Thread by @ASCOA

And we're live with #2020WCA!

First up, COA VP @ericfarns will welcome guests, and then Clay Neff—president at Chevron for Middle East, Africa, South America Exploration and Production—will introduce our keynote speaker, NEC Director Larry Kudlow. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Clay Neff: If I may take the liberty to speak on behalf of [COA] member companies, we are fortunate to work w/an administration that sees us as partners. … [Larry] Kudlow understands better than anyone that free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.

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Larry Kudlow on the effect of COVID-19 on the economy:

Turns out the restraint on the economy and consumer spending and other things from the flare-up from the economy was very mild. At least that’s what we see so far. If anything now, we may be bouncing back.

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Kudlow on school openings:

The Trump administration is a very strong proponent of getting schools open. All the studies show that the K-12 kids are the least vulnerable. … Everything we do w/schools and businesses has to be safe and secure, following the guidelines.

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I think that’s an extremely important deal. … It may be the best deal of its kind ever written.

— Larry Kudlow, NEC director, on the USMCA trade deal with Mexico and Canada

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Kudlow on Beijing's presence in Latin America:

We are quite concerned about it. … We are particularly unhappy with China’s continuous efforts to subvert American businesses, to hack, to commit espionage, to eavesdrop, and … to undermine financial markets.

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Responding to a question from Principal Financial on Chilean pension reform, Kudlow declines to weigh in as it’s a domestic regulatory matter but says that he’ll “look into it” because, “I’ve always had an interest in ‘the Chilean miracle.’”

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Kudlow, responding to question on global business debt levels:

I don’t follow the corporate debt numbers for every country, but what I’ll say is, in the U.S., which is a good representation of the rest of the world, the credit risk spreads have been narrowing significantly.

Kudlow says he personally believes all of Latin America should be dollarized.

"That would take away a lot of problems. Stable currencies are essential to economic growth."

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And that wraps up today's #2020WCA session.

Many thanks to speakers Larry Kudlow, Clay Neff, Amb. Kimberly Breier, @ericfarns, and @s_segal, and to our sponsors, members, and all who joined us online.

You can watch the video of today's event here: as-coa.org/events/2020wca…