US wholesale data weak; US give muddled signals on China trade; China trade better than expected; Canada data weakens, RBA downgrades growth; UST 10yr 1.93%; oil unchanged and gold down; NZ$1 = 63.2 USc; TWI-5 = 68.5

In Washington, there are muddled messages coming from the US Administration. Officials have been talking up the imminent trade deal with the Chinese that includes tariff rollbacks. But the President has said he isn't considering such rollbacks. China is confused.

There’s the nontrivial possibility that what’s really behind the push toward a trade deal is the growing official and political concern that something’s really wrong with the US and not just China’s economy. And if there is, not knowing much of anything else about it, once you realize last year’s boom didn’t boom, at least didn’t carry over very much into this year, maybe Trump’s administration is starting to reconsider the costs of continuing the argument.

Nothing kills the election chances of any incumbent quite like the prospects for serious economic downturn. Just ask Bush 41.

In other words, the trade deals that are in the air may be due mostly to some desperation on both ends. The Chinese aren’t faring well at all, of course, but the Americans aren’t doing so hot, either. That’s because it wasn’t trade wars to begin with. Nobody wins during the squeeze, meaning both sides at least realize they are losing if they don’t really know why and how.

The Census Bureau reported today more evidence indicating as much. The trade wars are certainly real and they are having real effects. Chinese imports into the United States plummeted by almost 20% year-over-year in September, among the worst results in the entire series. Link

Those crazy Germans
https://capitalistexploits.at/german-energy-policy-a-page-out-of-crazy/…+

The Saturday Rant: The political/ideological, urban/rural & cultural/racist splits inside most western democracies, including ours, are almost complete. We are now so divided, from almost every quarter, that it's hard to see any compromise from anywhere forthcoming. What we see happening around us & by us (us being multiples) has now advanced so far down the ultra/urban-liberal pathway, that the only thing keeping us in the same country is space. Particularly space away from one another. And lots of it.
The urban-rural divide can now be measured in centuries if not planets. This is true in all so-called western societies with the only real upside i can see is the opportunities in rural NZ are there for the taking for anyone wanting to work hard. IE: A million bucks & a good idea still goes a very long way in the countryside.
The political-ideological divide I describe is liberal to the left & conservative to the right. This is a view from within the so-called Neo-Liberal societies (nations) & represents about a third of all the people we call New Zealanders, & is a similar % in other western cultures (give or take). The UL's (urban liberals) are out there & very noisy & in your face on the media every night & just about drive the other two-thirds of us up the wall with their gender bending agenda's that, if I can keep up with it (which is very hard) changes by the day, if not the hour. Yes, the rest of us are pretty boring in comparison, but mostly we work in real jobs, pay our taxes, support our local communities & stay out of trouble most of the time. Some of us even run charities & organisations & foundations for the so-called useless & oppressed, which are generally not appreciated as much as they could be, rather expected, & in some cases demanded, by those with their hands out.
The cultural- racist divides are now so many & so loud & so expensive to run (read running on guilt) that's it's a wonder that these people aren't the richest people in the country. We now have so many ways to redress perceived racism in this country, that it directly employs almost 100,000 New Zealanders at last count (see any NZ Govt Stats report of recent vintage). In fact, we have friends earning 6 figure salaries involved directly in doing this. Racism is a growing industry in this land but can only be capitalised by the first nation growing minority continually claiming injustices against the fast disappearing majority (now only 56% of the population) whilst continuing to have their hands out through other state apparatus & thus having a double-dipped tax-sponsored breeding programme, alongside the grievence processes, unprecedented within their own culture & history, & which from the outside has the others (the majority, or the rest of us, remember) shaking our heads in continual disbelief at the new ways of screwing a system that is almost screwed to the max already. For those (these) beneficiaries I have a suggestion. Why don't you take your successful newfound industry on the road, overseas. Yes, that's right, export it. I'm sure there are minorities in in almost every nation on this planet that would love to have your expertise to screw their current governments & redress their multitudes of grievances going back hundreds if not thousands of years. At least then perhaps back in little ol' NZ Inc might be able to say that there was actually something good to come out of 50 years of going through the now massive & locally grown guilt & grievance industry. I'm sure the other nations you could target would welcome you with open arms.

Sustainable NZ has launched : a new political party , Vernon Tava has announced the arrival of the Blue Greens .... YAY !!!!