On The Money: Trump, Xi speak amid rising trade tensions | Kudlow rules out deal to raise minimum wage | Commerce to review tariff exemption process | Google employees walk out to protest harassment

Happy Thursday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL–Trump talks trade with Chinese president amid heightened tensions: President Trump said Thursday that he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump in a tweet described their phone conversation as “long and very good” and said they placed a “heavy emphasis” on trade.

{mosads}The president indicated they would discuss the issue at next month’s Group of 20 (G-20) summit of world economic powers. Such a meeting has not yet been officially announced by the White House.

“Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade. Those discussions are moving along nicely with meetings being scheduled at the G-20 in Argentina,” Trump tweeted. “Also had good discussion on North Korea!” The Hill’s Jordan Fabian fills us in here.

 

What comes next: Trump warned earlier this week that he was ready to move ahead with billions of dollars worth of new tariffs on Chinese goods if he doesn’t reach an agreement with Xi.

“I have $267 billion waiting to go if we can’t make a deal,” he told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. 

“I’d like to make a deal right now,” he added, but said that China is “not ready.”

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the U.S. was preparing to slap tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports by early December if talks between Trump and Xi at the G-20 fail to ease trade tensions.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Thursday that the talks could include trade and laid blame for the tensions between the U.S. and China at Beijing’s feet.

“If we could reach a satisfactory deal with China, the tariffs could be pulled,” Kudlow said, specifying that agreements would have to be reached on issues such as intellectual property theft and property ownership.

If the sides fail to reach a deal, he added, “then the president will continue to aggressively pursue his agenda.”

“The principal culprit is China,” Kudlow said. “I think only they can break the logjam.”

 

Tensions keep rising: The Justice Department on Thursday announced new charges against a Chinese state-owned company, a Taiwanese company and three Taiwanese nationals for engaging in economic espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. 

The entities and individuals charged are accused of stealing trade secrets from Micron Technology, an U.S.-based semiconductor company.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the charges at a press conference, describing Chinese economic espionage as a grave threat to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness.

“The problem has been growing rapidly, and along with China’s other unfair trade practices, it poses a real and illegal threat to our nation’s economic prosperity and competitiveness,” Sessions said in remarks at the Justice Department.

The indictment unveiled Thursday alleges that the defendants conspired to pilfer trade secrets from Micron, particularly information about dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), a technology used to store data in electronic devices that is manufactured by Micron, and pass it to the Chinese government. The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant breaks it down here.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Kudlow: Hurricanes could cost 60k jobs in October employment report: President Trump’s top economic adviser said Thursday that White House economists expect devastating hurricanes to dampen the monthly federal jobs report to be released Friday.

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Thursday that the White House Council of Economic Advisers has analyzed the impact of October hurricanes on U.S. employment, and that he expects the storms to cost the country 60,000 jobs.

“The CEA — Council of Economic Advisers — has taken a look at the hurricanes and we may see a 60,000 drop from the hurricanes. May. This is just a suggestion, this is very inexact,” Kudlow said Thursday on Fox Business Network.

Kudlow said that while he’s anticipating a 60,000-job hit from the hurricane, the actual loss could be anywhere from 30,000 to 90,000 jobs.

“We have to be careful here and recognize that probably, probably, you’re going to get some noise from the hurricane.

 

A weird wrinkle: Kudlow did not specifically cite CEA as his source for the hurricane impact, but appeared to suggest it came from internal White House analysis. Federal jobs data is shared with the White House in advance of the report’s release through secured communication lines and closely guarded by top administration officials.

 

The forecast: Private sector forecasters expect the economy to have added between 175,000 and 190,000 jobs in October, though the ADP national employment report released Wednesday showed businesses adding 227,000 jobs in October.

More from Kudlow’s busy Thursday:

• Kudlow said at a Washington Post event Thursday that the recent dip in the stock market, which has all but wiped out the gains for 2018, is partly due to election jitters. Economists and analysts will tell you that the correction is far more tied to signs that the U.S. economy is past peak growth with several challenges, like a trade war and fading global growth, ahead.
• Kudlow also said he would oppose any deal that would raise the federal minimum wage.

 

Voters credit Trump over Obama for booming economy: poll: More voters credit President Trump than former President Obama for the current state of the economy, according to a new poll.

The Harris Poll, conducted with Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies, found that 47 percent of respondents said they believe President Trump is responsible for the current economy, compared to 21 percent who said they believe Obama is responsible.

Among those surveyed, 15 percent said they think Republicans in Congress are responsible for the state of the economy, versus 10 percent who said the same of Democrats in Congress.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• The Commerce Department’s office of inspector general (IG) is planning to audit the process by which firms gain exemptions to U.S. tariffs, according to documents obtained by The Hill.
• Amazon’s increased minimum wage went into effect on Thursday, providing a $15 per hour salary for all employees of the retail and technology giant.
• Google employees are staging walkouts at offices around the world to protest the company’s handling of misconduct allegations against high-level executives.
• Shares of Apple fell 7 percent following the release of its third-quarter earnings as the company missed shipment estimates on iPhones, offered light guidance and announced major changes to its reporting structure, according to CNBC. 
• House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling told Reuters that he’s still hopeful the Senate will pass more than three-dozen bills meant to boost business investment before the year is over. 
• BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink said he expects to continue to invest in Saudi Arabia and that it’s unclear who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• General Electric’s mountain of debt is forcing the company to wean itself off the $1.1 trillion commercial bond market in favor of more expensive bank financing.

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• More than 50 companies signed onto a statement released Wednesday supporting transgender equality in the wake of a report that the Trump administration is seeking to change the legal definition of “gender” to exclude transgender and nonbinary people.
• First lady Melania Trump’s trip to Cairo cost taxpayers more than $95,000, according to federal spending records.