Florida Banking October 2023

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latest listening technologies to monitor our country. Earlier this year, the Biden Administration dealt with the embarrassing surveillance balloons flying over our country before it finally acted and shot down those devices. The Cuba regime needs the money, now more than ever, as it once needed Soviet aid to try to stay in power. With Soviet/Russian aid long gone, China is the new Communist partner en vogue. We Americans need to pay extra careful attention to China, because the big difference between the old Soviet Union and China is money — and China has lots of it. Most of China’s money comes from you and me, as we continue to build the $500 billion annual trade imbalance between our countries. What does that mean? It means that our country buys $500 billion more annually in products and services than China buys from us. You can see where my op-ed is going. China is not a friend of the United States. China is our rival and enemy. So, what do we do about it? This

Administration and all future American presidents need to start taking China seriously, realize that we are not going to change China, and that we need to stop appeasing it. To American corporations manufacturing in China, the time has come to re-evaluate your operations there and to start thinking of alternative manufacturing sites. Since most of the products being manufactured in China are being consumed here at home, why not bring those manufacturing facilities back here to the United States? Or, at the very least, to our hemisphere — in order to create jobs in countries that have been longtime American allies. We need to realize one simple fact: the more we buy from China, the richer they get. And the richer China gets, the more dangerous it becomes as it continues building up its military force around the world, including a mere 90 miles from our shores. The time has come to care about China and Cuba.

JANUARY 24, 2024

during the 2024 Legislative Session and spend a day at the Capitol discussing important banking and economic issues with Florida legislators. The day ends with Capitol Night—a dinner held at FBA headquarters.