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.
Border Chaos Has Added Millions of Foreigners to Labor Force
Immigration is not going to bail America out of our inflation mess.
The United States is experiencing an enormous surge of migrants. The Department of Labor says that the labor force has increased by 4.6 million foreign born workers during the Biden administration, including an additional 1.3 million so far this year.
That is likely an undercount because it is hard for the Labor Department’s household surveys to count new arrivals, especially when the numbers are rising so quickly.
We know that more than three million migrants who crossed the southern border are still in the U.S. An additional million or so who arrived at ports of entry without visas were allowed to remain in the U.S. because of the Biden administration’s expanded use of parole. Another 3.7 million have arrived with the proper paperwork allowing them to work.
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The Democrat Border Crisis
This is a political crisis for President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Most Americans disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president. A quarter of those who disapprove just don’t like the guy, citing personal style or characteristics as the reason for their disapproval, according to Gallup News. Eighteen percent broadly disapprove of his performance.
Around 47 percent of those giving Biden a thumbs down cite his handling of specific issues, according to Gallup. The top three issues will not surprise you. They are immigration (19 percent), the economy (9 percent), and inflation (5 percent).
The Economist/YouGov survey asks registered voters to name the issue they find most important. Twenty-one percent say inflation, making it the top issue for the largest slice of voters. In second place is immigration, with 16 percent.
A group of migrants seeking asylum wear t-shirts reading “Biden, please let us in,” while waiting at the international border crossing in San Ysidro, Mexico, on March 2, 2021. (Stringer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
When the Economist/YouGov poll asks voters to evaluate Biden’s handling of immigration, 61 percent say they disapprove. Included in that figure is 45 percent who say they strongly disapprove of Biden on immigration.
That arguably makes immigration his worst issue, followed by inflation at 59 percent disapproval. But that is only arguably because inflation gets a larger share of voters saying they strongly disapprove, at 47 percent.
The Fantasy of Immigration Lowering Inflation
Faced with the prospect of losing the White House due to unpopular inflation and border policies, Democrats and their allies in the establishment media have recently started proclaiming that everyone has it all backwards. Immigration chaos is not another Biden policy crisis; it’s the solution to the inflation crisis.
They argue that immigration will bring down inflation because it increases the supply of labor. The additional supply of labor supposedly pushes down wages, which supposedly pushes down inflation. Bing, bang, boom.
If you are startled to hear that progressives are claiming that immigration pushes down wages, that’s completely understandable. For as long as anyone can remember, the American left (and a nontrivial portion of the corporate-allied American right) has argued that immigrants do not depress the wages of natives. Now that inflation is a problem for Democratic politicians, however, immigrants have somehow discovered how to drag down wages.
In any case, this argument flunks the most basic economic smell test because it depends on a form of single-entry bookkeeping. Immigrants do increase the supply of labor to domestic employers, but they also increase the demand for goods and services offered in the economy. Immigrants can fill jobs, but they need housing, food, schools for their kids, medical care, and transportation just like everyone else.
Migrants heading in a caravan to the United States walk on their way to Mexico City to request asylum and refugee status on October 29, 2021. (ISAAC GUZMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Unless we have reason to believe that the immigrants are especially productive at work and ascetic in their spending, they are almost certainly consuming as much as they produce, which would make them a wash in terms of the balance of supply and demand. In the near term, however, they are almost certainly consuming more than they produce because they need to be fed and housed immediately but finding jobs that fit their skills will take time. This is one reason the influx of migrants has been such a drain on local government budgets: the demand of the new workers needs to be subsidized, at least in the short term, because their production is inadequate.
What’s more, the current immigration surge is unlikely to be supplying labor where it is most needed. It would be nothing short of miraculous if the chaotic situation along our border were to result in the admission of workers with the skills needed to fill the jobs U.S. employers have open. Most likely, many of the migrants are actually just displacing existing workers at the lowest rungs of the economy—and therefore suppressing wage growth of already low-income Americans—while leaving a very tight labor market at higher levels.
But inflation is not being particularly driven by increased demand from the poorest Americans. So, weighing down the wages of low-income households will not do much to reduce inflation.
A recent analysis from the Brookings Institution looked at the relationship between immigration and inflation and found that it does not reduce pressure on wages or inflation.
“Because in our assessment the increase in immigration resulted in both greater production and greater consumer demand, it likely produced little additional pressure on aggregate prices or wages,” the Brookings study found.
The Relationship of Wages and Inflation Are Complex
In any case, the precise nature of the relationship between wages and inflation is still hotly debated in economics. It’s far from clear that simply holding down wage growth will hold down inflation. Certainly, the surge in inflation in 2021 and 2022 does not seem to have depended on wage changes—nor has the disinflation that lasted from mid-2022 through the middle of last year.
Even if we grant that wages could drive inflation, the mechanism matters for the purposes of evaluating the impact of immigration. While some economists think of wages as a cost of business that can get passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, the more credible model says that rising wages do not push up inflation but may pull it higher by giving workers more buying power. But in that case, immigration will not reduce inflation because it does not take away from worker income in the aggregate; it just spreads it around.
It’s hard to blame the Democrats for trying. It would be very convenient if they could solve the inflation problem by allowing the immigration crisis to continue. And if they could convince Americans that immigration lowered inflation, maybe they could make some progress in flipping those disapproval ratings. If the Fed would agree with them, maybe interest rates could come down as immigration rates go up.
That’s not going to happen. Migration chaos is a problem. It doesn’t lower inflation, and it certainly will not convince the Fed to lower rates.
Those low wages for illegals are subsidized by my stolen wealth and your stolen wealth (food stamps, government health insurance, housing vouchers, public school, etc.), both through taxation and debt and devaluation. Better late than never… I guess?
Princeton economist with a Nobel under his belt eats crow and does a U-turn on mass migration
Just yesterday, Breitbart News reported on Angus Deaton’s epiphany regarding the mass invasion of illegal foreigners into the American interior; he finally realized that importing millions of freeloaders to our welfare state isn’t such a good thing for the working class taxpayers, or the economy. Deaton is a Princeton economist and a Nobel recipient, so cut him some slack, he’s a little slower than the rest of us—remember, “the road to Hell is paved with Ivy League degrees” and apparently, Nobel Prizes too.
Here’s what Deaton had to say, in an editorial titled “Rethinking My Economics” and published by the International Monetary Fund:
The [economics] profession knows and understands many things. Yet today we are in some disarray. We did not collectively predict the financial crisis and, worse still, we may have contributed to it through an overenthusiastic belief in the efficacy of markets, especially financial markets whose structure and implications we understood less well than we thought.
…
Like many others, I have recently found myself changing my mind, a discomfiting process for someone who has been a practicing economist for more than half a century.
After making a case for how “economists” really have no clue what they’re talking about—that much was obvious when Deaton included “Karl Marx” in a list of economists, and considering that a majority of them assert debt is nothing more than a number—Deaton arrived at several new (to him) realizations. Most importantly, Deaton did a U-turn on his previous support for the mass importation of third-world foreigners into the U.S. homeland:
I had … seriously underthought my ethical judgments about trade-offs between domestic and foreign workers. We certainly have a duty to aid those in distress, but we have additional obligations to our fellow citizens that we do not have to others.
I used to subscribe to the near consensus among economists that immigration to the US was a good thing, with great benefits to the migrants and little or no cost to domestic low-skilled workers. I no longer think so [emphasis added].
Maybe the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ought to dole out another Nobel for his newfound and remarkable command of the obvious.
Deaton “seriously underthought” the ethical implications of a government stealing money from one person at the barrel of a gun, to hand it over to someone else who didn’t earn it? No kidding. How is this possible for such an “educated” guy? Those low wages for illegals are subsidized by my stolen wealth and your stolen wealth (food stamps, government health insurance, housing vouchers, public school, etc.), both through taxation and debt and devaluation. Better late than never… I guess?
Since Deaton is apparently behind the curve, a brief (and basic) economics lesson:
Importing tens of millions of third-world people with no skills and no money into a first world nation with an enshrined welfare state, does not benefit the people of that nation, as the latter are forced to foot the bill.
President Joe Biden’s attempt to convince America that Bidenomics is a blessing is not working —especially among younger Americans.
The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence fell in February following three months of gains. The Rasmussen Reports Economic Index declined sharply enough in March to reverse four months of gains. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index slipped lower after climbing for two months.
The Economist/YouGov survey of registered voters found that 51.3 percent say the economy is getting worse, up from 47.5 at the start of the year. Around 23 percent say the economy is staying about the same, and 23 percent say it is getting better, each down a little from the polling released on January 1.
Many pundits have tried to brush off these negative impressions of the economy as merely a function of partisan politics. No doubt, political allegiance certainly plays a role. People are more likely to describe the economy as improving when their party is running the government. But independents are more likely than the average voter to say that the economy is getting worse, at 53.5 percent; so, party allegiance does not explain everything.
Bidenomics Not Getting the Job Done for Younger Americans
The most recent survey by Economist/YouGov shows a very big upswing in registered voters under 30 taking the view that the economy is getting worse. In the poll released on March 4, 37.8 percent of younger voters said the economy was getting worse, and just 23 percent said it was getting better. That’s a big swing from just a few weeks ago, when the same poll found that 39.4 percent said the economy was getting better and 26.8 percent said it was getting worse.
The movement among young voters is so stark that you want to wonder if it is real. Time will have to tell. But the downward movement in other consumer confidence measures suggests that it may be more than noise.
The Economist/YouGov poll also asks voters whether they are better off financially than a year ago. Some analysts think this is a better question than those asking about the state of the economy because it is less likely to be affected by things such as the tone of media coverage. A respondent may not know what’s going on with the national economy, but they probably understand their own situation pretty well.
This also worsened recently. The March 4 poll shows that 42.9 percent say they are worse off financially than a year ago, up from 40.4 percent at the start of the year. That’s not a huge movement, but it does show that the Biden administration’s cheerleading is not improving morale.
The poll also shows a big jump in unhappiness among younger voters. At the start of the year, 34.2 percent of under 30s said they were better off, and 17.7 percent said they were worse off. In the most recent poll, 34.3 percent said they were worse off, and 23.7 said they were better off.
What’s going on with younger Americans? The employment situation appears to have deteriorated among young workers in February. While the overall unemployment rate increased from 3.7 percent to 3.9 percent, for workers between 20 and 24 years old it increased from 5.9 percent to 7.2 percent. That’s the highest unemployment rate for this cohort since December 2022.
The jump was driven by a big increase in unemployment among young women. For women between 20 and 24, unemployment rose from 4.9 percent to 6.4 percent. For young men, it rose from seven percent to 7.9 percent. While those levels are not high by historical standards, the increase is notable in an otherwise tight labor market.
The fact that the economy took a turn for the worse among younger Americans may spell political trouble for Biden. Democrat candidates for president need to do especially well among young voters to win. Biden’s job approval rate among under 30s has plunged from 59.6 percent at the start of the year to 51.6 percent in the most recent Economist/YouGov poll.
Perhaps the most unexpected political development of this year so far is that Biden’s age problem is about youth.
Bidenomics after 37 Months: Six Charts the Media Don’t Want You to See
Liberal media are declaring Bidenomics a success – but, after three years, hard numbers tell a much different story, regardless of whether the measure is how much Americans are paying, earning or saving.
Gas prices:
While gas prices held steady under Pres. Donald Trump (down four cents a gallon), they’ve surged 38% in the first 37 months of Pres. Joe Biden’s term. From January 2021 to February of 2024, the average price of a gallon of gas (all grades) has increased from $2.42 to $3.33, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Real Wages:
After accounting for inflation, real wages earned by Americans have declined under Biden. In the first quarter of 2021, median weekly real earnings averaged $373. But, by the fourth quarter of 2023, average real earnings had fallen to $371.
Under Trump, however, real wages rose from $352 on January 1, 2017, to $373 on January 1. 2021.
Real wages are calculated using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) median usual weekly earnings for full-time employees at least 16 years old and are represented in terms of quarterly 1982-84 Consumer Price Index (CPI) seasonally-adjusted dollars.
Mortgage Rates:
It’s also costing far more to finance a home purchase under the Biden Administration.
Mortgage rates today are more than twice the average rate home buyers paid when Trump left office, Freddie Mac data reveal. Under Biden’s predecessor, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell by a third, from 4.09% to 2.77%. But, by March 7, 2024, mortgage rates had more than doubled, to 6.9%.
Savings Rates:
With Americans having to spend more than their earnings increased, their average savings rate has declined under Biden.
From February 1, 2017 to February 1, 2021, the average personal savings rate increased 129%, from 5.6% to 12.8%. But, by January 1 of 2024, it had plunged to 3.8% - less than a third of its pre-Biden level – according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) calculations, incorporating BLS data.
Consumer Price Index:
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in the 48 months of the Trump Administration, from a CPI of 243.618 in January 2021 to one of 262.035 in December 2020.
In contrast, prices have already risen more than twice as much, 18.5%, in just 37 months under Biden. Three-fourths of the way through his term, the CPI has risen from 262.518 in January of 2021 to 311.054 last month (February 2024), putting it on pace to increase nearly three times as much as it did during Trump's full, four-year term. On a monthly basis, inflation averaged 1.9% under Trump, compared to 5.6% under Biden, thus far.
The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.
American people deserve to know what China was up to with Joe Biden, especially when Beijing had already shelled out millions of dollars to Biden family members — including millions in set-asides for “the big guy.” What else is on that infamous Hunter Biden laptop? The conflicted Biden Justice Department cannot be trusted to engage in any meaningful oversight on this issue. We need a special counsel now.
TOM FITTON - JUDICIAL WATCH
Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing to even have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) on Thursday launched a “government-wide” probe into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing attempt to “target, influence, and infiltrate every sector and community in the United States.”
Among several bombshells, Blood Money revealed how the Biden family bagged $5 million from the business partner of the “White Wolf,” the head of a gang involved in the drug trade. It also exposed how China is involved in the fentanyl crisis throughout North America. In addition, the book uncovered how the CCP uses TikTok as a “modern day Trojan Horse” to push propaganda into the United States.
Peter Schweizer, author of Blood Money (BNN)
“I’m thrilled that Chairman Comer is launching a major investigation on this,” Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and a Breitbart News senior contributor, exclusively told Breitbart News. “I look forward to helping the committee in their efforts.”
Comer’s probe will demand federal agencies provide information on how the United States is combatting the CCP’s warfare that influences several significant sectors:
Education
Agriculture
Critical infrastructure
Research
Energy
Business
Space
Technology sectors
“Without firing a single bullet, the Chinese Communist Party is waging war against the U.S. by targeting, influencing, and infiltrating every economic sector and community in America,” Comer said in a statement:
We know that this coordinated influence and infiltration campaign by the CCP threatens U.S. military readiness, the technology sector, financial markets, agriculture industry, education systems, and intellectual property. The lives and security of all Americans are affected.
“The Oversight Committee has a responsibility to ensure the federal government is taking every action necessary to protect Americans from the CCP’s ongoing political warfare,” Comer added. “Actions taken by the Committee today are just the beginning and I look forward to full cooperation from agencies as we work to thwart China’s efforts to influence and infiltrate the United States of America.”
Former President Donald Trump expressed interest in Blood Money’s revelations. On Truth Social, he posted a Breitbart News story on Schweizer’s report about how the Biden family bagged $5 million from the business partner of the “White Wolf,” as Breitbart News previously reported:
While Joe Biden was vice president, the Bidens developed a business partnership with a Chinese tycoon named Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC China Energy Co., which had strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Throughout Ye’s relationship with the Bidens, he “showered” some members of the Biden family with money, Schweizer reported. Hunter Biden received a three-carat diamond worth $80,000; and in July 2017, Ye’s company gave the Bidens a $5 million, interest-free, forgivable loan.
…
Hunter spoke to Ye on a “regular basis” and Ye helped Hunter “on a number of his personal issues” including unspecified “sensitive things,” Hunter explained in emails. Joe Biden also attended a meeting with Hunter, additional business partners, and Ye, Hunter’s business partner Rob Walker told U.S. House of Representative investigators in 2023. “I don’t remember the exact time, but I remember being in Washington, DC, and the former vice president stopped by. We were having lunch,” Walker testified.
But Ye also enjoyed a partnership with the former leader of a Chinese triad called the United Bamboo Gang (UBG), Schweizer detailed in Blood Money. Ye’s partner’s name was Zhang Anle or, as he is commonly known, the “White Wolf.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
