Yesterday Donald Trump and the CEO of the Japanese Softbank company announced a deal to invest $100B in the U.S. You can ignore the question of why investment by Japanese that Mr. Trump likes is good while Japanese investment in US Steel is bad, because a little cognitive dissonance is good for us all. The […]
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I am Tariff Man, and I rule the world!
16 Dec 2024
So American CEOs can just pound sand! The WSJ reports yesterday that CEOs are quietly trying to get into the Trump transition team to try and influence the new administration to not start a trade war, which will harm their businesses and raise prices. But as the headline says, “He isn’t budging.” I’ll have more […]
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Of course, he doesn’t see it that way, but that is the reality nonetheless. Mr. Trump once again came out yesterday against Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel. We’ve discussed this a couple of times, here and here, so the basics of the deal haven’t changed–Nippon Steel will invest significant capital ($1.4B) into the new […]
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Note to Tariff Man (and wannabe Tariff Woman!)
26 Jul 2024
Donald Trump proudly proclaims himself Tariff Man, and whether Ms. Harris calls herself Tariff Woman or not, the Harris/Biden Administration left most of Mr. Trump’s tariffs in place, so she is still a Tariff Woman. Writing in the WSJ, Michael Levy helpfully notes (HT Cafe Hayek): Tariffs are fees charged on goods imported by U.S. […]
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Donald Trump proudly claimed that “I am a Tariff Man!”, falsely suggesting that imports impoverish us: Mr. Trump and Mr. Bernie Sanders are in unity: protecting industries from foreign competitors is the way to create a great economy (although even Mr. Sanders understood the folly of starting a trade war with Canada, strongly disagreeing with […]
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In the case of the Hollywood writers’ strike, who has the moral high ground? Many have seen the consistent refrain that Hollywood executives are taking advantage of poor, overworked writers via streaming culture changes and AI’s rise.* Hollywood studio executives are trying to cut costs to preserve profits in a new and changing environment for […]
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Chile’s New Direction
26 Dec 2021
This year, Gabriel Boric won the Chilean Presidency by riding a populist wave of anti-market sentiment. Populism is a political tool not tied to any particular ideology, and it can drive people to very dangerous conclusions. In this case, Boric convinced Chile that the rich elites maintained power in his nation at the expense of […]
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Don’t Tax Me! I’m Irish!
25 Jul 2021
The Biden administration seeks to form an international agreement to establish a global minimum corporate tax at 15%. According to CNN, 132 nations back the proposal, but some notable holdouts including Ireland, block the way. The EU needs to vote unanimously to pass the proposal, so as long Ireland opposes it, there’s no deal. Over […]
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The Perfect Time to De-Tariff
24 May 2021
The other day I read a Wall Street Journal piece about EU tariffs on U.S. goods that (thankfully) never came to be. It reminded me about the Trump administration’s departure from U.S. policy for the last few decades which generally aimed to increase free trade. The Biden administration has yet to make any strong changes […]
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I Don’t Want To Play Your Zero Sum Game
08 Apr 2021
You don’t have to care about Marvel movies to understand this post, but my wife and I were watching Falcon and The Winter Soldier last week, and something hit me the wrong way. The group of terrorists The Falcon is trying to stop believed the world was better off after Thanos snapped half of all […]
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