THE DOCTRINE OF THE N.A.F.T.A. GLOBALIST DEMOCRATS IS TO SERVE THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS WITH ENDLESS WAVES OF INVADING 'CHEAP' LABOR SUBSIDIZED WITH WELFARE FUNDED BY TAXES ON MIDDLE AMERICA.
In many speeches, Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elites’ opinion about “the values of our country,” Mayorkas claims.
The Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against
President Trump, demanding the 300,000 businesses it represents be allowed to
import foreign workers while more than 26 million Americans remain jobless.
On Tuesday, Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue announced the
group’s lawsuit against Trump’s expanded executive order,
signed last month, which halts the H-1B, H-4, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 visa programs
to reduce foreign competition against millions of unemployed Americans.
Donohue said in a statement:
Our lawsuit seeks to overturn
these sweeping and unlawful immigration restrictions that are an unequivocal
‘not welcome’ sign to the engineers, executives, IT experts, doctors, nurses,
and other critical workers who help drive the American economy. Left in place,
these restrictions will push investment abroad, inhibit economic growth, and
reduce job creation.
The lawsuit claims Trump does
not have the authority as president to “alter the hiring practices of American
employers as it relates to hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next few
months” to give employment priority to unemployed Americans.
Businesses represented by the
Chamber of Commerce, the lawsuit alleges, are “unable to fill necessary
positions” – even amid mass, record unemployment levels spurred by the Chinese
coronavirus crisis:
As a result of the Proclamation, American
businesses … are unable to fill necessary positions. There
is a shortage of high-skilled American workers in certain
fields, and the Proclamation bars American companies from turning to the
international labor market to fill these positions. As a result, many of those
openings will go unfilled entirely. [Emphasis added]
In one specific instance, the
lawsuit claims an Indian national in India is now unable to secure an L-1 visa
to be transferred by his employer to the U.S. The lawsuit states:
He was slated to transfer to
the U.S. on an L-1 visa to manage a $1.2 billion business portfolio that works
with more than 4,000 businesses across the United States. Due to COVID-19, he
was unable to get a visa appointment at the U.S. consulate before the consular posts
closed, and now he is subject to the Proclamation. The time zone difference
between India and the U.S.-based headquarters has made it difficult for him to
manage his new team.
Despite the repeated claims of a labor shortage in the lawsuit,
more than 26 million
Americans are unemployed and another nearly ten million are
underemployed. All of those jobless or underemployed Americans, though, want
full-time employment.
The Chamber of Commerce had lobbied Trump
not to reduce foreign competition against unemployed Americans, suggesting that
even in the midst of mass joblessness, big business should be allowed to import
foreign workers instead of hiring locally.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants
on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4
million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs. Often,
Americans are fired and
replaced by foreign visa workers. In many cases, fired Americans are forced to
train their foreign replacements before they can receive their severance
packages.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California. The case number is 3:20-cv-04887.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Business,
Progressives Ally to Sneak Illegals into Licensed Jobs
Millions of illegal migrants and illegal workers should
be allowed to take licensed jobs, such as electrician, welder, lab technician,
therapist, or nurse, according to legislation pushed by progressives,
universities, and business groups.
Their campaign advanced on June 29 when the New Jersey Senate
passed a bill saying illegals can get trade licenses. “Lawful
presence in the United States shall not be required to obtain a professional or
occupational license, provided that the applicant meets all other requirements
for licensure,” according to the bill, which is numbered S2455.
Some Republicans backed the
Democrat-sponsored bill, but it has not been approved by the House.
The bill “would blur the
distinctions between people who are in the country legally and those who are
here illegally,” said John Miano, an immigration lawyer with the
Immigration Reform Law Institute.
For example, illegals could get
licenses for construction skills, get their work certified by state and local
inspectors, and then get paid in cash under the table by contractors, so
freezing out skilled American workers, Miano said.
Each year, roughly 500,000 foreign graduates work permits via
the federal Curricular Practical Training and Optional Practical Training (OPT)
programs. Many of these migrants work in low-wage software jobs, so forcing
down salaries for American professionals in New Jersey and many other states. But many more migrants
would also be willing to work as licensed electricians or plumbers before
returning home with a fortune in home-country currency, Miano said.
The list of allowable OPT jobs includes “Electrical, Electronic
and Communications Engineering Technology/Technician,” and “Heating,
Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
Technology/Technician.”
The bill “opens the door to
many scams,” Miano added.
For example, many foreign workers would be eager to work part of
each year in New Jersey construction sites and be paid under the table, he
said. If the bill passes, “I can bring in a [foreign] person on B-1 [legal visitor] who has a plumbing license in New
Jersey, and then get six months’ work out of him because his signed permits
would be just as valuable as anyone else’s.”
The New Jersey bill is boosted
by a roster of progressives, including Make the Road New Jersey, the
ACLU-NJ, New Jersey Policy Perspective, Wind of the Spirit, and academics from
St Peter’s University and Rutgers Law.
“New Jersey stands to benefit when more people are able to work
in health care, education, and other key frontline professions where there are
labor shortages,” said a statement from illegal immigrant and DACA recipient Erika Martinez, of Make the Road
New Jersey.
🚨 BREAKING: The Assembly Judiciary Committee
passes A2445 with a 4-2 vote!
Our fight is headed to the
Assembly floor for a final vote.
— Make the Road New Jersey (@MaketheRoadNJ) July 20, 2020
“As New Jersey faces an
unprecedented public health crisis, and a dearth of health care and other
essential professionals to meet the need, it is all the more critical that
S2455 move forward without delay,” said the statement which also included
support from New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction
Agencies, and Rutgers University – Newark.
“This is an important step toward ending discrimination based on
immigration status,” said Vineeta Kapahi,
a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective.
The push to allow migrants to get licenses jobs is supported by
FWD.us, which is an advocacy group for West Coast investors,
including Bill Gates and Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft.
“Allowing immigrants to earn appropriate licensure could also
help address worsening labor shortages challenging critical fields
like teaching and nursing, fields in which a third of DACA recipients want to
work,” FWD.us claimed in December 2019.
“Congress should enact legislation that affirmatively prohibits
the denial of federal and state professional, commercial, and business licenses
based on immigration status,” said a September 2019 report by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education
and Immigration. The 2019 report was also endorsed by FWD.us and by a
progressive advocacy group for DACA immigrants, dubbed United We Dream.
Congress can expand access to thousands of
jobs by revising outdated licensing laws for work-authorized immigrants like
DACA and TPS recipients. Learn more. https://t.co/gv0PHmU3nV
Business groups have been
quietly pushing this licenses-for-illegals campaign for several years,
according to the Presidents’ Alliance report:
In recent years, Congress
engaged in a variety of bipartisan efforts to expand access to licenses to
non-qualified immigrants. During the Senate Judiciary markup of S.744, the
Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2013, the
committee, by voice vote and without controversy, adopted an amendment that
would prohibit the federal government and states from denying licenses based on
immigration status to any individual who held an EAD. The KIDS Act of 2014,
then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s legislation, to provide relief to
immigrant youth, contained similar provisions. Most recently, H.R.6, the Dream
and Promise Act of 2019 contained language re-affirming that conditional
permanent residents (CPRs) would be eligible for licenses.
The business groups are making quiet progress amid little
pushback from groups that believe they champion the pocketbook interests of
ordinary Americans. The alliance report said:
At least twelve
states—Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska,
Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming—enacted legislation to
reduce barriers for immigrants, including DACA recipients, to obtain licenses.
Other states undertook administrative or regulatory action. California expanded
licenses to all undocumented immigrants; Florida and Illinois expanded access
to law licenses for DACA recipients, while Wyoming rescinded that U.S.
citizenship be a requirement for bar admission; Nebraska expanded access to all
occupational licenses for DACA recipients; Indiana expanded occupational
licensing in over 70 professions for DACA recipients; and New York, through the
Board of Regents, expanded professional licenses and teacher certifications to
DACA recipients.
Follow the money & the tweets through
the 'dreamer' and DACA debates, and they lead to the @FWDus advocacy
group, which was set up by West Coast investors to protect and expand their
supply of cheap labor. https://t.co/DwL2ny8Sdd
Indian nationals migrating through Costa Rica toward the U.S. southern border in December 2018. Photo by Todd Bensman
Presidents and Congress can pull levers and push buttons all they want on legal immigration, opening and closing spigots on visas like the H-1B and H-2B used to import cheaper workers from abroad.
But the dirty little secret is that any nationality or visa category a president might choose to restrict always has a viable end-run option readily at their disposal: illegal entry through the U.S. southwest border, where visa-denied migrants simply defraud America's asylum system and get in permanently anyway.
A few of us at CIS have reported how migrants dodge official rules to achieve the American Dream anyway, with a border crossing and asylum claim, with little permanent reform resulting. But maybe the policy- and law-maker set on both sides of the aisle will listen to NPR reporter Lauren Frayer. She published a report July 9 that is rather remarkable in that it lays bare for a broad listening (and reading) audience exactly how thousands of Indian migrants, all largely coming for jobs and lifestyle, game the asylum system by posing as persecuted torture victims at the border.
It helps first to understand that Indians make up one of the largest "extra-continental" nationality groups apprehended at the southern border every year, especially in recent years, which is why Frayer reported the story. In 2018, Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 8,997 Indians. Last year, 7,675 were caught. In total, the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 32,000 Indian nationals at the southern border between 2009 and 2019, CBP apprehension data shows.
CIS readers should take stock of Frayer's report on their own. But key takeaways follow:
Most of the migrants hail from one of India's wealthiest states, Punjab, and can afford thesteep smuggling fees necessary to improve their lifestyles even more in America. Few, if any, are likely fleeing violence, persecution, or even true economic hardship.
The migrants come through Mexico because they don't have the education or credentials to qualify for U.S. visas and know they can easily get U.S. asylum once they reach the southern border. How?
A "burgeoning crop of unregulated travel agents — human smugglers" charge the migrants tens of thousands of dollars per person, route them through as many as a dozen countries to the U.S. border, and "often supply the migrants with fake backstories to help them try to win asylum." (Emphasis added.)
Most of the migrants face no "credible fear" threat of persecution, which is the first hurdle for U.S. asylum officers to permit then to proceed with claims.
One Sikh migrant, Sevak Singh, described how he decided to lie to U.S. asylum officers that he had been persecuted based on his religion even though he had suffered no such thing. Singh told NPR he has not been persecuted in India and was merely poor and dreamed of "improving my family's finances". He recalled how, along the migration trail, "fellow Sikhs would rehearse fake backstories about Sikh separatism and persecution. The stories were untrue but were rooted in decades-old strife," NPR reported.
Frayer interviewed four other deported migrants in India who "called themselves economic migrants — not asylum-seekers".
After years of prior administrations ignoring known fraud by Indians, the Trump administration in April 2019 ordered new India-specific training for asylum officers responsible for "credible fear" decisions. In the six months prior to that training, credible fear was found in 89 percent of Indian nationals evaluated by asylum officers. After the new training, the rate dropped to 17 percent through February 2020. (Very few asylum claims are being permitted at the southern border right now because of Covid-related public health rules, but that's a temporary situation.)
The Trump administration is now starting to deport significant numbers of Indians rejected for asylum claims and Mexico is doing so as well, for the first time in memory. As a predictable result, Indians are trying for asylum in Europe and Canada instead of the United States.
This latest development seems like a good-news story on the asylum-fraud front. Most Americans wouldn't want to see the asylum system abused on an industrial scale like this.
But nothing in immigration law or policy is permanent, and a presidential election looms. Hopefully, the Democratic nominee, who plans to systematically reverse all Trump immigration policies, listens to NPR.
Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin is expected to ask the Senate on Tuesday afternoon to fast-track four bills that would dramatically increase immigration levels.
Three of the Durbin bills offer giveaways to the many foreign white-collar workers who have been used to replace American professionals in Fortune 500 jobs. One bill is the Democrats’ main 202o amnesty bill, the “American Dream and Promise Act of 2019.”
Under the fast-track Unanimous Consent rules, all four bills will pass the Senate unless GOP Senators formally object.
“This is more of what we expect from the left — putting American workers and professionals last, not first,” said a Senate Republican staffer. He continued:
American voters soundly reject the left’s immigration policies. Americans are having a hard time finding jobs, and people like Durban are saying we should bring in more workers and more foreign professionals to take the te obs that are available.
The votes, scheduled for after 3:00 PM on July 21, show the critical importance of the GOP’s Senate majority, which is now threatened by close races in numerous states.
To keep the Senate, the staffer said, “what we really need to hear is a clear second-term agenda from President Trump.”
So far, the White House has been silent about its second-term agenda for immigration, labor, jobs, and wages.
Durbin will try to pass the House’s “Dream and Promise Act” which would provide an amnesty to at least 2 million younger illegals, including the 800,000 who got work permits from President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA policy.
Durbin’s four bills also include two spin-offs of Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee’s S.386 bill.
Lee’s bill would have put roughly 600,000 Indians migrants and their families on a fast-track to citizenship — and would have enormously increased the incentive for Indian graduates to get U.S. work permits via the U.S. university system.
A matching bill was rushed through the House after a silent lobbying campaign by business groups. But the Senate blocked the bill when American professionals organized themselves into pro-American lobby groups.
Please call the following Senate Republicans to block Sen. Durbin's UC attempts this afternoon on major Green Card immigration bills:
Durbin’s two spin-off bills would provide more green-cards to the roughly 300,000 Indian visa-workers — and their 300,000 family members — who have been hired as “bonded workers” for Fortune 500 companies. These low-status visa-workers were hired because they have few workplace rights and now they are working long hours for low wages while they remain stuck in the green-card waiting list.
But once they get green-cards and legal rights, U.S. CEOs will discard the former visa-workers and hire another 300,000 foreign visa-workers to take their place, further weakening the earnings and workplace clout of U.S professionals, said the GOP staffer.
That destructive process is acceptable to Durbin, said the GOP staffer. “What Durbin really wants to do is empty the waitlist so he can fill it back up with new workers,” the staffer added.
The fourth bill by Durbin would provide special legal protections for children brought into the United States by visa workers. For example, the bill would largely block deportations when the children become adults, even if they commit crimes.
This bill is a surrender to pressure by Indian visa-workers, who have accused Durbin of being an anti-Indian racist and have protested outside his house, said the GOP aide.
Shame on racist @SenatorDurbin who rationalizes national origin discrimination while blocking #S386 – The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrats Act.
On a day where most people are celebrating the country's Independence, many immigrants here in Springfield are simply asking for citizenship.https://t.co/03JbtZ5wsh
Durbin “is tired of them being extraordinarily nasty to him,” he claimed, adding, “they’re doing the same thing we criticize the left’s protests for doing. This personal targeting has gone way too far.”
The Indian pressure groups celebrated their partial success:
🚨 🚨 🚨 #S386#HR1044#BreakingNews 🚨 🚨 🚨 @SenatorDurbin’s Unanimous Consent request for the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act is happening today.
Today we find out if he behaves reasonably or not.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is hiring foreign workers to take over computer jobs in the nation’s electrical grid.
“Sending crucial IT jobs to overseas firms and outside TVA … would be a dumb idea any day of the week,” Matt Biggs, a director of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, wrote in a KnoxNews.com op-ed.
“To do it now, when we are under threat of attack and millions of Americans are desperate for work, is worse than dumb. It’s irresponsible,” Biggs said.
Kevin Lynn, the founder of U.S. Tech Workers, said the White House should stop the outsourcing of computer jobs in the nation’s electrical network:
They have a nuclear power plant down there. You saw what happened with [the] Twitter [hack]. This is our infrastructure. This keeps the lights on, the heat, the air conditioning, and we’re going to put it in the hands of foreigners? Just like we did with [by relying on China for] PPE and pharamceuticals? Unbelievable.
The TVA’s networks of power stations, power lines, and dams are part of the nation’s 16 “critical infrastructure” sectors. The sectors’ ability to survive attacks are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Some of the other sectors include healthcare, transportation, and finance.
President Donald Trump “is missing an opportunity to strengthen his ‘Hire American’ credentials,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Trump issued an Executive Order on June 22 curbing the H-1B outsourcing program.
He should use his position to “shine a light on [the TVA outsourcing] and say ‘This is bad news, why is this happening? My staff has contacted the board of directors to ask why is this going on?'” Krikorian said.
The top management at the TVA is in the process of switching 200 jobs to H-1B workers to be recruited by three foreign companies: Paris-based Capgemini, Canada-based CGI, and Accenture, a former U.S. company that relocated to Ireland. Officials say the workers will not be hired for cybersecurity tasks or for operating the grid’s software controls.
The new workers are not expected to save any money, but they will help bring in commercial software, said Jim Hopson, the TVA’s public information officer. “There is not a significant cost difference once way or the other,” he told Breitbart News.
Trump called our ad FAKE. We're thrilled. But there's nothing "Fake" about Trump's $8 million employee replacing American TVA workers with foreign workers. What happened to putting American workers 1st? RT this. Save jobs for U.S. https://t.co/KSoRqKhvmDpic.twitter.com/yg37LsjBTK
A great deal of misinformation is being circulated that makes this difficult situation even harder. The three companies selected to perform much of this work all have U.S.-based headquarters and workforces. Like their contracts with other federal agencies, their TVA contracts require all work to be performed in the U.S.
However, requiring “U.S.-based headquarters and workforces” does not necessarily require American workers. The term could include some of the 600,000 H-1Bs already imported to take white-collar jobs or some of the 500,000 foreign graduates who get jobs via the universities’ “Practical Training” work-permit programs.
The TVA statement downplayed the security issue. “Any individual working on sensitive software must pass the same security background checks required of any TVA employee.”
“We have federal contractual [security] standards,” said Hopson. “They are the same standards the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice … and other federal agencies use to provide these types of services using the same types of contracts,” he said.
“There is no practical way to ensure that all foreign workers are who they claim to be,” said Lynn, a former counter-intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. “It is so hard to get information on people abroad … It depends on the [top-level political] relationships with that country — and it depends on that country’s [education and healthcare] infrastructure,” he said.
In contrast, U.S. security officials can readily confirm the claimed identities of Americans, by checking school transcripts, former workplaces, and birth records, Lynn added.
“We have not seen any challenges from those individuals with those kinds of contracts,” responded Hopson. “We feel those contractual obligations will be suitable and will provide the same kind of security assurances as these other agencies have.”
However, Trump’s June 22 Executive Order spotlighted the security problem created by the vast labor force of foreign visa workers in the United States.
Trump’s Executive Order told the Secretary of Homeland Security to:
Take appropriate action, consistent with applicable law, in coordination with the Secretary of State, to provide that an alien should not be eligible to apply for a visa or for admission or entry into the United States or other benefit until such alien has been registered with biographical and biometric information, including but not limited to photographs, signatures, and fingerprints.
In 2019, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted the rising cybersecurity threat to critical infrastructure:
The electric grid is becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks via (1) industrial control systems, (2) consumer Internet of Things (IoT), devices connected to the grid’s distribution network, and (3) the global positioning system (GPS).
The trustworthiness of employees is critical, the GAO report noted:
Officials and representatives of key federal and nonfederal entities that we interviewed stated that while the threat posed by insiders varies, they could cause damaging effects. For example, Sandia National Laboratories officials explained that insiders could include knowledgeable employees with privileged access to critical systems or contractors with limited system knowledge. Further, representatives from another non-federal entity explained that insider threats are a concern because of the economically valuable information they could steal.
…
Industrial control systems, which were once largely isolated from the internet and business IT systems, are increasingly connected in modern energy systems, allowing cyberattacks to originate in business IT systems and migrate to industrial control systems.
The GAO report asserted that industry executives are not hiring the needed number of cybersecurity experts:
The [cybersecurity] representative added that there are a large number of vacancies for cybersecurity positions and that they are difficult to fill due to the limited amount of available talent and organizational resource constraints, such as providing salaries that are competitive with other sectors. A laboratory official commented that larger grid entities are able to attract the majority of skilled cybersecurity professionals, leaving smaller entities with less skilled personnel.
Security problems are already choking the needed sharing of information about threats, even among Americans who are eligible for security clearances, the report says:
For example, a laboratory official told us that many grid owners and operators do not have security clearances. Consequently, the official explained, deeming information on certain cybersecurity threats to the grid to be “classified” leaves many utilities without the awareness to address those threats to the grid. The official added that when details are removed from classified threat intelligence in order to develop an unclassified alert, that alert often lacks the specific information utilities need to address the threat.
“When something happens, if there is an issue somewhere … then everybody will say, ‘Oh My God, we’re shocked! We had no idea,'” said Krikorian.
The "leadership" at the Tennessee Valley Authority is destroying lives, and hurting our communities by outsourcing essential public infrastructure jobs to foreign multinational corporations!! #DISGUSTING! Keep these jobs at home!! https://t.co/dabxsGyxo7pic.twitter.com/FtE9AuRILC
The June 22 Executive Order also directed border agencies to deny the entry of H-1B workers until December 31, at least.
But the legal authority in the document cannot stop companies from transferring H-1B workers from one contract to another in the United States — or from renting H-1B workers from other companies.
The June 22 Executive Order comes four years after Trump promised to end the use of H-1Bs as cheap labor:
As the world continues to grapple with the deadly consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said only one thing is certain in its wake: “a new model of global governance” is coming and the globalist body is doing all it can to hurry its arrival.
The Portugese socialist made his prediction Saturday as he delivered the Nelson Mandela Lecture and spoke of the need for the U.N. to address “the huge gaps in governance structures and ethical frameworks” the epidemic has exposed. He said:
To close those gaps, and to make the New Social Contract possible, we need a New Global Deal to ensure that power, wealth and opportunities are shared more broadly and fairly at the international level.
A new model for global governance must be based on full, inclusive and equal participation in global institutions.
[…]
A New Global Deal, based on a fair globalization, on the rights and dignity of every human being, on living in balance with nature, on taking account of the rights of future generations, and on success measured in human rather than economic terms, is the best way to change this.
The worldwide consultation process around the 75th anniversary of the United Nations has made clear that people want a global governance system that delivers for them.
Guterres then outlined his plan for the future of the world, citing his “New Global Deal,” to be based on “a fair globalization, on the rights and dignity of every human being, on living in balance with nature, on taking account of the rights of future generations, and on success measured in human rather than economic terms, is the best way to change this.”
The 71-year-old professional bureaucrat claimed a “worldwide consultation process around the 75th anniversary of the United Nations has made clear that people want a global governance system that delivers for them.”
He also maintained the time has come for the “developing world” to have a far stronger voice in global decision-making. This reformation of international governance will be linked to financial relief and the forgiveness of debt for struggling countries. He said:
Reform of the debt architecture and access to affordable credit must create fiscal space for countries to move investment in the same direction.
This is not the first time Guterres, a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, has spoken fondly of his desire to see the world recast along socialist principles.
As Breitbart News reported, earlier this month he demanded “more robust global governance,” adding the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), regional authorities such as the African Union and the European Union (E.U.) to a list of organizations he says can bring “order” to a future world disrupted by the coronanvirus pandemic.
In an essay titled ‘Global Wake-up Call’, the unelected head of the globalist body said “from COVID-19 to climate disruption, from racial injustice to rising inequalities, we are a world in turmoil.”
His solution to that disorder is more big government, and more bureaucratic institutions in more places, delivered via the U.N. and its multiple agencies all funded by the contributions of taxpayers around the world.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter:or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
Growing signs of deep and prolonged global recession
21 July 2020
The chief executive of PNB Paribas Asset Management, one of Europe’s largest investment firms, has said the global economy is facing the “mother of all recessions” as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world.
Janbon said a V-shaped recovery was unlikely and predicted a long recession before any upturn in economic activity, adding that the escalation of the stock markets since the middle of March did not reflect underlying global economic conditions.
“The huge rally we have seen over the course of the few months from the low point in March is probably a bit fast and probably does not take into account the risk of a second wave,” he said, pointing to the rise in virus infections worldwide.
The reference to a “second wave” is something of a misnomer. In the US, Latin America and many other parts of the world the first wave is still growing. Moreover, even if the virus is brought under control, its impact on the economy will be long lasting. Millions of jobs have been destroyed and will not be coming back.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the weekend that many large US companies have determined the measures they took in March and April are not going to be sufficient. The increase in COVID-19 cases and related shutdowns have dashed hopes for a quick recovery.
Consequently, businesses from airline companies to restaurant chains are shifting their strategies “turning furloughs into permanent lay-offs, de-emphasizing their core businesses and downsizing production indefinitely.”
Amid sweeping job cuts in the airline industry,—American Airlines has said 25,000 jobs are at risk and United is looking to axe 36,000 staff—Delta said it had shelved plans to add more flights over the summer and did not expect business flying to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The article cited remarks by Pret A Manger chief executive Pano Christou on the announcement by the sandwich chain that it had suffered an 87 percent drop in US sales and was planning to close 20 stores. “We cannot defy gravity and continue with the business model we had before the pandemic,” he said.
Summing up the overall situation, the article noted: “Executives who were bracing for a months-long disruption are now thinking in terms of years. Their job has changed from riding out to reinventing. Roles once thought core are now an extravagance. Strategies set in the spring are obsolete.”
That is, processes already underway, in the US and around the world, before the pandemic struck, are now being accelerated by it. Whole industries are undertaking a major restructuring in which millions of jobs will be destroyed. Those who remain will be forced to accept lower wages and conditions under the threat of unemployment as governments start to withdraw the limited support packages put in place in March.
The effects of the crisis range across the entire economy. Bloomberg reported yesterday that global real estate investment fell by 33 percent in the first half of the year. So far the Asia-Pacific region has been hardest hit with investment down by 45 percent from a year earlier.
With international tourism at a virtual standstill, hotel investment plunged by 59 percent in the first half of the year. Investment in retail properties dropped by 41 percent.
The decline in trade is delivering devastating blows to export-dependent economies, most sharply expressed in the massive contraction in the economy of Singapore, which sits at the centre of the trading lanes of the Southeast Asian region.
According to data released by the island state’s Ministry of Trade and Industry last week, gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter declined by 41.2 percent from the previous three months.
Japan, the world’s third largest economy, after the US and China, is predicted to announce a 20 percent contraction in GDP on an annualised basis in the second quarter compared to the previous three months.
The International Monetary Fund has said it expects global gross domestic product to contract by 4.9 percent this year with the total loss of output for 2020 and 2021 to reach $12.5 trillion.
China recorded a 3.2 percent increase in GDP for the second quarter, following a 6.8 percent contraction in the first. The rise was largely a result of decisions by the central government to increase the amount local authorities can borrow for infrastructure projects that led to an increase in steel production. However, retail sales fell by 3.9 percent.
Liu Aihua, a spokeswoman for the National Statistics Bureau, said the figures showed a “gradual recovery,” but pointed to “mounting external risks and challenges” due to the continued spread of the coronavirus.
Despite signs of some revival, the Chinese economy is not going to be able to play the same role it did after the 2008 financial crisis when a massive stimulus package, the result of government spending and increased debt, provided a boost for raw material exporting economies around the world.
In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) has forecast a contraction of close to 13 percent in the second quarter with a rebound in the third. But following a meeting of its governing council last week, ECB president Christine Lagarde warned that the loss of income and jobs, as well as “exceptionally elevated uncertainty,” would weigh on consumer sentiment and business investment.
Leaving the ECB’s monetary policy on hold, while announcing it would continue with its asset purchasing program of €1.35 trillion until June next year, Lagarde urged leaders of the European Union to waste no time in reaching agreement on a €750 recovery fund for countries hit by the pandemic.
EU leaders then held their second longest meeting in history. Starting on Friday and reaching into the early hours of Tuesday morning, it was marked at times by bitter exchanges before reports emerged they were “closing in” on a deal.
The main conflict was with the so-called “frugal four”—the Netherlands Austria, Denmark and Sweden—that demanded a significant reduction in the allocation of grants to economically weakened countries from the €500 billion proposed in the initial French-German plan.
The intensity of the disputes led Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to comment at one point that failure to strike a deal could lead to the “destruction of Europe’s single market.” The rift may have been covered over for now but divisions are certain to re-emerge under conditions of deepening recession.
Poll: Pandemic Hurting Americans’ Finances in Disparate Ways
BURTON, Mich. (AP) — Crystal and Chris Martin put off some payments on their home in this blue-collar town near Flint and are pinching pennies to make ends meet until they return to work. In Windsor, Connecticut, Anne Druce’s family canceled home improvement projects out of an abundance of caution but remains financially secure.
As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, a new poll finds it is having different effects on Americans’ economic well-being. For some, the virus has meant lost income or struggles to pay bills on time — particularly among Hispanic, Black and younger Americans. Others, most notably college-educated and older Americans, have transitioned to working from home or have experienced the nation’s economic decline through a dip in the value of their investments.
“It’s just all been kind of frustrating,” said Crystal Martin, who lost her job managing a roller skating rink in March and waited 10 weeks for her first unemployment check. Her husband, an X-ray technician at a Flint hospital, was laid off for about month, then took parental leave after Crystal had a baby in July, to reduce the chances of bringing home the virus.
“We had to go into our savings, and we were crunching numbers to see how long it would last,” said Martin, adding that the couple, who have six children in their blended family, still aren’t sure if their mortgage company will add the deferred house payments to the end of their loan or demand the money all at once later this year.
Overall, roughly a quarter of Americans say they have lost savings and about as many have lost income, according to the latest COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. About 2 in 10 report losing a job and roughly another 2 in 10 say they have put themselves at risk of exposure to the virus for work.
Meanwhile, the survey also finds about a third of Americans say their investments were negatively impacted during the pandemic. About a quarter say they have had to change their work routine, including having to work from home.
That includes Druce, who said she and her husband, James, are fortunate to have well-paying jobs — she’s a process engineering consultant for an insurance company and he works for a mutual fund company — that allow working from home.
While feeling financially stable, they’re saving as much money as possible — aside from spending to take a beach vacation in August with their two young boys — because “anything can change,” Druce said.
“I know it sounds insanely privileged,” said Druce, “but I 1,000% feel fortunate.”
The poll finds that disparities of economic experience during the pandemic by race and ethnicity, age and education are stark.
— More college-educated Americans have lost investments, 45%, compared with 28% of those without a college degree. By contrast, Americans without a degree were more likely to have delayed paying bills — 26%, compared with 10% of college graduates.
— Hispanic and Black Americans were more likely than white Americans to have lost income (42% and 32% vs. 21%) and to have delayed paying bills (38% and 35% vs. 14%).
— Thirty-one percent of Hispanics say they have put themselves at risk of exposure for work, compared with 19% of white Americans.
— Younger Americans were more likely to have lost a job, put themselves at risk of exposure or delayed paying bills, while more older Americans lost investments.
Beyond the dollars-and-cents impacts of the pandemic, the survey found the economic effects taking a toll on Americans’ mental health, with stress rising among those who report a loss of income, a loss of savings and trouble paying bills.
Tom W. Smith, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Society at NORC and the study’s lead investigator, said people are also feeling more lonely than might be expected given the recent easing of restrictions and the reopening of businesses. That could be because people still are severely restricting normal activities, perhaps because of finances or because they’re “not willing to take the chance yet” on potentially exposing themselves to the virus.
Adding to the uncertainty and anxiety: Some initiatives meant to help people get through the crisis — including extra unemployment compensation and moratoriums on evictions and utility shut-offs — are set to expire soon, said Joy Peterman, development director at the Salvation Army in Flint.
Her organization has seen a 25% increase in requests for assistance during the pandemic, mostly from people who were forced to seek help for the first time and many of whom were still working.
“They just didn’t have enough money to continue to pay their bills (because of) shorter hours and less pay,” said Peterman, who believes needs will increase in coming months. “You still have rent, you still have utilities, you still have a car payment, insurance and the phone bill. And you still have to feed your children.”
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The survey of 2,012 adults was conducted June 22-July 6 with funding from the National Science Foundation. It uses a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
