The Democrats sure hope so, and they are attacking Republican candidates in key states like Michigan on this issue. Mike Rogers is now openly arguing against Mr. Trump’s position, but can he distance himself from the party’s standard bearer? One of the songs that was popular when I was a boy was Kenny Roger’s you […]
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Even though I’m a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I still had to smile yesterday while driving through Cincinnati as I saw this billboard this weekend. The group Small Businesses Against Tariffs unveiled a million dollar ad campaign last week across seven states to remind football fans how tariffs are hurting them. And hurting them tariff’s […]
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Mr. Trump’s Interest Rate Fatal Conceit
05 Sep 2026
I don’t normally like to pay attention to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts, as the point usually seems to be to inflame the passions of those that he is tweaking. Certainly the only ones I see (since I’m not on that platform, and certainly not paying the big bucks to get instant access!) are that […]
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Two quick notes on Trumponomics today. Mr. Trump’s tariffs have been a political loser for the majority of the country since they raise prices (in some goods significantly) at a time when rising prices is the key issue for Americans. This week the Trump administration announced plans to roll back it’s tariffs on imported beef […]
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There are a lot of reasons to criticize the Chinese economy, which we have done here at BATG, e.g., their theft of intellectual property, their groteque centrally directed overproduction of everything the state wants their economy to get good at (e.g., steel, EVs). But let’s give them their due, the Chinese are making some very […]
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Mr. Trump and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Maybe he should move to Australia?
23 Feb 2026
Friday, was not kind to Mr. Trump, but Adam Smith will have his day. And so will our Founding Fathers. As we predicted, Mr. Trump’s tariff’s did not pass legal muster at the Supreme Court, just as they did not in the lower court processes. His preferred path was to use the International Emergency Economic […]
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The big news of the last week was the Trump Administration’s backtrack of his not-so implicit threat to take over Greenland by force. It’s of course not surprising that he backed off, as there is not American support to even buy Greenland, much less take it over by force. Further, his proposed tariff increases were […]
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A new year, but old bad ideas remain
01 Jan 2026
Happy New Year! We’ll try to be happy even though bad ideas remain. Ever since the Trump era began, we’ve continued to fight over what is conservatism. I believe in the central tenets of limited government, strong foreign policy, free markets, and pro-family, pro-life social policies.* All of these principles allow people to flourish, and […]
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Yes, I sometimes like alliteration. We’ve been chronicling the trials that Mr. Trump’s tariffs have caused the broader economy, and I have regularly warned about the political ramifications of Mr. Trump not meeting the real political market demand of reducing prices. In today’s post I want to highlight two issues. The first is Mr. Trump’s […]
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Why Mr. Trump’s manufacturing renaissance goals are at least short term having the opposite effect
25 Nov 2025
Numerous online commenters are sharing the chart above, which shows that since Liberation day, manufacturing jobs have been declining, not growing. Note the scale; this isn’t a huge drop (~50k+ jobs out of over 12.5M), but it’s down–not up–and Mr. Trump promised all these manufacturing jobs (“we’re bringing them all back”). The question is why. […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach