Trump Roils the Markets Through Twitter
In a gigantic breach of protocol, Trump stupidly hinted at jobs numbers over an hour before the official release this morning. Early markets were roiled by the tweet. Trump violated his primary responsibility to the American people which is to protect them and the economy. To self aggrandize, he simply couldn’t resist front running a positive jobs report. Here is a chart of pre-open dollar moves by month. The one on the right is today’s:
.2% doesn’t sound like much, but it is billions of dollars in value changing hands. Trump is so narcissistically disabled that he has no understanding of the effect of his words. Everything is about him, his grievance, his gnawing need to be praised and the victor that he simple blurts out whatever he believes makes him looks good.
The markets listen very closely to every single syllable uttered by the president and his representatives. His words carry awesome authority. Our system of government is not only one of laws, but over 230 years of protocol and tradition. It’s not set up to endure a feckless moron. His unpredictable behavior is causing enormous damage in 2 ways: he’s normalizing outrageous behavior which desensitizes the market to actual risks, and his erratic tweeting is shifting billions of dollars of actual value within the market that has introduced unsystematic risk. The markets hate not understanding risks.
This tweet this morning is one of the most outrageous breaches of confidentiality we’ve yet to see. And that’s saying a a lot.
Leaker-In-Chief Spanky
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/01/trump-secrets-white-house-security-leaks-617961
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/01/trump-jobs-numbers-reporters-security-218585
1I agree with everything but him not understanding the weight of his words.
2Personally, I believe he knows how much his words affect everything. And relishes every bit of influence he has, no matter what damage it causes.
To me, that just fits the profile of a malignant narcissist. He probably gets about the same satisfaction from hearing about markets in turmoil from his tweets as he does from Russian hooker urine soaked bedsheets.
The outrages and corruption just keep on with this maladministration. Dotard’s possible “latest” could be having his cellphone hacked. IMSI catchers aka Stingray devices were found in proximity of the White House.
The idiot in the White House is the greatest national threat. If Michael Flynn the senior wasn’t such a dupe/stooge, this is the point he would be leading chants of “lock him up.” Or, “lock them all up,” as Nunes, Lyin’ Ryan and a large cast of complicit characters need to be questioned, hard, about why they fail to call for checks and balances.
3If he or his sycophantic aides are halfway intelligent, I would guess that he had money in the market ready to make use of a surge.
Heh, I wrote the preceding before I read the articles. Seems like seconds make money. Trust this con man to know that.
4I wonder if Mueller can find evidence of something like that?
Quote from Philip Roth regarding Trump:
I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.
5Given that Trump is a towering glassbowl and proves it every time he opens his mouth, and I have to agree with Philip Roth’s summary… the fact that billions of dollars can bounce around based on what one person, no matter who, says or hints at just reinforces my belief that the stock market is basically imaginary money. “The stock market crashed and lost a third of its value!” Where did it go? Did it really exist? I don’t trust it as far as I could throw that bull statue. I know about tulipmania and the South Sea Bubble. And that’s why I let my husband do the economics stuff and I stick to biology.
6“It’s not set up to endure a feckless moron.”
you mean feckless cunt, right? Samantha Bee was correct in her assessment, she just had the wrong Trump in mind.
7If any of Dump’s minions made a few shekels in the next moments after his reveal, might there not be a crime?
8I debate this point on more than occasion with friends and family: his cabinet members and staff are trying their best to make 2 or 3 or 4 million dollars so that they can survive the tattering of their reputations. Or like Willbur Ross, they are already fabulously wealthy so a tattering of their reputations winds up being inconsequential.
To that end I suspect that Spany Drumpf makes these pronouncements in an effort to make these insiders the money they will need for the next few years.
9cpinva, what Samantha Bee said about the distaff half of Javanka could be said about all the sycophants orbiting the Glutinous Gibbon. Sessions, Nunes, Lyin’ Ryan, Mnunchin, Pruitt, Zinke, DeVos … too many of them to list. Hope their greed and grab for power lands all of them enough RICO action to strip them of every ill gotten penny and ‘reward’ them with appropriate jail time. A new word for corruption is needed. Dotard45 did tweet “covfefe.”
10Seriously, tRump do something that might help someone else? Maybe by pure mishap. He swears he did not know about the embargo on the data release. But even if he did . . . no what I’m saying? Standing a little further back than usual, what I see is an infant in a grown man’s skin and suit, not even potty trained. He just has to let it go as it all pleasures him.
11He likes to make a fuss. He likes being in control. He likes feeling above the law, beyond the rules. He knows any flutter in the market will get attention, because he follows the market. All of these reasons make doing something that perturbs the market attractive to him. Most of the money in the market is other peoples’, and he doesn’t care if they get hurt. If it hurts those who don’t support him–for instance, some wealthy GOPoliticians who have seemingly turned against him on the Mueller investigation–that’s a bonus. He feels sheltered by his Russian contacts–they’ve given him money before when no one else would. Thus even more reasons to kick the tub and watch the water slosh. It can’t hurt him (he thinks, with his little head.)
And for all we know Putin asked him to screw with the market.
12cpinva, since I’d rather not disparage my own body parts by associating them with that, I prefer the term “schmuck,” which is a Yiddish word for the other body part and also for someone kind of like him. Or “pr***,” which means about the same thing, but that’s English and probably doesn’t get past Mama.
13cpinva, I concur with Rhea on this. I only use the c-word in private, and under great duress, like when KellyAnne is on TV. The only occasion for public use, IMO, is during a performance of “The Vagina Monologues”.
I do think, however, that a lot of the outrage was phony, considering the behavior of the people objecting, and of the people they themselves revere. I also think that a lot of them were just pissed because they had to look up the meaning of “feckless”.
14I go from one day thinking he an idiot, then the next day he’s the Manchurian candidate.
Watched a Chris Matthews hour of old interviews with Trump. He was more coherent and thoughtful when he was younger.
IMO, he is playing a roll. But the adoration he gets at those rallies stokes his ego. Sometimes too much.
15I think you meant “breaches”.
16Nice catch. Thanks.
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