Fear the… Witchfinder General!
I was just watching Good Omens on Amazon and thought it was going to be a reference to that. There is a Witchfinder Army (what’s left of it; a sergeant is in charge in modern times) and it’s about Armageddon.
Looking again, Bill Barr as the Witchfinder General has never looked more like Evil Elton John. 
How quick response can be depends, among other things, on how processed the final product is and whether there is overproduction. Take milk: in many markets there is overproduction, but that milk can’t just be chucked from the cow to the supermarket’s fridge and the process is complicated enough that you can’t just hire several hands more and be done. Raw unpacked produce will be quicker to respond but it still will take days or weeks, depending on the product and the complexity of its supply chain. And if it’s something which the local market simply doesn’t make enough of, well, then and as you say it can take years. And meanwhile the tariffs go up to 25%.
So, is Trump planning on bringing back large amounts of seasonal-laborer visas?
Didn’t the last poor sod who tried negotiating with the Krooked Korrupt Klown as though he is a grown-up get executed (apparently upon his arrival back home)?
Some reports I’ve read indicate that the decision to threaten Mexico with tariffs seems to have gone over the objections of his own cabinet members. In other words, this could be an example of Trump being rattled by the Mueller investigation fallout, which is why they need to continue investigating. Force Trump to react and make more unhinged decisions.
Thread win.
…which makes it more likely, not less, that Trump will double-down on economic threats and policies that reverse those gains. Until Trump’s vision for global trade becomes clearer (we’ve been waiting for more than 2 years now), it is unlikely that investment will grow. It might tick up on days when the trade war fades into the background, but the uncertainty is going to be there lurking. Moreover, levels of bad debt are on the rise. And then there are the twin deficits that somehow people seem to ignore as if they don’t matter anymore. But numbers matter - always.
What I wonder is what will happen when the numbers finally indicate economic contraction. Will Trump fire Jerome Powell and other fed officers? Will he fire number crunchers in the commerce department and replace them with toadies who give us fake data instead?
Trump will revert to his standard business practice. Trump will try to sue somebody, because it can’t possibly be his fault, or give the hooker a grocery bag full of cash.
At least some economists are saying that last quarter will be the high water mark of the year. A number of election wonks’ opinion is that Donnie Two-scoops’ re-election prospects in 2020 are pretty good – unless the economy tanks. These continuous tariff wars with whoever has pissed him off this week may well tie the economy’s shoe laces together, making it do just that (fingers crossed).
Bet we never thought we’d hanker for the clownish incompetence of the Matthew Whitaker days, did we?
My financial advisor told me that indicators are pointing to the economy hitting a rough patch in the next 10-12 months.
I think maybe we gave Barr too much credit and maybe the evidence was there all along that Barr had a rather, ahem, unique view of presidential power. Barr has a history of withholding information and creating legal doctrine out of thin air, which is what he did in 1989 when he crafted Bush’s legal authority to abduct Manuel Noriega.
Give the Trump hacks some credit: as with their judges, they did their homework and found ideological alignment.
But it is clear: everybody must give money to Trump while kissing his ass. Occasionally giving him a shiny ball to fondle is also acceptable tribute.
Sky News ad for its coverage of the Orange Oaf’s upcoming UK visit.
If you can’t see the video, it’s
a clip of an ominous-looking shadow passing over the landscape culminating in a shot of a Trump Baby Balloon with the text “He’s back”.
They didn’t have to do any homework: Barr came at them smiling and eager to help in any way he could. I remember this jerk from way back in the '80s, aye, and am gobsmacked at how ignorant and complacent the confirmation hearings were.
It’s not Trump’s economy, stupid.
Hey guess what, world? If you want to visit the land of the free and home of the brave, you’ll have to share your social media account credentials so we can make sure you’re a patriotic foreigner.
Seriously, these guys are pushing the envelope; they’re testing and seeing what people will let them get away with.
I’ve been expecting that since the Inauguration. The only thing holding Trump back from demanding full control over all government-generated statistics, I would guess, is that some GOP business magnates have made known their own need for actually-accurate numbers (in order to make decisions). If Trump’s major enablers have said ‘don’t monkey with the numbers,’ he’d refrain from meddling.
But if the pressure intensifies enough, Trump will push hard to make sure that any and all statistics are fictionalized to make him look good. (Only journalists—and whistle-blowers willing to take the risk of talking to them—can let us know if that’s happening, I’d suspect.)