WATCH: Trump and SoftBank CEO Announce ‘Historic’ $100 Billion Investment in US

SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications company, will make a "historic" $100 billion investment in American projects over the next four years, President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son announced Monday. The multibillion dollar investment is expected to create at least 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, including energy, data centers, and chips, […]

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GOP’s growth meal: Appetizers ease regs, main course drives jobs



If policymakers want strong results, history and economic reality identify small businesses as the catalyst for growth. As a new Republican Congress and the incoming Trump administration view their menu of options, it’s imperative they view things from an appetizer and main-course perspective. The main course is bonus depreciation and access to capital, and the appetizers are reducing regulatory burdens, taming government overreach, lowering energy costs, and finding skilled and qualified workers.

The new Trump administration and the GOP-led Congress must serve up the appetizers and main course to fuel new record growth. Here’s what that meal might look like.

The appetizers

The increase in onerous regulations imposed by local, state, and federal governments is generating louder, justified complaints from small businesses. By April 2024, the cost of federal regulations had ballooned to $1.47 trillion. These rising costs are stifling small businesses. According to the October 2024 jobs report and downward revisions in new job creation, employment is weakening across the U.S. economy.

Industries are feeling the regulatory squeeze, and small businesses are suffering — especially in the wooden pallet industry. Ninety percent of all goods in the United States come into contact with a wooden pallet at some point. Regulatory burdens on the forest-products industry, such as reduced availability or higher costs of environmental permits, directly lower the supply of wood and increase its cost. And because wood pallets are manufactured, businesses in this sector must navigate OSHA oversight, air-quality permits, and trucking-related regulations. Customer-related rules, such as the Food Safety Modernization Act, also pass additional costs to pallet manufacturers.

If President Trump and congressional Republicans implement a comprehensive strategy, they could ignite a surge in economic growth the likes of which we’ve never seen.

Easing regulations would help small businesses lower their costs, enabling many to reinvest those savings in new plants, equipment, and workers.

The Trump administration should aggressively reduce the costly regulatory burdens on small businesses through executive actions. These actions should include initiatives to lower energy costs, which would further reduce expenses for small businesses. For manufacturing companies, lower costs would allow them to redeploy capital toward modernizing plants and fostering innovation.

Businesses, particularly small businesses, are struggling to attract new workers. Increased investment in career and technical education at the federal and state levels is essential. Such investment will help create future pipelines of skilled, motivated, and qualified workers.

The tooling and machining industry, which includes thousands of small to medium-sized precision machining manufacturers, serves a wide range of sectors, including aerospace, ordnance, defense, medical, space, electronics and semiconductors, oil and gas, automotive, and more. The lack of a skilled and qualified workforce remains the top challenge and limitation for precision machining.

The main course

The pathway to long-term economic and jobs growth is permanent write-offs for capital expenditures that include both plants and equipment.

To jump-start growth, a 100% bonus provision for plants and equipment for the first year followed by a consistent allowance for plants and equipment in the following years is essential. A heightened level of capital investment gets factories moving, makes small businesses more competitive, and drives higher employment levels and long-term growth.

In a “2 Way Community” conversation with Mark Halperin, Scott Bessent, founder and chief investment officer of Key Square Group and Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Treasury Department, indicated that “100% expensing for equipment is on the table as part of the extension of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Job.” He also expressed support for “a limited life for structures that can also be expensed by 100%.”

Small businesses in the landscaping and fertilizer industries, for example, would be in a better position to invest in newer technologies and expand their production and distribution capacities.

Small businesses also have increasing capital requirements associated with the drive to automation, the high costs of machinery, and the need for research and development. To remain competitive, small businesses must also have an R&D tax credit available to them. Small businesses operating in the crane, rigging, and heavy transport sector will be able to invest in new cranes and other equipment and have the capacity to grow their businesses.

Every small business must have access to capital. New legislative and regulatory efforts must increase access to capital through streamlined small-business lending. Because 38% of small businesses that fail do so due to lack of capital, there must also be a renewed commitment to community banks, which are essential for small businesses to access capital. Bessent has also expressed support for this idea.

Making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and adding these additional incentives will change the game and launch a new wave of economic growth. Several key provisions are already expiring or will be phased out at the end of 2025. Expensing for business investments, research and experimentation deductibility, pass-through deductions, and a reduction of the estate tax concludes on December 31, 2025. These are important and should be continued.

Small businesses have historically driven economic recovery and prosperity. If President Trump and congressional Republicans implement a comprehensive strategy, they could ignite a surge in small-business activity and economic growth the likes of which we’ve never seen.

‘The Hostility Is Led by Governor Walz’: How VP Pick Ignored Furious Teachers, Worked To Squash Probe of ‘Corrupt’ Pension Plan That Could Leave Teachers High and Dry

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz knew he had a big problem on his hands when members of his administration caught wind in February that thousands of angry public school teachers had banded together to retain a renowned pension fraud investigator to probe their state retirement plan.

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Bob Casey Said Dave McCormick's Hedge Fund Delivered 'Benefits' to Pennsylvania's Retirees and Economy. Now He's Attacking It.

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey (Pa.) has criticized Republican Dave McCormick over his past role at the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. But Casey had no qualms with the investment firm when he served as a top Pennsylvania state official overseeing the commonwealth’s pension funds.

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Investment Advisory Behemoth Under Fire for Discriminating Against Companies With Ties to Israel

Montana, Iowa, and Tennessee have launched investigations into whether the investment behemoth MSCI has engaged in Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) practices by issuing harmful ratings to companies over their Israeli ties, potentially encouraging clients away from investing in them.

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Bull Market: Fetterman Failed To Disclose Kids’ Sizable Investment Portfolios as He Pushed Stock Ban for Senators and Immediate Family

Sen. John Fetterman failed for years to comply with requirements to disclose his children's sizable stock portfolios, even as the Pennsylvania Democrat led a crusade to "hold Washington accountable" by banning lawmakers and their families from owning stocks.

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Trump blames market bloodbath on Harris-Biden administration, dubbing it the 'KAMALA CRASH'



President Donald Trump warned in the lead-up to the 2020 election that the stock market would crash in the event that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were afforded an opportunity to lead the nation. When the crash did not come immediately, the liberal media laughed off his warning as politically charged nonsense.

Again, earlier this year, Trump warned that the market would be headed for trouble under the Harris-Biden administration, and again he was mocked like the Cassandra of Greek legend.

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, was among the many who shrugged off Trump's doomsaying, telling CNN, "Fear sells."

The X account for what is now the Harris campaign shared a post in May mocking Trump's warning. President Joe Biden re-shared the post along with a meme insinuating Trump was a loser.

Months later, it became clear that Trump's fears, though premature, were justified.

A dismal Labor Department job report landed Friday, fueling fears of a coming recession and sparking a market selloff. Amid the U.S. market nosedive Friday, Trump responded on Truth Social, writing, "Kamalanomics."

'Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe.'

Markets tanked again Monday morning. Blaze News noted that the Dow opened down more than 1,000 points and as of mid-morning hovered about -2.6% overall. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, meanwhile, was down over 560 points or 3.36%.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index (VIX), which reflects the market's expectations for the relative strength of near-term price changes of the S&P 500 Index, has shot up 170% since Friday and is poised for its biggest single day rise on record, according to Reuters.

Trump spared no time swapping out his warnings for blame.

"STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOB NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR III, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT 'LEADERS' IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump later wrote, "Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole. Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!"

Having clearly settled on the alliterative put-down, Trump again took to Truth Social, writing, "VOTERS HAVE A CHOICE — TRUMP PROSPERITY, OR THE KAMALA CRASH & GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024, NOT TO MENTION THE PROBABILITY OF WORLD WAR lll IF THESE VERY STUPID PEOPLE REMAIN IN OFFICE. REMEMBER, TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!!!"

Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), took to X to note that this "moment could set off a real economic calamity around the globe. It requires steady leadership — the kind President Trump delivered for four years. Kamala Harris is too afraid to answer media questions and cannot lead us in these troubled times."

Rather than acknowledge the market bloodbath, the Democratic Party elected instead to celebrate Harris' record Monday, lauding her and her former running mate for "one of the greatest economic comebacks of any administration."

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Corporate bias watchdog reveals extent of Fortune 10 companies' ideological capture



The 1792 Exchange, a corporate bias watchdog seeking to restore political neutrality in the boardroom and to altogether combat woke capital, has released another damning batch of insights into the extent of the ideological capture at America's Fortune 10 companies.

The watchdog's recent analysis — critical additions to a growing database that tracks the political preferences of board members and leaders inside Fortune 250 companies' C-suites — indicates that executives from America's top 10 companies, taken in aggregate, direct the super-majority of their political giving to Democrats. The 1792 Exchange further highlighted various public remarks suggestive of executives' prioritization of left-wing activism in the name of so-called stakeholders over results and returns for those shareholders who have everything on the line.

The 1792 Exchange indicated that executives from Fortune 10 companies give 77% of their political donations to Democrats and only 23% to Republicans. The political bias is especially clear at Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet, where the ratio of political giving to Democrats over Republicans apparently exceeds 9:1. Of the three corporate behemoths, 97%, 97%, and 95% of political donations went to Democrats, respectively.

Two outliers among the Fortune 10 in this regard are Chevron and Walmart, where 81% and 69% of political donations from executives and board members went to Republicans.

Matt Buckham, vice president for programs at the 1792 Exchange, told Blaze News, "What we see is instead of having a fair representation of viewpoints, instead of having a clear understanding that we are serving the shareholder, we see a massive tilt of 'We favor one party’s political opinions, one party’s ideas, one party’s ideology.'"

Buckham suggested that these executives should alternatively be focused on the business — on "doing what's good for the shareholder, what's good for the customer, and making the best product or service possible. Activism is the complete opposite of that."

"We don't want them to take harmful, left-wing, Democratic activist viewpoints and ideologies and incorporate them in a business with the pretense that it's helping the shareholders," continued Buckham. "We're trying to help companies avoid another Bud Light moment."

In an apparent effort to signal its woke alignment, Bud Light collaborated last year with transvestite influencer Dylan Mulvaney, celebrating his supposed "365 Days of Girlhood." The leftist activism hurt the company and shareholders by extension.

A boycott reacting to the company's apparent mockery of women successfully took Bud Light out of the ranking of America's list of top 10 beers, cost Anheuser-Busch tens of billions in market value, and prompted a purge of corporate employees. According to the Harvard Business Review, Bud Light's sales decline persisted for around eight months.

It is unclear whether the executives at America's Fortune 10 companies — Walmart, Amazon, ExxonMobil, Apple, UnitedHealth Group, CVS, Berkshire Hathaway, Alphabet, McKesson, and Chevron — have taken the Bud Light lesson to heart. It is clear, however, that many are predisposed to a potentially costly leftward drift.

Referencing public statements made by company directors in recent months and years, the 1792 Exchange report indicated that ESG and DEI are baked into executives' conversations and considerations.

The report highlighted, for instance, former PepsiCo. CEO and current Amazon Audit Committee chairman Indra Nooyi's sense that discriminatory hiring policies are the way forward.

"You have to put some quotas and numbers in place to get the appropriate critical mass of diverse people in," Nooyi is quoted as saying at a 2022 leadership event in Dubai. "Don't look at quotas as something bad. It's bad if it's not in the early stages. So if it's in the early stages, start with a quota. Insist that the numbers get to 25[-]30% diverse people."

"[Inclusion] starts with numbers and then becomes a mindset," continued Nooyi.

Nooyi is evidently not the only race obsessive with priorities besides profitability at Amazon.

Andy Jassy, the company's president and CEO, reportedly said, "If you knew what a lot of the senior leaders at Amazon spend their time on when they're not at work. They spend their time on issues of racial equality. People are very passionate about it. I spend a lot of my time on that, too, so I care a lot about it."

It appears even the directors at ExxonMobil have waved on the leftist march through corporate institutions.

The 1792 Exchange highlighted how Gregory Goff, an independent director at the oil giant since 2021, is among those who have bought into stakeholder capitalism contra shareholder capitalism.

"I would hope that a director or directors would never compromise those plans and [ESG] programs by maybe challenging how much money is being spent on the things that are the most important to do," said Goff.

Things are no better at the UnitedHealth Group where the company's so-called chief innovation officer Dame Vivian Hunt appears to be of the mindset that the company must embrace an activist role. Huntnoted at an Imperial College Business School conference, "We want to lead responsibly. Stakeholder capitalism is a framework to do so. It's new harmony with a brain, a balance sheet, as well as a heart."

Over at Google's parent company Alphabet, board member Roger Ferguson Jr., is apparently of the mind that capitalism is broken and needs to be fixed.

"Business leaders must embrace a new definition of capitalism that puts a greater emphasis on social responsibility and equity," Ferguson said at a 2021 gala where he was being honored. "The Business Roundtable took meaningful steps toward that goal when it redefined the purpose of the corporation to include a commitment to all stakeholders."

Paul Tice, an adjunct professor of finance at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, indicated in his recent book, "The Race to Zero: How ESG Investing Will Crater the Global Financial System," that stakeholder capitalism theory, which began making the rounds in management circles around the 1960s, "argues that modern enterprises must serve not only shareholders but all company stakeholders — including employees, suppliers, and customers as well as the state, the economy, and society at large."

Tice suggested that stakeholder capitalism, particularly the kind championed by Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, is built upon a corporatism "doubtless influenced by an engineering flow-chart mindset and a Prussian need to order society" that is "basically a collectivist political ideology with a dark lineage."

Buckham told Blaze News, "There's no end to what a stakeholder is or who a stakeholder is, so anybody and everybody can be one, they're loud."

"We're just saying [to company executives], 'Stop listening to everybody. Focus on your company — on what you do well, who you actually serve as the shareholder — and your company will do well," continued Buckham.

Just as Consumers' Research provides consumers with insights into how they can avoid giving woke companies their hard-earned cash, the 1792 Exchange — named in tribute to the founding of the first American stock exchange in 1792 — seeks to both chasten top executives and help investors "make sure that they know what's going on in the companies they're invested in."

Buckham indicated that the 1792 Exchange will keep furnishing investors with insights so they can avoid woke companies and have a hand in turning things around for the better.

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Financial Ratings Firm Morningstar Pulls Israeli Security Firm From Investment Blacklist

Financial services firm Morningstar has pulled an Israeli security firm off its investment watchlist, the company told the Washington Free Beacon, marking a significant win for pro-Israel advocates who had been pressuring the financial giant to stop unfairly targeting the Jewish state.

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Jared Kushner Secures First Saudi-Backed Investment in Israel

Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's private equity fund has clinched an Israeli deal, marking the first ever Saudi Arabian-backed investment into Israel as the U.S. government continues to normalize relations between the two Middle Eastern countries.

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