Simon Paynton

Hawley’s own proposal is essentially an unintentional confession of how tariffs work in reality. They don’t punish foreigners for producing foreign goods in foreign countries! They are a tax on imports, paid by the importer and the cost eventually paid by the consumer, even if the importer eats some of the tariff.

The government will collect m…[Read more]

@Unseen – I hope I was not read by anyone to be saying they want to completely destroy the economy.

No, not at all. However, I did entertain that thought myself at one point, when Trump allowed his sycophants to make a lot of money when he said “Now would be a good time to buy shares”.

Project 2025 is less about governance and more about remaking the state in ways that require large-scale disruption. Doge was the first step. The rapid-fire blunderbuss approach that Steve Bannon mentioned is still happening. Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” had warning signs that match much of current MAGA blueprint. While the citiz…[Read more]

Sitting in the sun outside Starbucks today, I overheard people sarcastically toasting  (or roasting) Trump for the probable reduction in coffee prices here as Brazil starts to export its coffee to Europe instead of the USA.  People are not going to play his game. Just ignore him and make new friends instead.

The Canadians will happily and safely dance with their friends.

I think the biggest issue for most countries is that Trump cannot be trusted. The rest of the world has watched in bafflement and dismay at how Trump has treated Canada. In his first term he overhauled the NAFTA trade agreement, which became USMCA. I will admit that was a better trade agreement and one built on a broadly stable and modernized…[Read more]

🙂 Sorry, I only intended to paste as far as “Author: (you)”, not the entire code….

Yes, there are numerous sources of good data and methods to do this. I used to be involved in economic forecasting for a university “thinktank” in a previous career.  Individual States can offer labor rates from jobless claims and job openings from Linkedin etc. MasterCard and Bank of America track credit card spending. The varied sources allo…[Read more]

The worst thing that Trump did was to fire Erika McEntarfer as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The damage to the reputation of the trustworthiness of US economic data, used by financial forecast organizations around the world, is now undermined, thanks to the guy who insists he is 6’3’’ and weighs 215…….