According to ADP payroll reports the U.S. economy added a whopping 250,000 jobs in December exceeding the earlier forecast of 190k. The DOW jumps over 25,000.

This jobs report bolsters confidence in the MAGAnomic prediction shared two years ago. So long as current economic trends continue, the explosion in private sector wage rates, middle-class wages, will begin around Q2 of this year (April – June). Once the eight year Obama-labor-lag is fully absorbed, a tighter job market will put upward pressure on real wages.

The Main Street economic engine, the “real economy”, is now positioned to overtake the Wall Street engine, the “paper economy”. Meaning actual profits and losses, real economic GDP growth, will drive company earnings and valuations in 2018.
There is an economic policy synergy now taking place.  The tax package that was passed shows how President Trump’s economic policy drivers (Ross, Cohen, Mnuchin) have structured Main Street businesses to willingly afford the wage rate increases.
The MAGAnomic dynamic is two-fold. The tax rates for the middle-class have dropped; simultaneous to this tax change increasing take home pay, the business sectors will have room to drive actual hourly wage rates higher. Lower rates and higher wages has a compounding impact on the amount of money in workers paychecks/pockets. See how that works?
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley delivered strong remarks today during a press briefing surrounding U.S. policy toward Pakistan and Iran.

“The administration is withholding $255 million in assistance to Pakistan. There are clear reasons for this. Pakistan has played a double game for years. They work with us at time, and they also harbor the terrorists that attack our troops in Afghanistan. That game is not acceptable to this administration.”

WATCH:

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Think BIGLY – On a geopolitical level the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is shadowed by a strong  Pakistani economic relationship with China.  China is Pakistan’s biggest investor.  China has also recently been identified as covertly propping up North Korea with smuggled oil shipments: “Very Disappointing“.
The central U.S. Pakistani relationship has always been about our fight against the terrorist networks of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Pakistan has played both sides of that coin.  In August of 2017 President Trump warned Pakistan our relationship with them would be different if they did not stop enabling the Taliban.
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Many readers might remember back in the summer 2017 (throughout July) when there were indications that President Trump, and allies, were positioning assets and drills for what appeared to be a strategic naval blockade. Well, today Reuters is reporting that South Korea has seized a second oil tanker, flagged under Panama, headed to North Korea.
The cost of smuggling oil into North Korea is getting very high. These oil tankers are very expensive and the cost of commerce in international ocean freight is underwritten by massive global insurance companies. Each of these interdictions’ makes the business end of smuggling much more unstable.  Additionally, each of these violations opens up the co-dependent enabler as a target for massive U.S. Treasury Sanctions previously established.

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean authorities have seized a Panama-flagged vessel suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea in violation of international sanctions, a customs official said on Sunday.
The seizure was the second to be revealed by South Korea within a few days, as the United Nations steps up efforts to squeeze essential oil supplies to the reclusive North following its nuclear or ballistic missile tests.

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If the U.S. were to exit NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the price you pay for most foodstuff at the grocery store would drop 10% in the first quarter and likely drop 20% or more by the end of the first year. Here’s why:
Approximately a decade ago the U.S. Dept of Agriculture stopped tracking, and reporting, U.S. consumer food prices. The food sector joined the ranks of fuel and energy in no longer being measured to track inflation and backdrop Fed monetary policy. Not coincidentally this was simultaneous to U.S. consumers seeing massive inflation in the same sector.

There are massive international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America-First” economic and trade platform. Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.
When you understand how trade works in the modern era you will understand why the agents within the system are so adamantly opposed to U.S. President Trump.
The biggest lie in modern economics, willingly spread and maintained by corporate media, is that a system of global markets still exists.
It doesn’t.
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Well, that didn’t take long.  About a decade ago we needed a phrase to describe a very specific set of republican senators, thus originated the term “Decepticons”.
Decepticons are different from traditional ‘establishment’ types in that they are a cloistered club, a sub-set of the upper-tier within the GOPe, and they protect their exclusive position because of the payments and benefits they receive from an individual lobbyist, Tom Donohue.

Tom Donohue is the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest single lobbying group in all of Washington DC.   Donohue represents the interests of massive financial institutions and multinational corporations.  Donohue receives hundreds of millions from his corporate conglomerates; and he controls the distribution of tens-of-millions toward individual senators on capitol hill who agree to uphold those interests.
A ‘Decepticon’ will NEVER break ranks with the Chamber. EVER.  Regardless of the Chamber position.  That character trait is what makes them uniquely “Decepticons.”

WASHINGTON DC – Senate Republicans are growing frustrated with what they see as a lack of clear direction in President Trump’s trade agenda, which they warn is hurting U.S. exporters.
Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee vented their concerns in a recent meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

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Initial 2017 sales growth estimates exceed $33 billion (almost 6%), for a total of $598 billion, according to analysis by Customer Growth Partners.
Consumer spending represents two-thirds of total GDP; and with initial Q4 sales growth estimates coming in much higher than anticipated – this puts even more fuel into fourth quarter GDP growth estimates that have been hovering near 4%.
The stunning retail growth increases have been noted in both on-line and brick-and-mortar stores which reflects a more broad increase, driven by consumer confidence, likely to exceed these initial estimates.

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CBS – […] Total retail sales this holiday season added up to a record $598 billion dollars — up $33 billion from last year. “This is literally the best season since before the recession,” business owner Craig Johnson said.

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A quarter billion here, a quarter billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about Bigly money.  LOL  While T-Rex is achieving State Department spending reductions of 30%, Nikki Haley joins the ‘walking in a winner wonderland” party…

(USUN) Today, the United Nations agreed on a budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. ‎Among a host of other successes, the United States negotiated a reduction of over $285 million off the 2016-2017 final budget. In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key U.S. priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system.

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PART I – As the year winds down there will be lots of reviews of all things political. Lists of shifts and outlined accomplishments will be compiled to either show the advances or declines depending on tribal affiliation of the pundit.
However, not many people ever ask the questions behind the “why”.  Why is there so much opposition to President Trump?

In the larger analysis, Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) proposition is a daily reminder that citizen inspired government can eliminate the decades-long notion of politics as a profession.
There are hundreds-of-thousands of people within the institutional system known as politics. Each member carving out a specialty and selling their expertise as necessary within the opaque organization known as government. From city council, through state legislature and into federal representation, the primary selling point of each participating member is to declare their operational skill within the institution.
Heck, the professional political enterprise is so accepted as ordinary you can even go to college and earn a degree in how to be a politician. Why?
Boil down government to its most basic of institutional objectives and the entire premise is about operating common systems to the benefit of the aggregate assembly. The only thing that changes is the scale of the assembled constituency, local, state or federal.
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The economic strategy of President Trump is so consequential and encompassing, even the domestic effects are felt globally.

♦Removing the U.S. from the multinational TPP trade deal initially planted the seeds of doubt amid multinational trade forecasters because the shift positioned the U.S. with unique leverage. They saw Trump using access to the worlds largest market as a negotiating strategy.
♦A few months later, President Trump walked away from the ridiculous regulatory restrictions within the Paris Climate Treaty.  Instantaneously this put even more strategic manufacturing and economic advance on the U.S. ledger, and simultaneously made American energy independence a foregone conclusion.
♦And now that congress has codified President Trump’s lower domestic business taxes, in conjunction with opening up ANWR for energy development (a strategic economic goal for 20+ years), the size of the U.S. economic and manufacturing advantage has just increased U.S. trade leverage to almost unimaginable levels.

Economic Nationalism – President Trump’s strategy has created: •Lower and long-term predictable energy costs, not attached to OPEC or multinational influence; •Lower and long-term raw material costs due to slashed regulatory environment; •lower and long-term business manufacturing tax rates; and now Trump begins negotiating trade deals.

Add these advantages together within the largest economic market in the world and the U.S. is now the place where manufacturers will want to do business.  Additionally, the process of utilizing Canada and/or Mexico as a workaround into the U.S. market, via NAFTA, is on the cusp of removal.
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In an effort to meet the goal of signing the Tax Cut Bill before Christmas, and in order to initiate the tax reforms in FY 2018, President Trump signs the tax reform bill today in the oval office.
President Trump also delivered remarks to the media on a variety of topics.

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[Transcript] 10:45 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Have great holidays.
We are going to sign some very important things today. One is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right, and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. Very important. Top of the line. Best in the world. We make the best military product in the world, and nobody is even close.
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