When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come. PETER LEMISKA - AND WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
THE REAL ECONOMY - ECONOMIC GROWTH SLOWED TO 1.9% - CONGRESS MOVES FOR AMNESTY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED AND WALL STREET PROFITS HIGH
Economic Growth Slowed to 1.9% in the Third Quarter
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The U.S. economy slowed in the third quarter but growth continued thanks to strong consumer spending offsetting the drag of flagging business investment, uneven trade policy, and low levels of demand for U.S. exports from sluggish economies around the globe.
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a 1.9 annual rate in the third quarter, adjusted for seasonality and inflation, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is down only slightly from 2 percent pace in the second quarter and a 3.1 percent pace in the first quarter.
Economists had expected growth to slow by even more, to an annualized rate of 1.6 percent.
Inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose 2.9 percent, above the forecast for 2.6 percent. That’s all the more remarkable because the second quarter recorded 4.6 percent growth in consumer spending. Such back-to-back strength is unusual. Durable goods spending grew at a 7.6 percent rate on the back of last quarter’s 13 percent growth rate.
Residential investment rose at a 5.1 percent annual rate, making housing a significant contributor to economic growth in the quarter. Spending on vehicles was strong as was recreational spending, which along with housing is a sign of robust consumer confidence.
Business investment was weak. Nonresidential fixed investment, inventories, and equipment were all drags on growth for the quarter.
Inflation was muted, with the GDP price personal consumption price expenditure index rising at a 1.7 percent rate, below the 2.4 percent rate in the second quarter. So-called “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was up 2.2 percent.
Fed Cuts Its Interest Rate Target for Third Time This Year
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The Federal Reserve cut its interest rate target by a quarter-percentage point for the third time this year.
Eight of 10 Fed officials voted in favor of lowering the federal-funds target rate to a range between 1.50% and 1.75%, with two reserve bank presidents preferring to hold rates steady.
The Fed removed language in its policy statement saying it would “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion” in the near future. The new formulation suggests that the Fed is not planning further rate cuts this year.
The statement described the labor market as strong and economic activity as risking at a “moderate” pace.
“Although household spending has been rising at a strong pace, business fixed investment and exports remain weak,” the Fed said.
A year ago, the Fed was planning to raise rates several times this year, a policy it described as “normalizing” interest rates. This plan was heavily criticized by President Donald Trump, who saw it as hurting his efforts to rev up economic growth. When the Fed seemed to persist in its policy despite some signs the economy was losing steam in the last quarter of 2018, financial markets staged big sell-offs of risk assets.
The market reaction was strong enough to convince the central bank to relent. In January, the Fed signaled that it had abandoned its policy of gradual rate hikes and it cut its target for the first time in a decade in July, describing the cut as a “mid-cycle adjustment” rather than a new direction for rates overall. The Fed cut again in September.
Wednesday’s rate cut was widely expected. But investors will pay close attention to the words of Fed chair Jerome Powell at a press conference set to be held after the Fed meeting for hints of the Fed’s next move.
Many Fed officials believe that once the October cut is in place, the Fed will have done enough to innoculate the economy against a sharp downturn. And while there are some on the Fed who think it should continue to cut, they appear to be out-numbered by those who would rather take a wait and see approach. On Wednesday morning, the Commerce Department released that the economy had grown at a 1.9 percent annual pace in the third quarter, better than the consensus forecast.
House Pushes Amnesty, Subsidy for Lower-Tech, Cheap Labor Farms
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House leaders will introduce a farmworker amnesty plan on Wednesday that will provide citizenship to at least one million illegal migrants and to a future flood of visa workers who agree to work on U.S. farms for eight years.
The “Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019” amnesty would create two huge streams of low-wage labor for farm companies and likely for meatpackers and other agricultural employers.
One stream would be from the population of one million existing farmworker illegal aliens who will be amnestied and redefined as “Certified Agricultural Workers” so they can get green cards and citizenship after several years — regardless of the “public charge” rule which bars welfare-reliant migrants from citizenship.
The second stream would come from illegal aliens who sign up to be legal H-2A visa farmworkers and from a treasure box of 40,000 green cards per year for employers to pay their lower-wage H-2A workers.
The bill also changes the existing H-2A farmworker visa program by setting a 3.25 percent cap on annual wage growth and by allowing some H-2A workers to work year-round for dairies or non-agriculture companies.
The “modernization act” will preserve the pre-modern, lower-tech, lower-productivity sectors in the agricultural economy by allowing dairy, fruit, and berry companies to avoid investment in labor-saving, productivity-boosting machinery.
Mass immigration ensures mass discrimination against American employees, both blue-collar and white-collar, says panel. But D.C. people don't care because they want mass migration. http://bit.ly/343Z03o
The amnesty legislation will likely be welcomed by progressives even though it will cut the marketplace wages for Americans and for H-2A farmworkers and will also reduce the economic incentives for investing in new labor-saving machinery or techniques, such as vertical farms.
But the amnesty side of the bill would help Democrats by creating a new immigration path for at least 150,000 workers and their families each year. The new inflow will add to the current inflow of 1.1 million legal immigrants who help suppress wages and raise real-estate prices, and it will help turn more GOP-held districts in Democratic blue.
The lead GOP legislator backing the bill is Washington state Rep. Dan Newhouse, who owns fruit orchards in Washington state. The bill is likely to be backed by a small number of GOP legislators from dairy districts. The farmers in their districts want cheap migrant labor because milk prices are low, robotic cow-milkers are expensive, and the cost of migrant labor is rising in President Donald Trump’s “Hire American” economy.
The bill mandates the use of the “E-Verify” program to exclude illegal aliens from the agriculture sector. That mandate gives legislators a talking point to be used against voters who oppose the amnesty. But Section 303 of the bill effectively kills the existing E-Verify program before the promised rollout of a to-be-designed replacement program.
The bill does not include any compensation for Americans who will face lower wages — and receive less workplace investment in machines — once the agriculture industry can import a replacement army of lower-wage labor.
The bill does not include subsidies for the robots or other labor-saving technology that could reduce the incentives for farm companies to hire many illegal aliens or H-2A visa workers.
The farmworker bill mimics Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee’s “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants” legislation. Lee’s bill has already been passed by the House as H.R.1044, and it offers a green card subsidy to an industry that uses cheap imported labor to bypass American graduates. Lee’s S.385 legislation, however, has been stopped in the Senate by Sen. Dick Durbin, who wants a bigger increase in immigration.
Many American farms still rely on stoop labor, long after the industrial revolution of the 1800s.
Next time you enjoy radishes in your salad, remember the farmworkers like these Oxnard workers, who harvest the food that we eat. #WeFeedYou#Calor#Ovetime4FarmWorkers
The U.S. farmers’ reliance on cheap labor has reduced their incentive for the use of machines, while farm companies in many other countries are increasing their competitive advantage by investing in machines:
So far, the White House has shown little interest in the amnesty bill, partly because it does not want to trade away unpopular concessions before a major workforce deal in 2021. The McClatchy news service reported October 28:
Last week, Theo Wold, a special assistant to President Donald Trump for domestic policy, came to Capitol Hill to meet with members and senior aides involved in negotiations.
Wold is an ally of Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and son-in-law to Trump who has tried to be a bipartisan dealmaker on immigration overhaul legislation in the past.
Congressional sources familiar with the meeting said they saw Wold’s participation as a positive sign there could be some openness to support for the bill within the White House — or at least no active effort to try and thwart it.
A senior administration official confirmed Wold’s attendance but said the White House is unlikely to back the legislation.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is opposing the bill. “The name of this mass amnesty bill name should be changed to the Mandatory Farm Labor Act of 2019,” FAIR said.
If the Farm Workforce Modernization Act was true to its name, it would focus on automation (mechanization loan guarantees, perhaps?) This would be an important step in eliminating industry dependence on cheap foreign labor. #aglaborflyin19
Farmers, ranchers and growers urge congressional members to support the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which provides meaningful #aglabor reforms that will help the U.S. agriculture industry. #aglaborflyin19
Planning on enjoying a nice glass of wine after work? Let's raise our glasses to the #farmworkers who work hard to harvest the wine grapes. Josep shared this video with us from Sonoma, where he and his coworkers are harvesting wine grapes. #WeFeedYou
American engineers are being hired to pick strawberries with robot machines b/c Trump is constricting the supply of (hard-working) foreign migrants who pick strawberries by hand. IOW, win-win for Americans. http://bit.ly/2lzlAzH
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