Washington Insider

The Hill is reporting this week that amid rising trade tensions with China and others, a "fading economic outlook and questions about rising interest rates" are beginning to pose new challenges to the president as he prepares for his reelection campaign.

A delegation of U.S. government officials is poised to begin meetings to hash out international guidelines for use of antibiotics in farm animals, Bloomberg is reporting. However, even at this early stage, Bloomberg reports that the working draft of the group's report is "causing an uproar...

While there still is intense skepticism about global warming in the United States, the New York Times said on Thursday that "If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won't be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become...

President Donald Trump turned to a familiar playbook after his high-stakes dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday: he boasted of a big victory first, and let a more nuanced reality sink in later.

The House is holding off on votes this week to pay respects to George H. W. Bush, putting Republicans' tax efforts in limbo, delaying the farm bill conference report, and canceling committee hearings. A Friday funding deadline will also be postponed, with lawmakers aiming to use a two-week...

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the president's recent Argentine trip was somewhat unusual, compared to earlier trips remembered most for what went wrong. Bloomberg notes he stuck to the script with fellow leaders, avoided major gaffes and got some qualified successes, including an...

It turns out there was considerable excitement at the G-20 session in Argentina this week after all. Bloomberg says that the U.S., Mexico and Canada signed a new regional trade accord that would need Congressional approval and would give Congress as few as six months to pass a new deal.

House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairmen Mike Conaway, R., Texas, and Pat Roberts, R., Kan., and Ranking Members Collin Peterson, D., Minn., and Debbie Stabenow, D., Mich., released a statement Thursday declaring they have "reached an agreement in principle on the 2018 Farm Bill."

Toxic politics are the primary focus now as the fight over the proposed border intensifies and the G 20 meeting in Argentina gets under way. The Hill is reporting this week that Senate Republican leaders are working to calm their rank-and-file members that a partial government shutdown in...

Bloomberg is reporting this week on a basic shift in international relations that has been mainly below the media radar. The report says that an important way of ironing out many important global issues is now threatened and that the "global summit communique, with its all-night negotiations...

New food trends are frequently cropping up in the media with analysis of what these changes might mean for the industry. This week, Bloomberg focuses on eggs and says that the bar is rising for what's considered a "happy chicken," sparking the hottest trend in the market: the...

In something of a surprise, the administration published a major report documenting the advance of climate change "weeks earlier than expected and on a day many Americans are occupied with family and holiday shopping," Bloomberg says this week. The news is predictably bad, but this time the...

The next potential government shutdown is being debated already, caused, POLITICO says, by a stalemate over the proposed border wall. Although a government funding deadline is only two weeks away, Democrats and Republicans are dug in as each side is "upping its demands and vowing not to...

The New York Times and most other urban papers have a certain amount of trouble painting realistic pictures of what is going on down on the farm. Still, they try and NYT is reporting this week that "America's farmers have been shut out of foreign markets, hit with retaliatory tariffs and...

Well, there has been at least a glimmer of hope that better global trade relationships could be hammered out in the recent high-level meeting that was held last week as well as one planned for the coming G-20 meeting in Argentina. However, Bloomberg says that the most recent APEC meeting...

POLITICO reported late last week that while President Trump is touting his trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a victory, emerging complaints from liberals and conservatives are threatening it in Congress. Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the deal in the House, say they want to see...

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is no shrinking violet. The New York Times reported this week that he firmly and directly countered the president's loud and repeated attacks this week. The Times said Powell hammered on two simple themes during an hour-long...

It seems that nothing is ever simple. Now, Bloomberg is reporting that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is opining that that the rising U.S. debt burden could derail the current expansion. And he is warning that the tight labor market could lift inflation.

Last week, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro warned "Wall Street bankers and hedge-fund managers to back down from their push for President Donald Trump to strike a quick trade deal with China's Xi Jinping," Bloomberg says. Navarro did not pull punches. "As part of a Chinese...

Lest anyone harbor an optimistic thought on trade policy ahead of the meeting with China's Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump at the upcoming Group of 20 summit, move toward peace "is likely to take months to wrangle and is unlikely to bring immediate relief for companies from the...