Two years of litigation, thousands of resistance hours used, millions spent on lawyers, and they don’t even get a T-Shirt. Oh dear… too funny.
(New York Times) If investigators are going to get their hands on President Trump’s tax returns, they will have to find them somewhere other than Deutsche Bank.
The German bank has told a federal appeals court that it does not have the president’s personal tax returns, the court said on Thursday. (read more)
Be Best !
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The campaign of Bernie Sanders has admitted their 78-year-old candidate suffered a myocardial infarction, another term for a heart attack, three days ago. Bernie Sanders was released from the hospital earlier today.
Sanders’ doctors, Arturo Marchand Jr. and Arjun Gururaj, said the two stents “were placed in a blocked coronary artery in a timely fashion” and that “all other arteries were normal.” (link)
There is no word on when the candidate may return to the campaign trail, and no explanation as to why the campaign kept the severity of the initial health issue hidden for three days. Mr. Sanders released a video via twitter thanking everyone for their support and warm wishes.
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A series of very strong internal economic evaluations today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) show the Main Street economy is perfectly positioned with maximum benefit to the U.S. middle-class.
First, despite two years of doomsayer predictions from Wall Street’s professional punditry, saying Trump tariffs on China would create massive inflation…. It Ain’t Happening! Overall year-over-year inflation is hovering around 1.7 percent [Table-A BLS]; that’s a low inflation rate. Rate has firmed up now with less month-over-month fluctuation, and the rate remains consistent. [See Below]
A couple of important points. First, unleashing the energy sector to drive down overall costs to consumers and industry outputs was a key part of President Trump’s America-First MAGAnomic initiative. Lower energy prices help the worker economy, middle class and average American more than any other sector… Except ‘food at home’.
Which brings us to the second important point. Notice how food prices have very low year-over-year inflation, 0.5 percent. That is a combination of two key issues: low energy costs, and the fracturing of Big Ag hold on the farm production and the export dynamic:
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I am thankful every day that we have a businessman in the White House who brilliantly understands how to leverage U.S. economic power to achieve national security objectives.
While remaining under the threat of punishing U.S. tariffs, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (aka AMLO) is strictly enforcing migrant blockades to stop the unlawful travel of Central American migrants to the U.S. border.
(Via AP) […] Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said he believes Mexico’s strategy of cracking down on illegal migration with a National Guard deployment, investment in Central America and allowing the U.S. to make more asylum seekers wait in Mexico is enough to avert President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports.
Ebrard is scheduled to meet with U.S. officials Tuesday at the White House to review the progress.
The efforts of the Wall Street pundits and financial class to talk the American consumer into creating a recession is failing. The Consumer Confidence Index remains at historic highs as U.S. workers/consumers are confident in their economic position. Yes, Main Street USA is optimistic about current and future expectations.
The Consumer Assessment Index, a measure of the percentage of consumers claiming business conditions are “good”, increased from 39.9 percent to 42.0; and the Present Situation Index is now at its highest level in nearly 19 years (Nov. 2000, 179.7).
These are all key indicators because the U.S. consumer is the engine of our economy. The U.S. consumer generates over two-thirds of our GDP activity through purchases. One of the strengths of the U.S. economy is our internal self-sufficiency; approximately 80 percent of all consumer goods created in the U.S. are purchased in the U.S. by U.S. consumers [we are not reliant on exports to sustain growth].
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National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appeared on Fox Business today to discuss the current state of the economy. Mr. Kudlow was questioned about several media reports surrounding discussions of new tax cuts, tax rate modifications and tax policy.
Additionally, Kudkow updates the latest position on the U.S-China trade discussion.
Last Friday President Trump had dinner with Tim Cook, aka “Tim Apple.”
The dinner came on the heels of USTR Lighthizer announcing a postponement of “next step” 10 percent tariffs against Chinese manufactured products… Interestingly, the one of the product groups within the delay is personal computers…. Interestingly, Tim Apple was going to launch production assembly of the Macintosh personal computer in China.
Now, consider this:
CHINA – When ground was broken in March 2017 for a new US$9 billion factory owned by a subsidiary of Foxconn Group, the event was witnessed by then Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua and Terry Gou Tai-ming, the Taiwanese billionaire who created Foxconn, the world’s largest assembler of Apple’s iPhones and tablets.
The White House has announced the Trump administration will enforce long-standing immigration laws that require entrants to be economically self-sufficient and limits public welfare benefits. An entry alien who is -or becomes- dependent on public welfare assistance, is known as a “public charge”. Aliens will be barred from entering the United States if they are deemed likely to become public charges, or welfare dependent.
These immigration rules have been in place for over 100 years, and generally were strictly enforced until the last 25 years. The Trump administration is re-enforcing the rules.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has presented the data for second quarter (Q2) year-over-year wage growth. Average weekly wage growth is 3.7% year-over-year.
[Source, BLS release Q2 – Table 2]
With inflation (CPI) averaging 1.8% over the same period this means wages are strongly outpacing inflation and increasing the disposable income of U.S. workers. This data-set, combined with positive consumer sentiment on job and economic security, bolsters the recent report showing “unanticipated” strength in retail sales.
The data is a reflection of Main Street strength. The job market is hot; wages are rising (3.7%) much faster than inflation (1.8%); the middle class has more disposable income. Hence, retail sales growth is strong at 3.8 percent.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears on Fox Business News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss President Trump, the Democratic Party’s shift to the left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, the budget battle, China trade tensions and issues with Iran.