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This seems to get everything completely backwards. The author complains about the burden of issuing the reserve currency (I believe others have called this the exorbitant privilege) and points to declining US manufacturing employment. Nevermind that US manufacturing is at all time highs, it is just more productive than it once was (far more widgets per employee than in the past).Some insight into the thinking of Trump's chief economist from a November '24 paper:
Its a long read, but I would encourage people to at least skim the summary.
I don't agree with the case laid out...........
Sostuvimos una buena conversación con el presidente Trump con mucho respeto a nuestra relación y la soberanía; llegamos a una serie de acuerdos:
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) February 3, 2025
1.México reforzará la frontera norte con 10 mil elementos de la Guardia Nacional de forma inmediata, para evitar el tráfico de drogas…
And as expected, Canada follows shortly. I still think Trump based on his statements would still like for additional US entry into Canadian markets, but that's another battle for another day.Looks like Mexico took the first available off-ramp and has come to an agreement with the US for now. Now with Canada, I think that the goal of Trump's tariff are not entirely border-related in mind (despite the public claim), but rather US entry into certain protected sectors like banking and dairy.
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Sostuvimos una buena conversación con el presidente Trump con mucho respeto a nuestra relación y la soberanía; llegamos a una serie de acuerdos:
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) February 3, 2025
1.México reforzará la frontera norte con 10 mil elementos de la Guardia Nacional de forma inmediata, para evitar el tráfico de drogas…
I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly…
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 3, 2025
I doubt that our troubles with Mr Trump are over and this whole carry-on simply reinforces the view that "“Countries have no eternal allies, and no perpetual enemies. Their interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is their duty to follow.” The US is definitely not a reliable partner but they will always be our neighbour and we had better diversify our trading patterns and create a proper single market in Canada because relying on the US is clearly not a good idea!.Theatre.
Just like Colombia before.
The shock, awe, confuse and distract plan.
To be sure. The Trump regime will make the odd real change, likely not for the better; but much of what they do is absurd political theatre, both for its own sake, but also to distract from significant but more subtle changes flying under the radar.
For instance, a major new industrial road in Alaska, that will traverse some protected wilderness in order to facilitate further extraction activities has been quietly advanced. This is the sort of thing that might draw
lots of negative attention otherwise, fair or not.
But it slips by in the proverbial fog of war.
*****
Whether this threat is gone for an extended period of time, whether it is revived, or whether it will one day be implemented, we shouldn't fail to heed the implicit lesson that we should be more ready.
I believe Steve Bannon described the tactic as 'flooding the zone with shit'.But it slips by in the proverbial fog of war.
Seems to be an odd stance to take. Readily repatriating your own - fine, but offering to be a sanctuary state for other's undisirables? Building a zombie army?
Seems to be an odd stance to take. Readily repatriating your own - fine, but offering to be a sanctuary state for other's undisirables? Building a zombie army?
Of course it's not over. He gets to spin his stories about why the tariffs are necessary and why the entire world apparently treats the US unfairly and will just keep changing the narrative. His committed base won't care and most of those who took a chance on his have the typical American-myopic worldview and just eat stuff up.I doubt that our troubles with Mr Trump are over and this whole carry-on simply reinforces the view that "“Countries have no eternal allies, and no perpetual enemies. Their interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is their duty to follow.” The US is definitely not a reliable partner but they will always be our neighbour and we had better diversify our trading patterns and create a proper single market in Canada because relying on the US is clearly not a good idea!.
Billionaire Elon Musk is tightening his control over broad swaths of the United States government at extraordinary speed, prompting growing alarm from Democrats and constitutional scholars.
In the two weeks since US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk, the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has upended the federal bureaucracy, prompting questions about the scope of his authority and warnings of a constitutional crisis, or even a coup.
Acting without oversight of the US Congress, Musk’s lieutenants have brought the work of the US’s main foreign aid agency to a halt, flagged millions of government employees for redundancy, gained access to classified material and sensitive details about millions of Americans, and taken control of the payment system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars of government spending.
Musk, who was named as a “special government employee” by the White House on Monday, does not hold elected office and is not part of Trump’s Cabinet, whose members require confirmation by the US Senate.
“I’ve never ever seen anything like this, never in the history of the country. We always have the president, Cabinet members and the Treasury secretary confirmed by the Senate,” Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the administration of former President George W Bush, told Al Jazeera.
“Cabinet members are installed by the president, they coordinate with the White House to implement policy. You can’t just not spend money appropriated by Congress.”
As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk, the world’s richest man, has billions of dollars worth of government contracts, a fact that has raised concerns about conflicts of interest that could arise in his cost-cutting drive.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had taken over as acting director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which Musk had labelled a “criminal organisation”.
Hours later, Musk appeared to confirm reports that his task force had taken control of the US Treasury payments system, which manages the transfer of funds on behalf of the entire federal government.
“The only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to follow the payment flows and pause suspicious transactions for review. Obviously,” Musk said in a post on social media platform X.
“Naturally, this causes those who have been aiding, abetting and receiving fraudulent payments very upset. Too bad.”
On Monday, a group of unions representing government workers filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, alleging that DOGE’s access to the payments system had unlawfully compromised the privacy of millions of Americans.
“Secretary Bessent’s action granting DOGE-affiliated individuals full, continuous, and ongoing access to that information for an unspecified period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords,” said the complaint, filed by The Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union.
“And because Defendants’ actions and decisions are shrouded in secrecy, individuals will not have even basic information about what personal or financial information that Defendants are sharing with outside parties or how their information is being used.”
Tesla sales are plunging around the world: Is this just a Musk problem?
Tesla sales in Europe are plummeting fast. Electrek reports that, year over year, sales are down 18 percent in the United Kingdom, 31 percent in Portugal, more than 40 percent in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands, 63 percent in France, and a whopping 75 percent in Spain. Overall, the takeaway seems to be that Europeans want Elon Musk and his fancy car company to fuck right off.
Tesla does not release sales figures for Canada but rebate data from Transport Canada’s zero-emission vehicle program suggest about 33,000 Teslas received rebates in the nine months to Dec. 31. On a per-month basis, that is down about 15 per cent compared to the approximately 50,000 Teslas that received the rebates in the full 2023-2024 fiscal year.
See https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/2/4/elon-musk-accused-of-coup-running-shadow-govt-as-doge-tightens-grip
