Housekeeping: This is the PM GoldFix post combining AM emails with additional intraday posts.
Morning Rundown:
Macro-Economics/Commodities:
Geopolitics/Elections:
N/a
Founders:
Unrelated to any posts today, but interesting.
For anyone who missed Trump's 'Gulf of America' press conference from Mar A Lago today, it was a beat-poetry-style stream-of-consciousness victory-lap for a foreign real estate investment. But it makes one wonder about his rhetoric.
Why is Trump so hyped about Greenland and Panama? And to a lesser degree, Canada. He spent a fair amount of time on stories of malaria, Jimmy Carter's $1 sale, economic security, and Wayne Gretzky. This may come back to the M-word... Mercantilism.
Part of the mercantile system is controlling shipping routes. It's clear that east-west transit across the Americas is effectively controlled by the Panama Canal and, in the future, the Northwest Passage which passes between Canada and Greenland. Kind of like the Red Sea, the Strait of Malacca or Hormuz. If you want to put the squeeze on your trade partners and project maritime power, these are great pieces of real estate to control.
Trump also had a bit of a tangent today about Canada begging to join the U.S. on a group purchase for icebreakers. Random, or bread crumb? Also Don Jr went to Greenland today.