I
I’ve said many times its best not to take political sides when you are investing or trading.
That is not to say that you cannot or should not have political views, but that you should be agnostic so that your trades can be with less emotion than would otherwise be present.
I still believe this, but this latest attack on Amazon by President Trump has me incredulous. What I don’t understand is why the rest of the financial news feed is not incredulous as well. I’ve only heard one on CNBC so far that seems to realize how nuts this is, Steve Leisman.
You all know the story. Because Jeff Bezos, the founder and major shareholder in Amazon bought the Washington Post sometime back, President Trump is out to get Bezos (or as the reporting goes, “to f**k with him”) because he doesn’t like the coverage the Washington Post gives him as President.
President Trump says that the USPS is losing money because of Amazon and that they are not paying their fair share of state and local taxes.
This is Putin-esque. He is trying to do damage to a company he believes is controlled by Bezos as revenge or pay-back. This means that companies are no longer going to be rewarded for innovation, good deal making, or excellent execution, but instead whether or not Trump likes the founder.
This is NOT a level playing field, this is picking winners and losers. This is trying to hurt one of the USA’s largest companies, largest employers and largest tax payers. Yet Trump institutes tarriffs to help much smaller steel and aluminum companies because he is tryiing to shore up the Rust Belt vote.
If Obama had done this, there would have been howling from the financial news industry. Rick Santelli would have popped a vein on his head and Larry Kudlow would have banged the table. “Free market capitalism is the fastest path to prosperity”, right Larry?
This sure doesn’t look that Free Market Capitalism to me and these fools need to be called out for it.
Ultimately how does anyone choose which stocks to buy? Do we have to get a list from Trump?