Washington Post (March 20)
“The proposed purchase of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel has done something few issues can do in Washington: forge a bipartisan consensus…. Members of both parties are absolutely molten about the prospects of a 123-year-old American manufacturer flying a Japanese flag.” They shouldn’t be. This is electioneering. “As long as the plant and the jobs there are protected, as Nippon Steel has promised, who owns it doesn’t really matter — unless you’re a politician.”
Tags: Bipartisan, Consensus, Electioneering, Japan, Jobs, Nippon Steel, Plant, Politician, Protected, Purchase, U.S. Steel, Washington
The Economist (October 5)
If you add all the various signs up, “it becomes clear just how systematically the presumption of open markets and limited government has been left in the dust.” Free trade and other “classical liberal values are not only unpopular, they are increasingly absent from political debate.” In Washington DC, “you will be scoffed at as hopelessly naïve” for advocating free trade and, “in the emerging world, you will be painted as a neocolonial relic from the era when the West knew best.”
Tags: Absent, Emerging world, Free trade, Liberal values, Limited government, Neocolonial, Open markets, Political debate, Presumption, Unpopular, Washington
Investment Week (November 12)
“The world’s two biggest emitters, who had been trading insults for the first week of the conference,” surprised the world with “a joint declaration that would see Washington and Beijing cooperate closely on the emissions cuts scientists say are needed in the next ten years to stay within 1.5C.”
Tags: Beijing, Conference, Cooperate, Emissions, Emitters, Joint declaration, Scientists, Trading insults, Washington
Seattle Times (July 1)
“And on the 476th day, Washington returned—sort of, mostly, cautiously, officially if not practically—to normal.” COVID-19 related restrictions began across the state on March 11, 2020. “One year, three months, two weeks and five days later, the last of those major restrictions melted away on Wednesday.” It’s not as easy as flipping a switch. COVID-19 and government-issued restrictions effectively “pulled the emergency brake on Washington’s economic and social life.” It is going to “take more than just releasing that lever to get the engine back to full throttle.”
Tags: 476 days, Brake, COVID-19, Economic, Emergency, Government, Life, Normal, Restrictions, Social, Washington
Los Angeles Times (January 21)
“On the first day of the Biden administration, we had already seen something almost entirely missing from Washington over the last four years: A-list stars. Also, music.” Whereas “Trump treated the arts as an adversary. Biden’s first day told a different story.”
Tags: A-list stars, Adversary, Arts, Biden, Music, Trump, Washington
Chicago Tribune (April 20)
J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois governor, has done “more than this inadequate and lame leader in Washington. Pritzker has donated $2 million of his own personal money, as well as is dealing with China directly to get PPE supplies instead of waiting on this dysfunctional administration. He has taken the bull by the horns to try and save people.”
Tags: China, Donated, Dysfunctional, Governor, Illinois, PPE, Pritzker, Supplies, Trump, Washington
OilPrice.com (October 9)
“Now that Brent has lost more than $13 since its mid-September spike many are saying that Middle East risk is underpriced. We’re taking a different view…. Washington and Beijing still pose more of a threat to oil prices than Tehran and Riyadh.”
Tags: Beijing, Brent, China, Middle East, Oil prices, Risk, Riyadh, Spike, Tehran, Threat, U.S., Underpriced, Washington
The Economist (June 22)
Already “one in five Americans calls Texas or California home.” The behemoths are now “the biggest, brashest, most important states in the union, each equally convinced that it is the future.” But their vision is “heading in opposite directions, creating an experiment that reveals whether America works better as a low-tax, low-regulation place” or a “high-tax, highly regulated one.” Given Washington dysfunction, “the results will determine what sort of country America becomes almost as much as the victor of the next presidential election will.”
Tags: Biggest, Brashest, California, Dysfunction, Election, Experiment, Future, Regulation, Tax, Texas, U.S., Washington
Time (February 28)
“Trump landed in Hanoi early this week eager for a victory as drama was unfolding in Washington.” Instead, he left “empty-handed,” with nothing to show from the second summit with Kim Jong Un.
Tags: Drama, Eager, Empty-handed, Hanoi, Kim, Summit, Trump, Unfolding, Victory, Washington
The New Yorker (November 7)
“A Democratic majority in the House will not only thwart Donald Trump’s legislative ambitions; it could also intensify the state of crisis and siege in Washington” because the result was mixed. “The vote certainly was not a decisive repudiation of Trump, nor was it anything like the resounding endorsement he craved.”
Tags: Crisis, Democratic, Endorsement, House, Majority, Repudiation, Thwart, Trump, U.S., Washington
