U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sat down for a comprehensive discussion on trade, education and commerce policies with Bloomberg’s David Gura at the Bloomberg Breakaway Summit in New York.
In his direct and often humorous style Wilburine describes some of the current economic trade challenges and presents an outline of U.S. forward policy. Secretary Ross spends quite a bit of time explaining how the NAFTA trade agreement is obsolescent in the modern era and how many of the products and industries in 2017 are not part of the agreement.
Wilburine also discusses how the business community is interacting with the Trump administration to deliver on specific aspects to the larger economic policy goals. A very good and substantive discussion segment:
.
Additionally, COMMERCE – Earlier today, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin held a phone conversation with Vice Premier Wang Yang of China. Commerce Secretary Ross, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Vice Premier Wang discussed bilateral issues related to the U.S.- China Comprehensive Dialogue and the overall economic and trade relationship between the two countries. (link)
Reuters is reporting on a stunning financial prediction coming from the Federal Reserve in Atlanta. Their 2nd Quarter prediction falls in line with many of the “new dimension” economic predictions we have been anticipating.
The Atlanta Fed is predicting 4.3% growth:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 4.3 percent annualized pace in the second quarter, rebounding from a 0.7 percent increase in the first quarter which was the weakest in three years, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Monday.
This is much faster than the latest second-quarter gross domestic product estimate of 2.33 percent from the New York Federal Reserve. (read more)
There is a disconnect in traditional economic quantification that we have been predicting for well over a year. It’s the same disconnect currently reflected in the jobs numbers between payrolls and the Fed explained here. We also outlined additional data two months ago which the federal economists admit they cannot reconcile – Expanded HERE.
For 30+ years U.S. economic political policy has been driven by Wall Street interests. STOP. Main Street, the middle-class and the American worker have suffered. STOP. The successful election of Donald Trump, and the execution of his “main street” economic policy agenda, has sledgehammered the prior economic machine into a full seizure an halt. FULL STOP.
If you didn’t read the Part-V explainer of how we got to this point in congressional history stop and go read it. This stuff is all connected and cannot be absorbed without a thorough understanding of motives behind the advancing agenda-writers.
Make Sure You Watch The Embed Video (below) from Wilbur Ross.
The interim Continuing Resolution (CR) is fraught with demands of the “Big Club”. That is: Wall Street, their lobbyists, and those who have created the UniParty for over three decades. The “Big Club” is fighting back against the insurgent presidency of Donald Trump and is using the Republican wing of the UniParty to do it.
It is Republicans, not just Democrats, in congress who are putting the most toxic spending priorities within the $1+ trillion spending bill and forcing a spending bill onto President Trump’s desk which factilitates the needs of the lobbying class and undermines parts of the structural agenda of President Trump.
The outrage should be rightly focused on the UniParty in congress, and more specifically the Republicans therein, not President Trump.
What would the ankle-biters and antagonists (gnats) have President Trump do? Veto a bill constructed by bipartisan legislation in congress? Shut down government? That’s exactly the dynamic the “Big Club” has set up through their paid opposition represented by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
President Trump’s economic and foreign policy agenda is jaw-dropping in scale, scope and consequence. There are multiple simultaneous aspects to each policy objective; they have been outlined for a long time even before the election victory in November ’16.
If you get too far into the weeds the larger picture can be lost. CTH objective is to continue pointing focus toward the larger horizon, and then at specific inflection points to dive into the topic and explain how each moment is connected to the larger strategy.
Today is a big news day where action on multiple policy fronts becomes visible. Here’s an interview with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin which notes some of the critical financial angles to economic policy.
An important reference here is the earlier understanding of how then ‘candidate Trump’ personally put a platform plank of a Modern 21st Century Glass-Stegall banking reform into his economic policy agenda, and why it is important.
There has been some confusion, mostly spurred by media falsehoods, about whether or not Secretary Ross had submitted the ‘notification of intent’ letter to congress to begin the clock to renegotiating NAFTA.
Early in this video, yet again, Secretary Ross clearly states he is waiting on congress to accept the letter; ie. it was sent mid-March.
.
Republicans control the Senate. Republicans, not democrats in the Senate, do not want the Trump administration to renegotiate NAFTA. This is one of the clearest examples of the UniParty at work and the anti-American principles behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce corporate lobbyists – lobbying directly against the Trump administration. “The Big Club”.
There are many new commentators at CTH, and even more new people taking notice of politics for perhaps the first time in their lives. There is also some confusion noticed between two distinct groups who appear to be talking above and around each other. Two groups trying to communicate from two entirely divergent sets of understanding.
Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.
Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.
There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.
In 2017 not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.
Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works.
President Trump has a simple economic platform: “Buy American and Hire American“; toward that goal all economic and fiscal policies are now directed to assist U.S. manufacturing companies and retain U.S. workers. Period.
Two days ago Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross announced a 20% tariff, countervailing duties, on imported Canadian soft wood lumber. Today, Pleasant River Lumber Co. in Jackman Maine announces their wood mills will now expand as a direct result of the beneficial impacts of even trade practices.
This is a big deal for this community.
MAINE – The Dover-Foxcroft-based Pleasant River Lumber company is expanding its Jackman sawmill in anticipation of increased demand for American lumber amid the U.S. government’s plans to levy tariffs on Canadian softwood.
In a media release Tuesday, Pleasant River Lumber said it is expanding its Moose River spruce mill in Jackman to add drying capacity this summer and hire up to 20 new workers for a second shift starting this fall.
During an AP interview last week President Trump first mentioned a possibility of complete withdrawal from the 25-year-old NAFTA agreement. Today several outlets are reporting on a draft executive action to do just that.
BACKGROUND: One of the problems with the NAFTA trade agreement (and most other trade deals) has been that no administration ever reevaluates them to measure their long-term impact since implementation. It has been almost 25 years since Bill Clinton signed NAFTA (’94) and only now in 2017 is the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross evaluating the current value and measuring the economic impact to the U.S. in current terms.
Ah, the simple joys in life. Wilburine Ross interviewed by Lou Dobbs… Sip slowly.
The general status of angst created by ordinary swamp review has a tendency to wear down a soul. It’s at the times when we feel surrounded we should reflect upon how lucky we are to have the T’Rex’s and Wilburines on our team. We’ve already won, our opponents just haven’t noticed yet.
Having spent over 30 years deep in the weeds on the actuarial side of trade and economics, I can guarantee you there’s a generational need to completely reset all frames of reference when it comes to imports, exports, and U.S. trade principles in general.
It is no longer worthwhile even beginning a conversation around the arcane concept of “free trade”, especially when discussing commodities and agricultural trade. The “free market” was structurally disassembled years ago when multinational corporations began using the business end of agriculture to create investment and global profit via Wall Street.
The BIG AGRICULTURE legislative lobbying groups are funded -much like the U.S. CoC- with multinational corporations and multinational investment banks. Agricultural prices, formerly referenced on basic supply and demand principles have been bastardized through global purchases, and contracts therein, of U.S. farm products.
Simple question to understand the dynamic: “If there is such a U.S. glut of raw milk, then why has the 10-year price of milk skyrocketed”? Within the answer to that question you realize the product is not domestic. It is controlled by multinationals, exported under controlled contract, and the domestic price (you pay) driven by global trade not domestic production/consumption (supply and demand).
The inverse (import pricing) is also true. We’ve been getting screwed by the multinational interests of global trade for decades. This is NOT ‘free trade’. The BIG CLUB owns the process (inputs and outcomes) and manipulates the market in their interests, not yours. There simply is no “free market”.
[TRANSCRIPT] – 3:14 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Busy day. They had a very busy day — had a good day. We’re doing well, very well. Things are turning around. I know they’re turning around for you folks, so I just want to welcome you very much to the White House — special place — America’s farmers and ranchers.
I especially want to congratulate Secretary — now I can say, Secretary Sonny Perdue, who was just sworn in as the Secretary of Agriculture — (applause) — sworn in by Justice Thomas. And it was a beautiful ceremony, and we’re going to celebrate a little bit later, and that’s great. We’re very happy. And you had a good vote too.
