Thursday, December 06, 2018

TRUMP VERSUS FED VERSUS CHINA

Trump's latest maneuver is as brilliant as it is crudely dangerous.Over the weekend Trump had China's Premier Xi-Jinping best friend Ren Zhengfei -who founded the huge Huawei Technologies- daughter legally kidnapped by Canadian authorities. Daughter Meng Wanzhou was detained by the Canadians for alleged Iranian business deals that are not allowed by the United States sanctions provisions against Iran. The U.S. want her extradited to America for prosecution.The time line of her abduction coincided with the ending of dinner between Xi-Jinping and Trump and others of the G20 meeting in Argentina this past Saturday. Announcement came after the dinner! How's that for rude and malicious? But wait there's more.I think the real Trump target is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump wants interest rates lower. But he can't fire Powell because that would spoke the markets . So he puts Powell in the hot seat by picking a real fight with China with the help of the Canadians and forces a savage response from Premier Xi-Jinping because of the Homeric insult. This time it's not Helen who is launching a thousand ships but hapless daughter of tech magnate that launches a thousand containers to U.S. So a ratcheting up of trade war will force the Fed to sit tight on raising fed funds.I think that real economics will pick the winner and the loser in this U.S vs China trade war. Trump will find out that no one is bigger than the markets.

No comments: