020 7898 0500On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump declared a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall. His attempt to
bypass Congress was met with disdain from Democrats, who vowed to use ‘every remedy available’ to block him. The president
lied several times during the course of his announcement, such as when he claimed drugs and human trafficking occurs at
areas where there is no border wall. It is known that the majority of these incidents actually occur at the legal point of
entry.
When Jim Acosta asked Trump why he decided to declare a national emergency at a time when statistics show undocumented
immigration has dropped to its lowest level in ten years, Trump said “You don’t really believe that stat do you?” despite
the fact that the statistics come from his own government. When asked which statistics he had seen to contradict those
quoted by his own government, Trump said “I use many stats.” Welcome to 2019.
Manufacturing output surprisingly fell by 0.9% in January, which was much worse than the 0.1% growth the markets had
expected. Industrial output also decline by 0.6% last month when, again, an increase of 0.1% had been expected. The
University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment increased to 95.5 in February from 91.2 in January.
For more on currencies and currency risk management strategies, please get in touch with your Smart Currency Business
trader on 020 7898 0500 or your Private Client trader on 020 7898 0541.
