In this latest issue of my weekly podcast, I examine the recent surge in global equity markets and the rise in long-term Treasury yields. Meanwhile, the Fed acted to bring down the short-end through open-market operations intended to ensure "ample" liquidity. Result: The 3M-10Y yield has, for now, de-inverted. We look more closely at the market's fixation on "trade policy uncertainty"--and explain why the pundits just can't seem to appreciate the longer-term economic dynamics of the business cycle or even the longer-term political dynamics of the US-China power confrontation. We report on the ongoing deceleration of China's economy (6.0% GDP is now official) and of most of the rest of East Asia. Does PM Boris Johnson have a trade deal? It certainly seems so. Either the House MPs will vote to approve it next week or--my bet--Johnson will insist that they allow him to call a new election over this issue. BoJo has good reason to believe UK voters will give him the mandate to go ahead. Trump withdraws from Syria--claiming he's putting an end to America's "forever wars"--even while he wages a legal war of attrition with the House over impeachment. We close with a recent NewsWire story, the Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey's tweet heard 'round the world and the firestorm reaction--first from China, then from the NBA, and finally from Americans.
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