Bill Owens

US-Canada-Mexico trade was up 20% during the first three years of the USMCA, and many trade commentators believe that that can be increased even more. In the AG sector alone, there was an increase from 2020 to 2022 of US exports to Canada of 27%, and Canadian exports to the United States of 47%.

In a recently published story, CNN reported that archeologists found a 3000-year-old sword so well preserved that it was gleaming in an ancient burial site in the state of Bavaria, Germany. The site is still being examined, so no definitive announcements have been made by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. The sword is from the Middle Bronze Age with an octagonal handle, made entirely of bronze which makes it a rare find according to archeologists. The speculation is that it was a burial gift and meant to aid the deceased in traveling to the afterlife. I doubt that we are currently manufacturing much that would last 3000 years in pristine condition.

We recently had visitors from Canada who are less than welcome. The smoke filling the northern part of the United States is having dramatic impacts on air quality with numbers that are in the extreme range at approximately 152 to 50pms in Plattsburgh recently.

The residents of Sumner County, TN are facing a county commission that essentially is against government, and has swung hard right, not a surprise. In fact, it is so extreme that these commissioners are threatening to defund the election commission, I am not quite sure how that works since at least the federal elections are constitutionally mandated. They have the old familiar rants about being constitutionalists, but that only appears to apply to things that they think are right, not what the Constitution actually requires. We have seen this kind of behavior in our history before, and hopefully, this too burns itself out as it demonstrates that it cannot provide what its citizens need and want.

Recent inflation reports indicate that prices are falling for food, transportation and warehousing, and that wholesale prices rose just 2.3%, which is the 10th straight month of slow-down, and the lowest figure since January 2021. Lower energy prices also helped to slow down the annual inflation rate and we are now beginning to see numbers in the 3% range, as compared to 12 months earlier. Automobile sales are still a major hurdle to get over.

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.

A group of economists led by Mark Zandi, along with his colleagues Cristian DeRitis and Bernard Yaros have prepared an analysis which they recently presented to the Senate Banking Committees – Subcommittee on Economic Policy. The bottom line of the report - If the debt ceiling is not raised for a brief period, the economic impact will be a million jobs lost. If it goes on for months, it could be many millions more jobs lost and will surely throw the economy into a severe recession. This seems to be falling on deaf ears with the Republican right, and it is a question of how well Mr. McCarthy comprehends the risk that he is taking. I suspect if the Republicans cause this to happen, although they may win the deeply red states, they will lose nationally.

It has been a few weeks since we last chatted, and many of the issues we have been discussing are still in the news.

Representative Stefanik announces she and Representative Tunney were sponsoring a Resolution declaring the recent NY gun legislation to be unconstitutional. I didn’t know the House has that power over the State Legislation.

It appears that there is good news on the horizon, at least for mice, and maybe for humans as scientists believe they have had a major breakthrough in understanding what causes cells to age. A scientist at the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard indicates that he has broken through a barrier that may impact the aging clock, and potentially reverse the aging of cells. This, obviously, is good news for many of us, maybe for all of us. My question is, will it regrow the cartilage in my knees?