The show is moving to "morning drive" (6 AM to 9 AM) starting Nov 10
I'm incredibly excited for this opportunity!
More info here: Big radio announcement - by Ross Kaminsky - The Ross Report
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Just One Thing: Trump and Xi meeting is a 12, says DJT
When asked how good his meeting was with Chinese President Xi Jinping was, on a scale from 1 to 10, Trump said it was a 12. I think it was a 6, still commendable and a lot better than a disaster. Tariffs remain too high and the Chinese promises strike me as uncertain (as far as whether, when, and to what degree they'll be fulfilled) but it's good news that the export restrictions on rare earths will be delayed for a year and that China will buy at least some US soybeans and, supposedly, work to restrict the export of fentanyl precursors.
Trump cuts U.S. tariffs on China, says Xi will delay rare earth limits - The Washington Post
I heard some Trump surrogate on TV yesterday saying how she loved that Trump was "in control" of the room, of the meeting, due to the force of his personality. That's nonsense. I don't mean that Xi was in control but rather that it is a very evenly matched thing with both sides having cards to play. I think Trump has learned that his initial view that the US has all the leverage in the negotiations because we buy more from them than they buy from us is wrong. In a way, today's negotiations remind us of that: China produces almost all of the world's rare earth metals (because the mine the most ore and have an even more dominant position in refining/processing the ore) and, although we're trying to fix this problem in a hurry, we MUST acquire those resources from China. On the other hand, while we WANT to sell soybeans and other agricultural products to China, they can acquire them elsewhere...and they are. Thus, simply looking at the overall balance of trade numbers as an indication of "escalation dominance" as Trump and Bessent did early on in the trade war was quite wrong. China knew that, of course, and played the cards they had to play to remind Trump that he doesn't have leverage over them the way he has over a lot of other countries. So now they can get to more realistic negotiations. That's what happened yesterday and it's why the results were good but not great.
Trump cuts U.S. tariffs on China, says Xi will delay rare earth limits - The Washington Post
Was Trump and Xi’s meeting really a ‘12 out of 10?’ - The Spectator World
Another of Trump's big priorities, transferring ownership of the American operations of TikTok to an American consortium, was discussed but not resolved: Xi-Trump Meeting: China Says Will Work With US on Resolving TikTok Issue - Bloomberg
Here's the president's social media statement from early this morning:
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Today's Guests
Jennifer Barfield, PhD is an Associate Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. We'll discuss her fascinating work with bison (often called buffalo in the US) including efforts to preserve and grow the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd and the distribution of bison to Native American tribes as part of retaining their traditional heritage(s).
Here's a great article about her work: Home again | STATE
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Tamra Ryan is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and leadership expert, and the Coors Economic Mobility Fellow for the Common Sense Institute. We'll discuss her new report for CSI about increasing costs of childcare. Some of the numbers in here are staggering and, in my opinion, are, as is so often the case, driven by government interference.
The Economic Impacts of Lost Child Care Assistance in Colorado
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Parker Cardwell is Chief of Operations at Rainmaker Technology. We'll talk about cloud seeding which is a process that seems to have a lot of promise but also has its share of controversy, especially among some of the wackier members of gov't like MTG.
Rainmaker | Leading Cloud Seeding Technology Company in the U.S.
Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to stop them from making it rain
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Other Stuff
Obviously the most important news (and I've still never been there): Casa Bonita union, including cliff divers, launch Halloween strike
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Will they find the loot? 5 more arrests in brazen Louvre crown jewels heist but gems still missing, prosecutor says - CBS News
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Hmmm: U.S. will start testing nuclear bombs after three-decade hiatus, Trump says
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Yesterday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again but Fed Chair Jay Powell, in a move sure to distress Donald Trump, said that the market shouldn't be as certain as it seemed to be that there would be another cut in December. Stocks, which had been rallying before Powell's statements, sold off modestly to end up about flat on the day and, as of about 6 AM MT Thursday, seem to start today little changed, maybe slightly lower. Of course the market is also digesting the China trade news and corporate, esp tech, earnings.
Federal Reserve cuts key rate yet Powell says future reductions are not locked in
Fed Divisions Reveal New Caution Over Continued Cuts - WSJ
More interesting that the stock market reaction was the big jump in longer-term interest rates. The yield on the US Gov't 10-yr note jumped from about 3.99% to around 4.07% yesterday and has reached 4.1% this morning. Yesterday we saw this headline: Mortgage rates are back to a 3-year low. Should you lock one in now? - CBS News
With the market reaction to Powell's injection of uncertainty about the path of rates, that "3-year low" thing is probably not true anymore, though rates will still be at the lower end of the range for the past few years. It's always interesting to see long rates go up after a Fed cut. Shows how much the long-term rates are about the future rather than the present, which should be obvious but sometimes people forget.
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Financial shell games to pay the troops. I get it, but they won't be able to make it work for much longer: White House finds 11th-hour shutdown workaround to pay troops — for now
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Obamacare is a failure and the Democrats' solution is to just keep increasing subsidies: The ACA premium surge hits home
My thinking: This is like a doctor who treats a patient by cutting him. Not surgery, just cutting someone. Then treats him by putting on a Band-Aid. Then decides the treatment wasn't enough so keeps doing bigger and deeper cuts and then bigger and bigger bandages. I mean, isn't the right idea to actually stop causing the harm rather than covering it up? (And that, my friends, is why I'm president of the Bad Analogy Club.)
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Would be amazing if they can commercialize this: NASA X-59: How Quiet SuperSonic Flight Will Return
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Seems like quite a blunder: How a London newspaper botched a story about New York’s Zohran Mamdani | Semafor
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JD Vance spoke at a Turning Point USA event yesterday. One topic that came from a question was immigration and here's the part of his response that adds to my extreme hesitancy to support Vance if he were to be the next GOP nominee. I think he's the wrong blend of everything, given my own personal views. I think he's wrong on (legal) immigration, he supports high taxes and big government spending, and he's a hardcore social conservative. As a libertarian (approximately), I'm against him on all of those but I care much more about the economic issues than the social ones.
For what it's worth, I thought his next comments -- about religion in his family -- were interesting and quite good. But, again, those aren't the issues that drive my vote nearly as much as economic and constitutional issues do.
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Phil Weiser files lawsuit against the Trump administration for moving Space Command from Colorado to Alabama.
Here's the complaint: Microsoft Word - Draft Complaint - most current.docx
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Corruption or just doing business? Binance Boosted Trump Family’s Crypto Company Ahead of Pardon for Its Billionaire Founder - WSJ
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I love that the NY Times now has the story. Gosh, the enviro grifters must be quite upset: Memo From Bill Gates Warns Against Climate Alarmism - The New York Times
And here's the great Matt Wielicki on the subject: The Climate Grift Unravels - by Dr. Matthew Wielicki
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I owe you this from yesterday:
So, Rep Pettersen can't afford to go without a paycheck, so won't even delay her salary until the shutdown is over BUT STILL VOTED FOR A SHUTDOWN?!?
These Colorado members of Congress will forgo pay during government shutdown
Because of the 27th Amendment, it's not possible for Congress to pass a law that impacts their own pay immediately, such as "we won't get paid if the government is shut down." It's also unclear whether they could even constitutionally pass such a law for a future Congress though at least one has been proposed (see below), but for sure anything like a salary increase can only take effect in the subsequent Congress. It probably would be legal to pass a law saying that the members would accrue their salary in escrow but not actually receive it until a shutdown is over. I don't think that would satisfy the public's interest in incentivizing Congress to keep government open, though.
These Colorado members of Congress will donate or forgo pay during government shutdown
Compensation of Members of Congress | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
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Today's Video
Mombies