72 trade in 2016. • The 10 countries that export the most major weapons: The global trade in heavy arms has skyrocketed to its highest level since the Cold War. The President personally made significant effort to promote US arms sales during 2017. In Jan- uary 2018, the President made it clear that the emphasis on arm sales will continue. • Donald Trump to call on Pentagon and US Diplomats to Play Bigger Role in Arm Sales Negotiations • Trump to Open Floodgates to US Arm Sales The question remains – how long can the US sustain an economy that’s overly dependent on war and military sales? Story #7: Planet Equity, Crash Up & the Bull Mar- ket in Centralization “Steadily increasing corporate power over the last 40 years has been, I think it’s fair to say, the defining feature of the US government and politics in general. This has probably been a slight but growing negative for GDP growth and job creation, but has been good for corporate profit margins…. Corporate power, however, really hinges on other things, especially the ease with which money can influence policy. In this, management was bless- ed by the Supreme Court, whose majority in the Citizens United decision put the seal of approval on corporate privilege and power over ordinary people. Maybe corporate power will weaken one day if it stimulates a broad pushback from the general public as Schumpeter predicted. But will it be quick enough to drag corporate margins back toward nor- mal in the next 10 or 15 years? I suggest you don’t hold your breath.” – JEREMY GRANTHAM In 2011, Catherine had a series of disagreements with colleagues. Rather than writing down un- supportable debt, the central banks would print money and “crash up” the equity. The “crash up” scenario was laughed at – considered next to impossible. Sure enough, this is what has happened. The extent of government interventions this required had been unimaginable to many members of the financial community. However, as the docu- ments are analyzed at what is happening, atti- tudes are changing. Global stock markets soared during 2017 – the S&P returned 20%+, Europe returned 25%+ and China and the Emerging Markets returned 35%+. As the markets continued to rise, in- vestment experts were coming to grips with the highly political nature of financial “markets” in the 21st century. Dr. Ben Hunt wrote a marvelous piece on the power of rigging stock markets as a highly profit- able method of political control. • Sheep Logic by Dr. Ben Hunt The dean of investment advisors, Jeremy Grantham came to terms in a series of reports that underscored the ability of corporations and government to engineer profits in a manner that could create new valuation levels on a long-term basis. • This Time Seems Very, Very Different (Part 2 of Not with a Bang but a Whimper – A IV. NEWS TRENDS & STORIES