Merry Christmas!
The markets are closed on Monday, so we have a nice, long weekend to look forward to with our families. I hope you have a very happy holiday and that 2023 will be kind to you and yours…
Donald Trump got 800 pages of coal in his stocking in the form of the Capital Riot Report and already there are indications of Witness Tampering on top of the “Inciting a Insurrection”, “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States”, “Obstruction of Justice” and “Treason” charges we already knew about.
“The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed,” the report said. “None of the events of Jan. 6 would have happened without him.”
In chapters with colorful titles such as “I Just Want to Find 11,780 Votes” and “Just Call It Corrupt and Leave the Rest to Me,” the committee spelled out evidence for its conclusion that Mr. Trump was personally responsible for the deadly attack on the Capitol.
Other chapters included details of Trump’s spreading of lies about the election, the creation of fake slates of pro-Trump electors in states won by President Biden, and the former President’s pressure campaign against state officials, the Justice Department and former Vice President Mike Pence. The committee’s report documents how Mr. Trump summoned a mob of his supporters to Washington and then did nothing to stop them as they attacked the Capitol for more than three hours – even as Trump was told the crowd was chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and “Kill Pelosi“.
“Our institutions are only strong when those who hold office are faithful to our Constitution,” Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee, wrote in the report, adding: “Part of the tragedy of Jan. 6 is the conduct of those who knew that what happened was profoundly wrong, but nevertheless tried to downplay it, minimize it or defend those responsible.”
The report contains the committee’s legislative recommendations, which are intended to prevent future presidents from attempting a similar plot. The panel has already endorsed overhauling the Electoral Count Act, the law that Mr. Trump and his allies tried to exploit on Jan. 6 in an attempt to cling to power. The House is scheduled to give final approval to that overhaul on Friday.
Among committee recommendations were a possible overhaul of the Insurrection Act and strengthening the enforcement of the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding office. The panel also said Congress should consider legislation to bolster its subpoena power and increase penalties against those who threaten election workers.
In addition to its focus on Mr. Trump’s actions, the report went into great detail about a supporting cast of lieutenants who enabled him. Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff, and the lawyers John Eastman, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro were named as potential “co-conspirators” in Mr. Trump’s various attempts to cling to power.
I, for one, would prefer my daughters not grow up under a dictatorship – especially as this particular group of wanna-bees is not too keen on giving Women any rights. Sure, these might be “your” team but how many benevolent dictators have we had in this World?
8:30 Data Dump: As we expected, Durable Goods were down 2.1% vs down 1.5% expected by Leading Economorons. Last month was revised lower as well but at least next month will include new aircraft orders and that will then surprise Economorons to the upside – since they don’t actually understand how these reports work…
Personal Income was up 0.4% but that’s slowed from 0.7% last months so – Yay – I guess. The Fed wants to cool Wage Growth but cooling it below inflation means the Consumer is losing ground and that leads to a Recession anyway. You can see that in the Personal Spending Report, which is up only 0.1% from 0.9% last month and you really do not want to see that kind of slow down in November.
I know this may come as a shock to our “Leading Economists” but you will find that, over time, Personal Spending and Personal Income tend to line up because most people can only spend what they can afford. That’s why, if you want genuine Economic Growth, you might want to try raising wages instead of raising and lowering rates all the time!
PCE Prices have come down from 0.3% to 0.2% but Gasoline will reverse that next month. We’re still waiting on New Home Sales (yuch!) and Consumer Sentiment – which may be an upside surprise as Consumer Confidence was a big boost on Wednesday (which we lost again on Thursday).
And speaking of spreading Christmas cheer, despite Government claims to the contrary, estimates are that well over 1M and perhaps 37M people PER DAY in China are catching Covid as the country re-opens. Bodies are piled up in storage containers waiting for cremation with families waiting days for their turn at the funeral homes.
“As many as 248 million people, or nearly 18% of the population, likely contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to minutes from an internal meeting of China’s National Health Commission held on Wednesday, confirmed with people involved in the discussions. If accurate, the infection rate would dwarf the previous daily record of about 4 million, set in January 2022.”
Do you think this doesn’t affect you? Isn’t that what you said in Dec of 2019, when Covid was a “China problem”. Fortunately, this time I don’t have to convince our Members to be Cashy and Cautious – we already took the money and ran for 2022 and we’re waiting and seeing what happens in the next few months.
So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
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- Phil
