THE BIDEN INVASION - Health inspections for foreign nationals entering our country illegally have gone out the window. That's enabled the importation of many diseases which affect livestock and other agricultural output, and already these things are happening. Legal immigrants and even returning U.S. citizens must pass these inspections to protect the U.S. food supply. But under Joe Biden's catch-and-release, illegals are exempt from such cumbersome requirements. MONICA SHOWALTER
Friday, January 31, 2020
CHINA'S CURRENCY MANIPULATION KILLED 3.7 MILLION U.S. JOBS EVEN AS THEY FLOOD AMERICA WITH "CHEAP" LABOR ILLEGALS
All in all, it was an incredible victory for the Chinese government.
Feinstein has done more for the CCP than other any serving U.S. politician.
An employee works on a cylinder production line at a factory in Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang Province on Jan. 17, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON—Millions of American workers lost good-paying jobs, mainly in manufacturing, after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, a new report states.
The trade deficit with China has ballooned since then, costing an estimated 3.7 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2018, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.
The United States lost nearly 90,000 manufacturing plants during the same period, as a result of U.S. companies moving their operations to low-cost countries, primarily China.
“We’ve lost a generation of skilled workers who used to be employed in those plants,” Robert Scott, senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing research at the Economic Policy Institute, told reporters on a conference call on Jan. 30.
“It’s been devastating for mainstream America and for communities across the country.”
Trade-distorting practices, currency manipulation and misalignment, and suppression of wages and labor rights resulted in a flood of subsidized imports to the United States from China, according to the EPI report.
U.S. manufacturing jobs were badly hit, especially between the years 2001 to 2008, largely due to China’s currency manipulation, Scott, a co-author of the report, said.
“They invested roughly $4 trillion, buying out U.S. Treasury bills and mortgage securities to drive up the value of the dollar and drive down the value of their currency,” he said.
By keeping its currency undervalued, China has made its exports cheap, thus gaining a competitive advantage in international trade.
Other key structural issues that affected U.S. jobs included China’s state subsidies. Through massive subsidies, China has managed to build excess capacity in key industries including steel and aluminum, auto parts, solar cells, and windmills, and drive American firms out of business, Scott said.
Despite the strong U.S. labor market under President Donald Trump, the EPI study also showed that the job losses to China continued during the first two years of his administration. Nearly 700,000 jobs were lost in 2017 and 2018 because of the continued growth of the trade deficit with China, the report said.
“This problem didn’t happen overnight. And it won’t be fixed overnight, either,” Scott Paul, president of Alliance for American Manufacturing, told reporters on the call.
“President Trump was right to take on China’s trade. But the phase one trade deal isn’t good enough. Manufacturing plants around the country continue to close.”
Manufacturing jobs accounted for more than 75 percent of jobs lost overall. And the workers in advanced technology products manufacturing have suffered the most, according to the report.
The largest job displacement occurred in computers, semiconductors, and other electronics parts industry, which lost more than 1.3 million jobs, accounting for 36 percent of jobs displaced.
In addition, apparel and leather products, electrical equipment, appliances, and components, and fabricated metal products were among the other hard-hit sectors.
In 2018, the United States had a surplus in trade with the rest of the world in high technology products, Scott said, which suggests that “the deficit is entirely explained by unfair trade with China.”
All 50 states and every congressional district in the United States have suffered job losses to China, with California, Texas, New York, and Illinois being hardest-hit in terms of the net number of occupations displaced.
The study also found that the rising trade deficit with China caused wage losses for workers, mainly among those who don’t have a college degree.
“The U.S.–China trade relationship needs to undergo a fundamental change,” the report states.
“Addressing unfair trade, weak labor, and environmental standards in China, and ending currency manipulation and misalignment, should be our top trade and economic priorities with China.”
Bloomberg: 2019 a Good Year for Wealthy; Jeff Bezos Remains on Top Despite $9 Billion Loss in Divorce
For the already wealthy and those who struck gold for the first time, 2019 was a good year for the rich.
Bloomberg News’ billionaire index is reporting on the money made this past year, including Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos remaining on the top of the heap despite a divorce settlement with his ex-wife that led to a $9 billion decrease in his portfolio:
The leveraging of a giant social-media presence, a catchy tune about a family of sharks and a burgeoning collection of junkyards are just a few of the curious ways that helped make 2019 a fertile year for fortunes to blossom around the world.
Kylie Jenner became the youngest self-made billionaire this year after her company, Kylie Cosmetics, signed an exclusive partnership with Ulta Beauty Inc. She then sold a 51% stake for $600 million.
It has been almost two months since the Washington Nationals captured their first World Series championship, but people around the world are still singing along to the baseball team’s adopted rallying cry: “Baby Shark, doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo.” The Korean family that helped popularize the viral earworm are now worth about $125 million.
The new wealthy includes Willis Johnson of Oklahoma who has amassed a $1.9 billion fortune from building a network of junkyards that sell damaged automobiles, according to Bloomberg News.
Bloomberg reported that the 500 wealthiest people around the world added $1.2 trillion to their wealth, “boosting their collective net worth 25 percent to $5.9 trillion.”
“Leading the 2019 gains was France’s Bernard Arnault, who added $36.5 billion as he rose on the Bloomberg index to become the world’s third-richest person and one of three centibillionaires — those with a net worth of at least $100 billion,” Bloomberg reported.
Ironically, Bezos was one of 52 people who had a decline in their fortune, in his case because of a divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos who is now on the billionaires list ranking No. 25 with a net worth of $27.5 billion.
Bloomberg reported on the winners:
The 172 American billionaires on the Bloomberg ranking added $500 billion, with Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg up $27.3 billion and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates up $22.7 billion.
Representation from China continued to grow, with the nation’s contingent rising to 54, second only to the U.S. He Xiangjian, founder of China’s biggest air-conditioner exporter, was the standout performer as his wealth surged 79 percent to $23.3 billion.
Russia’s richest added $51 billion, a collective increase of 21 percent, as emerging-market assets from currencies to stocks and bonds rebounded in 2019 after posting big losses a year earlier.
And “losers”:
Rupert Murdoch’s personal fortune dropped by about $10 billion after proceeds from Walt Disney Co.’s purchase of Fox assets were distributed to his six children, making them billionaires in their own right.
Interactive Brokers Group Inc.’s Thomas Peterffy saw his wealth slump by $2.1 billion as investors weighed a reshaped competitive landscape for brokerage businesses after rival Charles Schwab Corp. eliminated commissions and agreed to buy TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.
WeWork’s Adam Neumann saw his fortune implode — at least on paper — as the struggling office-sharing company’s valuation dropped to $8 billion in October from an estimated $47 billion at the start of the year. Still, SoftBank Group Corp.’s rescue package left Neumann’s status as a billionaire intact.
And the new billionaires:
White Claw, the “hard seltzer” that was the hit of the summer among U.S. millennials, helped boost Anthony von Mandl’s net worth to $3.6 billion.
Mastering the art of fast-food deliveries proved rewarding for Jitse Groen, whose soaring Takeaway.com NV lifted his wealth to $1.5 billion.
The popularity of soy milk gave eight members of Hong Kong’s Lo family a combined $1.5 billion.
Coronavirus: Amazon, Microsoft Employ Thousands of China-Born Employees
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The huge and growing population of China-born professionals in the United States is prompting many major U.S. companies to ask their employees not to travel to China.
“We are restricting business travel to and from China until further notice and encouraging our employees to follow the health and safety guidelines provided by international health agencies,” an Amazon employee told Business Insider.
“Amazon is also telling employees who have recently traveled to areas in China affected by the virus to work from home for two weeks and, if they experience symptoms, to seek medical attention before coming back into the office,” Business Insider reported.
“Facebook suspended non-essential travel to mainland China and told employees who had traveled there to work from home,” the New York Timesreported.
Many Chinese migrants work in elite technology companies, not in the myriad lower-tier software sweatshops around the United States. Many others work in banks and financial-sector companies, so several U.S. financial-services companies are curbing employee travel to China.
Understandably, companies do not want to talk about their employees — and especially their number of Chinese-born employees. But the workforce numbers can be estimated from government data — and those numbers suggest Amazon and Microsoft each employ more than 6,000 Chinese graduates with relatives in China.
The website, MyVisaJobs.com, uses federal data to track job opportunities for foreign graduates in the United States.
The data shows that employers nationwide nominated 11,153 Chinese-born migrants for green cards in 2019, 12,612 in 2018, 8,603 in 2017, and 7,217 in 15. Overall, or 59,870 Chinese has been nominated for green cards since 2010 by U.S. employers. Nearly all of those requests are approved by the government, after a short delay.
The MyVisaJobs data shows that Amazon and its variousaffiliates have nominated 2,736 Chinese employees for green cards since 2013. Not all those nominated were approved — but the companies still employed those workers.
Amazon also hired many H-1B workers from China.
The MyVisaJobs site tracks Amazon’s requests to get to H-1B visas for almost 4,000 new foreign hires in the last three years — but it does not provide the nationalities. The federal government likey approved 1,500 of the 4,000 visa requests.
The company also sought to extend or modify H-1B visas for roughly 13,000 other H-1B workers during the last three years. The Department of Homeland Security would likely have approved nearly all of the requests, but it does not reveal their nationalities.
But one-third of Amazon’s green-cards nominations go to Chinese workers, so a cautious estimate would say that one-quarter of Amazon’s H-1B visa-workers are Chinese. If that estimate is correct, then Amazon employs roughly 5,000 Chinese-born H-1B visa workers.
To minimize possible double-counting with the green card nominees, that 5,000 number should be reduced to 4,000. If one-quarter of those Chinese green card immigrants have left the company, then 3,000 are still at Amazon.
The federal government also allows companies to hire foreign graduates who get work permits via the Occupational Practical Training program.
In 2019, the federal government reported 478,732 Chinese students in the United States.
In 2018, 25,843 Chinese graduates got work-permits via the ‘STEM’ side of the Optional Training Program, alongside 70,521 Indians and 17,000 graduates from other countries. That means Chinese provide a little more than a fifth, or 22 percent, of the overall STEM-OPT population — many of whom are invited by friendly managers into good jobs at prestigious companies.
In 2018, Amazon employed 2,911 STEM-OPT graduates, suggesting a Chinese population of roughly 600 graduates.
Amazon also hired 851 graduates with ordinary OPT work-permits and 691 foreign students with “Curricular Practical Training” work permits. The numbers may add another 300 Chinese employees to Amazon’s ranks because Chinese students comprise almost one-third of all foreign graduates and students.
So a back-of-the-envelope estimate suggests Amazon employs 2,500 Chinese-born people who have been nominated for green cards, 3,000 Chinese visa-workers with H-1Bs visas, and roughly 900 Chinese-born graduates with STEM-OPT, OPT, or CPT work-permits.
That population adds up to 6,400 Chinese-born employees — nearly all of whom have parents and relatives back in China.
Microsoft also has many Chinese-born employees in the United States.
Microsoft has nominated roughly 3,400 Chinese citizens for green cards since 2010. In 2018, it employed 690 STEM-OPT graduates, 243 OPT workers, and 580 CPT workers. The company asked for 394 new H-1B workers in 2019, 1,509 in 2018, and 1,515 in 2017. It sought another 10,400 H-1B visa extensions and modifications since 2017.
Once adjusted by the same low ball fractions as in the Amazon calculation, the federal data suggests Microsoft employs at least 6,000 Chinese-born employees.
“Based on the evaluation of risk communicated by global health authorities we have advised employees in China to work from home and cancel all non-essential business travel,” a Microsoft employee told Forbes.
“We place tremendous value and focus on the well-being and safety of our employees,” Amazon told Business Insider. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are … encouraging our employees to follow the health and safety guidelines provided by international health agencies such as the CDC and WHO.”
New data on 'OPT' foreign workers shows how Indian & Chinese graduates get Americans' jobs in both prestigious & sweatshop software companies. @SenMikeLee's #S386 would turbocharge this job transfer by offering citizenship to many more OPT-using Indians.http://bit.ly/2uL85BW
Apple’s Supplier in China Says Coronavirus Won’t Hurt iPhone Production
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Apple supplier Foxconn has stated that it has a plan in place to continue to meet all manufacturing obligations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China and that iPhone production should not be affected.
Reuters reports that Apple’s Taiwan-based supplier Foxconn has stated that it plans to meet all manufacturing obligations in China as the country deals with the contagious coronavirus. Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said in a statement on Tuesday:
We do not comment on our specific production practices, but we can confirm that we have measures in place to ensure that we can continue to meet all global manufacturing obligations.
Foxconn is closely monitoring the current public health challenge linked to the coronavirus and we are applying all recommended health and hygiene practices to all aspects of our operations in the affected markets. Our facilities in China are following holiday schedules and will continue to do so until all businesses have resumed standard operating hours,
Apple has closed one of its Chinese-based stores and restricted store hours in response to the coronavirus according to CEO Tim Cook. The Apple CEO added that the company was “restricting travel to business-critical travel,” for employees. Cook said in an interview with CNBC that this quarter’s earnings could be affected by the virus, stating:”There’s more uncertainty, it’s a very fluid situation.”
Media reports and stock market analysts have demonstrated concern about Foxconn’s ability to keep production up despite the coronavirus. Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said that Apple could be in trouble if employees across Foxconn and other component manufacturing hubs in China are physically restricted. “If the China outbreak becomes more spread it could negatively impact the supply chain which would be a major investor worry,” he said
Foxconn is based in Taiwan but employs one million workers in communist China across a dozen factories making it the country’s largest private employer.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolanor email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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