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Open Thread November 13 2023 – What happens to employment when the minimum wage is increased?

Angry Bear | November 13, 2023 7:00 am

US Economics

What happens to employment when the minimum wage is increased? USAFacts

Open thread and QOTD, Angry Bear, Joel Eissenberg, November 8

38 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 9:17 am

Polluting Industries Say the Cost of Cleaner Air Is Too High

NY Times – Nov 13

… Last month, a coalition of major industries, including mining, oil and gas, manufacturing, and timber, sent a letter to the White House chief of staff, Jeffrey D. Zients, warning that “no room would be left for new economic development” in many areas if the E.P.A. went ahead with a standard as tough as it was contemplating, endangering the manufacturing recovery that President Biden had pushed with laws funding climate action and infrastructure investment. …

Research shows that in the first decades after the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1967, the rules lowered output and employment, as well as productivity, in pollution-intensive industries. That’s why the cost of those rules has often drawn industry protests. This time, steel and aluminum producers have voiced particularly strong objections, with one company predicting that a tighter standard would “greatly diminish the possibility” that it could restart a smelter in Kentucky that it idled in 2022 because of high energy prices. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 9:19 am
  
  New factories, however, tend to have much more effective pollution control systems. That’s especially true for two advanced manufacturing industries that the Biden administration has specifically encouraged: semiconductors and solar panel manufacturing. Trade associations for those industries said by email that a lower standard for particulate matter wasn’t a significant concern.
  
  Regardless, public health advocates argue that the averted deaths, illnesses and lost productivity that air pollution caused far outweigh the cost. The E.P.A. pegs the potential benefits at as much as $55 billion by 2032 if it drops the limit to nine micrograms per cubic meter, from the current 12 micrograms. That is far more than the $500 million it estimates the proposal would cost in 2032. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 10:11 am

House Republicans are jumping off the sinking ship – The Hill

Have you noticed the rush of House Republicans calling it quits in the last few weeks?

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) announced his exit Nov. 1. He explained that to be a member of the Republican House majority means putting up with  the “many Republican leaders [who] are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.”

Buck is predicting that even more House Republicans will leave “in the near future.”

The day before Buck said good-bye, House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) also quit. Granger had been a leader among House Republicans who prevented the far-right, election-denying Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) from becoming Speaker of the House.

Also in October, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said she was quitting. “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken,” she said. “It is hard to get anything done.”

In late September, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) took the exit game to a new level of drama by threatening to leave immediately instead of waiting on a previously announced retirement. “The Republican House is failing the American people again,” she said in February, explaining that the House is now “like a theater full of actors in the circus.” She summed up her distaste by saying “our children will be ashamed of another worthless Congress.”

This rush of Republicans abandoning the House is tied to former president Trump’s large lead in the GOP presidential primary race.

Every Republican still in the House next year will be forced to run for reelection while possibly supporting a convicted felon at the head the GOP ticket. They will also have to say they believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. 

The scary depth of this trap awaiting House Republicans next year was evident in the bloody fight that led them to shut down the House for three weeks before they could agree on a replacement for ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Despite the majority of the caucus expressing disgust with the extremist Republicans who pushed out McCarthy, they replaced McCarthy with another election-denier, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 10:19 am
  
  Presumably, in most such districts, these ‘moderate’ GOP reps are likely to be replaced by others from the far right, alas. Would it not have been better just crossing the aisle? That might require considerable personal bravery.
  
  Although, opportunities are being created for fresh Dem replacements.
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    November 13, 2023 at 10:51 am
    
    I guess, it’s like ‘rats deserting a sinking ship’, with new rats ready to run up the hawsers to get on board. Or so the GOP hopes.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 10:45 am

Meanwhile, across the Pond…

NY Times – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain on Monday fired Suella Braverman, one of his most senior and divisive ministers, in a reshuffle of his top team that brought one of his predecessors, David Cameron, unexpectedly back into government as the foreign secretary.

The return of Mr. Cameron to a senior political post was an extraordinary turn for the former prime minister and the latest in a series of convulsions that have rocked the governing Conservative Party in recent years.

(To be in the UK Cabinet, one must be a member of Parliament. Former PM David Cameron is NOT. This is gotten around my making him a ‘peer’, which they will do forthwith, and he will join the House of Lords, as a baron, the lowest rank of the aristocracy, for life. The sitting PM is responsible for choosing ‘life peers’, although the reigning royal must do the dubbing.)
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 4:49 pm

Supreme Court Issues Ethics Code After Revelations of Undisclosed Gifts

NY Times – an hour ago

Debate over whether the court should be bound by an ethics code has persisted for years and intensified after a series of reports about undisclosed gifts. …

Justice Thomas’s R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry Finds

NY Times – Oct 25

The justice failed to repay much, perhaps all, of the $267,230 loan. His benefactor wiped the slate clean, with ethical and potential tax consequences. …

The terms of the private loan were as generous as they were clear: With no money down, Justice Clarence Thomas could borrow more than a quarter of a million dollars from a wealthy friend to buy a 40-foot luxury motor coach, making annual interest-only payments for five years. Only then would the principal come due.

But despite the favorable nature of the 1999 loan and a lengthy extension to make good on his obligations, Justice Thomas failed to repay a “significant portion” — or perhaps any — of the $267,230 principal, according to a new report by Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee. Nearly nine years later, after Justice Thomas had made an unclear number of the interest payments, the outstanding debt was forgiven, an outcome with ethical and potential tax consequences for the justice. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 9:18 pm
  
  STATEMENT OF THE COURT REGARDING THE CODE OF CONDUCT
ltr says:

November 13, 2023 at 7:32 pm

This strikes me as very, very important: I have already pointed out that disability levels in the workforce have sharply increased:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/upshot/long-covid-disability.html

November 13, 2023

Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog
Adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s are driving the trend. Researchers point to long Covid as a major cause.
By Francesca Paris

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1ads0

January 4, 2020

Labor Force and Population with a disability, * 2017-2023

* Age 16 and over

(Indexed to 2017)
- ltr says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 8:00 pm
  
  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17ENT
  
  January 4, 2020
  
  Labor Force men and women with a disability, * 2010-2023
  
  * Age 16 to 64
  
  (Indexed to 2010)
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 9:36 pm
  
  More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog
  
  Adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s are driving the trend. Researchers point to long Covid as a major cause.
  
  NY Times – Nov 13
  
  There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows.
  
  The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people. …
  
  The sharp increase captures the effects of long Covid for a small but significant portion of younger adults, researchers say, most likely in addition to other effects of the pandemic, including psychological distress. But they also say it’s not yet possible to fully dissect all the reasons behind the increase.
  
  Richard Deitz, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, analyzed the data and attributed much of the increase to long Covid. “These numbers don’t do this — they don’t just start suddenly increasing sharply like this,” he said. …
ltr says:

November 13, 2023 at 7:38 pm

Also, about the “labor shortage” we appear to be experiencing, productivity growth in the economy has been remarkably slow for several years to more than a decade:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=lSyd

January 30, 2018

Manufacturing and Nonfarm Business Productivity, * 1988-2023

* Output per hour of all persons

(Indexed to 1988)

Manufacturing productivity growth has been absent since 2011. General rpoductivity growth has been negligible the last 3 years,
- ltr says:
  
  November 13, 2023 at 7:40 pm
  
  Correcting spelling:
  
  General “productivity” growth has been negligible the last 3 years,
ltr says:

November 13, 2023 at 7:42 pm

What then do long corvid, rising disability and negligible productivity growth have to do with:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/economy/vermont-labor-shortage.html

November 12, 2023

Vermont May Be the Face of a Long-Term U.S. Labor Shortage
Employers are pulling out all the stops to attract workers as the state’s population grows older, offering a likely glimpse of the country’s future.
By Ben Casselman and Jeanna Smialek
Photographs by Hilary Swift
ltr says:

November 13, 2023 at 7:54 pm

The New York Times, and I expect other newspapers, has been running article after article vilifying China and especially President Xi Jinping as the meeting with President Biden nears. I am shocked and disheartened at the extent of the vilification.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 9:06 pm

Democrats Signal Openness to Plan to Avert Shutdown as Republicans Balk

NY Times – 2 hours ago

Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week ran into increasing opposition on Monday from hard-line Republicans. But with Democratic opposition softening, it appeared the plan could be headed toward bipartisan approval within days.

The shifting alliances came as the House planned to take its first action on the bill as early as Tuesday. The legislation would fund federal agencies into early 2024 with two staggered deadlines, allowing lawmakers time to try to finish off the annual spending bills and putting off a debate over wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine. …

The opposition from within his own party left Mr. Johnson looking for votes from Democrats for his proposal. It would fund one set of federal programs — including veterans’ and military construction programs, agriculture, transportation, housing, and energy and water development — through Jan. 19. The Pentagon and all other federal programs would be funded through Feb. 2.

Top Democrats were not happy with the convoluted approach but saw the plan, known as a continuing resolution or C.R., as potentially the surest way to avoid a shutdown in the short time remaining before the deadline.

“I am pleased that Speaker Johnson seems to be moving in our direction by advancing a C.R. that does not include the highly partisan cuts that Democrats have warned against,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said as the Senate convened on Monday.

In another encouraging sign for the legislation, Mr. Schumer put off a planned vote on an alternate funding mechanism the Senate was set to take up, saying that he would “allow the House to move first with their proposal.”

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said in a letter to fellow House Democrats that the leadership was “carefully evaluating the proposal” and remained “concerned with the bifurcation of the continuing resolution in January and February 2024.” The proposal did not contain the sort of hard-right policy provisions that would have made the plan a nonstarter with House Democrats, though Mr. Jeffries noted that it failed to make any progress on aid to Ukraine and Israel. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 4:54 pm
  
  Democrats Signal Support for Johnson’s Plan to Avoid Shutdown Ahead of Vote
  
  NY Times – about 5 hours ago
  
  An increasing number of Democrats privately indicated that they would support the Republican speaker’s measure to extend government funding. A vote is expected Tuesday afternoon.
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    November 14, 2023 at 4:56 pm
    
    House Democratic leaders have yet to state an official position on the bill. Many of them have questioned the proposal because it contains two staggered deadlines for funding different parts of the federal government, one on Jan. 19 and one on Feb. 2. But an increasing number of Democrats have privately said that they planned to vote for it because it did not include any spending cuts or policy changes — both demands of hard-right Republicans — and because they saw no other way to prevent a shutdown.
    
    “Our current evaluation of the continuing resolution presented by Speaker Johnson is that it does not include extraneous and extreme right-wing policy provisions,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, said on NPR, adding that some in his caucus continued to have concerns about the proposal’s two funding deadlines. …
    - Fred C. Dobbs says:
      
      November 14, 2023 at 5:00 pm
      
      Looks like they’ll be voting ‘soon’.
      
      US House to vote on spending bill to avert government shutdown
      
      Reuters – November 14, 20234:38 PM EST – Updated 19 min ago
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 5:03 pm
        
        The bill needs the support of two-thirds of those voting to pass, 290 if all members vote.
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 5:04 pm
        
        NY Times: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a stopgap funding measure to keep the federal government open into next year. The bill needs a supermajority, two-thirds, to pass. The deadline to fund the government and avert a shutdown is midnight Friday. …
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 5:08 pm
        
        The “two-step continuing resolution” proposed by Speaker Mike Johnson would fund some federal agencies until late January and others through early February, a strategy employed to appease hard-right lawmakers wary of passing bills that fund the entire government in one go. On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders endorsed the measure, which would need bipartisan support to pass. Notably, the bill contains no aid for Ukraine or Israel, which would have to be passed separately. …
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 5:56 pm
        
        The Johnson bill passed.
        
        208 Dems voted for it, as did 127 GOP.
        
        2 Dems voted no, as did 93 GOP.
        
        335 to 95.
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 6:27 pm
        
        Boston Globe – just in
        
        … The House easily cleared a temporary extension of government funding days ahead of a Friday night deadline, likely teeing up easy Senate passage that will push off a potential government shutdown until early next year.
        
        It was not a moment too soon. Tensions flared around the Capitol complex — including an alleged shoving incident between lawmakers in a basement hallway and threats of a fight in a hearing room — showing how much lawmakers seem desperately ready for a break from each other.
        
        “This will allow everybody to go home for a couple days for Thanksgiving, everybody cool off,” said new House Speaker Mike Johnson. “Members have been here…for 10 weeks. This place is a pressure cooker.”
        
        But much else remained in limbo, including war funding for Israel, Ukraine, as well as money and policy changes to address the burgeoning migrant influx across the country, with no clear deadline to force Congress to act on the horizon. …
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 14, 2023 at 7:01 pm
        
        (the vote was 336 to 95.)
        
        NY Times – an hour ago
        
        The House passed legislation on Tuesday to keep federal funding flowing into early 2024, after Democrats stepped in to rescue a plan opposed by many Republicans to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.
        
        A coalition of Democrats and mainstream Republicans overcame the opposition of G.O.P. conservatives to approve the bill under special expedited procedures that required a supermajority. That approach, hatched by Speaker Mike Johnson, amounted to a gamble that a substantial number of Democrats would rally to help pass a package that Mr. Johnson’s own party was unwilling to back.
        
        The vote was 336 to 95, clearing the two-thirds threshold required for passage. In the end, 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans joined to pass the bill. Ninety-three Republicans opposed it, as did two Democrats.
        
        Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, told reporters that he wanted the Senate to vote on the bill “as soon as possible.” …
      - Fred C. Dobbs says:
        
        November 16, 2023 at 12:24 am
        
        NY Times – a while ago
        
        Senate Passes Stopgap Funding Bill, Averting a Government Shutdown
        
        President Biden is expected to sign the measure, which would fund federal agencies into early next year, but a longer-term agreement is as uncertain as ever.
        
        … The Senate voted 87 to 11 to clear the temporary funding patch and send it to President Biden, who is expected to sign it, just days before a deadline at midnight on Friday. The measure was approved by the House on Tuesday with near-unanimous support from Democrats and over the opposition of almost half of House Republicans. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 13, 2023 at 9:28 pm

Xi Jinping to Address US Business Leaders …

NY Times – Nov 8

… Amid Rising Skepticism of China Ties

Corporate executives will pay $2,000 a head to dine with China’s leader in San Francisco next week, in one of a series of engagements aimed at stabilizing the U.S.-China relationship.

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping … who is traveling to the United States for an international conference, will address business leaders at a challenging moment in U.S.-China relations. The United States has expressed growing concern about China’s military ambitions and has sought to cut off Beijing’s access to technology that could be used against the United States. China’s treatment of Western companies, which are facing tougher restrictions in how they do business, have also prompted firms to question the wisdom of investing in China.

Still, Chinese and American leaders have expressed interest in bolstering ties between their economies, the world’s two largest, which remain inextricably linked through trade. The Biden administration has sent several top officials to China this year to try to make clear that while the United States wants to protect national security, it does not seek to sever economic ties with Beijing. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 14, 2023 at 7:49 am

The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Successful Joint Venture

NY Times – Nov 14

China and the U.S. both gained from their economic integration. As they pull apart, each is finding it will be hard to fully replace the other.

For more than a quarter century, the fortunes of the United States and China were fused in a uniquely monumental joint venture.

Americans treated China like the mother of all outlet stores, purchasing staggering quantities of low-priced factory goods. Major brands exploited China as the ultimate means of cutting costs, manufacturing their products in a land where wages are low and unions are banned.

As Chinese industry filled American homes with electronics and furniture, factory jobs lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese from poverty. China’s leaders used the proceeds of the export juggernaut to buy trillions of dollars of U.S. government bonds, keeping America’s borrowing costs low and allowing its spending bonanza to continue.

Here were two countries separated by the Pacific Ocean, one shaped by freewheeling capitalism, the other ruled by an authoritarian Communist Party, yet conjoined in an enterprise so consequential that the economic historian Niall Ferguson coined a term: Chimerica, shorthand for their “symbiotic economic relationship.” …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 7:52 am
  
  … As each country seeks to diminish its dependence on the other, businesses worldwide are adapting their supply chains.
  
  Chimerica has yielded to a trade war, with both sides extending steep tariffs and curbs on critical exports — from advanced technology to minerals used to make electric vehicles.
  
  American companies are shifting factory production away from China to less politically risky venues. Chinese businesses are focused on trade with allies and neighbors, while seeking domestic suppliers for technology they are barred from buying from American companies.
  
  Decades of American rhetoric that celebrated commerce as a wellspring of democratization in China have given way to resignation that the country’s current leadership … is intent on crushing dissent at home and projecting military might abroad. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 7:54 am
  
  ‘Chimerica’ and the Global Asset Market Boom
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    November 14, 2023 at 8:00 am
    
    ‘Chimerica’ and the Global Asset Market Boom
    
    First published: December 27, 2007
    
    Niall Ferguson – Harvard Business School
    
    Moritz Schularick – Free University of Berlin
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 14, 2023 at 8:10 am

As President Xi Heads to San Francisco …

NY Times – Nov 14

… Xinhua, the state news agency, on Monday published a lengthy article in English about the “enduring strength” of Mr. Xi’s affection for ordinary Americans. It included old photos of him sitting in a tractor with an Iowa farmer, and revisiting the home where he once stayed in an American college student’s “Star Trek”-themed bedroom.

“More delightful moments unfolded when Xi showed up to watch an N.B.A. game,” the article continued, describing a visit by Mr. Xi to the United States in 2012. “He remained remarkably focused on the game.”

Separately, Xinhua has published a five-part series in Chinese on “Getting China-U.S. Relations Back on Track.” A torrent of other state media articles has highlighted recent visits to China by the American Ballet Theater and the Philadelphia Orchestra, or the story of U.S. veterans who helped China fight Japan during World War II, some of whom visited China this month. “Veterans visit Chinese cities, anticipating everlasting China-U.S. friendship,” one headline declared. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 10:27 am
  
  “To me, you are America”: Xi Jinping’s interactions with American people
  
  Xinhua – Nov 14
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 14, 2023 at 8:21 am

Boston Medical Center’s prescription for better health? A job.

Boston Globe – Nov 14

In early 2023, a group of leaders at Boston Medical Center sat down to discuss a big idea: What if we started a jobs training program for our patients so that they could get the skills to join our workforce?

As I made my way down the hospital hall, the patient kept popping her head out of the exam room, smiling. She had arrived unusually early for her appointment and by the time I entered, she was bursting with excitement. However, as she began to explain that she had just been offered a job at my hospital, her excitement turned to tears: “Doc, I never thought that this could happen to me. I thought the world had given up on me.” Together we reflected on her journey.

When she first came to the clinic seven years ago, she was accompanied by her daughters. Though only in her early 50s, she already suffered from multiple chronic medical conditions, including high blood pressure, hepatitis, depression, asthma, and a body riddled with pain. Her medical conditions were exacerbated by her housing insecurity, joblessness, and a history of cocaine use that haunted her. …

In early 2023, a group of leaders at Boston Medical Center sat down to discuss a big idea: What if we started a jobs training program for our patients so that they could get the skills to join our workforce? We called it the “BMC Healthcare Fellowship Program,” and while it was seemingly simple in its design, we knew we should start small to test its viability. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 8:23 am
  
  In the spring, we began the pilot in the Family Medicine clinic at Boston Medical Center. The road map for recruiting fellows came from our Social Determinants of Health screener — a tool for every patient in primary care that screens for, among other things, food, job, and housing insecurity.
  
  We decided that those patients who marked joblessness on the screener and who were interested became eligible for the fellowship, which began over the summer and is comprised of 12 weeks of career training at the YMCA learning medical terminology, how to navigate public and private payers, and practicing through simulations, as well as participating in on-site training on the systems and technical skills needed to succeed in the role. Those who successfully completed this program were offered interviews and then were hired to full-time jobs with benefits, ongoing training opportunities, and career mobility. My patient was one of the inaugural graduates of this fellowship.
  
  Research has long indicated that poverty impacts health. A seminal report in JAMA in 2016 found that from 2001 to 2014, higher income was consistently associated with greater longevity throughout all income distributions — with a difference of about 15 years of life between the top 1 percent of income vs. the lowest 1 percent and about 4 years difference between the top 5 percent of income as compared to the bottom 5 percent of income. …
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    November 14, 2023 at 8:29 am
    
    Economic mobility, defined as the ability of people to change their economic status over the course of their lifetime, is thus a key factor in bridging health inequities. And yet, while there are increasing calls for political leaders to create more jobs training and even an action report for future governors, few health care leaders are taking the economic mobility of their patients into their purview.
    
    This gap is understandable — the health care system is fragile; we have people leaving the field every day with high burnout rates, and health care workers are already tasked with so many administrative burdens. However, creating opportunities for job training and economic mobility is one of the best things health leaders can do for our patients’ health and, in the long run, for the well-being of our country. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 15, 2023 at 4:15 pm

Biden & Xi at their summit meeting

NY Times – just in

Biden and Xi hit similar themes in their remarks, with both saying their goal was to keep the relationship between their countries from turning into a conflict. “Planet Earth is big enough” for both superpowers, Xi said. …

Xi tells Biden that China and the U.S. are very different countries but that they should be “fully capable of rising above differences.” He added, “I firmly believe in the promising future of the bilateral relationship.” …

Xi said that for large countries like China and the United States, “turning their backs on each other is not an option.” He adds that “conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides” and that the world is big enough for the U.S. and China to thrive. …

In his opening remarks, Biden notes that he and Xi have known each other for many years and have not always agreed, but adds: “To host you in the United States is a great honor and a pleasure.” …

Biden told Xi “I value our conversation because I think it’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication.” He added, “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.” …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 16, 2023 at 9:29 am
  
  Xi Jinping addressed executives from Apple, Nike and others at dinner. Elon Musk popped by during cocktail hour.
  
  NY Times – just in
  
  Amid frosty U.S.-China relations, Xi Jinping emphasized friendship in an address to executives from Apple, Boeing, Nike and others.
  
  … inside the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency, the atmosphere was warm and friendly. More than 300 executives and officials listened attentively as Mr. Xi — the leader of a country often considered the United States’ greatest rival — spoke for over half an hour about an enduring friendship between China and the United States that could not be diminished by recent turmoil.
  
  Mr. Xi spoke of pandas. He spoke of Ping-Pong. He spoke of Americans and Chinese working together during World War II to battle the Japanese. He addressed the tensions that have rocked U.S.-Chinese relations in the past year only briefly and obliquely, comparing the relationship to a giant ship that was trying to navigate through storms.
  
  “The No. 1 question for us is: Are we adversaries or partners?” Mr. Xi asked. Seeing the other side as a competitor, he said, would only lead to misinformed policy and unwanted results. “China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.” …