The Queen and Prince Charles had a meeting when they found out the Duke of York didn’t talk to the FBI. The Duke claims the FBI never contacted his attorney, but the British press is all over the story. His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein might exile Prince Andrew permanently unless the Royal Family can get the Andrew debacle under control.
Boris Johnson gave Huawei the green light to build part of his 5G cellular network. He told the press Huawei won’t see any top-secret information. And the 5G platform will be able to tell if Huawei spies for the Chinese government. Mr. Trump made that claim, without proof. The president sent Mike Pompeo to Europe and Asia in 2019 to try to stop countries from using Huawei.
The president wants to slow down China’s tech industry and cutting off Huawei is a good way to bring the Chinese to the tech bargaining table. But Mr. Trump underestimated Huawei’s ability to survive his business ban. Huawei had an 18% increase in revenue in 2019, according to several news reports.
Mr. Trump threatened to stop sending intelligence reports to Boris if he gave Huawei the business, but Johnson said that won’t happen when Trump gets all the details.
The coronavirus may do a number on China’s economic growth this year. China’s GDP growth in 2019 was 6.0%. But that amount of growth won’t continue next year thanks to the ongoing tech-trade war, high debt, and a weak manufacturing sector. China’s economic growth continues to erode. And the Brexit fiasco will continue to hurt Europe and the United Kingdom GDP numbers. The U.K. wants a tariff-free trade deal with the EU and the United States. But Boris can’t sign the U.S. deal before the EU agreement, according to EU President Ursula von der Leyen.
GDP growth was 3.1% last January. But growth slipped to 2.1% in December 2019, according to a government report. The Congressional Budget Office report estimates 2020 GDP growth be less than 2.0%. Several Wall Street economists think a recession may be in the 2020 cards unless the trade war ends.
Consumer spending increased by 1.8% in December. That’s a 2.1% drop from the consumer growth in spring and summer. The drop proves the trade war upset supply chains. Plus, the GM strike and the Boeing debacle hurt inventory levels. Low inventory levels knocked 1.1% off U.S. economic growth.
Dil Bole Oberoi
