themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

Clinton Global Initiative’s Closing Confirmation

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The Clinton Global Initiative announced that it would be closing its doors for good on April 15th, 2017. The Clinton Global Initiative is the largest of the Clinton Foundation’s programs. According to the Clinton Foundation website:

“The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes leaders to drive action through its unique model. Rather than directly implementing projects, CGI facilitates actions by helping members connect, collaborate and make effective and measurable Commitments to Action. The CGI model drives action among its members in the following four ways: Inspiration..Networking…Knowledge Building…Collaboration.”

I’m not sure exactly what those words mean – and finding concrete descriptions of CGI’s actual activities is not that easy – but one thing about CGI is clear. The Clinton Global Initiative was the primary doorway connecting the Clintons to corporate and foreign donors interested in gaining political access to Washington. Continue Reading

A Trumpian Evolution

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If you have been following my posts you can probably discern pretty quickly that I am a fan of President-Elect Trump. If you’ve read carefully – especially the earlier posts – you will see it wasn’t always this way. It took some evolving. It wasn’t until my 26th post – Quietly Enthusiastic – that I realized I had completely come around and was fully supportive of Trump’s candidacy. I don’t agree with everything Trump puts forth – especially on some trade issues – but I am firmly in the Trump camp.

At this point some disclosure is warranted. I entered the high yield market back in 1989 – working first as an analyst and then assistant portfolio manager – at an institution that held a significant presence in the high yield market. This meant that we obtained one-on-one meetings for any deal making its way through the HY market – and Trump was reasonably active back in those days. It also meant we were generally offered the chance to meet privately with any HY issuer at the various conferences we would attend each year. While I do not know the man on a personal level, I’ve met Trump on a few occasions and have had several internal institutional meetings with him – all of them in relation to deals he had brought or was bringing into the high yield market. These meetings occurred years ago – primarily during the 90’s – and involved several other individuals from my institution as well. I found Trump to be bright yet somewhat brash, friendly and cordial yet somewhat boastful – gregarious with a noticeably large personality. In all honesty, I viewed him as almost a caricature. Continue Reading

Trump’s Independent Cabinet

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“I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine!”

“I told them, ‘Be yourself and say what you want to say. Don’t worry about me.'”

“I’m going to do the right thing, whatever it is. I may be right, they may be right. But I said, ‘Be yourself.'”

– President-Elect Trump on his Cabinet Nominees

With these words President-Elect Trump sent his cabinet nominees off to their respective Senate Confirmation Hearings. And Trump appears to have meant what he said as there were some notably divergent views expressed from his nominees.Continue Reading

Trump’s Tweets – and Why I Like Them

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President-Elect Trump once again started his morning with a series of Tweets – and thereby started the media’s day.

As I wrote in a short WSJ comment, “Initially I was bemused and skeptical over Trump’s use of Twitter as a communication platform. As time has gone by I have changed my sentiments. He is connecting with his base daily – citizens feel – and in some ways actually are – involved with our government and its issues. And that alone is a positive thing.”

Trump’s use of Twitter initially elicited derision from most folks – the left, the press, the political pundits – and much of the right. But it also resonated with some of those who mattered the most – middle Americans – folks who felt abandoned and ignored – even betrayed – by their government. Seeing daily messages from then-Presidential candidate Trump told Americans he was speaking directly to them – that he cared about their thoughts, opinions and concerns. He cared about them.Continue Reading

Term Limits or Bust

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While watching the various Senate Confirmation Hearings I found one short phrase constantly repeating itself in my head.

Term Limits… Term Limits… Term Limits…

John Conyers, House Member from Michigan, is the longest serving current Congressman. He has held his position for…52 years. The record holder, John Dingell, retired late last year with 59 years of “service”. Fourteen current members of Congress have held their posts for 36 years or longer. The average tenure at the start of the 114th Congress was 8.8 years for House Members and 9.7 years for the Senate – but these numbers are low as they do not count years of service by members of the Senate when they were members in the House and vice versa. And 53 of our 100 Senators were House Members before they became Senators. These numbers also do not capture how many Congressmen are effectively career politicians – having risen to their Congressional Membership through positions as political aides, lobbyists or by holding other political office.

You get the point.Continue Reading

The Left and the Right – Shoulds and Coulds

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Should: used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone’s actions

Could: used to indicate possibility, used in making polite requests

During this election process I’ve had numerous political discussions with people from varying backgrounds and from both political parties. And, in doing so, I’ve noticed something. When talking to folks from the Democratic side of the aisle, their discussions typically start with the word “should”. As in we “should” do something about climate change, we “should” help the poor, the rich “should” pay more, the minimum wage “should” be higher, Congress “should” do something. Noble thoughts perhaps, but often misguided and always ignoring the unbreakable Law of Unintended Consequences.Continue Reading

De-Funding the United Nations

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The United Nations (UN) was created in 1945 as a replacement for the ineffectual League of Nations. Membership was originally comprised of 51 nations – today there are 193 member nations. The UN has five primary organizational branches: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice (a sixth branch – the Trusteeship Council – has been inactive since 1994). These five branches comprise the “core” United Nations. The UN also has numerous agencies that are often autonomous or semi-autonomous. These agencies include the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program, the Education, Scientific and Cultural Foundation (UNESCO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Continue Reading

Obama’s Betrayal of Israel

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“Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both” – John Kerry

“The entire Middle East is going up in flames, entire countries are toppling, terrorism is raging and for an entire hour the secretary of state attacks the only democracy in the Middle East.” – Benjamin Netanyahu

“There are roughly 50 majority-Muslim countries in the world. There is one — only one — Jewish state. The Israeli Knesset has 17 elected Arab members. It has Muslim members and Christian members. In contrast, one searches in vain for Muslim countries that have elected Jewish representatives. Obama and Kerry choose to attack the only inclusive democracy in the Middle East, while turning a blind eye to the Islamic terrorism that grows daily.” – Ted Cruz

Continue Reading

The Syrian Cost of Obama’s Iran Deal

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“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” – President Barack Hussein Obama – August 20, 2012

On July 14, 2015, six world powers – United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany – reached an agreement with Iran on Iran’s Nuclear Program. When Obama decided to assume personal leadership of the Iran nuclear negotiations, the Iranian economy was straining under a decades old series of economic sanctions. Rather than support Congressional wishes to further tighten sanctions, thereby maintaining pressure on the ruling Mullahs, Obama decided to loosen economic restrictions as a prelude to his negotiations. The Iranian economy began growing again in 2014 and so did Iran’s negotiating power. And so, in 2015, the U.S. signed a deal with Iran that allowed the Iranians to hide much of their nuclear activities, lacked any semblance of enforcement and penalties, ended all economic sanctions, ended embargoes on ballistic missiles – and begins to expire in ten years – on January 2027 Iran can replace and upgrade its centrifuges. Obama himself has admitted that Iran will have full nuclear capability almost immediately after the deal expires. And for this we gave the Iranians access to almost $120 billion – perhaps more – Iran itself says it has already accessed $100 billion. It has been called the worst agreement in diplomatic history.Continue Reading

Merry Christmas Reclaimed

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The other day someone told me to “Have a Merry Christmas”. But that’s not what they really said. What they really said was “Have a good Holi….Have a Merry Christmas”. That’s a direct quote – and a good sign.

Last night I turned on the news to watch the Trump Rally in Wisconsin – in order to see what new announcements and appointments were forthcoming (think on that statement for a moment). To my pleasant surprise I saw a podium flanked by Christmas Trees with the words “Merry Christmas” emblazoned across its top. President-Elect Trump came onto the stage amidst chants of “USA, USA”, and he spoke these words;

“When I started eighteen months ago, I told my first crowd in Wisconsin that we’re gonna come back here some day and we are going to say Merry Christmas again. So Merry Christmas everyone. Happy New Year – but Merry Christmas.“

And I applauded.Continue Reading