The Blue-Collar Wage Boom Is the Story To Watch

Before we get to Jay Powell’s gobbledygook, and why President Trump is right and the Fed head is wrong about interest rates — first up, let’s look at some good news.An ace New York Post columnist, Miranda Devine, in her “Pod Force One” podcast, interviewed Secretary Bessent, who spoke about the great success blue-collar working folks are having with higher wages in just the first few months of Mr. Trump’s administration. Mr. Bessent explained that “blue-collar wage growth, the only other time it’s been this high was … during President Trump’s first term. We’ve seen real wages for hourly workers, non-supervisory workers, rise almost 2 percent in the first five months.”Ms. Devine asked: “Why’s that?”Mr. Bessent replied: “No president has done that before … it’s the President’s emphasis on manufacturing … Biden opened the border, and it was flooded.. And for working Americans, that’s a disaster because it’s pressure on their wages.”Part of the jump in real wages is the decline of the inflation rate, where the CPI has eased down to only 1.4 percent annually since January.Mr. Powell won’t talk about that, but he should. It boosts take-home pay.During the Biden years, as Mr. Powell collaborated with big-government socialism, prices rose more than 20 percent while real wages fell by roughly 4 percent. The worst inflation in 40 years.Another important point is the seeming end to illegal alien border crossings. Mr. Bessent refers to this, as well.Border Patrol agents this past May caught a total 8,725 illegals attempting to cross the southern border — a 93 percent decrease from May 2024.And, even more importantly, of those 8,725 “encounters,” CBP did not release a single illegal migrant into America in the month of May. That’s compared to the more than 62,000 illegals President Biden released into the country last May.Ultimately, Mr. Biden let in about 15 million. Mr. Trump is now letting in zero.And the Bidens, of course, released everybody they could into America, rather than put them into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement bed.That meant their hearings could be delayed up to nine years, if they ever happened at all.So, policies matter. And elections matter.And, coming back to higher paychecks for working folks, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, nearly one million illegal immigrants have self-deported under Mr. Trump, which has led to higher wages.The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has implemented a self-deport registration program, rebranding the notorious CBPOne app — which the Bidens used to funnel hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants into the country — as CBP Home, which illegals can use to notify the American government of their intent to depart.Plus, there’s a financial incentive with a stipend of $1,000.So the Washington Post claimed a million foreign-born laborers have exited the workforce since March.Actually, since January, 600,000 foreign-born employees have dropped out, while the native-born workforce has jumped by a million.Is that a sign of a weaker labor market?No. Because, as Mr. Bessent has pointed out, average hourly wages have accelerated — as earnings continue to beat inflation and boost workers’ spending power.In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses are raising wages to attract workers.This is similar, by the way, to President Eisenhower’s deportation roundup in 1954 that was driven 10-to-1 by self-deportations. Hat-tip to Andrew Arthur at the Center for Immigration Studies.So, working folks’ take-home paychecks are rising and inflation is falling.How isn’t that win-win for the American economy?Well, go ask Mr. Powell, who doesn’t seem to understand any of this.Actually, let’s ask Mr. Trump, first. Here’s what he said today: “I mean, if you look at him, every time I did this, I was right 100 percent. He was wrong. Maybe I should go to the Fed. Am I allowed to appoint myself, Doug?” Mr. Trump added: “I don’t even think he’s that political. I think he hates me, but that’s okay. You know, he should. He should. I call him every name in the book trying to get him to do something?” Of Mr. Powell, the president said: “I’ve been so nice to him, fellows. You wouldn’t — but, let’s have dinner, ‘Too Late.’ I’d go, ‘Come on.’ ‘Too Late.’ ‘Come on,’ ‘Too Late.’ ‘Let’s have dinner.’ I do it every way in the book. I’m nasty, I’m nice. Nothing works.”Meanwhile, Mr. Powell and his Fed crowd are predicting higher inflation and slower growth — and are stubbornly avoiding interest rate cuts.Yet they never tell us why. And it all looks to be wrong.The Federal Reserve has become the most opaque and least transparent government agency at Washington, D.C. That they wield so much power over the economy makes this even worse.Change is on the way, because Mr. Trump will appoint a new Fed chief in May of next year.Meanwhile, all this reminds of the great Winston Churchill’s description of Soviet Russia: “it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.

The Blue-Collar Wage Boom Is the Story To Watch

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