The discussion is three hours. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thank you for your patience. Im nick burns, director of Aspen Strategy Group and welcome to this session on American Global leadership in the 21st century. First, i want to thank dla piper for giving us the space is horny. We very much appreciate that. I want to thank all of you for being here, members of our Strategy Group, in particular senator dan of alaskan who im honored to interest you in a minute. Let me tell you about our program this morning. We at the Aspen Strategy Group are 35 years old. We have this radical notion that even in washington there can be an organization that is resolutely nonpartisan. We have been resolutely nonpartisan for 35 years. Our founders are bill perry, joan i, a lot. We meet annually in aspen, colorado to discuss and debate big ideas about america foreignpolicy and our Global Leadership in each year we hear a book based on our proceedings for publication in this years book is availa
My chart of the morning has to be with carper copper. ,ou are looking at nineday run the longest winning streak since 2004. What it means for inflation, we will dissect that. David lets find out what is going on outside the business world. Emma some new Jersey Transit riders are facing decades of tax hikes to subsidize a new 12 billion into manhattan. Outgoing new Jersey Governor Chris Christie proposed a surcharge in his state until at least 2038. He canceled the hudson river rail tunnel in 2010, saying he did not want to burden taxpayers. The great lakes is dealing with recordbreaking snowfall. Yuri, pennsylvania was hit particularly hard with 63 inches of snow since christmas day. At least another five to 10 inches are expected. Chinas leading policymakers plan to discuss amending the National Constitution for the third time since 2004. The decision was made today at the meeting headed by the president. The party will convene in january. There are no details where possible changes c
Now. Brent down more than 1 . Natural gas up slightly. Mr. Wonderful and mrs. Wonderful. Are we allowed to say that youre not together, but thats were you watching before yes, i thoughtthat was a great tease. Kayla is mrs. Wonderful. Shes terrific kevins the original. Maybe im lower case w. Weve got a lot of news to talk about this morning. Geely auto has bought an 8 stake in volvo also giving gely the rights. Gely also owns the truck maker volvo started to do much better. Are you guys volvo fans . Ely als. Volvo started to do much better. Are you guys volvo fans . So i always had a volvo growing up im a fan. Kevin, i can tell youre not volvo. Im getting to the place where i think all auto manufacturers are going to make rail cars in 20 years. Because autonomous driving whether its for individuals, trucking, the brand wont matter as much. You dont even know the name of the company that makes all the rail cars. Its a huge company but nobody cares. But you know so tell us i dont know, ac
You have confident consumers. You have consumers that are spending. Now they have got even more reason to be optimistic with tax reform and i think you say see a bump here. As you know a lot of our media brethren were telling people how this tax deal was so terrible and essentially only the Koch Brothers will benefit. Now that it is enacted people see you get tax cuts across the income ladder. I think that could be another driver for more optimism. David cabot, before we jump right into politics as james wanted us to, we tend to focus always on amazon and online stores. Incredible thing about this, this is still the stores that people walked into. Real Stores People walked into that led this growth. I dont think that will be a long term thing. I think amazon will continue to take over that space but david their growth is much greater than the growth of stores. Exactly. It is interesting to see how to go back to politics a year ago a lot of people were saying take everything out of mark
While some investors like it when activists come in to shake up public companies, weve got someone who says theyre ruining corporate america. Hell make his case coming up. And the new years going to bring new business in california that would be legalized Recreational Marijuana what took them so long im surprised its taken california this long. You moving back no, i go visit family once in a while, though. Were going to introduce you to the First Company to be licensed to sell in california coming up. Lets get straight, though, to the confusion thats for sure. The confusion surrounding the tax bill as americans continue to line up to prepay their property taxes before the new rules kick in in the new year. The irs did release that memo late yesterday in an attempt to clarify who exactly can take advantage of the prepayment. But there are still plenty of questions. So we sent our guy, eric chemi, out, to look into this he joins us now from a hightax town in new yorks Westchester County