ASIA: Chinese President Xi has said that he wishes to avoid a trade war with the US. However, he expressed if pushed too far he is willing to retaliate. “We want to work for a ‘phase one’ agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Xi told members of an international forum. This has […]

ASIA: Tensions are showing no signs of relief in Hong Kong after two protesters were shot by police over the weekend. Recent sparks of tensions came about due to a student dying due to falling off a building after a police raid due to the protests. Chinese commerce company Alibaba set a new sales record […]

ASIA: According to Reuters, a US official has said that a lot of progress needs to be done in drafting the US-China deal and will not be ready in time for the meeting in Chile. “Our goal is to sign it in Chile. But sometimes texts aren’t ready. But good progress is being made and we expect […]

ASIA: There is some concern over the latest figures of Chinese unemployment, which shows that 10.97 million new jobs were created. This is very close to the full-year government target of 11 million. US President Trump often bashes China and suggests that the trade war is costing them dearly, with more than “3 million jobs” […]

ASIA: There was a somewhat successful call yesterday between US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. The call concluded that the US and China will resume trade talks in person at the beginning of October. In the run-up to the event, the two countries will hold a discussion in order to […]

ASIA: China today has officially filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the US raised tariffs from 10 to 15 percent over the weekend on 300 billion USD worth of Chinese goods. China has asked for the WTO to act as a mediator to convince the US to reduce or end the […]

Why is no one in the D.C. political class and media bubble really talking about the Jeffrey Epstein affair? They will mention it casually, but they prefer to allow the Squad to call, Trump, a racist than address an issue which could lead to high levels of the political class. The media also seems to […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: The G20 is set up to be interesting, as the US negotiators describe Chinese officials tone as negative. Tomorrow, the two heads of states are due to meet. President Trump was a bit more optimistic stating, “At a minimum, it will be productive,” referring to his meeting tomorrow with Chinese President Xi. […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: A Pilipino ship was sunk in the South Chinese Sea. The Philippines sent a formal diplomatic protest to Beijing on Thursday condemning the actions of the Chinese ship and urging China to investigate the matter. The Chinese responded by calling the incident an “ordinary maritime accident.” There are currently joint Japan and […]

QUESTION: Dear Mr Armstrong, Not sure if I am understanding it correctly. Is the FED currently between a rock and a hard place? The FED is not able to cut rates (implement QE) due to the current pending/ongoing crisis of the US pensions, and they cannot raise interest rates as it’s going to cause more […]