Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went to the United Nations to deliver a strong diplomatic message to the North Korean regime about their ongoing nuclear ambitions.
President Trump and Secretary of State Tillerson are asking Chinese Chairman/President Xi Jinping to cut off the oil supply to the DPRK.
If you have not watched the prior ‘deep weeds discussion‘ by T-Rex on the specific reason why the U.S. cannot, ever, accept a DPRK with nuclear weapons, you should.  Two very specific reasons why also explain why traditional state adversaries China and Russia are willing to put aside their differences with the U.S. and work to denuclearize N-Korea:

• #1) The DPRK have stated, through actions and words, they intend to use nuclear weapons as a larger strategy, a shield per se’, toward advanced conventional military action in the region.  And more importantly…
• #2) The DPRK have stated, through actions and words, they intend to commercialize nuclear weapon manufacturing and distribution, thereby selling completed nuclear weaponry on the global market.

Given the unconscionable risk of having terror state actors gaining nuclear weapons for use against any nation, the threat of such a stunning and dangerous possibility can never be accepted.  Which leads to three important videos from today:

(TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE)

(more…)

On the same day that DoLS reports unemployment claims are at their lowest level in 45 years; and on the same day when Reuters economist panel admits that wages are indeed going up quickly now; well, the November holiday sales results are being reviewed and the results are stunning.

(Reuters) U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start, pointing to sustained strength in the economy.
[…]  The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, with households buying a range of goods even as they cut back on purchases of motor vehicles. Data for October was revised to show sales gaining 0.5 percent instead of the previously reported 0.2 percent increase.
Retail sales accelerated 5.8 percent on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales increasing only 0.3 percent in November. (link)

5.8% growth over last year is BIGLY yuge.  We’re talking about massive numbers. To move them almost 6% is bigly. Remember, retail sales account for approximately two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity within our GDP valuation.  We are the world’s largest market economy.
(more…)

When candidate Donald Trump campaigned and won the election in 2016 he promised to cut the massive regulatory burdens that were strangling the U.S. economy.  Together with several cabinet members, today President Trump celebrated the administration’s efforts at achieving the biggest cut in federal regulations in history.
“For the first time in decades, the government achieved regulatory savings,” President Trump said, boasting that “we blew our target out of the water”. “The administration, over its first 11 months, we canceled or delayed over 1,500 planned regulatory actions – more than any previous president by far.”

If there is anyone who didn’t quite understand the quote: “there are trillions of dollars at stake”, in the context of the 2016 election, well, a letter today from the biggest EU economic nations will provide greater context.
Additionally, as you absorb the position behind their claims, never forget how much foreign governments spend in lobbying the U.S. congress for legislation adverse to the interests of U.S. workers.
Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are claiming the U.S. congress has no right to reform the U.S. tax code because the reforms undercut their ability to hold an advantage over the U.S. in multinational trade deals.
This quote is particularly enlightening:

[…]  The letter argues that proposed changes to the U.S. tax code could give American companies an advantage over foreign rivals.

The Globalist Position: ‘All your tax code are belong to us.’  Yes Alice, the election of President Trump, and the specific economic and trade policies within his platform, are an existential threat to decades long multinational schemes.

CNN MONEY – Germany, France, Britain, Spain and Italy have written to Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin, arguing that tax bills passed by the House and Senate run afoul of treaties and could distort international trade.

“It is important that the U.S. government’s rights over domestic tax policy be exercised in a way that adheres with international obligations to which it has signed-up,” the letter states. It was signed by the countries’ finance ministers.

(more…)

USTR Robert Lighthizer is attending the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Argentina.

[…] Ahead of the meeting, the United States blocked efforts to draft a joint statement emphasizing the “centrality” of the global trade system and the need to aid development. Its opposition has raised concerns that the WTO will not be able to accomplish even modest goals, such as addressing fishing and agricultural subsidies, at the conference. (Reuters)

The Ambassador’s opening remarks to the conference are below and include Lighthizer rightly informing the WTO that the Trump administration believes they have strayed far away from trade issues and are now, essentially, uni-focused on litigation.  He’s right.

[Transcript] “I would like to start by thanking the government of Argentina for hosting MC11, and Minister Malcorra, Director General Azevedo, and their staffs for their excellent work. We appreciate all the effort over many months that go into creating a conference of this magnitude.
In the brief time I have, I would like to make a few basic points.
First, the WTO is obviously an important institution. It does an enormous amount of good, and provides a helpful negotiating forum for Contracting Parties.  But, in our opinion, serious challenges exist.
Second, many are concerned that the WTO is losing its essential focus on negotiation and becoming a litigation-centered organization. Too often members seem to believe they can gain concessions through lawsuits that they could never get at the negotiating table. We have to ask ourselves whether this is good for the institution and whether the current litigation structure makes sense.
(more…)

There’s a lot of people who don’t have a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to battle the multinationals in economic warfare.  Those same people don’t like Gary Cohn.
CTH recognizes the inherent value in Mr. Cohn as director of President Trump’s national economic council.  The guy knows the economic schemes better than almost all of the globalist adversaries.  Like Wilbur Ross, the former executive of U.S. Steel, Gary Cohn is one of the well dressed “killers”; an apex financial predator who’s eyes will contract while he shakes your hand just before he rips your throat out during negotiations.  Departing he’ll wink at your carcass, and still make your team pay for the clean up.
In this interview segment Director Gary Cohn discusses the Republicans’ tax reform plan, infrastructure initiatives and laughs out loud at President Barack Obama taking credit for the economy.  Director Cohn is a bad, bad man; perhaps the best of the bad men.

Despite the negative banter from the gnats the U.S. economy is continuing to outpace economic expectations.  More importantly the gains are within targeted sectors long-ago written off.  Yes, Trump’s MAGAnomic policies are proving it was always possible.
Job gains exceeded 280,000 as the Main Street economy continues gaining momentum. The manufacturing sector added 31,000, a slight deviation from ADP payroll actuaries a week ago, which remains a complete reversal of prior historic job growth.   For the past three decades manufacturing jobs had been shrinking, now the sector is growing.  This is the important part of the overall picture.

The unemployment rate remains at 4.1%, because the underlying data has been strongly manipulated for the past several years.  If the data ran negative the statistical ruse would be evident; so the explanation remains that workers who left the economy have reentered, ie. “slack“.  :::eyeroll:::
Wage growth was estimated at 2.5%, which is in line with our previous analysis.  We do not anticipate massive wage rate gains until the full ‘slack‘ is taken up within the employment market.  Our prediction remains that Quarter #2 2018 (April, May, June) will be approximately the time-frame when wage rates increase at 5% and more.
(more…)

The November jobs reports are coming out and the results are Bigly remarkable.  Manufacturing job growth in November was 40,000 new jobs.  That’s the highest single month jobs growth in over 15 years.  These manufacturing jobs are higher wage jobs. This is the blue-collar-billionaire economic outcome President Trump has been working toward within every economic proposal, policy and initiative.
The first wave of companies (large and small manufacturers of American products) to jump on the Trump economic initiatives, have invested and begun building-out their capacity. Now we begin to see those companies hiring workers to create the products and services.

Overall the U.S. economy added 190,000 jobs in November which is almost twice the number needed to replace retiring workers.  The government’s headline unemployment number is currently at 4.1%.  For several years we have questioned the methodology behind the unemployment numbers.  What we are likely to see is reality forcing the skewered methodology to push that unemployment number below 4%.
(more…)

Don’t be so caught up watching the granules moving at your feet that you fail to step back and recognize the entire landscape is shifting.  It Has Begun… 
Important remarks today. After a year of careful navigation Captain Trump has now hoisted the Spinnaker and is using massive economic winds to advance ALL ‘America-First’ policy objectives.

[…] “to get it going the way I really want, where we have GDP getting up to 4, 5, and even 6 percent — because I think that’s possible. If you look back in your notes, you’ll say when I said 4 percent, people said that would be years. Well, it’s turned out that I’m right because without the hurricanes this last quarter, we would have hit 4 percent. At 3.3 percent, which was adjusted previously — this is far beyond what anybody thought it would be at. So we’re at 3.3 percent GDP. I see no reason why we don’t go to 4, 5, and even 6 percent. And I don’t want to go beyond that because then it will be criticized if we don’t hit it.
But every time we go up one point, just so you understand, one point means $2.5 trillion, means 10 million jobs. So one point in GDP is an incredible statement. $2.5 trillion for each point, 10 million jobs for each point. And I think we’re going to be going up a lot of points.”

A rather interesting New York Times article describes life in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) now that interim Director Mick Mulvaney is leading the agency. Actually, one of the more interesting aspects is how congressional defenders of the CFPB have claimed the workforce is non-partisan, yet for some mysterious reason the mostly Millenials are described as using coded messaging.

Keep in mind, these are presumably college educated young professionals:

New York Times […] Some employees, including a few of the bureau’s top officials, have welcomed their new leader. Others, pointing to Mr. Mulvaney’s earlier hostility toward the agency and its mission, are quietly resisting. One small group calls itself “Dumbledore’s Army,” according to two of the people who were familiar with their discussions. The name is a reference to a secret resistance force in the “Harry Potter” books.
An atmosphere of intense anxiety has taken hold, several employees said. In some cases, conversations between staff that used to take place by phone or text now happen almost exclusively in person or through encrypted messaging apps.

(more…)