Two great interviews with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, aka “Wilburine”. Secretary Ross is easily the most comprehensively well-versed trade policy commerce secretary in modern history, perhaps ever.

Wilburine is discussing the recent U.S./China trade breakthrough. –BACKSTORY HERE– Additionally, at 08:30 of the interview Ross discusses NAFTA against the backdrop of the Senate not yet accepting his “letter of intent” to renegotiate the agreement.  Secretary Ross discusses how Robert Lighthizer’s confirmation should help speed up the senate process.

.

In substantive terms the bigger aspect to remember is how much more leverage there is in bilateral trade negotiations than multilateral agreements.

The Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) would have held the U.S. hostage to agreements that in many cases were against our interests and to the benefit of the larger group of TPP nations. Former Secretary of State John Kerry stated openly: while China was not part of the original TPP framework, the participating nations held open a back door for China to enjoin.

Because President Trump pulled away from TPP, the U.S. is able to negotiate terms for trade with our market that may have specific and purposeful benefit exclusive to the United States. This is critical as we review current negotiated bilateral deal with China.

(more…)

On the heels of the historic meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Trump in Mar-a-lago, Secretary Ross announced a jaw-dropping schedule for bilateral trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.

Part of that rapid schedule included a plan for a 100-day waypoint outline toward the larger trade issues surrounding the United States and China. Against the pace of historic trade agreements the 100-day schedule was almost unfathomable; yet today Secretary Ross announces the initial waypoints have been successful.

.

The Department of Commerce provides the outline of the first-stage, the initial agreement, which includes China opening their market up to U.S. agricultural products including U.S. beef export as well as liquid natural gas, and further agreements on financial services. These are multi-billion market deals.

Here’s the Commerce Dept press release. I’ll try to break it down into understandable lingo at the bottom using the included reference points from the press release:

(more…)

All positions have some bearing on the average American; however, some confirmation votes are more directly tied to the well-being of ordinary people than others.  This confirmation will directly and specifically make the lives of middle-class workers, and ordinary American people, improve.

Thank you to those who contacted their Senator and applied the pressure.  There was a great deal of feedback received by the senate in the past 24 hours.  There are those within the swamp lobbying community who are beginning to understand that WE KNOW far more than they ever thought we know.  Change is a direct consequence of that reality.

In a strong showing of bi-partisan support for Trump’s ‘America First’ trade platform the nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, was confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 82-14.  The U.S. Trade Representative is a critical position ahead of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Three Republicans voted NO: ♦Cory Gardner (Colorado), ♦John McCain (Arizona), and ♦Ben Sasse (Nebraska).

For the past 30 years Lighthizer has been a trade lawyer representing American steel companies in their efforts to fight dumping of foreign-made steel below costs and unfair steel subsidies from foreign governments. He has pledged to strengthen enforcement of existing trade deals and to find new legal tools to combat unfair trade practices.

Lighthizer has criticized some Republicans for being too pro-free trade. He told a Senate panel this year that the U.S. should have an “America first trade policy.”  “We can do better in negotiating our trade agreements and stronger in enforcing our trade laws,” he said.

(more…)

The economic lobbyist community known as The Big Club is represented most visibly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Donohue.

Via the Wall Street community, CoC President Donohue pours tens of millions of multinational corporate contributions into DC lobbying efforts to retain control over politicians and legislation that relates to U.S. trade and economic matters.   [FYI Donohue’s Chamber of Commerce lobbying group were the primary architects of the now dispatched TPP trade deal; they actually wrote the U.S. part of the construct.]

Tom Donohue funds a large number of politicians in DC in an effort to control the outcomes of legislation and policies that could become adverse to his multinational interests.  Two of those primary beneficiaries are John McCain and Ben Sasse.

As a consequence it doesn’t come as a surprise to see McCain and Sasse announce their intention to block the confirmation of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer:

REUTERS – Republican U.S. Senators John McCain and Ben Sasse said on Wednesday they would vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, because of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Unfortunately, your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole,” McCain and Sasse said in a letter to Lighthizer. (read more)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trump strongly support Lighthizer for U.S. Trade Rep.   The institutional control agents within K-Street, aka the economic lobbying group, do not.

(more…)

During the White House Press Beating today, Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced President Trump would defer any decision on the Paris Climate Change Agreement until after the G-7 Summit [May 26th and 27th Toarmina in Sicily].

If you’ve understood President Trump’s strategy this announcement is predictably Trumpian; that is it is exactly what we would expect President Trump to do.

Make no mistake on strategy, President Trump has already made up his mind on the agreement, the strategic decision here is on the announcement therein.

Remember, everything about Trumpian strategy is strategic leverage – and no aspect to strategic leverage will be more clearly evidenced than when President Trump is positioning on issues surrounding economics and trade imbalances.

(more…)

Actually, seeing this outlined in Reuters is a very good sign of things to come.  The pending NAFTA trade renegotiation between the U.S. (Trump/Ross) and Canada (Trudeau) correctly viewed through the prism of Canadian politics.  This is exactly the correct perspective.

The larger liberal need is for Trudeau to pander to the constituencies of Quebec, even if it means economic disaster and crushing collapse for the entire country of Canada.  This reality is exactly the ideological zero-sum perspective of the liberal mind and worldview.

Complete economic disaster is what Prime Minister Trudeau will do to Canada if he chooses to continue positioning against the U.S. with President Donald J Trump.

VIA REUTERS – Canada escalated a trade dispute with United States by making threats Washington called inappropriate in part because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to secure support in a key region ahead of the country’s 2019 elections.

Washington last month slapped tariffs on timber imports, prompting Trudeau to say he was considering a ban on exports of U.S. coal through Pacific ports.

(more…)

Behind the social justice interventionism of the Birkenstock wearing Brangelina Peacenik useful-idiot-crowd, there’s the group of multinational financial interests who play the strings on the idiots.

Multinational corporations and billionaire financiers use climate change as a tool toward furtherance of collected global wealth.  Their strategy is quite simple, and has been played out for several cycles.  Create an institutional trade instrument (housing financial bubble example), control it, drive the pricing to an apex and reap the financial rewards.

Their expressed holy grail for human control is a global tax on all people more commonly known as a “carbon-trading tax”.  A planetary tax on personage.  Various religious groups have a financial method to purchase entry to heaven called ‘indulgences’.  Hence the comparison of Climate Change to a religion is exponentially accurate.

The “Carbon Trading” fundamental financial instrument is the foundational block of the financial interests behind modern climate change.  The latest exhibition of a decades long series of international construct was the Paris Climate Change agreement.

REUTERS – Investors with more than $15 trillion of assets under management urged governments led by the United States to implement the Paris climate accord to fight climate change despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to pull out.

(more…)

One of the reasons CTH writes about economic matters because constructing economic prediction theories based around political policy is a hobby of mine.  Within obscure data, raw and unfiltered up-stream activity, it is entirely possible to see over the horizon.

But newly engaged people also think I’m nuts; so therefore it is also fun conversation at parties to stand above the esoteric academic fray, smile and outline actual forecasts –very specific forecasts– that most would never consider possible from a linear perspective.

People pay a boat-load of money for proprietary ownership of very accurate forecasts.  However, CTH would rather do it open source and break the historic grip of the financial control class.

If you’ll permit me a little Funday indulgence; the other reason to share predictable consequences is so patriotic readers can take a pro-active and empowering position in their own decision-making.  That motive was one of the reasons for previously sharing:

[…]  Until the two economies gain parity – any fed activity, taken as a consequence to their familiar traditional measurements (interest rates etc.), will have minimal to negligible impact on Main Street.

• Regional areas which benefited from high yield and high rates of return from Wall Street, ie. investment benefactors, will begin economic contraction. The downstream effect on state finances, and the retail and high-end service industry will also be negatively impacted.

• However, industrial areas/middle-class areas, with affordable housing and reasonable infrastructure, which have suffered in the past 20+ years, will see home values increasing as the local economy expands.

National policy (Trump Policy) which benefits Main Street also benefits local economics which are founded in manufacturing, production, and ancillary services.  In essence, the Middle-Class.

Those who benefited from high-yield international investment income will see less income.  Those who live on savings will see a moderate benefit.  However, those living day-to-day and week-to-week on their paychecks will see much more income.  Believe it. (link)

Now check out this headline from AP today discussing Connecticut:

(more…)

Are people beginning to catch on? Are people beginning to identify the long-ball strategy of a non-traditional approach toward geo-political alliances?

Apparently, some are – because North Korea is not happy with the heavy pressure coming from Big Panda, China.  As identified within this radio interview between Dr. Gorka and Brian Kilmeade…

.

I don’t want to say, I told you so… but:

(more…)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to be cowering to the demands of British Columbia Provincial Premier Christy Clark who asked for retaliatory trade action against Oregon and the Pacific Northwest after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced a tariff on Canadian soft-wood imports.

Yesterday (Friday) Prime Weasel Trudeau threatened to ban shipments of U.S. thermal coal from Pacific ports and suggesting sanctions against additional trade products from Oregon due to the support for the soft-wood tariff by Democrat Senator Ron Wyden.

ENERGY ECON […] Trudeau said Ottawa would study whether to stop U.S. firms from shipping thermal coal via the Pacific province of British Columbia. Provincial Premier Christy Clark asked for the ban in response to the U.S. tariffs.

Canada is also considering duties on exports from Oregon such as wine, flooring and plywood, said a source close to the matter, citing Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden’s prominent role in pressing for the lumber tariffs.

(more…)