By Big Al Monday Editorial from Frank Holmes
America’s New Emphasis on Fiscal Policy
For the third time in two years, the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates 0.25 percent last week following the previous week’s phenomenal jobs report. The move was seen as more dovish than many market analysts had anticipated. BCA Research went so far as to call it an “unhike,” citing a number of factors, including forecasts of only three rate hikes in 2017 instead of four.
Immediately following the announcement, the dollar lost ground, clearing the way for gold to climb more than $20 an ounce.
During her press coverage, Fed Chair Janet Yellen expressed doubt that the U.S. economy can grow much faster than 2 percent annually over the next couple of years, placing her squarely at odds with President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to boost GDP growth as much as 4 percent.
Since Trump’s inauguration more than 55 days ago, we’ve seen a steady power shift from the monetary side to the fiscal side. I believe this will only continue to accelerate. As I said before, the eight-year stock market rally under President Barack Obama was, in many investors’ eyes, driven not by fundamentals but the Fed’s low-rate policy. Now, however, investor exuberance is being supported by proposed fiscal policy such as lower corporate taxes, deregulation and historically large budget cuts to help finance the rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure and military.
Not everyone is confident Trump can deliver on his infrastructure promise, however. Last week I shared with you that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) just gave our nation’s infrastructure a dismal grade of D+, adding that we face a huge funding gap of nearly $3 trillion between now and 2025.
Last Thursday, after Trump unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, ASCE president Norma Jean Mattei issued a discouraging note, writing that the president’s budget “would eliminate funding for many of the programs designed to improve our nation’s infrastructure.” Although the $1 trillion could be raised at a later time, “that is not the way to effectively invest in, modernize and maintain our aging and underperforming infrastructure,” Mattei said.
Law of Unintended Consequences
Some investors see additional headwinds in White House policy. Near the end of January, the commercial airline industry was disrupted when Trump signed his initial executive travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries. Between January 28 and February 4, bookings issued by those countries fell 80 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to travel research firm ForwardKeys.
What might surprise some readers is that the ban’s effects went well beyond the Middle East, reaching most major world markets. Net international bookings to the U.S. cooled 6.5 percent during the period when the travel ban was in effect.
Among the other unintended consequences was news that customs agents were detaining a number of U.S. citizens who might not have had Western-sounding names. Sidd Bikkannavar, a U.S.-born engineer, was not only detained on his way back home to Los …read more
Source:: The Korelin Economics Report
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