Japan experienced a contraction in exports for the first time in four years this July. Exports declined 2.6% on an annualized basis, falling beneath the median forecast of a 2.1% contraction, according to the Ministry of Finance.
As with Canada, tariffs have caused a downturn in the auto sector. Autos, auto parts, and steel saw the steepest decline since February 2021. “Car shipments to the US have started to decline in volume, suggesting that the impact of tariffs is finally starting to show,” said Taro Saito, head of economic research at NLI Research Institute. “In the US, prices of Japanese exports began rising around June or July, so we’re now seeing the effects of Japanese goods gradually losing their price competitiveness.”
Japanese exports to the US fell 10.1% in July YoY, with vehicles sharply falling by 28.4% and auto parts by 17.4%. Tariff discussions are ongoing, with some progress made in July. However, nothing has been set in stone, and the uncertainty is clearly reflected in trade.
The decline expanded beyond the US—tariffs are not the only culprit. Exports from Japan to China fell by 3.5%, with orders to Europe falling 3.4%. Demand is waning. Europe is experiencing a recession already, and China has boosted its manufacturing capacity to the point where it does not need to rely as strongly on exports. US tariffs are certainly playing a TEMPORARY role in world trade, but we must look at the macro trend rather than singling out a momentary policy adjustment.
Posted originally on CTH on August 22, 2025 | Sundance
After initiating a federal security program in the Washington DC metropolitan area, President Trump goes to the streets to thank the police and national guard for their efforts at restoring law and order.
President Trump delivered remarks to the assembled law enforcement and national guard. WATCH:
Posted originally on Aug 21, 2025 by Martin Armstrong |
Canada is turning to Mexico for automobiles amid tariffs, with imports from Mexico surpassing those from the US for the first time in 30 years this June. Approximately C$1.08 billion in passenger vehicles were sent from Mexico to Canada compared to C$950 million from the US during that same time period, as noted by Statistics Canada.
All vehicle imports to Canada rose by 6.9% in June after two consecutive months of contraction. Imports of parts and engines, however, declined by 4.8% as motor vehicle production in Canada is beginning to wane. As for imports, Canada was the top purchaser of US vehicles in 2024.
Canada’s auto manufacturing industry is directly tied to the US as the majority of factories are producing American-owned brands such as Ford and General Motors. In fact, Canada was once the world’s top auto exporter. Auto exports from Canada fell 14% in 2024 on an annualized basis, although total vehicle sales were up 8.2% at 1.86 million units. The auto sector contributed C$16.5 billion to Canadian GDP in 2024 while generating C$46.5 billion in exports. The broader auto sector in Canada accounted for 4% of total GDP in 2024 at C$94 billion.
Roughly 603,500 Canadians are employed through the auto industry, with 130,000 workers specifically involved in manufacturing. Auto manufacturing was off to a strong start in 2025 due to pre-tariff panic spending and Canada, but sales have slowed in recent months with June’s data showing a 7.5% monthly decrease in annualized sales.
The demand for electric vehicles is also waning. Zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) sales fell 35.2% in June on a yearly basis, although ZEVs compose only 7.9% of all vehicle sales. Canada is upholding its net-zero mandate, requiring all new vehicle sales to be ZEV by 2035, but consumers do not want to make the switch yet.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, also called CUSMA in Canada) exempts all autos that comply with the agreement from the 25% tariff. USMCA-compliant imports are levied only on their non-US components. Canada implemented a retaliatory 25% tariff on US autos and all of these levies are disrupting trade and increasing costs temporarily. Canada also implemented a $2 billion remission program to supplement Canadian automakers during these volatile times. Will Canada continue to purchase more from Mexico than the US or will this be a temporary adjustment amid the tariff games?
Posted originally on Aug 21, 2025 by Martin Armstrong |
COMMENT: Thank you for your support of the Ukrainian people. The Western Media claims that we support endless wars until the last Ukrainian falls. You speak the truth. We have lost so many people, and this is not for our future or our country. This is for what you call the Neocons. We appreciate your honesty and your experience with Ukraine.
Viktor
REPLY: Even Gallup has reported that the polls among the Ukrainian people support ending NATO’s war with Russia through negotiations, and reveal there is no fictional support for fighting until victory. I have passed this info on. Hopefully, this will force the pretend President Volodymyr Zelensky, who claims any territory allowing the Donbas to be free would violate Ukraine’s constitution, to yield. I do not believe you will EVER get peace in Ukraine until he is dragged out of office and put on trial for his treason against his own people. Zelensky has sacrificed Ukrainians all for NATO.
When I reported on January 4th, 2023, that 100,000 Ukrainians had been killed in the first few months, I got hate mail calling it Russian propaganda. Then Ursula made her speech, and she had the same information I did. Zelensky made her edit her speech and take that out, claiming it was classified. I have been warning for several months now that the Ukrainian losses reached 1.5 million. Those same sources now say we are approaching 2 million rapidly.
Posted originally on CTH on August 21, 2025 | Sundance
FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Fox News Business with Larry Kudlow to discuss the current status of several FBI efforts, including the targeting of international terrorists.
Within the interview, Director Patel notes there is an ongoing review of any/all information that surrounds the weaponized use of the FBI under previous leadership. Kudlow narrows in on the FBI raid to Mar-a-Lago, and digs down for details as to whether Patel is investigating the targeting of President Trump post 2020 election. WATCH:
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In recent joint appearances with Kash Patel, there appeared to be frustration by President Trump as the Director waxed philosophically about the excellence of his agency while the American electorate looked on with great suspicion. Shortly thereafter came an announcement that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey would be joining the FBI leadership team as a Co-Deputy Director.
The current appearances by Director Patel follow the announcement of Bailey’s addition to the team.
Posted originally on CTH on August 21, 2025 | Sundance
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has announced a major shift in reducing the role of the Intelligence Community and eliminating the politization of intelligence information.
As we have discussed on these pages for several years, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created shortly before the Obama administration took power, and subsequently the fledgling organization was weaponized for domestic influence operations. DNI Tulsi Gabbard takes a major step in addressing this problem.
In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.
What Barack Obama and Eric Holder did with that new construct was refine the internal targeting mechanisms so that only their ideological opposition became the target of the new national security system.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard announced a long-overdue transformation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to refocus on executing its core national security mission with integrity in the most agile, effective, and efficient way. This will reduce ODNI by over 40% by the end of fiscal year 2025 and save taxpayers over $700 million per year and better enable ODNI to focus on fulfilling its critical role of serving as the central hub for intelligence integration, strategic guidance, and oversight over the Intelligence Community.
ODNI was created after the horrific Islamist terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, exposed systemic failures across the Intelligence Community (IC). Its purpose was to integrate intelligence from and provide oversight over all IC elements (currently 18) in order to ensure the intelligence provided to the President and policymakers is timely, accurate, and apolitical.
Unfortunately, two decades later, ODNI has fallen short in fulfilling its mandate.
“Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,” said DNI Tulsi Gabbard. “ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers. Ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable are essential to begin to earn the American people’s trust which has long been eroded. Under President Trump’s leadership, ODNI 2.0 is the start of a new era focused on serving our country, fulfilling our core national security mission with excellence, always grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.”
ODNI 2.0 eliminates redundant missions, functions and personnel, and makes critical investments in areas that support the President’s national intelligence priorities, and focuses on rebuilding trust, exposing politicization and weaponization of intelligence, holding bad actors accountable, saving American tax dollars, and focusing on our core mission: protecting the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.
Washington DC created the modern national security apparatus immediately and hurriedly after 9/11/01. DHS came along in 2002 and within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the ODNI was formed. When Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived a few years later, those newly formed institutions were viewed as opportunities to create a very specific national security apparatus that would focus almost exclusively against their political opposition.
The preexisting Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Dept of Justice (DOJ) were then repurposed to become two of the four pillars of the domestic national security apparatus. However, this new construct would have a targeting mechanism based on political ideology. The DHS, ODNI, DOJ and FBI became the four pillars of this new institution. Atop these pillars is where you will find the Fourth Branch of Government.
We were not sleeping when this happened, we were wide awake. However, we were stunningly distracted by the economic collapse that was taking place in 2006 and 2007 when the engineers behind Obama started to assemble the design. By the time Obama took office in 2009, we sensed something profound was shifting, but we can only see exactly what shifted in the aftermath. The four pillars were put into place, and a new Fourth Branch of Government was quietly created.
As Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard has begun to take down the political surveillance system.
Yesterday, it was announced that Tulsi Gabbard fired twenty of the “according to those familiar with the matter” people. Another ten from the group “who spoke on the condition of anonymity.” And seven of the “officials close to the issue.”
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