President Trump holds an interview with Fox Business News’ Blake Burman. The president hits on a variety of current headlines including ongoing COVID-19 mitigation, a potential fourth round of stimulus, the nonsensical Russia conspiracy nonsense and the 2020 election campaign.
During an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross notes that companies with headquarters in Hong Kong are likely to rethink those offices with China now taking control under Beijing’s sweeping new security law.
This is a significant statement and underpins the U.S. strategy that is dismantling the Chinese influence on global trade and manufacturing. As Secretary Ross noted: “I believe that there’s a good chance that all companies who have Hong Kong as their headquarters for Asia will begin rethink whether the new rules – the new relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China – whether those rules let Hong Kong be as favorable a place to have headquarters as it used to be.” WATCH (listen closely):
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There is a deliberate and blunt focus in the statements by Ross that will have a significant impact. Globally the world needs to accept the future of Hong Kong as a communist state, and disavow the notion of any semblance of an autonomous region. Secretary Ross just threw a bucket of cold water in the face of those who refuse to accept the reality as it exists.
Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally designated Chinese’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp as posing as posing national security threats to the United States. This designation and declaration blocks U.S. firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from either company.
This is an important step toward eliminating Huawei 5G data risks within U.S. telecommunication networks. Additionally, the designation will have the forward impact of restricting U.S. allies from linking networks if they use Huawei/ZTE components.
In a statement earlier today, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has announced the U.S. is revoking the special trade status of Hong Kong in response to escalating encroachment by China in violation of the prior agreement for autonomy.
It is a challenging status to modify because the administration does not want to reduce the ability of Hong Kong to operate as an autonomous economic region. However, at the same time Beijing is taking control of all systems within Hong Kong and as such policies must be adjusted. It would be an exercise in futility to expect China to retreat.
WILBUR ROSS – “With the Chinese Communist Party’s imposition of new security measures on Hong Kong, the risk that sensitive U.S. technology will be diverted to the People’s Liberation Army or Ministry of State Security has increased, all while undermining the territory’s autonomy. Those are risks the U.S. refuses to accept and have resulted in the revocation of Hong Kong’s special status.”
What Senator Tom Cotton discusses in this interview is essentially what’s at stake in the 2020 election; and as an extension why radical leftists, democrats, media and Wall Street are united against their ‘America First’ enemy, Donald Trump. There are trillions at stake.
The Chinese Communist Party influence over Wall Street and U.S. multinationals is very well known. The CCP influence over Big Tech, and U.S. tech labs is starting to become more widely known; along with revelations about CCP influence inside major universities.
The Trump administration have direct policy positions to counteract each of these CCP influences; however, CCP financial beneficiaries from Hollywood to sports and pop-culture, to universities and ultimately U.S. politicians, do not want to lose affluence.
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Behind a great deal of the visible resist Trump movement (whether financial or ideological) is a CCP dragon wearing a panda mask and writing big checks to keep the resistance operations strong.
What better laundry operation could exist to benefit the CCP than Black Lives Matter? Beijing can ship funds to BLM in a myriad of ways, and that money is then transferred –via Act Blue– into the coffers of those political voices supporting Joe Biden’s campaign.
Earlier today President Trump signed an Executive Order requiring Federal agencies to focus hiring on the skills job seekers possess, rather than focusing on whether they earned a college degree. The order requires Federal agencies to revise and update outdated Federal job qualification standards and candidate assessments, improving the quality and competency of the civil service.
The order implements best practices already adopted by private sector leaders to promote equity and inclusion. As a result of this reform, talented individuals with apprenticeships, technical training, and apt backgrounds will have greater opportunity to pursue careers in the Federal civil service. [Video and Transcript of Workforce Meeting]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Nice to see you. Thank you very much. Busy time.
MS. TRUMP: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: We’re making a lot of progress with the whole situation that came in from a place called China, as you probably know. You probably see. But we have a little work to do, and we’ll get it done. We’re having some very good numbers coming out in terms of the comeback — the comeback of our nation. And I think it’s going very rapidly and it’s going to be very good. But right now, we’re in that process of building.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on Fox News with Stuart Varney to discuss a change in federal hiring policy. However, within the interview Ross notes some key economic data that has a very solid predictor value for economic growth.
Both the spending rates and the savings rates for Americans are at all time highs. The COVID-19 lockdown has limited purchase options, leading to less initial spending; however, consumers have a lot of recent cash reserve as shown in their rate of savings.
Ross is right, within this dynamic, as soon as economic limits are removed, the spending will boost the economy very quickly.
Jumpin’ ju-ju bones… New home sales jumped a whopping 16.6% in May, blowing past the estimates of a 2.9% rise. The May increase in sales is nearly 13 percent higher than the same month one year ago.
Home sales are a key indicator of economic health because purchases of homes requires (1) income, a stable job; and (2) an optimistic financial outlook from the buyer.
Sales of new single-family homes jumped 16.6% in May from April, to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 676,000, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The median economist estimate was for 640,000, according to Bloomberg data.
In addition to a larger-than-expected monthly surge, May sales were nearly 13% higher than a year ago. As the US economy reopens, people are flocking back to the housing market in droves — the rosy sales are a rebound from three months of declines ending in April. (LINK)
In the economic balancing act toward China Larry Kudlow represents the good cop, Peter Navarro represents the bad cop and President Trump navigates the market responses. Neither person is factually in conflict with the other; the nuance is in the expression and each person has a role to play. Sometimes teeth, sometimes not. It depends on need.
Last night trade advisor Peter Navarro noted the U.S. position with China and trade is still in a state of serious conflict. This is accurate, and a more confrontational posture has been expressed by President Trump. Today Larry Kudlow moderates the Navarro position to lessen the Wall St. concern over a looming decoupling. It’s all a dance.
The need for nuance becomes clear as we watch Stuart Varney pushing the Wall Street concern angle on behalf of U.S. multinationals. The administration does not want to spook the stock market while they deal with a China confrontation. WATCH:
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Kudlow represents the panda mask. Navarro represents the eagles claw. President Trump advances or retracts each position as he controls the market response. The objective is a slow, steady, smiling decoupling that doesn’t unnerve anyone… but the direction is always toward the decoupling.
President Trump is delivering the proverbial economic death by a thousand paper cuts.
Walid Phares was the fifth [redacted] target of Robert Mueller’s expanded investigation as authorized by former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein on August 2nd, 2017.
As Mr. Phares notes, the Mueller investigation was used by Obama-era politicians and officials as a mechanism to block President Trump from executing a divergent foreign policy. The primary policy to protect was the Iran deal.
There is increased speculation, based on a pattern in other international activities and U.S. participants, the Iranian deal included return payments to U.S. officials for the release of billions in funds and the loosening of sanctions. It is possible the return payments to the Obama team held a timing mechanism and the payments were stopped after President Trump withdrew from the deal and re-instituted sanctions. Thus the severity of opposition from western politicians who were scheduled to remain wealthy via Iran.
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U.S. senators write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds. Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices. Example Ukraine [Burisma to Biden]
