Summary: Today’s show focuses on the past week’s turmoil and decline in US and global stocks (Japan, EME, China, Europe), as Fed rate hikes and the ‘wall of money’ tsunami provided to investors by the Fed and Congress since 2008 now begins to recede. Dr. Rasmus explains why US stock and financial markets accelerated to record levels between 2009-2018 (i.e. Fed $5T plus QE free money, 6 years of near zero interest rates, $1T year in corporate bond issuance, another $1T a year in corporate stock buybacks and dividend payouts, a tripling of corporate profits, $15T in tax cuts for businesses and investors from Bush to Trump—have all converged driving up stock prices. Now investors realize, except for Trump tax cut subsidy to profits (20% this year), all the other ‘drivers’ of stock prices will decline in 2019 and after. Rasmus explains further how structural changes in stock markets (ETFs, passive investing, dark pools, algo trading, etc.) have exacerbated the US stock run-up, but will now accelerate the stock declines as well. Other related discussion in the show focuses on the IMF bailouts of Argentina, Pakistan and IMF’s coming funding crisis, Italy’s new government’s break from EU austerity rules, and latest developments in Trump’s US-China trade war.
