Free Republic

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose plans to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US when he meets President Donald Trump at an upcoming summit in Washington, Kyodo news reported Tuesday. Tokyo is busy putting together an investment package which "would translate into hundreds of thousands" of new US jobs, Kyodo said, citing unnamed Japanese government sources. Abe will pitch Japanese companies' cooperation in projects like high-speed rail construction and shale oil development, the report added. The package is to be put forward when the two leaders meet on February 10. Japan is one of Washington's closest...

It’s hilarious to see the MSM (Mostly Swamp Media) and DC politicos heads’ spinning as they try to keep up with the Trump Train. They say “impossible”, he says “great, let’s get started”… It’s a never ending stream of deliberate consciousness… LOLOL. Whoops.

Many of the dominant images from President Trump’s first 10 days in office make it look as if the country is turning on him. The millions who protested him at women’s marches across the country. The thousands who jammed airports over the weekend to support immigrants and refugees hurt by his travel ban. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely any of this early backlash will mean much to the swing-state voters who sent Trump to the White House to deliver a message that the political system wasn’t working for them. “Is the white, blue-collar voter in Pennsylvania going to be upset by all...

"It seems to me like a lot of people think we're in a new inflationary boom," but, warns Gluskin-Sheffs David Rosenberg, "the answer is no... that's just not gonna happen. It's not like Ronald Reagan at all in that regard." Submitted by Patrick Ceresna via Macrovoices.com*This time around, not only are valuations at 15-year highs but we're entering it into the eighth year of the expansion of the bull market. You have to respect where were you are in the market cycle in the business expansion and we're much more mature now than we were in that early stage of...

In what seemed like the ramblings of a 19th century Luddite, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Tom Friedman appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday where he issued a ridiculous warning about the US economy under President Donald Trump. “So what’s going to happen if prices go up? American companies will build those factories here,” he exclaimed, “And you know what they'll do? They'll completely robotize them. There will be no jobs!”Friedman’s tirade was triggered by the very active first week of the Trump administration where the president signed executive orders on everything from immigration to economics....

The Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development announced this week that Hühoco Group, a global player in refining metal products, will create 200 jobs and invest $24 million in a new facility in Bartow County. “I’m extremely pleased to welcome Hühoco Group’s First American Resources subsidiary to our community and the Cartersville family of industries. This wonderful company already knows that Georgia is a great place to do business, and we are proud that they have decided to make Cartersville their home. Their investment in our community is appreciated.” -Cartersville Mayor Matt Santini Hühoco currently operates a facility in Mableton,...

Pizza Hut is about to go on a hiring spree. The pizza chain said Thursday it will hire 11,000 new pizza makers, delivery drivers and store managers. "While we don't have a set deadline, we know we are headed into one of our more busy times of the year and our restaurants across the country are working hard to hire team members that will deliver a quick and reliable pizza experience for pizza lovers nationwide," Kelly McCulloch, Pizza Hut's senior director of human resources, told CNBC. The company said the hiring is part a plan to expand the number of...

The White House announced a manufacturing jobs initiative on Friday joined by executives from Ford, Dow Chemical, U.S. Steel and others. Part of Trump's overall jobs creation agenda, the project will involve ongoing meetings between the president and business leaders to "share their experiences and gain their insights." According to a press release, Trump will call on the executives listed for perspectives on "how to best promote job growth and get Americans back to work again." Many of the executives listed as part of the initiative met with Trump on his first full day in office on Monday - Dow's...

Following today's extremely disappointing US GDP growth data, we have the final nail in the coffin of President Obama's economic reign. Not only is the average annual growth rate of just 1.48% during Obama's business cycle the weakest of any expansion since at least 1949, he has just become the only President to have not had even one year of 3% GDP growth. An average annual GDP growth of 1.48% during Obama's two terms... As a reminder to a few blinkered media types, this means President Obama's "recovery" has officially been the worst recovery in US history (despite adding almost...

Remember this fall when Barack Obama insisted that American economic growth was the envy of the world? In 2016, not so much. After a better-than-expected third quarter, growth dropped back down into the stagnation range in the fourth quarter, according to the BEA’s initial estimate:

The former head of President Donald Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he expects the new administration to seek significant budget and staff cuts. Myron Ebell said in an interview with The Associated Press that Trump is likely to seek significant reductions to the agency’s workforce — currently about 15,000 employees nationwide. Ebell, who left the transition team last week, declined to discuss specific numbers of EPA staff that could be targeted for pink slips. Asked what he would personally like to see, however, Ebell said slashing the agency’s size by about half would be a...

Greenfield: What Trump Can Expect from Hollywood And how he should fight back. 1.26.2017 Commentary Daniel Greenfield When Bush left office, he was followed out the door by two movies. W, by Marxist crackpot Oliver Stone, was a Saturday Night Live skit with an all-star cast. The movie lost money and was quickly forgotten. The other, even more toxic production was Death of a President, released years earlier which fantasized about Bush’s assassination and remained a guilty pleasure for left-wing viewers. Obama departs with a very different industry farewell. Southside With You glamorizes his first date with Michelle. And Netflix...

Sonoco Products Company will create 130 full-time and 465 part-time jobs in a new packaging center in Fairburn, GA. The global diversified packaging company’s overall investment in Fulton County will total approximately $20 million. The packaging center will support Duracell’s new North America battery packaging operation and will be located in Duracell’s recently leased facility at Shugart Farms Industrial Park. “This is a one-of-a-kind relationship in our industry, where we have the opportunity to supply a diverse range of packaging products and services which come together as a single integrated solution,” said Philippe Erhart, Sonoco’s division vice president and general...

So GNC is down to 9.15 a share, it was up to 60.18 in Nov 2013. Last years high was at 34.58 in April, but has since slid into almost penny stock territory. I understand that they are having trouble from theom;ine sales and all, but they are also running a Super Bowl add to help. I guess even if the Super Bowl add helps temporarily it may be a smart move to buy at 9.15 to make a quick profit from the response they get off the add. Anyone agree? By the way you all want a tip? Try...

Live Global stocks hit 19-month high and Dow Jones breaks 20,000 for first time ever as markets reignite 'Trump rally'

President Donald Trump’s team has compiled a list of about 50 infrastructure projects nationwide, totaling at least $137.5 billion, as the new White House tries to determine its investment priorities, according to documents obtained by McClatchy’s Kansas City Star and The News Tribune. The documents, circulated within the congressional and business communities, offer a first glimpse at which projects around the country might get funding if Trump follows through on his campaign promise to renew America’s crumbling highways, airports, dams and bridges. Among the projects could be a new terminal for the Kansas City airport, upgrades to Interstate 95 in...

With President-elect Donald Trump now in office, the HVAC industry remains hopeful and optimistic about its future under a Republican-led government. Takeshi Ebisu, president and CEO, Goodman Mfg. Co., suggested a unified federal government was a good thing for the HVAC industry. “The federal government has been experiencing an extended period of gridlock where no major pro-business legislation has been passed or deregulation has occurred. It’s a good thing for the HVAC industry when you have a government that is action-oriented.” However, Ebisu also noted it was too early to tell how the new administration and Congress will impact the...

President Donald Trump met Monday at the White House with leaders of construction, carpenters, plumbers and sheet metal unions, the White House said. According to the White House, participants included North America's Building Trades Unions President Sean McGarvey, Laborers' International Union of North America President Terry O'Sullivan, SMART sheet metal workers' union President Joseph Sellers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters President Doug McCarron and Mark McManus, president of the United Association that represents plumbers, pipefitters, welders and others. The union meeting also included several local union officials and follows a gathering of 12 chief executives of large companies at the White...

Submitted by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,I have been in Washington DC for the last three days. The ostensible reason was to participate in a board meeting of a public company, Ashford Inc. (AINC). We manage hotel REITs that own three hotels here in DC, and the group decided to move our board meeting up a few weeks and hold it in DC during the inauguration. That gave me the opportunity to set up a few meetings to try to gain some insight into what the first 100 days, the first six months, and the first year of the Trump...

In a CNBC clip, which slipped between the cracks last week,  Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has been busy trying to get into Donald Trump's "circle of trust", spoke in Davos and blamed the problems of the United States on the United States itself, as a country which has spent trillions of dollars to wage war, instead of investing in infrastructure and its own people.Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin about Trump's decision to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports to protect domestic American manufacturers, Ma said blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America...