Poll -- Who Do You Think Initiated That Hour-Long Telephone Call This Morning? -- January 27, 2017

Oil

  

On CNBC, moments ago, 12:07 p.m. Central Time, it was noted that WTI had a significant (2%) pullback and WTI was trading back below $53. A 30-second debate:

• the bull: we're barely into the OPEC cuts; we've yet to see full effects; oil will test recent high, $56.02 in near future
• the bear: if "we" test $52.50, go below, watch out. (WTI is about $52.85 right now.)

The better case: the bull.

So, we have the markers: $52.50 on the low end; $62.05 on the high end.

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Visuals

As I watch UK PM Theresa May at White House press briefing, one can't help remembering that the following have had strong women leaders:

• UK
• Germany
• Israel
• Brazil
• Thailand
• India
• Argentina
• Philippines

and, many others. But not the US. Just an observation. Not a "value" comment, just an observation.

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Comment

Updates

 

Later, 8:34 p.m. Central Time: I am not particularly pleased with the way the Trump administration, or more accurately, President Trump handled the "wall" issue early this morning -- prior to the phone call. I can understand his frustration and I can understand the frustration of many Americans on this issue but it seems it could be handled much better. President Trump needs to transition from "candidate Trump" to "President Trump."

Original post

Canceled Meetings

That "canceled' meeting between POTUS and POMEX? Not so fast. They had an hour-long telephone call earlier this morning. I think folks need to put this whole North American "family" spat in context. If one actually reads President Trump's tweet prior to the canceled meeting, one actually gets to the nub. Something tells me that it will take very, very little to bring POMEX and POTUS together on this issue. Very, very little. 

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POMEX - POTUS Flap

One wonders who initiated the phone call.

Call Me, Blondie

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Perils of Pauline

Two steps forward, one step back. That's what the POMEX-POTUS "flap" feels like.

I haven't watched the HBO television series in a few weeks, but this really, really reminds me of Julia Louis-Dreyfus in "VEEP." The latter is a 30-minute sitcom that shows a Vice-President and a staff who consistently find themselves "stepping in it" and then figuring out how to recover. Both in the sitcom and in real-life, things move at lightning speed. The politicians need to stay ahead of the narrative that the media will provide by the end of of the day.

In the real-life POMEX-POTUS flap, one can imagine that in the background, Trump's staff spent hours (days?) putting together the agenda and the logistics of the Trump - Nieto meeting. Everything was literally in place. All that was left to do was to start brewing the coffee.

But then, out of nowhere, the president can't sleep, gets up early, tweets an "unfiltered" note about who is going to pay for the wall.

An hour later, the alarm clocks of his staff ring, and literally the alarm bells go off. Bannon is laughing; Ivanka is hysterial; Jared is on the phone. Melania is driving Baron to school, completely oblivious. For the next hour, Trump's staff is busy trying to "recover"; trying to reach Nieto, and trying to get things back on track. Meanwhile, other staff members reach Trump and thirty minutes later, they arrange an hour-long telephone call.

My hunch is Trump's staff knew that POTUS needed to have that conversation. Who called whom? I'm not sure that's the big question. I think the bigger question is: was there an intermediary? If there was, who was it?

My hunch: there was an intermediary. Carlos Slim. [After listening to his remarks at the UK PM Theresa - POTUS, I'm not so sure there was any intermediary. POTUS was very, very clear on his feelings about the US - Mexico situation; he did not come across as someone needed an intermediary.]

Flashback, 1992: