David Stockman’s Contra Corner

Trump’s international belligerence is fueled by the psychotic, lily-livered Bolton, who is encouraging him to go to war on Iran while intensifying savage sanctions on Cuba. There is no end in sight to Trump’s campaigns of sadism and spite. https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/21/trumps-sanctions-are-sadistic-and-spiteful/

Outside observers say say Xi’s consolidation of power within and for the party reflects the need to minimize political and economic rancor at home, and position China as a unified power player abroad. Indeed, the government seems to find new ways to use technology to manifest this power every day. Ironically—and Orwell himself may have never dreamed this—is that thanks to...

Meanwhile, Trump is not only continuing his brutal system of sanctions on Iran but actually ratcheting them up even more. His goal? To kill more Iranians through economic deprivation, either through starvation, illness, or domestic plane crashes arising from an inability to secure needed parts for maintenance and repair....

One trading day after we reported that China was "Hit By "Significant Banking Stress" as SHIBOR tumbled to recession levels, and less than a week after we warned that China's interbank market was freezing up in the aftermath of the Baoshang Bank collapse and subsequent seizure, which led to a surge in interbank repo rates and a spike in Negotiable Certificates of Deposit (NCD)...

Is the US "Schrodinger" economy on the verge of a boom or a recession? That is the question investors are increasingly asking, prompted by the record disconnect between record high stock prices and 10Y yields on the verge of dropping below 2%. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-24/latest-shipping-data-verge-recession-morgan-stanley

Think of what it could have been if the Fed had gotten it right. Thousands of points higher on the Dow, and GDP in the 4’s or even 5’s. Now they stick, like a stubborn child, when we need rates cuts, & easing, to make up for what other countries are doing against us. Blew it!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2019...

“John Bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was up to him he'd take on the whole world at one time, okay?” https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-23/trump-unleashes-uber-hawk-bolton-he-would-take-whole-world-one-time

VIPS says its direct experience with Mike Pompeo leaves them with strong doubt regarding his trustworthiness on issues of consequence to the President and the nation. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/no_author/vips-memo-to-the-president-is-pompeos-iran-agenda-the-same-as-yours/

Upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that the actions of Bolton and Pompeo seem to be aligned in prolonging the United States’ unipolar moment, continuing to issue diktats to other countries and failing to recognize the multipolar reality we live in. Their policies and actions are accelerating the dispersal of power away from the US and towards other great powers like...