Free Republic

Rio Tinto's proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would tunnel 7,000 feet underground, where rocks radiate heat from the earth’s molten core. It would suck up enough water to supply a city and leave a crater a mile and a half wide and 1,000 feet deep. Planned for more than a decade, the project would be a prototype for a looming era of more invasive U.S. mines as companies run out of easy-to-reach deposits, geologists say. It is also the project President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, had in mind as he began crafting a "hit list" of regulations...

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's video address to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's political party's business conference in Berlin was cut off on Tuesday after Ross went over his time limit, prompting conference attendees to laugh and cheer. Ross's video feed at the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference was faded out after roughly 20 minutes for going over his time limit, according to Bloomberg. Attendees then began to applaud and laugh at the move. "That was the U.S. secretary of commerce, who had promised us a 10-minute statement," the head of CDU Economic Council Werner Bahlsen said.

To say we consider Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a man with a unique skill-set for this defined moment in U.S. economic history would be an understatement of epic proportions. Ross is one of the most consequential and dynamic forces within the President Trump administration. Our message is simple – the games are over, and improper treatment of the United States will no longer be tolerated. We will approach future negotiations and actions with a clarity of purpose guiding us as we work to establish both free and fair trade. Unfortunately, NAFTA negotiations cannot begin until Congress accepts our 90-day notification...

Trump, Xi agree to 100-day plan to discuss trade issues U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to a new 100-day plan for trade talks that will boost U.S. exports and reduce the United States' trade deficit with China, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday.

The Trump administration is seeking to slash the budget of one of the government’s premier climate science agencies by 17 percent, delivering steep cuts to research funding and satellite programs, according to a four-page budget memo obtained by The Washington Post. The proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would also eliminate funding for a variety of smaller programs, including external research, coastal management, estuary reserves and “coastal resilience,” which seeks to bolster the ability of coastal areas to withstand major storms and rising seas. NOAA is part of the Commerce Department, which would be hit by an overall 18 percent budget reduction from...

Oh, this guy is too good at this stuff. Lots of love for Wilbur the Wolverine.Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross hints at a strategy for NAFTA renegotiation with Mexico that completely annihilates any leftist opposition, and simultaneously drops the greatest humanitarian narrative right in the lap of the globalists. Make Mexico raise their minimum wage.Currently the minimum wage in Mexico is 80 pesos per day. Around $4 per day, and the length of the workday is up to the hiring company. The minimum wage in the U.S. for an eight hour day is $58 ($7.90/hr x 8). Additionally, almost no-one...

President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations, according to leaked recordings of a what appears to be a phone conversation between Trump and Wilbur Ross, his nominee for Commerce Secretary. During the conversation, which was recorded in December, the then-president-elect also advocated a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign imports, an issue on which his administration has adopted numerous different positions and which Speaker Paul Ryan has flatly rejected. The proposals came during an apparent phone conversation that was captured on video and provided to Gizmodo via SecureDrop,...

The Senate voted Monday to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as secretary of commerce in President Trump's Cabinet. Ross was approved by a vote of 72-27, with 20 Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joining 51 Republicans to vote "aye." Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did not vote due to his ongoing recovery from back surgery. The Senate later voted 67-31 to move forward on the nomination of Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., to lead the Interior Department. A final vote on Zinke's confirmation could occur on Tuesday or Wednesday. Ross is the 14th member of Trump's Cabinet to be cofirmed, with...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has promised to revitalize America’s aging roads, bridges, railways and airports, but a plan put forward by his economic advisers relies on a transportation financing scheme that hasn’t been tried before and comes with significant risks. The plan was set out just before the election by billionaire leveraged buy-out specialist Wilbur Ross, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, and conservative economics professor Peter Navarro, whom Trump has tapped to head his National Trade Council. They recommended the government allocate $137 billion in tax credits for private investors who underwrite infrastructure projects. Ross and Navarro estimate that...

Wilbur Ross to run the Commerce Department? The 79-year-old distressed investment guy? At first it makes no sense. Bottom fishing old industrial companies is not the magic elixir to fix our economy. The Ross nomination reminds me of a Kidder Peabody executive’s line in 1987, when General Electric announced a new CEO for its investment banking subsidiary: “I was thinking just the other day that what we need around here is a good tool-and-die man.” I met Mr. Ross a few years back when he was touting his investments in shipping companies. Those firms were, as many still are, very...

Mnuchin will be Treasury Secretary Ross will lead the Commerce Department. President-elect Donald Trump has filled more top posts on his economic team — picking former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and financier Wilbur Ross to lead the Commerce Department. Mnuchin is confirming that he and Ross are joining Trump’s Cabinet, pending confirmation by the Senate. He tells CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview Wednesday that “we’re thrilled to work for the president-elect and honored to have these positions.” Mnuchin says “sustained economic growth” is the chief priority of the incoming administration and he says “we can...

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to select Wilbur Ross Jr. to head the Commerce Department, said two people familiar with the deliberations, a decision that would put a billionaire investor known for buying up failed companies in charge of the agency tasked with cultivating economic growth.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is threatening to leave the World Trade Organization and rip up agreements like the North American Free Trade agreement, and his critics predictably are branding him everything from "wrong-headed" to "insane." But here's the real deal. When our politicians and diplomats negotiate trade deals, we lose because they don't know a good deal from a bad one. For instance, when President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA in 1993, he believed it would "create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone." Instead, the U.S. has lost over 700,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, while...