New analysis of the long-term impact from Section 301 tariffs triggered by President Trump against China, shows just how consequential economic nationalism can become.

Our own analysis of U.S. consumer prices in 2019 showed that prices of imported goods actually declined despite the tariffs. A recent report from CPA takes a look at the impact to Chinese exports to the U.S.  [SEE DATA HERE] Bottom line, the tariffs worked to reduce Chinese imports.

CPA – […] Since the Section 301 tariffs were imposed, the share of imports from China has steadily declined from 21.6% in 2017 the year prior to the tariffs to 16.5%, a decline of 5.1%. No other country has lost as much share of total U.S. import penetration over the past five years.

In terms of total import value, Mexico gained the most from the tariffs, adding $110.8 billion. Vietnam gained the second most in import value by $78.4 billion and by far gained the most of total share of U.S. imports. In 2017, Vietnam accounted for about 2% of U.S. imports at $46.5 billion. In 2022, the U.S. imported $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam, and the share of the total nearly doubled to 3.9%. Other countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia all saw significant increases in their value of imports by the U.S. (read more)

With the leading opponent to President Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, not supporting tariffs on behalf of the multinationals and Club for Growth donors who stand behind him, it’s worth revisiting the actual outcome to American consumers to dispel the popular myths about tariffs raising prices here at home.

(more…)

Joe Biden reads his response to the Supreme Court decision that blocked the executive branch from permanently eliminating student debt without an act of Congress.

In his defense of the smackdown by SCOTUS, Biden conflates his unilateral student loan giveaway with the legislatively authorized PPP program.  One is from executive fiat, the other from legislative assembly; see the difference?   Yes Joe, if you wanted it to be legit, you needed an act of Congress.

Additionally, notice how Biden lies about what the PPP program was. PPP was a program to subsidize and support the payroll expenses of shut down small businesses – keeping small business workers with a paycheck -not replacing the business’s operational income.  Video and Transcript Below – WATCH:

[Transcript] … This program was all set to begin.  The website had been set up.  The applications had been simplified so that it took less than five minutes to complete.  Notices had been sent out to people about the relief they were eligible for.  Sixteen million people — sixteen million people had already been approved.  The money was literally about to go out the door. 

And then, Republican elected officials and special interests stepped in.  They said no — “no” — literally snatching from the hands of millions of Americans thousands of dollars in student debt relief that was about to change their lives. 

(more…)

The larger story behind this recent Intercept Article is the headline you just read. Let’s talk….

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a representative organization in the United States that lobbies Congress.

The CoC represent the interests of the multinational corporations who use K-Street and J-Street in DC to write rules, regulations, policies and laws as part of their corporate control over U.S. wealth.  That’s what the CoC does.  That’s the entire purpose of the Chamber of Commerce.

For a long time, the CoC has been in the background of multiple political discussions.

During the Obama administration, the federal Dept of Commerce permitted the private sector U.S. Chamber of Commerce to write U.S. trade language; that is to physically write the words that go into U.S. trade deals with other countries.  This was the era of maximum value for the CoC that saw their coffers swell as massive multinational corps realized the CoC was in the business of literally controlling the U.S. capitalist economy.

The arch nemesis of the CoC was President Donald Trump, who threw the CoC out of the room when decisions were being made about trade and economic policy.  This was the era of minimum value for the CoC, when corporations were no longer getting to influence the policy.

In desperate response the CoC turned to their purchased politicians in Congress, specifically to their #1 ally Mitch McConnell, and asked or help in overcoming the problem that Trump and his America First agenda represented.

As MAGA (America First) economic and trade influence in Congress increased, the CoC had trouble because President Trump could target any Republican CoC beneficiaries that undermined the economic policy.  That could result in a career ending primary challenge.  For the first time in decades, the Republican wing of the UniParty had a tough time supporting Chamber President Tom Donohue in his demands for influence.

What happened next was stunning.

(more…)

As Anheuser Busch continues supporting alphabet “pride” and transgender grooming rallies around the nation, the sales of their products continue declining. However, that did not stop the marketing and advertising sector from awarding “creative marketer of the year” to Anheuser Busch at Cannes Lions, which is dubbed the “Oscars for the advertising industry.”

[New York Post] – Sales of Bud Light suffered their steepest weekly drop yet since the beer brand launched its disastrous tie-up with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to the latest data.

In the week ending June 17, sales of the Anheuser-Busch brand fell by an eye-popping 28.5% versus a year ago, according to the most recent sales figures issued by Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.

That eclipses last week’s 26.8% decline, which beat the previous week’s fall of 24.4%.

(more…)

This is the big one.  The Economic Policy is the distinct and singular policy at the core of Make America Great Again.  The MAGA coalition is centered around the principles of America First economics, and Ron DeSantis has just admitted he does not support them.

CTH has long warned about Ron DeSantis’ economic policy being driven by the donors who fund him.  When he was in congress, DeSantis voted in support of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for President Obama, and DeSantis voted in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP).

These are the trade policies supported by the Club for Growth who was congressman DeSantis’ biggest funder.  The Club for Growth also held the pre-announcement donor fundraiser in February of this year in support of DeSantis ’24.

The Wall Street billionaire, hedge fund, multinational corporate alliance, that assembles at Sea Island and funds Ron DeSantis, are fully against America First trade and economic policies.  DeSantis has just made an admission of his alignment with that corporate “globalist” outlook to a private confab of donors in California.

The DeSantis campaign is in full panic and retreat mode now that his establishment position is exposed.  The statements during the secret meeting were leaked.

[CALIFORNIA] […] The Republican snuck in and out of the Coalinga landmark undetected by the public nor the media, by design. He flew in and out of the nearby Coalinga airport, ushered to the back loading docks by unmarked Fresno County Sheriff’s vehicles.

The Central Valley lunch stop for 60 donors — paying $3,300 — was in between a breakfast event in Sacramento, and an evening in southern California.  The only indication that something special was going on was a “private event” sign. Most of the questions for the security guard related to the location of the restrooms.

(more…)

During a recent event in Florida of approximately 1,000 audience members, Kari Lake asked the crowd if anyone supports Ron DeSantis?  The response from the audience is reflective of the typical Floridian response now that DeSantis has shown his political ambitions and dispatched Florida voters.  WATCH:

https://youtu.be/1mfgnvE_mU0

.

PALM BEACH, FL – […] At one point in her remarks to about 1,000 people who attended the event, Lake named each of the Republican candidates challenging Trump, who was indicted a second time last week.

When Lake mentioned Gov. Ron DeSantis, three people put up their hands but brought them down quickly amid a cascade of boos.  The good news for DeSantis, however, is that former Vice President Mike Pence drew an even louder chorus of disapproving cat calls. (more)

The audience reaction is reflective of a much wider view held by most Florida GOP voters.  The backlash is two-fold.  One part of it is driven by the stunning increase in cost of living for the working-class and folks on fixed incomes.  The second part is driven by people who just feel conned by the entire DeSantis operation.  All the DeSantis ‘influencers’ are working desperately to hide the reality on the ground.

(more…)

As customary in this era of a great awakening, there are a lot more Republican masks dropping this week.  There is a great deal of sunlight upon the professional and institutional Republican politicians that hold office, when contrast against the indictment of Donald Trump.  As we bear witness to the establishment opposition of candidate Donald Trump, once again it is valuable to understand the motive at the heart of this opposition.

CTH can get down in the weeds of each specific issue to discuss the motives and intents (we will, and do), but the big picture MUST remain at the forefront of understanding. If we lose track of the big picture, the weeds are overwhelming.

…“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”

~ Niccolò Machiavelli

♦POTUS Trump was disrupting the global order of things in order to protect and preserve the shrinking interests of the U.S.  He was fighting, almost single-handed, at the threshold of the abyss. Our interests, our position, is zero-sum. His DC opposition seeks to repel and retain the status-quo. They want to return to full economic control.

In these economic endeavors, President Trump was disrupting decades of financial schemes established to use the U.S. as a host for their endeavors. President Trump was confronting multinational corporations and the global constructs of economic systems that were put in place to the detriment of us.

There are trillions at stake. The need for control is a reaction to fear. The billionaire donor class fear losing control over economic policy and finance. They are funding every candidate, media resource, influencer operation, RNC, RGA, and every institution possible to retain their equity position. Opposition is based on economics; everything else is chaff and countermeasures.

(more…)

There is a strong divergence within the May jobs report as released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) [DATA HERE].  Payrolls increased 339,000 in May from April and previous months were revised up by 93,000. That is good news.  However, the household survey, from which the unemployment rate is derived, showed employment down 310,000 jobs and the unemployment rate increased to 3.7%.

One of the aspects driving higher payroll starts are the number of people taking on additional part-time jobs.  This aspect is noted in a decline for the number of hours in the average workweek. As more PT jobs are added, the number of hours in a workweek declines. As noted in the BLS data, “the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours in May.”

There were 161.0 million people working in April.  There are 160.7 million people working in May.

There were 5.7 million people unemployed in April.  There are 6.1 million unemployed people in May.

The unemployment rate increased from 3.4% to 3.7%.

There are 310,000 fewer people working in May than were working in April.  However, payrolls increased by 339,000 over the same timeframe. See graph above for where those jobs were gained.

(more…)

As the geography narrows before us, it is important to remember the stakes and avoid the distractions.  As a consequence, the baseline must be reaffirmed. It is critical to understand that both the DNC and RNC are private corporations with no affiliation to government.

It is a difficult shift in thinking, but the party system in U.S. politics revolves around two distinct private corporations – two clubs that feed from the same corporate trough and position for influence and affluence within a political dynamic they control.

The priority for both clubs, Republican and Democrat, is NOT politically or culturally ideological.  In the modern era, the corporate priority first begins with a battle over who controls each corporation.

As long as there is no challenge, the clubs operate without issue.  However, when there is a battle for control of the corporation, a battle that will ultimately determine the financial outcome, the internal battle becomes the priority.

2024 is going to be the election season when we see this corporate battle explode inside in the Republican group.  Decades of entrenched power are at stake, and there has been four years of counter positioning and backroom discussion leading up to this moment.

As a consequence, and I know this might sound odd to many people – but winning and/or losing elections becomes a secondary issue.  The RNC is not focused on winning elections. The RNC corporation is focused on retaining control.

The RNC want to give the illusion of support for MAGA conservatism because they need the base voter, and they need to maintain the illusion of choice. However, every move they make on an operational level is exactly in line with their previous outlook toward cocktail class republicanism.  The MAGA base of support cannot trust this corporate group, and we must not be blind or unguarded about the Machiavellian schemes they construct.

When you hear the influence group saying the two priorities for control of the Republican Club involve, (1) eliminating populism in the ranks; and (2) realigning with multinational corporate objectives (vis a vis Wall Street), what they are publicly expressing is their RNC corporate need to get rid of the America First economic agenda – to get rid of the MAGA influence.

How has this historically surfaced?

(more…)

For his weekend monologue, British pundit Neil Oliver turns his attention back toward the climate change agenda and the subsequent fear narrative as it is being promoted.  Oliver notes we are approaching a moment when the truthfulness of the climate change debate needs a full and public confrontation.  Either there is truth, or the foundation of the claims are built upon lies.

Oliver has discussed this topic before; however, when contrast against the collapse in trust based on conduct during the pandemic, and when overlaid against the wholesale collapse in trust toward almost all government institutions, perhaps now really is the best time to confront the fraud known as “climate change.”

Does the climate change? Of course, it does. In the short term that’s known as weather and in the longer term, a term much longer than human’s ability to influence it, climate change is why glaciers melted, mountains formed and the topography for a state like Florida rose from under the Gulf of Mexico as water levels declined.  The climate change agenda really isn’t about climate change; in the final analysis, the modern climate change agenda is all about ‘control.’  WATCH:

.

The Climate Change agenda is the necessary entry narrative for control mechanisms like carbon trading economics and digital currencies.  At the end of the continuum, we find that control over people is the goal of the people pushing the fraudulent narrative.   The agenda is their holy grail along their road to serfdom.

(more…)