Debate Without Trump Gets Better Ratings Than Last Debate with Trump

Donald Trump's campaign manager predicted that Thursday night's GOP presidential debate on Fox News would only get "about 2 million" viewers because Trump refused to show up. In fact, "Fox News likely had 11 million to 13 million viewers for the debate," CNN's Brian Stelter reports.
Thursday's debate ended up getting higher ratings than the the last debate in which Trump participated. "Fox's Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data from so-called metered markets," reports CNN's Stelter. "The most recent GOP debate, televised two weeks ago on the Fox Business Network, had a household rating of 7.4." It's possible that Thursday's debate had up to 2 million more viewers than the January 15 debate that included Trump.
Trump said he wouldn't debate on Thursday because Fox News and moderator Megyn Kelly had not been nice to him. Trump instead held a rally and fundraiser for veterans. The leader of one veterans group called the fundraiser a political "stunt." In recent years Trump's charitable foundation has given more money to the Clinton Foundation than it has given to veterans groups.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/debate-without-trump-gets-better-ratings-than-last-debate-with-trump/article/2000820

Sanctions And Low Oil Prices Deepen Russian Recession

The Russian economy’s heavy reliance on energy, plus Western sanctions imposed because of Moscow’s role in the Ukraine conflict, have left the country in its worst financial position since the depths of the global financial crisis eight years ago.
The Federal Statistics Service reported Monday that its preliminary data shows Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 3.7 in 2015, due in large part to a 10 percent decline in retail sales over the year, including a 15.3 percent drop in December compared with December 2014, and an annual decline of one-third in foreign trade. Russia’s GDP had grown by 0.6 percent in 2014.
The overall GDP drop exactly matched the forecast made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the update to its World Economic Outlook issued on Jan. 19. The same IMF report said Russia’s economy would drop an additional 1 percent in 2016 before recovering with 1 percent economic growth in 2017.

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Sanctions-And-Low-Oil-Prices-Deepen-Russian-Recession.html 

This is how to tell whether China is really heading in the right direction

Economist Michael Pettis, a superstar of China analysis, wrote a must-read (but massive) blog post on the state of the Chinese economy and whether planned reforms are likely to work.
There are a lot of uncertainties in terms of timing and policy implementation, he said.
What Pettis considers a certainty is how the world will know China's serious problems with debt and overcapacity are being dealt with.
From his blog post:

It is only when credit growth begins to decelerate much more rapidly than nominal GDP growth that we can begin to talk hopefully about China's moving in the right direction, and it is only when credit growth falls permanently below the growth rate of the economy's debt-servicing capacity that China will have adjusted.

China's economy is transitioning from a system based on investment to one based on consumer consumption. During those investment years, China's massive state-owned enterprises racked up a ton of debt, and now it's making them unproductive.

When companies are paying off debt, they're not reinvesting or expanding. They're not hiring people. They may have to lay off workers. Worse, down the line, they may not be able to pay their creditors.

You see how this is a problem.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/tell-whether-china-really-heading-182248962.html 

El-Erian Warns of 'Global Recession With Financial Disorder'

Newsmax Finance Insider and Allianz Chief Economic Adviser Mohamed El-Erian said Tuesday the world economy is nearing a crucial fork in its financial road.

He said the global economy is at the end of the era of borrowing growth and profits from the future in the form of easy monetary policies.

"Either we validate the financial asset prices and growth faster, or alternatively we will slip into a global recession with financial disorder," he told CNBC,  saying we’ll know the answers within the next three years.

"The path we're on right now — and that we've been on for a while— is ending," he said.

“El-Erian said the Federal Reserve waited too long to begin exiting from emergency polices designed to boost the economy after the 2008 financial crisis,” CNBC explained.

"They were waiting, waiting, and waiting, and irony is that the economy has healed, but it is not unleashed," he said.

 http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/Mohamed-El-Erian-economy-recession-investing/2016/01/26/id/710902/#ixzz3yXgmTMtq

FOURTH TURNING: CRISIS OF TRUST – PART 2

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I will ponder possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy.

The nearly seven year reign of Barack Obama has resulted in furthering wealth inequality, in spite of his socialistic rhetoric. Notwithstanding his Nobel Peace Prize, military spending is at all-time highs and we are engaged in actual and proxy wars across the Middle East and in the Ukraine. Race relations have never been worse. Poverty levels have never been worse. Real median household income is lower than it was in 1989. Real hourly wages are at 50 year lows. Home ownership has plunged to 50 year lows, as middle class workers have been kicked out of their homes and young people are saddled with so much student loan debt and bleak job opportunities they will never have an opportunity to own. The ownership society pushed by Clinton and Bush, with the proliferation of Wall Street created “exotic” subprime mortgages, peddled to people incapable of paying their mortgages, blew up the world in 2008, and the fall out will last for decades.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/09/14/fourth-turning-crisis-of-trust-part-2/ 

Veterans’ Groups Line up to Reject Money from Trump (if He is Even Raising Any)

Trump’s standard line when he is about to storm out of a media event because he doesn’t like how it covers him is that he is going to go host an event to raise money for veterans. Thus it was no surprise when he announced that he would be skipping the FoxNews event to hold a separate event to raise money for… well, “veterans,” generally. Of course, Trump did not name a specific charity so that his feet might be held to the fire on this, just “veterans,” generally.
Well, there are two small problems. The main veterans group that Trump has used for publicity stunts in the past, the Wounded Warrior Project, was the subject of a scathing CBS report and recently lost their tax exempt status. Besides, if Trump is planning on using them, he hasn’t told anyone from the group. Per CNN, the Wounded Warrior Project has not even been contacted by Trump about possibly doing an event tomorrow.

If he is doing it for some other group, they are now lining up to say that they don’t want any money Trump might make off of promoting himself, and will reject it if offered.

http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/27/veterans-groups-line-reject-money-trump-even-raising/ 

Obama’s Legacy: Runaway Deficits, Debt And Health Costs

The Budget: When President Obama released his first budget plan in 2009, he called it a “New Era of Responsibility.” What he produced was irresponsibility on a historic scale.
“Government has failed to fully confront the deep, systemic problems that year after year have only become a larger and larger drag on our economy,” Obama said in his inaugural budget plan, promising to make “the tough choices necessary to … put our nation on sound fiscal footing.”
Seven years later, a new Congressional Budget Office report reveals that Obama will bequeath chronic and rising deficits, rapidly expanding debt, and exploding health care costs to his successors.
First, there’s the deficit, which the CBO says will top $1 trillion in six years, and continue climbing. Over the next decade, deficits will total more than $9 trillion. The CBO’s outlook has worsened significantly since its last forecast, mainly because it expects the economy to grow more slowly.
Debt held by the public will nearly double over the next decade, the CBO says, going from close to $14 trillion this year to $23.8 trillion in 2026. By that year, debt will equal more than 86% of the economy.
“Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences for the budget and the nation,” the report notes.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obamas-legacy-runaway-deficits-debt-and-health-costs/