Trump is caving on all fronts. The wall is turning into a fence, Hillary will not be locked up and water boarding isn't all that effective. He is disappointing many of his followers. He needs one promise on which to strike hard. Break up the too big to fail banks is an issue that would show his rural supporters that he hears their resentment to Obama's unfair coddling of Wall Street and evicting of Main Street. The beauty of a demagogic, think Andrew Jackson's hatred of banks and vetoing The Bank of the United States Washington elites power grab, persecution of this group is that it would be good for the economy and renew America's belief of fair play.
Brooks' A Time for Listening identifies Trump's win as a push back from The Tyranny of Experts. It's a libertarian resistance to Washington solutions for local issues.
Warren G. Harding is considered the worst President of the previous century. James Grant's The Forgotten Depression shows, however, an executive who saw the great threat to the economy was to leave in place the spending and government controls put in place during The Great War, World War I. His command to the newly formed budget bureau, its director, Charles Dawes, and 1200 of his minions on June 20, 1921 right in the thick of the depression of 1920 was to "restore something like prewar order and balance in the nation's finances."
"The administration is committed to economy in government. This statement is not with any thought of criticizing has gone before. Its made with in anew realization of the necessity of driving out the loose, unscientific expenditures of government. There is not a menace in the world today like that of a growing public indebtedness and mounting public expenditures. There has seemingly grown up an impression that the public treasuries are inexhaustible things, and with it a conviction that no efficiency and no economy are ever to be thought of in public expense. We want to reverse things."
How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Conflict Tore the Mideast Apart goes a long way toward explaining the futility of pursuing actions or policies that favor one side of this religious divide in Islam. American policy should be a pox on both houses because its preferable to deal with declared enemies than with careless friends.
Common Sense: Trump Size Idea for a New President: Build StuffBuild something awe-inspiring. Something Americans can be proud of. Something that will repay the investment many times over for generations to come.
Build the modern-day equivalent of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, the Lincoln Tunnel or the Timberline Lodge. Or even, given Mr. Trump’s passion for the sport, another Bethpage State Park Black Course — the first public golf course to host the prestigious United States Open.
The Golden Gate Bridge under construction. The bridge was completed in 1937, in the Great Depression, during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
All of these are Depression-era New Deal public works projects started under President Franklin D. Roosevelt that are still in use.
Fed Official Offers a Way to Eliminate Mega Banks by requiring Too Big Too Fail Banks to have more capital than smaller ones and reverse their advantage. Neal Kashkari is right to say, "nation’s current political anger and polarization to how the government responded to the financial crisis — which allowed large banks to survive while thousands of Americans struggled to keep their homes and find new jobs. “The bailouts violated a core belief that has been handed down from generation to generation in our society that if you take a risk you bear the rewards and consequences of that risk,” he said. “We had to tear that up during the crisis because the biggest banks were going to fail and bring down the U.S. economy. And when you violate the core beliefs of society it does lead to anger and a feeling that this wasn’t fair.”
Philippine's Deal With China on Disputed Sea Pokes Hole in U. S. Strategy is an unnecessarily provocative headline. Hopefully our strategy is not to deny reality and resist China's expansion of power and influence. Rather we face it and accommodate. As odious as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte may be to our sensibilities his recent visit and accommodation with China has a positive conflict defusing effect.
