%, the Nasdaq 28.2%, and the