Enjoying the view from Limbo
Donald Trump believes deeply and unwaveringly that he can personally produce economic prosperity by coercively micromanaging markets to create his preferred outcomes. In other words, he is a thoroughgoing statist. He is proving this yet again with regard to his tariff obsession. China has responded to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods by reducing its purchases of American crops. Trump is now promising to...
Just yesterday, an idiot of world-historical proportions boasted about his “strong and personal relationship” with a bloodless tyrant, and how they were in the midst of working out a mutually advantageous trade deal. Today, however, the idiot is out there tweeting warnings about how he might have to impose new tariffs if the tyrant doesn’t play fair. Donald Trump, labelling himself “a Tariff...
While reading a news item on the CBS website about how China and Russia are flagrantly violating the sanctions against North Korea, while Kim Jong-un continues to develop his nuclear weapons program and Mike Pompeo retreats on his over-confident rhetoric of two weeks ago, I happened to notice that the site was plugging live coverage of a Trump rally in Ohio. Being in...
The next time anyone, friend or foe, tells me to lighten up on Trump and his cultists, accusing me of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” or of being a “NeverTrumper” — go ahead, I dare you to define either of those terms in real English without making a fool of yourself — I now know the simple, one-word reply with which I will gleefully spare...
Trump is at it again, congratulating Turkish Islamist thug, opposition persecutor, and press censor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his recent election victory as de facto ruler for life, just as he congratulated Russian KGB thug, opposition persecutor, and press censor Vladimir Putin on his recent election victory as de facto ruler for life, and just as he congratulated Chinese Communist Party thug, opposition...
I recently wrote about the mass purge of Trump critics (i.e., non-sycophants) at RedState, in the aftermath of which the site’s co-founder, Erick Erickson, declared the “old RedState” — that is, the actual constitutionalist-leaning political commentary website that used to go by that name — “dead.” How dead? Well, a few weeks back, I took a quick scroll through the site’s recent articles,...
What would you do to please your boss? Would you work some extra hours without pay? Put up with a little unfair criticism? Take the blame for some of his mistakes? How about rejecting your whole professional legacy, contradicting the principles of your trade, spouting overt lies or obfuscating sophistries to protect your boss’s honor at the expense of your own? If you...
The idea that American manufacturing workers, the U.S. economy, or American citizens in general, stand to benefit from tariffs on imports from America’s major trading partners is so inherently ridiculous that apart from a few Russian trolls copy-and-paste internet commenters, no one but corporate schemers hoping for a short term bonanza on American steel investments is supporting Trump’s madness at face value. There...
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is a billionaire who made his fortune investing in failing American steel and manufacturing companies and then selling them at a profit. He naturally favors using federal trade policy to give an artificial short-term boost to American steel and manufacturing. After all, while tariffs will ultimately devastate the U.S. economy, workers, and middle class, he gets richer. This...
Donald Trump is predictably retreating somewhat on his tariffs proposal, under strong disapproval from much of his fan base. He is not a leader, but a reality TV star, so no one should expect anything else from him — this is all a ratings game for him. The driving concern in all things is “How do I maintain my position as Number One...
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