Republicans Have Heard from More Than 1,600 Minnesotans on Plans to Reopen Economy

Minnesota’s Senate Republican Caucus said it received more than 1,600 responses in just two days from small business owners across the state on their ideas for how to safely reopen the economy.

The Republican Caucus created a new online portal Wednesday for “businesses and workers to share feedback on reopening Minnesota’s economy.”

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Two Million Americans Missing Mortgage Payments as Coronavirus Shutdown Takes Its Toll

Roughly 2 million homeowners in the United States have skipped their monthly mortgage payments as the coronavirus pandemic takes a heavy economic toll on the country, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

As more Americans are losing their jobs, being furloughed, or experiencing reduced income, a growing number of home loans are being left unpaid. The latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that many borrowers are choosing to go into forbearance, an agreement with a lender that allows them to momentarily forgo payments.

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Commentary: It Took 50 States to Get to a National Lockdown and It Will Take 50 States to Open it Back Up Again

In order to combat the Chinese coronavirus and to save as many lives as possible, 42 states have issued stay at home orders, and another three have some parts of their states closed, in order to combat the Chinese coronavirus. All 50 states have schools closed. In addition, with the national emergency declared by President Donald Trump, including the overseas travel bans to China and Europe, social distancing, private sector testing and treatments being authorized on an emergency basis, the White House coronavirus task force has credited these closures in part with helping to slowing the total number of cases, which in turn has, according to the models touted by the medical community, already saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Countries all over the world have resorted to similar national lockdowns in order to win the war on the virus. The unfortunate side effect of the closures is the U.S. and global economies have effectively been shut down except for essential services, resulting in exceptionally high levels of unemployment. In the U.S., anywhere from 17 million to 20 million jobs have already been lost, with many more to come for every week the economy remains closed.

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Commentary: Alexis de Tocqueville’s Lessons in a Time of Pandemic

The immediate challenge of COVID-19 has been cast as an examination of how individual Americans will fare should they be exposed to the virus. The effort to arrest the spread of the virus has brought unprecedented changes in the daily routines of all Americans. The limitation of activity is apparent when one walks outside. There is a marked silence, regardless of the time of day, almost eerie, that gives one pause.

The check on movement is accompanied by images of field hospitals and graphs showing curves and spreads displayed across news sites. While many are changing their daily routines to comply with the requirements of staying at home and practicing social distancing, a broader concern is the effect on our American democratic foundation.

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Commentary: The Pandemic-Inspired Economic Shutdown Likely to Increase US Corporate Consolidation

This writer and others who for decades railed against outsourcing industries to the People’s Republic of China were long dismissed as crackpots and Luddites. Now many of those who were doing the dismissing have been forced to admit the true cost of cheap goods is very high.

The Chinese Communist Party virus has exposed many of our nation’s infirmities.

The most glaring is our dependence on Communist China for medicine, medical equipment, and so many other essential goods.

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Commentary: Small Businesses Urge Federal and State Governments to Reopen America ASAP

Due in large part to government edicts, religious, social, and political gatherings, have been cancelled or drastically altered to meet government requirements. Schools and colleges have closed so there will be no proms or graduations to attend this spring. Restaurant dining rooms are closed, as are community centers, fitness centers, salons, barbershops, theaters, retail stores, and malls. Theme parks, beaches, and even some public parks are closed. Air travel and the use of public transportation has declined precipitously. Traffic on the roads is eerily light, and parking lots are nearly empty.

Of the businesses that have remained open, many have reduced their operating hours. While one can reasonably expect that stay-at-home orders will reduce Chinese coronavirus cases, it remains to be seen what the human and economic toll of these orders will be; but we do know that they are devastating to small businesses and their employees.

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Minnesota Had 116,000 New Unemployment Claims Last Week

Minnesota has seen 182,000 workers apply for unemployment insurance since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Commissioner Steve Grove said Thursday.

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3.3 Million File Unemployment Claims in U.S. – a Record Number

Nearly 3.3 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, a record number as businesses were forced to shut down to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that 3.28 million claims were filed in the week that ended March 21. That marked an increase of more than 3 million claims over the week prior, when 282,000 claims were filed.

The previous high in a single week, according to the department, was in October 1982, when about 695,000 claims were filed. The nearly 3.3 million claims filed last week is nearly five times the prior record.

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Judson Phillips Commentary: Lessons in the Time of the Chinese Virus

The first quarter of the year is not yet over, and we have gone from an almost record stock market to a nation that is all but economically shut down.  Some alarmists warn that over two million Americans will die from the Chinese Virus.  Others say this will be less problematic than the flu.

Regardless, as of now, the country is mostly shutdown and the economy is in free fall.  Economists from Goldman Sachs predict that the economy will shrink by an unprecedented twenty four percent in the second quarter.  The good news is the economy is expected to grow by twelve percent and ten percent in the third and fourth quarters.

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Commentary: Can We Prepare America for the Next Pandemic?

With every passing moment, nations are establishing precedents for how to contain and ultimately stop a global pandemic. Because the novel coronavirus apparently originated in Wuhan and was immediately covered up by the Chinese Communist Party, the health and welfare of the Chinese people and all other affected populations have suffered from this lethal malfeasance.

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Commentary: China’s Post-Virus Plan to Destroy America’s Economy

The virus that originated in Wuhan, China poses a double threat to America.

The first is to our health as the virus spreads through the U.S. population. The second is to our economy as more businesses, schools, and events shut down to slow the spread of the contagion.

We must not underestimate the economic threat because the Chinese Communist Party is using the pandemic to achieve its goal of supplanting the United States as the world’s leading economic, diplomatic, and military power.

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Commentary: After the Coronavirus Outbreak, We Don’t Need Universal Income, We Need a Rehiring Tax Credit to Get Back to Work

Congress is passing plans to provide for long-term paid sick leave and family medical leave to tens of millions of Americans, actively encouraging people to stay home, and essentially telling employers to lay off employees while brick and mortar businesses, schools and government offices are all closed, all in a bid to slow down the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

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Commentary: The U.S. Economy Will Weather the Chinese Coronavirus

American Spirit

President Donald Trump praised the Federal Reserve for cutting the federal funds rate to a range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent, and restarting quantitative easing with $500 billion of U.S. treasuries purchases and $200 billion of mortgage purchases in response to the Chinese coronavirus global pandemic.

“It makes me very happy and I want to congratulate the Federal Reserve,” he said. “That’s a big step and I’m very happy they did it.” Trump has been hounding the Fed for years to cut interest rates to make the dollar more competitive against trading partners’ currencies including the yuan, euro and peso. Now he gets his wish.

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President Trump Praises Fed as Interest Rates Are Slashed to Near Zero

The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to near zero on Sunday as part of a series of measures intended to combat the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The central bank cut rates to 0% to 0.25%, the central bank announced in a statement. The Fed will also purchase $700 billion worth of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities through quantitative easing, a measure previously used during the Great Recession to get money flowing back into the markets, The Washington Post reported.

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Commentary: Millennials and Generation Z Voters Will Decide Our Economic Future this November

For young voters, this coming election isn’t just about strengthening our retirement accounts — though that’s been one of the highlights of the Trump era, with the stock market repeatedly setting new record highs. More importantly, the next election is about keeping this booming economy going through our prime earning years. It’s about having the opportunity to make the most of ourselves and start healthy, secure families. For us, re-electing President Trump isn’t just a good idea, it’s an economic imperative.

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Commentary: The Good Economic News No One Heard About

A few weeks ago, the Census Bureau released the 2018 Income and Poverty in the United States report, but you probably didn’t see anything about it because it received scant attention in the establishment media because it reported such positive results mostly attributable to President Trump’s economic policies. Instead, what little media attention that the report received focused on a meaningless measure of income “inequality.”

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Commentary: Trump’s Conservative Policies Launch Boom for Middle America

Our friend Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation economist, former Wall Street Journal editorial board member and founder, along with Steve Forbes and Arthur Laffer, of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, published a column in the Wall Street Journal recently with some truly amazing statistics about the Trump economic boom.

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Leahy and Kellett Wonder: Why Didn’t the Democratic Debate Discuss the Economy?

On Friday’s Battleground State Report with Michael Patrick Leahy and Doug Kellett – a one-hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of national weekend syndication roll out- Leahy and Kellett discussed last weeks Democratic debate in Houston and how the moderators avoided asking important questions.

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US-China Trade Dispute Triggering Production Exodus

by Joyce Huang   U.S. tech giant Apple has reportedly asked its major suppliers, mainly China-based manufacturers from Taiwan, to consider moving 15 to 30% of their production outside of China to avoid higher tariffs imposed on U.S.-bound exports. The production migration, which analysts say is already ongoing,will hurt the…

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Experts: Tariffs in the Offing for India as President Trump Wages War on ‘Unfair Trade’

by Michael Bastach   The Trump administration’s decision to rescind trade preferences with India could be a sign that more tariffs are on the horizon, experts say. U.S. trade officials announced Friday the end of special trade treatment on $6 billion worth of goods from India because the country has “not assured…

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China, Tariffs, Trade, Cost and Prices: An Explainer

by Rick Manning   Stock markets go up and down based upon the latest trade rumors. Predictions of price hikes make headlines, yet the inflation rate remains at the levels, 2.0 percent at last count, desired by the Federal Reserve. What is going on?  And is this even really a trade war with…

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Commentary: The Win-Win Scenario of Further ‘Retaliation’ by China

by Robert Romano   On May 10, the South China Morning Post published a report, “Will China use its US$1.2 trillion of US debt as firepower to fight the trade war?” speculating that China might have potential leverage against the U.S. after President Donald Trump levied 25 percent tariffs on a total…

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Lawmakers Eye a Huge Backdoor Spending Increase

US Capitol

by David Ditch   Members of Congress are promoting the concept of changing three programs from the discretionary category (requiring annual appropriations) into mandatory (auto-pilot) spending. Such changes would become a huge backdoor spending increase. Spending limits have come under relentless attack from both parties. In 2013, 2015, and 2018,…

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