Tag: Bank of America

“It’s Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” the two top Democrats in Congress, House speaker nominee Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, wrote in a joint statement on Monday. Trump links Federal Reserve to 'a powerful golfer who can't putt' Read more “The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve – after he just fired the Secretary of Defense.” Trump criticized the Federal Reserve on Monday, describing it as the “only problem” for the US economy, even as top officials convened the “plunge protection team” forged after the 1987 crash to discuss the growing rout in stock markets. “The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch – he can’t putt!” Trump has frequently criticized the Fed’s raising of interest rates this year and has gone after Powell several times, telling Reuters in August he was “not thrilled” with his own appointee. The Fed increased rates again last week. Mnuchin said on Sunday that he had called CEOs from the nation’s six largest banks – Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. Trump nevertheless railed against the Federal Reserve on Monday. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. Trump tweeted on Monday that he was “all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats” to make a deal. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security. “I don’t think things are going to move very quickly,” he said.

Now playing on your handheld devices and in more robust growth is the Fourth Industrial Revolution — mobile computing, intelligent and remarkably dexterous robots, and the gradual fusion of human intelligence, artificial intelligence and machines. The first three waves of industrialization — water power and steam to mechanize production, electric power to facilitate mass production, and electronics and information technology to automate production — were terribly dependent on massive investments in plant and equipment. Robust economic expansions have been defined by consumers’ willingness to splurge on big-ticket items like cars and homes, and businesses’ appetite for grand projects — Fulton’s steamboat, railroads, auto factories and highways, and most recently, shale oil and pipelines. All that is changing. The economy is now on track to register 3% growth in 2018 for the first time in a dozen years but auto and home sales are flat and corporate investments in hard business assets — factories, machines and computers — are hardly rocketing. Businesses have learned to use capital and human resources much more efficiently. Productive young professionals seem to be more interested in being near the hubs of intellectual activity—city cores—and buying new gadgets and streaming services than owning a home, big lawn and the latest hot car. Businesses are dropping the college degree or certificate from technical school as a requirement for many positions. This permits businesses to offer low-skilled workers opportunities for bigger pay increases, often through in-house training programs. All this spells change for the faculty at universities, businesses and the political class.