Earlier today President Trump and first lady Melania welcomed the President of Argentina Mauricio Macri and his wife Juliana Awada to the White House.
One of the key topics on the agenda for President Macri is trade with the U.S., specifically the Argentinian export of lemons into the U.S. Understandably California, and to a lesser extent Florida, citrus growers are opposed to large scale imports of competing crops.
Additionally, during the customary Oval Office photo-op President Trump remarks about the ongoing NAFTA trade issues, and the phone calls yesterday between Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexico’s President Peña Nieto:
“If I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States–meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA.”
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The U.S. media are considerably invested in framing NAFTA trade issues around their ever-present need to oppose the White House (Trump Derangement Syndrome); and many of the recent media narratives around NAFTA are entirely false.
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.
It was only a few months ago when congressional democrat leadership were clutching their pearls because President-elect Trump held a phone call with the political leadership of Taiwan. House and Senate Democrats rose to defend the honor of China around the precept of the Obama administrations’ acquiescence to the “one china” policy, and Trump’s audacity to call it into question.
Then something weird happened.
President Trump took office January 20th, and after many diplomatic contacts within the administration and their Chinese counterparts, President Trump and President Xi Jinping began to formulate a friendship.
April 5th/6th President Trump and President Xi Jinping met in Mar-a-lago for two days and the outcome has been historic and stunning cooperation between the U.S. and China. China began pressuring North Korea to stop the military drum-beating. (more…)
In conjunction with the Trump administration releasing a tax reform outline, White House OMB Director Mick Mulvaney gives an interview to PBS to discuss the president’s goal of driving economic growth.
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Contrary to our initial reservations, Mick Mulvaney continues to be a considerable asset to the administration in communicating “big concepts” into portions that are easily digestible and understandable. Transferring big issues to easier points of comprehension is tough, and Mulvaney does a surprisingly good job.
Today Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Economic Director Gary Cohn held a briefing to outline the tax proposal of President Trump. The overall plan is essentially the same as the plan he proposed in the campaign with some slight modifications on rates etc.
The biggest structural change is political and regional in the current proposal because the rates are lowered, but deductions are removed – including deductions for state and local taxes. People who live in states/municipalities with income taxes, and who earn enough to carry a tax liability, would see their ability to deduct those state taxes removed.
Because of the UniParty nature of congress; and specifically because special interest lobbyists will write the final tax plan (if one ever surfaces) CTH is not going to spend much time in the analytics of this. Personally I highly doubt there will EVER be a comprehensive tax reform package even created; the UniParty [lobbyists/Big Club] will not allow their control over taxation to be diminished.
Tax reform is a noisy issue sure to fill lots of media stories, but the end result will be no action. If a legislative bill is ever created we’ll discuss then. More than likely we will see small, individual tax bills targeting specific aspects of current tax policy.
Here’s two articles explaining the possibilities against the backdrop of this proposal:
Earlier today President Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to consult with local governments and tribes in order to review national monuments created by the Antiquities Act since January 1, 1996 – that are greater than 100,000 acres in footprint – and report back to the President on suggested legislative or executive action, if applicable, within 120 days.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to declare federal lands of historic or scientific value to be national monuments by designating the “smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
Since the 1900s, when the Act was first used, the average size of national monuments exploded from an average of 422 acres per monument. Now it’s not uncommon for a monument to be more than a million acres.
The designations of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996 and the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 are considered the book-ends of modern Antiquities Act overreach. Each monument is more than 1.3 million acres.
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.
This is more than a little funny. Senator Ted Cruz must not be having much success fundraising for his re-election campaign, as his latest publicity stunt outlines:
In essence, the architect of Obama’s Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority bill is using the border wall, which he is paid to oppose, as a tool to “gruber” his sheeple followers. Judging by the number of people responding to the tweet, he’s found a goldmine.
As many people are aware, Senator Cruz is part of the ‘controlled opposition’ ploy. As a dedicated UniParty benefactor of the U.S. CoC lobbying expenditures Ted’s role is to plow through the political field giving a crony-constitutional impression of one thing while loyally working to deliver the end result of the thing he optically rails against, like TPP or TPA.
The El Chapo/wall angle as a narrative and fundraising mechanism, is similar to the dead-end ploy previously exhibited by Senator Rand Paul in last month’s ObamaCare repeal narrative used as his fundraising tool. Both are fallacies of false choice. Both have no foundation in actual goal or intention. Both are ruses.
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.
A very unusual report from Reuters announces the White House has extended an invitation for the entire U.S. Senate to come to the White House for a policy and security briefing on North Korea. The briefing is scheduled for 3pm Wednesday:
(Via Reuters) Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea, senior Senate aides said on Monday.
All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the aides said.
