Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Fox News to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy as contrast against current growth plans and economic policy.  As noted by Bessent, the future of the Main Street economy generally lags behind the forecast of the Wall Street economy.  All of the domestic investment is currently building out the capacities of the underlying economy to expand.

Additionally, Bessent notes the importance of the cumulative effect of strategic energy policy, the assembly of a critical mineral reserve and the mounting growth in the industrial manufacturing center.  MAGAnomics is creating expanded domestic growth by reshoring many of the industrial jobs due to tariff policy.  Overall, the interview gives a big picture perspective on the short- and long-term economic program. WATCH:

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In what has become an annual tradition, here’s the full Superbowl Day interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas and President Donald Trump.

President Trump addresses the ongoing immigration enforcement, the state of the American economy, U.S. tensions with Iran and other topics from the oval office in the White House. The interview was conducted on Wednesday, February 4 and broadcast today. The interview is an hour long. ENJOY:

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Europe is not happy with President Trump’s demand that drug manufacturers provide U.S. consumers with equitable pricing.

If President Trump will no longer permit Americans to pay the research production costs for pharmaceutical companies through high prices, essentially subsiding pharmaceutical costs for the world, then Rx companies will have to increase their prices throughout Europe. This is making the Europeans very unhappy.

(Bloomberg Businessweek) — For the past few years, Swiss oncologist Christoph Renner has treated blood cancer patients with Lunsumio, a new drug that helps the immune system recognize and destroy malignant cells. Then, last summer, Renner got an email from Roche Holding AG, Lunsumio’s manufacturer, informing him the treatment would no longer be available in Switzerland because health insurers there wouldn’t pay for the infusions. “You see what’s possible,” says Renner, a professor at the University of Basel, “and then you’re told you can’t use it.”

The move was a response to rules President Donald Trump introduced that force drugmakers to reduce their prices in the US to the lowest level paid in other developed countries. In Switzerland, new medications typically cost far less than in the US, so in theory Americans should benefit from the change. The problem is, instead of bringing prices down in the US, pharmaceutical companies are raising them elsewhere.

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President Trump holds a brief impromptu chopper presser as he departs the White House for Palm Beach this weekend. President Trump began with remarks of the strong stock market, with the DOW closing over 50,000 much sooner than expected, highlighting the strength of the overall economy.

President Trump also noted positive crime statistics and then took questions.  The first question was about the SAVE act and the need to eliminate the filibuster to get voter ID passed into law.  The conversation then shifted to “affordability” with President Trump noting that prices are stable and declining due to his economic policies.  WATCH:

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CTH reader “Charles” asked a great question yesterday that deserves some expansion:

CHARLES: “I’m having some trouble parsing how exfiltrating [deporting] illegal alien workers thereby pushing American wages upward can cause a decrease in inflation. Conventional wisdom for my whole life (73 years) has held that increasing labor costs drive inflation upwards.”

It’s a great question because Charles is essentially correct from a historical reference.  However, we are in uncharted territory due to the scale of illegal aliens within the U.S. economy in this modern era. The answer is a commonsense theory currently playing out in real time.

ANSWER: A much larger percentage of illegal aliens live on various subsidies and govt spending programs than our native American population. As a result, it’s like govt spending, except we have ten million people spending excessive govt money instead of one big spending bill.

The underlying economy is inorganic and detached from traditional cause and effect. In this dynamic when you deport the illegals, we are reducing the govt spending.  Less govt spending actually tames inflation and lowers housing costs at a greater rate than the upward pressure on wages.

Removing the ‘free govt money” from the economy, creates less upward price pressure. Additionally, deporting the govt spender reinstalls a more authentic supply and demand economy, because the current demand is skewed by all the ‘free money’ subsidy spending.

Charles is correct in that within his 73-years this was not evident.  That’s because we have an unprecedented number of illegal aliens spending govt money without any economic productivity.  Those subsidies, extra non-productive money in the economy, creates upward price pressure.  Take the money away and prices drop.

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Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent appeared on Capitol Hill today to give testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. The leftists were well prepared with narrative scripts to advance their opposition agenda. Bessent was unfazed.

In this highlight, Senator Elizabeth ‘Liawatha” Warren complains to Secretary Bessent about the price of things she tripled and quadrupled. Bessent responded by pointing out the Trump administration is reversing the catastrophic damage from the Biden-Warren economy. “I’m-a-git-me-a-beer” was not pleased at the retort. WATCH:

No senator, half of something you quadrupled is not less.

Thankfully, the grocery prices that Biden-Warren exploded, are finally starting to come down thanks to the economic policies of President Trump.  Warren’s “affordability” narrative collapses each month the real wages of the American worker rise faster than the trailing inflationary impact of prior policy.

As noted by several economic indicators, inflation on the stuff that matters is in retreat. We are now entering the phase of lower gasoline prices, lower transportation costs, lower overall energy costs and stable domestic market prices.  Additionally, exfiltrating illegal alien workers, both underground and above ground, is starting to put upward pressure on American wages and lower overall housing costs.

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White House Manufacturing Policy Advisor, Peter Navarro, has written an op-ed warning about a new bill under construction in congress [BILL HERE] that seeks to stop President Trump from blocking the ‘de minimis loophole’ on imported goods.

Previously, various shippers and transport companies like UPS and Fed-X had lobbied congress to retain a loophole on customs and duties allowing items valued less than $800 to enter the USA without tariffs.  They were joined by ecommerce outlets like Amazon, Alibaba, Temu and Shein to keep cheap foreign goods flowing into the U.S. without passing through customs declarations.

President Trump stopped the de minimis loophole on China and Hong Kong and then globally.

As noted by Navarro, “the threshold for the exemption hit a staggering $800 per package — by far the highest in the world. Europe’s is closer to $150. Japan’s is under $70. China’s general threshold is in the single digits. The U.S. wasn’t “aligned with global norms.” We were the outlier, and a very expensive one.”

Now, Navarro is warning that congress is seeking to subvert the Trump position on imports and go back to allowing cheap foreign goods flood the U.S. market at a level that creates chaos in customs enforcement and facilitates the flow of illegal drugs and narcotics back through the system.

(The Hill) – […]   Their bill is simultaneously a poster child for big money politics and a breathtaking insult to the public’s intelligence. It assumes voters won’t read past the title, won’t remember why de minimis was killed in the first place, and won’t connect the dots between lobbying disclosures, campaign checks, and a legislative resurrection of a loophole that nearly destroyed U.S. trade enforcement. 

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In the past few years people have heard the term “rare earth minerals” or “critical minerals” as they relate to the manufacture of component goods that are vitally important in the lives of everyone.  However, the term “rare” is somewhat of a misnomer.  The minerals themselves are not rare; indeed, they have been around for hundreds of millions of years in abundant supply.  It is the processing of those minerals into stable second stage commodities that has become rare.

As a result of western environmental rules and regulations, U.S, EU and developed nations have outsourced critical mineral processing (the dirty stuff) to China and Asia. We then import the finished commodity after processing.  This becomes a problem when you realize the processor can weaponize western dependency, as we have recently seen with China controlling the export of processed minerals needed for manufacturing.

President Trump has made a strategic decision to bring back the manufacturing of critical minerals to the United States and has made a policy decision to create a critical mineral reserve. Just last Monday President Trump announced a $12 billion strategic mineral reserve to combat China’s domination of critical mineral supply chains, a major step toward tackling China’s advantage in a crucial sector of the U.S. economy.  The initiative is called “Project Vault.”

“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” President Trump said. “Just as we have long had a strategic petroleum reserve and a stockpile of critical minerals for national defense, we are now creating this reserve for American industry,” Trump said during the Oval Office announcement.

Today in Washington DC, Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio led a critical minerals discussion at the State Dept., where they are organizing an effort to get all nations to invest and create their own critical minerals strategic reserves.  WATCH:

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President Donald J Trump has announced his selection to take over as Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Kevin Warsh.  To give perspective toward the overall viewpoint of Warsh, THIS INTERVIEW from April 2024 gives some insight.

Warsh has been highly critical of the FED monetary policy overall and directly links inflation and depressed wages to the poor decision-making of the Federal Reserve overall.  More background on Kevin Warsh is HERE.

(Via Truth Social) – “I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Kevin Warsh to be the CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. Kevin currently serves as the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution, and Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a Partner of Stanley Druckenmiller at Duquesne Family Office LLC. Kevin received his A.B. from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has conducted extensive research in the field of Economics and Finance.

Kevin issued an Independent Report to the Bank of England proposing reforms in the conduct of Monetary Policy in the United Kingdom. Parliament adopted the Report’s recommendations. Kevin Warsh became the youngest Fed Governor, ever, at 35, and served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 until 2011, as the Federal Reserve’s Representative to the Group of Twenty (G-20), and as the Board’s Emissary to the Emerging and Advanced Economies in Asia.

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Here we go.  If you’ve been under the Treehouse branches for more than a few months, it is now officially time to pull up a rock take a front row seat and enjoy the show.  Don’t draw attention to yourself; however, please do bring your favorite beverage, relax and watch what no one else will admit is happening.  The 2026 operation to exit the USMCA is officially underway.

While the Snow Mexicans are gnashing their teeth talking about feelings and various shiny things, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is meeting today with Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard to strategize the best approach for a U.S-Mexican bilateral free trade agreement.

Please remember, in order to fully appreciate the moment, we must allow all negotiation pretenses to remain in place, giving the illusion of something that will no longer be present when the end goal is reached.

Jan 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard agreed during a meeting on Wednesday to begin formal discussions on possible reforms to the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, Greer’s office said.

Possible reforms include stronger rules of origin for key industrial goods, more collaboration on critical minerals, increasing efforts to defend workers and producers, and efforts to combat dumping of manufactured goods, the USTR’s office said in a statement. (LINK)

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