In the Netherlands, the Forum For Democracy leader Thierry Baudet confronted Mario Draghi of the ECB asking that since he had said anyone leaving must pay the ECB and exit fee of whatever they owe, he said the Netherlands had €100bn surplus at the ECB they should get back is. Mario Draghi stated bluntly, NO! […]
QUESTION: A bank manager at a local bank called and began asking questions about a wire transfer to Panama that we had some difficulty sending. We are purchasing a small house and land in Panama and this was the earnest money of $16,000. She was asking why I was buying the land, when I planned to […]
An uneasy session in the US Thursday, following poor mainline stores data which led a mixed day for Asian markets. We saw losses for the Nikkei, ASX and SENSEX and gains for the Hang Seng, NZ and Shanghai. Volumes were light all around but that does not seem to be much of an anomaly these […]
Emmanuel Macron has shown just how inexperienced he is when it comes to international trade. Both Berlin and Brussels have rejected Macron’s central platform in his election campaign that all government purchases should be made from exclusively European companies. They realize that while Le Pen cheered “France First”, Macron called that nationalist, he proposed European […]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is always the cheerleader to raise taxes to support government. They are instructing Germany to raise taxes and also talking about just imposing a 10% tax on all money that deposits in banks throughout Europe. Yes – you read that one correctly. The IMF has told Germany it should raise […]
A positive day across the board for Asian equity indices with KOSPI setting the pace (+1.16%) creating new records as it goes and with the ASX just managing a small +0.5% profit. The Nikkei continued its run (+0.3%) but remains under the psychological 20k mark, even as the Yen traded with a 114 handle. The […]
With the CBOE Volatility Index (STOXX: .VIX) at its lowest level in over 10 years, many people call this the fear gauge and are concerned that people have become complacent. The VIX, is by no means a perfect measure of overall fear in the market. How we measure volatility depends upon the formula. Here are just […]
Trump fired Comey who was the head of the FBI. Trump said he fired Comey for his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. This is a perfectly valid argument, but he should have done that some time ago. Removing Comey now has only raised suspicions among Democrats and the Republic […]
Emmanuel Macron’s victory promises no change for Europe and it has been the blessing Brussels wanted so badly to further advance the federalization of Europe. Macron will surrender far more French sovereignty to Brussels than anyone suspects based upon reliable sources. Macron is a technocrat and the youngest President in France ever at 39. His message […]
Asian markets were unsure in what to do when the news of Comey’s dismissal arrived over the tapes and will probably be debating that again in Thursdays trading. Core markets closed mixed today with a positive close for the Nikkei (+0.3%) accompanied by the Hang Seng (+0.5%) and the ASX (+0.6%), but saw a […]
