According to the U.S. Department of Labor [data here] companies hiring American workers are not complying with the media “recession” narrative.   Yes, another day, and yet another data point reflecting the “unexpected” & continued strength of Main Street.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, suggesting the labor market was holding firm despite a manufacturing slowdown and concerns the economy is on a path toward recession.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 209,000 for the week ended Aug. 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The decline was sharper than expected. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims would drop to 216,000 in the latest week.

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The needle on the CTH winnamometer momentarily pegs ‘too much‘…
[Backstory Here] After quite widespread discussion on the Energy Star Thermostat Report, and the ridiculous recommendations to set thermostat to 82° when sleeping, the U.S. Department of Energy (Secretary Rick Perry) issued the following statement:

…”It is the position of DOE that Americans should set their thermostats to whatever temperature they choose.”..  (link)

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Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  As President Trump departed the White House for a flight to Kentucky, the President stopped to answer questions from the media pool.  The president took questions for over 35 minutes.  [Video and Transcript below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So, the economy is doing very, very well. We’ll see what happens with the Federal Reserve, whether or not they finally get smart and reduce interest rates, like many other places around the world that we have to compete with.
But our economy is the strongest in the world, by far. Nothing even close. And a lot of good things are happening. We had some very good retail numbers this morning, as you saw. And I guess the stock market is quite a bit up.
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President Trump has announced a policy directive to the U.S. Department of Education to immediately facilitate the discharge of federal student loan debt for any veteran permanently disabled as part of their military service.

WHITE HOUSE – Since our Founding, the United States has been blessed with men and women willing to serve in defense of our Nation and our ideals. Many of those answering the call to serve make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and many others carry physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives.
The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended by the Higher Education Opportunity Act in 2008 and other acts (Higher Education Act), honors veterans who are totally and permanently disabled as a result of their service to the Nation by providing for the discharge of their Federal student loan debt.
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President Trump was delivering another round of delicious Chopper Presser rebuttals to the MSM narrative engineers today, when he remarked about confronting China: “I am the chosen one”…  And the media had the customary spontaneous ‘splodey head.
First, the people’s president is right, he is the chosen one.  Through prayer and divine providence, we finally have a businessman fighting for Main Street USA.   Secondly, it’s funny to watch an entire MSM apparatus that decries religion, suddenly searching for scripture in their anti-MAGA talking points.  Too funny.  Only Trump can achieve this.
Epic. Just epic. WATCH:

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The Wall Street pundits are having a harder time pushing their recessionary economic narrative while the results from Main Street continue to beat expectations.  Two data points continue to highlight the strength of Main Street: Home Sales and Wage Gains.

President Trump’s MAGAnomic policies are focused on delivering results to the middle-class worker and family.  The middle-class American is the engine for a Main Street economy.  Growing the middle-class is the key to strengthening the U.S. economy and blocking negative global economic influence.  Growing the middle-class is how the U.S. economy continues to be self-sustaining. [We buy/use 80% of our own production.]
Today The National Association of Realtors released data showing existing home sales rose 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.42 million units in July.  Forecasters only expected 5.39 million units.  The U.S. Main Street housing market is very strong.

Because the results defy pundit expectation, Reuters has to ignore the strength of Main Street and put the Wall Street spin on the results.  The efforts to keep pushing a negative economic narrative are intense [Trillions At Stake]:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. home sales rose more than expected in July, boosted by lower mortgage rates and a strong labor market, signs the Federal Reserve’s shift toward lower interest rates was supporting the economy.

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According to the White House:

President Donald J. Trump spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom earlier today to discuss a wide range of trade and economic issues. Prime Minister Johnson also provided the President with an update on Brexit. The President expressed great enthusiasm for his upcoming meeting with the Prime Minister at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. (link)

The G7 is being held August 24th – 26th.  The word of a tentative post-Brexit U.S-U.K trade agreement was first released last week. The potential construct has the assembly of mutual benefit and follows a plan previously recommended by President Trump to Prime Minister Theresa May.
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CTH suspected this was going to happen. This was predictable if you have followed the fracture between Main Street (Trump) and Wall Street (multinationals).  Remember, there are trillions at stake.  This news today is part of the battle.
Here’s the cut through the BS motive behind the multinational association of Business Roundtable CEO’s (these are all pure Wall St.) suddenly saying “social responsibility should be put above profit“…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Top CEOs say companies should put social responsibility above profit.  Corporate America is responsible for providing economic benefits to all, not just its investors, the Business Roundtable group said on Monday.
The group’s “statement of corporate purpose” was signed by the heads of more than 180 U.S. companies, including the CEOs of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), American Airlines (AAL.O), the largest airline in the world; and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the biggest American bank.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the security concerns around Chinese company Huawei and technology products designed to extract intelligence and data.  [Details of Commerce Announcement Follow Video]
Secretary Ross explains the Commerce Department decision to add 46 new Huawei subsidiaries to the restricted entity list requiring U.S. companies to apply for temporary licenses for Huawei purchases.  Due to the potential security ramifications the Commerce Dept. is giving U.S. companies 90-days (under Temporary General Licenses) to find alternate suppliers before all commercial engagement is halted.

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Earlier today President Trump, Melania Trump and Barron Trump arrived in Morristown, NJ, airport en route back to Washington DC.  Prior to boarding Air-Force-One the President delivered brief remarks and answered media questions for 36 minutes.
[Note: longer version of video provided to see young 13-year-old (very tall) Barron Trump as he arrives with Mom and Dad.  (Full Video (begin 6:45) and Transcript below)]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So, we had a lot of meetings yesterday on Afghanistan, on the economy — which is doing very well. We have the strongest economy, by far, in the world. The tariffs have cost nothing, in my opinion, or certainly very little. We have import prices from, and through, July — all the way through July. And they’re down 1.8 percent so that the import prices have actually gone down.
China is eating the tariffs because of monetary manipulation. And also, they’re pouring a lot of money into their country because they don’t want to lose jobs. They’re losing, as you probably know, because you reported it, but they lost over 2 million jobs in a short period of time. And they want to make a deal; we’ll see what happens. But they definitely want to make a deal.
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