Field while his chief strategy architect one sean told the Financial Times while was working with volkswagens audi and a joint venture between chinas g a c and japans toyota to provide their a tech for self driving vehicles the waterway executive added that he expects the vehicles with autonomous driving components in 2021 or 2022 and that they would be available in china and europe. From tech to food in china the countrys consumer inflation grew to its highest level in 15 months and may the Consumer Price inflation rate jumped to 2. 7 percent in may thats the highest level since february of last year the number grew 2. 5 percent in april the spike is mostly due to the ongoing african swine swine fever outbreak in china that is pushing up the prices of pork and weather issues that have caused a shortage of supply of fresh fruits that plus the ongoing trade dispute between the u. S. And china has created uncertainty in chinas economy fresh fruit prices rose in may by a record 26. 7 percent year over year and cork rose by 18. 2 percent over the same period of time meanwhile the countrys producer Price Inflation the metric for prices that factories charge their wholesalers increased by point 6 percent in may. Going. To survey the slew of china news today as john quality of the Business School versus miami welcome back to. Thank you 1st of all what is your take on the story that we just reported this continuing swine flu swine fever i should say a bit demick which seems to be driving an increase in the chinese inflation rate and this unusual rise in fresh fruit prices by nearly 27 percent in may. Its important because food prices are. Very visible to Chinese Consumers and Chinese Consumer confidence can be affected negatively by these kind of dramatic spikes. On the swine front one of the things through realize is that the Agricultural Sector in China Remains extremely fragmented there are literally millions of small farms and small producers across china and so while beijing has done a very good job of developing National Standards for food safety the level to which an Inspection Service exists across the range of provinces in China Remains limited and as a result enforcement of the standards at a local level on behalf of Consumer Protection remains somewhat weak. As a result you have these outbreaks which are not necessarily nationwide in scope of this point but they are sport outbreaks which end up disrupting supply chains and causing considerable inflation in individual cities individual markets theres no doubt that the weather related factors in Southern China have seriously affected fresh Fruit Production but this is also interesting because Chinese Consumers as theyve become wealthier more and more of the middle class are looking to buy Fresh Produce and so again at the market if there is considerable volatility in Retail Prices that has an impact on the Consumer Confidence and Consumer Trust in the government frankly room and hong kong has been in the news with the protests against a law that would allow extradition to the peoples republic of china now the hang seng index in hong kong is recording and sharpest drop in 5 weeks could this political controversy have a lasting Economic Impact in your view. Im not sure about the last thing Economic Impact but the hang saying is down 11 percent off its 52 week high and you know one of the interesting things to note here is that weve just come through the 30th anniversary all of the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989 the memories of Tiananmen Square linger long and hard in hong kong and i think its been an example of perhaps. Political naive it say that the administration there has promulgate did this extradition legislation around the time of the anniversary the 30th anniversary and that that has had a provocative effect on the large student population in hong kong which is always very keen to defend democratic freedoms and sees the extradition legislation as really quite draconian allowing for any hong kong citizen or anyone on the street in hong kong in fact to be detained and. Transferred to Mainland China for trial. And back to the dispute with the us its probably too soon to invoke the cold war as a reference for this trade dispute but there was a notable drop off in attendance from china at the annual select usa Investment Summit here in the United States hosted officially by the u. S. Department of commerce just 76. 00 delegates from china attending this year reportedly down by half from 2 years ago is this a special case because of the direct involvement of the Current Administration in that event or do you see a real trend starting of a division in these conferences that seemed for a while to have put aside National Legions as. Well chinese overseas direct investment has full one percent. No sleigh in the last 3 years and the numbers for China Investment into the u. S. For example were 55000000000. 00 worth of investment dollars worth of investment in 2016 falling to 9000000000. 00 in 2017 falling to 5000000000 in 2018. Over old china has read directed its Foreign Direct Investment away from the u. S. And europe towards belt and Road Initiative countries. But this is not to detract from the fact that the drop in the u. S. Foreign direct investment is particularly high part of that is a function of us regulators blocking chinese acquisitions in the u. S. In fact last year approximately 14 deals. Potential acquisitions were blocked by the u. S. Under the regulations and as a result obviously the actual numbers for Foreign Direct Investment into china from china into the u. S. Of folding so the attendance of this conference is really a reflection of these realities thats interesting a lot of that decline apparently is as you know due to official decisions from citi has declined ing that Chinese Investment i had to get your reaction to white house economic spokesperson larry kudlow who said on a rival network that the u. S. Could still hit 3 percent growth for this year even if there is no way as aleutian of the trade fight with china is that a credible prediction. I think it remains a credible production. Obviously the recent job creation numbers were relatively low and recent manufacturing order numbers have been a little bit soft but the fed of course has indicated that it stands ready to and so the free with a rate reduction if needed to keep the economy humming along its worth noting of course that the u. S. G. D. P. Growth if its 3 percent for this year will still be hof of the g. D. P. Growth in china which is for costs to be between 6 and 6. 5 percent for 2019 right and another head turning comment this week came from the head of the u. S. China Business Council who said the u. S. Was trying to murder while away he basically allege that the white house could have banned simply banned way from u. S. Infrastructure but their actions indicate ambition beyond that to not just keep them out of u. S. Systems but put them out of business whats your reaction to that claim well obviously huawei is a Flagship NationalChampion Company for china and for Chinese Technology as its a Wonderful Company its brought terrific innovation already to the marketplace and in many markets not just in not just in consumer. Smartphones as we as we have seen but beyond that they have very very Strong Technology and one of the things that were seeing gradually is that this tariff war is morphing into a Technology War where the United States is using blocking tactics to try and slow down competition that might gain a march on us competitors world wide so by. Seeing. U. S. Companies such as google and microsoft and so forth from selling their products or services thing. Products they of course are making while way products potentially less attractive in the Global Market so even though why waste selves very little in the United States as it is if these actions on the part of the u. S. Government prevent huawei accessing Technology Upgrades from its u. S. Suppliers or buying qualcomm chips etc that is potentially going to slow while way down and therefore put a little bit of a break on wall ways of delivery to dominate the 5 g. Networks globally now excellent insights from john quelled steen at the unit of dean of the university of miamis Business School thank you very much for your time. Thank you. And turning from china to india the Corporate Affairs ministry there is seeking to ban 2 well known Accounting Firms from doing business in india for 5 years over alleged failures and auditing the now notorious bank l i n f S Financial ServicesMinistry Officials have potentially petitioned the National Company law tribunals for a 5 year ban on Deloitte Haskins cells and an affiliate of k p m g b s R N Associates over their failures and on a thing of infrastructure leasing in Financial Services the ministry accuses accountants at the 2 firms of colluding with the management of i l n f s to conceal the poor state of the failings banks finances those charges were 1st officially levelled last month after investigation by any is Serious FraudInvestigation Office last year another big name in accounting p w c was barred from on his english to audit Indian Companies for 2 years over similar charges and another case. For a quick break but hang here because when we return Financial Risks are not unique to china as the u. S. May start feeling some heat despite some positive news from the stock market professor wolf richard wolf is on hand to help us sort through stocks and what we can expect moving forward as he was open opens up multiple fronts on a trade war and as we go to break here are the numbers of the. See a little community. Normal guy called. A memory a little you know will show up at the Opening Night if in your ocean cruise it. Was a march. Or said some of you up on the board was to be with them when the. Bus was not will. You when you just knew he was losing you but im still. Leaning to surat yes something. Must have learned something. New there are these which. Dealt with the legacy of the local which is based on what. You are one with your means leakers the chance to start to look at your bullshit to look at you look is a look at you. That everyone. You know if you dont want something. Different. You know world a big part of some new things a lot and conspiracy its time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that Mainstream Media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other its time for Critical Thinking its time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. There are 2 big proposed mergers to report today the salt systems of france has made an offer to take over method Data Solutions a firm that markets software for use in Clinical Trials of new medical treatments for 5 point 8000000000. 00 mega data reform reportedly accepted the offer which works out to a price of 92. 00 and for 0. 25 per share meditators shares pushed toward 100. 00 late on tuesday as reports of the offer circulated only to fall closer to 91. 00 on reports that the deal was moving forward meanwhile in media merger news giant private equity firm k k r is offering 7700000000 dollars to buyout and bester is in the Axel Springer media group Axel Springer owns properties including the Online OutletBusiness Insider and then german newspaper billed k k r has promised if the 63. 00 euros per share offer is approved to keep their new stake in actual springer for at least 5 years to give the media group time to stabilize after an expected low single digit decline in sales for this year that assurance seems to have so helped secure support for the deal from free to springer with all of the companys namesake and founder. Argentina agricultural exporters say they are ready to pick up the slack of the Trump Administration eventually does impose trade tariffs on mexican imports and mexico strikes back against the us the us currently captures 95 percent of Mexican Court import purchases and is the top exporter to mexico of wheat the president of the argentine grain exporters trade association gustava diego to us said told reuters that tit for tat terrorist between the u. S. And mexico would neutralize u. S. Exporters advantage and lower transport costs to mexico and change the game for argentina exporters mr david us told the news agency right now argentine corn has a very Competitive Price and there is plenty. Volume available for export to mexico u. S. President donald trump announced last week that his Terror Threat against my sco was indefinitely suspended and suggested he may still impose the tariffs if he finds fault with mexicos implementation of their agreement on migration issues. And here to give us his usual bracing economic update is Richard WolfeProfessor Emeritus members of economics at the university of massachusetts and hurst and the author of democracy at work a cure for capitalism welcome back professor wolf. Glad to be here glad to be here the 1st item i wanted for you is this apparent admission by the congressional author of the trump tax cut former house ways and Means Committee chair kevin brady of texas that the tax cuts will not pay for themselves its a little bit like the emperor saying well i may be a little underdressed whats your reaction to this concession. Well you know it is pathetic isnt all the game played by corporations and rich people when they want to pay fewer taxes and the game is simple you cant say honestly i dont want to pay push it on somebody else these are already the richest people and the biggest corporations so they hire economists who are sadly for sale to come up with interesting ways to suggest that cutting taxes on big corporations wont shift the burden to the rest of us either and having to make up those taxes or in suffering a loss of Public Services so they make up ideas like this one if we cut the taxes it will boost the economy and if more people are working in the economy is doing better everybody will have to pay more taxes and in the end the taxes will be repaid by the Economic Growth that this tax cut will produce in other words pa in the sky everything is going to get better just cut our taxes now and youll see what mr brady is admitting is they said all that including him they said all that they. Promised all that and now we see as happens so often that it was just b. S. To get that tax cut through and then the chips fall a year later and we have a story like today but by this time most people have forgotten and the damage has been done certainly and you took note on twitter of some wage news in the United States whats the latest news for people who work for a wage in the United States. Its very very hard thats why i put out the tweet about it today the bureau of labor statistics the Government Agency in charge of doing this kind of research announced that over the last month here in the United States average wages when adjusted for the inflation went up point 3 percent well at least you might say they went up 5. 3 percent but when you look closer its the hourly wage and then when you look even closer you discover that the weekly hours worked went down by point 3 percent which effectively meant that the weekly wage which is what of course matters