The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released some important data today surrounding the state of the U.S. economy. The first release shows the current CPI (consumer price index) or rate of inflation:

(BLS Release) […] The all items index increased 1.5 percent for the 12 months ending February, a smaller increase than the 1.6-percent rise for the 12-months ending January. The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.1 percent over the last 12 months, a slightly smaller figure than the 2.2-percent increase for the period ending January. The food index rose 2.0 percent over the past year, its largest 12-month increase since the period ending April 2015. In contrast, the energy index declined 5.0 percent over the last 12 months. (read more)

As noted above, energy prices are 5.0% lower year-over-year; this is a significant reason for the current low inflationary rate.  Also energy prices (fuel, gas, oil) disproportionately impact the middle-class as an unavoidable cost.  Lower gas prices (currently down 9.1%) help middle-America, and also have a downstream impact of lowering product transportation costs.
An overall annual rate of inflation at 1.5 percent is exactly on target.  CTH has been predicting this energy-based outcome for more than three years:
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Apparently Canadian media are taking their hatred for U.S. President Donald Trump to new levels of opposition.  The taxpayer funded CBC news media is purchasing billboards and transit advertisement throughout Canada to promote a campaign against the sitting U.S. President.

SOURCE: “”TRUMP BAD!” ads are appearing throughout Canada attacking him for wanting to secure the border with Mexico using a historically illiterate comparison to the Berlin Wall. I’ve seen these on Vancouver transit also” (link)

Even for the ultra-leftists within Canada, this antagonistic approach toward the United States is quite remarkable. [Former President Barack Obama was in Canada yesterday.]
D’oh Canada, this will not end well for the Canadian government…  Additionally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is up for reelection this year.
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Justin from Canada holds a heavily controlled and practiced press conference to discuss the SNC-Lavalin scandal.  The amount of time was limited by plan and schedule; The media audience was limited; the media questioners were carefully pre-selected; the answers were well rehearsed in advance; the statement script was written for maximum use of english and french to navigate details that might later be damaging.
The result:  Justin from Canada delivers a master class in smug condescension, political obfuscation and ridiculous denial of wrongdoing under the pretense of misunderstanding.  Justin from Canada is guilty as heck, and it is obvious he’s using all the familiar catch phrases to keep his far-left coalition defending him. That’s his primary goal.
The Q&A begins at 11:30 of video below.  The central issue comes from the question answered at 19:00 of the video where Trudeau admits his office was attempting to influence the prosecutorial decision of the Attorney General, on behalf of his friends at SNC-Lavalin, and was planning on continuing to do so.

It does not appear accidental that each time Justin from Canada starts finding himself in trouble, serious trouble; the same person happens to show up.   In June 2017, Justin was being challenged with a new NAFTA trade agreement… and former President Obama showed up while delivering a speech to the Board of Trade in Montreal.
Fast forward to today…  March 2019 – the Canadian economy has halted; Justin from Canada is embroiled in a growing bribery, corruption and obstruction of justice scandal around SNC-Lavalin; and immediately after he loses two cabinet ministers… former President Obama shows up to deliver a speech to the Board of Trade in Vancouver:

During a question and answer session with Vancouver Board of Trade President Iain Black at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Canada, Obama went into a diatribe about the dangers of rising populism amid national politics. [LINK]
Serendipitous domestic timing for an Obama visit, as the ideological political-wagons are circling to defend Justin from Canada.
Coincidentally, nudge-nudge/wink-wink/say-no-more… say no more… after a coaching/not-coaching session, Justin from Canada has agreed to a heavily controlled press conference on the obstruction scandal tomorrow at 8:00am.
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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been a core member of the U.S. trade team providing a brutally honest perspective toward how specific trade engagements can directly benefit the U.S. economy and U.S. worker.
Navarro has gained a reputation as a trade hawk, specifically as it relates to confronting the one-sided trade schemes of China.  However, that encapsulation doesn’t accurately reflect Mr. Navarro’s value.
The Big Club hates him.  Yes, Navarro is hated and opposed by all the right people.  He might be rough around the edges, but he fights… for ‘America First‘.
Navarro is unapologetic in openly calling attention to the process where Wall Street, the multinationals (corporations and banks) have gained power and influence over politicians in Washington DC.  Wall Street funnels hundreds-of-millions to Tom Dohohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Donohue controls an army of K-Street lobbyists who purchase politicians and sell their CoC created legislation.
Specifically because he calls attention to the brutal truth of a corrupt process, he has become the target of attacks from Wall Street’s beneficiaries, the big club and Decepticon senators who take massive campaign bribes from Tom Donohue.
In a recent Op-ed, Peter Navarro highlights how the Trump economic team is delivering on a promise for structural global trade reform that directly benefits the U.S. economy, U.S. workers, and Main Street USA.
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Rebel Media host Ezra Levant and legal analyst Manny Montenegrino discuss the ongoing Canadian political scandal now engulfing Justin from Canada. {Background Here} and {Update Here}.  On the surface the SNC-Lavalin bribery, corruption and political obstruction case may seem small, but the ramifications are huge.
Amid growing public sentiment that Justin Trudeau did indeed use his office for corrupt purposes; and with a second well-regarded cabinet minister leaving because she cannot support the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO); it was stunning to watch Trudeau’s political appeal to the Canadian electorate for support yesterday.
Prime Minister Trudeau pleaded with his political supporters to consider “the big picture” at stake.  Trudeau argued his political value in achieving the progressive agenda was worth more than the Canadian judicial system. There’s a full blown constitutional crisis.

Former Canadian Attorney General Wilson-Raybould shocked the systems of government last week when she gave detailed testimony outlining how Justin Trudeau’s government conducted a sustained campaign to influence her decision in a bribery and corruption case surrounding a company called SNC-Lavalin. [More Here]
Today the scandal deepened as another Cabinet Minister, Ms. Jane Philpott, resigned her Treasury position citing the political corruption within the SNC-Lavalin case and her inability to support the Prime Minister’s Office.

CANADA […] “In Canada, the constitutional convention of Cabinet solidarity means, among other things, that ministers are expected to defend all Cabinet decisions. A minister must always be prepared to defend other ministers publicly, and must speak in support of the government and its policies,” Philpott said in a resignation letter posted to her website on Monday afternoon. “Given this convention and the current circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to serve as a Cabinet minister.”

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The Canadian government shocked the professional financial and economic media with their latest fourth quarter GDP release showing the economy has essentially come to a grinding halt at 0.1% growth.  [Compare to U.S. GDP growth of 3%]
The Canadian Q4 GDP growth isn’t one percent, it’s one-tenth of one percent: 0.1%, essentially halted; but everyone discussing this is missing something very important.
First, The Financial Post headline:

[FP] Canada’s economy practically came to a halt in the final three months of 2018, in a much deeper-than-expected slowdown that brings the underlying strength of the expansion into doubt.
The country’s economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, for an annualized pace of 0.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday from Ottawa. That’s the worst quarterly performance in two and a half years, down from annualized 2 per cent in the third quarter and well below economist expectations for a 1 per cent annualized increase.

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Justin from Canada is in very serious legal jeopardy after recent revelations that he interfered the Canadian Attorney General’s office regarding the prosecution of a Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin surrounding bribes to Libyan government officials.

Canadian political pundit from Rebel Media, Ezra Levant, tweeted out an excellent summary, and then provided a very well organized video to highlight stunning testimony from the former Canadian AG.  Here is Mr. Levant’s explanation:

For my American and British friends: Canada’s Justin Trudeau is done. He might try to fight on; I personally think he’s too damaged. He’s irreparably damaged. Here’s what happened in a few short tweets.

Trudeau was detonated today by his former Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Aboriginal A-G. She just testified in Parliament, in meticulous detail, how Trudeau and his staff tried to get her to drop criminal charges against a corrupt company that he liked.

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President Trump has nominated current U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Knight Craft, to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations replacing Nikki Haley.

Washington – […]  Craft is set to succeed Nikki Haley, pending Senate confirmation, and is Trump’s second pick to replace Haley, who left the U.N. post at the end of last year. The president’s earlier candidate, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, withdrew from consideration last week.

Trump praised Craft’s tenure representing his administration in Ottawa as “outstanding” as he made the announcement on Twitter. (more)