We could have done much better when the great unknown won the White House! Examining how deftly Emmanuel Macron has handled his becoming president of France without having any previous electoral experience shows the error of Trump’s handling a similar opportunity. Macron went broad, inviting pols from across the spectrum to form his team. Trump did the opposite, picking a relatively uninspired team of classic Republicans without any taste for risk or innovation.
Ultimately that strategic mistake will destroy his Administration even without proof of illicit collaboration with Putin’s Russia. But, alas, proof is also coming. If one is to believe Reuters, Michael Flynn and other Trump advisers during the last 7 months of the 2016 election campaign had at least 18 unreported telephone and email contacts with the Kremlin.
A blot on the right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio talking head Alex Jones came with its withdrawal of charges that Chobani yogurt had hired for its Idaho plant a child rapist and allegations that its products were infected with TB. Jones has withdrawn these charges on the air. He was also the source of claims that the Obama Administration had staged the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton CT and the charge that the Comet Ping-Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, DC, was the center of a child abuse ring.
When markets react to bad news that has been building up in the margins, they over-react. We are moving into buy-time big-time. Today sterling broke through the key $1.30 level and has higher to go.
More news from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Britain, Denmark, Colombia, India, Hong Kong, Ireland, Switzerland, Lithuania, Italy, and Japan.
Americanas
*Our newest Canada stock, Input Capital, reported 0 earnings in Q2 2017 but sales hit C$8.967 mn vs C$2.633 mn last year. The US INPCF stock fell to $1.4447 this morning. Its statement said it “recorded record gross deployment of C$20.53 mn and a record number of new clients,” which CEO Doug Emsley attributed to “marketing streams, a new variation that targets farmers looking to get better pricing for their canola” which it launched in Jan. It won 60 new farmer clients despite a low-impact publicity campaign to date. It also sold 18,992 mn metric tonnes of canola bringing its total for the FY to 43,950 mn tonnes, despite weather delays to harvests in Oct.
