LOL, an interesting albeit typically lighthearted discussion with CEA Chairman Kevin Hassett on the budget proposal and status of U.S.T.R trade talks with China.

President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Washington DC this past weekend.  Bolsonaro is scheduled  to meet with President Trump tomorrow, Tuesday March 19th.  The bilateral discussion between President Trump and President Bolsonaro could be one of the more consequential geopoliticalmeetings of the year.  The visit is below the radar of almost all media.

President Bolsonaro made a surprise visit to CIA headquarters earlier this morning.  A visit that was not on the official schedule.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters on Monday, an unusual move for a foreign head of state that was not on the public agenda for his first official trip to Washington.

The visit underscored Bolsonaro’s embrace of U.S. influence in Latin America to confront what he calls a communist threat against democracy — a theme he remarked on during a dinner on Sunday evening with his ministers and right-wing thinkers.

Presidential advisers, including his official spokesman, had said during the dinner that his agenda on Monday morning would be kept private. But Bolsonaro’s son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, revealed the visit in a Twitter post.

“Going now with the (president) and ministers to the CIA, one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world,” he wrote. “It will be an excellent opportunity to discuss international topics in the region with experts and technicians of the highest level.”

The Brazilian president was scheduled to meet later on Monday with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.  (more)

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Jair M. Bolsonaro

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Brazil United States of America / Brasil Estados Unidos da América:

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Meet Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of President Jair Bolsonaro.  We can learn a lot about geopolitical direction by paying attention to the emissaries.

(link)

In his latest Intellectual Froglegs episode cousin Joe Dan Gorman asks:

…”does the left needs to take pills to be so smug?”

The answer is yes, and they’re called suppositories.

WATCH the Latest Episode Here

While the MSM financial/wage reporting is two days apart from the BLS “JOLTS” releaseon job openings, the relationship is direct and connected.

CNBC is noticing the upward wage pressure is focused heavily on the middle-class workers and lower end of the labor market; another KPI (Key Performance Indicator) the economy is stronger than most financial pundits are admitting:

CNBC – The recent jump in paychecks has come with an unusual characteristic, as workers at the lower end of the pay scale are getting the greater benefit.

Average hourly earnings rose 3.4 percent in February from the same period a year ago, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report last week. That’s the biggest gain since April 2009 and seventh month in a row that compensation has been 3 percent or better.

What has set this rise apart is that it’s the first time during an economic recovery that began in mid-2009 that the bottom half of earners are benefiting more than the top half — in fact, about twice as much, according to calculations by Goldman Sachs. The trend began in 2018and has continued into this year, and could be signaling a stronger economy than many experts think. (cont.)

[I’ve got to laugh a little bit: “the trend began in 2018“… well, um, Duh]

We already pointed out the specific nature of this wage increase [SEE HERE] along with the dive into the rate of inflation, so we won’t duplicate the explanation again.  However, the basic backstory is how Trump’s MAGAnomic (Main Street) policies focus on, and deliver, greatest benefit to blue-collar workers.  This is the exact opposite of the trend created by politicians selling Wall Street policy over the past 30 years.

The JOLTS report surfaced two days later and highlights the number of job openings continues to exceed the currently estimated unemployed workforce by approximately one million available jobs.

(BLS) Large numbers of hires and separations occur every month throughout the business cycle. Net employment change results from the relationship between hires and separations. When the number of hires exceeds the number of separations, employment rises, even if the hires level is steady or declining. Conversely, when the number of hires is less than the number of separations, employment declines, even if the hires level is steady or rising.

Over the 12 months ending in January, hires totaled 69.2 million and separations totaled 66.3 million, yielding a net employment gain of 2.8 million. These totals include workers who may have been hired and separated more than once during the year. (link)

So we’ve added more than 2.8 million jobs in the last year.  Let that settle in for a moment. That’s a consistent run of over 220,000 jobs/per month each month of the year.

Digging a little deeper into BLS Table-1 you might notice something interesting that also aligns with the basic elements of POTUS Trump’s MAGAnomic intent:

First, available job openings in Durable Good Manufacturing in January 2018 were 261,000 it’s now 305,000. So there’s 44,000 more durable good manufacturing jobs available now than a year ago; again evidence this sector is continuing to expand at a rate higher than the available workforce to fill the jobs.

Second, [also Table-1] looking at all job sectors. While the job growth is regionally strong overall, there’s more job growth available in the South (+500k) and Mid-west (+212k), than in the North-east (+143k) and West (+91k).

Now, doesn’t that exactly match with the MAGAnomic intent of the 2016 election focus?

This stuff doesn’t happen automatically, what we are seeing here is direct and specific evidence of Trump-directed economic policy (his magic wand) landing exactly in the places candidate Trump, president-elect Trump, and now President Trump said they would land.

• All wages are growing, but wages are rising faster for Blue-Collar workers and the middle-class.
• More jobs are available in just about every sector, but highest job growth is in higher wage durable good manufacturing.
• More jobs are available throughout the country, but available job growth is highest in South and Mid-West.

Overall the total U.S. economy looks excellent; healthy and strong. However, what looks especially excellent is the targeted success of Trump’s policies directly into the heart of the Main Street economy where success lasts the longest.

White House Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appears on Fox News with Chris Wallace to discuss ongoing political events.  Wallace spends half the interview trying to attach the terrorist attack in New Zealand to the Trump administration before eventually moving on to issues surrounding North Korea and the border security veto.

Calling attention to the brutally obvious is a key element to President Trump’s use of Twitter.  In this example President Trump (the business executive) highlights how GM is shutting an Ohio auto-plant at the same time multiple auto manufacturers are expanding operations in the U.S.

President Trump is 100% correct.  In just the past few months, specifically as an outcome of the USMCA, six auto companies have decided to massively expand U.S. operations and spend over $20 billion on auto-manufacturing investments in the U.S.

It makes no sense for an existing auto plant to sit idle.  Come to terms with the UAW; make a good deal that helps membership and incentivizes ownership; sell the facility to a new group expanding U.S. investment; retool, and get people back to work.   Consider:

• Toyota –  $13 Billion Investment: Production capacity increases and building expansions at Toyota’s unit plants in Huntsville, Alabama; Buffalo, West Virginia; Troy, Missouri and Jackson, Tennessee. [SEE HERE]
• Fiat Chrysler – $4.5 billion for a new assembly plant in Detroit and boosting production at five existing factories. Hiring 6,500 workers.  [SEE HERE]
• Ford Motor Co – New expansion for 500 workers and investment of additional $1 billion in its Chicago assembly operations to help keep up with booming demand for sport and crossover-utility vehicles. [SEE HERE]
• Volkswagen – New investment of $800 million by Volkswagen and the creation of 1,000 jobs in Hamilton County, Tennessee. [SEE HERE]
• BMW – Reacting to changes (75% rule of origin) in the new USMCA, BMW announced exploration for a second U.S. manufacturing plant that could produce engines and transmissions, Chief Executive Harald Krueger said. [SEE HERE]

Those announcements are all this year.

It would appear one of the major problems for Lordstown, Ohio, workers is decision-making between GM leadership and UAW leadership that is centered on politics:

A political prism impacting decisions is especially annoying considering it was U.S. taxpayers who bailed out GM in 2009.

Like President Trump said about the blame game “I don’t care“.  In essence he’s calling out the political motivations behind GM CEO Mary Barra, and the insufferable UAW leadership who care about their own political power more than their workers.

It just doesn’t make sense to have an auto-plant idle, and an entire community of trained/skilled auto workers available, while multiple auto-companies are seeking to expand their operations.

The UAW needs to come to the table with a deal that works for everyone, and get the plant retooled and/or re-leased for a new operator and back on-line.

It was this interview earlier today that seemed to catch President Trump’s attention.  The typical labor union/Democrat politics just pours through the screen:

[Note to knuckle-headed UAW boss David Green: 75% of Nothing is NOTHING.  This is why you don’t have nice things.]

White House Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appears on Fox News with Chris Wallace to discuss ongoing political events.  Wallace spends half the interview trying to attach the terrorist attack in New Zealand to the Trump administration before eventually moving on to issues surrounding North Korea and the border security veto.