President Donald Trump talks about placing tariffs on Canadian goods.  Ontario Premier Doug Ford talks about “inflicting as much pain as possible on the American people.”  See the difference?   Tell me again how the term “snowmexicans” is insulting.  I digress.

A few thoughts.  First, apparently Doug Ford doesn’t quite understand that tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto imports are not part of the “reciprocity” tariff regime.  They are an entirely different category classified under national security directives to ensure American industrial capacity.

Second, as Canada moves into the “freedom fries” phase, voices like Doug Ford might want to consider the end of this continuum that finds the word “embargo” in the lingo. Perhaps President Trump would consider elevating the conversation to “reciprocity” in the banking sector.  Again, I digress.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces the Canadian government intention to “inflict as much pain as possible against the American people.”  WATCH:

Canadians just don’t get it.  Meanwhile, as it was within most of the originating negotiations of the USMCA, Mexico smartly stays quiet as stompy feet Canada draws the attention from President Donald Trump.

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Tariffs simply work. This is no longer a debatable issue, and decades of Wall Street gaslighting collapses as the outcomes of tariffs generate visible economic benefits for all Americans.

South Korea-based Hyundai and President Donald Trump announced a $20 billion investment in US on-shoring on Monday, which includes a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana,

The $5.8 billion Louisiana facility will be the car manufacturers’ first steel manufacturing facility in the US and will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year and create more than 1,400 jobs. It will supply steel to auto plants in Alabama and Georgia, Trump said in remarks at the White House.

The announcement at the White House included President Trump, Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. WATCH:

The Hyundai announcement comes as the highly anticipated April 2nd “reciprocity tariffs” are scheduled to begin against all nations.  For the EU this means an end to the 80-year-old Marshal plan of economic benefit.

Effective April 2, 2025, the U.S. will begin a process of reciprocal tariffs on imports from all nations with tariffs against U.S. products.

If a nation charges a 20% tariff on a U.S. good, in combination with a 20% non-tariff trade barrier, President Trump will calculate the financial impact and then reciprocate with a 40% tariff put on that nation’s goods being imported to the USA.

Globally, all nations are calculating how to deal with this issue.  Hyundai’s best position calculations end up with this announcement.

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If you are concerned about the economics of American life, the first step is to understand the financial influences that were put into place by President Obama, then again with Obama’s team using the auspices of Joe Biden.

President Trump is rapidly untangling the tentacles of Obama’s “share the wealth” exfiltration policy, and he will achieve success on a scale most economic analysts cannot fathom.  Traditional financial media, including those who follow the influences of Wall Street are constrained by their need to retain pretenses.  However, President Trump and his economic team are very clear-eyed and focused.

We are already seeing major drops in core energy prices including gasoline.  These decreases will have downstream impacts on all consumer goods, and we will notice a significant drop in food prices in two steps.

The first will be moderate and the result of harvest one cost decreases. The second price drop will be even greater and will come as a result in major farm costs for the second harvest sequence. By Thanksgiving 2025, lowered energy prices in combination with ‘food prepared at home’ price drops will be the leading cause of a major decline in inflation.

In the background of this domestic outcome, the April 2nd tariffs will start to ripple through durable goods.  Initially, there will be waves and fluctuations as some durable goods prices increase and other durable goods prices decrease.  The more the components of the product are domestically manufactured, the more the price of the end product will drop in price.

As a result, the aggregate downward pressure (higher domestic content) will exceed the upward pressure (higher import content component goods) and overall prices for durable goods will decline.  This deflationary pressure point will increase over time as the end of the Marshal Plan starts to return dollars to the United States.

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The issue of Canada becoming the 51st state arose from a conversation in Mar-a-Lago between Prime Minister Trudeau and U.S President Donald Trump.

As Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined, Trudeau said if President Trump was to make the Canadian government pay reciprocal tariffs, open the USMCA trade agreements to force reciprocity, and/or balance economic relations on non-tariff issues, then Canada would collapse and cease to exist.

In essence, Canada cannot survive as a free and independent north American nation, without receiving all the one-way benefits from the U.S. economy. To wit, President Trump then said, if Canada cannot survive in a balanced rules environment, including putting together their own military and defenses (which it cannot), then Canada should become the 51st U.S state.

This is the first point of contention for the gender-correct qualifications of Canadian Ambassador to the U.S, Kirsten Hillman. Ambassador Hillman appears on Fox News Sunday’ to comment on U.S.-Canada relations, trade negotiations and how a federal election could impact the relationship between the two nations.

Ms. Hillman says Canadians will never give up their sovereignty. Let me repeat the non-pretending reality.  If Canada loses all of the one-way benefits it receives from its relationship with the United States, the Canadian system of government and economics collapses.

Closed and non-competitive banking and finance sectors; a small military budget that does not even reach NATO expectations; an assembly or ‘pass through’ economy that doesn’t have heavy industry but instead assembles goods from foreign nations for transport into the United States; one-way excessive tariffs on American products.  If these are ended, the lifestyle of the Canadian people immediately changes.  Hence Trudeau saying, Canada cannot exist.

At the current rate of economic conflict, the Canadian dollar will lose 50% of its value by mid-summer 2025.  This is the unavoidable reality Ms Hillman and the Canadian left-wing government will not openly discuss.

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on Bloomberg to discuss the tariff approach of President Trump toward national security.  Economic security is national security.

Lutnick correctly points out the crazy mindset of the Canadians and Europeans not understanding and respecting the big picture objective of President Trump.  Ex. President Trump says we need steel and aluminum made in the USA, Canada responds with a tax on soccer balls.  As Lutnick says, “really, I mean, REALLY?”

This interview is must watch television that cuts directly through the pretending and silliness.  WATCH:

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DOGE and government reform head, Elon Musk appears with Larry Kudlow to discuss ongoing events and challenges to both his private enterprises and Trump administration as a result of targeting the Deep State apparatus in Washington DC.

Beginning the interview, Musk notes the X-Platform faced a DDOS attack from Ukraine origin throughout the day on Monday, then the conversation moves to how DOGE is being opposed.

The interview is interesting from the scale and scope of the opposition forces that are attempting to derail the Trump administration, and in the larger picture shows just how extensive the previously hidden malevolent forces are that run the systems of our U.S. government.  Segment #1 Below:

The second segment is below.

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For many of us who walk the deep weeds of honest economic analysis, this is the moment we have been waiting for.

Second only to the elimination of the U.S-Marshal Plan, which is scheduled to end April 2, 2025, the structural implementation of North American tariffs against Mexico and Canada provides the most significant opportunity for GDP expansion, jobs, wage increases and massive economic gains in the United States.

Simultaneous to the tariffs scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, President Trump notes U.S. food prices are positioned for major supply-demand changes that will benefit all American consumers.  What President Trump notes in the Truth Social message below, is a reality we experienced in 2018/2019 as the result of national agriculture supply.

[Source]

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday that the inflationary impact from any tariffs would be “second-order small, so I don’t see the president wavering on any of this, because he knows in order to get to a world in which America is strong and prosperous, with real wages going up and (more) factory jobs. This is the path that he’s chosen.” (more)

CTH outlined the prediction for ’18/’19 back in 2016 when we discussed what happens when the American food supply equation is modified to focus on domestic production to the benefit of domestic consumers.   The food supply chain will shift, slowly at first and then ultimately by around Thanksgiving of this year (fall harvest) we will see major price drops in the American food basket.

There are going to be major opposition forces, notably related to decades of Big Ag exfiltration, screaming that U.S. consumers will see higher prices.  However, as previously experienced/outlined these claims are entirely false. We will see major drops in food prices as a result of a more balanced U.S production-import/export dynamic.

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Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought is also the interim Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB is under review by DOGE and on Monday morning Russ Vought told CFPB staff not to come to work. {Background Here}

Vought sent an email to employees this morning saying they should “not perform any work tasks.” They were directed to contact the top lawyer for the Office of Management and Budget “to get approval in writing before performing any work task.”

Vought is also serving as the bureau’s acting director. The previous director, Rohit Chopra, was fired by Trump, a Republican, on Feb. 1. Vought’s message followed one on Saturday evening that ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.”

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s newly installed chief of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told all of the agency’s staff on Monday to stay away from the office and do no work, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.

The move followed a weekend decision to shutter the CFPB’s Washington headquarters, idling a federal agency of nearly 2,000 workers tasked with enforcing consumer financial laws.

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If you thought the USAID revelations were alarming sunlight, just wait until you see the apoplectic fits of rage about to come out from the Democrats, the DNC affiliated community activist groups, and the professional leftists who all rely upon the financial mechanism of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

According to a Politico article (also funded by USAID money), written with stunning amount of anger and apoplexy itself, Elon Musk’s DOGE team has just entered the CFPB to do a review and audit.  This one is going to be beyond bananas.

Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, tell Ma, to fire up the coffee pot, we are in for a delicious treat.  There’s no way for the DC outrage machine to handle this dose of Trumpian nitrous oxide directly into the intake manifold.  The machine will explode.

BACKGROUND FIRST – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) was originally created by congress (Elizabeth Warren lead) as a quasi-constitutional watchdog agency to reach into the banking and financial system, under the guise of oversight, and extract money by fining entities for CFPB defined regulatory and/or compliance violations

Essentially, the CFPB is a congressionally authorized far-left extortion scheme in the banking sector.  The CFPB levies fines; the fines generate income; however, unlike traditional fines that go to the U.S. treasury, the CFBP fines are then redistributed to left-wing organizations to help fund their political activism.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren as an outcome of the Dodd-Frank legislation. Within the CFPB Warren tried to set up the head of the agency, the Director, in a manner that that he/she would operate without oversight. Unfortunately, her dictatorial-fiat-design collapsed when challenged in court.  Backstory #1 – Backstory #2

A federal court found the CFPB Director position held too much power and deemed it unconstitutional. The court decision noted that giving the President power to fire the Director would fix the constitutional problem.  This issue was argued extensively after President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney as interim Director.  Elizabeth Warren declaring the CFPB Director could not be fired by the executive.  The legal battle worked its way to the Supreme Court.

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U.S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears for an interview with Bloomberg, to set the record straight.  Bessent says Elon Musk and his DOGE government efficiency team are not “tinkering” with any federal payment data. He says the group does important work, and two of the DOGE analysts are Treasury Dept employees.

Secretary Bessent also talks about the strength of the US dollar, President Donald Trump’s agenda and meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and more.  The remarks about DOGE are at the front of the interview. WATCH:

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