Attorney General Bill Barr didn’t like the way Inspector General Mike Horowitz’s spying report sounded. Horowitz’s report claims the FBI and CIA didn’t spy on the Trump campaign in 2016. The intelligence community responded to credible information from foreign allies. That information sent the FBI on a mission to discover how involved the Trump campaign was with Russian operatives. Members of the Trump campaign met with Russian operatives several times during the campaign.
Mr. Trump claims the FBI wanted to take him down. Lisa Page and Pete Strzok are the FBI employees Trump uses to promote his spying theory. But the Horowitz report claims the FBI acted properly. But the report claims federal agents were a little sloppy during the Trump investigation. Mr. Barr claims there was spying, so he plans to add a letter to the report to exonerate the president. Barr did the same thing when the Mueller report surfaced.
China put its foot down and told Trump he must lift the tariffs if he wants President Xi to make him look like a trade hero. When the negotiations started, the Chinese told Trump Mr. Xi won’t sign any agreement unless the tariffs go away. Mr. Trump keeps telling investors the deal could happen any day, but the Chinese say drop the tariffs first.
Trump told the NY Times press he won’t take the December 15th tariffs off the table. He said he might add additional tariffs to break the Chinese. But even though China’s economy feels the impact of the tariffs China’s manufacturing sector had a great November after months of weak numbers. Chinese consumers continue to fuel the economy, but those consumers have a boatload of debt. The Chinese Central Bank may have to inject cash into the country’s financial system to handle the bankruptcies that will plague the country if the trade war continues.
The stock market took a serious hit when Trump announced his plan to force China to sign the phase one deal. But investors got real nervous when the president said he will punish Brazil and Argentina for taking Chinese farm orders away from American farmers. Brazil’s soybean prices are lower than U.S. prices. The president wants Brazil to stop manipulating their currency. And he said the same thing about Argentina and its beef prices.
The news Trump wants to punish Brazil and Argentina with steel and aluminum tariffs sent a wave of anxiety through the stock market. Investors know adding more tariffs will continue to erode global economic health.
Dil Bole Oberoi
