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Trump's trade war is economic suicide


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1 minute ago, Pitcher said:

It’s been my experience as people age they tend to become more conservative, especially in monetary terms. 

 

I Agree! :tiphat:

 

I am topped out on my stinkin' purple trophy AND emerald counter. For NOW, Please accept

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 I believe we have all learned to love instead of being insecure because others are different.

End Quote

 

Awesome statement and thank you, Pitcher.......And its value doubles due to the mere fact ( imho) that was not spoken by a left-wing fan...So it's even more important in my mind and heart....Bravo!

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Bad news for parents: Trump’s trade war with China will hit back-to-school supplies

Parents suffering sticker shock on back-to-school spending this fall better brace themselves — the latest round of Chinese tariffs are likely to make next year’s shopping spree even more expensive.

A new round of 15% tariffs went into effect Sunday on $112 billion in Chinese goods. Some of the standards in back-to-school equipment and accessories are on the latest list. They include pencils and crayons, sneakers, boys’ and girls’ overcoats and windbreakers, calendars, and ball-point pens.

Prices on those items aren’t expected to go up immediately, because the items in stores now were shipped months ago, but shoppers could feel the pinch at the start of next school year, Bethany Aronhalt, a National Retail Federation spokeswoman, told MarketWatch.

“Unfortunately, American families could see higher prices in the coming months and throughout the school year as the impact of the tariffs works through the supply chain and companies have no choice but to pass along costs to consumers,” Aronhalt added. “Small businesses in particular won’t be able to absorb the cost and will be forced to raise prices.”

President Trump’s trade war with China will add yet another layer of costs for many families who are already getting squeezed by day-care costs and extracurricular activities. In May, Federal Reserve Bank of New York economists said American families would spend an extra $831 annually because of tariffs on Chinese imports.

Those calculations focused on the earlier tariff hike from 15% to 25% for imported Chinese goods worth $200 billion, impacting everything from livestock and produce to textiles and chemicals. The current tariffs extend to approximately 69% of all consumer goods. The previous tariffs will likely affect soaps, deodorants, electronics and raw materials for some toys.

Families have already been contending with increased prices on back-to-school gear due to old-fashioned inflation and the usual annual price hikes. Families will spend a record $691 on school supplies this year, according to National Retail Federation estimates. That’s up from $685 last year and exceeds $689 in 2012, the previous record, according to the NRF.

Overall, families with children from kindergarten to 12th grade are projected to spend $26.2 billion on back-to-school supplies, less than the $27.5 billion spent last year, despite the price hikes, but that’s because fewer families said they had kids between elementary and high-school age.

Sports apparel and sneaker makers Nike NKE, +1.91%  and Under Armour UAA, +2.67%   could not be immediately reached for comment. Likewise, spokespeople for the crayon maker Crayola and VF Corporation VFC, +1.52%, the company that owns brands like JanSport, Eastpak and The North Face, could not be immediately reached for comment.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bad-news-for-parents-trumps-trade-war-with-china-will-hit-back-to-school-supplies-2019-09-03?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

 

 

But, but, but, China is writing the check!!! LOL

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10 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

DANG GUESS IT'S NOT AS BAD AS THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS PARTY WANTS IT TO BE 

 

 

 

I guess we will see any impact come the holidays... Although manufacturing is down. Job rate 3.7 not dropping but holding steady. GDP is no where near his majesties promised 4%. Steel mills are closing and laying off. Consumer spending is holding steady, but consumer sentiment is the lowest since November 2016.Consumer debt is higher than 2007, meaning consumer spending is going to take a hit.

 I'm glad I read where you are not a Trumpkin, because those who are his worshippers are going to need some real mental health rehab in 2020.

 

I do find it odd you are posting the Fed. For one thing Trump hates him. The other thing is the Fed is a private bank owned by the ultra elite, so it is in their best interest to keep people spending. They won't tell you things are bad until you already know it.

 

 

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Trump Is Right About One Thing: 'The Economy Does Better Under The Democrats

Since I’m an old Democrat supporting Hillarious Clinton, it might surprise you to hear that I agree with Donald Trump’s top line view of the economy.

No, I don't agree with much that he’s said since he started his 2016 presidential campaign, and recent revelations have rightly drawn opprobrium. But since I’m also an agreeable old southerner, I’ll give credit where credit is due. Donald was absolutely right when he told Wolf Blitzer in 2004: “I’ve been around for a long time and it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.”

That’s right. Trump said out loud the same thing that Hillarious Clinton has asserted—and top academics and journalists have confirmed. The same thing I’ve been compiling cold, hard government data on since 1980: By crucial metrics like GDP, job creation, business investment and avoiding recessions, the economy does a lot better with Democrats in the White House than with Republicans. Just one eye-opening example: Nine of the last 10 recessions have been under Republicans

Pundits don’t agree on exactly why. Some say the common thread may be external factors ranging from oil shocks and warm, fuzzy consumer expectations to economic cycles falling differently from political cycles.

But to borrow a phrase often attributed to Casey Stengel, you could look it up. And not just on my website, www.presidentialdata.org, though the data is all there. This is good, old, green-eyeshade government data. As Hillarious’s venerated predecessor in the Senate, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, used to say, you’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts

It is simply a fact that since World War II, Democratic presidents have seen 24.4 million more jobs created on their watch—an average of 78.6% more jobs created per year of Democratic administrations—than have Republican presidents. Ditto real GDP growth, 44% higher under Democratic presidents. On the flip side, unemployment has been 18% higher under GOP presidents.

All this despite the fact that before the general election of 2016, a lot of American business leaders famously have donated and voted Republican for president (though not one Fortune 100 CEO publicly backed Trump as of late September, while nearly a third of them had supported Mitt Romney four years ago).

Still, something that happens under Democratic presidents must be a dog whistle to such business leaders. Real business investment has been 193% higher under Democratic presidents.

Democratic nominee Hillarious and former President Bill Clinton have touted this dynamic—though not enough, in my opinion—and the non-partisan Politifact has vetted their comments.

Take Bill Clinton’s line at the 2012 Democratic Convention: “Since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24…. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 [million].”

The Politifact verdict—and remember that folks love nothing better than slapping Bill Clinton with Pinocchios—“We rate his claim True.”

Powerful stuff.

Last year, Hillarious Clinton hit related points that my research has buttressed.

The former senator and Secretary of State said last fall in New Hampshire: “I know it’s inconvenient for our Republican friends, but the facts do speak for themselves…. Economic growth is stronger under Democratic presidents. Unemployment is lower. The stock market rises faster. Businesses do better, and deficits are smaller. And one of my favorite inconvenient facts is, under Republicans, recessions happen four times as frequently as under Democrats.

uncaptioned

Focusing on her observation about recessions, Politifact grudgingly found it true. Because experts said this correlation didn’t mean there is a causal relationship based on which party POTUS is from, the website gritted its pixelated teeth and said, “Clinton is right on the numbers, but her claim needs additional information to put its implication into the proper context. We rate her claim Mostly True.”

I’ll take “right on the numbers” any day. And there’s a reason Hillarious is right on the numbers. As Politifact noted, she based her statement on a compelling 2013 study by two Princeton professors.

Professors Alan Blinder, now an advisor to the Clinton campaign, and Mark Watson came to this stark conclusion: “The U.S. economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance. For many measures, including real GDP growth (on which we concentrate), the performance gap is both large and statistically significant, despite the fact that postwar history includes only 16 presidential terms.”

Yes, I’ll take “right on the numbers” any day. And I’d like to hear more of it.

Another Princeton economist, the noted liberal Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, wrote in his New York Times column that Blinder and Watson looked at various explanations and “found all of them wanting. There’s no indication that the Democratic advantage can be explained by better monetary and fiscal policies. Democrats seem, on average, to have had better luck than Republicans on oil prices and technological progress.”

Luck, is it? At a certain point, I’ll take geopolitical luck if that’s what it is—spanning 16 presidential terms. To quote another historic baseball figure, I’d rather be lucky than good.

With facts like these at our fingertips, Democrats from Hillarious on down should be making sure our Republican friends and undecided voters know that if 70 years of history—a lifetime for both major-party nominees this year—is any guide, they would do better under this President Clinton than under a Trump Presidency, which would be unpredictable at best.

After the economic boom of the Clinton-Gore years, then-Vice President Al Gore had planned to use my data as it stood during the 2000 debates but my old friend from Tennessee sadly never saw the opening. Since then, my thesis has only been vetted and validated far more widely and publicly. I hope Hillarious will use her closing argument as Democratic nominee to make sure every voter knows it this time.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/11/07/trump-is-right-about-one-thing-the-economy-does-better-under-the-democrats/#6d82f36a6786

 

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17 hours ago, bostonangler said:

 

I guess we will see any impact come the holidays... Although manufacturing is down. Job rate 3.7 not dropping but holding steady. GDP is no where near his majesties promised 4%. Steel mills are closing and laying off. Consumer spending is holding steady, but consumer sentiment is the lowest since November 2016.Consumer debt is higher than 2007, meaning consumer spending is going to take a hit.

 I'm glad I read where you are not a Trumpkin, because those who are his worshippers are going to need some real mental health rehab in 2020.

 

I do find it odd you are posting the Fed. For one thing Trump hates him. The other thing is the Fed is a private bank owned by the ultra elite, so it is in their best interest to keep people spending. They won't tell you things are bad until you already know it.

 

 

B/A

As far as mental health issues go I think that the Democratic Socialists Party has the corner on the market. 

 

As far as GDP goes it's a dang site better than under Obama. 

 

And unlike you I'mwilling to post anything that is reinvent from either side of the issue.  

 

Finally, not trusting the Fed is a given. Or any other branch of the government. Take the information and glean what you want. 

 

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How much was your tax cut????

 

Trump tariffs are set to cost U.S. households $2,000 in 2020, research group finds

 

Tariffs are expected to cost American households more than $2,000 per year in 2020, according to a recent report from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).

The Arlington-based nonprofit — which looked at the effect of tariffs on the overall economy and consumers — estimated that by the end of 2019, the trade duties imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump “will have cost the average household $1,315 over a two-year period.”

And “when adding the tariffs in effect and the tariffs set to go into effect by the end of 2019, the costs of the tariffs to consumers will be $259.2 billion,” the reported stated. “That is, the tariffs will cost the average household $2,031 per year, and will be recurring so long as the tariffs stay in effect.”

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 04: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House September 04, 2019 in Washington, DC. Trump was briefed by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Karl Schultz and Deputy Assistant to the President and Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Peter Brown (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters following a briefing on Sept 4, 2019. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The tariffs ‘eliminate all remaining economic gains from the administration’s deregulation actions’

The $2,031 number is higher that other estimates because tariffs keep increasing.

In May, the New York Fed estimated a $831 cost to households from tariffs. J.P. Morgan estimated that tariffs that went into effect on September 1 would cost American households up to $1,000 per year when they went into effect. Additional tariffs on China went into effect on October 1, and more tariffs are set to kick in on December 15.

“If all tariffs threatened by the Trump administration are imposed, combined with the current tariffs in place, the annual cost to U.S. consumers would be $461.1 billion and the cost for the average household would be $3,614,” the report stated.

Tariffs continue to increase as the trade war drags on. (Photo: NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN POLICY) Tariffs continue to increase as the trade war drags on. (Photo: NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN POLICY)

The increased cost — or tax — has reduced the economic benefits brought by the Trump administration’s deregulation efforts by 29%, the report noted, and added that additional tariffs would “eliminate all remaining economic gains from the administration’s deregulation actions.”

“The findings show that tariffs are a form of business regulation that can be at least as economically harmful as other forms of regulation, especially for consumers,” NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson said in a press release.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-tariffs-cost-2020-research-151755274.html

 

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Many U.S. farmers fume at Washington, not Trump, over biofuel, trade policies

ROCHESTER, Minn./CHICAGO (Reuters) - American farmers helped elect President Donald Trump in 2016 on hopes he would shake up Washington and turn around a struggling agricultural economy, but many of his policies have actually stung farmers, notably his trade war with China and biofuel waivers for oil refiners.

Many farmers are angry, and some are directing their anger not at the Republican president, but at Washington's bureaucracy.

Trump has faced backlash from agricultural groups, ethanol producers and Midwestern politicians upset that his trade war with China has slashed export sales of U.S. soybeans and other crops. Also, Corn futures tumbled after the government forecast a big crop when a flood-ridden spring stalled plantings. Corn-based ethanol plants shuttered after the administration granted waivers to dozens of exempting oil refineries.

Yet polls show that while Trump's support in farm country has slipped, it remains substantial.

Instead of directing their anger at Trump, dozens of farmers interviewed by Reuters blasted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other Washington institutions they believe are thwarting his true agenda. Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories involving USDA staff are circulating in farm country and gaining traction online.

USDA did not respond to Reuters' questions on Monday.

Farmers are struggling with how to emotionally process their pain from the Trump administration's policies, and anger at the USDA may be a coping mechanism, said Ted Matthews, a Minnesota psychologist who has spent 30 years counseling farmers and rural residents across the Midwest.

"The question I hear from farmers who voted for (Trump) is, 'We believed him when he said he would help make the farm economy better, that we could save our farms. Now, who do we blame?'" Matthews said.

Many farmers told Reuters they intend to support Trump again in his re-election bid in 2020.

"It's much easier to be angry at a faceless Washington bureaucracy than at the man you voted for," said Jere Solvie, 69, grain and hog farmer from west-central Minnesota who voted for Trump and still supports him.

Ahead of Democratic nominating contests, that party's presidential candidates have been campaigning hard in Iowa and other Midwestern states where farms have lost billions of dollars in crop sales to China.

Still, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last month shows five in 10 U.S. adults in rural areas approved of Trump's performance in office, higher than his 41% approval nationwide.

Trump's approval rating was 71% as of Aug. 23, down from 79% in July, according to trade publication Farm Journal Pulse's poll of 1,153 farmers.

Of the farmers who supported the president, 43% said they "strongly approve" - down 10% from July and the first time the number fell below 50%. The farm journal's poll came as ethanol groups complained that demand was decimated when Trump's Environmental Protection Agency granted biofuel waivers to dozens of refineries, saving the oil industry hundreds of millions of dollars.

ALREADY FURIOUS

The USDA is a natural scapegoat and a topic of conspiracy theories among farmers suspicious of its sprawling bureaucracy, career employees and its research who sometimes conflicts with what they see on their own farms.

One farmer, enraged by the USDA's corn crop estimate, threatened an agency employee last month. The threat of violence prompted USDA to pull all staff from a privately run crop tour that surveys Midwest crops.

This is a sharp contrast to early days in the administration, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was a reliable point person. His folksy southern charm and his appeals to patriotism helped sell Trump's policies to farmers, even the trade war.

But Perdue's honeymoon in farm country has ended. Farmers booed the agriculture secretary in Minnesota last month after he joked: "What do you call two farmers in a basement? A whine cellar."

"He’s supposed to support us, especially during times of distress," said Gary Wertish, a fourth-generation Minnesotan who farms 500 acres of corn, soybeans and navy beans, and heard the remarks in person.

Grain farmers were already furious that corn futures prices posted their biggest drop in three years after USDA estimated a bigger-than-expected crop on Aug. 12, despite floods that slowed planting.

Market analysts said farmers have more of a localized view on crop health and are often skeptical of the national focus of USDA forecasts.

Trump voter Byron Heppler, a soybean and corn farmer from Calhoun, Kentucky, said he is open to considering other Republican candidates if any emerge. He said he believes USDA's research methods are flawed and he feels its employees want to unseat Trump, although he offered no evidence to back up those views.

Other disgruntled farmers have also alleged, without offering evidence, that federal agriculture employees are overestimating corn plantings as part of a plot to hurt Trump in the 2020 election. These farmers said they believe USDA employees are upset the administration is relocating hundreds of economists and other researchers to Kansas City from Washington.

The agency has stood by its forecasts, saying they are in part based on surveys of thousands of farmers. On Trump's order, the agency has rolled out $28 billion in trade aid support for farmers over the past two years.

Wes Hitchcock, a corn farmer and Trump supporter in Sparks, Nebraska, wrote a 1,700-word paper titled "USDA vs. Trump" and has repeatedly posted it on Facebook in a grain market discussion group with 13,000 members.

Hitchcock said he was unable to plant about 30% of the 2,200 corn acres he had planned to grow because of heavy rains this spring. The corn he did manage to plant is not looking great, either, he said.

"I'm going bankrupt and everybody else will this year too," he said in a phone interview with Reuters.

His Facebook posts received some skeptical responses.

"To think the USDA deliberately is skewing numbers to make their boss look bad and that people appointed by the president allowed this to happen is delusional," wrote a user named Zach Alger from Palmyra, Pennsylvania.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/many-u-farmers-fume-washington-101235560.html

 

These guys clearly see the big picture...

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US inflation slowed during August

US inflation slowed during August

12 September 2019 04:03 PM
Direct: US inflation slowed on a monthly and yearly basis over the past month, as energy costs fell.

Data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday showed that the US consumer price index rose by 0.1 percent in August last seasonally adjusted after an increase of about 0.3 percent in the previous month.

Analysts had expected inflation to hit 0.1 percent last month.

According to the data, the energy index fell 1.9 percent in August on a monthly basis and the gasoline index fell 3.5 percent while the food index remained stable for the third consecutive month.

The inflation rate for the 12 months ending August was 1.7 percent, compared with 1.8 percent in the same period and the previous month.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.3 percent in August on a monthly basis, the same pace as in July.

Estimates of core inflation were forecast at 0.2 percent in the past month.

On an annual basis, core inflation accelerated to 2.4 percent in the year to August from 2.2 percent in the corresponding period to July.

By 12:37 pm GMT, the dollar was up against the euro by about 0.6 percent to drop the single European currency to 1.0947 dollars.

 
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The S&P 500 Index (SPX) has been in an unstoppable decade-long bull run and it is a few points away from the all-time high of 3,028.

However, the impressive uptrend in U.S. stocks is making some investors jittery. A market that is consistently printing fresh highs can be a cause for concern. Many believe that the steep uptrend over the last ten years is no longer sustainable.

The popular Elliottician BenjaminBlunts thinks that the S&P 500 has already topped out:

Tweet on SPX topping out BenjaminBlunts believes the SPX has topped out. | Source: Twitter

BenjaminBlunts is not alone to have this sentiment. Trader Adam Mancini also thinks that the SPX has become bearish. In a tweet, he wrote,

Bulls aren’t out of the woods just yet.

Bear scenario Adam Mancini bear scenario for SPX. | Source: Twitter

With the U.S.-China trade war escalating and the U.S. housing and manufacturing indicators flashing signs of weakness, it appears that the current economic climate looks unfavorable to the bulls.

However, Alex Kruger, an economist and analyst, thinks that the fear surrounding U.S. equities is unfounded. The widely-followed analyst believes that the SPX is likely to continue humming in the next few years.

Kruger: ‘the Burden of Proof Is on Bears’

In technical analysis, the trend is your friend. In other words, if an asset is in an uptrend, it will very likely to continue the trend until it shows clear reversal signals. So far, it appears that Mr. Kruger has yet to see any bearish signals from the S&P 500 Index (SPX).

The economist exclusively spoke to CCN. He said:

I'd say stocks topping out now is nonsense. Stocks are in a multi-year bull market. The trend is up. The all-time high is less than a couple percentage points away. It is statistically improbable for the top to be in.

The trader added:

The question should be the opposite: why would the top be in? Bears have been wrong over and over and over again. Most bears have been bearish for years. Why are bears correct right now?

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices unexpectedly rose in August, but the overall trend in producer inflation remains tame, cementing financial market expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next week to support a slowing economy.

The Trump administration's year-long trade war with China, which has sapped business confidence, is threatening to derail the longest economic expansion in history.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated last week that the U.S. central bank would continue to act "as appropriate" to keep the expansion, now in its 11th year, on track. President Donald Trump on Wednesday renewed criticism of the Fed and urged policymakers to push interest rates down to zero or into negative territory.

"The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt," Trump tweeted. "No Inflation! A once in a lifetime opportunity that we are missing because of Boneheads."

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand edged up 0.1% last month as a jump in the cost of services offset the largest drop in the price of goods in seven months. The PPI gained 0.2% in July. In the 12 months through August, the PPI advanced 1.8% after increasing 1.7% in July.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI would be unchanged in August and rise 1.7% on a year-on-year basis.

Excluding the volatile food, energy and trade services components, producer prices jumped 0.4% last month after dipping 0.1% in July, the first decline since October 2015. The so-called core PPI climbed 1.9% in the 12 months through August after increasing 1.7% in July.

"Underlying producer price pressures are quite modest and will not give Fed officials any confidence that there is any daylight yet in that long tunnel of stubbornly low inflation," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.

"We expect the soft patch for inflation and inflation expectations will allow Fed officials to give the White House the rate cuts it wants starting at next week's meeting."

The Fed, which has a 2% annual inflation target, tracks the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for monetary policy. The core PCE price index rose 1.6% on a year-on-year basis in July and has undershot its target this year.

The dollar rose against a basket of currencies on hopes of further stimulus from the European Central Bank on Thursday to boost the euro zone economy. U.S. Treasury prices largely fell.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher after China's finance ministry said some U.S. goods would be exempted from additional retaliatory tariffs ahead of a planned meeting between trade negotiators.

RATE CUT IN THE BAG

Financial markets have fully priced in a rate cut at the Fed's Sept. 17-18 policy meeting against the backdrop of simmering U.S.-China trade tensions, which have tipped both U.S. and global manufacturing into recession. The Fed lowered borrowing costs in July for the first time since 2008.

U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods were this month broadened to include consumer goods. There are fears the manufacturing downturn could spill over into the broader economy.

A separate report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed wholesale inventories increased slightly in July, suggesting inventory investment could remain a drag on economic growth in the third quarter.

The economy is being supported by robust consumer spending via a strong labor market.

In August, wholesale energy prices fell 2.5% after rebounding 2.3% in the prior month. They were weighed down by a 6.6% drop in gasoline prices, the most since January, which followed a 5.2% percent jump in July.

Goods prices declined 0.5% last month, also the largest drop since January, after rising 0.4% in July. Energy prices accounted for more than 80% of the drop in the cost of goods.

Wholesale food prices fell 0.6% in August after gaining 0.2% in the prior month. Core goods prices, excluding energy and food, were unchanged last month after edging up 0.1% in July.

Core producer goods inflation remains muted despite duties on imported Chinese goods.

"That suggests that any inflationary impact from tariffs has been offset by a weakening renminbi and substitution away from Chinese imports towards other low-cost producers in the region," said Michael Pearce, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in New York.

The cost of services increased 0.3% after decreasing 0.1% in July. Services were boosted by a 6.4% surge in the cost of guestroom accommodation such as hotels and motels, the largest gain since April 2009.

The cost of healthcare services rose 0.2% last month after edging up 0.1% in July. Hospital inpatient care prices increased 0.4% and the cost of doctor visits shot up 0.5%, reversing July's 0.5% decrease.

But the cost of hospital outpatient care dipped 0.1%. Portfolio management fees increased 0.5% after rebounding 0.8% in July. Those fees and healthcare costs feed into the core PCE price index.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-producer-prices-unexpectedly-rise-132154266.html

 

The Fed is lowering rates thus printing more money, just like 2008... Sound familiar?

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trump-tariff-china.jpg

President Trump has said for years that the US was hurt by politicians that didn’t protect US jobs.  He decided to do something about and the US is winning because of it!

The far-left Washington Post wrote in August that President Trump’s tariffs will cost the average family hundreds of dollars a year –

 

More than a year into the U.S.-China trade war, American consumers are about to find themselves squarely in the crosshairs for the first time, with households estimated to face up to $1,000 in additional costs each year from tariffs, according to research from JPMorgan Chase.

Consumers, whose spending fuels about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, have been largely shielded from previous rounds of tariffs, which have left businesses reeling and upended global supply chains. But that’s about to change with the 10 percent levies on roughly $300 billion in Chinese imports, about a third of which will take effect Sept. 1. Those tariffs will primarily target consumer goods.

But it was just more fake news from the far left Washington Post.

Sorry liberals, Trump’s tariffs are having little to no impact on the cost of goods to the consumer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the costs of imports actually went down in August.

Prices for U.S. imports fell 0.5 percent in August following a 0.1-percent increase in July and a 1.1-percent decline in June. With the exception of the August and June decreases, U.S. import prices advanced in each month of 2019. Despite the increases, the price index for U.S. imports declined 2.0 percent from August 2018 to August 2019. (See table 1.)

Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices decreased 4.3 percent in August, after rising 0.7 percent the previous month. Prices for import fuel fell 11.1 percent over the past 3 months. In August, lower petroleum prices more than offset higher prices for natural gas. The price index for import petroleum declined 4.8 percent, after increasing 0.9 percent the previous month. Fuel prices decreased 8.7 percent over the past 12 months; prices for import petroleum fell 9.6 percent over the same period. The price index for natural gas imports rose 16.0 percent in August, after declines in each of the previous 4 months. Despite the August increase, natural gas prices fell 6.1 percent over the past year.

All Imports Excluding Fuel: Prices for nonfuel imports were unchanged for the second consecutive month in August following 0.3-percent decreases in both June and May. In August, lower prices for foods, feeds, and beverages and nonfuel industrial supplies and materials were offset by price increases for automotive vehicles and consumer goods. Prices for nonfuel imports declined 1.0 percent over the past 12 months, led by price decreases for industrial supplies and materials and capital goods.

President Trump said years ago what he would do years ago about China to stop their theft of American jobs – tax China 25%.

 

WARNING LANGUAGE 

 

 

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Trump’s Trade War Hammering Farmers, Factory Workers In Crucial Wisconsin

EAST TROY, Wis. – Farm Aid musicians who over three-and-a-half decades have helped farmers cope with torrential floods, withering droughts and epidemics of bank foreclosures this year added a new calamity to their list: President Donald Trump’s trade war.

“With devastating weather, low prices and harmful farm and trade policies, America’s family farmers are facing immense challenges to hold onto their farms,” Farm Aid founder Willie Nelson said prior to his appearance her Saturday at the 2019 benefit concert. “It’s not right.”

Wisconsin has become ground zero for Trump’s tariff battles with an assortment of foreign foes ― battles that come following years of depressed milk prices that have driven dairy farmers out of business and a spring of drenching floods.

“It’s really salt on the wound,” said Alicia Harvie, Farm Aid’s advocacy and farm services director. “It’s happening at the worst possible time for farmers.”

In Wisconsin, though, they are not the trade war’s only victims. From Harley-Davidson factory workers worrying about their jobs as their company’s profits tanks, to a weather equipment maker forced to pay hefty import taxes, to a kidney beans processor facing retaliatory tariffs in Europe, a wide swath of voters are losing money and, in some cases, their livelihoods in a state that could determine Trump’s fate next November.

“I can’t imagine it isn’t going to hurt him,” said Randy Jasper, who with his son grows soybeans, one of the crops hardest hit when China closed its market to many U.S. agricultural products last year to retaliate against Trump’s import duties on Chinese goods.

Jasper added that Trump will not get away with downplaying the economic damage or claiming that his $28 billion-and-counting in bailouts have made everything better. Farmers and their families and friends understand full well what’s happening, he said. “Everybody knows. It’s out there in the real world.”

Tim Corkum, who owns an art gallery in the downtown strip of Menomonee Falls just blocks from the Harley-Davidson factory, said that even in his deeply Republican town ― “You can’t make this place any redder if you opened up an aorta and sprayed it all over” ― he’s hearing from people tired of Trump.

“It’s becoming clearer to them that putting a failed real estate tycoon in charge of the international economy wasn’t such a great idea,” he said.

The White House did not respond to numerous HuffPost queries about the trade war’s effects on Wisconsin.

Trump clearly continues to have his strong devotees, particularly among those who have not been personally affected by the tariffs. These supporters say they cannot think of any circumstance that would force them to reconsider their votes.

But even some of those loyal followers acknowledge that Trump could indeed lose critical support if the tariff battles end badly for him or, worse, don’t end at all.

“I think the tariffs are a tricky line to walk,” said Mark Baldwin, who works at a graphics packaging firm that neighbors the Harley plant. “If they bring about better trade, it will work for Trump. If they don’t, well, it could cost him some votes.”

For Trump, losing even a small fraction of the votes he won in 2016 could mean losing Wisconsin ― and a second term.

A key state in 2016, and again in 2020

Trump and his political advisers have been acutely aware of Wisconsin’s role in putting him in the Oval Office. It, along with Pennsylvania and Michigan, had not voted Republican in decades. Democrat Hillarious Clinton’s campaign had assumed Wisconsin voters would support her and did not bother bringing her there ― a point that both Trump and his aides frequently make.

Yet Trump’s combined victory margin in those three states was just 77,744 votes. In Wisconsin, it was 22,748 votes, or 0.8 percent, and post-election analyses showed it largely resulted from a dramatic drop-off of support for Clinton compared to former President Barack Obama’s showing in 2012. Trump actually won fewer votes in Wisconsin than Obama’s opponent in the election, Republican Mitt Romney.

As Trump has ramped up his reelection campaign, his strategy, both in his message as well as his path to 270 electoral votes, has been to replicate his victory of three years ago. While his aides talk about picking up some states that voted for Clinton in 2016 ― such as Minnesota, New Hampshire and, improbably, New Mexico ― Trump’s deep and growing unpopularity among college-educated voters, particularly college-educated women, has made an exact repeat of 2016 his most likely path to a second term.

And even that strategy is revealing cracks. In each of the key Midwestern states, Democrats made strong gains in the 2018 midterms, and Trump’s approval rating is well below 50 percent in all three. In Pennsylvania and Michigan, in addition to winning both governor’s races and U.S. Senate races by blowout margins, Democrats flipped five U.S. House seats across the two states.

The strength of those Democratic victories, combined with automotive industry job losses in Michigan, raises the possibility that Trump could lose both of those states in 2020 ― thereby raising the stakes even further for Wisconsin.

If Trump loses Pennsylvania and Michigan but carries all the other states he won in 2016, Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes would still give him exactly the 270 he needs for a second presidential term.

“The path to the White House runs through America’s Dairyland, and we aren’t taking that for granted,” said Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, a political group that supports Democratic candidates. “Wisconsin is one of the most likely states to decide this election and Priorities is fully committed to defeating Trump in the state,” Cecil said.

For Trump and his White House, the state has been a top priority from almost the day he took office.

Courting, then Twitter-fighting Harley 

Barely two weeks after his inauguration, Trump donned his overcoat and walked along the South Lawn driveway inspecting a line of parked motorcycles. They were Harley-Davidsons, a brand Trump associates with the bikers who support him in addition to being a major manufacturer in Wisconsin.

In a Roosevelt Room photo opportunity a little later, Trump told company executives and union officials that his “America First” policies would help companies like Harley create new jobs for U.S. workers. “Thank you, Harley-Davidson, for building things in America,” he said. “And I think you’re going to even expand.”

A year-and-a-half later, the exact opposite had happened.

When Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum in early 2018, the European Union responded by jacking up tariffs on imported U.S. motorcycles. Harley-Davidson’s European market evaporated. To bring it back, the company decided to make its bikes for Europe in Thailand, thereby avoiding the EU tariffs. Management also shuttered the company’s plant in Kansas City and passed out pink slips to its 800 workers there.

Trump reacted with fury, tweeting angrily at company executives just 18 months after welcoming them to the White House. “Many @harleydavidson owners plan to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas,” Trump wrote on Aug. 12, 2018. “Great! Most other companies are coming in our direction, including Harley competitors. A really bad move!”

Harley-Davidson officials declined to comment on the trade issue for this story. During a July 23 earnings call, though, the company acknowledged that retaliatory tariffs have already cost it $100 million.

“Our team has been working intensely to minimize the impact of tariffs on our business in a highly uncertain environment,” CEO Matt Levatich told analysts and reporters, by way of explanation of why both revenues and the stock price were down.

One United Steelworkers official said Trump’s attacks on Levatich brought a moment of schadenfreude at their office, given how deferential the company executives had been toward Trump originally.

“We all kind of laughed about it: ‘There’s your buddy Trump,’” the official said on condition of anonymity, allowing that many of the bargaining unit members remain fans of the president. “The man hasn’t accomplished anything. Unfortunately, some of our members bought into it and voted for him.” 

Willie Nelson performs at the 2018 Farm Aid concert in Connecticut. Nelson helped organize the first Farm Aid concert in 1985, and Wisconsin -- a pivotal political state -- hosted the annual event on Saturday, with Nelson again among the performers. (Photo: Ebet Roberts via Getty Images)

James Hardiman, a Harley-Davidson analyst for Wedbush Securities, said the upshot for Trump is despite claiming his policies would keep manufacturing jobs in this country, they are instead sending them overseas. “From where I sit, there are a lot of unintended consequences hurting the American worker,” Hardiman said. “Whether or not Donald Trump gets this, nobody knows.”

At the Harley-Davidson powertrain plant in Menomonee Falls on the outskirts of Milwaukee, the number of permanent workers has dropped from about 900 three years ago to 500, while the company is using more “casual” workers without long-term job protection.

“Everyone’s afraid for their jobs,” said one such “casual” machinist, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid angering both management as well as Trump-supporting co-workers. “We kind of have to have a hand-signal and a wink to talk about Trump here. That’s how fervent the pro-Trump people are.”

He compared the president to a “drunken spouse” who lashes out randomly and for whom everyone in the household finds coping tactics. “The whole world is developing tactics to cope with Trump,” he said.

He added that if Trump’s tenure so far offers any clues, the president will claim a tremendous victory, regardless of the tariff war’s status next autumn or how much damage it has caused.

“In the end, I don’t think that he’s going to be successful,” the machinist said. 

“We’re just bargaining chips”

Will Hughes squinted into the sun as he showed off the 400 acres of food-grade, organic soybeans that help his family’s farm of 160 years just outside of Janesville soften the blow from Trump’s tariff war.

Soften, but not eliminate. While his farm’s organic corn, soy, green beans and other crops are sold almost entirely domestically, their prices still rise and fall with those of their conventional counterparts traded the world over. China’s shutting off its market to much of U.S. agriculture has cost Hughes’ 5,000-acre farm about $500,000 so far on their soybean and corn harvests.

“We’re just bargaining chips at this point,” he said.

His father, Randy Hughes, said he understands Trump’s efforts to end China’s unfair trade practices such as intellectual property theft, and he agrees with that goal, even if it means a short-term hit to his business. “Is it worth it? Well, I’m not one of those guys who’s been snuffed out yet,” he conceded. “I wonder if I would think it’s worth it if I was one of those guys.”

Cindy Brown’s Chippewa Valley Bean Company, meanwhile, should have been largely immune from Trump’s trade war with China. While her family business in the western part of Wisconsin does some farming, its more profitable activity is processing kidney beans for export to Europe. But when Trump hit the EU and other countries with tariffs on steel and aluminum, the tariffs that the EU responded with on U.S. goods included, along with motorcycles, kidney beans.

“We’re on pins and needles right now,” she said, explaining that she had to absorb much of the increased costs herself as some of her European buyers could not pass them along to their customers, many of whom had fixed-price contracts with supermarket chains.

“I don’t understand why if we’re using trade policy to set the world straight, why it has to be the farms that are taking the worst of it,” she said

She added that her family moved to Menomonie, not far from the Minnesota border, in 1858, and that the farm and processing company had gone through a number of ups and downs ― most of them caused by the vagaries of mother nature, not government policy. “This is the worst thing that the government has ever done to us,” she said.

Losing jobs already

A slew of statistics backs up Brown’s exasperation. Wisconsin led the nation in farm bankruptcies last year. Farm Aid’s hotline is fielding a record number of pleas. “We get calls every day from farmers thinking about suicide,” said Farm Aid’s Harvie. “We’re kind of in unprecedented territory.”

Trump’s frequent assertions that his taxpayer-financed bailouts of the nation’s farmers are making them whole, meanwhile, is largely falling on unbelieving ears.

Soybean grower Jasper said that the crop’s value has lost $3 per bushel because of Trump’s trade war, but farmers like him and his son are only getting about $1 per bushel in government payments. “I’m no genius, but if you lose three and you get back one, that’s a net loss of two,” he said, adding that for his son, the net loss last year was $60,000.

“No, it’s not sustainable,” he said with a shrug. “At some point you just give up.”

On the manufacturing side, Wisconsin will wind up losing 37,000 jobs because of Trump’s trade war, according to the pro-trade group Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, while the state’s businesses and residents have already paid $598 million in higher costs for goods and services because of U.S. tariffs.

And on Friday, a U.S. Labor Department release suggested those job losses are already underway. Wisconsin had 5,200 fewer manufacturing jobs in August than it did a year ago. That figure was exceeded only by Pennsylvania, which shed 7,700 manufacturing jobs.

In Lake Geneva, just a few miles south of where Willie Nelson and others took the stage Saturday afternoon, Paul Shekoski’s Primex for decades has been manufacturing health-care monitoring equipment and weather stations in China for the consumer market in the United States.

With the tariffs, suddenly a weather station priced at $150 carries a tariff of $23. The problem for Shekoski: While many Americans interested in home weather stations will pay $150, they are unwilling to pay $173. “We are seeing our demand dropping,” he said.

Unable to pass the U.S. tariff along to retailers, Shekoski said he has been eating much of that cost. “We will lose twice as much on tariffs annually than we make in any given year,” he said. “We’re not investing in our future. We’re fixing our supply chains.”

If Trump and his campaign are not paying attention to what’s happening in Wisconsin, they are making a big mistake, he said. “Maybe people with small businesses will give him a pass and want to give him another term,” Shekoski said. “But the farmers are getting hugely affected. We’ll see how long they stick with him.”

Jasper suspects the answer to that: not much longer.

“So many of them are seeing that Trump didn’t help them. He made it worse,” Jasper said. “A lot of people in rural America voted for him, and I understand why they did. They voted for change. Well, be careful what you wish for.”

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-trade-wisconsin-211629157.html

 

 

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Another hate Trump article from the Huffington Post, aka Liberal Rag.  BA, thanks for posting this but it’s just not the end all story in Wisconsin that The Huffington Post wants you to believe.  Dig a little deeper and you will see many in Wisconsin are 100% behind President Trump and his Tarriffs against China.  They understand that to do nothing is Economically unsustainable and real Economic Suicide.  I have about A dozen or so family members scattered throughout the upper Midwest States of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. While many in the past supported democrats and the Liberal position in the past they experienced first hand the erosion of jobs moving to China over the past 30 years and most voted for Trump in 2016.  I’ve called them and asked them what they think now after the trade wars.  Of the 8 that I talked to 6 are in favor of the tariffs and support the President, 2 are totally disgusted with the Trade Wars.  

 

The point is you can send a liberal hack anywhere in America to find unhappy people with Trumps policies.  Just because a Biased Huffington Post Liberal covers a concert doesn’t necessarily paint the entire story of what’s going on in the minds of the people of the Midwest. One signature on a piece of paper and the Trade War is over and it will probably benefit all those at that concert.  We will see how the majority of the people of Wisconsin think next November.  8 out of the 10 family members I talked to still support President Trump and said they will probably vote for him again. Selling Socialism will not be an easy argument to defend for the Democrats.  

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You guys crack me up.. This article is filled with quotes from actual farmers who are suffering. But I guess being Trump supporters you don't care about people and their hardships. I loved the quote about electing a failed real estate agent... That was spot on. His understanding of how things work is comical.

 

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35 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

You guys crack me up.. This article is filled with quotes from actual farmers who are suffering. But I guess being Trump supporters you don't care about people and their hardships. I loved the quote about electing a failed real estate agent  tycoon. That was spot on. His understanding of how things work is comical.

 

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I fixed it for you. You don't want to be inaccurate do you. :D

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59 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

But I guess being Trump supporters you don't care about people and their hardships. I loved the quote about electing a failed real estate agent... That was spot on. His understanding of how things work is comical.

 

We care a lot more than the Dems who put the US in the most lopsided trade deals in US History.  Doing nothing will be sure enough Economic Suicide.  Hey a little hardship for a better deal is better than the alternative which would have been the total collapse of the US.  BTW BA, one of those family members I talked to lives in Illinois and owns a farm that produces corn and livestock grains.  He is hurting some but he said he saw the trade wars coming and managed to find alternate buyers and saved money for years knowing this could happen someday in the future.  He backs the President 100%

 

China just purchased the largest amount of Soy Beans since June ahead of their meeting with President Trump next week.  You need to branch off and not only read Liberal rags like the Huffington Post that have a hatred for Trump.  Get the entire story is all I ask.  You and all your Buddies are so hateful you are blind to the truth.  Good things are happening and would happen faster if you and people like you would work to make America better.  

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/ahead-of-trade-talks-china-makes-biggest-us-soybean-purchases-since-june-traders-say.html

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3 hours ago, Pitcher said:

 

We care a lot more than the Dems who put the US in the most lopsided trade deals in US History.  Doing nothing will be sure enough Economic Suicide.  Hey a little hardship for a better deal is better than the alternative which would have been the total collapse of the US.  BTW BA, one of those family members I talked to lives in Illinois and owns a farm that produces corn and livestock grains.  He is hurting some but he said he saw the trade wars coming and managed to find alternate buyers and saved money for years knowing this could happen someday in the future.  He backs the President 100%

 

China just purchased the largest amount of Soy Beans since June ahead of their meeting with President Trump next week.  You need to branch off and not only read Liberal rags like the Huffington Post that have a hatred for Trump.  Get the entire story is all I ask.  You and all your Buddies are so hateful you are blind to the truth.  Good things are happening and would happen faster if you and people like you would work to make America better.  

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/ahead-of-trade-talks-china-makes-biggest-us-soybean-purchases-since-june-traders-say.html

 

You know if Trump didn't slash revenues and increase spending and adding 1 TRILLION to our unpayable debt in 9months I might agree, but by his actions, it is clear he doesn't care about American period.

 

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