I don't want to write about Trump and his administration's incompetency in every blog.  So I was not even going to comment on the government shutdown that is going on.  I was trying to find something upbeat to write about.  But today's news out of Wall Street makes me angry and nervous.  The Dow lost another 650 points today.  I knew that this December was going to end up as one of the worst of all time.  But on Christmas eve, when the market is open for only half a day, a big drop in the Dow was not expected.  For someone like me who has retired and has no pension from a company, the profits I have made over the years in the stock market is what I will have  to live on for the rest of my life.  I am smart enough as an investor to know there will be bear market to suffer through.  But the drops recently, especially today, were all unforced errors on the part of the administration.

A president gets too much credit when the economy is doing well and too much blame when things are bad.  So I don't think Obama's handling of the economy is way better than that of Bush.  But you can't argue that Bush was better than Obama, that is for sure.  It is also a fact that the economy that Obama left for Trump was good and that if Trump doesn't screw it up, I think the economy will be still be good when he runs for reelection in 2020.  But he is screwing it up.  The trade war, the third government shutdown, the blaming of the Fed, the mess in his own cabinets, the numerous lies.  All these have negative effects.

So today, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that he had discussed with all the major banks and he wants to assure everyone that there is liquidity in the banks to lend to consumers.  This scared the market because nobody thought there was no liquidity in the first place.  It is like telling a woman that you just met that you went to the doctor and you have no STD.  That will really make you attractive to her!  Right after that, Trump tweets that the Fed is to blame for the market crash.  So is he going to fire the chairman?  He said the Feds don't understand the value of the trade war.  Neither do most of us.  China's market is down but that won't win the trade war for us.  When China gets the flu, it will be contagious to us as well.  This is hurting the confidence of season investors like me.   Can you imagine what it does to novices in the market?  All unforced errors.

Trump said in the past that he knew more than the generals.  He then appointed four generals in his inner circle.  So we thought that at least he will get good military advice.  Then he had to get rid of Michael Flynn.  We thought that at least he got rid of a bad guy.  But now the other 3 generals are gone.  McMaster, Kelly and now Mattis.  I guess he still thinks that he knows more than the generals.

Mattis is the last one to resign because Trump abruptly announced pulling troops from Syria.  This was shocking to everyone in the military.  Even a lot of Republicans are shocked.  This will only benefit Russia, ISIS and Iran.  The proof is that Putin came out applauding the move.  You have to ask:  Do Trump and Putin know more about what is good for the U.S. than American generals?  Is Trump working for Russia?

It seems to me Trump and his administration has made a mess of the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada.  Huawei is a target for the U.S. because it is believed that it was spying for the communist government of China.  It is also in violation of intellectual property theft according to the U.S.  This is not shocking as many companies in China are probably guilty of these accusations.  But spying is a two way street as Edward Snowden had revealed that the U.S. had spy on China in general and on Huawei in particular.  So why arrest Meng now?

It also curious that Meng was only charged with violation of the U.S. sanction on Iran, not spying.  How is that a crime for a foreign national?  Why would a non U.S. company be subject to a sanction that was unilaterally imposed on Iran.  The U.S. was the only country that withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.  So Huawei was not violating international or Chinese law if it dealt with Iran.  Since Trump withdrew from the Iran treaty, it has made it clear that any company, foreign or domestic, that dealt with Iran will suffer economic consequences.  This economic pressure is legitimate use of American power.  But to arrest someone for violating a sanction that none of the other countries involved agreed to, seems to me is bullying on Trump's part.

The worst is that Trump has now said that Meng could be a chip in the trade war with China.  This legitimizes China's claim that this was all political and that Meng has not committed any real crime.  This also puts Canada in an awkward position as doing the U.S. work against China for U.S. political gain only.  In the short term, China will punish Canada even if it doesn't want to go deeper into a trade war with the U.S.  There maybe Americans and Canadians detained in China in retaliation.  In the long term, China will expedite its tech advances to decrease dependence to the U.S. in such as areas as semi-conductor.  U.S. allies in the future may not want to do the dirty work for the U.S. if they believe that they would be thrown under the bus by Trump as was Canada this time.

This is the time of the year I predict the bowl results of the Big Ten.  But before I get to that fun part of the blog, I want to make a comment of Trump's comment about Rex Tillerson.  Tillerson had some not so good things to say about the President.  As usual, Trump attacked Tillerson via twitter right away.  Trump said that Tillerson is dumb as a rock and lazy as hell.  My question is, Mr. President, why then did you pick him as Secretary of State if he is that dumb and lazy?  Tillerson was a way better businessman than Trump, given that he was head of Exxon.  Of course, people had criticized Trump for nominating a businessman with no diplomatic experience to be our top diplomat.  But Trump never listens.  If he keeps criticizing all those people who left him, what would you say about Trump's judgment of hiring them in the first place.

Okay, on to the fun part.  Here are the Big Ten teams who are going to win this bowl season:
Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State.  So I predict that the other 6 teams will lose.  I think it is the first time I predict the Big Ten will have a losing bowl record.  I will take Alabama and Clemson in the finals with Alabama winning.  Really going out on the limb here.

I didn't always agree with George H. W. Bush when he was president.   But I think he was fair minded and he governed with compassion.  I think he was humble and did not brag about himself, like some president I know!  The fact that Clinton and Obama became friends with him and sought his counsel says a lot about him. 

Two decisions that cost Bush politically impressed me about him.  One was ending his membership in the NRA.  He was an avid gun supporter until he realized that the NRA had gone too far.  The other was when he raised taxes after his "read my lips, no new tax" declaration.  He knew that it was going to cost him dearly in the election for raising taxes.  But he did it anyway because he thought it was the right thing to do.  How many politicians today would do that today? 

Rest in peace, Mr. President.