Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, February 9, 2016


OK, folks... gonna try and get some newsbites up today...

 

2 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/california-grants-drivers-licenses-605-000-undocumented-005700910.html

Some 605,000 undocumented immigrants who live in California were granted driver's licenses in 2015, the first year they have been able to enjoy that benefit, officials said Monday.

The law known as AB60 took effect on January 2, 2015. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) expects a total of about 1.4 million people will get their license under the law by late 2017.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed the law in October 2013 to give a legal document to the 2.5 million undocumented immigrants in California alone - most from Latin America and particularly neighboring Mexico.

* FUNNY... WHEN I TRAVEL OVERSEAS (LEGALLY, BY THE WAY) I HAVE MY INTERNATIONAL DRIVERS LICENCE WITH ME.

A total of 12 of the 50 US states plus the federal capital Washington have similar driver's license laws for undocumented immigrants.

William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/365694500000-merchandise-trade-deficit-china-hit-record-2015

The merchandise trade deficit that the United States ran with China in 2015 hit a record high of $365,694,000,000, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“The deficit with China increased $22.6 billion to $365.7 billion in 2015,” the BEA said in a press release.

“Exports decreased $7.5 billion to $116.2 billion and imports increased $15.1 billion to $481.9 billion.”

The $22,615,700,000 increase in the merchandise trade deficit the U.S. ran with China last year was a 6.6% jump from the $343,078,800,000 merchandise trade deficit the U.S. ran with China in 2014.

The merchandise trade balance deals only with the goods that are imported and exported between the two countries. It does not include the export and import of services.

In recent years, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. has run a surplus in its exchange of services with China, while running a much larger deficit in its exchange of goods.

* SERVICES. WHAT A FRIGGIN' SAD, SICK JOKE. FINANCIAL SERVICES? MONEY GOING TO WALL STREET? MONEY GOING INTO THE POCKETS OF AMERICA'S ELITES? (THE ANSWER: "YES!")

The BEA is scheduled to release the 2015 balance of trade in services with China (and other countries) on March 4.

Even when the historical annual merchandise trade deficits that the U.S. has run with China are adjusted for inflation and put in constant 2015 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, the $365.6945 billion merchandise trade deficit the U.S. ran with China last year is still the largest recorded by the Census Bureau.

“For the past several years, the U.S. trade deficit with China has been significantly larger than that with any other U.S. trading partner and several trading groups,” said a Congressional Research Service report (“China-U.S. Trade Issues") published in December.

As calculated by the Census Bureau, the U.S. ran an overall trade deficit in goods in 2015 of $736.1719 billion.

The largest contributor to that deficit was China and its $365,694,500,000 bilateral deficit with the U.S.

The second largest contributor was Germany, with whom the U.S. ran a $74,192,600,000 merchandise trade deficit.

The third largest contributor was Japan, with whom the U.S. ran a $68,647,900,000 merchandise trade deficit.

The fourth was Mexico, with whom the U.S. ran a $58,363,700,000 merchandise trade deficit.

And the fifth was Vietnam, with whom the U.S. ran a $30,921,400,000.