Category Archives: Economy
Trumponomics
President Trump yesterday announced a 25% tariff on imported steel. Good news for American steelmakers but not so good for American Steel users. He also slapped aluminum with a 10% charge.
The news came as a surprise to the stock market. The Dow displayed its displeasure with Trumponomics by tanking 420 points. And it opened this morning down another 320.
Trumponomics: Tax Cuts and Tariffs
The news from Dan Henninger in the WSJ yesterday morning (before Trump’s announcement) was that the president is obsessed with jobs.
Every president claims to be a jobs president, but after a year it is becoming clear that this may be the only thing Donald Trump thinks about. He may even impose tariffs soon on imported steel, seeing only the protected jobs in front of him and missing the larger loss of jobs in steel-using industries.
But the bigger surprise might be that Trump’s keeping his campaign promises, from tax cuts to tariffs.
The End is Coming
Republicans pushed through a pro growth tax cut. But then they passed a budget full of deficit spending. On Face the Nation Rand Paul called his party hypocritical.
The End is Coming
Kevin Williamson at National Review calls Senator Paul “fantastically bitchy.”
But he also says “the end is coming.”
Stock Market Whiplash
The economy’s too good. The beer’s too cold. The stock market is suffering whiplash.
Pelosi’s Crumbs
Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s tax cuts for workers “crumbs”. Thousand dollar crumbs, but still crumbs.
No doubt the House Minority Leader from San Francisco does have thousand dollar crumbs on her plate.
By her lights those crumbs are a “little piece of cheese in a mouse trap” for the little people who elect her to do what she does.
I don’t think she gets why her party has crumbled.
New Davos Man Tune
Thanks to tax reform and deregulation the economy is booming and the stock markets are soaring. Apple is returning billions to the U.S. And other companies are offering pay raises and bonuses.
So Trump celebrated by slapping 30% tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines.
New Davos Man
On Friday he speaks to the global ruling class in Davos Switzerland. Maybe I should have had the new Davos Man blowing “America First.” Or “Trade War.”
