Random Thoughts #68

Random Thoughts #68

DDE’s asking why the EU do not buy US cars made me reminisce. I don’t buy them either. My first car was my Dad’s 1964 Mercury Monterey that he gave me when I got my master’s in 1968.  It proved too big to fit in parking spaces near the Ohio State campus so I bought a 1968 fastback Toyota corolla. It fit but had terrible brakes. Then I bought a 1970 Fiat 124 coupe, I think the spyder was the convertible. I loved that car which is why a bit later my then wife wanted it during divorce proceedings. So I bought a Saab Sonnet which I wish I had kept. To date I have never owned another American car after Dad’s Mercury. But a progression of American SUVs and pickups have followed until my mother’s death when I realized that I had always wanted a Mercedes GLS 450 and my time was getting short. So out went the Chevy Traverse. However, I had an F-150 as a farm truck which morphed into an F-250 diesel when we started towing 5^th wheel toy haulers so we could take the motorcycles with us when we went camping.

When once I said that we camped, I was asked “in a tent?” Hardly, it is in a fifth wheel with two flat screen tvs, two ACs, three burner stove with an oven, refrigerator, microwave, stereo system and an electric fireplace. Home away from home. I once remarked that the only way you could get black people in a tent was to draft them into the army – or attend a revival.

When Trump’s tariffs are declared illegal, do all the importers get a refund?

The drama continues with the NCUA board. Recall that the president fired the two democrat members and had them barred from their offices. They sued and were reinstated because their legal structure was the same as the Fed’s board and the Supreme Court had ruled that the president could not fire a Fed governor (without cause). The two democrat NCUA board members returned to work – probably to the consternation of the sole republican member who had declared himself a quorum of one. The Department of “Justice” appealed and a Federal appeals court just paused the two democrats’ reinstatement while the appeal is heard. Out they go again. The court said that the administration’s request was granted to “give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.” Why is this important? Because it bears on the administration’s ability to add the Fed to the list of agencies in which the president has the authority to fire its members despite their being confirmed by the senate. I thought what was interesting is that unlike the Fed, NCUA’s board must be bipartisan by law. I thought that the president would fire one of the democrats so that the republicans could have the majority of members. But perhaps that would have been too subtle a move for this president. Stay tuned.

Trump says that he has fired Fed governor Lisa Cook who says he can’t fire her. There is no word that Trump will sic the FBI on her by invading the Fed building to oust her physically. Cook, in turn has sued the president (just like the NCUA board members). Cook says that she will stay on the job until the courts rule. Like NCUA this one is destined for the Supreme Court. What is interesting is that the president says that he will nominate someone to take Cook’s seat. You mean that the Senate will hold hearings when the vacancy may not be a vacancy? What if the person is then confirmed? What happens next? Do they share an office and a vote since the Board can have only seven governors.

At last, some of the president’s sycophants have gathered up enough nerve to vocally oppose one of his actions. Pursuing his American socialism, the president is having the government inject itself into private business – mining, Intel, US Steel. Commerce secretary Lutnick says that they are considering having a stake in defense contractors. Larry Kudlow who to date has been a Trump apologist and Stephen Moore who put together some comical charts to give credence to the president’s charge that the BLS jobs numbers were rigged to make him look bad actually can’t find it in themselves to endorse Trump’s turn toward socialism. Moore was on Kudlow’s show on Fox and was asked “How about the U.S. government owning 10 percent of Intel?” Moore said

“I hate corporate welfare! That’s privatization in reverse! We want the government to divest of assets, not buy assets! So terrible, one of the bad ideas that’s come out of this White House.” Kudlow concurred: “I am very, very uncomfortable with that idea.” Now if only the republicans in the House and Senate had the guts to just say “no.”

Note that neither Kudlow nor Moore could bring themselves to say the “S” word. Hey, but Bernie Sanders likes it and interestingly Gavin Newsom doesn’t. Politico reports the following: Gavin Newsom said that people would be “outraged” if Joe Biden had done the same deals that the Trump administration did with Intel and Nvidia. “This is outrageous. It’s reckless. If Joe Biden tried to nationalize Intel, if Joe Biden did a deal to send to H20 chips to China. “People would be outraged. Are you kidding me?” Newsom then said “It sickens me to the core.”

Isn’t it interesting that Newson is “sickened to the core” but we have heard nothing from the so-called Freedom Caucus? The republican leadership in the Senate (John Thune) and in the House (Mike Johnson) have been mute. No Chip Roy, no Andy Biggs, no Andy Ogles or our Tim Burchett. No Marsha Blackburn either. Of course she is running for Tennessee governor and wants Trump’s endorsement. Ogles and Burchett want her senate seat so they have turned into yes-men too. I guess the only principled members with guts come from Kentucky in Thomas Massie in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate who called the move a “terrible idea” and suggested that the government owning a stake in Intel is “a step toward socialism.”

It is.