A Chinese Glass Factory Opened in Ohio. Its Rivals Can’t Compete.

Jessica Mendoza (0:00)

Hey, this is Jessica Mendoza, host of The Journal Podcast, our show about money, business, and power. If you're looking for more deeply reported stories like we share every day, consider becoming a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. Visit subscribe.wsj.com/thejournal, all lowercase, to subscribe now.

Alex Ossola (0:23)

The White House is having trouble convincing Congress to ban Wall Street from buying homes. Plus, President Trump wants other countries to invest in manufacturing in the US. What happens when that country is China?

Gavin Bade (0:34)

What China hawks in Washington would say is if you let companies that come from a non-market economy like China, that is going to hollow out American manufacturing from within.

Alex Ossola (0:44)

And Ghislaine Maxwell takes the fifth today after questions from Congress. It's Monday, February 9th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. The US has captured another oil tanker after a month spent chasing it. US forces tracked the ship from near Venezuela all the way to the Indian Ocean. It's the eighth sanctioned oil tanker US forces have grabbed. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate, today refused to answer questions from Congress. The House Oversight Committee is investigating how the government handled the Epstein case. Maxwell joined this morning's closed door deposition virtually from prison.

James Comer (1:32)

As expected, Ghislaine Maxwell took the fifth and refused to answer any questions. This obviously is very disappointing. We had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators. We sincerely want to get to the truth for the American people and justice for the survivors. That's what this investigation is about.

Alex Ossola (1:55)

That's Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, the chair of the Oversight Committee. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping recruit and groom underage girls. Her lawyer said Maxwell was prepared to speak if President Trump gave her clemency. Also on Capitol Hill, one of President Trump's signature housing proposals, a ban on Wall Street investors buying single-family homes, isn't going over so well. People familiar with the matter say the White House has pressured Congressional Republicans in recent weeks to include the investor ban as an amendment in one of the two major housing bills currently working their way through the House and the Senate. The House is set to vote on its bill as soon as tonight and is expected to pass with bipartisan support. The Senate passed a similar bill last fall. Rebecca Picciotto, who covers residential real estate for the journal, says lawmakers have been resistant.

Rebecca Picciotto (2:42)

Congressional Republicans who are on the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, committees that would need to approve any kind of amendment, they're still waiting on the White House to come up with definitions for institutional investor and single-family home before they decide whether they're going to pursue legislation. The other thing is that there's some just deep ideological opposition. You know, a lot of these traditional Republicans have like free market values and don't believe that the government should dictate what a business can or can't buy. The Wall Street investor ban that Trump is proposing has been long championed by some Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren. And so the idea of jumping into agreement with that side is not necessarily something that all of these congressional Republicans are getting on board for.

Alex Ossola (3:27)

Rebecca says Congress has its own ideas about how to improve the housing market.

Rebecca Picciotto (3:32)

If you look at both of the housing packages, the Housing for the 21st Century Act and the Road to Housing Act, both are really focused on spurring more housing, expanding housing finance options, and modernizing certain government housing programs. They both want to make it easier to build manufactured housing and streamline regulations like environmental reviews that historically have held up housing development and making it easier to build homes. This has not necessarily been the approach or at least the philosophy behind the proposals that Trump has put forward. He's dealing with this conundrum of wanting to boost affordability for a first-time homebuyer, but also realizing that that might require bringing down home values for existing homeowners. So his dilemma has pushed him to focus on kind of demand-side policies, but Congress is sort of squarely focused on supply-side solutions.

Alex Ossola (4:25)

Coming up, what happens when a Chinese company sets up a factory in the US.? And where are markets today after the Dow hit 50,000 on Friday? That's after the break.

Telus Demos (4:41)

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