Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett appears on Fox Business news to discuss the impact of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes on the Main Street economy and the state of the Wall Street stocks.
The key metric is to accept what’s happening around us.  Fed rate hikes are hurting Wall Street (investment class).  However, Fed activity is not yet impacting Main Street.  This is because the two economic engines (Wall St. -vs- Main St.) are so far apart.

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Part Two of this interview (and expanded review) is below:
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For those who follow the deep weeds of politics, this is brutally transparent.  For the remaining 97% of the voting electorate, they still don’t understand how the UniParty works. Decepticon leader McConnell doesn’t want the American electorate to see purchased senate republicans voting NO on border security.
Mitch McConnell refuses to call up an appropriations vote on the bill that passed the House of Representatives (includes border funding); nor will Mitch McConnell bring up an independent bill that could then be reconciled with the House bill.  The motives here are brutally transparent.

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Think carefully about what Mitch McConnell is doing here.  It’s not President Trump’s job to write legislation.  McConnell is desperately trying to retain a UniParty ruse, by passing the buck to the White House.   McConnell doesn’t want the American people to see republican senators supporting a bill against voter interests.
Wall Street, corporate and special interest lobbyists own the legislative process. Lobbyists actually write the laws.  Lobbyists pay congress to sell laws they write. Lobbyists funding both left and right wings of the UniParty do not want border security. This is ultimately what McConnell is trying to hide.
Look at what he’s doing.  Senate Leader McConnell is telling the executive branch (President Trump) if they want an appropriations bill, the President must write the legislation with his democrat colleagues.   Please – Think About This.
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CTH has pointed, repeatedly, toward a very specific economic and financial dynamic  because President Trump is uniquely focused on Main Street’s “real economy“.
Everything happening in/around the financial markets is very predictable when you focus on understanding the principles of Main Street MAGAnomics and how those basic principles diverge from Wall Street’s “paper economy”.
President Trump is clawing back American wealth; inch by inch… bit by bit.  This is the full monty.  This is economic nationalism. This is for all the marbles.
This is it.
Everything is happening in a very predictable sequence. Few understand the MAGAnomic reset, and what was predicted to happen in the space between disconnecting a Wall Street economic engine (globalism and multinationals) and restarting a Main Street economic engine (nationalism/America-First).  In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 CTH explained where we would be today. With current Wall Street events, perhaps it is worthwhile remembering the dynamic.
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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discusses some of the key specifics within the dinner table conversation between President Trump and Chairman Xi.  [*note* at the very end of this briefing, Kudlow is asked about the German auto visit tomorrow]
President Trump has been brutally consistent for more than three decades on his intent and purpose with the Chinese.  President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.  Additionally, while carrying out the objectives of the confrontation, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Ross, Ambassador Lighthizer and adviser Navarro are well aware of Beijing’s panda mask; POTUS Trump will never let them forget about it.

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With a full quarter of trade data to analyze the impacts, the Chinese tariff results are now measurable.  A multinational group studying the outcome (full pdf), identified that approximately 4.5% of the current tariff impact is being carried by American consumers.  The overwhelming cost of the tariff is being paid (20.5% absorbed) by Chinese producers.
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This is a painful, albeit rather telling, interview to watch.  Matt Cartwright has not had the time to fully digest how to be a good resistance member, whereby he simultaneously argues for and against the economic and trade policies of President Trump.
On domestic economic policies, specifically trade, President Trump is essentially carrying out all of the objectives of the blue-dog (moderate) Democrat party.  However, now the ‘resist we much overlay’ creates a pretzel dynamic for those same democrats.  They are for the policies, but must oppose the person carrying out those policies.  This is a goofy preview of what is to come in 2019.

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Lost but not invisible in the Cartwright angst is any acceptance that President Obama never cancelled NAFTA; nor did President Obama ever challenge the one-way economics of China; both of these confrontations and resets are favored by the new co-chair of the democrat platform committee…. but favored/not-favored when Trump does it.
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Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, National Security adviser John Bolton and National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow hold a very important press briefing from the White House.
Chairman Kudlow discusses current economic issues, and the upcoming possible trade discussions with China at the G20 meeting in Buenos Aries, Argentina. At 19:00 minutes NSA John Bolton takes over to discuss the scheduling details of the G20.  [Interesting trilateral mentioned: Trump, Modi and Abe] At 30:00 minutes Sarah Sanders takes over.

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President Trump’s ‘America First’  tweets are seen as dangerous to the progressive left because they are loaded with brutal, and often purposeful, honesty.  Today is another clear example.
General Motors would not exist today if it wasn’t for the taxpayer-funded bailouts of their financial position in 2008/2009.  GM is uniquely indebted to the U.S. taxpayer. After receiving those bailouts GM moved production of their newer sectors of autos to Mexico and China; providing no benefit to the American workers who funded their bailout.

GM is one deliberate presidential tweet-string away from seeing a massive consumer backlash that could would wipe out their business.  President Trump doesn’t bluff.
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Success in the midterm election secured power for House Democrats.  The discussion then moves to how are the democrats going to use that power?  Representative David Cicilline, co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, indicates their intended set of priorities in a series of Sunday talking points.
Democrats in the House intend to raise taxes on individuals and corporations; roll back the MAGAnomic policy for corporate tax incentives (investment, jobs, and manufacturing) and create a bigger gap between low and top income earners through their spending controls.  In essence, Democrats take control over income earnings (via tax policy) and distribute it to their constituents based on need. [Historic Fabian approach]
Simultaneously, the House committees (Oversight, Judiciary, Intel, Finance) will begin immediate investigations of the Trump administration, writ large, and -using those investigations- secure the pathway to the 2020 election cycle.

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Cecilline admits OUR CTH PROJECTION is entirely accurate.

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CTH has received multiple requests for a review of predictable consequences as a result of the midterm election.  Thankfully, and perhaps unfortunately, we have solid references to base these predictions on – because there’s a solid frame of reference from the 2006 midterm and the subsequent consequences we saw in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.
If we take the empirical 2006 example as the starting point and overlay the 2018 landscape to modernize the predictive model, what results is a most likely scenario.

First, any intellectually honest review must overlay the current political environment.  In 2018 the scale of unchecked lawless behavior is a significant influence toward the differences we can expect from the last time Democrat/Marxists held congressional power. The term “Democrat-socialism”, in essence a Marxist approach, is now the dominant fuel within the professional DNC  political operations.
When the Democrats last held power in 2006, their actionable objective was toward a far-left, Saul Alinsky-type aggressive tone and influence; however, there was a need to couch that intention as they positioned Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential election.
In 2006 the radicals, needed to downplay their radicalism.  In 2018 the severity and aggression of the left, as assisted by the dropping of all media pretense, no longer needs to hide the intention.  When Democrat-Marxists take control in January of 2019 they no longer need to couch the extremism, the American electorate have been prepped.
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NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the current economy and the state of MAGAnomics. Kudlow discusses how the central beneficiaries of MAGAnomics are blue-collar workers and Main Street companies.

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