Romania removed over hundred taxes and charges
Only two weeks and both houses of Romanian Parliament agreed on a regulation to remove 102 taxpayer burdens (charges and taxes). Changes were accepted by leaders of all parties in the Parliament. Scrapped taxes were only waste of both time and money for our citizens – Liviu Dragnea, head of PSD party commented. With the intention to put more money in the pockets of the middle-class Romanian government started a fight with bureaucracy.
Free market reforms in Romania began several months ago when at the beginning of 2016 government lowered VAT and tax burden of small companies leading to an increase in tax revenue for Romanian budget. Bolstering economic freedom boosted the economy as confirmed by Erste Bank forecasting 4.1% GDP growth in Romania for 2016.
Romania serves as a reminder for most Western politicians blindly believing that raising taxes has to result in higher revenues for the budget.
The US: inflation tax is merciless for basic goods
Despite different methods of measuring inflation, mostly the numbers are served in a very simplified form. We forget that inflation rate may be different for different types of goods or services.
Below you can see the difference in price of a variety of goods between 1996 and 2016. According to official data from Washington inflation in this period was equal to 55%.
Clearly, we see that basic goods recorded the biggest jump in those years. Food, education and health care – these experienced the highest inflation. For the poorest part of society, they constitute a significant part of a monthly budget. A natural consequence of such price surge is more working hours or additional job to pay for what’s needed and resignation from participation in social and political life. The long-term result is a society with a lower level of awareness and crowds easier to manipulate by mainstream media and politicians.
Unfair debate – Clinton knew questions before the Democratic Party presidential debates
From emails published by Wikileaks, we can see that Hillary Clinton received messages containing questions prepared for the Democratic Party debates giving her an upper hand against Bernie Sanders. Clinton’s source was Donna Brazile, commentator and Democratic Party activist.
Soon after this news hit the headlines, CNN formally finished cooperation with Brazile. The whole scandal summarises policy of the network. The moment an inconvenient truth about the Democratic nominee is being spoken expert’s feed is being cut off. One of the CNN reporters – Chris Cuomo – even alleged that possessing materials from Wikileaks is illegal and the only source of information about these emails should be the CNN.
This scandal (with others) clearly diminished chances of former Secretary of State to win the presidential race. Polls conducted by some mainstream media show Clinton and Trump tied or even a small lead in favor of Trump. A week ago Trump was losing by more than 10 points in a number of polls. President of the United States will be chosen on 8th of November.
Cass Freight Index is at its lowest since 2011
Cass Freight Index is showing the situation in maritime transport and this year is very bad. Levels of the first three-quarters of 2016 are lower than those seen in 2011 – 2015.
Data confirms the stagnating trade – the result of a slowdown in the global economy. Printed currencies are used by central banks to buy equities to sustain high prices but this does not serve to improve international trade at all.
QE – lifeguard saving the market
Quantitative Easing is a policy of printing money by central banks to buy financial assets. The intended goal of QE was to create additional demand and to stimulate the economy.
Adam Haldane, Bank of England economist presented his work about the result of QE. His analysis points that QE has a big impact on the financial market and the bigger it is, the worse situation the market is in. The effect of printing currency in one country can be felt by another economy – Haldane added.
An important aspect of Haldane’s work is that the success rate of “the QE mechanism” depends on market’s faith in QE. There may be a situation where another round of Quantitative Easing will not be able to sustain the boom in equities and bonds.
Since 2008 the biggest central banks printed 15 trillion USD. This led to a substantial climb of equity market – now with estimated worth of 100 trillion USD. It is at a higher level than 2007 bubble – back then the market was worth 88 trillion USD.
British Spy Chief interviewed for the first time
Andrew Parker is the first MI5 head who decided to share his opinions publicly. In an interview with “Guardian”, he pointed at Russia and Islamic terrorists as the biggest threats to the Great Britain and Europe.
Parker commented that Russia is slowly changing their methods from old (agents) to new – cyber warfare – aimed at stealing government and military top secret information.
This is another addition to spouting allegations against Russia already started by American administration. The first stage did not succeed in achieving planned results thus the UK intelligence agency has been involved. Slowly a picture of which country actually wants war is being revealed in front of our eyes.
How to trade if Trump wins?
The Brexit referendum clearly showed how violently markets can react to political developments. We soon can experience another tandem of such events with the US presidential race nearing the finish line.
A few days ago the FBI announced reopening the case against Hillary Clinton. Democratic Party nominee felt this in the polls wiping out her advantage or even putting her behind Trump. Financial markets reacted immediately – equities down and metals up. Look below.
Above you see a reaction to the FBI announcement which can be a prolog to what may happen if Trump wins. This scenario evidently helps precious metals with simultaneous negative reaction from equities.
The US is preparing a cyber-attack against Russia
A spokesperson for American Intelligence shared with NBC News the fact that Obama’s administration is considering a cyber-attack targeted at Russia – a revenge for alleged Russian intervention in the US presidential race.
Solutions regarding a cyber-attack are under preparation by the CIA according to intelligence circles in Langley. An attack on a massive-scale should weaken Kremlin’s power.
Joe Biden asserted during one of his interviews that the US aims to “send a message” to Putin. Biden highlighted that this attack is aimed at hurting the enemy in the most painful way possible.
Asked by the reporter whether the US public will know the details of such operation he responded that he hopes it is not going to happen.
Medieval Feudalism and Corporate Feudalism, comparison
Source: Zerohedge.com
Independent Trader Team
