For Donald Trump to want to resurrect the TPP—to recognize he made a huge mistake back in January 2017—would be possible only if Donald Trump actually had ideas and preferences about policies...
Gotta wonder why you're "sanewashing" Ronald Reagan. Ollie North was nothing but a tool. After the Democratic House and the Republican Senate passed, and Reagan signed, legislation banning U.S. support for the Contras, Reagan told North it was his job to keep the Contras together, "body and soul." Reagan was as well the prime driver for the "Iran Connection", desperate to obtain the hostages, inquiring about their fate from his National Security Advisor every day. No aspect of the Iran Contra affair would have occurred without Reagan's constant pressure, overriding the explicit opposition of both Secretary of State Schultz and Secretary of Defense Weinberger, men whose judgment Reagan had enormous faith in.
Similarly, Stockman had nothing to do with the "collapse" of American manufacturing in the Midwest. As a youngish reporter, I sat in a congressional committee room in 1981 and heard Lynn Williams, head of the Steelworkers, beg for tariffs: "The South Korean mills are state of the art. We can't compete." The Carter administration had already deregulated trucking, the airlines, and the railroads in order to combat inflation, naturally weakening their respective unions as well. Stockman was a "power" in the Reagan admnistration for less than a year, but the administration's deep hostility to unions (remember the air traffic controllers?) lasted for eight. The heavily unionized Midwest was a product of the "natural" monopoly that American industry possessed immediately after WWII. After the monopoly ended, the bloated, inefficient companies and their unions fell by the wayside. I gues you could call that "creative destruction", which is not a lot of fun when you are the one being destructed.
I think the anti-democratic drive (call that a plan or an instinct) of Trump and plenty of his cronies needs to be better explored.
Unlike tariff policies, take a look at issues that I group into the destruction of civil liberties. He rarely flip-flops on those and is happy to flout the Courts.
All together, including his tariff flip-flopping, Trump seeks to create a society of domination and shares that vision with Musk and others. Curtailing trade and civil liberties fly in the face of liberalist society, which America has always been. Trump wishes to destroy our way of life any way he can.
'The countries' three trade ministers agreed to "closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high-level" talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement deal to promote "regional and global trade", according to a statement released after the meeting.'
I think perhaps the ship has sailed for Bessent/Trump on this one.
Let's see.... My first poli-sci professor drilled into our heads that power comes from rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies. It is always important with trump to remind yourself that his friends and allies are his co-conspirators and counterparties in his corrupt business and moral dealings. They are not US citizens, institutions, or legitimate US firms.
George Bush was doing more presidential duties when Reagan was in office. It is probably why he was not an enthusiastic candidate later on, was probably too tired out and the first Iraq war took a lot out of him.
Reagan had a very good female speechwriter. And he was very good at giving them. But he was a favorite subject on TV late shows.
This is a president who was probably in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. At his meetings you were required to eat jellybeans. He was a believer in astrology.
It's fine, copy-editing aside. A bit mild, but then that's your way. Even the judges are obliged to be somewhat candid these days. And then there is Ken White. Some future Gibbon may find this sort of thing useful should he seek to chronicle our decline.
I noted on further reading of a few typos, that the economic historian could use one. Not really.
Here I am at the end of my life and the country is in the throws of battle for the soul of the country. A battle as important as the civil war and hopefully with a similar outcome and not with the blood. I will not live to see the resolution. Crap!!!
I got to here: "Larry, there are no policies. Nothing, at least, that we would call policy, with staffwork and modeling and analysis and scenarios and objectives and goals."
The little peabrain exploded with "Reality Based Community" of Carl Rove.
A reality based blogger will judiciously study insanity and while he does that, insanity will move on to more insanity.
I agree with it, but what's the VAR of an economist emoting on politics? Even if there were a palace coup, they wouldn't listen to you. I think the best you can achieve is to sway the general opinion of what a good trade policy would look like. Maybe in a few years or a generation, that will be enacted.
Gotta wonder why you're "sanewashing" Ronald Reagan. Ollie North was nothing but a tool. After the Democratic House and the Republican Senate passed, and Reagan signed, legislation banning U.S. support for the Contras, Reagan told North it was his job to keep the Contras together, "body and soul." Reagan was as well the prime driver for the "Iran Connection", desperate to obtain the hostages, inquiring about their fate from his National Security Advisor every day. No aspect of the Iran Contra affair would have occurred without Reagan's constant pressure, overriding the explicit opposition of both Secretary of State Schultz and Secretary of Defense Weinberger, men whose judgment Reagan had enormous faith in.
Similarly, Stockman had nothing to do with the "collapse" of American manufacturing in the Midwest. As a youngish reporter, I sat in a congressional committee room in 1981 and heard Lynn Williams, head of the Steelworkers, beg for tariffs: "The South Korean mills are state of the art. We can't compete." The Carter administration had already deregulated trucking, the airlines, and the railroads in order to combat inflation, naturally weakening their respective unions as well. Stockman was a "power" in the Reagan admnistration for less than a year, but the administration's deep hostility to unions (remember the air traffic controllers?) lasted for eight. The heavily unionized Midwest was a product of the "natural" monopoly that American industry possessed immediately after WWII. After the monopoly ended, the bloated, inefficient companies and their unions fell by the wayside. I gues you could call that "creative destruction", which is not a lot of fun when you are the one being destructed.
I think the anti-democratic drive (call that a plan or an instinct) of Trump and plenty of his cronies needs to be better explored.
Unlike tariff policies, take a look at issues that I group into the destruction of civil liberties. He rarely flip-flops on those and is happy to flout the Courts.
All together, including his tariff flip-flopping, Trump seeks to create a society of domination and shares that vision with Musk and others. Curtailing trade and civil liberties fly in the face of liberalist society, which America has always been. Trump wishes to destroy our way of life any way he can.
Perhaps Scott Bessent might want to take note of this:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-china-japan-agree-promote-regional-trade-trump-tariffs-loom-2025-03-30/
'The countries' three trade ministers agreed to "closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high-level" talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement deal to promote "regional and global trade", according to a statement released after the meeting.'
I think perhaps the ship has sailed for Bessent/Trump on this one.
Let's see.... My first poli-sci professor drilled into our heads that power comes from rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies. It is always important with trump to remind yourself that his friends and allies are his co-conspirators and counterparties in his corrupt business and moral dealings. They are not US citizens, institutions, or legitimate US firms.
I hate liking something so dismal but you're right.
George Bush was doing more presidential duties when Reagan was in office. It is probably why he was not an enthusiastic candidate later on, was probably too tired out and the first Iraq war took a lot out of him.
Reagan had a very good female speechwriter. And he was very good at giving them. But he was a favorite subject on TV late shows.
This is a president who was probably in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. At his meetings you were required to eat jellybeans. He was a believer in astrology.
He finally died from Alzheimer’s.
It's fine, copy-editing aside. A bit mild, but then that's your way. Even the judges are obliged to be somewhat candid these days. And then there is Ken White. Some future Gibbon may find this sort of thing useful should he seek to chronicle our decline.
HaHaHaha!!!! Film Editor!!
I noted on further reading of a few typos, that the economic historian could use one. Not really.
Here I am at the end of my life and the country is in the throws of battle for the soul of the country. A battle as important as the civil war and hopefully with a similar outcome and not with the blood. I will not live to see the resolution. Crap!!!
I got to here: "Larry, there are no policies. Nothing, at least, that we would call policy, with staffwork and modeling and analysis and scenarios and objectives and goals."
The little peabrain exploded with "Reality Based Community" of Carl Rove.
A reality based blogger will judiciously study insanity and while he does that, insanity will move on to more insanity.
I agree with it, but what's the VAR of an economist emoting on politics? Even if there were a palace coup, they wouldn't listen to you. I think the best you can achieve is to sway the general opinion of what a good trade policy would look like. Maybe in a few years or a generation, that will be enacted.