Commentary: Free Traders Are Wrong – It’s Time to Try Trade a New Way

A recent Daily Mail poll showed 54 percent of voters support Trump’s proposal to put 10 percent tariffs on most imports, from China or not. This is sacrilege to American free traders.

The free-trade globalization crowd – who saw the 80s up to early 2000s as their heyday– believe in a world that does not exist the way they say it does on paper. Do you think Germany allows Ford Mustang’s into their country tariff free? EU charges Ford a 10 percent tariff, four times what we charge their automakers.

Read More

Commentary: Halloween Is the Night Kids in the U.S.A. Discover Economics

Tomorrow night American kids will observe a tradition not widely celebrated in the rest of the world: Halloween. They will dress up as ghosts, witches, goblins, politicians, and other scary things, then go door to door greeting neighbors with Trick or treat! Residents will drop candy in the bags the children are carrying.

Regardless of anyone’s intention, the tradition nicely demonstrates the creativity of free exchange.

Read More

Border Agents Encountered More Than 2 Million Migrants in 2021

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ended 2021 with more than 2 million migrant encounters.

December 2021 numbers released Monday showed that border patrol encountered 178,840 migrants at the southern border, a 2% increase from the previous month. The number of encounters in December 2021 was greater than the total number of encounters at the border in the previous three Decembers combined.

Of the migrants encountered in December, 23% of them were previously encountered by border agents in the last year. Single adults made up 64% of the encounters, a 4% increase from November.

Read More

Securities and Exchange Commission to Crack Down on Private Companies, Heighten Disclosure Requirements

Securities and Exchange Commission building

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to crack down on private companies, forcing them to disclose financial and operation statements more frequently, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Regulators have grown more concerned over the lack of oversight regarding private fundraising for companies, the WSJ reported. The private investment market has become a popular way for companies to raise money without undergoing the regulatory scrutiny required for public trading.

“When they’re big firms, they can have a huge impact on thousands of people’s lives with absolutely no visibility for investors, employees and their unions, regulators, or the public,” SEC Commissioner Allison Lee told the WSJ. “I’m not interested in forcing medium- and small-sized companies into the reporting regime.”

Read More

Commentary: The Republican Party’s Multiethnic, Working-Class Coalition Is Taking Shape

In the 2016 Republican Party presidential primary, decades of dissonance between the party’s aggrieved grassroots and its blinkered elite spilled out into the open. For years, the chasm widened between the GOP’s heartland base, the river valley-dwelling “Somewheres” from David Goodhart’s 2017 book, The Road to Somewhere, and the party’s bicoastal “Anywhere” rulers. The foot-soldier Republican “Somewheres,” disproportionately church-attending and victimized by job outsourcing and the opioid crisis, felt betrayed by the more secular, ideologically inflexible Republican “Anywheres.”

Donald Trump, lifelong conservative “outsider” and populist dissenter from bicoastal “Anywhere” orthodoxy on issues pertaining to trade, immigration, and China, coasted to the GOP’s presidential nomination. He did so notwithstanding the all-hands-on-deck pushback from leading right-leaning “Anywhere” bastions, encapsulated by National Review magazine’s dedication of an entire issue to, “Against Trump.” Trump’s subsequent victory in the 2016 general election sent the conservative intellectual movement, as well as the Republican Party itself, into a deep state of introspection.

Read More

China Fails to Purchase Amount of U.S. Goods Promised in Phase One Trade Deal, Report Finds

China came $73.1 billion short of the total amount of U.S. goods it promised to purchase in the phase one trade deal between the two nations, according to a Peterson Institute for International Economics report.

While it agreed to purchase $173.1 billion in U.S. goods by the end of 2020, China purchased just $100 billion worth of goods, according to import data analyzed by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). In January 2020, former President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed the phase one trade deal, which was aimed at resolving long-running China-U.S. trade disputes, and in February the deal went into effect.

Read More

New Durable-Goods Orders Rise Again in June

New orders for durable goods posted a second consecutive month of rebound in June, rising 7.3 percent following a gain of 15.1 percent in May. The two gains followed drops of 18.3 percent in April and 16.7 percent in March. If transportation equipment is excluded, new orders for durable goods increased 3.3 percent in June following a 3.6 percent rise in May. Durable-goods orders had been holding above the $200 billion level since May 2011 before posting sharp declines in March and April (see first chart). New orders for June are back above the $200 billion threshold, totaling $206.9 billion, but are still 21.9 percent below June 2019.

Read More

Armstrong Williams Commentary: It’s Time to Talk About Recession

Is America in a recession? It’s an unpopular question to ask, but it has now been over 3 months since COVID-19 restrictions were initiated and it is time for us to get realistic about where we are economically so that we can take the proper steps to minimize further damage to our economy. At this point, the unfortunate reality is that regardless of what we do, it is likely that it will take at least several years to see a partial recovery of economic loss and the time that it will take for a complete recovery remains unknown at this point. 

Read More

Tech Leads the Way as US Stocks Head for a Third Month of Gains

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Tuesday, extending the market’s recent winning streak after another strong showing by technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and is on pace for its third straight monthly gain. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, climbed to an all-time high for the second day in a row. Bond yields rose, another sign of increasing confidence in the economy.

Read More

Stock Indexes Move Higher on Wall Street After a Shaky Start

Stock indexes are higher on Wall Street in choppy trading Monday as investors weigh the risks that rising coronavirus cases could pose to hopes for an economic recovery.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in midday trading after an initial slide of 0.6% following weakness in overseas markets as the global tally of infections approaches 9 million. The price of gold rose, a signs of caution in the market. Bond yields were mixed.

Read More

Commentary: COVID-19 Proves America Needs Economic Nationalism

by Spencer P. Morrison   Reports of a deadly new virus began trickling out of China in December. The infection spread rapidly. By March 12, the World Health Organization deemed COVID-19 a global pandemic. The next day President Trump declared COVID-19 a “national emergency” that would require the “full power…

Read More

While Know-It-Alls Lecture on Tariffs Against China, Trump Dials Up New Trade Deals with UK, Europe and Japan

by Robert Romano   While President Donald Trump continues to bring the pressure to China, so far with 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, which comes atop another 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods…

Read More

Larry Kudlow Shed Light On What Will Likely Be A Major Priority For Trump In 2019

by Michael Bastach   White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said President Donald Trump is likely to make building oil and natural gas pipelines a major priority next year to meet the needs of booming U.S. energy production. A focus on pipelines would hit two aspects of Trump’s agenda: energy…

Read More

Commentary: Republicans Learning the Hard Way a Great Economy Ain’t Enough Anymore

by Jeffery Rendall   In the 2016 presidential election’s stretch run Hillary Clinton famously asked during an interview, “Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?” American voters knew the answer and shared it with the former first lady and legacy Democrat presidential candidate on Election Day. Clinton did end up a couple points…

Read More

Trump Proves Tariffs, Threat to Leave NAFTA Were Key Leverage to Negotiating USMCA, Puts Dems in Tight Spot

Trump right to try

by Robert Romano   They said it couldn’t be done. Once again, President Donald Trump is racing circles around his critics and showing that his tariff policy and the threat of leaving NAFTA altogether were most effective inducements to trade concessions, having resulted in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or the USMCA. The…

Read More

WINNING: Trump Scores NAFTA Deal After Last-Minute Negotiations with Canada

by Hanna Bogorowski   U.S. President Donald Trump came closer to fulfilling a campaign promise late Sunday night as he reached a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico that will rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after months of negotiations. Hours before Sunday’s midnight deadline proposed by the U.S.,…

Read More

Analysis: President Trump Uses the Power of Tariffs to Correct Unfair Chinese Trade Imbalances

President Donald Trump is levying 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, coming atop a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China. Trump has warned if China retaliates, another $267 billion of tariffs will follow. On…

Read More

Great Economic News Bedevils Trump Detractors

by Rick Manning   The incredibly positive economic data that keeps coming out from both private and public sector sources leads to one overriding question: Will the Trump economic detractors ever get tired of being wrong? Over the course of the past six months, we have heard how tariffs against the…

Read More

Commentary: President Trump’s Pro-American Worker Push Makes Labor Day a Time to Celebrate

Tennessee Star

by Jeffery Rendall   Perhaps it’s fitting heading into Labor Day weekend that we should talk about jobs – not necessarily how many Americans have them versus those that don’t and are still searching, but how conditions are improving in the employment market and who’s reaping the benefits. First came…

Read More

Contrary to Nervous Nellie ‘Economic Experts,’ the Trump Economy is Booming with Elevated Aluminum and Steel Prices

Donald Trump

By Robert Romano   One of the conventional wisdoms to do with the tariffs and duties levied by the Trump administration on steel, aluminum and lumber is that they will lead to higher prices and inflation, hurting producers and consumers, thus stunting economic growth. For example, billionaire Charles Koch warned on July…

Read More

Trump and Environmentalists Are On The Same Wave Length On This One Huge Issue

Donald Trump

by Chris White   President Donald Trump and activists at the Sierra Club apparently have at least one issue in common: neither one of them like the decades-old free trade agreement the U.S signed with Canada and Mexico. Trump’s agenda prioritizing American manufacturing jobs over those in Canada and elsewhere is placing…

Read More

Corker Tries to Undermine Trump Again, Says President is Damaging Relationships With Friends

Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) is criticizing President Donald Trump once again, media outlets report. Fox News’ Congressionis al reporter Chad Pergram tweeted Tuesday, “Senate Foreign Relations Cmte chair Corker on Trump: I think there is no questions that we are damaging relationships with very close friends..it’s unnecessary..I don’t understand…

Read More

OFF THE RECORD: President Trump Singlehandedly Delivers the Most Eyebrow-Raising G7 Trade Summit Ever

OFF THE RECORD

After years of mundanity surrounding the G7 world trade summit – the once-a-year snore-fest where the six, or seven, (or eight) leaders of the West come together as frenemies to see who can pick each others’ pockets most stealthily – we were treated to perhaps the most entertaining piece of political…

Read More

Kudlow: Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau Betrayed Us, ‘Stabbed Us In The Back’

Larry Kudlow

by Robert Donachie   White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “stabbed” the U.S. “in the back” when he announced his nation will impose retaliatory tariffs against America. President Donald Trump, Trudeau and other leaders of the G7 nations — Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and…

Read More

Phil Bredesen Applauds Bob Corker for His Opposition to President Trump on Trade

Phil Bredesen and Bob Corker

The Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, lauded the outgoing incumbent, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), for his opposition to President Donald Trump in a tweet sent out on Monday. I respect Senator Corker for putting Tennessee ahead of Washington politics. These tariffs do a…

Read More

Commentary: President Trump Follows Through on Steel and Aluminum Tariff Threat Against Canada, Mexico and Europe

Steel Manufacturing

By Robert Romano   He did it. In his continued push for “fair and reciprocal” trade, President Donald Trump has followed through on his promise to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. The three had been temporarily excluded from…

Read More

Trump’s Tariffs At Work: Solar Company Plans New Factory In Georgia

by Jason Hopkins   A foreign solar panel company is building a manufacturing facility in the U.S., marking the latest boost in the industry since President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar equipment. The White House’s recently enacted tariffs on solar panels appears to be working. Hanwha Q Cells Korea Corporation…

Read More

Malware Discovered Pre-Installed On Android Devices Including Chinese Company ZTE

Smartphones

by Kyle Perisic   An anti-virus company has discovered malware comes pre-installed on Android phones, including on ZTE phones — a Chinese phone company with ties to the Chinese government. “Thousands of users are affected” by the ad-related malware, or adware, according to Avast, the Czech anti-virus company, in its…

Read More