“What, exactly, gave the president authority to unilaterally cancel student debt?” asks an article at Reason. “How exactly was this legal?”

Particularly since last summer, when asked about the loan-forgiveness scheme, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said: “The president can't do it – so that's not even a discussion… It would take an act of Congress, not an executive order, to cancel student loan debt.” 

Ahh, but if you use a national emergency, like the pandemic, you certainly can! 

So, during Biden’s “60 Minutes” interview which aired Sunday, the president really backed himself into a corner…

I won’t mince my words: The “60 Minutes” interview was a complete crapshow. Biden talked in circles, committed U.S. troops to a war with China… and so much more. 

And, boy, is he on a roll! Yesterday, Biden spoke at the UN, and we picked up on one of his alarming talking points… 

Send your opinions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Your Rundown for Thursday, September 22, 2022...

“GloboTax”  

“The United States has championed a global minimum tax,” Biden said yesterday at the UN’s General Assembly. “And we will work to see it implemented so major corporations pay their fair share everywhere — everywhere.” 

The 15% minimum corporate tax is the linchpin of a global scheme agreed to by representatives of 136 governments and jurisdictions last fall.

Though the train sputtered during the Trump administration, Team Biden, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is making up for lost time this year — denouncing countries undercutting each other with lower corporate tax rates.

How dare they? 

Most important, however, to Yellen and her ilk: A global minimum tax gives D.C. cover to raise the corporate tax rate in this country from the present 21%.

Nevertheless, Biden made it sound so kumbaya… 

“We’re working to build a new economic ecosystem… where every nation — every nation gets a fair shot and economic growth is resilient, sustainable, and shared.”  

But according to our macro expert Jim Rickards – who delved into the “GloboTax” in his 2016 book The Road to Ruin: “The most important part of this new global tax system is not the unified rate, but the information-sharing provisions. 

“Companies will find they are being audited by five or six major countries at the same time,” he says, “all with access to complete income and expense figures and critical cross-border payment information.

“I did global tax planning for Citigroup earlier in my career,” says Jim, “and I can attest to the fact that this type of information sharing can be quite effective at increasing taxes on companies. Of course, higher taxes for governments mean lower profits for companies or higher prices for customers.

“Either way, governments win,” he says, “and citizens lose.”

Market Rundown for Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022

S&P 500 futures are down 0.20% to 3,795. 

Oil is up 3% to $85.60 for a barrel of West Texas crude.

Gold is up 0.60% to $1,685.90 per ounce. 

And Bitcoin is hanging out above $19,000. 

Send your comments and questions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

No doubt, you heard the news – the FOMC voted yesterday afternoon to increase the fed funds target rate by 0.75%. We’ll have more insight on Fed tightening tomorrow…