Bloomberg (March 3)
The submission of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “long-awaited final report…will be only the start of an explosive chain of events. There will be a struggle in Congress, on cable TV and social media and probably in the courts over how much must be disclosed. There also will be an epic political fight over whether the findings implicate President Donald Trump in wrongdoing that may even merit his impeachment.”
Tags: Congress, Courts, Epic, Explosive, Fight, Impeachment, Mueller, Report, Struggle, Trump, Wrongdoing
Bloomberg (February 7)
Stock buybacks are under attack in Congress, but the market has already “soured on the strategy. Last year’s trillion-dollar splurge didn’t stop the stock market from falling for the year.” Furthermore, the S&P 500 Buyback Index shows that firms conducting buybacks have been outpaced by the market two years in a row. “With stocks expensive, using shareholders’ money to buy at inflated prices is a bad deal. The buyback phenomenon could die a natural death.”
Tags: Bad deal, Buybacks, Congress, Expensive, Market, S&P 500 Buyback Index, Shareholders, Stock
New York Times (December 29)
“Three decades after a top climate scientist warned Congress of the dangers of global warming, greenhouse gas emissions keep rising and so do global temperatures.” We are “going nowhere fast on climate, year after year.”
Tags: Climate, Climate scientist, Congress, Dangers, Decades, Emissions Temperatures, Global warming, Greenhouse gas
Barrons (June 12)
“Imposing the tariffs “is really a Trumpian power grab…and so far there’s been no objection from the Congress and no lawsuits filed. Trump is imposing these tariffs because he feels he can get away with imposing them and they play to his base who really long for an economic dictator to run things. If nobody objects then he will claim even more powers over the economy.”
Washington Post (May 30)
“Sudden policy shifts are amplifying an air of unpredictability that the president has said gives him an edge at the bargaining table, even as U.S. trading partners complain that it erodes American credibility. Adding to the confusion are divisions among Trump’s trade advisers and complaints from members of Congress, who fear that the president may be stumbling into a costly multi-front trade war.”
Tags: Advisers, Bargaining, Complaints, Confusion, Congress, Credibility, Divisions, Edge, Policy shifts, Stumbling, Trade war, Trading partners, Trump, Unpredictability
CNN (April 26)
“It looked like a Mission Impossible…. For Emmanuel Macron, capturing Trump’s heart risked turning the rest of the world’s stomachs.” But somehow he did it. He even addressed a joint session of Congress, giving “a masterful performance” while “tackling a nearly impossible mission. No wonder the entire Congress gave him a lengthy standing ovation.”
Tags: Congress, Joint session, Macron, Masterful, Mission Impossible, Ovation, Trump
Washington Post (April 9)
“Monday, April 9, marks Day 444 of the Trump administration. America is being held hostage by a spectacularly unfit narcissist who refuses to grow into the job and a Republican-controlled Congress that refuses to hold him accountable.”
Tags: Accountable, Congress, Hostage, Narcissist, Republican, Trump, U.S., Unfit
New York Times (February 17)
“The question is whether Mr. Trump will at last accept the fact of Russian interference and take aggressive measures to protect American democracy. For starters, he could impose the sanctions on Russia that Congress overwhelmingly passed, and that he signed into law, last summer. Of course, this would require him to overcome his mysterious resistance to acting against Russia and to focus on protecting his own country.”
Tags: Congress, Democracy, Elections, Interference, Resistance, Russia, Sanctions, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (November 23)
“Everything this president and this Congress are doing on economic policy seems designed, not just to widen the gap between the wealthy and everyone else, but to lock in plutocrats’ advantages, making it easier to ensure that their heirs remain on top and the rest stay down.” While the “terrible tax bills” may not make it through Congress, “environmental policy is largely set by administrative action, and this administration has been moving with stunning speed to get poisons back into our air and water.”
Tags: Air, Congress, Economic policy, Environment, Heirs, Plutocrats, Poisons, Trump, Water, Wealth gap
Council on Foreign Relations (September 7)
“Congress, again, should take the lead” in Asia. “Not only has the White House paid relatively little attention to growing crises in mainland Southeast Asia but those crises are quickly spiraling out of control.” There is an opportunity “for Congress, rather than the White House, to develop a tough approach to the growing climate of repression in Cambodia” and solve other issues like the crisis affecting the persecuted Rohingya fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh.
Tags: Asia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congress, Crises, Lead, Myanmar, Opportunity, Repression, Rohingya, Trump, U.S.
