Reuters (April 25)
The U.S. “standoff over the debt ceiling is a white swan, or an entirely predictable, very frequent event that has the potential to be as catastrophic as its darker sibling.” Arriving at the “deadline without a congressional fix would lead to a calamitous default,” which could “exacerbate the very risks that sparked last month’s bank failures.”
Tags: Bank failures, Calamitous, Catastrophic, Congressional fix, Deadline, Debt ceiling, Default, Exacerbate, Predictable, Risks, Standoff, U.S., White swan
Wall Street Journal (December 26)
“As temperatures plunged this weekend, Americans in much of the country were told to turn down their thermostats and avoid using large appliances to prevent rolling blackouts. The cascading grid stress… was all too predictable to anyone paying attention. The interconnected U.S. grid is supposed to be a source of resilience, but the government’s force-fed green energy transition is creating systemic vulnerabilities.”
Tags: Americans, Cascading, Green energy, Grid stress, Plunged, Predictable, Resilience, Rolling blackouts, Temperatures, Transition, U.S.
Reuters (January 2)
“As U.S. and Chinese delegations prepare for upcoming trade talks in Beijing, the two countries’ disputes over tariffs and trade are rattling markets, businesses, governments, consumers and workers across the globe. All of this corrosive uncertainty was entirely predictable…. Elaborate negotiations take tenacity, expertise and planning. They also take time.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Corrosive, Delegations, Disputes, Expertise, Markets, Negotiations, Planning, Predictable, Rattling, Tariffs, Trade talks, U.S., Uncertainty
Wall Street Journal (August 2)
“No one knows if Donald Trump is serious or trolling when he tweets,” but the “damage from firing Mr. Mueller is so predictable that’s it hard to believe even Mr. Trump would tempt such a fate.”
New York Times (May 7)
“It’s breathtaking and yet, by now, so predictable. Like aspiring authoritarians everywhere, Mr. Trump sees law enforcement in intensely personal terms. When the law investigates you, it’s a witch hunt; when it’s used to punish your enemies, it’s an essential tool…. Americans should remember May 9, 2017,” the day Trump fired FBI director James Comey, “as the beginning of one of the great tests of American democracy.”
Tags: Authoritarians, Breathtaking, Comey, Democracy, Enemies, FBI, Law enforcement, Personal, Predictable, Punish, Trump, U.S.
Philly.com (October 15)
“The predictably ever-worsening scandal surrounding the Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein” was not a surprise. In the business, his indiscretions were an open secret. “Another open secret–one that’s more widely known and of even more consequence than Weinstein and his prey” is that “Donald Trump is clearly not fit–temperamentally, intellectually, or, it seems increasingly clear, psychologically–to continue serving as president of the United States…. It’s all but guaranteed there will come a day for Trump, exactly like the moment we’re experiencing this weekend with Harvey Weinstein, with a flood of people suddenly going public with their behind-closed-doors Trump stories that things were even worse than anyone imagined.”
Tags: Hollywood, Open secret, Predictable, Scandal, Sexual predator, Trump, Unfit, Weinstein
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.
The Week (February 14)
“It’s three whole weeks into the Trump administration, and this is already looking like the most dysfunctional White House in memory. While we had plenty of other things to worry about when contemplating a Donald Trump victory during the campaign, this should have been utterly predictable.”
