The Week (May 23)
“How much of a problem is it that the president of the United States, the most powerful person on Earth, is a blithering idiot?” Depends what kind of blithering idiot. “Raw intellect doesn’t translate to presidential success, and its absence could, in the right circumstance, be compensated for.” But “President Trump’s particular brand of stupidity” is very dangerous. “You can be dumb but modest, or dumb but thoughtful, or dumb but careful. Trump is none of those things. He’s boastful, impulsive, and careless, all while continuing to blaze new trails of thickheadedness, while the rest of us are left to stand back and gawp in amazement.”
Tags: Boastful, Careless, Dangerous, Dumb, Idiot, Impulsive, Intellect, Powerful, President, Problem, Stupidity, Success, Thickheaded, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (April 24)
President Trump is now talking about “a ‘massive tax cut’ for businesses and individuals.” He even said it would likely be “bigger” than “any tax cut ever.” Simplistic boasts may be exciting, but they are dangerous. “Here’s the thing: Trump, who used the word ‘massive’ 12 times in that AP interview, forgot to mention a huuuuge caveat about tax reform efforts: They are devilishly difficult to pull off. Cutting taxes without adding trillions to the federal debt is especially hard to do.”
Tags: Boasts, Businesses, Dangerous, Debt, Huuuuge, Individuals, Massive, Tax cut, Trump
Wall Street Journal (March 27)
“Well, that was fast, if predictable. We’re referring to the conventional wisdom that has moved without a moment of self-reflection from declaring Donald Trump to be a dangerous fascist to a hopeless incompetent.”
Tags: Conventional wisdom, Dangerous, Fascist, Hopeless, Incompetent, Predictable, Self-reflection, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (February 21)
“While not as dangerous as protectionism and xenophobia,” blaming robots for job losses and economic disruption “is also a distraction from real problems and real solutions.” We’ve been through this before. “Automation is the hero of the story in good times and the villain in bad. Since today’s middle class is in the midst of a prolonged period of wage stagnation, it is especially vulnerable to blame-the-robot rhetoric.” Bad policies can result in disruption, but economic history has repeatedly shown “that automation not only substitutes for human labor, it complements it. The disappearance of some jobs and industries gives rise to others.”
Tags: Automation, Dangerous, Disruption, Jobs, Labor, Protectionism, Robots, Wage stagnation, Xenophobia
Wall Street Journal (December 28)
“For two decades top U.S. officials from both parties—Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry and others—have believed that the North could be bought off, or that China could be cajoled to rein in its client in Pyongyang. These views have proven to be badly mistaken, and the world is far more dangerous as a result.”
The Independent (December 26)
“We are entering the year of President Trump – and it feels like the world is about to become a lot more dangerous.”
The Economist (November 19)
“Reagan’s America was optimistic: Mr Trump’s is angry. Welcome to the new nationalism. For the first time since the second world war, the great and rising powers are simultaneously in thrall to various sorts of chauvinism. Like Mr Trump, leaders of countries such as Russia, China and Turkey embrace a pessimistic view that foreign affairs are often a zero-sum game in which global interests compete with national ones. It is a big change that makes for a more dangerous world.”
Tags: Angry, Chauvinism, China, Compete, Dangerous, Foreign affairs, Nationalism, Optimistic, Pessimistic, Reagan, Russia, Trump, Turkey, Zero-sum game
Washington Post (June 9)
“Kim Jong Un is a weak leader in every respect but one: He pushes ahead relentlessly on a program to build missiles carrying miniaturized nuclear warheads.” It is likely that “the next U.S. president could confront a genuinely dangerous threat from a faraway place: a North Korean missile that could hit U.S. territory with a nuclear warhead.”
Tags: Dangerous, Kim Jong Un, Leader, Missiles, North Korean, Nuclear warheads, Threat, U.S.
Financial Times (March 22)
Many hope that negative interest rates will “encourage banks to lend more plentifully and cheaply and help support economic recovery.” This might instead prove “a dangerous experiment with diminishing positive impact.” The optimistic forecasts overlook “how financial intermediaries may actually respond.” Negative rates “erode banks’ margins. They give lenders an incentive to shrink, not grow. They encourage banks to seek out opportunities overseas rather than in their home markets. They also risk disruptions to bank funding. All go against the grain of the central banks’ desire to ease credit conditions and support financial stability.”
Tags: Banks, Credit, Dangerous, Diminishing positive impact, Economic recovery, Experiment, Financial stability, Intermediaries, Lending, Margins, Negative interest rates, Overseas
Washington Post (March 15)
“The Obama administration is moving toward what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea…. What makes this dispute so explosive is that it pits an American president who needs to affirm his credibility as a strong leader against a risk-taking Chinese president who has shown disregard for U.S. military power and who faces potent political enemies at home.”
Tags: China, Credibility, Dangerous, Disregard, Military power, Obama, Risk-taking, Showdown, South China Sea, Strong leader, U.S.
