Next The revolving door at the top of U.S. Customs and Border Protection was spinning again last month as Chris Magnus was pressured to resign as Commissioner. While administration concerns with Magnus centered on Border Control, it leaves U.S. trade policy enforcement without a leader once again. Still no word on an ILWU contract as west coast container volume continues […]

Click That Lever: Baseball season is now officially over, as far as the Yankee fans at the FTZ’ine are concerned. For reasons that are not apparent here in DC, two teams are still playing anyway. What is clear is that election season is in full swing, with Election Day 2022 just one week from today. Tight, meaningful races abound this […]

The “R” Word It’s back. Despite strong employment numbers, talk of a global and US recession is getting louder. How fast our economy might slow is confusing the stock market, leading to wild swings but a decidedly downward direction for the year. Global investors seeking a safe haven are buying US dollars. That makes it a great time to visit […]

What I Did This Summer Well that was fast. With the Labor Day holiday just days away your Nation’s Capitol can now look back at its accomplishments and disappointments of hot, dry Summer 2022. There were legislative successes. First, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to stimulate the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Then, seemingly out […]

The Race To Recess – The Senate goes on summer vacation beginning this coming Monday, August 8th, until Labor Day. They have been trying to get all their work done before then, and have actually had some surprising successes. No Toto, there is still no federal budget, but Congress did agree on an incentive plan to try and bring supply […]

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Breathe In . . . International traders are breathing easier now that the new list of Chinese companies with import bans has been published . . . and looks a lot like the old list. That helped smooth the June implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and eased the breathing patterns of US […]

Summer Heat Is Here – The FTZ’ine staff hopes everyone enjoyed a well-deserved Memorial Day break. That unofficial start to summer has brought heat, literally and figuratively, to your Nation’s Capital. There are signs that the US economy is slowing quickly. Major retailers including Target and Walmart just reported weaker-than-expected first quarter sales and earnings. Wall Street has struggled to […]

The Shift Is On – In baseball putting on the shift means concentrating your defense on one side of the field where the current batter likes to hit. It is easy to tell when ‘The Shift’ is on because the defensive players are squeezed into a smaller-than-normal section of the field, and large parts of the field are wide open. […]

No Foolin’ – The US economy added over 430,000 jobs last month. That is not a misprint – the pace of recovery from the pandemic has been robust in the United States. The war in Ukraine has made it impossible for Europe to join in that economic growth, however, and despite signs that warfare may be abating, millions of homeless, […]