White House Manufacturing and Trade Advisor Peter Navarro discusses the state of the U.S. economy heading into 2020. The Fox crew uses the strawman poll: “some people feel”, to create a narrative that cannot easily be countered; however, the reality in the economic stats cannot be refuted.
Main Street workers are confident; wages continue to increase; inflation is low – employment is high, consumer spending is strong and the future looks bright.
Peter Navarro discusses the Trump administration’s trade agenda and some predictions for the state of the Main Street U.S. economy heading into 2020.
Navarro highlights the completed agreements with South Korea, Japan, China phase-1, and the U.S., Mexico, Canada USMCA agreement and what they can deliver next year.
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It really is quite remarkable that President Trump and the economic team could simultaneously diminish the interests of multinationals, focus on Main Street USA, and still create a situation where Wall Street stocks are growing. (more…)
The Dept. of Labor reveals [DATA HERE] initial claims for unemployment fell again last week, creating the following Reuters headline: “The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell last week in a sign of ongoing labor market strength.” Another strong labor report, followed by another media report outlining how the results beat all economic analyst expectations; a consistent theme throughout 2019. White House – DRIVING A RECORD-SETTING ECONOMY: The booming economy and strong labor market allow Americans of all backgrounds to find work and succeed.
♦ The current labor market revival is not a continuation of past trends, but instead a direct result of President Trump’s pro-growth policies.
Since President Trump was elected, more than 7 million jobs have been added to our economy – surpassing the Congressional Budget Office’s predictions by 5 million jobs.
This year, the unemployment rate has fallen to 3.5%, its lowest level in 50 years.
Unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school diploma have all reached record lows under President Trump.
The President’s policies are bringing people off the sidelines and into the labor force.
The prime age labor force has grown by 2.1 million under President Trump.
The surge in labor demand has resulted in 7 million job openings, which outnumber job seekers by more than 1 million.
Before President Trump took office, there had never been more recorded job openings than unemployed workers.
Whooo-doggies, middle-class Americans spent more this holiday shopping season than any year before it. Despite losing a week due to the late Thanksgiving holiday, total Christmas sales growth was +3.4 percent year-over-year.
(Reuters) […] The holiday shopping season is a crucial period for retailers and can account for up to 40% of annual sales. But this year, Thanksgiving, which traditionally starts the U.S. holiday shopping period, was on Nov. 28, nearly a week later than last year’s Nov. 22, leaving retailers with six fewer days to drive sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
E-commerce sales this year made up 14.6% of total retail and rose 18.8% from the 2018 period, according to Mastercard’s data tracking retail sales from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve. Overall holiday retail sales, excluding autos, rose 3.4%.
“E-commerce sales hit a record high this year with more people doing their holiday shopping online,” said Steve Sadove, senior adviser for Mastercard.
Donald J Trump was the only candidate in 2016 who knew how to use China’s panda playbook against them. Thus, when you plant your tree in another man’s orchard, don’t be surprised when he charges you to harvest your own apples…
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will lower import tariffs on over 850 products from Jan. 1, including frozen pork and frozen avocado, the finance ministry said.
It will also further lower import tariffs on some information technology products from July 1 next year, said the ministry, in a statement on its website. (link)
As expected the House of Representatives has passed the USMCA trade agreement with an overwhelming 385 to 41 vote. Pelosi’s political objective was to use USMCA to water down the toxic political environment created by her impeachment fiasco:
Also as expected, after passing the USMCA the House went into immediate recess for the Christmas holiday without any movement on the fraudulent impeachment articles.
In the time-frame between today and the return to the next congressional session in January, House lawyers will attempt to use the passage of the articles to support their background court cases: (1) McGahn forced deposition; (2) access to Mueller 6(e) grand jury information; and (3) possible access to Trump family financial records.
[PREDICTION for bookmark: Upon return in January Speaker Pelosi will refuse to allow impeached President Trump to deliver a State of the Union address in the House.] (more…)
Great interview with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as he described the goals, objectives and outcomes of the USMCA and U.S-China Phase One agreements.
While answering a question about Wall St. journal criticism of the USMCA, Lighthizer discussed the dynamic of Wall Street -vs- Main Street as part of the bigger picture objective in the revised deal. He avoids the words “globalism” -vs- “nationalism” but the sentiment as described is there.
On China Lighthizer emphasizes the “phase one” deal is really a test to see if it is even possible to have an enforceable trade agreement between a communist state-run economy (China) and a free-market economy (U.S).
At the same time Beijing is reportedly promising internal reforms to retain access to a vital and necessary U.S. market for Chinese goods, Beijing is threatening Germany if they block Huawei technology from their 5G network China will announce German autos are unsafe for import…. Chancellor Angela Merkel is in a pickle.
According to Bloomberg analysis, German automakers sold approximately seven million cars to China in 2018. The Chinese Ambassador to Germany said this weekend: ” “If Germany were to take a decision that leads to Huawei’s exclusion from the German market, there will be consequences. The Chinese government will not stand idly by.”
(SCMP) […] The Chinese ambassador in Berlin has stirred up a fresh controversy over the tech giant Huawei after he threatened “consequences” if it was excluded from Germany.
National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox News for a discussion of the status of the U.S. economy, the USMCA and the U.S-China trade agreement.
The Wall Street GOPe, positioned primarily in the senate, are preparing to punish the administration for their restructuring of global trade against the backdrop of the senate influence over impeachment.
USTR Robert Lighthizer made a rare appearance in the media to discuss the “big picture”, and some specifics, around the U.S-China phase-one agreement.
Ambassador Lighthizer notes the principle challenge is generating an enforceable set of standards -within a written agreement- between a totally controlled communist economic system (China) and a free-market system (USA). No other nation has ever tried, and there is no preexisting trade agreement to facilitate a mapping. What Lighthizer is constructing will be what all nations will start to use going forward. This is historic stuff.
Arguably, next to President Trump, USTR Lighthizer is one of the most consequential members of the administration. What he is constructing, with the guidance of President Trump, is going to influence generations of Americans.
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[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: This week, the U.S. and China agreed on the first phase of a trade deal that would roll back some American tariffs. It’s expected to be signed in early January. We’re joined now by the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, the top negotiator in those talks with Chinese officials. Good to have you here.
U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT LIGHTHIZER: Thank you for having me, MARGARET. (more…)
