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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 4:14:07 PM
From: Heywood40	1 Recommendation Recommended By sylvester80 Respond to of 1584599

He's fat-golfing now.

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 4:16:08 PM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 1584599

BREAKING: LAWLESS MURDERING SAUDI ARABIA THREATENS COWARD TRAITOR POS TRUMP TO CUT HIS TINY PENIS & MAKE HIM EAT IT Saudi Arabia vows to retaliate against any sanctions in Khashoggi case By Sheena McKenzie, Peter Wilkinson and Schams Elwazer, CNN Updated 3:43 PM ET, Sun October 14, 2018 cnn.com (CNN)As international pressure mounted on Saudi Arabia over the case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kingdom came out swinging Sunday, threatening to retaliate and spelling out the ways in which Riyadh would punish the US if it imposed sanctions. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and Saudi royal insider-turned-critic, went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancée. His disappearance has drawn international condemnation and sparked warnings from US President Donald Trump on Saturday of "severe punishment" if the Saudis are found to be behind his death. Britain, France and Germany also said on Sunday they were demanding a "credible investigation." In a statement Sunday on the official Saudi Press Agency attributed to "an official," the kingdom rejected any threats of economic sanctions or political pressure and said it would "respond with greater action." But in a strongly worded op-ed published later on Sunday, Turki Aldakhil, general manager of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel, warned that if the US imposed sanctions on Riyadh "it will stab its own economy to death," cause oil prices to reach as high as $200 a barrel, lead Riyadh to permit a Russian military base in the city of Tabuk and drive the Middle East into the arms of Iran. "The information circulating within decision-making circles within the kingdom have gone beyond the rosy language used in the statement," Aldakhil wrote, referring to the earlier comment. "There are simple procedures, that are part of over 30 others, that Riyadh will implement directly, without flinching an eye if sanctions are imposed," he said. "If US sanctions are imposed on Saudi Arabia, we will be facing an economic disaster that would rock the entire world," he added. He warned that any sanctions would lead to the kingdom's "failure to commit" to specific levels of oil production and "if the price of oil reaching $80 angered President Trump, no one should rule out the price jumping to $100, or $200, or even double that figure." Aldakhil later said on his official Twitter account that the op-ed piece was his personal opinion and not the official position of Saudi Arabia's government. "I noticed that some people are connecting this article of mine with the Saudi government's official position. This is not true, it is my personal opinion," he wrote. Faisal bin Farhan, a senior adviser at the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC, said on his official Twitter account Sunday that the op-ed "did not reflect the thinking of the Saudi leadership." The Saudi Embassy in Washington offered a milder statement in a tweet on Sunday. "To help clarify recently issued Saudi statement, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia extends its appreciation to all, including the US administration, for refraining from jumping to conclusions on the ongoing investigation," the statement said. The Saudi warnings came after the country's stock market fell as much as 7% on Sunday amid fears of sanctions. The index recovered some ground later to close 3.5% down. The losses wiped out all the market's gains in 2018, although it is still up 8% from a year ago. None of the statements mentioned Khashoggi by name, or provided any further clues into what happened to the journalist. Growing isolation In a joint statement later Sunday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany said "light must be shed" on Khashoggi's disappearance. "Germany, the United Kingdom and France share the grave concern expressed by others including HRVP [Federica] Mogherini and UNSG [Antonio] Guterres, and are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness. There needs to be a credible investigation to establish the truth about what happened, and -- if relevant -- to identify those bearing responsibility for the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, and ensure that they are held to account," the statement said. "We encourage joint Saudi-Turkish efforts in that regard, and expect the Saudi Government to provide a complete and detailed response. We have conveyed this message directly to the Saudi authorities." Separately, British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt on Sunday urged Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi at the consulate, saying, "if they have got nothing to hide, then they will and should cooperate." "If, as they say, this terrible murder didn't happen, then where is Jamal Khashoggi? That's what the world wants to know," Hunt told UK Pool. In the diplomatic fallout over Khashoggi's disappearance, international firms are pulling out of a high-profile investment summit due to take place later this month in Riyadh. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday declined to confirm whether US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would still be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference being hosted by the Saudi Crown Prince -- known as "Davos in the desert" -- later this month. "I think we need to continue to evaluate the facts and we'll make that decision -- I talked to Secretary Mnuchin about it last night, we'll be taking a look at it through the rest of the week," Pompeo, alongside President Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office on Saturday. Doubts are also growing over whether British Trade Secretary Liam Fox will attend the Riyadh conference, the BBC reported Sunday citing diplomatic sources. A spokesman for the UK's international trade department told CNN that Fox's diary was not yet finalized for the week of the conference. Turkish authorities believe 15 Saudi men who arrived in Istanbul on October 2 were connected to Khashoggi's disappearance and possible killing. At least some of them appear to have high-level connections in the Saudi government. On Friday, a source familiar with the ongoing investigation told CNN that Turkish authorities have audio and visual evidence that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Saudi Arabia firmly denies any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance and says he left the consulate that afternoon. Fiancée describes heartbreak over 'lonely patriot' Khashoggi's fiancée Hatice Cengiz revealed how the couple spent their last hours together, writing that "tyrants eventually pay for their sins," in a New York Times article on Saturday. Cengiz, a doctoral student at a university in Istanbul, wrote: "If the allegations are true, and Jamal has been murdered by the errand boys of Mohammed bin Salman, he is already a martyr." Missing Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi with his fiancé, Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz said in the article that Khashoggi had been "cheerful" on the morning they traveled together to the consulate, and that the couple had made plans for the rest of their day. "We were going to browse appliances for our new home and meet with our friends and family members over dinner," she wrote. "When we arrived at the consulate, he went right in. He told me to alert the Turkish authorities if I did not hear from him soon." The heartfelt article, which described how the pair met at a conference in Istanbul in May and bonded over their "shared passion for democracy, human rights and freedom of expression" was published on Khashoggi's birthday, Cengiz said. "I had planned a party, inviting his closest friends to surround him with the love and warmth that he had missed," she wrote. "We would have been married now." Cengiz said Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia with two suitcases for the US "amid a crackdown on intellectuals and activists who criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman." But rather than a dissident, he saw himself as a patriot "using his pen for the good of his country," she said. Cengiz added that she had seen reports President Trump wanted to invite her to the White House. But she said, "If he makes a genuine contribution to the efforts to reveal what happened inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that day, I will consider accepting his invitation." The US President said Friday he had not yet spoken with King Salman of Saudi Arabia -- the father of bin Salman -- in the wake of Khashoggi's reported killing, but that he planned to "pretty soon."

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 4:23:34 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By sylvester80 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584599

He's destroying America. He's a loser with horrible values. Always has been. Your admission about his past shows you recognize his past as a failed rich kid. But you're still an idiot for pretending he's a genius.

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 4:26:08 PM
From: sylvester80	1 Recommendation Recommended By SeachRE Respond to of 1584599

BREAKING: Marco Rubio says if COWARD Trump won’t act on Saudi Arabia, Congress will Trump’s former election rival told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Congress will act on Saudi Arabia if he does not MATTHEW ROZSA OCTOBER 14, 2018 6:45PM salon.com (UTC)On Sunday Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper that if President Donald Trump doesn't act in a strong way against Saudi Arabia's alleged assassination of a Washington Post journalist, Congress will do so anyway. "Here's the bottom line: I believe the Trump administration will do something," Rubio told Tapper. "The president has said that. But if he doesn't, Congress will. That I can tell you with 100% certainty. With almost full unanimity, across the board, Republicans and Democrats. There will be a very strong congressional response if in fact the Saudis lured him into that consulate, murdered him, cut up his body and disposed of it. There is going to be a very strong congressional response." Earlier in the interview, Rubio defended Trump for not providing specifics about how he might respond to the incidents surrounding the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen going into the Saudi Arabian consulate in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. Khashoggi is now believed to be dead. "I'm glad he didn't offer any specifics, because that's something that should be thought through carefully. But there needs to be a strong response if in fact this proves to be true," Rubio told Tapper. "If they lured this man into that consulate, they went medieval on him, and he was killed and he was chopped up and they sent a death crew down there to kill him and do all this, that'd be an outrage." He also indirectly addressed the arguments made by Trump that Saudi Arabia's support for the United States is important because of their mutual efforts to address Iranian imperialism. "Just because they're an ally in an important mission, which is containing Iranian expansion in the region, cannot allow us to overlook or walk away from that. It undermines our ability to stand for morality and human rights all over the world. How can we criticize Putin for killing journalists if we're prepared to allow an ally to do the same?" Rubio explained to Tapper. Although he did not elaborate on measures that he believed should be taken against Saudi Arabia, he mentioned that Congress had asked for the Magnitsky Act to be applied to the individuals responsible for Khashoggi's death so that they would suffer from sanctions. The Florida lawmaker also said, in response to a question about whether Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should still go to an investment conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh ( Mnuchin says he still plans on going), that he did not believe that the Trump administration "should continue with business as usual until we know exactly what's happened here." Rubio also had strong words for Trump's refusal to cancel arms sales to Saudi Arabia as punishment for Khashoggi's death. "As far as arms sales, I would not have said it the way the president said it," Rubio told Tapper. "Arms sales are important not because of the money, but because it also provides leverage over their future behavior. They'll need our spare parts, they'll need our training. And those are things we can use to influence their behavior. But I would not taking cutting that off off the table. Every option needs to be there in a response." Saudi Arabia's government has already said that if America responds with "severe punishment" like economic sanctions, they will retaliate "with a larger action," according to The Wall Street Journal.

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 6:53:02 PM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 1584599

POS trump LOSING: Trump’s tariffs against China are hurting U.S. tech companies instead; “If I was on the Chinese side, I would bet there would be a huge stock-market fall-off that would cause Trump to break down [on tariffs],” said VLSI’s Hutcheson. Published: Oct 14, 2018 1:29 p.m. ET Trade war could have negative impact on companies and the economy this holiday season, and earnings will be a big test marketwatch.com By THERESE POLETTI COLUMNIST The latest tariffs enacted by the Trump administration against China are not expected to help solve the problem of intellectual-property theft from American companies, and instead could hurt U.S. companies, especially in the technology sector. When corporate earnings-reporting season begins this week, investors will hear from companies about what kind of impacts they expect to see or are seeing from the tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, whether on their bottom lines or their overall businesses. So far, a few tech companies have begun to warn about issues in the supply chain, the need to raise prices or take hits to their profits, due to the extra costs that tariffs of initially 10% on a wide-ranging list of goods. The tariffs will affect a huge range of products, from baby cribs to printed circuit assemblies, and prices are bound to rise, unless companies decide to take a hit to their profit margins instead. In the next few weeks, investors will get a better idea of the impact. “You are going to see a lot more comments about tariffs,” said Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research Inc. “Here are two ways tariffs will slow industry growth: Prices will be raised, and it will create uncertainty. Higher prices across all goods affected will cause companies to be uncertain about demand for electronics products in the upcoming holiday season. If they are not confident that the market will be there, they will hold off buying semiconductors to build inventories for the holidays.” Some investors believe worries about the U.S.-China trade war are among the reasons that tech stocks are one of the big contributors to the current market rout this week. ‘It’s like two cars racing to the cliff to see who is going to hit the brakes first.’Dan Hutcheson, VLSI Research Inc. In a survey conducted in mid-September by Blind, an anonymous workplace social network, 75.5% of tech employees responded negatively to a question about whether the tariffs would be good for business. Many employees were from companies that wrote letters to the U.S. Trade Representative during the public-comment period about how the tariffs would be bad for their companies and tech innovation, such as Apple Inc. AAPL, +3.57% AAPL, +3.57% AAPL, +3.57% , Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, +3.60% and Intel Corp. INTC, +1.47% . Already, a few tech companies have made cautionary comments about the impact. Memory-chip maker Micron Technology Inc. MU, +1.19% warned that its profit margins will take a slight hit due to the tariffs on Chinese goods. The Boise, Idaho–based company has an assembly plant in China where its memory modules are assembled. Last week, at its annual meeting with analysts, HP Inc. HPQ, +2.87% said that it included the impact of the tariffs in its forecast. “We’re expecting a gross headwind before mitigations,” HP Chief Financial Officer Steven Fieler said. “However, we’ve been actively working mitigation plans to anticipate the net headwind to decline throughout [fiscal] 2019 as our strategies take full effect.” An HP spokeswoman said the company will “continue to manage” but did not expand on that remark. “Mitigation” is likely a reference to price increases. Price hikes, especially if they come around the holiday shopping season, could backfire with consumers looking at consumer electronics as a gift idea. Another mitigation option could be moving some manufacturing or assembly facilities. With the tariffs, the U.S. appears to be trying to punish China for some of its trade policies, such as forcing U.S. companies to share some intellectual property, so-called forced technology transfers, in exchange for gaining access to the Chinese market, the world’s largest market. “Rather than hitting the administration’s intended target — Chinese firms that may have unfairly obtained American technology — the proposed tariffs would actually inflict damage on U.S. high-technology sectors,” wrote Mary Lovely and Yang Liang of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in a policy brief this year. Instead, the moves are hurting U.S. companies, which see the tariffs as additional taxes on goods and not doing anything to alleviate the real core problem. In addition, China is so entrenched as the leader in global manufacturing that many companies might find it too costly or time consuming to move their manufacturing elsewhere. “It’s pretty implausible to manufacture consumer electronics anywhere else,” said Aaron Emigh, the chief executive and co-founder of Brilliant, a startup in Silicon Valley making a control panel for the smart home. “It is unique in its ability to scale, and particularly in the way the supply chain is integrated in China.” There is a whole ecosystem of suppliers “that you don’t get anywhere else in the world,” Emigh said, adding that there are lower-cost manufacturing options outside of China, but those are seen as too risky to pursue, including shipping and customs. “China is really unique in the way that a small company can tap into this ecosystem and get all the benefits of this supply chain and manufacture a high-quality product at high volume,” he said. Doreen Edelman, an attorney with Baker Donelson in Washington, D.C., where she is co-chair of the firm’s global business team, said she has been advising clients that this is a good time to do an internal review of their entire global supply chain. “If you are a global company you are better situated,” Edelman said, adding that larger companies have the resources to investigate other manufacturing options, double check their tariff numbers, file for exclusions, and take other actions that might delay some of the impact. “The small companies are less apt to absorb these duties, and they will shut down or lay off workers.” Investors will be waiting to hear more about the impact, which could eventually hurt the economies of both the U.S. and China. Already, economists are predicting that the trade war will reduce growth, and a recent report by the International Monetary Fund said that the U.S. could lose more than 0.9% of gross domestic product in 2019. “If I was on the Chinese side, I would bet there would be a huge stock-market fall-off that would cause Trump to break down [on tariffs],” said VLSI’s Hutcheson. “If I were on Trump’s side, I would say we want to make their economy slow down enough. They are both playing with fire when it comes to their own economies. It’s like two cars racing to the cliff to see who is going to hit the brakes first.”

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 7:02:02 PM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 1584599

POS trump LOSING: China's exports to U.S. defying forecasts; Numbers buoyed by rush to fill lower-tariff orders. By Joe McDonald Associated Press OCTOBER 14, 2018 — 2:00PM startribune.com CHINATOPIX VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS Tugboats moved a container ship in China. Customs data showed China’s trade surplus with the U.S. widened to a record $34.1 billion in September as exports to the U.S. market rose again. BEIJING – China's trade surplus with the United States widened to a record $34.1 billion in September as exports to the American market rose by 13 percent over a year earlier despite a worsening tariff war. Exports to the United States rose to $46.7 billion, down from August's 13.4 percent growth, customs data showed Friday. Imports of American goods increased 9 percent to $12.6 billion, down from 11.1 percent. Chinese exports to the United States have at least temporarily defied forecasts they would weaken after being hit by punitive tariffs of up to 25 percent in a fight over American complaints about Beijing's technology policy. "Exports continued to defy U.S. tariffs last month but imports struggled in the face of cooling domestic demand," said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a report. "We expect both to soften in the coming quarters." September marked the second straight record Chinese monthly trade surplus with the United States after August's $31 billion. Export numbers have been buoyed by producers rushing to fill orders before American tariffs rose, but they also benefit from "robust U.S. demand" and a weaker Chinese currency, which makes their goods cheaper abroad, said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics in a report. The yuan has lost nearly 10 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar this year. That prompted suggestions Beijing might weaken the exchange rate to help exporters, but that might hurt China's economy by encouraging an outflow of capital. The central bank has tightened controls on currency trading to head off further declines. China's overall export growth accelerated, temporarily defying forecasts of a slowdown as the global economy and consumer demand cool. Exports rose 14.5 percent over a year earlier to $226.7 billion, up from August's 12.2 percent growth. Imports grew 14.3 percent to $195 billion, down from the previous month's 20.9 percent rate. Exports to the 28-nation European Union, China's biggest trading partner, rose 11.6 percent to $37.4 billion. The Chinese trade surplus with Europe was $12.7 billion. Chinese leaders have rejected pressure to scale back plans for state-led development of global champions in robotics and other technologies. Washington, Europe and other trading partners complain those violate Beijing's free-trade commitments and U.S. officials worry they might erode American industrial leadership. But communist leaders see their industry plans as the path to prosperity and global influence. As tensions mounted, Beijing agreed in May to narrow its trade gap with the United States by purchasing more American soybeans, natural gas and other exports. Chinese leaders scrapped that deal after Trump's first tariff hikes hit. Communist officials have ordered companies to stop buying American soybeans — the biggest U.S. export to China — and find alternative suppliers and export markets for other goods. "Prospects for significant progress toward de-escalation of their trade conflict are low in the short term," said Kuijs. Chinese exporters of lower-value goods such as handbags and surgical gloves say U.S. orders have fallen off. But sellers of factory machinery and other more advanced exports express confidence they can keep their market share. With global growth cooling and U.S. threats of more tariff hikes, "the recent resilience of exports is unlikely to be sustained," said Evans-Pritchard.

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 7:06:47 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584599

POS trump LOSING: Trump's Tariffs Were Supposed to Help Steel Stocks. So Why Are They Down in 2018? Even though tariffs have bumped the prices for domestic steel and aluminum, these four stocks are down more than 15% this year. Tyler Crowe ( TMFDirtyBird) Oct 13, 2018 at 8:48AM fool.com When the Trump administration announced that it was going to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum, shares of steel stocks jumped considerably. It was pretty simple to draw the line from 25% and 10% import duties on steel and aluminum, respectively, to the stock prices of the two metals' producers. Yet the price boost from tariffs has not led to the outcome most would expect. Since the announcement of the tariffs, shares of aluminum producers Alcoa ( NYSE:AA) and Century Aluminum ( NASDAQ:CENX), and steel producers United States Steel ( NYSE:X) and AK Steel Holding ( NYSE:AKS) are all down more than 16%. Let's take a look at why the Trump tariff hasn't been the salve for each of these steel and aluminum stocks. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Tariffs are good for business -- unless you have manufacturing elsewhereWhen Alcoa split up with its aluminum component manufacturer Arconic, it benefited immensely from Arconic taking the lion's share of the company's debt. Alcoa was left with a net debt-to- EBITDA ratio of 0.3, which is incredibly low for a capital-intensive business. This reset of the balance sheet gave the company a significant financial boost and led to its stock hitting multiyear highs as recently as May. Since then, though, its stock has started to slide. Even though aluminum prices in the U.S. are up, that isn't the case for all of Alcoa's manufacturing as about 28% of the company's aluminum smelting capacity is in Canada. Since Canada was not granted a tariff exemption as many thought would happen, Alcoa estimates that the current tariff regime costs the company between $12 million and $15 million per month to move product from Canada to the U.S. The tariffs were a large part of the reason why CEO Roy Harvey reduced Alcoa's profit outlook for the year by $500 million in July. There could be some relief on the horizon for Alcoa after one of its largest competitors, Norsk Hydro, decided to shut down a bauxite refinery that produces alumina earlier this month. Alcoa sells about 69% of its alumina production to independent third parties, and the shuttering of this facility should lead to much-higher alumina prices. AA DATA BY YCHARTS. Rising selling prices, but rising costs as wellRemember that 69% of alumina that Alcoa sells to third parties? Well, Century Aluminum happens to be what you would call a third-party customer. Unsurprisingly, the thing that should give Alcoa a bit of a lift could also be a detriment for Century Aluminum. Alcoa is a vertically integrated aluminum producer, which means that it has assets in bauxite mining, alumina refining, and aluminum smelting. Century Aluminum, on the other hand, only has assets in the aluminum smelting business. Over the past several months, two of its largest material inputs for smelting aluminum -- alumina and petroleum coke -- have increased significantly. According to Century's second-quarter earnings report, the prices of both alumina and coke have more than doubled since January 2017. While the price of finished aluminum has increased over that period as well, the rise isn't nearly as large as the increase in input costs for the company. Management is in the process of restarting one of its smelters in the U.S., which has been a detriment to earnings over the past couple of quarters. Perhaps some higher volume will boost earnings, but alumina prices have yet to show signs of slowing down. That could put some margin pressure on Century for some time. Still paying penance for past misstepsBoth U.S. Steel and AK Steel have been stuck between a rock and a hard place for years. On the one hand, they both relied heavily on older blast furnace technology to manufacture steel. This type of steel manufacturing process has to be done on incredibly large scales and the facilities have to run at high utilization rates to be economical. The growing use of electric arc furnaces in the U.S. -- a process that is cheaper, can be done on a smaller scale, and can be easily turned on and off -- has made it harder and harder for blast furnaces to be competitive in today's market. While both of these companies were in desperate need for upgrades, neither was in a position to make them. Both had high debt levels and were barely turning a profit, which meant that there wasn't much money available for investments. Both companies sport a times interest earned ratio (EBITDA divided by interest expenses) well below their U.S. and international steel manufacturing peers. To make matters worse, U.S. Steel was also trying to recover from an incredibly ill-advised investment in Stelco back in 2012. TIMES INTEREST EARNED (TTM) DATA BY YCHARTS. For U.S. Steel, one of the things that has investors uneasy right now is that management is embarking on a $2 billion asset revitalization program designed to boost productivity. That may sound good on the surface, but this isn't the first time management has promised significant operational improvement with asset revitalization programs. Its 2013 "Carnegie Way" initiative certainly didn't yield the results that management promised. As for AK Steel, well, its debt levels are simply too high to make any significant changes to the business. A 1.19 times interest earned means that it's barely covering interest expenses, even at current elevated steel prices. Management is touting its ability to refinance large portions of its debt to extend its maturities and lower some interest payments, but it has yet to make considerable progress in lowering the total debt load. It's also hard to trim debt when also acquiring companies that do some downstream steel processing like tubular and press-stamped steel. Until these steel companies can prove that they can significantly improve the balance sheet and make investments in upgrading their facilities that actually generate returns, neither U.S. Steel nor AK Steel Holdings will be able to reap many benefits from higher steel prices. Headlines can be deceivingI'm guessing that if someone had told you steel and aluminum producers would be down as much as 50% the day that import tariffs were announced, you would have thought them crazy. Higher prices should have been the thing that finally allowed these companies to excel, but the nuances of tariffs, higher input costs, and the challenges of making an outdated technology competitive again have more than offset any price bump for steel or aluminum. You could probably argue that these stocks are selling at incredibly cheap prices today, especially if the tariffs continue for some time. The trouble with that assumption is we don't really know how long the tariffs will last. If these stocks are already struggling with what are arguably artificially elevated prices, then what will happen to them if those tariffs go away?

To: longnshort who wrote (1093050)	10/14/2018 7:53:44 PM
From: sylvester80	1 Recommendation Recommended By Wharf Rat Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584599

BOMBSHELL: Climate change is becoming so real that it’s gaining converts for a carbon price By Akshat Rathi October 13, 2018 qz.com By any standard, this has been a remarkable week for conversations about climate change. It started with a grim report from the International Panel on Climate Change, which warned that anything short of dramatic action could cause irreversible harm to the planet, lead to food shortages, and cost the world economy tens of trillions of dollars in damages in as few as 20 years. Then, the Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for explaining how climate change and technological progress impact long-term economic growth. And the week comes to a close as two deadly storms— Hurricane Michael in the southeast US and Cyclone Titli in eastern India—continue to cause widespread devastation. These extreme weather events are tell-tale signals of global warming. Part of the solution to climate change, as Nordhaus’s work has shown, is to levy a universal carbon tax. This would punish carbon emitters and incentivize the development of greener technologies. While more work needs to be done to further integrate climate change into economic models, many leading economists agree that a global price on carbon is the way forward. The trouble is that politics gets in the way. In the US, the Trump administration is determined to roll back environmental standards and play fiddle with the Paris climate agreement. Sadly, even countries that agree on the need for strong climate action are not doing enough. Of the countries that put a price on carbon, most don’t have a tax high enough to meet climate targets, according to a report published last month by the OECD. But there are signs that more meaningful action isn’t out of reach. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has declared that solar- and wind-power projects are now the cheapest new power plants to build almost anywhere in the world (paywall). The World Bank has vowed not to fund any more coal-power projects and it has established an internal carbon-pricing system to decide whether to fund any new project. The influential corporations that aren’t toeing the line are being targeted. Climate activists aren’t just going after the usual suspects, such as Big Oil, but also after pension funds that finance fossil-fuel firms (paywall). Speaking of finance, insurance companies are now hiring climatologists to better price the risks the world is facing (paywall). Venture capitalists and asset managers are investing in climate-resilient real estate, flood management, and hotels near storm-prone regions, expecting that as climate change gets worse, their investments will produce greater returns. “I would love to give up these investment opportunities in a second if people would listen and stop polluting the environment,” one investor told Bloomberg (paywall). Until, then, however, his investments can serve as a societal warning. “If people are making money off it, that gets attention.” Even if all of these actions convinced officials to impose a stiff tax on carbon tomorrow, it won’t be enough to mitigate all the harm coming our way. Environmentalists are right that economic growth can never be completely benign. That doesn’t mean we should make perfect the enemy of the good. The story of human development has been one of squeezing more output from the same amount of resources. That makes one of the newest Nobel laureates optimistic about our capacity to combat climate change. I’d like to agree with him.