USA: Trump Administration Currency Rule Seeks Tariffs Against Undervalued Currencies

This week, the U.S. Commerce Department finalized a new rule that will allow Washington to levy tariffs on countries that it believes are undervaluing their currency, which theoretically makes their exports cheaper and gives them an edge in competition with American-made goods.

U.S. countervailing duties, normally reserved for use against certain imports that are proved to be dumped at below-market prices, could now be slapped on imports from any country that the Commerce Department decides has cheap money.

Read more: Trump Administration Currency Rule Seeks Tariffs Against Undervalued Currencies

USA: Trump is winning, and Wall Street is cheering - by Howard Gold

Readers of this column know I’m no fan of President Donald J. Trump. But it looks increasingly likely he’s going to get re-elected, and Wall Street is responding by pushing the S&P 500 SPX, +0.33%   and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.67%  indexes to all-time highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.30%  isn’t far behind

That comes as the coronavirus has driven Chinese and emerging market stocks down, and when forecasters have cut their projections for global GDP growth. Also, there’s a slowdown in manufacturing and the industrial economy, critical to key swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, although so far few economists expect a U.S. recession in 2020.

Read more at: Trump is winning, and Wall Street is cheering - MarketWatch

Weapons Industry: India seeks shift from buying weapons to exporting them

India's arms imports account for nearly 10% of the global total, with Russia being the country's main supplier. However, New Delhi is now seeking to become a big exporter of weapons to the rest of the world.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/india-seeks-shift-from-buying-weapons-to-exporting-them/a-52270331

USA: State of the Union 2020: Trump addresses the nation - propaganda on steroids

This speech will be remembered for the bitter partisanship underlying it. From the snubbed handshake of Pelosi by the Trump, to the awarding of the presidential Medal of Freedom to a man who has professionally insulted people, especially women, for decades; to the instantly viral clip of Pelosi ripping up Trump’s partisanship underlying it. Trump’s speech, we learned more tonight about the state of America’s disunion than anything else.

Read more: State of the Union 2020 live updates: Trump addresses the nation

EU (average) unemployment at 20-year low

Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, has released figures showing that unemployment in the EU is at its lowest since 2000.

The average unemployment rate in the 28 EU states was 6.2 percent in December 2019, the lowest in almost 20 years. The Czech Republic (2.0 percent) as well as Germany and the Netherlands (both 3.2 percent) had the lowest while Greece (16.6 percent) and Spain (13.7 percent) had the highest.

Read more: EU unemployment at 20-year low

Britain: We need to stay close to the EU – for the good of the economy and the cultural ties that bind us

So it is done. On Friday night, 47 years of British membership of the European Union and its forebears came to an end. It was a moment that will irrevocably shape the course of our nation’s history, but in quite what direction it is impossible to tell. The paradox of Brexit lives on.

Britain has taken a monumental decision from which there is no retreat in the foreseeable future. And yet, three and a half years on from the referendum that heralded our departure, nothing of substance about what it means for our future has been resolved. Brexit continues to be defined by its champions’ hostility to the EU, rather than a realistic vision of what we could become.

Brexit will also fundamentally alter our role in the world. Britain’s most pressing diplomatic challenge will be how to deal with the US at a time when there has never been a more hostile president. Trump lobbied for Brexit because he regarded it as in America’s interests.

He saw in it the potential to weaken Europe, while rendering Britain more compliant with American demands. Trump has already demonstrated that he expects high fidelity, if not subservience, from Britain in his approach to Iran and Palestine. Which side will Britain choose if Trump decides to ramp up US tariffs and sanctions with the EU?

In the coming months, Britain will have to pick a careful path in the shadow of an increasingly for-or-against-us president. US bullying over the Huawei “security risk” and digital taxes on the technology giants is a sure sign of things to come. The other big challenge concerns Britain’s future dealings with China and other authoritarian regimes such as Russia, Brazil, Israel, Turkey and some of the Gulf states.

The government covets a trade deal with China and investment from Beijing, but how will it trade off China’s bulging chequebook with its deplorable record on human rights and free speech? And how would greater cooperation sit with a US that is increasingly hostile to China? If Johnson creates a diplomatic gulf with Europe through the course of the Brexit negotiations, it would be to our peril. Britain could find itself caught between two superpowers without the protective shield of European solidarity to fall back upon.

Read more at: We need to stay close to the EU – for the good of the economy and the cultural ties that bind us | Opinion | The Guardian

USA: Wall Street Meltdown : ‘Godfather’ of technical analysis says stock-market downturn is going to get worse: ‘I am looking at a 10% drop maybe a little bit more’

It is going to get worse before it gets better for the stock market, says prominent technical analyst Ralph Acampora.

Read more at:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/godfather-of-technical-analysis-says-stock-market-downturn-is-going-to-get-worse-i-am-looking-at-a-10-drop-maybe-a-little-but-more-2020-01-31