After signing an executive order directing HHS as part of the invocation of the Defense Production Act, President Trump meets with representatives of American nurses.

Participants included: Robyn Begley,CEO, American Organization of Nurse Leaders; David Benton,CEO, National Council of State Boards of Nursing; Theresa Davis,Clinical Operations Director, American Association of Critical Care Nurses; Debbie Hatmaker, Chief Nursing Officer, American Nurses Association; David Hebert, CEO, American Association of Nurse Practitioners; Ron Krause,Vice President and President-Elect, Emergency Nurses Association; Cara Krulewitch,Epidemiologist, American College of Nurse-Midwives; Dave Mason, Senior Policy Director, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health; Suzanne Miyamoto,President and CEO, American Academy of Nursing; Randall Moore II,CEO, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
Brenda Nevidjon,CEO, Oncology Nursing Society; Dr. Deborah Trautman,President and CEO, American Association of Colleges of Nurses. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. And today I welcome the great nurses of our country to the White House and express our gratitude for those on the frontlines in our war against the global pandemic. And it’s been something, but we’re winning it. We will win. It’s a question of when, and I think it’s going — it’s going to go quickly. We hope it’s going to go quickly. I think we all agree.

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A very big picture discussion requires a considerable baseline.

The stock market is not the U.S. economy; the stock market is an investment instrument that determines valuations of economic activity company by company. The valuation is considerably arbitrary, based on the determinations of the arbiters (investors). This is empirically true.

However, that said, how would the multinational underwriters, the multinational financial systems, reset all transactional tables (the bookkeeping systems underneath the valuation) …if the U.S. stock market was every forced to re-value economic nationalism over multinational globalism?    Enter “Coronavirus”.

Four years ago CTH first explained a new way to look at the U.S. economic system and how Main Street was/is disconnected from Wall Street.  We presented a metaphor to explain. Before going deeper into the discussion of tomorrow; and at the request of several people who now accept the era of “deglobalization” is upon us,  I first present that prior reference & then will use this as the baseline to describe what could come next.

There is a key phrase at the fulcrum of everything past:

…there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street).

What we are going to outline in part II is the possibility what happens when this natural truism is reversed.  The objective is to answer: How, specifically would Wall Street reset its evaluative systems if Main Street once again emerged as the priority?

But first, a baseline revisit is needed.

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“Strong and united, we will prevail”…

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Earlier today President Trump announced he was invoking sections of the Defense Product Act to help mitigate COVID-19 (Chinese Coronavirus) in the U.S.  The act empowers the government with greater authority to control specific sectors of the U.S. economy, and specific industries, needed to respond to national emergency needs.

The three main components of the Defense Production Act include:

♦ Companies are required to accept and prioritize contracts from the government and to prioritize “materials, services, and facilities to promote the national defense or to maximize domestic energy supplies.” While this provision has historically been used to ramp up military production, in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic the act will be used for medical supplies.

♦ The second provision in the act provides financial measures, such as loans, loan guarantees, purchases, and purchase commitments, to speed up the production of materials “needed to support national defense and homeland security procurement requirements.”

♦ The act also addresses voluntary agreements – or what the government says is “an association of private interests, approved by the Government to plan and coordinate actions in support of the national defense.” The proviso permits business competitors to work together to plan and coordinate measures to increase the supply of materials as directed by the U.S. government.

Immediately after invoking the act, President Trump signed an executive order to prioritize Health and Medical resources (masks, respirators, medical equipment).

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President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence lead the daily briefing of the coronavirus task force from the White House briefing room. [Video Below – Transcript ADDED]

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[Transcript] –  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus.

We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it. In other words, I think you all know what it is, and it can do a lot of good things if we need it. And we will — we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while. Right after I’m finished with this conference, I’ll be signing it. It’s prepared to go. So we will be invoking the Defense Production Act.

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A message from Vice President Mike Pence…

Mike Pence: In the fight against the coronavirus, the Trump administration is not just taking a whole of government approach, but a whole of America approach.

We’ve worked seamlessly with state and local leaders from both political parties. Since January, we’ve held 36 briefings with more than 15,000 state, local and tribal leaders from every state and territory in America. And that is in addition to thousands of individual conversations with state, local, and tribal officials.

A vaccine for the coronavirus has already begun a phase 1 clinical trial. The president has dramatically expanded access to telemedicine for seniors on Medicare. And the Health and Human Services Department is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson to develop treatments for coronavirus infections, while actively soliciting proposals for other medical products to help combat the virus.

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This is a big sector hit to the U.S. economy.  All of the major U.S. auto manufacturers have agreed to shut down all production facilities, through March 30th, in the latest thunder-shock to the economy.

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler will close their plants due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Ford said in a statement Wednesday that its U.S., Canadian and Mexican manufacturing facilities will be halted after Thursday evening’s shifts through March 30 to “thoroughly clean and sanitize the company’s plants.”

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The entire nation is being impacted by a multitude of consequences from coronavirus; millions of Americans concerned about lost work, lost wages and possibly lost jobs; the largest economy in the world at a near standstill; trillions of wealth lost and rippling economic consequences yet to be properly quantified;…. and yet the White House press pool is worried about calling COVID-19 the “Chinese coronavirus”?

Amid all of the seemingly unending and insufferable nonsense from American journalists, this is, yet again, reaching an all time high of stupidity.  WATCH:

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Nuts !

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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro outlines some of the ongoing supply chain initiatives to meet ongoing demands of the corovirus effort.  Navarro highlights the cooperation between US government and private enterprise.  WATCH:

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As an outcome of short-sighted coronavirus issues, the Philadelphia police department has announced they will no longer be arresting suspects for retail theft, auto theft, burglary, narcotics or other “non violent” offenses.  Instead they will write tickets, release the suspects and address the criminality later on.  Now watch what happens.

CTH saw the instructions earlier today (see below) but we did not want to immediately distribute the information.  It should be remembered the current Philadelphia police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw (pictured left), is a social justice  activist from Portland, Oregon.

Unfortunately, there is a predictive element to this.  Perhaps some are familiar with the post Hurricane Andrew experience in Homestead and Miami-Dade.

The only thing standing between law-abiding citizens and those who would take their possessions is an ability to defend your own property.  This is now the Philadelphia reality.

PHILADELPHIA – In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Philadelphia police officers have been instructed to stop making arrests for certain non-violent crimes.

The department said individuals who would normally be arrested and processed at a detective division, will be temporarily detained to confirm identification and complete necessary paperwork. The individual will then be a arrested at a later date on an arrest warrant. (read more)

Beware, the law of unintended consequences.

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