Kamala Harris 'laughs off' Americans struggling to afford gas
Poll: Majority Say Joe Biden’s Economic Policies Have Hurt Their Family
Fifty-seven percent of Americans affirm that President Joe Biden’s federal government economic policies have hurt their families, according to a Tuesday Monmouth poll.
The poll asked, “Thinking about this most important concern, have the actions of the federal government over the past six months helped, hurt, or had no real impact on this concern?”
Fifty-seven percent said Biden’s federal government has “hurt their family when it comes to their most important concern.” Only 8 percent said Biden’s government “has helped” them, while 34 percent said Biden’s policies have had no impact on their top concerns.
The poll found America’s top three concerns are inflation (30 percent), gas prices (15 percent), and the economy (9 percent). The top concerns outweighed abortion (5 percent) and guns (3 percent).
“In prior polls, between 34% and 47% said government actions have hurt them on their biggest family concern. The current poll marks the first time this sentiment is in the majority,” the poll analysis emphasized.
“The results also indicate little optimism about the future,” the report said about Biden’s America. “Just 23% expect that future government actions over the next few years will help improve their family’s top concern while 45% say Washington will hurt them. One year ago, that response was basically flipped (40% expected to be helped and 34% expected to be hurt).”
The poll also revealed only ten percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction. Eighty-eight percent say it is on the wrong track, marking the worse polling on the issue since 2013.
The poll sampled 978 Americans from June 23 to 27 with a plus or minus 3.1 percentage point margin of error. Respondents self-identified as 31 percent Democrat, 43 percent independent, and only 26 percent Republican.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Yield Curve Inverts: Bonds Flash Recession Warning
A key market signal of recessions was tripped on Tuesday.
The yield on two-year Treasury bonds climbed above the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds, a phenomenon known as an inverted yield curve.
The yield curve is regarded as a reliable predictor of recessions, having inverted before each of the last eight recessions as measured by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The yield curve inverted in 2007, foreshadowing the recession of 2008-09. It also inverted in 2019 and the economy fell into a brief pandemic-lockdown induced recession the following year.
The yield curve briefly inverted in March and April and again in June.
The difference between the yields on the two-year and the 10-year has been narrowing for a weeks as investors have reassessed their forecasts for interest rates next year. Earlier, the fed funds futures market reflected a view that the Fed’s rate target would continue to climb through next year, eventually hitting around four percent.
Now those expectations have been upended by signs that economic growth in the U.S. may be much weaker than expected. Bank of America’s analysts think there is a 40 percent chance of recession next year. Others wonder if the U.S. may already be in a recession after the economy shrank in the first three months of the year and appears to be on the verge of a second consecutive quarter of negative growth.
Consumer spending shrank in May after adjusting for inflation, several measures of consumer sentiment have hit extremely low levels, and surveys by the Institute for Supply Management and several regional Fed banks have indicated a contraction or at least moribund growth in manufacturing. Spending on construction fell in May and spending on single-family home building was flat for the month. Factory orders, however, were stronger than expected and unemployment remains very low.
The market now appears to indicate investors think the Fed will have to stop raising rates or even cut its target next year to stave off a worse downturn. Some think the downturn will be strong enough to kill off inflation, especially if it pushes unemployment up sharply. Others fear we could get slow or negative growth, rising unemployment, and high inflation.
Economists dispute exactly why an inverted yield curve predicts recessions so reliably. Clearly, the 2019 inversion was not due to investors foreseeing the pandemic, although it may be that the pandemic and government aid to prop up the economy essentially covered-up a recession that would have happened anyway. Some analysts think an inversion can cause a recession mechanically, perhaps by reducing the willingness of banks to lend. Others say an inversion merely reflects murkier information that indicate a recession lies ahead.
When the yield curve inverted in 2019, there were many who claimed it was “different this time.” That’s less the case today simply because many do think the risk of a recession is elevated. Some believe that the yield curve’s signal has been scrambled by the Fed’s expanded balance sheet and perhaps by the economic turbulence stirred up by the pandemic. There’s also a question of whether the yield curve’s signal might be scrambled by the fact that Treasuries of all maturities now have negative yields, meaning they would lose money if inflation remains at the current level or even at lower levels expected for the next several years.
Some economists insist that it’s not the difference between 10-year and two-year yields that matters but the difference between the 10-year and three-month yields. With the three-month yield at 1.713, that part of the curve remains un-inverted.
There have been false alarm inversions in the past. The curve inverted in 1966 and briefly in 1998 without leading to a subsequent recession. Some would count the 2019 inversion as a false alarm also—although we cannot know whether we would have got a recession if not for the pandemic.
Stocks tend to do quite well in the months following an inversion. Energy stocks, in particular, seem to do well in the aftermath of an inversion, according to research from Bank of America. In fact, energy stocks have been among the best performing stocks since the March conversion.
DHS Secretary ‘Very Pleased’ That ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy Will Go Away (As Border Surge Continues)
(CNSNews.com) – "We were very pleased with the Supreme Court's decision" that says the Biden administration can end the Trump administration's "remain in Mexico" immigration policy, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Sunday.
"So, now, in light of the favorable Supreme Court ruling, we have to wait for that ruling to reach the district court that issued an injunction preventing us from ending remain-in-Mexico. So we have several weeks to go before the district court lifts its injunction.
And, until then, we are obligated by the district court's ruling to continue to implement the remain-in-Mexico program. And we will do so in accordance with law," Mayorkas told CBS's "Face the Nation."
Thousands of would-be asylum seekers still have to wait in camps on the Mexican side of the border. But not for long. They'll all be placed in "immigration enforcement proceedings," Mayorkas said:
"Remember, when people are encountered at the border, they are just not merely released into the United States. They are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings. And that is what will occur with these people.
"Their proceedings will continue in immigration court, where they will pursue their claims for asylum. And if those claims are unsuccessful, they will be swiftly removed from the United States."
Mayorkas said the U.S. is "working very closely with our partners to the south" to break up the caravans of people making the "dangerous journey to reach our border, only to be met with the enforcement of our laws. We have said repeatedly, and we continue to warn people not to take the dangerous journey."
He pointed to the recent horrific discovery of 53 illegal aliens smuggled into the U.S. only to die in a hot truck in San Antonio, Texas.
"And we continue to enforce immigration law, as is our legal responsibility," he said.
Margaret Brennan pushed back: "What I hear you saying is, do not come. But those words are not being heard. People are moving right now. So the efforts to stop the root causes are not stopping them.”
She pointed to the “worst smuggling tragedy in U.S. history” in San Antonio. “Are you predicting that this is only going to get more significant from here, that we're going to go beyond the record surge in migrants?" she asked.
"No, I'm not predicting that at all," Mayorkas said:
"And, in fact, in the wake of the San Antonio tragedy -- and our Homeland Security Investigations is the lead federal agency investigating what occurred and working with the United States Attorney's Office in the prosecution of thus far four individuals who have been charged with that heinous crime.
“We're working with our partners to the south, because this is a regional challenge that requires a regional response.
“I last week spoke--" he started to say, when Brennan interrupted, noting that the tractor trailer full of human beings managed to get past U.S. border officials:
"Oh, so we have a multilayered approach, Margaret," Mayorkas said:
"We, of course, have our inspections at the port of entry with our sophisticated nonintrusive technology. We then have checkpoints that are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Laredo checkpoint in question, 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles pass through that checkpoint every day. This fiscal year alone..."
"So, how did this smuggler get these people across? Fifty-three people died," Brennan interrupted again:
"These are very sophisticated transnational criminal organizations," Mayorkas said. "They have evolved over the last 30 years. In the '90s, I prosecuted them, and they were much more rudimentary. Now they are very sophisticated, using technology. And they're extraordinarily organized transnational criminal enterprises.
“And we are much more sophisticated using technology and personnel 24 hours a day. You know, we have saved more than 10,000 individuals this fiscal year alone in more than 400 vehicle inspections.
"So, can a truck get through, through sophisticated means? Sometimes, yes. But I have to say, we have interdicted more drugs at the ports of entry than ever before. We've rescued more migrants. We're seeing a challenge that is really regional, hemispheric in scope, and we're addressing it accordingly."
'Missed opportunity'
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told "Fox News Sunday" that Trump's remain in Mexico policy was working and "It's too bad" that the Supreme Court is allowing the Biden administration to scrap that policy.
"Look, this was a policy that helped us make our Southern border secure for the first time in a long time. It was also, moreover...more or less required by existing law," Lee said.
"The Immigration and Nationality Act had already required a number of steps tantamount to what they did in remain-in-Mexico. So I see this as an unfortunate misstep by the court, a missed opportunity to help strengthen our border. And I fear that it could further empower the drug cartels making billions of dollars off of smuggling people into the United States."
Illegal immigration has reached record levels under President Biden, who came into office vowing to undo everything President Trump did (the wall, remain in Mexico) to discourage illegal immigration. The chart below tells that story.
In a July 1 news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have encountered 1,171 migrants in eight large groups and disrupted three human smuggling attempts in recent days.
"RGV agents encountered eight large groups totaling 1,171 migrants in Starr and Hidalgo counties in the last five days. The groups were comprised of 638 family members, 340 unaccompanied children, and 193 single adults. The migrants were from Cuba, Asia, and various Central and South American countries." That is just one of nine CBP sectors that stretch from Texas to California.
EXCLUSIVE: 192K Migrants Apprehended Crossing SW Border in June
Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 192,000 migrants who illegally crossed from Mexico in June, according to government records previewed by Breitbart Texas. Since March 1, agents apprehended more than 182,000 migrants in the nine southwest border sectors.
According to a source operating under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents apprehended just under 192,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry in June. The source told Breitbart Texas that Border Patrol agents are exhausted and overwhelmed while attempting to keep up with the volume of illegal crossings.
In an indication of the shifting tactics of human smugglers in Mexico, the Del Rio Sector led the nation in June as agents responded to the massive number of large migrant group crossings. Agents in this sector apprehended more than 45,000 migrants in June — some in groups as large as 400. The large groups force Border Patrol supervisors to put all of their resources into transporting, processing, and caring for the migrants.
The Rio Grande Valley Sector barely fell to second place as agents apprehended just under 45,000 migrants. The El Paso, Tucson, and Yuma Sectors each accounted for more than 20,000 apprehensions.
As agents are tied up with processing these migrants in shelters that are beyond capacity, smugglers are free to move other migrants into the U.S. interior. The tactics used had many tragic results in June.
On June 10, a migrant was killed instantly after being struck by a passing motorist as he attempted to flee from a smuggling vehicle stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on U.S. Highway 281 near Premont, Texas, Breitbart Texas reported. Dashcam video shows the brutal impact as the driver was unable to avoid striking the fleeing migrant.
Later in the month, at least four other migrants died at the hands of human smugglers as they crashed their vehicles while fleeing from Texas and federal law enforcement officers.
National media attention did not focus on the trend until 53 migrants died after being locked inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on June 27.
With the nearly 192,000 migrants apprehended in June, Border Patrol agents marks more than 1.6 million migrants during Fiscal Year 22 (which began on October 1, 2021). With four months to go in the year, the total apprehension of migrants by agents is approximately 20,000 shy of the record 1,659,206 apprehensions in FY2021.
In addition, approximately 400,000 more migrants successfully sneaked into the U.S. interior without being apprehended. This brings the total known migrant crossings to more than 2 million.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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