China, Russia and Cuba are financing and supporting the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Russian and Chinese military equipment was previously shipped into the country and military members from Cuba are fighting on the ground.
In response to the violence and presence of the Cuban military, President Trump is now threatening a full and complete embargo of Cuba by the U.S.
“We will hold accountable those who turn to violence or inflict violence upon the Venezuelan people. There will be a day for accountability for all those who engage in this,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says of the uprising in Venezuela
Well, it looks like the outcome of a horsetrading deal is starting to assemble. President Trump meeting with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer et al, to discuss a $2 trillion infrastructure deal. Despite their schemes and plots this is worth watching:
.
Democrats don’t want the baggage of a tax increase heading into 2020… so Schumer punts the financing of the $2 trillion to President Trump; forcing the White House to deal with the dirty part (likelihood a gas tax increase), while Schumer/Pelosi keep clean hands on the high-brow aspect of beautiful infrastructure. That part is politically predictable.
That said, CTH can see the outline a deal where Democrats exchange votes for President Trump’s trade deals (specifically USMCA); to offset the Wall Street Republicans that will vote against the trade agreements; in return for provisions of an infrastructure deal that will benefit Pelosi/Schumer.
The devil is going to be deep in the details because Democrats will attempt to use any massive spending bill to purchase (and repay) votes and activism from their political constituents, ie. Union Leadership.
(White House) Press Secretary’s Statement on President Trump’s meeting on Infrastructure:
“Today, President Donald J. Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Tom Carper, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Representative James Clyburn, Representative Ben Ray Lujàn, Representative Richard Neal, and Representative Peter DeFazio had an excellent and productive meeting on rebuilding our Nation’s crumbling infrastructure including roads, highways, bridges, tunnels and railroads, modernizing our air travel system, and expanding broadband access for our great farmers and rural America.
The United States has not come even close to properly investing in infrastructure for many years, foolishly prioritizing the interests of other countries over our own. We have to invest in this country’s future and bring our infrastructure to a level better than it has ever been before. We will have another meeting in three weeks to discuss specific proposals and financing methods.
The President and the Democrat leaders also agreed to a meeting in the near future to discuss prescription drug prices. We look forward to building on this Administration’s success in having lowered drug prices for the first time in 50 years. President Trump feels there is a long way to go – drug prices should be much lower than they are today.
The President looks forward to working together in a bipartisan way and getting things done for the American people.” (link)
The U.S. economic numbers continue to gain strength. Ahead of his departure to China for ongoing trade negotiations, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses the current state of the economy with Maria Bartiromo.
.
Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Lighthizer arrive in China tomorrow. This meeting will determine their recommendations to President Trump as to whether a deal can be reached. If no, the potential to re-institute delayed round-two tariffs is possible.
The professional financial punditry can’t explain it. Flummoxed academics run around bumping into walls amid economic numbers that continue to defy expectations. All caused by a simple return to common sense ‘America First’ MAGAnomics.
Low unemployment (3.8%); wages growing (+3.2%); inflation stable (1.6%). These measures all have a cumulative impact on paycheck-to-paycheck Americans. Prices for durable goods are stable and wage growth is exceeding inflation. That means more disposable income in the middle-class…DUH. Which, when combined with the increased pay from lower middle-class tax rates, is exactly the intended outcome of MAGAnomics.
Today the BEA is out with consumer spending results for the first quarter that defy expectations. Consumer spending on goods increases 1.7%. Overall spending +.09 in March, reaches highest gain in ten years. The deplorables are spending their higher wages. Go figure. Meanwhile core inflation drops to 1.6%. The pundits are shocked.
(Reuters Headline) “U.S. consumer spending roars back, but inflation tame” – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in more than 9-1/2 years in March as households stepped up purchases of motor vehicles, but price pressures remained muted, with a key inflation measure posting its smallest annual gain in 14 months.
[…] “The economy is in a sweet spot for now with not enough inflation to cause the Fed to raise rates, and with inflation not low enough to worry Fed officials that economic demand is weakening, which could require rate cuts,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, surged 0.9 percent. That was the biggest rise since August 2009 and was also driven by increased healthcare expenditures. Spending rose 0.1 percent in February.
Data for January was revised up to show consumer spending rising 0.3 percent instead of the previously reported 0.1 percent gain.
[…] In March, spending on goods rebounded 1.7 percent, with outlays on long-lasting manufactured goods such as cars shooting up 2.3 percent. Spending on goods fell 0.5 percent in February. Outlays on services increased 0.5 percent last month, driven by healthcare spending, after rising 0.4 percent in February.
Inflation was benign, with the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding the volatile food and energy components unchanged in March after edging up 0.1 percent in February. That lowered the year-on-year increase in the so-called core PCE price index to 1.6 percent, the smallest increase since January 2018, from 1.7 percent in February. (more)
It really is quite funny to watch the professional financial class try to wrap their arms around what is happening. Cue the audio visual:
The “Vhobbles”
.
Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, it just ain’t that complex. The U.S. is where the growth is. We are in the period where exporting U.S. wealth (globalist policies) has been slowed/halted. We are confronting protectionist tariffs abroad which impede our exports, and simultaneously applying reciprocal tariffs toward those who want access to our U.S. market. As a consequence, capital investment is returning to Main Street USA (nationalist policy).
This is the heart of MAGAnomic policy.
Low unemployment; rising wages; stable inflation and resurging U.S. blue-collar manufacturing is the key (steel/aluminum tariffs assisting).
This internal dynamic means the U.S. consumer can fuel the the U.S. economy while President Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and Ambassador Robert Lighthizer utilize the leverage of tariffs, to negotiate better America-First trade deals.
CTH 2016[…] Understanding the distance between the real Main Street economic engine and the false Wall Street economic engine will help all of us to understand the scope of an upcoming economic lag; which, rather remarkably I would add, is a very interesting dynamic.
Think about these engines doing a turn about and beginning a rapid reverse. GDP can, and in my opinion, will, expand quickly. However, any interest rate hikes (fiscal policy) intended to cool down that expansion -fearful of inflation- will take a long time to traverse the divide.
Additionally, inflation on durable goods will be insignificant – even as international trade agreements are renegotiated. Why? Simply because the originating nations of those products are going to go through the same type of economic detachment described above. [What the USA previously went through]
Those global manufacturing economies will first respond to any increases in export costs (tariffs etc.), by driving their own productivity higher as an initial offset, in the same manner American workers went through in the past two decades. The manufacturing enterprise and the financial sector remain focused on the pricing.
♦ Inflation on imported durable goods sold in America, while necessary, will ultimately be minimal during this initial period; and expand more significantly as time progresses and off-shored manufacturing finds less and less ways to be productive. Over time, durable good prices will increase – but it will come much later. [By that time, U.S. manufacturing will have reestablished position and offset any import pressure.]
♦ Inflation on domestic consumable goods ‘may‘ indeed rise at a faster pace. However, it can be expected that U.S. wage rates will respond faster, naturally faster, than any fiscal policy influence because inflation on fast-turn consumable goods becomes re-coupled to the ability of wage rates to afford them.
The fiscal policy impact lag, caused by the distance between federal fiscal action and the domestic Main Street economy, will now work in our favor. That is, in favor of the middle-class. (full outline)
We have not had the benefit of this economic success in the past 40 years because corrupt multinational interests were paying and bribing -via lobbyists- politicians and public officials within the administrative state to block independent U.S. wealth.
Historian-author-pundit Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Case for Trump, opened the Freedom Center’s annual West Coast Retreat at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes (April 5-7, 2019) with a wide-ranging and stirring keynote address.
President Donald Trump hosts Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a round of golf today, while First Lady Melania Trump hosts Madame Akie Abe in DC.
The relationship between the Trump’s and the Abe’s goes back quite a while and is rooted in a genuine friendship. The president and prime minister are strong competitors on trade and economic policy; however, the competition is founded on respect.
Prime Minister Abe’s economic policies are rooted in the growth process taught by Edwards Demming. If you follow their professional business ideology, it is easy to see how President Trump and Prime Minister Abe would face-off around a standard of excellence.
When combined the economies of the United States and Japan account for approximately 30 percent of all global gross domestic product.
This is really old-school business stuff. Each leader, is essentially an economic policy coach for his country; creating strategies and championing growth in a challenge to see who can succeed the most. They respect each-other, but this is old school. PM Abe isn’t about to concede to a deal where Japanese growth is ceded; however, he will not cheat to achieve success (unlike Xi). So friendly adversarial negotiations continue. Good stuff.
Meanwhile First-Lady Melania Trump and Madame Akie Abe toured some of the historic sites in the capital, including the Washington Monument and US National Arboretum.
Tonight President Donald Trump is holding a massive ‘Make America Great Again’ rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the Resch Center. President Trump is expected to highlight the U.S. economic growth, jobs and continued success following a first quarter GDP result that exceeded all expectations.
The President will speak at approximately 7:00pm CDT / 8:00pm EDT with ongoing event festivities and speakers earlier. UPDATE: Video Added
In 2015 CTH outlined candidate Trump’s economic positions and how they would impact the economy. We anticipated that MAGAnomics would be reversing three decades of federal reserve monetary policy. After about a year of analysis, in 2016 CTH presented a theory: “A new Dimension in Modern Economics“.
The theory was based on a likelihood of what would happen if MAGA economic Policy was shifted to favor Main St over Wall St. One aspect we presented was how Federal Reserve monetary policy would be oddly disconnected from its ability to influence inflation.
Today National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on CNBC to discuss the latest first quarter GDP growth rate of 3.2% and the status of the U.S. economy. Kudlow notes the rate of inflation is disconnected from the GDP growth.
CTH 2016[…] Understanding the distance between the real Main Street economic engine and the false Wall Street economic engine will help all of us to understand the scope of an upcoming economic lag; which, rather remarkably I would add, is a very interesting dynamic.
Think about these engines doing a turn about and beginning a rapid reverse. GDP can, and in my opinion, will, expand quickly. However, any interest rate hikes (fiscal policy) intended to cool down that expansion -fearful of inflation- will take a long time to traverse the divide.
Additionally, inflation on durable goods will be insignificant – even as international trade agreements are renegotiated. Why? Simply because the originating nations of those products are going to go through the same type of economic detachment described above. [What the USA previously went through]
Those global manufacturing economies will first respond to any increases in export costs (tariffs etc.), by driving their own productivity higher as an initial offset, in the same manner American workers went through in the past two decades. The manufacturing enterprise and the financial sector remain focused on the pricing.
♦ Inflation on imported durable goods sold in America, while necessary, will ultimately be minimal during this initial period; and expand more significantly as time progresses and off-shored manufacturing finds less and less ways to be productive. Over time, durable good prices will increase – but it will come much later. [By that time, U.S. manufacturing will have reestablished position and offset any import pressure.]
♦ Inflation on domestic consumable goods ‘may‘ indeed rise at a faster pace. However, it can be expected that U.S. wage rates will respond faster, naturally faster, than any fiscal policy influence because inflation on fast-turn consumable goods becomes re-coupled to the ability of wage rates to afford them.
The fiscal policy impact lag, caused by the distance between federal fiscal action and the domestic Main Street economy, will now work in our favor. That is, in favor of the middle-class. (full outline)
The MAGAnomic Tri-fecta: Jobs growing; wages growing; inflation stable.
Low inflation; expanding employment opportunity; low unemployment; and rising wages.
These measures all have a cumulative impact on paycheck-to-paycheck Americans. Prices for durable goods are stable and wage growth is exceeding inflation. That means more disposable income in the middle-class…. which, when combined with the increased pay from lower middle-class tax rates, is exactly the intended outcome of MAGAnomics.
This creates a situation where the U.S. consumer can fuel the the U.S. economy while President Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and Ambassador Robert Lighthizer utilize the leverage of tariffs, to negotiate better America-First trade deals.
President Trump’s economic policy cabinet is the most effective group of individuals every assembled in modern U.S. history; arguably in all of U.S. history. The economic policy plans are working exactly as projected; and, in combination with the domestic economic strength, this empowers President Trump’s international engagements with a stunning amount of influence and leverage.
Economic Security is National Security. We are seeing this multidimensional truth being carried out for the first time in our lifetimes, thanks to a blue-collar billionaire.
Part of the push-back against President Trump is due to the success within this doctrine for domestic and international success. Politicians and the political apparatus of the administrative state are apoplectic that a long-held economic curtain has been dropped by President Trump and his policy team.
It is this easy.
It is common sense.
We have not had the benefit of this economic success in the past 40 years because corrupt multinational interests were paying and bribing -via lobbyists- politicians and public officials within the administrative state to block independent U.S. wealth.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
CNN Politics
Centinel2012 