What did you think of the answer, Jay?
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What did you think of the answer, Jay?
Good question, feckless answer
Today is the first day of public trading for Trump’s crypto scam.
* Trump Family Amasses $6 Billion Fortune After Crypto Launch @wsj.com
No WAY!!!
We did this to ourselves www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/w...
This month spoke w the ambassador of a longtime close US allied country. The indignities, damage, and "the cruelty is the point" (tm A Serwer) that this allied country has been put through would defy belief, except that we see counterparts every day in ICE / MAGA news. Just for the record.
No big whoop, just Donald Trump pissing away three decades of U.S. diplomacy due to a fit of personal pique. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/donald-tru...
Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & well, here we are, hundreds of miles on the interstate past the Goldwater-Rhodes exit that we already should have taken. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Anna has had excellent coverage of this developing case in which the Trump administration tried to use the holiday weekend to secretly and illegally deport children.
And a huge thank you to @annabower.bsky.social , @kyledcheney.bsky.social , @joshuajfriedman.com and other reporters who chronicled today’s hearing live, so we could track the malfeasance in real time. Here is Bower’s full report www.lawfaremedia.org/article/emer...
Once again I ask, what’s it going to take?
Don’t. Print. Lies. In. The. Newspapers. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
I’m absolutely begging reporters to stop suggesting that Lisa Cook stated that she would use both properties as a principal residence on her mortgage APPLICATIONS Mortgage APPLICATIONS and mortgage AGREEMENTS are not the same thing We have no idea what she represented on the APPLICATIONS
“Who. Pays. The. Tariffs!”
Well done helping the rest of us appreciate why the decision to honor an insurrectionist is damaging both to our military and our society, @markhertling.bsky.social.
What are we even doing?
Such a surprise
Question: Why did US put big tariffs on India despite major national interest in cultivating a strategic counterweight to China and trying to isolate Russia? Answer: Because the US president lied that he fixed India-Pakistan and India wouldn’t go along with the lie. (Seriously, that’s the answer)
It’s not just that Congress allowed the CDC crisis. Key lawmakers, on your payroll, allowed it despite statements showing they believe RFK’s views on vaccines are wrong. RFK can say he is doing what he believes; the lawmakers can’t. open.substack.com/pub/steveins...
It doesn’t seem like it should be remotely controversial that if you’re killed by police while obviously storming the US Capitol that the military shouldn’t go out of its way years later to honor you, but then again Trump just rehung a portrait of Col. Robert E. Lee at West Point, so….
Agree with every word
To be clear, when will the Republicans who control Congress start doing their jobs….
From @markhertling.bsky.social — retired Three Star General, veteran of our modern wars. www.thebulwark.com/p/honoring-a...
Patrick Henry expressed concern that the President “may easily become king,” James Madison replied that this would not occur because “[t]he purse is in the hands of the representatives of the people.” Full Henry quote on "you Senate" below: teachingamericanhistory.org/document/pat...
In which the President destroys our relationship with a global power and drives it into the arms of Russia because their strongman won’t help him get a Nobel Peace Prize. (Sorry, used up all my gift links this month.) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
Coping, seething, etc
BREAKING: Federal Circuit, 7-4, rejects Trump’s tariffs under the IEEPA, affirming the lower court’s decision against Trump. www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-ord...
US August Income, Spending and PCE Inflation: The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator increased 2.6% (2.596% vs. 2.565% in June) in July implying an increasingly difficult policy decision on whether to cut interest rates at its September 17, 2025 meeting. #Econ #EconSky
FFS www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
The Fed is like that character in Clerks who keeps saying he wasn't even supposed to be working that day. Yes, I'm genuinely sorry, this does suck, but it's your job right now and you have to do it. Saying you're not supposed to be political and hoping it passes will not make it pass.
Wut?
Putting his political opponents in danger - see also John Bolton
Wow www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
Same, for the love of Pete. Saaaaaaaame
Consider that this person has direct influence on the President of the United States, but Republicans in Congress are too cowardly to say anything about it.
Heck yeah, let’s get this rate-cutting cycle underway. 🤡 @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Yup + short dollar
No words. This is… a) …laughable b) …dangerous c) …damaging
Today is the ninth day that the homepage of Reginfo.gov — the federal government website for informing the public about what survey data and other information agencies collect — has displayed a notice saying it's "currently undergoing revisions" with no further explanation
In the weird, terrible moment we're all experiencing of contested reality / distorted reality / unreality, I was heartened by this wonderful Zach Helfand piece about the brilliant, heroic fact checkers of @newyorker. May they save civilization.
Opposed
This is crazy man we’re just totally separating ourselves from the global mail network just so we can do infinity tariffs
It's hard to keep up with Trump so we've compiled a list of websites tracking Trump’s actions on tariffs, regulations, the environment, immigration, and more. @brookings.edu Hutchins Center www.brookings.edu/articles/tra...
Which would be v bad
This is the most important thing you'll read today: "Democracy rarely dies in a single moment. It is chipped away via abdication: rationalizations and compromises as those with power and influence tell themselves that yielding just a little ground will keep them safe..."
Huh
Veterans are oversold as a bloc. Some are extremely proud of what they did, others saw it as a job like any other, some would rather forget it. But the vast majority took the oath seriously, and not doing so offends them. I would hammer that Babbitt is getting a military funeral. Hammer it.
This is obscene thehill.com/policy/defen...
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
The corporate euphemisms for price hikes are hilarious. Urban Outfitters: "gentle" price adjustments Victoria's Secret: "evolving promotional approach" Hormel: "targeted pricing actions” @wsj.com $HRL www.wsj.com/business/ear...
The local political story around the DC military takeover is rich stuff. The zombie delegate who refuses to retire or appear in public, the mayor who will assent to anything if it gets her football stadium...
Only in America do we repeatedly and angrily insist, over the bodies of our dead gunshot children, that guns have nothing to do with gun violence.
Hoo boy
This keeps happening. The IRS guy. The National Security Advisor.
The winning. Please make it stop.
👇
This is dumb. And useless
Fact check: true
Yes
SUB-OPTIMAL www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...
“increasing political pressure [on the Fed] by half as much as Nixon, for six months, raises the price level more than 8%” www.nber.org/papers/w32461
“The Fed was off limits” If only that policy applied to the entire administration.
Today, the U.S. doubled tariffs on India. Soon, it'll end an exemption that helps Americans import stuff bought online without incurring tariffs. And later, tariffs are coming on chips and furniture and more. So here's the latest version of our big tracker + map: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Trump is hostile to the Fed’s independence. He wants to bend the central bank to his will. He is willing to threaten officials with criminal prosecution to get his way. We are in dangerous territory. My @nationalreview.bsky.social column. www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-s... #econsky
sorry, for non-nerds: Originally we had the Dept of the Navy and the Dept or War (Army). Navy was around all the time; Army was tiny & marginal except when we had a war. After WWII, in which the Army and Navy famously fought each other almost as much as they fought the axis, they were combined …
Why is the Washington Post treating this like it's a serious thing and not a sad and pathetic delusion? www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
The state, it's me, said these two.
Or, y’know, 8.5 billion taxpayer dollars
I honestly can’t wait to see how the Navy reacts to 1. The admin trying to change the name to Dept of War and 2. The claim that it was the War Dept (and apparently the War Dept alone) that won the two world wars. This is Naval Erasure!! Forrestal is rolling in his grave!!
Do the president and the cabinet not have, like, things to do? It’s just hours everyday now of him saying stuff like “I personally signed the Khitomer Accords” while department heads nod.
I don't have the full statement yet but the Fed has finally spoken *FEDERAL RESERVE: GOVERNORS MAY ONLY BE REMOVED 'FOR CAUSE' *FEDERAL RESERVE WILL ABIDE BY ANY COURT DECISION: FED STATEMENT *FEDERAL RESERVE: REMOVAL PROTECTIONS SERVE AS SAFEGUARD
you know who else had an infraction
It's really kind of beautiful how his flunkies do these little maneuvers and then he explicitly blows them up less than an hour later. 13:49 *BESSENT: PUBLIC TRUST GIVES FEDERAL RESERVE ITS CREDIBILITY 14:44 *TRUMP: WILL HAVE MAJORITY SHORTLY ON FED
He's shouting the quiet part from the freakin' rooftops.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook to Sue Over Firing, Asserting Trump Abused Power www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...
“The president essentially is moving to shift the majority of the Board well before what was contemplated in terms of the institutional structure and their terms,” Brainard said. “ When renewals of all of the Reserve Bank presidents come up in February,” to potentially not renew some of them
Lisa Cook should also sue Lutnick for defamation
It’s playing out just the way you called it when we had you on. (Ugh)
“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.” LOL. That sentence doesn’t remotely approximate law; it’s garbled, incoherent word salad. Always read @leahlitman.bsky.social
You should know more about how Trump gathered the ammunition to try to illegally fire Fed Reserve governor Lisa Cook. Luckily, today's show has got your back: slate.com/podcasts/wha...
More references to Howard Lutnick than Scott Bessent in news articles for three straight sessions, first time that’s happened since March
The push to dismiss Cook “is a good reminder that no institution in Washington can insulate itself from Trump’s bullying,” said Sarah Binder. “Nor are claims of ‘independence’ sufficient to protect the Fed from Trump’s ambitions. The Fed needs defenders, especially bond traders.”
Picked the wrong week to be off…
My write-up from this morning on the Trump administration's attempt to remove Governor Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (and the lack of market reaction).
(Bloomberg) -- Long-dated US Treasuries fell as President Donald Trump intensified efforts to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, deepening concerns his attacks on the central bank’s independence and lobbying for lower interest rates will fan inflation. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
I wrote about the manifestly illegal attempt to fire Lisa Cook 1/ paulkrugman.substack.com/p/in-the-mat...
Full political circularity. @barrons.com $INTC www.barrons.com/articles/int...
👀
It’s not. About. The mortgages.
Even there were a cause, there has been no proper investigation, only an accusation by a highly partisan appointee of the President himself.
This is right. Any effect on the economy is of secondary importance. Trump is weaponizing the government against people he doesn't like. The very definition of an authoritarian.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been around for 111 years. In that time it has had more than 100 members (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...). No president has ever fired (or claimed to have fired) one before.
Just received this statement from Lisa Cook: "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022."
Yup
Also, and not for nothing (and also, I am not a lawyer — was rejected by *every law school I applied to) that Fed carve-out in Wilcox was thin to begin with. We’ll see what happens now…
It’s hard to overstate how big a deal this is - for the economy (ours and globally), for the rule of law, and for the proper and efficient function of government. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...
The Supreme Court’s conservatives bear SO much blame for this disaster. They really thought they could let Trump fire every agency leader EXCEPT members of the Fed, and Trump would abide by their stern admonition to leave the Fed alone. Embarrassing stupidity. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...
Earlier this year, SCOTUS tried to construct a stupid legal framework where the President was allowed to destroy basically all independent institutions except for the Federal Reserve, which was deemed too economically important. Unsurprisingly, even that was not enough for Trump.
