This post is opinion only. See full disclaimer below. I want to discuss 2 critical issues. First, Trump's new 100 per cent tariff on China for their restrictions on rare earth exports. I have said this in earlier posts that Trump views tariffs as a kind of capital that can like any good businessman would … Continue reading Tariffs as Capital and the Coming Oil Sanction Push
Tag: Ukraine war
Storm Watch: Russia and Iran Sanctions and Market Volatility
I was down twice in Miami over the summer on some of my many visits each year and each time I had to change my trip and was delayed returning up north because of the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes. The first storm I believe named Charlotte hit and made the weather bad for … Continue reading Storm Watch: Russia and Iran Sanctions and Market Volatility
Two Weeks and Counting: Trump’s Sanction Threat
One key question that emerges from the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska is whether Russia's goals were actually to simply buy time and delay the major oil sanctions poised to go on for their sales or alternatively give the US a diplomatic defeat after ramping up global expectations for a peace deal. In this view so … Continue reading Two Weeks and Counting: Trump’s Sanction Threat
50 Days and Counting
The oil markets as usual are shrugging off key macro-political events. They have concluded as one misguided article put it that Trump's threat of extreme secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on Russian oil are an instance of TACO or "Trump always chickens out" since he has warned that they are coming if Russia does … Continue reading 50 Days and Counting
Is Trump a Realist Politician or Socrates’s Carpenter: A Key Question for American Foreign Policy
When Trump first came to Washington he thought the town was filled with the kind of "lightweights" he had known as a wealthy real estate developer dealing with obsequious politicians at fundraisers. A class that would be impressed by wealth and bend over backwards to accommodate a successful billionaire, or if not, would be no … Continue reading Is Trump a Realist Politician or Socrates’s Carpenter: A Key Question for American Foreign Policy
Dangerous Escalation of Ukrainian Conflict
I have written in earlier posts about the dangers of the US allowing Ukraine to use advanced US ATACMS missiles to attack in Russian territory. Well that has now occurred and Russia has formally and very publicly changed its nuclear doctrine to include such a use as a legitimate reason to use its nuclear arsenal … Continue reading Dangerous Escalation of Ukrainian Conflict