by Chris
The Huawei executive arrest is playing out very poorly in the “”markets””.
After all of the efforts to stem the losses taken by the CME last night, the futures have drited lower and lower, and look to be opening with a -1.5% to -2% loss for most indexes, as well as for oil (at -2.6%).
The US has been really going after Iran almost unilaterally and quite strongly. Who knew that Bolton would be a warmonger willing to make stuff up to get a war going?
It bears repeating that Iran is not and has never been shown to be in violation of the nuclear deal it struck or the NPT. The US just decided “nah! We don’t like the deal anymore” and is now trying to enforce the case that everybody in the world has to abide by its dictates or face arrest.
Meanwhile, Huawei is a major company that competes with US tech firms, and the US is also just using whatever force it can to knock Huawei down a few pegs and thereby help domestic US firms. It’s just business to the US.
But that’s not how the Chinese roll. Saving face, being treated with honor, and adhering to agreements are very important to them. This move violates a lot of those at a very critical time for US/China trade relations and, presumably, military and political relations.
Again, the timing is quite odd.
If I were in Trump’s shoes I’d send the deep state scurrying for cover. Start releasing materials until they get the message. If they don’t or they go further and try to take him out by some other means, then I’d drop the nuclear bomb and re-open a 9/11 investigation with $1b of funding and full supoena power. Let the chips fall where they may.
Sometimes a boil needs to be lanced.