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your-dietician · 3 years

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Who are the men behind Black Players for Change in American soccer?

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Who are the men behind Black Players for Change in American soccer?

Before he became an executive director for a Black player coalition in Major League Soccer, Justin Morrow received death threats during high school in Cleveland when media coverage of his soccer talents became too much for some.

Before Jeremy Ebobisse became a board member for that same coalition, the Portland Timbers forward was a youngster from Bethesda, Maryland, enduring N-word taunts from opponents in his club soccer games.

Calling out systemic racism in society and vying for more opportunities for Black people in MLS is nothing new for Morrow and Ebobisse – but they used to do so on their own.

Now, as board members of Black Players for Change, an independent, player-led coalition that has more than 170 members, they are helping create tangible change for the Black community in MLS. The group, which was founded on Juneteenth one year ago, is not only impacting Black players, coaches and staff as professionals, it is also empowering members as Black men in America as they combat racial injustice.

The Black Players for Change assembled on the field July 8, 2020 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex ahead of the first match at the MLS Is Back Tournament.

Submitted: Major League Soccer

In its first 12 months, the coalition has become a force. Members protested on the field at the MLS Is Back Tournament last July, raising their fists for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to remind the nation of how long Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, murdering him. The group also helped transform MLS stadiums into voting polls in November. It has vowed to build 12 soccer mini-pitches for Black communities, and it established the league’s first diversity committee, which gave it a seat at the table with MLS owners and Commissioner Don Garber.

But to solely harvest one year of change as a feel-good highlight reel overlooks the emotional roller coaster the men representing the coalition are riding, as they seek to expand opportunities for Black individuals in American soccer while forging bonds as brothers.

“There’s already so much that goes into a player’s career, in terms of being successful on the field,” Morrow told The Tennessean. “But for me, this has been about leading a group of men in pursuit of a goal. We win sometimes, we fail sometimes, but we always do it together.”

Black Players for Change has grown from an Instagram group chat, started by Morrow to create a safe space for Black players expressing their frustrations after Floyd’s murder, into a fully working organization that communicates and conducts business through WhatsApp and Slack.

The byproduct has been the creation of a tight-knit organization that allows Black players such as Morrow — the Toronto FC fullback in his 12th year in MLS — to connect with some of the league’s youngest. The dynamic has created an atmosphere that encourages players to speak up and find their voices.

Justin Morrow, 33, is the executive director for Black Players for Change and is a fullback for Toronto FC in Major League Soccer.

Submitted: Black Players for Change

“If we can be the ones to empower (players) to do that,” Morrow said, “that’s exactly the reason why this organization exists.”

More than just a co-founder, Morrow, 33, is the group’s elected leader. He has perfected walking the line between a serious focus for work and keeping things light with jokes.

Those skills, along with his passion for a cause bigger than himself, comes from his father, Leroy.

Starting as a 23-year-old patrol officer for the Cleveland Division of Police, when Morrow was 2, Leroy climbed the ranks to become a lieutenant by the time Morrow was 13 and eventually became a commander.

“He was just so dedicated and rose up the ranks,” Morrow said. “&mldr; I saw that he was always trying to work harder for our family, and pull us up, so that’s always in my mind like, ‘Don’t mess around.’ ”

Morrow heeded that advice as he blossomed into a star at Saint Ignatius High School, a prominent Catholic school in Cleveland. As a junior, Morrow had helped the Wildcats win their first state championship. His prominence grew as the Cleveland Plain Dealer published stories about both his talent and his team.

That prominence came full circle that fall, when Morrow was called to the principal’s office with one of his close friends on the soccer team. The school had received a letter with death threats addressed toward them. Police were present and the FBI was involved.

The letter contained racist language, and according to The Athletic, it made reference to a photo that had appeared in the Plain Dealer of Morrow, his teammate and their white homecoming dates.

FBI officials eventually identified the person who made the threat. The person had also sent similar racist messages to professional athletes.

The incident was an eye-opener, Morrow admits, but not a detriment.

Justin Morrow, executive director for Black Players for Change

I just wanted to create something that lasts longer than I do.

“Those things happen to you and maybe you don’t consciously let it affect you, but subconsciously you know it’s always there,” he said. “It’s always there. It shapes the way you see things, so it’s just been as a steppingstone to get to where I am today.”

Morrow matriculated through majority-white Catholic schools at every level of his education. He played four seasons at Notre Dame from 2006-10 and was the treasurer of the campus NAACP chapter, which he helped start. It was his way of making change in a predominantly white environment.

“I just wanted to create something that lasts longer than I do,” Morrow said. “My time studying at Notre Dame was fantastic, but it’s always short for everyone. The same will be with Major League Soccer in my professional career.”

Ebobisse, 24, also grasped racism from an early age. Growing up in affluent Bethesda, Maryland, the Timbers forward was one of two Black kids in his grade during elementary school and was naturally exposed to politics near the nation’s capital. He played for Bethesda SC as a youth, which included Alex Van Hollen, the son of U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“I was in and around his campaign events and got to understand from a distance what it took to run successful campaigns and to legislate,” Ebobisse told The Tennessean.

But as Ebobisse grew older, his Bethesda SC squad became more diverse with players from Potomac, Bowie and Baltimore. But he still endured gaslighting. Some of his peers in Bethesda and at Walter Johnson High School – where he graduated in three years – insisted racism didn’t exist, as they spewed the N-word in Ebobisse’s presence.

It wasn’t until his sophomore year that Michael Williams – who played soccer at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington – became Ebobisse’s AP World History teacher. Williams, who also coached Walter Johnson’s soccer team, gave Ebobisse a new way of attacking racism and oppression.

Jeremy Ebobisse, 24, is a board member with Black Players for Change and a forward for the Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer.

Submitted: Black Players for Change

“The way he taught me to look at the world from where I was, breaking down the Eurocentrism in everything that I received up until that point, definitely set me on a course to challenge narratives as I see them and to understand biases everywhere,” Ebobisse said. “And if I can understand the bias, then I can understand information a little bit better.”

Ebobisse is still on that course. Now as a five-year veteran with the Timbers, he collaborated with the Players Coalition, which consists of NFL players, in the spring to help pass the Juvenile Restoration Act.Maryland Senate Bill 494 would abolish life without parole for youths and institute a judicial review for sentence reduction after 20 years of confinement. In September, Morrow did the same in tandem with Players Coalition members in Ohio, helping pass Ohio Senate Bill 256.

Jeremy Ebobisse, on learning and understanding biases

The way (Michael Williams) taught me to look at the world from where I was, breaking down the Eurocentrism in everything that I received up until that point, definitely set me on a course to challenge narratives as I see them and to understand biases everywhere.

Such a platform is new to Ebobisse, who is revered by his teammates and respected by Portland’s activism community, including Rose City Justice, which led several intense protests in the city last June. In a way, Ebobisse is empowered and it’s credit to Black Players for Change.

“In 2017, 2018, 2019, I would have never had the chance to use, for example, my club in order to further my message directly or to create content or to change internal policy,” Ebobisse said. “It was pretty nonexistent, whether it was because I was a draft pick that hadn’t broken into the team yet, or because the social climate wasn’t there for it. I think it was a little bit of both.

“Now that’s not the case. … We’re asking the tough questions, not only in Portland, but nationwide and at the league office. I think it’s really important and that’s a testament to BPC.”

Black Players for Change sparked unprecedented progress in its relationship with MLS last summer.

BPC’s board of directors secured a meeting with Garber after 10 MLS clubs chose not to play after the August shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by Kenosha police in Wisconsin. In that Sept. 24 meeting with Garber, MLS owners and BPC, the league committed to a $1 million contribution to BPC through 2024, coupled with a package of six initiatives.

The meeting accelerated MLS’ hiring of Sola Winley as vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Winley, who is Black, had championed diversity and inclusion as executive vice president of corporate strategy at A+E Networks.

CJ Sapong talks playing for Nashville SC and Black Players for Change

Jeremiah O. Rhodes, Nashville Tennessean

The meeting also helped establish the MLS Diversity Committee. Winley sits on the committee with Morrow, Sean Johnson of New York City FC, and Earl Edwards Jr. of the New England Revolution. Garber, a crew of MLS owners, a resource group of Black MLS employees and the Soccer Collective on Racial Equity (S.C.O.R.E) also make up the committee.

“We’re players in a room with MLS employees, front office employees and owners of our teams,” Edwards said. “In those spaces – granted, we’re players – we want to be viewed more as men, as Black men that are trying to make a change.

Earl Edwards Jr., 29, is a board member with Black Players for Change and goalkeeper for the New England Revolution.

Submitted: Black Players for Change

“I think that dynamic of us being players – feeling like players – and them being owners looking at players a certain way, being in the front office looking at players a certain way – (it’s) that border of interactions we don’t normally have. Now (they’re) taking feedback from players, specifically Black players,. I think it’s just new for them and for us to be outspoken, demanding certain things or telling them what we want is new for us, too.”

For Johnson, sitting on the committee has made an impact on him. The committee’s April 20 meeting happened as the Chauvin guilty verdict was being revealed. Chauvin killing Floyd sparked a national reckoning for social injustice and police brutality.

“I remember specifically – I shut off my (Zoom) video. I went into the living room,” Johnson said. “I took about 15, maybe 20 (minutes) which felt like forever because it was it was a very emotional moment for me, sitting there with my girlfriend and hearing the verdict.”

Johnson called BPC’s impact on him an emotional ride. For Morrow, leading the group has created a series of life lessons. And for Ebobisse, the power of the platform makes him proud.

But after a long pause, all three elected to focus on what impact Black Players for Change will have on the Black community beyond the coalition’s first year in existence.

“Youth soccer into college soccer into professional soccer has not been the most welcoming of environments for Black people in this country – Black men and women,” Ebobisse said. “So alongside BPC and other organizations, we have a big role to play in changing that and I think we’ve already put a lot of people on alert and gained a lot of collaboration as well.”

Jalil Anibaba talks playing for Nashville SC and Black Players for Change

Jeremiah O. Rhodes, Nashville Tennessean

BPC’s work impacts stretches outside the American soccer bubble. Morrow and Ebobisse represent BPC in working with the NBA Players’ Association on advocating the passage of the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act, which prohibits racial profiling, reforms qualified immunity, bans chokeholds and federal no-knock warrants, such as the one used in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Juneteenth is a celebration for Black liberation and the end of slavery in the U.S. To Black Players for Change, the holiday also marks the birth of a brotherhood, whose work in American soccer continues.

“If we don’t do it, nobody else is going to and that’s exactly how we feel,” Morrow said. “That’s what’s so special about this organization.

“I’m not a guy that looks back very often,” he continued. “I just turn the page and get on to the next thing. And maybe there’s a minute for us to pause and appreciate what we’ve created and at the same time, continue to teach about Juneteenth, which is only growing. So, we have a big job to connect the older generation to the current generation and understanding of how we’ve gotten here today.”

Justin Morrow, Toronto FC

Jeremy Ebobisse, Portland Timbers

Quincy Amarikwa, MLS free agent

Jalil Anibaba, Nashville SC

Earl Edwards Jr., New England Revolution

Ray Gaddis, retired MLS player

Bill Hamid, D.C United

Sean Johnson, New York City FC

Ike Opara, Minnesota United FC

CJ Sapong, Nashville SC

For stories about Nashville SC or Soccer in Tennessee, contact Drake Hills at [email protected]. Follow Drake on Twitter at @LiveLifeDrake. Connect with Drake on Instagram at @drakehillssocer.

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global-news-station · 5 years

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NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE: Saudi Aramco has informed at least six refiners in Asia that it will supply full allocated volumes of crude oil in October following attacks on Saudi oil facilities on the weekend, although at least one has been told of a grade switch partially.

Saudi Arabia has said it would be able to meet oil customers’ demand from its ample storage. But this is the first indication that its supply to top consumers in Asia – who consume more than 70% of total Saudi crude exports – will largely remain stable.

Three state-owned refineries in India – Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd will receive full allocated volumes of crude oil from Saudi in October, three industry sources told Reuters.

But Aramco has informed India’s top refiner, IOC, that it would give some volumes of Arab heavy instead of Arab mix oil, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to media.

This indicates that the Kingdom is offering heavy crude instead of light crude as Arab Mix is a combination of Arab light and heavy.

No immediate comment was available from IOC.

The key Abqaiq processing plant was one of the facilities hit on the weekend. It processes crude from the Ghawar, Shaybah and Khurais fields that produce Arab Light or Arab Extra Light.

BPCL’S head of refineries, R. Ramachandran, told Reuters that his company would get full volumes from Aramco for September and October without any change in the crude grade.

Two refiners, in China and Taiwan, also said Saudi Aramco had told them that there was no change to the loading schedule in September and October.

“Saudi has confirmed (to us) that our refinery will fully get its requested loading in September and October. We have not been asked to switch or delay,” one of the sources said.

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) will receive the full volume allocated for October, a senior BPC official said.

“Yesterday, we had a discussion about the next shipment and they assured us that there will be no delay,” the official said.

Some 100,000 tonnes of Arab Light crude oil is scheduled to be loaded on Sept. 28. BPC imports 700,000 tonnes of Arab Light from Saudi Aramco annually for its sole refinery.

In the Asia market, refineries in Japan, South Korea, India and Thailand are main buyers of Saudi’s Arab Light and Arab Extra Light, according to one of the sources.

In South Korea, there has been no indication of disruptions to term supply, a Seoul-based source said.

Officials from Japan’s JXTG Holdings, Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd and Cosmo Energy Holdings Co Ltd said they were collecting information but declined to comment further on Saudi Arabian oil or alternative supplies.

While refineries are able to source for alternative crude grades from the United States, West Africa and Southeast Asia should there by a disruption to supply, spot premiums for light crude are expected to rise, two trade sources said.

“Heavier condensate, the middle distillate-rich grades such as deodorised field condensate (DFC), can also be used as alternative for light crude if light crude gets very expensive,” a trade source said.

The post Saudi Arabia to meet oil commitment to Asian refiners appeared first on ARYNEWS.

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nicholerestrada · 6 years

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How to think about the China talks

Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Money is published weekdays at 8 a.m. POLITICO Pro Financial Services subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 5:15 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.

HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE CHINA TALKS — There will be closer to 60 days to make a deal one we get through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. And there likely won’t be any serious talks before that. Once we hit the new year, there are likely to be several rounds of talks including possible U.S. delegations to Beijing and Chinese visits to Washington, though as of Thursday there was no schedule set up yet.

Story Continued Below

That’s not much time for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to put together a meaningful accord that would include specific goals for the Chinese to meet on intellectual property rights, forced technology transfer and other key administration goals.

The document will also have to include timetables for compliance and a mechanism for verification. The Chinese are good at making vague promises and then not doing much of anything to comply with them. This is not true of buying U.S. products, which they are more than happy to do and doesn’t actually mean anything to their long-term goals.

There is almost no chance any of this can get done in sixty days. Which means there will have either have to be extensions or President Trump can accept a weak deal or push ahead with a trade war escalation.

Trump alone will make this call and he probably has little idea at this point which way he is going to go. His senior advisers certainly don’t know. A lot will depend on how markets are doing in late February, what the Fed has done on rates, what’s happening in the Mueller probe and what Trump’s mood is like.

The betting here is that Trump will care more about market reaction and not screwing up the economy heading toward re-election than he will about complaints from hardliners like Peter Navarro that he is not being tough enough with China. This makes the most likely outcome an extension past March 1 for more work or acceptance of modest promises and more Chines goods purchases.

CHIEF OF STAFF HUNT GOES ON — Our Rebecca Morin: “Trump said on Thursday that he’s narrowed his chief of staff search down to five candidates, but he refused to reveal who’s now on the short-list. During a meeting with governors-elect, the president teased out vague details of the search in reality-show style. ‘Five people. Really good ones. Terrific people. Mostly well known, but terrific people,’ Trump said. Trump did not name any of the candidates or say when a decision will be made.

“Trump has repeatedly insisted that it’s a highly coveted job, even as top White House aide Kellyanne Conway hinted that Kelly may stay on longer than the end of 2018. … Other contenders floated have included David Bossie, a former Trump campaign deputy manager; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; and Republican fundraiser Wayne Berman.” Read more.

IS HE GOING TO JARED? — HuffPo’s S.V. Date: “Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and already an official White House adviser, met with Trump Wednesday about the job, a top Republican close to the White House told HuffPost. He and two others close to Trump or the White House who confirmed Kushner’s interest in the position did so on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s staffing considerations freely.

“Kushner has been pushing his own candidacy with Trump, citing his work on a criminal justice reform package and a claimed ability to work with Democrats, one person said.” Read more.

WP’s Josh Dawsey on Twitter: “A White House official says Jared Kushner is not under consideration for chief of staff and is not interviewing for the job. (The usual Trump White House caveats apply here.)”

MM SIDEBAR — We are told by one person close to the White House that Christie is unlikely due to frictions with Kushner, though Trump could overrule his son-in-law. We are also told that Mulvaney actually does want it (very badly) and could somehow wind up with it if no other candidate emerges, though wanting it is usually a very bad look with Trump. Blackstone’s Wayne Berman is again on some short lists but we are told he is not among the FINAL FIVE. Anyway, it’s a big, Trump Show mess.

BOSSIE THE BOSS? — Our Gabby Orr, Andrew Restuccia and Rebecca Morin: “Depending on who you ask … Bossie, a controversial Republican operative excluded from the president’s earliest batch of hires, is either a frontrunner or a nonstarter in … Trump’s chief of staff sweepstakes.

“Some White House allies say Bossie, formerly Trump’s deputy campaign manager, shot to the top of the list the minute Trump expressed an interest in having an effective political operator in the slot. … People close to the White House said the president has even discussed splitting the job into two separate positions: one person tasked with focusing on the day-to-day operations of the West Wing and another person charged with orchestrating a political strategy ahead of the 2020 election.” Read more.

CRAPO WEIGHS DEUTSCHE INVESTIGATION — Per our Zachary Warmbrodt: Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo says he’s taking a request by Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren to investigate Deutsche Bank “under advisement” but he’s hesitant to single out a specific company.

“The Banking Committee has not yet, and I don’t know that I’m ready to start, singling out and creating investigations on specific companies,” Crapo told POLITICO.

Crapo said the committee’s already been reviewing anti-money laundering rules and that “I’m very open to looking into the issues further.” Police raided Deutsche’s offices recently as part of a money laundering investigation.

The company’s problems could be a case study as part of a potential anti-money laundering overhaul but Crapo said the committee also has “a list as long as your arm of issues that we need to hold hearings on.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the committee, says he’s in favor of the committee “looking into all of this kind of scandal, and Deutsche Bank is sort of first in line it seems on all things scandal.”

** A message from the American Council of Life Insurers: Americans work hard and deserve a secure retirement. Now is the time for Congress to act. The American Council of Life Insurers is joined by the Insured Retirement Institute, BPC Action, Church Alliance, and other leading voices in calling on Congress to pass retirement security legislation this year. Learn more. **

FED PREP — The central bank will almost certainly boost its target rate by a quarter point next week to a range of 2.25 to 2.50 percent. What happens after that is now a pretty open question.

We should get some signals from Fed Chair Jay Powell next week on whether three rate hikes are still likely for next year. He may well nudge expectations away from that and lean hard into the idea of data dependence and that any signs of a significant economic slowing could reduce the number to two, one, or even none.

RSM chief economist Joseph Brusuelas: “Recent Fed rhetoric implies there will be changes in the language around forward-looking guidance … which will deemphasize the dot plot forecast. We expect the committee to drop the phrase ‘further gradual increases’ in favor of something that points toward the evolution of high frequency data and risks around the outlook, which remain balanced.”

SPEAKING OF THE CHINESE BUYING STUFF — Our Megan Cassella: “China purchased 1.13 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans this week, offering a sign that the two countries are beginning to make progress in alleviating trade tensions. The Department of Agriculture on Thursday reported the purchase, which historical data show is the ninth-largest daily sale of U.S. soybeans ever. … The purchase, which is equal to about 41 million bushels, will make up only a fraction of the total soybeans typically sold to China in a normal year.

“Including the purchase, the U.S. has sold roughly 55 million bushels to China in this marketing year, which began Sept. 1. That represents a 91 percent drop from the more than 600 million bushels sold to China at the same point last year, said John Newton, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation.” Read more.

SHOT — Trump to Fox News on the GM plant closings: “It doesn’t really matter because Ohio is, under my leadership from a national standpoint, Ohio’s going to replace those jobs like in two minutes.”

CHASER — American Bridge’s Andrew Bates emails: “Trump spent years promising the American people that he could prevent layoffs and outsourcing. But now that 11,000 American workers are losing their jobs on his watch – in part due to economic damage caused by his own trade policies – he says it ‘doesn’t really matter.’ Try telling that to the thousands of distressed families in Ohio, Michigan, and Maryland whose futures were just thrown into chaos right before the holidays.”

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING — Happy weekend, all. Email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver.

DRIVING THE DAY — Retail Sales at 8:30 a.m. expected to rise 0.1 percent … Industrial production at 9:15 a.m. … Industrial Production at 9:15 a.m. expected to rise 0.3 percent …

NO PLAN AS SHUTDOWN NEARS — Our Sarah Ferris, Burgess Everett, and Anthony Adragna: “Without … Trump to worry about, a bipartisan deal would likely sail through Congress to fund the government ahead of the holidays. But with Trump enjoying his border wall brinkmanship, everyone in the Capitol has basically stopped talking.

“The House and Senate left town Thursday with no strategy to avert a partial government shutdown next week, putting Congress on the brink of an intractable conflict that could drag out through New Year’s Day — furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and costing taxpayers millions.” Read more.

INSIDE THE LAST DAYS OF LLOYD — Bloomberg’s Max Abelson and Sridhar Natarajan: “When Lloyd Blankfein told his colleagues at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in July that he was going to retire from the bank’s top job, he said the timing just felt right. When things are going wrong, he wrote them in a memo, you can’t up and leave. Now in Blankfein’s final weeks as chairman of Wall Street’s most influential bank, things have gone wrong.

“Prosecutors are zeroing in on the firm’s work for a Malaysian investment fund that they say was raided in a historic plunder. Goldman’s role raising about $6.5 billion for 1MDB has become one of its ugliest scandals in a generation. In November, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that a former partner pleaded guilty to bribery charges, his deputy was arrested and the firm put a top Asia banking executive on leave. The stock is down more than 30 percent in 2018.” Read more.

MEET YOUR NEW BANKING COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS — Via Zach: Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Tina Smith are joining the Democratic side of the Senate Banking Committee, a pair that may effectively cancel each other out when it comes to certain regulatory issues.

The appointment of Sinema was great news for bank lobbyists. The Arizona Democrat has been one of the most industry-friendly members of her party in the House, and she supported the landmark bank deregulation bill that became law in May.

Smith opposed that legislation. Senate Banking ranking member Sherrod Brown, who led the charge against the bill, described the Minnesota Democrat as “pro-consumer” in an interview.

The committee lost two of its more “conservative members” — Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly — “and picked up a progressive and a conservative,” Brown told POLITICO.

“I don’t know Sinema,” he said. “I don’t talk to her. I’ve never seen her in action. I know that she’s not been exactly where I am politically but it’s a big country. I worked with Heidi and Joe.”

TRUMP PUSHES OPPORTUNITY ZONES — Our Brian Faler: “Trump … signed an executive order creating a new group of government officials charged with developing ways of improving the new Opportunity Zone program. The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council will be led by Ben Carson, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and staffed by aides from 13 agencies.

“It will be responsible for finding ways federal agencies can support the initiative, which is designed to funnel money into designated areas for economic development. … The effort has come under criticism, though, because many of the areas were already gentrifying before the initiative began. It would also personally benefit Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s family, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News have reported.” Read more.

BUDGET DEFICIT UP TO $305B IN FY2019 — WSJ’s Kate “Coat Thief” Davidson: “The U.S. budget gap widened in the first two months of the fiscal year as tax collections lagged behind federal outlays, which included higher spending for the military and interest on the national debt. The government ran a $305 billion deficit in October and November, compared with $202 billion during the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

“Federal outlays climbed 18 percent the first two months of fiscal 2019, which began Oct. 1, and total receipts rose 3 percent. Much of the increase in the deficit was attributable to a shift in the timing of certain payments, the Treasury said. The first day of December fell on a Saturday this year, so payments that would have been made then were moved up to Nov. 30, boosting spending for the period.” Read more.

MNUCHIN “HAPPY,” BUT WILLING TO BE TRUMP’S CHIEF — Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs and Erik Wasson: “Mnuchin indicated he’d serve as White House chief of staff if President Donald Trump wants but said he’s happy in his current job. ‘I’m happy where I am,’ Mnuchin said Thursday in a brief interview at the Capitol, but added: ‘Whatever the president wants.’

“Trump said earlier Thursday that he’s weighing five candidates to succeed retired General John Kelly as White House chief of staff, after eliminating Representative Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, from consideration.” Read more.

BIGGEST THREAT IN 2019? STILL THE TRADE WAR. — WSJ’s Harriet Torry: “Most economists in a recent survey view a trade war between the U.S. and China as the biggest threat to the U.S. economy in 2019, a sign that forecasters view political uncertainty and the potential for new punitive tariff barriers as greater risks than macroeconomic or financial disruptions.

“Nearly half of economists who responded to a survey by The Wall Street Journal, 47.3 percent, said they viewed the U.S. dispute with Beijing as the No. 1 risk for 2019. Some 20 percent cited financial market disruptions and 12.7 percent pointed to a slowdown in business investment.” Read more.

ECONOMIST SCALE BACK PROJECTIONS ON FED HIKES — WSJ’s Kate Davidson: “Private economists tempered their expectations for the path of interest rates next year in a new Wall Street Journal survey, and many foresee the Federal Reserve cutting rates starting in 2020.

“All but one of the 60 economists polled expect the Fed to raise its benchmark federal-funds rate next week to a range between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent. But they dialed back their median forecast for 2019, calling for two rate increases next year rather than the three they expected when surveyed last month.” Read more.

CAN CRYPTO SURVIVE GOVERNMENT REGULATION? — NYT’s Peter Henning: “The government has finally begun a crackdown on the market for cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Does this spell the demise of digital currencies and the end of initial coin offerings? …

“But even before the government began its crackdown, there was a big sign that euphoria was evaporating from the market: the decline in cryptocurrency ‘mining’ that generates additional digital tokens. Giga Watt, a digital currency mining operation in Washington state, filed for bankruptcy recently due in large part to the collapse in Bitcoin’s price.” Read more.

** A message from the American Council of Life Insurers: Americans work hard and deserve a secure retirement. Now is the time for Congress to act.

The American Council of Life Insurers is joined by a broad coalition of advocates across industries in calling on Congress to pass comprehensive retirement security legislation this year. Legislation now before the House and Senate would help millions of Americans prepare for a financially secure future by expanding access to retirement plans and making it easier for employers to offer guaranteed lifetime income options. Enhancements to the retirement system are needed now more than ever—10,000 Americans turn age 65 every day, with many living 30 years or more in retirement.

Congress: Support workers, retirees, and business owners by passing retirement security legislation before year’s end. Learn more. **

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Source: https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/12/17/how-to-think-about-the-china-talks/

from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/how-to-think-about-the-china-talks/

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years