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White House’s Stephen Miller says mineral resources deal with Ukraine is “meant to pay back the United States … for the hundreds of billions of dollars that our taxpayers have spent subsidizing the war in Ukraine.” https://t.co/RT6IC6dgQB pic.twitter.com/SUFO8zOkur
— ABC News (@ABC) May 1, 2025
Ed: It won't generate that much business, and it's not a deal designed to deliver that result. It gives the US more strategic flexibility in its pursuit of high-tech innovation, while allowing American companies to profit from Ukrainian sovereignty. And that lends a lot of weight to American influence in any negotiations to end the war. That's its real value and purpose.
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During Trump’s first term, there was a multimillion-dollar “Need to Impeach” campaign, organized by mega-donor Tom Steyer, that built a list Steyer would end up using for a failed presidential bid. Trump’s second term has sparked a grassroots “Citizens’ Impeachment,” run by a former Hill staffer with a Google spreadsheet, and a “Mayday Movement” that will begin protesting on the Mall this weekend for “however long it takes” to remove Trump.
Elected Democrats accept the premise that Trump deserves impeachment. They have also learned that impeachment does not remove presidents whose own party will stick with them.
“He’s been impeached twice, but we don’t have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs” and remove Trump, House Democratic Conference Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., told Semafor. “And so, this is not an exercise that we’re willing to undertake.”
Ed: Ahem. They didn't learn that lesson from the Bill Clinton impeachment? Really? Clinton lied under oath to a court as president, and Democrats rallied behind him to prevent his removal. Nevertheless, I'm glad that the lesson may finally stick this time and we may see an end to the stupid impeachment circuses.
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NEW: CNN’s Abby Phillip has to cut to commercial after Shermichael Singleton and Ana Navarro get into a shouting match over Trump’s deportation policies.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 1, 2025
Navarro tried to virtue signal by saying how she’s “advocated for black people my entire life.”
Shermichael: “Great.… pic.twitter.com/OqkkXdSHWn
Shermichael: “Great. Congratulations. Last time I checked, I‘m black. You‘re not, okay.”
Ed: Brutal. Why would Ana Navarro think her credibility to speak to the black experience somehow eclipses Singleton's? And why would she even make that argument at all, let alone in that finger-wagging manner? This is an utter debacle, and Phillips knew it.
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President Trump is putting China's economy through a trillion-dollar stress test, and he may not like the result.
Why it matters: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insists China is far more reliant on the U.S. than vice-versa, and thus has no choice but to blink first.
But Chinese President Xi Jinping's disinclination to rush to the table suggests he thinks time is on China's side.
Ed: Is he right? Perhaps in the sense that immediate political damage isn't as much a concern for Xi as it would be for Western politicians. But running a totalitarian state produces a lot of fragility, and Xi might not have as much room as he thinks either. Plus, I have another report that suggests the outlook for China isn't as bright as Axios thinks.
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🔥This is where things get good.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 1, 2025
"Now, very few in this room covered that. I'll let you all ask yourselves why you didn't cover it, why your editors assign that story to you. Something I think you should think about on your own." pic.twitter.com/Be8rW6cmE7
Ed: I didn't see anything about it either. See below.
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Fox News Digital has learned that the FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials are likely using Tren de Aragua members as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and the United States. The official said the FBI assesses that this demonstrates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s willingness to violate the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela’s neighbors to advance his regime’s policies.
The FBI assesses that in the next six to 18 months, Venezuelan government officials likely will attempt to leverage Tren de Aragua members in the United States as proxy actors to threaten, abduct and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora in the United States who are vocal critics of Maduro and his regime.
Ed: Fox News reported this eight days ago. It sounds as though Maduro learned the Iranian model of "outreach." This is no small problem, and it's a good reason why the Trump administration reclassified TdA as a terrorist organization.
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I agree with Powell that the Fed shouldn’t consider increasing its 2% inflation target. Such a move could undermine the Fed’s credibility and unanchor inflation expectations. Meanwhile, the main advantage — reducing the risk of getting pinned at the zero lower bound — has waned as the neutral short-term interest rate has risen.
Beyond that, though, there’s a lot the Fed can do to improve the functioning of monetary policy. For one, it should target the interest rate it pays on bank reserves instead of the federal funds rate, which tracks an increasingly idiosyncratic market and requires undue effort to manage. Also, it should exclude reserves from banks’ leverage limits, so that quantitative easing (which boosts reserves) doesn’t conflict with those limits. Finally, it should more formally consider how monetary policy can affect financial stability: Its asset purchases, for example, flooded banks with deposits that some invested in long-term Treasury securities and other fixed income assets. This resulted in heavy losses when the Fed raised rates sharply in 2022 and 2023, contributing to the 2023 regional banking crisis.
Ed: It's a lengthy essay worth reading in full, and a rare analysis outside of Bloomberg's paywall. It seems to miss the biggest point of all -- the Fed has to stop creating asset bubbles by attempting to steer the economy in the absence of rational regulatory and tax policy. They have been repeatedly put in that position over the last 30 years, especially during the Obama administration and the pandemic. Set a disciplined monetary policy, enforce it, and let Congress and the White House do their jobs or get punished for not doing them properly.
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JUST IN: According to multiple sources, yesterday afternoon an “alert” was triggered in the Vatican concerning the health of former Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is considered one of the leading papal contenders. The 70-year-old Cardinal reportedly… pic.twitter.com/96QcME6VwI
— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) May 1, 2025
Ed: That's worth noting to the extent that one buys into the supposed "short list" watches in the conclave. Parolin is a pretty obvious point of focus, of course, since he's been the #2 at the Vatican for quite a while under Pope Francis. A health scare at this point might be part of the conclave's consideration, but let's not forget that most of the 135 cardinal electors are at the age where health conditions are part of the package.
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A gauge of new export orders fell in April to its lowest reading since Covid-19 was ravaging the country in 2022, while overall manufacturing activity in China was the weakest in more than a year, according to surveys published Wednesday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
The sharp pullback shows President Trump’s eye-watering tariffs on Chinese imports are starting to squeeze the engine room of China’s economy, piling pressure on Beijing to boost its stimulus efforts to shore up growth.
It adds to pressure on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to reach a deal on trade with Trump—though for now the clear message from Beijing is one of resolute defiance in the teeth of what it describes as U.S. bullying.
Ed: That suggests that China may not have the latitude many Western analysts assume. It is definitely worth watching. The combination of this plus the above Axios report may explain why both sides in this trade war are beginning to swap some exemptions; they may be looking for some face-saving way to reach some accommodation.
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The country's biggest box wine spokes model. https://t.co/eJYOdiMyOj
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) May 1, 2025
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