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Topic: PoliticsTo my various Republican and conservative friends, it's time to talk about Donald Trump. In particular it's time for hard thinking on whether, for the sake of the GOP and conservatism, it's past time to cut him loose. Not for any of the arguments made by your leftie friends, but because it's the right thing for you. It's also time to leave the sinking ship.
To quote Lindsay Graham, back when he spoke his true mind about it, "If Donald Trump carries the banner of my party. I think it taints conservatism for generations to come." Graham isn't the only one who has said this or used to say this. An astonishing fraction of conservatives who worked in the Trump White House have said worse, even published books about it. You can discount a few as sour grapes, but there's far too many of them. Even Mike Pence, John Bolton, Mark Esper and his Chief of Staff John Kelly. Dick Cheney has called him the "greatest threat to our republic." And of course, what J.D. Vance said about Trump before he decided Trump could be his path to power. There's been nothing like this before, which should wake people up.
Look at this list and note it was made after Trump took near-total control of the party. (Bush has sworn to be apolitical but nobody doubts his feelings.) Not just them but multiple close relatives, Mark Burnett (who made Trump, as producer of the Apprentice) and Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of "The Art of the Deal." Of all past nominees a
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Stocks stabilized Wednesday after Tuesday's hotter-than-expected inflation data sparked Wall Street's worst selloff in over two years.
Inflation remained in focus today with the early morning release of the producer price index (PPI) for August. Similar to yesterday's consumer price index (CPI), the PPI - which measures what suppliers are charging for goods and services - rose at a slower annual clip in August than it did in July. However, on a month-over-month basis, both PPI and core PPI, which excludes energy and food prices, were up from July's figures.
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"There is a divergence in headline and core inflation building, where headline is cooling and core is heating up," says Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group. "That's an odd phenomenon and likely influenced by the shift from goods to services post-pandemic. The Fed should proceed with caution and not hit the emergency brake on rate hikes."
While yesterday's selling was broad-based, today's action was more mixed. In terms of sector performance, real estate (-1.2%) and materials (-1.2%) were the biggest laggards, while energy ( 2.8%) outperformed as U.S. crude futures rose 1.3% to settle at $88.48 per barrel.
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As for the major indexes, the Nasdaq Composite ended up 0.7% at 11,719, while the S&P 500 Index ( 0.3% at 3,946) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( 0.1% at 31,135) also finished with mode
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