Following Up
- Bob O'Brien
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Today, we thought we’d follow up on a few stories we have written in the recent past.
Most recently, in our article Inflation Worries?, we wrote about how gold prices were declining, in contrast to rising crude oil prices and higher inflation numbers. We also cast some doubt on the official inflation numbers, because shelter is such a large part of all the inflation indexes, and in our view, housing prices and rents were falling. Peering into our crystal ball, we thought gold prices would decline, perhaps by another 10%. We also thought crude oil prices, barring a further drawn-out war, would slowly decline; and that the trend of higher equity prices would continue.
How did our crystal ball perform? Well, our prediction for gold pricing was spot on, and today its price is 10% lower than at the time we wrote our article on June 1. In regard to crude oil, it has bounced a bit from its most recent low, but it is still about 2% lower since we last wrote. During the same time period, the Dow Industrial Average had fallen about 1.5%
In our article Minnesota Nice, we highlighted the compromise between federal immigration officials and the state of Minnesota. Back on February 4, Border Czar Homan announced that “700 federal immigration officers will leave Minnesota following “unprecedented cooperation” from state and county officials. “This unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets means fewer federal agents are needed to make arrests there.”
Unfortunately, this cooperation between state officials and federal immigration officials is non-existent in the state of New York, for White House border czar Tom Homan has publicly pledged to send “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City” after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation in late May that limits federal immigration enforcement in the state.
Homan blames New York’s new laws for ending 287(g) agreements — pacts that allowed state and local law enforcement to assist ICE in identifying and deporting immigrants arrested in local jails. The legislation also prevents state/local agencies from signing cooperation agreements with ICE and blocks the use of state/local facilities for immigration enforcement. Homan argues that without these agreements, “safe arrests in county jails” are no longer possible, forcing ICE to send more officers into neighborhoods to locate criminal individuals.
We have been very clear in previous articles that we think President Biden’s open border policy was a serious mistake and that the huge influx of illegal migrants has caused many problems for the American people, and especially so for the poor and middle class. I was hoping to see that the Democratic party would seek a compromise and at least agree to enforcing the law and assist in deporting criminals, but sadly that is not the case, at least in the state of New York.
Finally, in our article American Wages – Downhill?, we noted that President Trump was making changes for new applicants for H-1B visas. This visa program was designed to allow U.S. companies to employ foreign workers to fill positions that require specialized knowledge and skills that are not readily available in the domestic labor market. However, we pointed to evidence that the H-1B visa program is being exploited to depress wages, with a majority of foreign H-1B recipients receiving below market wages. President Trump tried to address this abuse by instituting a new $100,000 one-time fee for all new H-1B petitions.
However, three days ago, a federal judge in Boston ruled that President Donald Trump violated the separation of powers when he announced a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications last September. According to the judge, the President’s policy "imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress. This decision is completely opposite to a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. who thought the visa fee was justified by "a straightforward reading of congressional statutes giving the President broad authority to regulate entry into the United States."
Given the conflict between the judges, we believe the cases will ultimately end up before the Supreme Court where the constitutional question will be resolved: whether Trump's visa fee usurped the tax power that Article I assigns to Congress.
Check out the links from previous posts below! ⬇️⬇️
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