Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

We’re all consumers, and restricting our access to cheap foreign goods is bad for all of us.  Because of Trump’s tariff on aluminum, I’m going to have to pay an extra 3 cents for a six pack of beer.

But Americans are more than consumers, we’re producers, and fellow citizens and countrymen.  We have an interest in the well being of our fellows..  So I, for one, will gladly pay my extra 3 cents, knowing I’m supporting my American aluminum workers, and their vital industry.

Those who disagree, and who are upset about that 3 cents a six pack increase, are unlikely to change their vote because of it.  It’s relatively trivial, everybody pays it, and you get used to it.

On the other hand, everyone associated with the steel and aluminum industries has been waiting for this for 30 years.   They’re ecstatic.  The President of the United States is their biggest fan and salesman.  This will change votes, all to Trump’s advantage.  A week from Tuesday, in PA-18, we’ll see if it’s working.

It’s almost like a principle of politics. Disperse the pain, and concentrate the pleasure.

The special election in PA-18 on March 13th is seen as a harbinger of the Congressional elections of 2018.  Trump won this district by 20 points, and yet the polls have it dead even right now.  This is a race the R’s really don’t want to lose, and recent state legislative losses are a bad omen.

The most interesting aspect of Trump’s tariff decision is the big rush.  He wanted to do this Right Now!  The steel and aluminum execs were only notified yesterday.  And Trump jumped the gun, announcing a decision he wasn’t ready to formally implement until next week.  Why couldn’t this all wait a week, and summon the execs to the actual issuance of the Presidential order?

Well it so happens PA-18 is the area just south of Pittsburgh, the Steel City.  The Mon Valley Works and other steel producers are important to the economy, and thus to the voters, of PA-18.  By taking this action now he’s giving the Republican candidate, Rick Saccone, twelve full days before the election to campaign on it.

Who knows, Trump may want to do a town hall in the district next week.  He is a  candidate for reelection himself, so it  can be an out and out political victory rally for Donald Trump.

And Rick Saccone.

Not bad for a White House paralyzed by chaos.

 

The common man is a debtor, and inflation is a feature of the American common man’s political philosophy  — populism.  The original American populists, the People’s Party of the late 19th century, wanted free silver to expand the money supply.  This was an explicitly inflationary effort to ease the burdens of debtors.

Trump is the most populist President in American history, the self described “King of Debt”, and as such would like to see some inflation.  He’s in the process of getting his wish, with the 10 year Treasury about to breach the 3% barrier, and beyond.

Inflation can help get an economy booming, which helps Trump politically, and is the best chance he has of reelection.  But if inflation gets out of control, as it did in the late 1970’s, there’s hell to pay.

For the time being, Trump doesn’t care about spending deficits and the national debt.  They’re not costing him anything, politically.  Eventually, they will.  One of the great questions of the day is —  when?

People with better math skills than I have may have some idea, but I think it’s essentially unknowable.  It depends on the market, and the psychology of investors.  The greedy bulls seem to be in charge right now, but the fearful bears are lurking.

When inflation and rising interest rates do start costing Trump politically, he’ll be ready to hear all about Article V and the Balanced Budget Amendment.

Time is on our side.

 

The political slant of Facebook and Google are far more menacing than the Russians.  The number of confirmed instances of censorship grows daily.  These people have immense and growing power, and they’re using it to promote their leftist ideology.  Can, or should, anything be done about it?   Congressional investigations are the forum where such subjects can be explored.

I  believe the relevant Committees are  House Science, Space and Technology (Rep. Lamar Smith, Chair) and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation (Sen. John Thune, Chair).  I’d like to see the top dogs at Facebook, Google, and maybe a few others, put under oath at public Congressional Committee meetings chaired by these gentlemen.

There are so many questions to ask, the hearings could extend for weeks.

Trump’s vigor is a constant source of amazement to me, personally, because we’re the same age.  He wants a second term.  As long as he’s on his game, he deserves one.  I think he’s enjoying himself, and as long as that holds true, why quit?

He is crushing his enemies, driving them before him, and hears the lamentations of their women.  It doesn’t get any better.

He’s a master of distraction.  We stare at all the bells and whistles of fake Russian news, and the Florida school shooting, and don’t notice our wallets being picked.

Through such sleight of hand Trump quietly adopts a fiscal policy which, if uncorrected, will bankrupt the country in his second term, at the latest.  And he has no plans, and no one in Congress has any plan, to correct it.  No wonder the market got spooked.

Well, actually Trump does have a plan, which he described to CPAC.  He wants more Republicans elected so that the Democrats can’t force him to spend $155 billion more on domestic programs than he wanted to.  That’s the entire plan.

I keep waiting for one of these nitwits in the press corps to ask how how he plans to deal with the totally predictable financial crisis we’re headed for.  Nothing.

I almost feel sorry for the Democrats.  They may win the House in November, but not if they can help it. With the addition of gun control to the top of their agenda, they could wind up blowing their last best shot at slowing Trump down.   Socialism, open borders and gun control, that’s the ticket!

Trump, meanwhile, is gassing the economy to a level we haven’t seen since the Roaring 20’s.

With his imminent replacement of Justice Kennedy with another Gorsuch, Trump will have the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1930’s.

With his rejection of the Bretton Woods framework, he has adopted an American First trade policy that we haven’t had since the 1940’s

He is adopting the most pro-business regulatory environment since the 1950’s.

At the end of the day, he will have adopted an America First immigration policy that we haven’t had since the 60’s.

Peace and prosperity are hard to beat.  I thought Bill Clinton was toast in 1996.  I thought Paula Jones had made him such a laughingstock that he could never get reelected.  But people held their noses and voted for him, just as they’ll do for Trump.

He’s magic.