USMCA – Canada Officially Requests Renewal as U.S. Triggers Forced Labor Protection Tariffs
Sundance – A rather ironic sequence of events as Canada formally requests to renew the USMCA (CUSMA) trade agreement for 16-years, followed a day later by the U.S. announcing additional tariffs toward 60 countries including Canada.
On Tuesday, Dominic LeBlanc, the trade minister from Canada assigned to USMCA negotiations, traveled to Washington DC for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
LeBlanc, reflecting the obtuse nature the Canadian trade delegation is now well known for, seemed oblivious to the friction points in the U.S. position and formally requested the trade deal be renewed for another 16 years. {Citation}
LeBlanc called the agreement “highly beneficial” to all three countries. From the Canadian position this may be true, but that’s not even remotely what the U.S. team has presented in private and public comments. Continue reading
Sundance – Andrey Yermak is not just some random high-level government official in Ukraine. Andrey Yermak was President Zelenskyy’s right hand, chief of staff, organizer of the functions of Ukrainian government and the guy who controlled the systems that keep all other government officials working on the agenda of the President.
Brian Wesbury – Jerome Powell is finished as 
Alexander Muse – Imagine signing a contract to sell your house. The buyer takes the keys on closing day, moves in, and starts using the place. Then, six months later, you discover the buyer never actually transferred the money. Worse, the buyer’s lawyers have quietly rewritten the purchase agreement to add an expiration date, so that if you complain, the whole contract simply dissolves and the buyer keeps the keys for free. You would not call this a misunderstanding. You would call it a swindle, and you would expect the law to give you your house back.
Alexander Muse – Consider the moment a sculptor finishes her work and holds the statue aloft. We can describe what she holds in many ways. It is clay, it is a statue, it is a commodity, it is an investment. The description we choose depends on the question we are asking. Something similar happens when we try to describe what China has built over the past decade under the Belt and Road Initiative. Is it aid? Is it commerce? Is it strategy? Is it empire?