Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, As I outlined in my article ‘The False Economic Narrative Will Die In 2017’, the mainstream media has been carefully crafting the propaganda meme that the Trump administration is inheriting a global economy in “ascension,” when in fact, the opposite is true. Trump enters office at a time of longstanding decline and will likely witness severe and accelerated decline over the […]
Here’s how support for e-filing breaks down: Thirty-four members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus co-sponsored the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act in the last Congress, as did 11 sitting Republican senators. That includes conservative Republicans — such as Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa — as well as liberal darlings like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Then add at least three […]
WASHINGTON The Trump administration said on Thursday Israel’s building of new settlements or expansion of existing ones in occupied territories may not be helpful in achieving peace with Palestinians, adopting a more measured tone than its previous pro-Israel announcements. In a statement issued two weeks before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit U.S. President Donald Trump, the White House said the administration “has not […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran following its test launch of a ballistic missile, and his fellow Republicans in Congress said they would back him up with new sanctions. Trump comment was in response to a question about whether he would consider military options to respond to Tehran, a day after […]
La Villette, a corrugated iron convention hall on the northern rim of Paris, was meant to be François Fillon’s launch pad towards the French presidency after winning the centre-right nomination in a landslide. But on Sunday he stood in the packed venue, days after claims emerged that the Republican candidate had allegedly employed his wife in a fake parliamentary job for years and, suddenly, victory seemed to […]
Targeting the weak The us-versus-them dynamic is “easy for many people to rally around,” said Jonathan D. Weiler, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina. Targeting feared or unpopular minorities is a way of “setting a boundary,” said Sheri E. Berman, a political scientist at Barnard College — a way to distinguish between “us” deserving of protection, and “them” who are a threat. Continue reading […]
PARIS Pressure on French presidential candidate Francois Fillon to pull out of the election race grew on Thursday as some lawmakers in his own camp urged him to abandon his bid in the face of a fake work scandal to save the conservatives from defeat. The scandal, which surfaced a week ago when a newspaper said the wife of the 62-year-old ex-prime minister, Penelope, had been paid […]
This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme […]
The banking caucus Economic stability and improved bank safety haven’t stopped supporters of the Choice Act from moving forward with tearing down Dodd-Frank. The bill was introduced in September by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is a deregulation crusader and friend of Vice President Mike Pence; Pence represented Indiana in the House from 2001 to 2013 and was a critic of Dodd-Frank when the law […]
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white […]
Donald Trump’s administration declared that it was putting Iran “on notice” on Wednesday, signalling both a tougher US line with Tehran and a new test of relations after a weekend missile test by the Islamic republic. During his campaign, Mr Trump vowed to rip up a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other world powers with Tehran but has taken no public steps to […]
Brady started getting questions about Trump last fall when a red “Make America Great Again” cap was spotted in his Gillette Stadium locker, reportedly put there by Kraft. Brady at first gave sheepish, gee-whiz responses suggesting that it would be cool to have a golf pal as president. (“There’d be a putting green on the White House lawn,” he predicted.) But the questions took on an edgier […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state on Wednesday, filling a key spot on the Republican’s national security team despite concerns about the former Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) chief executive officer’s ties to Russia. In the vote, 56 senators backed Tillerson, and 43 voted no. The tally was largely along party lines, with every Republican favouring Tillerson, along with four […]
The Federal Reserve signalled it remains on course for further increases in short-term interest rates this year as inflation heads back towards target, even as it avoided giving strong indications on the timing of the next move. The US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee left the federal funds target range at 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent in a unanimous decision, following a quarter-point increase […]
The oil industry is zeroing in on a prospective tax shift in Washington that has the potential to upend energy flows around the world. The “border adjustment tax” (BAT) put forth by Republican lawmakers and embraced sporadically by President Donald Trump would radically change the way companies are levied, taxing imports and exempting exports in the world’s biggest economy. While the Trump administration’s stance on BAT has […]
The Federal Reserve is likely to hold rates unchanged on Wednesday but keep the markets primed for further monetary tightening as it surveys steady growth and a tightening labour market. Recent statements from Fed chair Janet Yellen have suggested that she does not want to rush into a third rate increase, but that she also has no intention of letting the US economy overheat. This points to a […]
Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” -Ayn Rand The torch has been passed to a new president. All of […]
On Saturday, as ripples of President Trump’s refugee ban began making news, Los Angeles Times Business Editor Kimi Yoshino suggested a different way to cover the story. Yoshino, who is married to an Iraqi refugee and whose family was detained at internment camps in World War II, saw people sharing their own stories on social media. Her idea: Let’s do something that captures that emotion. On Saturday, […]
By Lawrence Hurley and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Neil Gorsuch for a lifetime job on the U.S. Supreme Court, picking the 49-year-old federal appeals court judge to restore the court’s conservative majority and help shape rulings on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death penalty and religious rights. The Colorado native faces a potentially contentious confirmation battle in […]
By Sinead Carew and Jamie McGeever | NEW YORK/LONDON NEW YORK/LONDON U.S. President Donald Trump and a top economics adviser on Tuesday unleashed a barrage of criticism against Germany, Japan and China, saying the three key U.S. trading partners were engaged in devaluing their currencies to the harm of American companies and consumers. The comments from Trump at the end of a White House meeting with pharmaceutical […]
NEW YORK Americans are sharply divided over President Donald Trump’s order to temporarily block U.S. entry for all refugees and citizens of seven Muslim countries, with slightly more approving the measure than disapproving, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The Jan. 30-31 poll found that 49 percent of American adults said they either “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with Trump’s order, while 41 percent “strongly” […]
By Emile Picy and Chine Labbé | PARIS PARIS French police searched presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s office in parliament on Tuesday as an inquiry into alleged fake work by his wife threatened his campaign and party leaders began to consider a ‘Plan B’ without him. Fillon had been favourite to win the presidency for the conservative Republicans party until a week ago, when it was reported that […]
Republicans are struggling to advance their policy agenda in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s confused rollout of a ban on refugees and all travellers from seven Muslim nations entering the United States. The escalating reaction to Mr Trump’s executive order on immigration is also raising concerns about the workings of his White House staff less than two weeks into the presidency. In private conversations, some establishment […]
The Trump administration just fired the first shot in the US-European currency, and thus trade, wars when Trump’s top trade advisor Peter Navarro accused Germany of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to “exploit the US and its EU partners“, the FT reported noting the comments are “likely to trigger alarm in Europe’s largest economy.” News of the statement sent the EURUSD spiking in the moments after its […]
