The US and our allies are struggling with the need and how to, in terms of dealing with China and our economic reliance on it. The issues that have to be dealt with clearly involve reducing China’s access to information, technology, etc., that could potentially damage national security, but at the same time, not placing ourselves in a position where we have substantially injured our economic growth since obviously China my decide to retaliate if that is the path that we move down. Something of a bit of tricky business.
Continuing to speak about China, the US announced further sanctions against firms selling to Russia, whether that is arms, fuel or other more basic and non-military products. The hope, obviously, is to continue to ratchet up the pressure.
The disclosures regarding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas continues to be more and more troubling. It is very clear that this man and his wife associate only with people of their political beliefs, and at the same time, are claiming that he is independent. This is a fraud on US citizens.
The arrest of a National Guardsmen who purportedly disclosed substantial classified information is quite troubling. Unfortunately, we don’t know the how, nor the why. Most importantly, we don’t know what the level of sensitivity was of these documents, or, if in fact, they may have been planted. There could be many strategic reasons why information that seems to be damaging may, in fact, not be, because it was in reality known to all the inside players for some period of time. This will be one to watch.
Community Banks continue to suffer declining share prices as the result of fears of additional bank failures. This is problematic on a number of fronts, but as of this writing, there is no indication that any of our local banks are in any substantial trouble as a result of circumstances that caused the two major banks to fail.
It appears that a 52-million-year-old bat skeleton was discovered. This provides scientists with insight into their origins and evolution. These animals are very small, about 25 grams, and had the ability to fly, as well as echolocate (definition: technique by bats, dolphins and other animals to navigate using sounds generated by their larynx). Bats have evolved into more than 14,000 species, or 1/5 of all mammal species, live on every continent and are critical to ecological stability.
India surpasses China in population, with the big question being, can its enormous young population take advantage of the opportunity? It is a less controlled society with a greater entrepreneurial bent, but it must manage resources and its population.
The Dominion case settled against Fox News. The most interesting aspect of it was the fact that Fox News did not cover it. They must assume that their listeners listen to only Fox News because it was covered by every other outlet in the United States and likely Europe. This seems to imply to me that Fox News must consider its listeners to lack intellectual curiosity, which I would think might be insulting.
Jim Jordon’s circus that he brought to New York to attack DA Bragg demonstrates how desperate the Republicans are, and how little connection they have to the American people. New Yorkers will see through this as pure political theatre, and it amply demonstrates Mr. Jordan’s lack of intellect and comprehension, yet again.
Joe Biden made his announcement which was greeted with mixed responses. In my view, I think Mr. Biden has done a good job at managing an enormous number of events and situations which, in most cases were largely not his making. Nonetheless, and although I like Joe personally, I think this is a mistake, as unfortunately, he is simply too old.
Home prices in March posted their largest decline in eleven years, and prices fell for the thirteenth time in the previous 14 months. Conversely, there are markets throughout the United States that continue to run very hot. Interestingly enough, in those markets the overall inflation rate is down below 5% in almost all cases, and in many cases, below 3% when you extract home prices. This is going to be very difficult for the Fed to manage, and maybe it is not manageable as one writer pointed out, among the things people move for are jobs and weather. The weather piece may be a little bit trickier to manage because as some of these locations have become more populated, they have been experiencing very severe and unusual weather patterns.
Talking real estate, Manhattan commercial office space is in free fall due to work from home policies and rising interest rates. The impact on New York City could be devastating.
In another juxtaposition for Republicans, Senator Hawley, a staunch right-wing election denier, wants the government to play a bigger role in lowering drug prices. Introducing bills to bring drug prices in-line with those in countries like Canada and France and prohibit rebates for certain industry players. This certainly sounds like big brother, big government to me, so what is the angle here, and what is he up to?
US trade narrowed by 8.1% due to a decrease in imports of $2.5 billion and an increase in exports by $4.9 billion.
Speaker McCarthy passed a bill raising the debt ceiling and imposing spending cuts and more stringent work rules for benefits. The play is to force the President and Senate to negotiate, we’ll see, but with this as the baseline I don’t anticipate progress any time soon. I would also note this bill reduces deficits but has no impact on the debt.
The Fed admitted that it’s banking supervisors failed to take forceful action in the Silicone Valley Bank collapse. You can anticipate a push by the Fed to toughen industry rules. We’ll see how the R’s react.
Wage growth in the US remained elevated which is a factor in the Fed’s fight against inflation. More hikes to come to combat wage inflation.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.