04/30/17

Trump Supporter Arrested at Climate March

By: Cliff Kincaid | America’s Survival

A Trump supporter at the April 29, 2017, Climate March in Washington, D.C., was harassed, assaulted and arrested. This exclusive video shows the bizarre series of events as they unfolded and were recorded by journalist and media analyst Cliff Kincaid.

Trump Supporter Hauled Off to Jail:

04/29/17

Soviet Islam: The Real Story

By: James Simpson | The Daily Caller

Capital Research Center has just released the second of its Dangerous Documentaries, America Under Siege: Soviet Islam. I can say without hesitation that this is the most important documentary released this year. Veteran researcher Trevor Loudon joins leading foreign policy experts to explain the nexus between international Communism and radical Islam.

This is a must-see documentary.

Anyone who has studied 20th Century history will know this rings true. During WWII, Islamists seeking to advance their cause in the Middle East joined with the Nazis, but with the Nazi defeat they lost their benefactors. The Soviet Union was quick to step in, creating its own Middle East proxies. In the 1970s, the Soviet KGB sent 4,000 agents into the Muslim world to cultivate connections and lure radical Muslims into the Soviet sphere. The Soviet KGB created the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and supported other terrorist groups with arms, training and anti-Israel, anti-American propaganda.

It also created the International Association for Palestine. One of that group’s members was Nihad Awad, currently the director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Awad came to endorse the terrorist group HAMAS, and today CAIR is at the forefront of efforts to shut down free speech and intimidate anyone who questions the tenets of Islam as “haters” and “Islamophobes.”

Meanwhile, he is advancing the Russians’ shared cause of bringing America to its knees. While we are being beset by incidents of Islamic terrorism, including the deadliest mass shooting in American history last year in Orlando, Florida, Islamists within our own government are preventing us from investigating these groups. This is poignantly reflected in the lack of enthusiasm for one of the most important pieces of legislation recently proposed: H.R. 377, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act.

The film makes solid connections between Islamist organizations in the U.S. like CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood front, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Putin-sponsored Russian organizations. It also reveals how they are working with Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA organizations – all actually communist groups who admit their goal is to destroy our nation. Donald Trump is just the latest excuse. Soviet Islam names names and organizations. It reveals the depth of the treachery ongoing in America today.

I repeat: this is a must-see documentary. Take the 26 minutes now to watch it, share it and make it go viral. If our “leaders” have any stomach left for leadership, perhaps this will finally spur them to join the effort to save our Republic.

04/29/17

The Left-Wing Takeover of Fox News

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

When Bill O’Reilly left Fox News he declared, “I am very confident the truth will come out and when it does I don’t know if you are going to be surprised, but I think you are going to be shaken as I am.” Some observers think he was referring not to the sexual harassment allegations against him, but to behind-the-scenes maneuvers by one of Rupert Murdoch’s sons, James, and his very liberal wife, Kathryn. Her bio says, “Between 2007-2011, Ms. Murdoch served as Director of Strategy & Communications for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) where she also managed CCI ‘s partnership with Microsoft in the development of a global greenhouse gas emissions tracking software.”

In short, she is a globalist insider who sees the green hysteria as a viable way to control people and their lifestyles.

We warned back in 2007 in our column, “Rupert Murdoch Picks Liberal Son as Successor,” that James Murdoch was maneuvering to take control of Fox News. We also noted that James Murdoch “buys into global warming hysteria,” and that his liberal philosophy on environmental and other matters “could become the party line” of the Fox News Channel.

It turns out that his wife is more of an environmental zealot than he is.

Accuracy in Media had attended the annual meeting of the Fox News parent company, raising concern about James Murdoch’s increasing influence in the company and his attacks on conservative groups, such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). He wrote an article for the Guardian attacking CEI for dispensing “inaccurate propaganda” about the global warming issue.

Of course, many conservatives regard the theory of man-made global warming as a hoax and a means by which government at many levels hopes to control, regulate and tax the use of natural resources.

Referring to the alleged effects of global warming, now called climate change, James Murdoch said, “We can have an enormous impact if we encourage our customers to make simple, effective changes in their lifestyles.”

That’s easy for James and Kathryn Murdoch to say; he is the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune. “The Murdoch fortune now stands at around $14 billion,” noted the publication Inside Philanthropy in 2015. “Because Rupert seems to have zero interest in harnessing this wealth to philanthropy, that challenge will fall to his kids.”

One of the “focus areas” of the Murdochs’ Quadrivium Foundation is “natural resources.” But rather than exploit them for the good of humanity, the foundation supports “innovation” in their use. This is code, as James Murdoch suggested in his Guardian article, for restricting the economic lifestyle choices of consumers.

A link from their foundation directs people to the webpage of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and an advertisement denouncing President Trump for “failing the environment.” Page 25 of the EDF annual report lists “Kathryn Murdoch, President, Quadrivium Foundation,” as a member of the Board of Directors. “At the end of fiscal 2016,” the report states, “EDF’s net assets stood at $217 million, providing a strong financial foundation as we pursue our ambitious environmental goals.”

With the Murdoch billions behind them, those “goals,” which include what the United Nations calls a new “economic development model” to replace global capitalism, could become a reality.

That was the goal, at least, until Donald Trump became president and, as AIM’s Roger Aronoff recently noted, indicated his determination to confront the global “climate change agenda.”

The Gateway Pundit website notes that Kathryn Murdoch regularly trashes Trump on Twitter. Indeed, her Twitter feed goes after many different conservative personalities and policies of all kinds. A collection of her most significant Tweets includes attacks on Trump aide Steve Bannon, and despondency over Trump’s election victory. On the other hand, she praised Fox News personality Shepard Smith for criticizing Trump.

Her Tweets have included messages such as:

  • A vote for Trump is a vote for climate catastrophe.
  • Can we impeach a candidate? Seriously.
  • Happy to see this on Fox News. The final argument for Hillary Clinton, based on 3 indisputable facts.

The latter was a reference to a Lanny Davis pro-Hillary article on the Fox News website.

When her husband and his brother Lachlan move to the left, she is quick to retweet those comments, such as when they sent a letter declaring, “We deeply value diversity and believe immigration an essential part of America’s strength.” The letter was intended as a rebuff to President Trump’s effort to restrict the entry into the U.S. of illegal aliens and Islamic terrorists.

Despite the Murdochs’ disdain for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the likelihood that the group will receive less and less coverage from Fox News, its staffers are demonstrating significant clout with the new Trump administration. In regard to Trump’s promise during the campaign to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, The Washington Times reports that Trump’s top advisers have received a unique proposal from CEI, arguing that the agreement be declared a treaty and sent to the Senate to be killed.

CEI’s interesting proposal would rectify former President Obama’s unconstitutional decision to make the Paris accord into an executive agreement, without the need for Congressional input or approval. By declaring it to be a treaty and sending it to the Senate, where it is not likely to get the necessary two-thirds vote for ratification, Trump could force lawmakers to take a stand on what CEI calls its demands for “regulations that will force Americans to pay more and more for energy.”

CEI’s message to Trump is, “Don’t listen to the Swamp. Please keep your campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the U.N. Paris Climate Treaty and send it to the Senate for a vote.”

The Fox News coverage of this showdown will be another indication of the pull that James and Kathryn Murdoch are starting to exert over the once “conservative” news channel.


Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected] View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

04/28/17

America Under Siege: Soviet Islam

By: Trevor Loudon | New Zeal

The next episode in Capital Research Center’s five-part “America Under Siege” webseries, “Soviet Islam,” has just been released on this YouTube channel and at DangerousDocumentaries.com.

With President Trump executing missile strikes in Syria and radical Islamic terrorism being as big a threat as it ever has been, we need to understand how these oppressive regimes and extremist ideologies got started and are empowered. Working with Dangerous Documentaries, director Judd Saul and conservative commentator Trevor Loudon have compiled a team of researchers who have uncovered the history of the Soviet Union’s meddling in Middle Eastern politics, creating a new enemy for the United States, and have learned that Russia’s continuing alliance with Islamists is forwarding a radical domestic threat in America today.

“Soviet Islam” is the second episode in the five-part “America Under Siege” documentary web-series releasing over the course of 2017. Each episode profiles the influence of radical Marxists on various segments of American society.

The film uncovers the secret history of how the Soviet Union used Islamists and dictators in the Middle East to further its objectives and how Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues this strategy today, endangering Americans and all freedom-loving peoples.

After World War II, the Soviet Union used Muslim intelligence assets to subvert neighboring Muslim-majority nations. Putin’s Russia continues to infiltrate Islamic communities around the world, including Chechnya, Iran, Syria, and Palestine, and also at home in the United States, where Islamists and communists have joined in an unlikely alliance.

The film is narrated and written by conservative author Trevor Loudon, directed by Judd Saul, and produced by Cohesion Films in partnership with Dangerous Documentaries (a project of the Capital Research Center). (Bombthrowers, too, is a project of Capital Research Center.)

The first film in our “America Under Siege” webseries, “Civil War 2017,” is available to view here.

04/28/17

The Denise Simon Experience – 04/27/17

The Denise Simon Experience

Hosted by DENISE SIMON, the Senior Research / Intelligence Analyst for Foreign and Domestic Policy for numerous flag officers and intelligence organizations.

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS: HANS VON SPAKOVSKY / MATTHEW VADUM / GORDON CHANG

BROADCAST WORLDWIDE:
THURSDAYS: 9:00 PM (eastern) on:

WJHC – Talk 107.5FM
WDDQ – Talk 92.1FM
WLBB – News Talk 1330AM

And on her Digital Flagship Station: RED NATION RISING RADIO – The NEW Dominant Force in Conservative Talk Radio

#RedNationRising #Radio

04/28/17

First Quarter GDP at 8:30 AM

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

Markets fluctuated on a flurry of policy news ranging anywhere from Nafta to trade reform, to the budget to healthcare and to taxes. Oil tumbled on concerns over a supply glut as Libya reopened its biggest field while earnings largely matched expectations.

Today, initial estimates of first quarter GDP is released. Analysts are expecting a 1.0% growth rate and a 2.0% rise in the core PCE or the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflationary indicator.

As noted many times the confidence has soared because of Trump’s pro-growth proposals, proposals that have yet to be legislated.

In my view, Washington is playing roulette with our economic future. If our elected members are for the people, of the people, charged with increasing economic well-being for the general economy, why the delay in passing key regulatory and tax reform?

I can write volumes answering the above question.

There have been recent remarks about shrinking volatility. While this may be correct in the aggregate, in my view, reality is considerably different. There is intense volatility beneath the surface where cycles that used to take 18 months now take 18 days. For example, the short interest in the Russell 2000. About two weeks ago, short interest rose by the greatest amount since 2008. Bloomberg wrote yesterday that late last week actual short interest in the Russell 2000 swelled to the most since September 2014.

Two weeks ago, the Russell 2000 was at its annual lows, reversing the gains from the election, trading at its 50 day moving average lines. Earlier this week, it rose to a record. Wow!

This is volatility, volatility the result of technology based trading.

And then there is oil. Crude has been locked in a range of $48-$55 for the past year. It has also traded in this range during the past six weeks. Oil securities however are grossly underperforming and are priced for $40 crude.

There is a historical disconnect between the price of oil and the value of oil securities. Something has to give. Either oil the commodity will drop or oil securities will rally to restore market balance. I think the latter.

In my view, the vast majority of historians will view 2017 as a tectonic transition year, where generational trends end and another commences. This is not a radical thought. Globalism is on its heels with the Establishment vehemently fighting to maintain power and its perceived global dominance.

Last night, the foreign markets were mixed. London was down 0.34%, Paris was up 0.23% and Frankfurt was up 0.02%. China was up 0.08%, Japan was down 0.29% and Hang Sang was down 0.34%.

The Dow should open flat even as two mega-capitalized technology leviathans exceeded profit expectations. Geopolitical tensions are perhaps weighing upon sentiment. However, the direction of the opening can change radically given the potential significance of the 8:30 data. The 10-year is flat at a 2.31% yield.

04/28/17

Billionaire Funds Overthrow of Capitalism

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

“System Change, Not Climate Change” is the demand being made by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in regard to Saturday’s Peoples Climate March. “Only socialism can solve the climate crisis,” they say. It appears that the organizers of the march agree, since the old Moscow-funded Communist Party is listed as one of the official “partners” of the group sponsoring the April 29th demonstration in the nation’s capital.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin would like nothing more than to see the U.S. close down its oil and gas industry and try to run a modern industrial economy on solar panels and windmills.

The Communist Party (CPUSA) is ecstatic, saying that a “radicalization process” is underway “that’s given renewed meaning and life by the independent movement to elect our country’s first African American president, Occupy Wall Street, the Dreamers, Black Lives Matter, marriage equality, and the political revolution energized by the Sanders bid for the presidency.”

But don’t expect our media to look behind the curtain of the Peoples Climate March, since reporters share the ideology of climate change. We will probably be told that the march is comprised of moms and kids.

In this case, it’s not really “behind the curtain” because the “partners” of the march are listed openly on the organizer’s website. The CPUSA-affiliate U.S. Peace Council is another partner.

Other official partners include Catholic groups like the Franciscan Action Network, and unions like the American Federation of Teachers, American Postal Workers Union, Service Employees International Union, and Communications Workers of America.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group that backed Obama from the start of his political career, is a partner, as is the Socialist Party and the American Humanist Association.

Academia is represented through such organizations as the American Association of University Professors.

But there’s more: the Global Muslim Climate Network, the Islamic Society of North America, and a group called Green Muslims have signed on as partners.

Native Lives Matter has been formed, and they, too, are a partner of the climate march.

“On the 100th day of Trump’s presidency,” say the organizers, “our march will celebrate both the diversity of our movements and demonstrate our unity in the face of Trump’s attempts to divide us.” This is apparently a reference to President Donald Trump’s decision to enlist some industrial unions in a coalition to create jobs through the use of America’s oil and gas resources.

Trump’s electoral success has split apart the Democratic Party coalition that depended on unions and workers to help liberals win on Election Day.

One of the speakers, Jazzlyn Lindsey of Black Lives Matter DC, is described as someone who “utilizes her innovative interpersonal skills to educate and engage her peers on issues pertaining to the history of punishment and prisons, environmental racism, and intersectional feminism.” A picture on her Facebook page shows a “Black Muslims Matter” sign.

The national coordinator of the group behind the march, the Peoples Climate Movement, is Paul Getsos, who says, “We are a broad-based formation of over 50 organizations working with movements across the country to stop the Trump Administration’s and Congress’ attacks on our planet, people and communities. We demand an economy and government that works for all, clean air and water and a healthy environment. This administration must immediately stop attacks on communities of color and immigrant, Muslim, indigenous and LGBTQIA communities. We are marching from the Capital [sic] to the White House on his 100th day in office to show our resistance to the policies that favor the 1%, hastens climate change, poisons our water and air and harms our communities and people and then returning home to do the work of continuing to build this movement in every community across the country.”

The first Peoples Climate March was held on September 21, 2014 in New York City.

Getsos, described as a political strategist with his own consulting firm, was a contributor to the “Ear to the Ground Project” associated with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Another contributor was “former” communist and CNN analyst Van Jones.

One of their recommendations is to reach out beyond the far-left: “We need to identify a set of people who are our best communicators, and their role should be to hold down movement ideas, in a smart way, in public debates, online, on CNN, etc. Not just in ‘alternative’ or progressive media.” Another recommendation is, “Need more funny people turning our political ideas into widely distributed to large numbers of people. Political humor, satire, that can go viral and make a mass impact.”

Stephen Colbert is apparently not far-left enough for these characters.

Under the heading of “political formations,” leftists are told, “We need a new Left party. A united party for socialism. Not primarily an electoral vehicle. Should be explicitly anti-capitalist, a bridge between generations, training activists. An eye on the fight for people’s power. Without a hard left you have a weak middle. I don’t mean dogmatic, but it’s clear that capitalism does not have the answer to the world’s problems and we need a socialist alternative.”

However, billionaire Tom Steyer, president of NextGen Climate, is a big backer of the rally. “Tom founded a successful California business, which he left to work full-time on non-profit and advocacy efforts,” his bio says. In fact, he ran a financial hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, which is considered to be on the cutting edge of the highest stage of capitalism, to use Marxist jargon. He sold his stake in the firm in 2012 and is now worth $1.6 billion. Forbes points out that he spent more than $65 million to back environmental causes and the Democratic Party in 2016. “Trump’s victory shocked him,” the magazine says, “Now Steyer, the founder of Farallon Capital and the environmental group NextGen Climate, is using his voice—and his wallet—to battle[the]  Trump administration.”

Like the hedge fund associated with George Soros, another billionaire backer of the “people’s revolution,” Farallon has specialized in managing equity capital “for high net worth individuals.”

It all sounds pretty capitalist to me.


Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected] View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

04/27/17

Is Today Different?

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

A major difference in the headlines about the current advance and those that occurred in the past is the near unanimity the advance is focused in just a handful of names. Yesterday’s front page of the WSJ stated five companies contributed to 41.4% of the annual advance in the NASDAQ, an extremely narrow rally stating that such a vast concentration of wealth can create a major imbalance.

The WSJ then compared today’s technology fueled advance to the one that ended in 2000, an era where approximately 50 companies dominated. As widely known, the NASDAQ topped out in March 2000, fell about 70% and according to the WSJ, took 3,766 trading days to retrace its decline.

Returning back to the here and now, the fund flows into ETFs has been intense. As noted many times, ETFs are capitalization driven investment strategies where the big tend to get bigger and the small get smaller. In many regards ETFs indicate that past performance is indicative of future performance, a statement that is riddled with massive compliance risk.

I ask is today’s massive over performance of only five companies the result of the massive proliferation ETFs (and the total domination of the markets by technology based trading)? I think yes.

As noted the other day, many of the hedge fund and private equity luminaries are bearish, partially the result of this massive concentration of wealth into one industry and several names. Historically, and as indicated in 2000, such myopicy does not end well.

Change is the only constant. I reiterate, if Trump’s proposals become legislated, growth can exceed 3% for the first time in over a decade permitting Main Street — aka the value and small capitalized companies —to outperform Wall Street — aka the mega-capitalized growth companies — also for the first time in over a decade.

I think if Trump’s agenda is not enacted, the odds are over 50% there will be a significant decline in the averages, a decline that I believe will be primarily focused in a handful of names given massive ownership levels.

What will happen today following a relatively quiet day?

Last night the foreign markets were down. London was down 0.46%, Paris was down 0.24% and Frankfurt was down 0.17%. China was up 0.36%, Japan was down 0.19% and Hang Sang was up 0.49%.

The Dow should open flat. The 10-year is unchanged at 2.31%.

04/26/17

Why No Questions about Transgender Army Traitor?

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

The most glaring omission in Tucker Carlson’s interview of the human oddity known as Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner was the failure to seek comment on the transgender traitor by the name of Bradley/Chelsea Manning. This is the former U.S. Army analyst scheduled for release from prison next month because former President Barack Obama commuted his/her sentence for Russian-style espionage.

Jenner, a former male Olympic champion, is now a spokesman for the “trans community” that includes espionage agent Bradley/Chelsea Manning. So what about Manning? What did Manning’s gender confusion and mental problems have to do with his/her espionage against the United States?

Will Manning get a “courage” award in the same way that Jenner was honored by ESPN for a biological transformation through chemicals and surgery from masculine to feminine?

We understand that the Jenner appearance on Fox News was a cheap publicity stunt, designed by Jenner to sell her new book, and for the cable channel to herald Tucker Carlson’s new show, a replacement for the “O’Reilly Factor” and its fired host, Bill O’Reilly. Still, there was an opportunity for Tucker to ask about one of the major espionage cases of our time. He blew it.

In his recent remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CIA Director Mike Pompeo described Manning essentially as an agent of Russia through his association with WikiLeaks, which functions on behalf of Russian and other anti-American interests. Pompeo said, “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations.”

Pompeo raises more questions than he answers. How many more insider spies like Manning are there? Are the WikiLeaks followers at the CIA among the agency’s transgender work force? What, if anything, will Pompeo do to purge the questionable hires at the CIA that were made under the reign of Obama CIA director John Brennan, an advocate of “diversity” who laid out a multi-year plan to hire gays and transgenders?

Pompeo’s comments about Manning and the insider spy threat were unusual because he had been asked during his confirmation hearings by Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) about the agency’s gay and transgender employees. “You have my assurance that every employee will be treated in a way that is appropriate and equal,” Pompeo responded.

Of course, the word “appropriate” leaves the door open for dealing with traitors in the CIA in a special manner.

WikiLeaks declared “Victory” after Manning’s sentence was commuted, while former CIA/NSA analyst Edward Snowden said, “Thanks, Obama.” Snowden is a traitor who fled to Russia after disclosing classified information.

So does this mean that Obama is an agent of Russia? In this case, he is clearly serving Russian interests.

At the time of Manning’s commutation, CNN reported that WikiLeaks “is at the center of the storm over alleged Russian hacking of Democratic servers during the election, and Assange is being accused of directly subverting American democracy.”

Here was a case of Obama openly assisting a de facto Russia agent and his pro-Russian handlers. Of course, that’s not the way CNN put it. Instead, Obama had come “under intense pressure from LGBT groups that have been stalwart supporters throughout his political career to show eleventh hour compassion towards Manning,” CNN reported.

So the fact that Obama pleased the LGBT community with his “compassionate” decision makes everything all right and eliminates the need for informed speculation about Obama serving Russian interests.

Carlson should have asked Jenner about Manning’s role as a transgender hero.

Jenner, a rich reality TV star who lives in Malibu, can pay for her fancy clothes, which were on display in the Diane Sawyer special on ABC. She can pay for chemicals and surgeries to complete the “transition” to female.

It’s been different for Manning. Taxpayers have picked up the bill.

During his/her time in prison, according to The New York Times, Manning wears female prison undergarments, including a sports bra, and “subdued cosmetics.” In early 2015, the paper reported, he/she was allowed “to get speech therapy to feminize the tone and pitch of her voice and began cross-sex hormone therapy.”

These perks came about because Manning’s legal team at the ACLU sued for the benefits.

Subsequently, Obama’s Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced unilaterally, without Congressional input or approval, that the Pentagon would start paying for transgender surgeries for Armed Services personnel.

The situation is so extreme that West Point hosted a Transgender Day of Remembrance, organized by the Army’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity. Judicial Watch disclosed that Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Amanda Simpson, a former test pilot named Mitchell, spoke at the event, at a cost of $1,099.92.

The Fox News publicity stunt with Caitlyn Jenner could have produced some real news, if only Carlson had asked about the Manning case and others like it. Instead, he permitted Jenner to say that she wished President Donald Trump would go further in his support for LGBT rights.

Carlson called Jenner “the world’s most famous transgender person.” This designation may not last for long.

When Manning gets out of prison in May, can we expect an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight?” If Carlson is struggling to get O’Reilly-type ratings, you can bet on it.


Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected] View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

04/26/17

An Earnings And Potential Tax Reform Fueled Advance

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

Equities advanced as corporate results and housing data bolstered optimism in the economy. There is also confidence the Trump administration will propose meaningful tax reform and continued relief over the French election. I will also write the markets are dictated by momentum traders, strategies not based on economic and security analysis, but rather by moving average lines.

I believe all markets can decline 3% to 5% in quick order if any mega-capitalized international growth company posts a disappointing profit report, the inevitable delay of the President’s legislative agenda, or a significant increase in geopolitical tensions. Additionally, I believe valuations are stretched.

On the other hand, if there is a transfer of wealth into the real economy, I believe the advance can be maintained, but with a transition from Wall Street companies to Main Street firms. Main Street will be a direct beneficiary of any regulatory and tax reform thus permitting faster job creation.

As noted many times, approximately 90% of jobs created from 1996-2007 were from small business, defined as companies with fewer than 400 employees. If Main Street again receives funding, the job creation machine will return.

Yes, there are some labor shortages in the STEM industries, however there is a vast pool of potential workers based upon the anemically low labor participation rate (LPR).

Small business creation is often funded by homes. The housing data is robust, thus suggesting a funding source is available. If monies do gravitate into the real economy and if job creation accelerates, the result of greater small business creation, perhaps a 3% to 4% growth rate is achievable.

Speaking of which, tomorrow initial estimates of first quarter GDP is released. Trump induced confidence levels have not yet translated into greater economic activity, but few of Trump’s pro-growth proposals have been enacted.

What will happen today?

Last night the foreign markets were mixed. London was down 0.10%, Paris was down 0.02% and Frankfurt was down 0.11%. China was up 0.20%, Japan was up 1.10% and Hang Sang was up 0.50%.

The Dow should open quietly lower. The 10-year is unchanged at 2.33%.