Financial Times (June 20)
“Which tribe of politicians can claim to be the party of business? Back in the tax-cutting, deregulating, privatizing days of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the question was simple to answer on each side of the Atlantic. But Donald Trump and Brexit have a way of scrambling well-worn assumptions.” Neither the Republican Party or, across the pond, the Conservative Party remain the clear home of business.
Tags: Assumptions, Atlantic, Brexit, Business, Conservative, Deregulating, Politicians, Privatizing, Reagan, Republicans, Tax-cutting, Thatcher, Trump
The Guardian (February 6)
“Donald Tusk should be criticised not for his malice, but his moderation. The European council president triggered a tsunami of confected outrage from leavers today when he observed, with some justice, that there should be a special place in hell for those who promoted Brexit without a plan. But he should have said far more. He should have added that, within that special place, there should be an executive suite of sleepless torment for those politicians who promoted Brexit without ever giving a stuff about Ireland.”
Tags: Brexit, Ireland, Leavers, Malice, Moderation, Outrage, Politicians, Torment, Tusk
Chicago Tribune (December 23)
“Japanese leaders are now under international pressure to pass a sweeping smoking ban in restaurants and many other public places before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.” While many politicians are reluctant, “Japanese restaurateurs and entrepreneurs who seek to attract the widest possible international clientele during the Olympics—and after—will ban smoking. Wouldn’t it be terrific if the Tokyo Olympics sparked a Great Japanese Smokeout?”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Clientele, International pressure, Japan, Politicians, Reluctant, Restaurants, Smoking ban, Tokyo
Houston Chronicle (November 7)
“With due respect to the faith and beliefs of every person, especially the grieving residents of Sutherland Springs, the rote statements of politicians were almost blasphemous in their repetition and meaninglessness. From Japan, President Trump’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ riff was so stale and scripted that it conveyed all the sincerity of a robocall offering an extended warranty on a kitchen appliance. The irony no doubt escaped the president that he was speaking to tortured souls in small-town Texas from a nation with strict and sensible gun laws. A nation where gun violence is almost unheard of.”
Tags: Blasphemous, Faith, Grieving, Gun laws, Japan, Politicians, Sensible, Strict, Sutherland Springs, Thoughts and prayers, Trump, U.S., Violence
Reuters (October 27)
AT&T’s $85 billion “offer for Time Warner lacks strategic rationale, has politicians of all stripes criticizing it and has destroyed shareholder value while denying owners a vote. All it lacks–so far–is an activist shareholder demanding it be scrapped.”
Wall Street Journal (July 19)
“What did Winston Churchill say about how politicians should behave—be defiant in defeat but magnanimous in victory? The Donald Trump campaign must have missed that lesson in political manners because it started off the Cleveland convention on Monday by picking unnecessary fights with vanquished foes.”
Tags: Campaign, Cleveland, Convention Fights, Defeat, Defiant, Donald Trump, Magnanimous, Politicians, Victory, Winston Churchill
Wall Street Journal (April 21)
“For Europe to grow faster, the political class will eventually have to stop looking to the ECB as the growth engine of first and last resort.” On Thursday, Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, was unusually blunt in his criticism of other European politicians because they “have used the relief of low interest rates as an excuse not to do reforms.”
Tags: Blunt, Criticism, Draghi, ECB, Europe, Excuse, Growth engine, Interest rates, Politicians, Reforms
LA Times (March 2)
“Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. Many people have said it—politicians of both parties, economists, pundits, business leaders—but millions of GOP primary voters don’t seem to be listening.”
Tags: Business leaders, Donald Trump, Economists, GOP, Politicians, President, Primary, U.S., Voters
The Economist (February 27)
A win by Donald Trump “is an appalling prospect. The things Mr Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped.”
Tags: Appalling, Better natures, Hatred, Politicians, Terrifying, Trump, U.S., Unpredictable, Unworthy, Violence
Chicago Tribune (November 3)
The trailers for Spike Lee’s new movie “Chi-Raq” are embarrassing politicians by depicting Chicago’s bullet-ridden streets and comparing them with Iraq. “The politicians have a bigger problem than they anticipated. Yes, Spike Lee’s movie will embarrass Chicago. But it won’t embarrass Chicago as much as the slaying of Tyshawn Lee already has embarrassed Chicago in news accounts now appearing worldwide.” On November 2, 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee became “the latest young Chicagoan pronounced dead of gunshot wounds.”
Tags: Bullets, Chi-Raq, Chicago, Embarrass, Gunshot wounds, Politicians, Spike Lee, Tyshawn
