President Trump meets with Prime Minister Lee Hsien-Loong of the Republic of Singapore at the United Nations General Assembly. The two leaders celebrated the longstanding and expanding U.S.-Singapore bilateral security partnership, and formally renewed 1990 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries on Defense Cooperation.
The leaders also discussed the extensive economic relations between the United States and Singapore, and reaffirmed their commitment to promoting free, fair, and reciprocal trade and investment among the world’s economies. The President thanked Prime Minister Lee for hosting the first U.S-DPRK summit, and the two leaders agreed to sustain efforts to bring about the final, fully verified denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. As we just said, we signed a very important agreement having to do with defense and mutual defense, and I guess you could say mutual offense, also.
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President Donald Trump meets-up with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deliver remarks at the Grand Opening of a Pratt Industries Plant in Wapakoneta Ohio. Anticipated start time is between 5:00pm ET and 6:00pm ET.
UPDATE: Video Added

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A highlight video of the state visit by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Mrs. Jennifer Morrison.   Following video, the delayed transcript of the joint press conference.

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[Transcript of Joint Press Conference] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. Please. We had a spectacular morning and it’s an honor being with the Prime Minister and Mrs. Morrison. Thank you very much. Australia is a fantastic country and a brilliant ally.
We just spent a lot of time together with our representatives, and they get along very well and we’re doing a lot of deals. And we talked military. We talked trade. We talked about everything you can talk about. And we came to the same conclusion, I think, in every case.
But I just want to say it’s an honor having both of you here. Thank you very much. You have a truly great country and I don’t think we’ve ever had a better relationship than we have right now.
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Earlier today President Trump and First Lady Melania welcomed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Mrs. Jenny Morrison to the White House.  Prior to delegation meetings the President and Prime Minister held a press availability in the oval office.
As part of the breaking news discussion, President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced new sanctions on Iran.  [Video and FULL Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much everybody. It’s a great honor to have the Prime Minister of Australia. And congratulations and thank you very much, Mrs. Morrison. Thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it. This was a lovely ceremony. I hope you liked it.
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: Absolutely.
MRS. MORRISON: We absolutely loved it.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was in honor of you and Australia.
MRS. MORRISON: Thank you.
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Amid new reports of U.S. companies initiating a rapid exodus from China, President Trump has announced the delay of the next round of tariff increases on Chinese goods from October 1st to October 15th.

U.S. Company Survey – More than a quarter of the respondents – or 26.5% – said that in the past year, they have redirected investments originally planned for China to other regions. That’s an increase of 6.9 percentage points from last year, the AmCham report said, noting that technology, hardware, software and services industries had the highest level of changes in investment destination (read more)

President Trump apparently senses the diminishing position of Chairman Xi.  The status quo, U.S. disinvestment, has put Beijing into a weakening position.  As the president noted today during remarks from the oval office, Xi’s belt-and-road (aka ‘bribe and loan’) supply chain program is collapsing.
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CTH readers are well versed in the dynamics of the Panda mask -vs- Dragon motives of China.  Therefore we are able to discuss events without the MSM financial filter; which is narrated specifically to the benefit of multinational interests.  Always keep that in mind.

Everything needed to understand the latest panda narrative from Beijing is identified in this simple paragraph:

(Beijing) […] The talks were supposed to have resumed this month but China’s commerce ministry said Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s pointman on trade, agreed to October in a phone call with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday. (more)

First, anything from Vice Premier Liu He is panda-speak; he is a tool in the process of Chinese narrative engineering.  All former trade negotiation authority held by Liu He was stripped by Chairman Xi Jinping.  Commerce Minister Zhong Shan is the real voice of Xi and the Beijing authority.
Second, what exactly is Beijing selling?  An “October phone call”…. and that manipulates markets for the multinationals on Wall Street.  A friggin’ announcement of a phone call?
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It does not take a deep geopolitical weed-walker to see the background for inviting the African delegation to the Biarritz summit.  Here we see the the G7 working session group on ‘partnerships with Africa‘:

What we don’t see in this picture is the main reason for the meeting, the 800lb panda in the room. All of these non-G7 members and meeting participants have been previously exposed to the One-Belt One-Road influence of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.
Combine World Bank President David Malpass into the equation, a direct U.S. nomination by President Trump now in place; mix in the visibility of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison; and then recognize the sudden appearance of Sebastian Pinera from Chile and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from India; and the picture of a multi-continental meeting to discuss the potential downstream ramifications of President Trump confronting China becomes visible.
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Early on Tuesday United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the modification of “next step” tariffs on Chinese products.  [See Here] “Products in this group include, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing.”

President Trump responded to the delay/modification when questioned in New Jersey.  President Trump noted a “very productive” phone call between Lighthizer and Vice-Premier Liu He of China:

[Transcript Segment] – […] Q Why did you make the decision on the tariffs, to delay the implementation of the tariffs?
THE PRESIDENT: Only to help, I think, a lot of different groups of people. And we had a very good talk yesterday with China — a very, very productive call. I think they want to do something. I think they’d like to do something dramatic. I was not sure whether or not they wanted to wait until a Democrat has a chance to get in. Hopefully that’s not going to happen because the economy would go to hell in a handbasket very fast.

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The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released significant wage and salary data yesterday which held stunning upward revisions for 2018 and 2019.   Wage growth of 5.5% combined with low inflation remaining at 1.4 percent; the disposable income of U.S. workers jumped to a stunning 4.1%.  [Data Tables]

Within the revised BEA data, we find employee compensation rose 4.5% in 2017 and 5% in 2018.  Importantly the growth trend continued into 2019, with compensation increasing 3.4 percent in the first six months alone.  Year-over-year wages and salaries were revised upward to 5.3% for May, and 5.5% in June.  These are stunning increases in worker pay.
There are various economic indicators we have shared through the years, but wage growth is one of the more critical.  First, wage growth lags behind business activity – workers don’t get pay raises until after business volume demands/provides it.  Second, wage growth is generally uni-directional – once businesses hike pay, the increases cement.
As the Wall Street Journal put it:
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The financial media still doesn’t get it… Obviously! Transfixed and jaw-agape at seemingly at-odds aspects to a new engagement with Beijing, the MSM financial media are clueless. They are genuinely disconnected, and have no idea what is going on.
The majority of financial pundits are perplexed at what they can see on the surface. USTR Robert Ligthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are beginning discussions with Beijing. Meanwhile President Trump’s tweets seem to dismiss the potential of the deal-making. The media call this mixed-messaging; however, that’s not what this is.

Secretary Wilbur Ross was very insightful last week when he also spoke of the current U.S. perspective toward the U.S-China trade negotiation.  If you have followed the basic road-map of America-First trade policy, there’s was a very clear picture. However, as we expected, most pundits and trade analysts ignored the administration message.
Commerce Secretary Ross warned the professional investment class when he said the current objective for Mnuchin and Lighthizer was to find out if Beijing is willing to re-engage from the starting point where they left-off when talks collapsed.
That was a big tell.
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