Trade talks extension speculation; Central Economic Work Conference underway?; Michael Kovrig

Bloomberg is reporting that the annual Central Economic Work Conference is underway. It certainly looks that way from the propaganda, with several articles yesterday and today pounding out the message that the economy is resilient and growing steadily.

Multiple media outlets are running stories that it is likely the US and China will extend trade talks past the upcoming December 15 tariff deadline. In this instance I would listen to Jared Kushner, who said Monday when asked what President Trump would do:

“I don’t know what his decision will be”.

Today is the one year anniversary of the arrest of Canadian Michael Kovrig, clearly in retaliation for the detention of the Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. A few days later a second Canadian, Michael Spavor, was also detained. It sounds like their cases may soon be headed to trial.

Thanks for reading.