mmr 29 May, 2018

Freedom caucus member is leaving the House

RICHMOND — Rep. Thomas Garrett (R-Va.) announced Monday that he is struggling with alcoholism and will abandon his run for a second term in Congress so he can focus on recovery and his family.

Garrett, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is the 48th Republican to retire or announce they will not seek reelection to the House this year, according to a list maintained by the House Press Gallery.

Many are leaving in anticipation of a strong Democratic performance in congressional races this fall and out of frustration with partisan politics in Washington.

Garrett, 46, was facing a robust challenge from his Democratic opponent, journalist and author Leslie Cockburn, who had raised more money and had more cash on hand than he had. In recent days, unnamed former staffers had accused him and his wife of mistreating staff who worked in his congressional office.

But in a videotaped statement, Garrett, a former Virginia state senator, said his departure from politics was spurred by his addiction.

www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/rep-garrett-announces-he-is-an-alcoholic-and-will-not-seek-re-election/2018/05/28/40e8839a-62b2-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html?utm_term=.459fbd383399

Yeah, I know.  I felt a little bit bad about feeling good about this.  Alcoholism is a scourge for families and I hope this gets him squared away.

Corporations Sitting On Their Assets, Latest Stats Reveal

Business isn’t booming and workers’ wages aren’t moving, despite massive company tax cuts, according to data.

Corporate spending isn’t taking off the way Republicans predicted in the wake of a massive $1.5 trillion tax cut for companies, according to the latest figures.

The Wall Street Journal called this “something of a surprise,” since the idea of the tax break was ostensibly that corporate business would take off with the cash infusion from the public and workers would share in the boosted fortunes. That’s not happening.

Economists look at orders as an indication of corporate spending, and right now those are remaining relatively flat.

Orders for durable goods (heavy-duty equipment such as machinery) dropped 1.7 percent in April over the previous month, according to figures released Friday by the Commerce Department. That was largely driven by a drop in aircraft orders. Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft — a key gauge of corporate spending — increased by only 1 percent in April (after dropping 1.2 percent in March). That’s about where it’s been for the last six months, the Journal notes, even before the tax cut.

What’s happening to all that tax money corporations no longer have to pay? For one thing, it’s being used to buy other companies. There were $1.5 trillion in merger and acquisition deals in the works in the first quarter, compared with $759 billion over the same period last year.

Corporations are also sharing the wealth with stockholders by increasing dividends they pay out. In addition, there’s a record stock-buyback boom going on, which, again, benefits stockholders, not workers. U.S. companies reported buying back their own shares at a rate of $6.1 billion a day the first quarter of this year, MarketWatch reported.

“The buyback boom early this year confirms our view that the main use of corporate America’s tax savings will be takeovers and stock buybacks rather than capital investment or hiring,” said an analysis from Trim Tabs Investment Research, which tracks the data.

And while the jobless rate is at a 17-year low, wage hikes are barely budging the needle, according to the latest figures from the Department of Labor. They increased an average of just 2.6 percent in April over the previous year — and that rate was down from March. If that continues, annual increases will be nowhere near the $4,000 average household hikes that President Donald Trump promised American workers as part of the tax cuts.

“Wage growth disappointed,” LendingTree chief economist Tendayi Kapfidze told the San Antonio Express-News after the statistics were released early this month. “It may be that changes in the labor market have reduced [employees’] negotiation power and wages are weak despite the low unemployment rate.”

None of this likely comes as a surprise to politicians like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who voted for the massive tax cuts but acknowledged there’s no proof they will help the American worker.

“There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they’re going to take the money they’re saving and reinvest it in American workers,” Rubio told The Economist in April. “In fact, they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses. There’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/corporations-sitting-on-their-tax-haul_us_5b0cc156e4b0802d69cdac0e

Not boring exactly, since I'm a King James fan, but...

The coincidence thing I think plausible in this case because the report I read was that ZTE was for China's support on North Korea

Doesn't mean this wasn't injected into the deal or possibly that China expedited it to grease the skids, but still

Stock market won't like this.

The China tariffs are back on.
On Tuesday, the White House said the administration would proceed with its proposal to impose 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods from China, and place new limits on Chinese investments in US high-tech industries.

The decision comes after top administration officials have tried to dampen fears of a trade war.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a trade war with China was "on hold" less than 10 days ago. And Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is expected in Beijing on Saturday to help ease trade tensions between the two major trading partners.

Beijing has previously pledged to retaliate against the 25 percent tariffs.

In a brief statement, the White House said the president plans to take "multiple steps" to protect domestic technology and intellectual property from certain "discriminatory and burdensome trade practices by China."

The latest step follows a March report by the US Trade Representative Office, which undertook a seven-month investigation of China's handling of technology transfers and intellectual property, according to the White House's statement.

"The United States will implement specific investment restrictions and enhanced export controls for Chinese persons and entities related to the acquisition of industrially significant technology, the White House said in a statement.

The final list of covered imports subject to tariffs will be announced by June 15. Those tariffs will take effect "shortly thereafter."

Proposed investment restrictions will be announced by June 30 and also take effect at a later date.

money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/news/economy/china-tariffs/index.html

Once again, the Auditor General's report will be mostly about the embattled Phoenix Pay System


www.cbc.ca/news/politics/auditor-general-first-nations-phoenix-1.4681172

I don't even see teams pull goalies with three minutes left.  Holtby went out at about the 2:20 mark last night. 

Harvard study estimates death toll in Puerto Rico due to hurricane Maria

CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO — At least 4,645 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria and its devastation across Puerto Rico last year, according to a new Harvard study released Tuesday, an estimate that far exceeds the official government death toll, which stands at 64.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts across the U.S. territory, which was thrown into chaos after the September hurricane wiped out the electrical grid and had widespread impacts on infrastructure. Some communities were entirely cut off for weeks amid road closures and communications failures.

Researchers in the United States and Puerto Rico, led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, calculated the number of deaths by surveying nearly 3,300 randomly chosen households across the island and comparing the estimated post-hurricane death rate to the mortality rate for the year before. Their surveys indicated that the mortality rate was 14.3 deaths per 1,000 residents from Sept. 20 through Dec. 31, 2017, a 62 percent increase in the mortality rate compared to 2016, or 4,645 “excess deaths.”

www.washingtonpost.com/national/harvard-study-estimates-thousands-died-in-puerto-rico-due-to-hurricane-maria/2018/05/29/1a82503a-6070-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html?utm_term=.38ad112b2dc5&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

I think the question is:  would those people have died at that time if there had been no hurricane?  I'm guessing the answer, for the most part, would have been 'no'?

Because the hurricane shares equal blame on contributory/indirect causes as it does with direct causes.  Apples and oranges comparisons