The Times (July 29)
The UK’s “reckless lack of gas storage invites disaster.” Britain maintains “90 days’ worth of oil imports,” but “just two or three days’ worth of gas in reserve.” Since oil and gas each account for approximately one third of domestic energy, this “peculiarity” contributes “to energy insecurity and our soaring bills.” It’s completely out of step with reality. “Germany can store 90 days’ gas; France, over 100; Italy, somewhere in between; and the Netherlands, about 60.” Britain’s “reckless lack of gas storage invites disaster.” This obvious failure “ought to be a considerable source of worry.”
Tags: Disaster, Domestic energy, Failure, France, Gas, Gas storage, Germany, Insecurity, Italy, Netherlands, Oil imports, Peculiarity, Reckless, Reserve, Soaring bills, UK, Worry
New York Times (October 26)
Under Donald Trump, a “casino… now passes for the American economy.” Distinguished by froth, Trump’s “casino economy” is “built on speculation and risk. Across markets and policy, wagers on the future are being made with other people’s money at a cost that could prove catastrophic.” While it’s true that “economies run on risk, growth and ambition…. There’s risk, and then there’s reckless gambling.”
Tags: Ambition, Casino, Casino economy, Catastrophic, Cost, Froth, Future, Gambling, Growth, Money, Reckless, Risk, Speculation, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (June 25)
Steel and aluminum :”are trump’s worst tariffs.” They “will hit consumers, jobs and national security.” On June 3, President Trump announced that U.S. tariff rates on steel and aluminum would double to 50%, effective the next day.“ This move constitutes “the most reckless trade action of the Trump presidency.” The tariffs on these crucial manufacturing materials “will drive up the cost of U.S. manufactured products dramatically.” They may “drag the economy into a recession” and “will increase the probability of retaliation against American exports and an all-out trade war.” On top of that, the tariffs “will harm national security by increasing the cost of two essential components of defense procurement.”
Tags: 50, Aluminum, Consumers, Defense procurement, Economy, Exports, Jobs, Manufacturing, National security, Recession, Reckless, Retaliation, Steel, Tariffs, Trade war, Trump, U.S.
Bloomberg (April 16)
Investors have learned that “there’s no way to guess what America will do next. With its on-again, off-again tariffs, the US administration has demonstrated a rare and reckless willingness to shock markets.” Given the “radical uncertainty, a financial crisis isn’t out of the question.” It is regrettable “that policymakers need to contemplate a self-inflicted crisis of this kind. But the possibility must be taken seriously. Regulators everywhere should do what they can to be ready.”
Tags: Crisis, Financial Crisis, Investors, Markets, Off-again, On-again, Policymakers, Radical uncertainty, Rare, Reckless, Regrettable, Regulators, Self-inflicted, Shock, Tariffs, U.S.
The Guardian (June 24)
Emmanuel Macron “opted to call the French electorate’s bluff, calculating that the prospect of a radical-right prime minister in the Élysée would ‘clarify’ its thinking. A week away from the first round of a poll whose consequences will reverberate around Europe, this reckless gamble shows no sign at all of paying off.”
Tags: Consequences, Élysée, Europe, French electorate, Gamble, Macron, Poll, Prime minister, Radical right, Reckless, Reverberate
Washington Post (October 6)
“Americans of all political stripes wished President Trump well in his battle with covid-19. Now he is repaying our compassion with reckless disregard and callous contempt for the well-being of anybody but himself…. A more selfish man has never occupied his high office.” He has even had “the audacity to tell Americans the virus is no biggie. No doubt the families of the 209,000 dead are greatly reassured.”
Tags: Callous, Compassion, Contempt, COVID-19, Dead, Disregard, Political stripes, Reassured, Reckless, Repaying, Selfish. Audacity, Trump, U.S.
The Guardian (September 25)
“It doesn’t take an Einstein to observe the folly of Johnson doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result. Delaying inevitable tougher rules will likely do what it did before. Prolonging the pandemic worsens the economy as well as the roll-call of death and serious long-term Covid illness. But nothing in Johnson’s reckless life suggests any precautionary DNA in his selfish genes.”
Tags: Covid, Death, Delaying, Economy, Einstein, Folly, Illness, Inevitable, Johnson, Pandemic, Prolonging, Reckless, Selfish, UK
Wall Street Journal (December 16)
“Impeachable or not, Trump’s foreign policy is reckless. He begins with disruption—breaking things—but lacks the patience and attention to rebuild.”
Tags: Attention, Breaking things, Disruption, Foreign policy, Impeachable, Patience, Rebuild, Reckless, Trump
Washington Post (October 14)
Trump’s reckless Middle East “ambitions have been revealed as the misguided fantasies they always were. The disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul has exposed the real return on Trump’s gambits: a string of reckless acts by the Saudis and Israelis that have made the region more rather than less unstable.” Both Israel and Saudi Arabia “have exploited Trump’s indulgence to the hilt, taking actions they never would have dared under Obama or any other previous president.”
Tags: Ambitions, Consulate, Indulgence, Israelis, Istanbul, Journalist, Khashoggi, Middle East, Obama, Reckless, Saudi Arabia, Trump
South China Morning Post (September 3)
“Bankers did not cause the 2008 financial crisis…. Instead, blame for the crash lies squarely with the world’s governments. Sure, bankers were both greedy and reckless. But it was government policies that created the conditions in which greed and recklessness were allowed–even required–to flourish.” By ignoring this and “failing to learn from their mistakes, they have made another crash inevitable.”
Tags: Bankers, Blame, Crash, Financial Crisis, Governments, Greedy, Inevitable, Reckless
