Trump is going to pitch his massive tax plan as 'unrigging the economy'

• Bob Bryan
 

• 6h
• 7,292

Ralph Freso/Getty Images

President Donald Trump's fall push for the Republican tax-reform effort kicks off Wednesday in Springfield, Missouri. And according to Ben White and Tara Palmeri at Politico, Trump's message will paint the tax policy as a populist change aimed at "unrigging the economy."

The Trump administration has said for months that it will aim to bring down taxes for all while closing loopholes, but Trump's speech is expected to have a decidedly populist tone.

The speech, crafted by Trump aide Stephen Miller, will feature phrases like "win again" and promises to "jump-start" the American economy, Politico reported.

The speech will reportedly be light on policy details. That seems to be, in part, because there are few concrete details to present at this point.

White House officials, including Gary Cohn, the National Economic Council director, have said the administration is looking to the congressional committees in charge of taxes to hammer out a plan.

"In the next three or four weeks the tax bill will be written in the Ways and Means Committee and Congress is going to own the writing of legislation — that is key," Cohn told the Financial Times on Thursday.

So while there have appeared to be some broad agreements between Trump administration and congressional leaders, what ends up in legislation remains unclear.

Opening the process to more than just the so-called big six — Cohn, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch — also opens the negotiations to industries interested in protecting favorable deductions and the concerns of rank-and-file members.

According to Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur, major planks of the tax plan have not been nailed down.

While selling the unfinished tax plan appears to be the next big push from Trump and the White House, it is far from the top of the list for Congress' to-do list next month.

Not only will the legislature have to deal with the relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey, but it must also deal with the debt ceiling, avoiding a government shutdown, and a slew of agency reauthorizations before the end of September.

Most experts doubt that Trump's aggressive timeline seeking to pass a tax plan this year is feasible.

"There will likely be months of committee hearings, lobbying by affected groups, and behind-the-scenes horse trading before final tax legislation emerges," JPMorgan economists Michael Feroli, Jay Barry, and Jesse Edgerton wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.

"Our baseline forecast continues to pencil in a modest, temporary, deficit-financed tax cut to be passed in 2Q2018 through the reconciliation process, avoiding the need to attract 60 votes in the Senate."

SEE ALSO: The White House looks like it'll take a back seat on the GOP's big tax-cut plan

NOW WATCH: Steve Bannon is out — here are all the casualties of the Trump administration so far

00:00

01:48

More: Donald Trump Trump Tax Plan Tax Cuts Tax Reform

Abolishing Capitalism (Video)

Abolishing Capitalism

2017 , 

Is capitalism destroying the fabric of our society? Peter Joseph, the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement, argues that it is. His philosophy is at the center of Abolishing Capitalism, an Empire Files documentary hosted by acclaimed journalist Abby Martin.

The film is essentially a long form interview with Joseph as he sounds off on a variety of topics, including banks, the stock market, debt, and class division. In his view, capitalism is a scourge that has eroded our capacity for empathy. It promotes the irrational consumption of goods and services, shamelessly appeals to our primal need for social inclusion, and corrupts in its ability to reshape our priorities. In the process, it sets the stage for bringing out our worst misogynistic, racist and exclusionary instincts. Advertising is the means by which the system is able to perpetuate itself.

The average person often fails to recognize the cancer of capitalism. By design, the process is covert and muddied in complexity. The movers and shakers of the financial industry in the United States - the Wall Street traders and tycoons - create nothing. They merely make money from money. The elite line their pockets with increasing bundles of wealth while the lower and middle classes continue to struggle. Corporations are equally ruthless in their attempts to exploit the vulnerable masses. In one such scenario, Joseph exposes a major company that takes out life insurance policies on its employees. Every aspect of the financial sector is driven by profit, including the sanctity of life and death itself.

Joseph extends these grievances to the state of the world's underdeveloped countries, global starvation and poverty, and the degradation of the environment.

It's not all doom and gloom, however. His message is also aspirational. Collectively, our best and brightest have the power to transcend the capitalistic model, fully commit to the promise of renewable energy, conserve our precious resources, dismantle class divides and cure societal ills.

Abolishing Capitalism offers no counter argument to Joseph's assertions. But it does provide viewers with concepts that are worthy of careful thought and debate, and which might inspire activism for change.

Directed by: Abby Martin

Markets around Europe are sliding in reaction to North Korea's latest missile launch

• Will Martin
 

• 7h
• 2,495

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the 2016 Workers' Party Congress in Pyongyang in a handout photo provided by Korean Central News Agency. KCNA/via REUTERS

LONDON — Stocks around Europe, and in the broader global markets, were falling Tuesday as investors reacted to the latest provocation from North Korea.

North Korea launched a missile that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido at 5:58 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to Japanese government officials.

Japan's NHK News reported that the missile passed over Japan, with people in northern Japan warned to take precautions.

The move was the latest in a series of missile launches and grandstanding statements from the far-east state in recent months, as tensions rise between its ruler Kim Jong Un and the West.

As noted by analysts from Nomura in a note circulated early Tuesday morning, the "number of North Korean provocations this year has already exceeded last year's figure" and is the highest of any year in the past two decades.

Earlier in August, US President Donald Trump warned that any provocations from the country would "be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

European markets are dipping amid the latest development in the tensions, with virtually all of the continent's major bourses losing in excess of 1% during the morning's trading.

In Britain, the FTSE 100 — which returns to trading Tuesday after a long bank holiday weekend — dropped 1.2% to trade at 7,31 points as of 11.30 a.m. BST (6.30 a.m. ET). Losses across the index are widespread, with just a handful of companies, including the gold miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources, gaining ground.

The story across the continent was largely the same, with indexes across the channel also down more than 1%, as the table below illustrates:

Investing.com

"Risk-sensitive stocks have fallen sharply while perceived safe-haven gold, Japanese yen and Swiss franc have soared higher," Fawad Razaqzada, a market analyst at Forex.com, wrote in an email. "Sentiment has been hit above all by raised geopolitical concerns after North Korea fired what is thought to be a ballistic weapon over northern Japan in the early hours of Tuesday."

"However investors may have overreacted," he added. "Tensions may calm down quickly if North Korea explains its decision to launch the missile over Japan and says it was a one off, for example."

US stock futures slumped overnight after the missile launch was reported, while Asian equities also dropped sharply. Futures point to a drop of about 0.7% in the S&P 500 when markets open.

NOW WATCH: Fidelity sector expert: Reports of a stock bubble are exaggerated

00:00

05:00

More: North Korea Japan Markets Stocks