“It has been a clarifying few days, hasn’t it? My mind kept wandering to the fable of Hans Christian Andersen about the emperor’s new clothes. Insulated from any reality, surrounded entirely by yes-men, and utterly convinced of his own unique powers of observation, the Emperor struts forth one day sure of his new finery, but in fact, remains completely starkers. It takes one small boy to point out the feeble willy swinging in the breeze, and the exposure is complete. Indelible. Irrecoverable. In this case, the bond market was the little boy. And the numbers proved what the cult kept denying: there was, and is, no coherence to the mad tariffs announced by the mad king — no strategy, no discernible math, no endgame, no rationality. It was just the crank who for decades has failed to understand trade finally acting out his long-held fantasies and delusions.” (04/11/25)
“There was a considerable debate during and after Trump’s first term as to whether he, and the political formation he headed, should count as fascist. Although that debate is over with high profile skeptics throwing in the towel (John Ganz, enjoy your victory lap), it remains unclear what the triumph of the ‘yes, it’s fascism’ side means because some high profile entries ran together fascism and authoritarianism as if they were the same. Given how little most Americans know about history and political theory, it’s easy to be confused about which of these two the Trump regime is attempting to inaugurate in this moment of reactionary revolution. Since the difference can be huge, it’s vital that we get it straight.” (04/11/25)
“This book aims to provide nothing less than a full-throated defense of moral and political sanity against the latest eruptions of ideological mendacity in our time. Its thesis is simple enough, but it needs the full resources of applied political philosophy to explain with adequate clarity and depth. The thesis? That the ‘ideological’ project to replace the only human condition we know with a utopian ‘Second Reality,’ oblivious to (indeed at war with) the deepest wellsprings of human nature and God’s creation has taken on renewed virulence in the late modern world, just 35 years after the glorious anti-totalitarian revolutions of 1989. This was not supposed to happen. [excerpted from The Persistence of the Ideological Lie: The Totalitarian Impulse Then and Now].” (04/11/25)
“By handing one person tariff power, we give that person the means to boost or destroy the economy based on whim. As Trump said last week, ‘I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my as**. They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, Sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir.’’ The beauty of the market is it’s decentralized. It reflects the individual decisions of billions of people. Authoritarian systems vest that power in one person or small cadre. … Trump isn’t shy about using his influence to peddle access, sell overpriced Chinese-made trinkets or get government favors for his company, so we shouldn’t be surprised by this crony-capitalist tilt.” (04/11/25)
“On Wednesday, President Donald Trump put a 90-day pause on some of his tariffs. On Thursday, House Republicans approved the Senate’s budget resolution, which is a precursor to passing filibuster-proof “budget reconciliation” legislation that cuts taxes. Are we seeing the return of the traditional Republican Party, the one you can count on — no matter the economy — to lower your tax burden? Nope. Trump kept tariffs in place that increase your taxes. And the budget reconciliation bill is unlikely to lead to a net tax cut, especially for those in the working class who are hit hardest by giant import duties.” (04/11/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jennie Jones
“Traditional education tends to create the belief that there is an authority figure who knows all the ‘right’ answers, and everyone under that authority needs to get the same ‘right’ answer. Everything has already been discovered, codified, added to a textbook, and standardized for the test. The student’s job is not to explore and experiment, but to memorize and regurgitate. And yet, on the digital frontier, there is a broad recognition that the world is changing so rapidly that a software product started last month might be already out of date. Yesterday’s ‘right’ answers might be obsolete tomorrow. There is so much exploration and experimentation yet to be done.” (04/11/25)
“Not surprisingly, Trump’s tariff ‘pause’ has failed to reassure either trading partners or financial markets. His comment to a Republican gathering that other countries are ‘kissing my ass, they are dying to make a deal’ has backfired. Other national leaders, mistrusting Trump’s capacity for keeping his word (and his sanity) are not in fact behaving like, say, the craven presidents of Harvard and Columbia Universities. They see Trump’s capitulation as a sign of weakness and are likely to drive tougher bargains. The escalating trade war with China adds to the instability. As financial markets continue to gyrate, the role of one key player, Fed Chair Jay Powell, is worth a closer look. Trump has been pressuring Powell to cut interest rates. But that would only serve to enable Trump’s trade war by cushioning its economic impact.” (04/11/25)
“Amid calls for Europe to rearm, competing ideas are circulating around how to ensure European nations can take on Russia in a possible future war without U.S. backing. While the idea of a rearmament bank may carry some appeal, it’s less clear that there’s any new money for what is likely to be a very expensive enterprise.” (04/11/25)
“A government significantly restricting the freedom to trade of its own citizens and residents and running a propaganda machine to push related lies on the populace must represent an advanced case of the Trade Derangement Syndrome. Perhaps we can view that as the prefiguration of an utopian mix of Orwellian vicious rulers and an addicted and smiling populace à la Huxley. The observation that previous governments have brought their own stones to the building of Leviathan’s palace is correct as well as useful for a project in constitutional political economy: chaining the occupant or occupants of the palace. But it also risks becoming a partisan diversion that understates the present danger.” (04/11/25)
“John Quincy Adams was a witness to the birth of the American republic. The son of the statesman most responsible for the independence of the United States, he spent his formative years in a Massachusetts abuzz with the excitement of rebellion or abroad working on behalf of his country’s interests in the hostile courts of Europe. Aside from the actual leaders of the Revolution, perhaps no contemporary of those events was better placed to understand and articulate their greater meaning. The Library of America has already done a great service by publishing an edition of Adams’s famous diaries …. Now the publisher has followed it up with a new edition of Adams’s Speeches and Writings, edited by David Waldstreicher, collecting some of his most important addresses to an American people he loved but perhaps never fully understood.” (04/11/25)
