News Story of the Day: during the 2016 election, President Donald Trump repeatedly slammed the Federal Reserve for suppressing interest rates and keeping them too low for too long. He wanted to raise rates to benefit the American people, not Wall Street.
That seems to have changed.
He told CNBC:
“I’m not thrilled.
Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best. I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into the economy and then I see rates going up.”
Oh, Donald.
Chart of the Day: social media is a perturbed, vile, and hateful arena. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. These are all websites that have turned into cesspools, primarily over politics. Just how has social media changed in recent years? Here is a great chart via Vox:
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Illustration of the Day: how bad is California’s fiscal situation? Here is an illustration from Truth in Accounting to gain a small glimpse into its immense debt levels:
Quote of the Day: from Cafe Hayek’s Donald Boudreaux on those who justify tariffs as leveling the playing field:
With respect, I tire of people trying to justify tariffs by asserting that these trade restrictions are a means of “leveling the playing field” of trade with other countries that use tariffs and subsidies. For many reasons, only two of which I mention here, this phrase is a meaningless bromide that rouses emotion and douses thought.
First, trade isn’t a game played for the benefit of the participating producers. Instead, trade is simply that which happens when consumers voluntarily spend their money and producers compete to earn some of that money by making offers to consumers. The only result we care about is how much better off over time are consumers. The greater the improvement over time in consumers’ welfare, the greater are the benefits of trade, regardless of the reasons some particular producers profited in the process and others did not.
Second, the real victims of foreign-governments’ tariffs and subsidies are not Americans; the victims are foreign consumers and taxpayers. It is these foreign consumers and taxpayers who play on an unfairly sloped field – one tilted against them and in favor of special-interest groups in those foreign countries. And so when Uncle Sam responds in kind with his own tariffs and subsidies, Uncle Sam tilts the playing field here at home unfairly in favor of politically powerful American producers and against the rest of us. I object to such home-grown unfairness.
Tweet of the Day: Luke Rudkowski has it right when it comes to the left’s love of war.
ICYMI: Partisans in the Senate would rather risk war than give peace a chance. Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially arrived in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/6ZMaXwLTS3
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 19, 2018
Video of the Day: when it comes to this week’s historic Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, it seems the only sane voice is Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Not only did he destroy CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, he delivered a blistering speech on the Senate floor, explaining that Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) has arrived in the Senate.
ICYMI: Partisans in the Senate would rather risk war than give peace a chance. Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially arrived in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/6ZMaXwLTS3
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 19, 2018
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