2016-11-14

MacroView: False Narratives, Fake News, Trump's Win, The Truth

MacroView |  ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of  macro economic and investing news:
 
MacroView Feature •  False Narratives, Fake News, Trump's Win, The Truth: As I indicated last week, the week's macro economic event was the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election. Here's the final wrap:

October 26, 2015 Bloomberg.comThe Most Likely Next President Is Hillary Clinton And Republicans are in denial about it.--False Narrative or Fake News? 

November 5, 2016 The New York Times: Clinton Has Solid Lead in Electoral College; Trump’s Winning Map Is Unclear--False Narrative or Fake News? 

I could give literally hundreds more examples--many embedded with much more egregious false narratives or fake news--each with the narrative or message from the establishment media a/k/a MSM (mainstream media) from 2015 through election day, November 8, 2016, that "Hillary Clinton will be the next President." Of course if you were gullible enough to be taken in by the MSM stream of misinformation, the truth of the final results from November 8th, came as a BIG surprise and shock--it didn't turn out at all like MSM had been telling us for over a year it would:


Reference to "Schumer" in the tweet above is to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the U.S. Senate minority (Democrats) leader when Trump takes office on January 20, 2017.

In retrospect:
1) How did the media get it so wrong? Start here and here.
2) Did the media's constant and lengthy pro-Hillary campaign of disinformation, motivated by misinformed or intentional bias, over the extended period from 2015 through 2016, produce social contagion, influencing some voters to vote for Hillary (vs. Bernie Sanders and vs. Donald Trump) who otherwise would have voted for the other candidate? The answer is most likely yes based on studies of media influence over voters and elections--see this and this. So now it is ironic that the pro-Hillary camp is complaining that somehow Trump's election is due to the power of "fake news" on Facebook. What about the false narratives and fake news in the pro-Hillary mainstream media 2015-16?

 Rebekah Mercer, Daughter of Major Donor, Named to Trump Role | Bloomberg.com: "Rebekah Mercer, whose wealthy family has sought for years to reshape conservative politics with a populist, anti-establishment message, was named to President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition team." The Mercers are also investors in London's CambridgeAnalytica.org, the data and analytics company used by the Trump campaign.

Peter Thiel Joins Trump's Transition Team:

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel will join President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition team, a move that solidifies the Facebook  board member’s power and could help Silicon Valley have a say in the next administration. Bloomberg's Cory Johnson reports on "Bloomberg Markets" on Nov 11, 2016.

•  Members of Trump's Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee:
Mike Pence, VP-elect, Presidential Transition Chairman
Vice Chairs:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Dr. Ben Carson
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, USA (Ret.)
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions
Other members:
Congressman Lou Barletta
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
Congressman Chris Collins
Jared Kushner, Real Estate Developer, Investor & Entrepreneur (Trump's son-in-law)
Congressman Tom Marino
Rebekah Mercer (see above)
Steven Mnuchin (Trump Campaign Finance Chairman and likely next U.S. Secretary of the Treasury)
Congressman Devin Nunes
Anthony Scaramucci (Founder of SkyBridge Capital)
Peter Thiel (Entrepreneur and VC, Board member of Facebook, Inc.)
Donald Trump Jr.
Eric Trump
Ivanka Trump
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Trump's White House chief of staff
Trump Campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon, to be Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor

•  The "Trump Rally" on Wall Street this past week:
S&P 500 Index
Trump's impact on US economy | FT.com Opinion:

Video above published Nov 10, 2016. Martin Wolf discusses the benefits and risks of Trump's plans to boost U.S. economic growth.


-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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