U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement to effectively pause their trade war and work toward a pact. The cease-fire leaves American tariffs in place on $250 billion in Chinese goods, but removes – for now -Trump’s threat to increase the tariffs on $200 billion of those goods in January to 25 percent from 10 percent, and to impose tariffs on all imports from China. The agreement sets a March 1 deadline for a trade deal. The temporary truce, forged over a working dinner on Saturday night in Buenos Aires amid the G-20 global economic summit, appears to be aimed at giving the two leaders some political breathing room after an escalating fight has begun inflicting economic damage on both sides of the Pacific.<\/p>\n
+ The Economist<\/strong><\/p>\n A more realistic assessment would be that the meeting produced a truce based on two elements: some murky mercantilism, and a deal to talk about a deal.<\/p>\n + The Wall Street Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n The larger message of this truce is that both sides seem to appreciate that an economic Cold War would benefit neither. The Chinese are worried about their slowing and heavily indebted economy, while Mr. Trump needs growth to have a chance at re-election. The incentive to strike a deal is compelling.<\/p>\n + Donald Luskin of TrendMacro Live<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The US and China announced a breakthrough in trade negotiations, with the US suspending further tariff increases and the Chinese immediately resuming purchases of US agricultural products. Trump got the better of the deal, with China making immediate concessions while the US holds the status quo. At the present frozen level of tariffs, the cost to US firms is more than compensated by this year’s weakness in the Chinese currency. There was no mention of currency policy nor privatization, Trump’s two “big asks,” suggesting that they have been conceded by the US. Negotiations over the next 90 days will no doubt be rocky, but this is the all-clear signal that nobody is going to walk off a cliff. That means we’ve seen the lows in equities, and the year should finish strong, especially for China and the emerging markets.<\/p>\n Three important news that got overshadowed:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n + France’s working class is suffering in low-paying jobs. Many have taken to the streets, posing a serious challenge to Macron’s government. Today’s NYTimes’ headline is\u00a0Yellow Vests’ Riot in Paris, but Their Anger Is Rooted Deep in France.<\/em> Click here.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n + Salesforce is not the fastest-growing enterprise software company ever – it’s Amazon.\u00a0AWS is about twice the size of Salesforce and is growing faster. For more, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n + China’s largest car company is coming. It’s called GAC Motor. If I were younger, I’d apply for a dealership. They’ll soon be making a million vehicles a year. They make handsome-looking, technology-packed SUVs, sedans and minivans. Here’s a clip from their web site.<\/p>\n You can visit their web site here.<\/strong><\/a> It’s all in English.<\/p>\n SNL’s version of how the G.20 meeting went down.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Please watch it. It’s funny.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/chinaCarOftheyear.jpg\")
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