Financial markets are essentially betting parlors.  Mohamed El Erian is considered to be one of the better, perhaps currently the best/most influential, financial market analysts in the world.   What El Erian outlines is something we have discussed at great length.

“When people realize that at the end of the day, the U.S. will prevail, because [China] is a less open economy, because [the U.S.] is a more dynamic economy, that ultimately you may end up in a situation where the U.S.’ position in global economic terms is better off.”

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The multinationals (corporations and financial entities) don’t like President Trump; nor do they like any politician who expresses economic nationalism – with the exception of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom they had been using as the fulcrum for their investment betting on the U.S. as following a service-driven economic model.
Trump has crushed that fulcrum.  The economic globe is in a state of flux while it resets to the natural fulcrum with the U.S. as the centerpiece.  Previously we have explained the dynamic of this flux-time as the space between two economic engines.  Only President Trump could pull off this reset… his plans therein were assembled over decades.
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Following a bilateral meeting in Buckinghamshire, England, President Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May hold a joint press conference.

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British leader of Brexit, Nigel Farage, appears on Fox News Morning to discuss the ongoing visit by U.S. President Donald Trump and the issues surrounding a bilateral U.S./U.K. trade deal.

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President Trump gave Rupert Murdoch (British U.K. Sun) an interview prior to leaving Washington DC for Brussels and the NATO summit.   Mr. Multinational Murdoch is severely against President Trump’s trade positions and wants to retain control over the global trade structure.   Murdoch personally has billions of dollars dependent on retaining the current globalist multinational trade scheme.
That’s the backdrop to understand the timing and presentation of the interview content.
As to the substance of the interview, President Trump is 100% accurate.  If the U.K. keeps the pre-existing trade pact with the EU, and essentially stays economically attached to the EU through acquiescence to the EU trade bloc, then any bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. is essentially impossible.   Duh.
The EU doesn’t allow member nations to conduct their own trade negotiations.  So, any agreement that keeps the U.K attached to the EU economically means any trade deal with the U.K. would be a trade deal with the EU; and the EU trade positions are adverse to the ongoing economic interests of the United States.
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Earlier this morning President Trump stunned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the atomic sledgehammer of truth.  Stoltenberg never recovered.  The issue was/is NATO asking the U.S. for defense against Russia while the NATO member nations, driven by the construct of Germany, finance Russia through energy purchases.
Then comes the Angela Merkel bi-lateral meeting.

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[Transcript 3:45 P.M. CEST] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re having a great meeting. We’re discussing military expenditure. We’re talking about trade. We have a very, very good relationship with the Chancellor. We have a tremendous relationship with Germany. They’ve made tremendous — you’ve had tremendous success and I congratulate you. Tremendous success. And I believe that our trade will increase and lots of other things will increase. But we’ll see what happens over the next period of a few months.
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EU Parliament member Daniel Hannan discusses the background of Prime Minister May’s inept approach toward exiting the EU; her future, and the future of the Brexit process, and President Trump calling out NATO allies.

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Methinks this NATO summit will be very interesting…
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Stunningly confrontational remarks today from EU President Donald Tusk as U.S. President Trump and First Lady Melania arrive in Brussels for a NATO summit.
After destroying nationalistic Brexit plans for the U.K. to exit the European Union, the insufferable arrogance of the EU surfaces with pontificating snark.
The EU might feel emboldened right now, but this approach will not end well; believe me.

Brussels – Speaking on the eve of the NATO summit here in Brussels, I would like to address President Trump directly, who for a long time now has been criticising Europe almost daily for, in his view, insufficient contributions to the common defence capabilities, and for living off the US.
Dear President Trump: America does not have, and will not have a better ally than Europe. Today Europeans spend on defence many times more than Russia, and as much as China. And I think you can have no doubt, Mr President, that this is an investment in common American and European defence and security. Which can’t be said with confidence about Russian or Chinese spending.
I would therefore have two remarks here. First of all, dear America, appreciate your allies, after all you don’t have that many. And, dear Europe, spend more on your defence, because everyone respects an ally that is well-prepared and equipped.

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It is more than likely President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross knew this was in the making several months ago.  In hindsight it now appears Germany presented a false proposal to U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell intentionally to poke him in the eye.
Germany has sealed the fate of their auto-industry with a multi-company agreement to manufacture vehicles in China and share all their intellectual processes therein.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German companies signed a series of agreements with Chinese partners at a meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Berlin on Monday, according to a document seen by Reuters. Following are details of them:
♦BASF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Guangdong Province to look at building a highly-integrated chemical production site there, BASF said.

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There is trouble ahead for Great Britain as the leaders of the British exit from the European Union (Brexit) quit in disgust over Prime Minister Theresa May’s abhorrent acquiescence to multinational corporations and the EU globalists.  British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson quit today.
Western Media are quick to come to the defense of Prime Minister May due to their financial and ideological alignment with the multinational media organizations and corporations who pull the strings.
EU Council President Donald Tusk quickly raises the idea that Brexit might be called off. “Politicians come and go but the problems they have created for people remain,” he tweeted.  Ultimately, this has been the goal of the multinationals’ all along.  The EU constructed the Brexit negotiations around the basic premise there would be no substantive change to the relationship.  Prime Minister May went along with the corrupocrat scheme, and now the primary voices behind the Brexit negotiation have quit.

(Via Reuters) […]  May’s office said it had accepted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s resignation on Monday, hours after Brexit minister David Davis, in charge of exit negotiations with the bloc, quit on Sunday night.

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President Donald Trump used twitter today to begin a process. [BACKSTORY HERE] This is another example of using brutal honesty in digestible doses to change the reference points of most international observers.  Few have any real understanding of the dynamic between the U.S. and North Korea vis-a-vis China.
This tweet is serious business.  It is fired directly into the heart of Beijing.  It is the mother of all truth bombs, and it takes away the ability of Chairman Xi to act in sunlight.

“Subtle” like a brick through a window. [Backstory available here.]  President Trump is removing the Panda mask to reveal the authentic nature of Chairman Xi Jinping.  Simultaneously Trump is trying to rescue Kim Jong-un from the clutches of the Red dragon behind the mask.
Watch Steven Mnuchin to see if enhanced treasury sanctions resurface now.
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