Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talks about the importance of trade “reciprocity”.  As Wilburine outlines phase-2 MAGAnomics is only just beginning the reciprocity discussion.

Additionally, Secretary Ross talks about the issues with Chinese steel trans-shipment and the reason for Steel and Aluminum tariffs to be global in order to address China’s use of proxy nation states to continue dumping.   In this interview Ross begins to outline the fine points behind the pending 2018 trade negotiations. It is going to take a lot of repeated effort to awaken the larger U.S. electorate to the issues.

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Maria Bartiromo interviews Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to discuss Gary Cohn’s departure from President Trump’s National Economic Council (NEC).  {Deep Dive Here}  Secretary Mnuchin talks about the larger MAGAnomic objectives, and the transition of the administration into ‘policy phase-2’ with all attention now focused on Main Street.

Great Interview:

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♦Economic Patriotism – ‘America First’:
√ Unleash energy development. Drive down energy costs. Lower cost-of-living.
√ Eliminate regulatory stranglehold. Unleash free market entrepreneurial expansion.
√ Lower corporate tax burden. Position business investment ‘best bet’ domestically.
√ Generate investment expansion. Create: jobs, jobs, jobs.
√ Generate higher labor demand. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs = Higher wages, wages, wages.
√ Lower middle-class tax burden. Combine higher wages with lower taxes. 2x benefits.
==> WE ARE HERE <==
• Structure trade deals to benefit workers/companies inside the U.S.
• Leverage access to U.S. market as incitement for domestic investment.
• Economic Growth + Domestic Manufacturing Expansion =  GDP increases.
• Increased overall tax revenues from expanding economy stabilizes debt and entitlements.

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U.S. Steel and Aluminum tariffs are just one component of a larger economic issue. Bringing back U.S. production on those sectors is vital to the infrastructure of a manufacturing and production economy. Modern Wall Street is centered on multinational interests within economic globalism. Weaken the trade grip of the multinational corporations and their financial manipulation upon the U.S. economy, and Wall Street will drop… this is not difficult to predict.  This is also necessary.

Last week President Trump spoke candidly with the White House assembly of U.S. Governors about the critical need to re-evaluate their position(s) on trade.  President Trump’s remarks were direct, but also nuanced toward the audience.  A few hours later the White House announced President Trump had promoted his economic guru, Peter Navarro to be Assistant to The President.

Mr. Navarro’s job is to counter the false narrative from the GOPe, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street crowd. Cue the audio visual demonstration (two video segments):

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Segment #2 below:

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MAGAnomics baby!!  Throw dem ju-ju bones out the windows and hold on to your britches…  The U.S. Dept of Labor is reporting unemployment claims have dropped to 210,000.  That’s the lowest jobless number since December 6th, 1969.

You know what this means right?

…wait for it.

…wait for it.

That’s right. We better grab chin straps for the hard hats, because pay raises and wage rate increases are thundering toward the middle-class like an unstoppable herd of buffalo. Exactly on schedule.  Cha-ching & Ka-pow.

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Last year President Donald Trump requested a national security Section 232 trade-investigation, to conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Secretary Wilbur Ross, specifically focusing on U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing.

The discussion continued last week as President Trump met with a group of republican and democrat members of congress to talk about trade policy and focus attention on the lack of American steel and aluminum production.   [The responses from the republican participants was very enlightening and disappointing.]

On Friday Commerce Secretary completed the industrial review and provided President Trump with trade recommendations to consider given the nature of the national security compromise.   See Outline Here.

Recommendations of the Steel Report:  Secretary Ross has recommended to the President that he consider the following alternative remedies to address the problem of steel imports:

1. A global tariff of at least 24% on all steel imports from all countries, or
2. A tariff of at least 53% on all steel imports from 12 countries (Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam) with a quota by product on steel imports from all other countries equal to 100% of their 2017 exports to the United States, or
3. A quota on all steel products from all countries equal to 63% of each country’s 2017 exports to the United States.

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In September of 2015 we shared one of the overarching reasons why CTH would support Donald Trump for President. – SEE HERE –  This week, the sentiment behind that reasoning showed up in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum; we could not be more proud.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (Wednesday), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (Thursday) and U.S. President Donald Trump (Friday), collectively outlined how our new U.S. trade and economic policy would engage with the world.
Many media voices (narrative engineers) will, and have, continue to obfuscate, spin, and make predictive declarations about U.S. economic policies based on their ideological views of what President Trump could do, should do, or will do.  They will try to convince the  American electorate of POTUS Trump’s forward plans.  Most of what they declare is false.
In case you missed it, and if you want to know what the accurate compass heading is, skip the media and allow yourselves to rely on the direct message as delivered. You’ll avoid a great deal of heartburn.
The MAGA economic policy explanation begins with trade, Wilbur Ross:

The economic strategy of President Trump is so consequential and encompassing, even the domestic effects are felt globally.

♦Removing the U.S. from the multinational TPP trade deal initially planted the seeds of doubt amid multinational trade forecasters because the shift positioned the U.S. with unique leverage. They saw Trump using access to the worlds largest market as a negotiating strategy.
♦A few months later, President Trump walked away from the ridiculous regulatory restrictions within the Paris Climate Treaty.  Instantaneously this put even more strategic manufacturing and economic advance on the U.S. ledger, and simultaneously made American energy independence a foregone conclusion.
♦And now that congress has codified President Trump’s lower domestic business taxes, in conjunction with opening up ANWR for energy development (a strategic economic goal for 20+ years), the size of the U.S. economic and manufacturing advantage has just increased U.S. trade leverage to almost unimaginable levels.

Economic Nationalism – President Trump’s strategy has created: •Lower and long-term predictable energy costs, not attached to OPEC or multinational influence; •Lower and long-term raw material costs due to slashed regulatory environment; •lower and long-term business manufacturing tax rates; and now Trump begins negotiating trade deals.

Add these advantages together within the largest economic market in the world and the U.S. is now the place where manufacturers will want to do business.  Additionally, the process of utilizing Canada and/or Mexico as a workaround into the U.S. market, via NAFTA, is on the cusp of removal.
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CTH has a strong sense that when the final analysis on Venezuela’s ongoing socialist struggle is written, some years from now, the geopolitical strategy used by the Trump administration will be taught in political science classes. [Backstory Here]
As a result of horrific socialist policies, primarily driven by using oil production to maintain it’s socialist governance, Venezuela is under massive debt and desperate for cash.  The United States was one of the few remaining cash purchasers of Venezuela oil before U.S. Secretary of Treasury  Mnuchin imposed sanctions.
Previously China and Russia purchased Maduro’s oil, however their current purchases are/were all made as offsets, repayments, for prior loans.  China and Russia already own 49% of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. Venezuela repays China and Russia with oil, but Venezuela needs cash revenue. It doesn’t generate additional revenue for Maduro if China and Russia purchase more oil, it only pays down the Venezuelan debt.
Venezuela needs money.  However, if anyone engages in restructured debt or further loans or bond holdings to Maduro they run the risk of running afoul of Secretary Mnuchin’s sanctions which could have a downstream effect of freezing their own banks and international financial systems from engagement with U.S. banks.
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All leading economic forecasters said it would be impossible for President Trump’s MAGAnomic plans to generate 3% GDP growth in the first year.  President Obama said it was impossible and Trump would need a “magic wand, or something“.
Well, three months after taking office (April-June), it was Quarter 2, and the U.S. GDP began growing over three percent.  Again in Quarter 3 (July-Sept), the same benchmark was exceeded. And now Q4 (Oct-Dec) the New York Fed says, yes, GDP growth is 3.2%.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Federal Reserve on Friday kept its view on U.S. gross domestic product growth for the fourth quarter near 3.2 percent given the dearth of economic data this week. (link)

Remember, these are forecasts within the current quarter.  CTH is specifically predicting the actual result will be much, much higher. With consumer confidence at the highest rate ever recorded (link); combined with MAGAnomics pushing down the cost of living and increasing disposable income (link); combined with wages rising (link); combined with early indicators that consumer spending this holiday season will be the biggest ever (link) and (link) and (link)….
Hold on to your economic britches peeps – throw dem ju-ju bones out the windows – grab hold of the young-un’s, squeeze em tight and introduce them to their first opportunity to see capitalism unchained; we are in uncharted MAGA territory now.  Q4 will be well beyond 3.2%…  Well Beyond.
Believe Me.
Bigly.
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Internet researcher Katica (Twitter GOPollAnalyst) may have found the hidden thread that unravels a much bigger story within the Uranium One-Clinton-FBI scandal.
In an otherwise innocuous FBI FOIA FILE Katica located a notice for preservation of documents sent by an FBI special agent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on August 28th, 2015.  What is interesting about the preservation request(s) are the recipients, their attachment to CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), and the timeline of events surrounding the agent’s notification.

The time-line here is very important as it might change the perception of exactly what the FBI was investigating as it relates to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.  Therefore a backdrop to understand content and context is important.
Up to now the general perception of the FBI’s involvement surrounding the Clinton emails has been against the backdrop of using a personal email server to conduct business, and the potential for unlawful transmission of classified data.
Additionally, the circumvention of official information technology protocols was the narrative most often discussed. The headlines were “Clinton used bad judgement” etc.
In essence, throughout 2015, 2016, 2017 the arguments, including FBI legal probes, were thought to center around “process“.  However, Katica’s discovery re-frames that argument to focus on the subject matter “content” within the emails, and not the process.
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