Trump / Economics
DEAL OR NO DEAL? NOTE: I wrote this post over the weekend. I think it is relevant to note the events announced this morning. I am happy to hear that negotiations with China have resulted in a 90-day pause on the excessive tariffs, dropping our tariff rate to...
What Happens After What Happens Most people have heard of the Butterfly Effect. Basically, the concept is that a small change in a system will create larger downstream consequences. The focus of news media, and our short-span interest generally looks at the first...
DOUBLE WHAMMY For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Economic One-Two punch. Businesses and individuals in the US are being hit with multiple changes to the way they have expected the economy to work. Sometimes one change is amplified by...
WHAT IS THE ROI ON BASIC RESEARCH? Why do we need the NIH, the NSF, or the CDC and why do we fund University research centers? Wouldn’t we be better off if they were all closed and the research was funded by industry? Wouldn’t that save the taxpayer a lot of money and...
“Whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it’s bad for the pitcher.” Man of La Mancha I have been thinking about the political adage: “It’s not the revenue, it’s the spending”. The more I look at that statement, the more I have trouble...
Ripping us off Note: I am not an economist. If I have made errors here, I hope those of you who are economists will correct them. I have previously written about the bogus calculations that the White House Office of the Trade Representative made to determine...
As I write this on Sunday, the DOW is poised to lose another 1,500 pts at the opening on Monday morning, on top of the 4,000 points lost in 30 hours late last week. If there is anyone out there who still does not understand how tariffs work, or if someone you know...
Properties under development with the Trump Organization
Wonk, Wonk, Spin, Spin I am not an economist, but I have dealt with formulas in my scientific career.Mr. Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs yesterday. On the surface, the chart he produced showed terrible inequalities of tariffs.But…This is Snake Oil, and it is...
PATTERNS – Business practices I would like to continue my discussion of how past is prologue by observing how he seemed to view his businesses. The underlying theme of Mr. Trump and his development of the Trump Organization seems to a continued focus on defining and...
First, a note: I would like to clarify the intent of my recent essays. As most of you know, I was trained as a lab scientist. When I chose to leave research, I visited my thesis advisor and asked him if I was abandoning my career by leaving science. He wisely...
The past is prologue. What a person does in his private life is usually reflected in what he does in his business life and his public life. I have written before about how Mr. Trump’s distain for giving money to Hospitals, Universities, Cultural Institutions,...