Free Republic

An interesting thing is happening right now in America's industrial heartland. Manufacturers are adding new workers at a brisk pace. And it's happening right in front of the very pundits and free-trade economists who predicted economic catastrophe over the past year. Simply put, President Donald Trump's tariffs are working. U.S. manufacturing employment has now shown year-on-year growth of more than 250,000 employees for six consecutive months. That's the largest and most sustained manufacturing job growth since 1998. In fact, the U.S. added 32,000 manufacturing jobs in October alone, for a total of 296,000 new factory jobs since October 2017. Overall,...

California is a place unlike any other on the Globe. It boasts perhaps the greatest natural resources of any state along with shining high-tech industries. However, like many good economic stories, government policies threaten its future. Indeed, its government has made California unsustainable. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. As the 1960s came to a close in California, it had a population of nearly twenty million. In the decade before, its economic strength afforded the construction of a vast State Water Project and higher education system that was the envy of the world. Matched with a majestic and trade...

Close to the end of the year each year going back decades, The Economist magazine puts out an issue in which they take a look at the coming year and 2018 is no exception. As we had reported on ANP back on July 11th of 2017, back in 1988, The Economist put out a story in which the cover photo featured the mythical ‘phoenix’ rising out of the ashes of burning dollar bills and other paper/fiat money, wearing a gold medallion with the year ‘2018’ on it with their title, “Get Ready For A World Currency“. Reporting in their story...

French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated calls for a European Union army, this time saying that it is needed to protect the bloc from China, Russia, and even the United States. The progressive leader, a proponent of greater EU federalisation which will result in the reduction in sovereignty for European nations, told Europe 1 Monday night that the bloc needs a “real European army”. “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron said, according to Agence France-Presse. (snip) “We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a...

The blue wave is now a bygone figment of a liberal Hollywood fantasy. Voter excitement is clearly with the Republican Party and President Donald Trump! There is a Red Wave Rising! One pundit, Michael E. Newton, has been tracking the 2018 mid-term election data to date. He addresses people’s questions about mid-term voting to date: Newton explains that because Democrat and Republican voting may have gotten closer each day, doesn’t mean that the Democrats are really catching up in early voting. It just means the Republican percent of gains over 2016 are not as great as they were yesterday: What...

Mixing political summitry with a trade fair, heads of state, trade ministers and executives from multinational companies will gather in Shanghai on Monday to hear President Xi Jinping tout China’s role as a global importer. Beijing is billing the China International Import Expo (CIIE) as its most significant event this year and as a demonstration of commitment to globalisation as its economic growth slows and a trade battle with Washington continues. But the US is snubbing the expo and European countries are generally sending lower-level ministers, with diplomats expressing scepticism over Beijing’s commitment to easing barriers to trade and complaining...

Beijing, CNN (CNN)Spike Wang, a 29-year-old financial professional based in Shanghai, is struggling to live the Chinese dream. Wang is one of millions of Chinese middle-class men and women who grew up in a roaring economy. Now, amid soaring rents and a plunging stock market, they are finding daily life increasingly difficult. The past year has been especially tough. Like many middle-class investors, Wang dumped most of his shares in Chinese stocks after his portfolio suffered a 40% loss in just two years. Unable to afford a 37% rent increase, he left his old apartment in Beijing this year and...

A high-stakes competition is emerging among energy exporters proposing multi-million-dollar crude terminals along the U.S. Gulf Coast to handle a gusher of shale oil coming from West Texas oilfields. On Monday, private equity firm Carlyle Group became the latest to place a bet, proposing with the Port of Corpus Christi what it said would be the first onshore U.S. export facility able to load the world’s largest crude tankers.

More voters credit President Trump than former President Obama for the current state of the economy, according to a new poll. The Harris Poll, conducted with Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies, found that 47 percent of respondents said they believe President Trump is responsible for the current economy, compared to 21 percent who said they believe Obama is responsible. Among those surveyed, 15 percent said they think Republicans in Congress are responsible for the state of the economy, versus 10 percent who said the same of Democrats in Congress. Trump has frequently touted the success of the stock...

U.S. small businesses and the overall economy have benefited tremendously from the tax and regulatory relief implemented by Congress and the Trump administration. Unfortunately, President Trump’s trade policies, including a mounting trade war with China featuring higher tariffs, work against enhanced growth and opportunity. Argus Media recently summarized the state of trade policy between China and the U.S.: “The latest, third round of U.S. tariffs and Chinese counter-tariffs went into effect on 24 September. The U.S. tariffs now cover about half of overall imports from China, and the U.S. administration has a fourth round of tariffs ‘ready to go’ on...

As 2018 has unfolded, new tariffs on imports have only grown in size. Initial tariffs, such as those levied on imported solar panels and washing machines, probably added less than $1 billion each to government coffers. The president warned that "if China takes additional retaliatory action, which is almost certain, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports." Yes, that's a 25 percent tariff on virtually everything imported from China. For well over a decade, policymakers have discussed a revenue-neutral carbon tax, in which new taxes paid on emissions would be offset...

I will be interviewed by Laura Ingraham tonight at 10:00 P.M. on @FoxNews 8:31 PM - 29 Oct 2018

Stocks closed lower on Monday, giving up sharp gains from earlier in the day in a wild session that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average travel more than 900 points. The S&P 500 closed in correction territory, down 10 percent from its recent high. Traders blamed the possibility of more U.S.-China tariffs

Many experts are panicking about Trump's economic punishments against China.  They fear an economic downturn, a global depression, or even the worst case of open war.  For the libertarians, it's depriving entrepreneurs of the world's largest market.  For so-called realist and globalist foreign policy experts, it is irrational nationalism that unnecessarily endangers global prosperity and is best dealt with by trying to integrate China into the international system.  These cries of panic are crescendoing now that tariffs are coming into effect, CFIUS is being expanded, and Trump is increasing security controls throughout the economy. Now these pro-China critics are trying to actively undermine...

... "This is the tightest market, labor market, I've ever seen, he said in an interview with "Squawk Box." "But concurrently, we have a very slow productivity increase." ...

This report is certainly a far cry from what we’ve been seeing in terms of how other U.S. and foreign media are covering the Sino-U.S. relationship. But there’s no reason to doubt its credibility because some of the particulars were publicly supported in the story and by noted China/Asia experts. For instance, President Xi “has not reacted tactically or strategically,” Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, said at a conference last week hosted by his think tank. Lam is a well-known and respected China analyst. He also said Xi’s response has caused doubt among some within...

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2018 World Competitiveness Report ranks the United States No. 1 in global competitiveness, up from No. 3 in the past few years and its first top ranking in a decade. A high ranking matters. As the WEF reports: “Global competitiveness is determined by the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country … And productivity leads to growth ... and improved well-being. The U.S.’s top ranking therefore suggests a lot of growth and prosperity to come." According to the Davos elite (who are no fans of Donald Trump),...

President Donald Trump plans to withdraw from a postal treaty that has allowed Chinese companies to ship small packages to the U.S. at a steeply discounted rate...~SNIP~ Under the Universal Postal Union treaty, China and other developing countries have since 1969 been assessed lower rates than wealthier nations. The Times says the decision to withdraw was made at the urging of Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro. The National Association of Manufacturers said Trump deserved credit for his focus on eliminating what it called "the anti-U.S. manufacturer subsidy China receives from the U.S. Postal Service."

"We're going to be asking for a 5 percent cut from every secretary today," Trump told reporters at the White House in advance of a meeting with those secretaries. The proposal comes days after the Trump administration announced a $779 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2018 — a six-year high and a 17 percent jump from the prior period. "He's asking them to cut the fraud, the waste, the abuse," White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox Business News. "Cut the fat, not the essentials." Trump had said in an earlier interview on the network that "We're...

CE car sales are down and EV sales are up. Most people know this much. Also, EV sales are not up by as much as ICE car sales are down. The two metrics are believed to be independent of one another. I believe they are related. When someone purchases a Tesla Model 3, that car sale is an EV and not a new ICE vehicle. So that is a first sale the ICE industry loses. Next, the new EV owner often trades in a used ICE car and someone else will purchase that car. Some number of car buyers will...