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More evidence that Trump hates Canada

If there is one thing that President Trump has done in his tariff rampage, it is that he has made Canada blink. Remember when Ontario said that it would retaliate against the tariffs by imposing tariffs on energy that they exported to the US? Trump immediately said that he would double the already existing punitive tariffs on Canadian goods and Ontario backed down. Then Trump abruptly canceled negotiations over the tariffs when the Canadians insisted that they were going to keep their tax on digital services. Trump promised even bigger tariffs and the Canadians again said “Uncle (Sam?)”. Trump said “Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately! We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.” Here again Trump is saying that the other country will pay the tariff which is false.

What is a bit weird is that Trump let the Brits keep their digital services tax in their negotiations. But then again Trump hates Canada and must like the Brits since British cars are subject to smaller tariffs than American cars built in Canada and Mexico. Despite all their assertions the Canadians blinked and rescinded the tax. What galls the Canadians was that this was done on July 1, Canada day. One Canadian wrote “It’s hard to celebrate Canada Day when it feels like a foreign president just rewrote our tax code from his golf cart.”

Canada’s digital services tax would be a tax on the revenues on Big Tech companies that do not have a physical location in the country. The tax was to be 3 percent of revenues above $20 million Canadian retroactive to 2022. But digital taxes are nothing new. Nineteen countries already have such a tax, yet Trump has – to my knowledge – only raised the issue in negotiations with Turkey. Countries contend that if the companies had a physical presence they would be subject to that country’s taxes. Internationals generally pay taxes where production occurs or where the sales occur. But with no physical presence, these companies do not pay taxes on their digital services revenues. I guess there could be some international agreement regarding these taxes but it is doubtful that the US would be on board, given that the majority of the companies affected are US firms. The US’ opposition is that the tax would result in double taxation. One wonder why the issue cannot be resolved by a tax credit for foreign taxes paid? But the hangup seems to be that the digital services tax is taxing revenues rather than income.

Not surprisingly the Big Tech firms have lobbied the administration vigorously to oppose the tax and Trump has complied. Yet one can also understand the frustration of the governments who see revenues earned in their country by corporations that are not taxed. But Trump’s opposition is not unique. Obama and Biden also opposed digital services taxes but only Trump has used the economic heft of the United States to force a country to not implement the tax. What remains to be seen is if Trump will insist that the other countries rescind their digital services tax in their negotiations over the tariffs. If he doesn’t it will be further evidence of his hatred toward Canada.

Suppose I was nominated to be Chairman of the Fed

Not only would I not be nominated (I am too old and too independent), the pay is lousy ($250,000), and though I loved living in DC but not at this point in my life. What would I do with my bass boat? My dog – I have a German Shorthaired Pointer and unlike Robert Parker’s Spenser’s GSP Belle, I would not keep mine in the city. My fifth wheel? My vehicles and most importantly my guns? So if nominated I would not serve – unless I could do it virtually from Knoxville.

Far be it for me to give Donald Trump advice but here goes. Much is being written on who he going to choose to replace Powell as chairman of the Fed. The media seems to think it will be either Kevin Warsh or Kevin Hassett, chair of the National Economic Council. I have written why I think that Warsh will not be chosen because he is not a yes man. He previously served on the Board of Governors and is committed to Fed independence. I like him in that he wants the Fed to return to its pre-Bernanke roots emphasizing monetary aggregates rather than interest rates. He would then run counter to Trump’s obsession with lowering interest rates. Since he would be a great choice, I doubt if Trump will nominate him.

Then there is Kevin Hassett of the National Economic Council. Hassett has demonstrated “flexibility” of thought. At first he was a defender of Jay Powell and Fed independence but lately has flipped to the dark side, joining Trump in criticizing Powell. Hassett has a PhD in economics from Penn and was once on the faculty of Columbia. He has also been a staff economist at the Fed. However, this does not make him an expert on monetary economics. Rather his interests were in tax policy.

Trump won’t be able to fire Powell and must wait until his term as chairman ends on May 15, 2026. But he doesn’t have to wait that long to put Powell’s successor in place. Board member Adriana Kugler’s term ends January 1, 2026. Trump could, and should, nominate whoever he wants as chairman to fill Kugler’s expired term. Then when Powell leaves as chairman, he can then nominate that person as chairman. Mind you, whoever is nominated will have a bruising confirmation hearing rivaling that of a Supreme Court nominee. Warsh will be the more independent choice while Hassett will be viewed as a political hack.

Regardless, I would be surprised that whoever is nominated (and it likely will not be either of these) will not chart their own course once in office to the dismay of the president. Fed chairmen take Fed independence seriously. I once served on a committee with the legendary Paul Volcker. One does not get more independent than that but even he relied on the work of the staff economists at the Fed.

But yes there is serious change that needs to be in the Fed’s William McChesney Martin Building and in the reserve bank districts. Here is what I would do. First, I would bring in new monetary economists to analyze and rebuild the fed models emphasizing monetary aggregates rather than interest rates. Second, I would encourage the president to nominate for future board positions, economists of stature whose expertise was in the critical areas that the fed studies, such as international economics. Third, I would place strong monetarists at the reserve banks but have on their staffs deregulatory minded people. Fourth, I would divide the Fed into two sections, one concerned solely with monetary policy and the second that would concentrate on regulation and the examination of the banks. I would have two separate support staffs to assist them. Although administrators love to increase their power, I would recommend that the regulatory body be spun off into a different agency or merged with the Comptroller of the Currency. Fifth, I would recommend that the congress purge the agency of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It has no place within the Fed. Sixth, I would recommend that the Fed chair be ex officio member of the president’s cabinet. Seventh, I would recommend that the secretary of the Treasury be ex officio on the Open Market Committee. That way the administration would have a voice but not a vote at the Fed and the Fed would have a voice on the president’s cabinet. I know some purists would argue that this would infringe on the Fed’s independence. If you disagree I am open to suggestions.

More Seemingly Random Thoughts #62

Trump, says Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, “is probably the most economically sophisticated president we’ve had in 100 years, maybe ever.” Huh? Boy, does that say something about our past presidents!

Tariff stupidity = economic sophistication? Who knew?

Why doesn’t Trump meet with Powell regularly?

Can the Secretary of the Treasury be on the Open Market Committee? How about having the Fed chair on the cabinet? That would give the administration a voice – but not a veto – on the Fed’s actions.

It will be interesting to see the next FOMC vote. I bet it won’t be unanimous.

Republicans – not democrats – blocked Mike Lee’s suggestion to sell a sliver of Fed owned land (a la Thomas Sowell). Lee wanted to sell a paltry 1 million of the 640 million acres owned by the federal government. Four republican senators and 6 republican representatives threatened not to vote for the Big Beautiful bill forcing Lee to jettison his amendment. This is just another example of the difficulty in even cutting pennies from the federal budget.

National security tariffs? Wouldn’t it make more sense to lower all tariffs to zero if reciprocated on China’s competitors (Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Cambodia) and on all our ex-allies? Instead Trump is going forward with the lunacy of imposing tariffs on everyone. He thinks American economic might will cower every nation into kissing his ring. Instead, those nations will form other alliances – often with China. Some national security strategy.

Remember that in Trump’s world, reciprocal means a 20% tariff on Vietnam while their tariff on US goods is zero.

Also remember that one reason given for the tariffs was the bizarre notion that trade deficits in goods (only) somehow imperiled national security. Then why is Trump putting tariffs on all the countries with which we have a trade surplus like Brazil? Their tariff is an amazing 50%! I seldom agree with Paul Krugman but his calling the Brazilian tariffs “megalomaniacal and evil” may be an understatement. Let’s just be kind and say that Trump is either misinformed or a liar or – in Krugman’s words – a megalomanic. One observer says that this “defies logic”. But of course no logic is involved here. Trump’s tariff letter to Brazil said that Brazilian trade barriers caused “unsustainable trade deficits” for the U.S.  Pardon me but WTF. We have a trade surplus with Brazil in 2024 of $284 million. In the first half of 2025, it is $1.67 billion. So now trade surplus = deficits? Some economically sophisticated president!

On the home front one writer made the insightful comment that only Trump could have “capitalized on and exacerbated the manifold failings of a pre-existing culture and politics derailed by identity, incoherently wooing disaffected black and Latino Americans even as he elevates whites en masse to the status of victims and demotes racial and sexual minorities to the role of oppressors (invaders, usurpers, recipients of unfair advantages)”. But as I remind you, we would have never had CRT or DEI if white people (those libs in power) did not hate white people. 

Does Justice Jackson know the constitution? She was the sole dissenter in an 8-1 decision. Even Sotomayor would not join her. This case involved Trump’s ability to fire federal employees. Not only did Jackson dissent but her dissent was amazing in its scathing tone of disapproval toward her eight other colleagues. She wrote “For some reason, this Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation. In my view, this decision is not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”  

Seriously? “Hubristic and senseless.” Even though Sotomayor disagreed with Trump’s actions, she agreed that the case should move forward so the lower courts can decide first if the eventual layoffs break any laws set by Congress. Jonathan Turley has called Jackson’s style one of “judicial abandon”. Turley is being kind. Although some are quick to attack Jackson’s intellect, her record and history show otherwise. Jackson is very smart but is using the court as a bully pulpit to espouse her personal views rather than being true to her oath of office that pledges ““I, _________, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as _________, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

Jackson is 54 and may be on the court another 20 years.

Clarence Thomas is 77 and Samuel Alito is 75. Maybe it is time for both to retire at the end of the current session of the court while republicans control the White House and the senate. If the democrats come back into power – and surely they will someday – can you imagine two more justices like Ketanji Brown Jackson?

And lastly, even the calendar says WTF after Tuesday.

Doesn’t Victor Davis Hanson have a PhD?

Victor Davis Hanson has become the lettered darling of the MAGA crowd. Although I agree with some of his musings, I am not a Victor Davis Hanson fan. I find much of his commentary to be in the MAGA-apologist camp with an air of snobbish superiority. Hanson recently had a curious and rather puzzling article in Politico where he ridiculed those degreed experts – those pundits with PhDs. He ridiculed economists’ critique of Trump’s tariffs. He then, for good measure, added immigration experts, national security experts, the Middle East, NATO, Hunter Biden’s laptop, global warming, the Steele dossier and university bias. Seriously, all that is in one article. The part about economist was sheer sophistry. I was going to challenge Hanson’s analysis but my longtime friend Don Boudreaux beat me to it. Here are the links to Hanson’s article and Don’s rejoinder. I subscribe to Don’s blog, Café Hayek, and I recommend that you consider subscribing too.

Victor Davis Hanson, The Decline and Fall of Our So-Called Degreed Experts

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/07/04/the_decline_and_fall_of_our_so-called_degreed_experts_152996.html

And Don Boudreaux’s rejoinder

“Victor Davis Hanson Continues to Write Foolishly About Economics”

Victor Davis Hanson Continues to Write Foolishly About Economics

Yes, Victor Davis Hanson criticizes the degreed experts. Yet he has a PhD from Stanford in Classics, which of course makes him an expert on economics, political science, national security, the environment and everything else. I acknowledge that the same criticism can be leveled against me. But I gladly admit that I tend to apply microeconomics, supply and demand, and present value theory to almost everything (the hammer and nail). I have a close friend who accuses me of doing that but I tell him to “prove me wrong and I will adopt your opinion”. That does not appear to be Dr Hanson’s philosophy.

But reading Hanson’s MAGA apology pieces I am reminded of a conversation I had with my father. Dad was insisting on some point in economics and I told him he was wrong. He insisted otherwise. I said “Dad you would not argue over how Charles (my brother) does his job.” Dad said “He is a pilot and I don’t know anything about flying an airplane.” And I said “Well in this instance you don’t know economics either.”

Mamdani, Planned Parenthood and Judicial Activism

Zohran, a true Asian-African-American

Zohran Mamdani, the New York socialist who won the democrat primary for mayor put ‘Black/African American” on his application to Columbia. Undoubtedly he figured it would enhance his chances for admission. His SAT scores were below the average for the whites admitted but within the range of black applicants. Mamdani was denied admission even though his father is on the Columbia faculty. The media is having fits over it being revealed that he checked the African-American box. But in reality it is true. Mamdani was born in Uganda to Ugandans of Indian heritage. That makes him an African and since he is an American citizen, he is an African-American much like Elon Musk who was born in South Africa also is an African-American. So to quote Stevie Wonder “What the Fuss?” Mamdani also listed himself as “Asian” which makes him an Asian-African-American. All true. 

Eric Adams, the current mayor of New York who is running as an independent seized on the opportunity to say that “The African-American identity is not a checkbox of convenience. It’s a history, a struggle and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive.” That is true but it made me curious about the Ugandan experience for Indians in that country. Didn’t Idi Amin order the expulsion of the 80,000 Indians from the country? Was that the reason why Mamdani’s family came to the US? When Amin expelled the Indians, they were limited to taking with them $120 and 485 pounds of property. Wikipedia says that “some 5,655 firms, ranches, farms, and agricultural estates were confiscated, along with cars, homes and other household goods.” Hey, Eric, that sounds like a “struggle and a lived experience” to me.

Bye Bye Federal funding for abortions

The Big Beautiful Bill was the usual arranging of the deck chairs by the congress. It cut a few taxes and reallocated government largesse from those favored by the left to those favored by the right. So goodbye green subsidies, goodbye grants to LGBTQ, bye bye to all those included in the expansion of Medicaid beyond its original purpose. Also it was bye bye to the government’s funding of Planned Parenthood. Even though federal monies are supposed to not fund abortions (the Hyde Amendment), Planned Parenthood – the abortion factory – was receiving federal funds. Supposedly those funds were being used to support Planned Parenthood’s other functions, like cancer screenings and mental health counselling. However, Planned Parenthood’s main business is its 400,000 abortions a year. The BBB cuts of money to abortion clinics period, regardless of other things they do. Planned Parenthood now says that it will have to close 600 of its clinics. Good riddance. Planned Parenthood was founded by a racist geneticist for the sole purpose of aborting black babies. That is why most of its “clinics” are located in minority neighborhoods. Dollars are fungible and it is ridiculous to think that the government funding was only supporting non-abortion activities. If cancer screenings and mental health counselling are so important then I wonder if there are many (or any) Planned Parenthood “clinics” that offer only those services and do not perform abortions?

Judicial activism run amok 

I have written about judicial imperialism before with a federal judge ignoring a Supreme Court decision. Well another judge just issued a ruling issuing a nationwide restraining order invalidating that part of the BBB denying funding to Planned Parenthood. What! You mean a federal district judge can strike down a law enacted by the congress and signed by the president? Who knew? Didn’t congress pass the law to fund Planned Parenthood? Doesn’t it have the right to defund it, if it wants to? I am not an attorney but this strikes be as simply weird. If this judge in Massachusetts (where else?) is correct, then any party whose funding is cut off by and act of congress has grounds to sue to get that funding reinstated. Seriously, calling this “weird” is an understatement. Judicial activism? How about judicial insurrection.

The Return of Rosy Scenario

Way back in 1983 George Will characterized the Reagan Administration’s economic projections as a rosy scenario. That term has become synonymous with overly optimistic government projections. Well she’s back.

I have always said “prove me wrong and I will adopt your opinion.” It is now prove me wrong time with the Big Beautiful Bill. Most times when Trump does something the knee jerk reaction from the Trump haters is to oppose it while the knee jerk reaction from the MAGA apologists and those paid to lie (like the press secretary) is to support it. So we expect the left to assert that whatever Trump does is going to kill grandmothers, babies and the poor while profiting billionaires. Those on the right will contend that the same action will make America great again. Such is the case with the Big Beautiful Bill.

The analysis of the projected economic impact of the bill was virtually unanimous with the only outlier beings Trumps Council of Economic Advisors. Here outlier should be spelled outliar. Recall that the Congressional Budget Office (one of my many old employers) estimated meager growth in GDP of only 0.5% over ten years and an increase in the deficit of $430 trillion over that period if all the gimmicks were removed from the assumptions. The White House immediately blasted CBO saying that it was biased being populated by democrat hacks who hated Trump. However, CBO is headed by a republican economist appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate President pro tempore – both republicans. The White House spokesperson, who is paid to lie, also pooh poohed the CBO findings saying that a more accurate assessment was from the president’s Council of Economic Advisors. Their projection was a 4.6% to 4.9% increase in growth and a cut in the deficit of $2 trillion. The Council of Economic Advisers’ head, Stephen Miran made all the talk shows touting the bill. Kelly Loeffler, head of the SBA said that 1 million jobs would be created.

Well eight forecasting entities differ projecting growth from a paltry -0.1& (The Budget Lab) to an anemic 1.0% (Tax Foundation). All see significant increases in the deficit. Again, only Trumps CEA thinks otherwise. Naturally Speaker Johnson parrots the CEA saying The Council of Joint Economic Advisers predicts “a 3% growth rate in the economy, the addition of four million jobs, and for the average U.S. household to have an added $13,000 in take-home pay. “We’re giving everybody a tax cut, and that’s going to help the economy. We’re super excited about what we were able to deliver.” The Speaker added “We’re excited about the upcoming election cycle in ’26 because people will be riding an economic high, just as we did after the first two years of the first Trump administration. This time, it’s on steroids.”

Well this time it is different. Johnson can be excused for stretching the truth. It is what he has to do. Images of a pig with lipstick come to mind. Yes the Trump tax cuts in the first term led to economic growth, despite the imposition of tariffs. However, the Big Beautiful Bill doesn’t really cut taxes – except on a few piddling items – it only makes permanent the temporary tax cuts of the president’s first term. There is no new stimulation coming from the BBB that will have any significant economic impact. Also the $2 trillion in deficit reduction is wholly predicated on a 4.5% increase in economic growth which simply won’t happen despite what all the MAGA types are telling us. One modeler of the impact of the BBB noted that the CEA’s estimates were the only one that did not include the cost of financing the debt and that along with other “fantasy growth assumptions are many times higher than other estimators.” I believe this is another way of saying that the CEA’s projections are a rosy scenario.

Lastly, I do not have a lot of confidence in any of the models because of  Trump’s tariffs. How long will they be in effect? Of what magnitude will they be? All the models show that there will be a drag on the economy in the short run while only the CEA’s will contend that the tariffs will contribute to economic growth over the 10 year period. Since the estimates are over 10 years, are all the models keeping the tariffs static over the entire period? I would predict that the Trump tariffs will be temporary once their full impact is felt because the pressure will be on the president to remove them. But given the stubbornness of this president, he may be willing to keep them in place even if it appears that the republicans are going to lose congressional seats – despite Speaker Johnson’s having to endorse with a straight face the conclusions of the Council of Economic Advisors.

The monthly jobs report or how to lie with statistics

There are few things in life as certain as death, taxes and an inflated monthly jobs report. The report for June says that 147,000 jobs were added to the economy. Hooray? But the report from the Department of Labor is always wrong. After the initial report is issued, the Department starts revising it. That is because the report estimates job growth from a survey of selected employers. Consider that thus far from January through April, the Labor Department has revised down the monthly employment gains by an average of 55,000 jobs. March’s report was an additional 228,000 jobs then revised to 185,000 and then to 120,000. Historically, actual job growth is less than half of what is initially reported.

Look for the 147,000 jobs number to be significantly revised downward. Also look at the numbers within the numbers. While the Labor Department was reporting job gains of 147,000 other surveys said that for the first time in years overall private sector employment fell and that 47,000 jobs were lost at employers with fewer than 50 employees. Eighty percent of the job growth was in state and local governments. I have long contended that public sector employment should be excluded from the job figures. I believe that June’s numbers substantiate that claim. 

Thus, it looks as if the job market is weakening and may be shrinking if not stagnant making the Labor Department’s report an example of how to lie with statistics. Also consider that the revised data show that job growth last year was about 168,000 a month. Thus far it is 124,000 a month which will be revised downward. Do you think that tariffs and immigration are having an impact on the numbers? This is one of the reasons that Trump is screaming at the Fed to lower the fed funds rates – along with thinking that lowering the rate will lower government borrowing costs.

One might think that the troubling job numbers would cause Trump to back off his raising of tariffs. But no. Instead he has announced that the administration will start sending out letters informing countries of their tariff rates effective August 1. Trump said “They’ll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs. We’ve done the final form, and it’s basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs.” Note that the president persists on saying that the countries are going to be paying the tariffs when in fact it will be the importers. Why does the president keep telling this lie and curiously why hasn;t the media called him on it?

Is he serious about a 60% or a 70% tariff? Yes. Bet on it. What will be interesting is to see if like before, our allies are taxed higher than our enemies. Look for the tariff on Canada to be higher than that on Russia. Trump once said that his tariffs were reciprocal. I guess it is how you define “reciprocal” because the negotiated agreement with Viet Nam calls for a tariff of 20 percent on goods imported from Viet Nam and a transhipping tariff of 40 percent on goods manufactured in other countries (namely China) but shipped to the US via Viet Nam. There will be a tariff of zero on US goods imported into Viet Nam. Again Trump says that Viet Nam will pay the tariffs. So let me get this straight, we put a 20 percent tariff on them and they put a zero tariff on us. Yep that sounds reciprocal to me. The technical term for an agreement like this is called a “shakedown.”

So going forward expect job losses to continue as the tariffs kick in. Also expect immigration to have a negative effect on jobs as well. But keep in mind that the job growth numbers do not reflect all that is happening in the job market. Again government jobs should be taken out and secondly the monthly figure should be a net – that is job growth minus job loss. Consider that job losses thus far are around 59,000 a month. Also, the labor force participation rate is falling as increasing numbers are dropping out of the labor force. This means that the unemployment rate is not rising because workers who drop out of the labor force are not counted as being unemployed. That definition is those who are out of work and are looking for a job.

Consequently, the jobs added numbers being reported do not tell the whole story. Taking into account the inflated numbers from the Labor Department, the number of government jobs, the monthly job loss and the declining labor force participation rate, one can only conclude that the labor market is stagnant at best. For example, in the third quarter of 2024 total job losses equaled total jobs gained but the media only reported the jobs gained. One would also need to know whether the new jobs are high paying and if new hires are underemployed, meaning that they are working at a lesser job than for which they are qualified.

One more thing to consider, it looks like net immigration may be negative with more noncitizens leaving the country than coming into it. What impact with this have on the job market and on certain industries currently dependent upon a migrant labor force? Somehow, I don’t think a lowering of the Fed funds rate will be enough to counteract the negative impact on the economy. But Trump says we must be patient. He muses that although there will be an initial slowdown, then things will come roaring back as the tariffs will force an increase in industrial growth and production. Jobs will surge back. The economy will boom and all will be apple pie and roses. Actually for the country’s sake, I hope he is right. But if he is, then everything I know and believe about economics is wrong. We shall see.

The next mayor of New York

The next mayor of New York City, the center of American capitalism, will be the young socialist Muslim assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani. He was born in Uganda. His father is a chaired professor of anthropology at Columbia and mother is a filmmaker. His father argues that Israel is not a true state but a settler colony synonymous with the genocide of the Palestinians. Mamdani – like his father – is a virulent hater of Israel in the US city with the highest Jewish population. He wants to defund the police in a city where 80 percent of the hate crimes are against its twelve percent Jewish population. Will Orthodox Jews be safe during his reign?

His platform includes freezing rent, building 200,000 rent-stabilized units of “affordable” housing, eliminating fares on all city buses, creating a Department of Community Safety, creating city-owned grocery stores that will pay no rent or property taxes, free childcare, distribution of baby baskets to parents of newborns (which would include diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, books and local resource guides), raising NYC’s minimum wage to $30 by 2030, regulating delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats, ensuring equal distribution of money and resources to city schools, creating car-free “School Streets,” expanding the Bronx pilot Every Child and Family Is Known program to address homelessness in the school system, investing in the CUNY system, renovating 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, making asphalt school yards into green spaces, proposing a 2% tax on residents earning above $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5%, fighting “corporate exploration” by banning hidden fees and non-compete clauses, fighting misleading advertising and predatory contracts, limiting tax dollars given to companies under NDA agreements and funding challenges to ConEd’s price increases, resisting Trump by strengthening sanctuary city protections, ending cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and barring them from city facilities, increasing legal support for migrants, preventing personal data from being given to ICE, protecting abortion rights, increasing the budgets of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the NYC Commission on Human Rights. Whew! Did I miss anything?

Mamdani somehow thinks that all this will be paid for by the new tax hikes which he says will raise $10 billion. First, we know that is not going to happen. Most likely any tax increase will raise less. Rich people hire accountants to circumvent any increase (Harold Black’s First Law) and many will leave the city. Several have said that when Mamdani takes office, they will leave. One large grocer said that he will close his New York stores if government stores are opened. Second, $10 billion has got to be on the wildly low end of how much all this will cost. Simply look at the cost of building 200,000 new “affordable” union built housing. That is probably more than $10 billion. Third, New York’s mayor does not have the unilateral authority to raise taxes or do most of the things that Mamdani has promised. He will have to get all of this passed by the state legislature and blessed by the governor who has said “no new taxes.”

In a saner world, someone making all these promises would have been laughed out of town. One would think that voters would see all of this BS. Also one would think that only the uninformed, the less educated, the less “sophisticated” voter, the poor, the dispossessed, the homeless, those on public assistance and those in less affordable housing would vote for this bill of goods. But no. Mamdani’s support was among young college educated white voters. Naturally he fared poorly in Jewish areas of the city with his “globalize the intifada” rhetoric. Cuomo outperformed him in older neighborhoods and in neighborhoods with those without college degrees. Cuomo did better among blacks and Latinos – groups that one would have assumed a priori would be the beneficiaries of Mamdani’s largesse. As to the boroughs, Mamdani carried Brooklyn, the most populous borough with its 2.6 million residents. My youngest granddaughter lives in Brooklyn. I wonder how she voted? Cuomo carried the Bronx and Staten Island. Mamdani won Manhattan and Queens – not surprising since he represents them in the state legislature. Mamdani outperformed Cuomo among Asians and Muslims. He also did well among Latino voters. One wonders if the vote for Mamdani was not a repudiation of Cuomo and Eric Adams and due in large part to the “education” now being foisted by the socialist teachers’ unions K-12 and the liberal arts instruction in our universities?

One local politician says that Mamdani represents “the next generation of Democratic politics.” But does he? Is the next generation of democrats a bunch of socialists who promise everything but deliver nothing? We will see. Thus far only one elected democrat in New York has condemned his election. The rest including Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, himself a Jew, have all muttered appropriate clucking noises devoid of criticism.

New York will prove to be another lesson learned since socialism always fails. But like Dracula, socialism always rises from the dead. Socialism fits perfectly what my father would often say, “It sounds good – if you are interested in sounds.” Again, the saying of “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it”should instead be “those who know history are still doomed to repeat it.”

I turned 80 on July 3rd and gave myself a birthday dinner with family and close friends. My family came in from California, Gray Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Atlanta. The great Hallerin Hilton Hill, the wonderful radio talk host who is one of my dearest friends surprised me with this video. Enjoy!

https://thelifeofharoldblack.com

Happy Independence Day America!

Two hundred and forty nine years! That is 249 years of being the world’s greatest and most successful demonstration of the powers of individualism, freedom, less intrusive government, private property and initiative. Thank you, England for providing the model to the founding fathers as to what a government should not do. Thanks to the brilliance of the founding fathers (now call The Founders) of crafting the wonderful Declaration of Independence and the even more brilliant Constitution of the United States. Faced with the schisms between the abolitionists in the north and the slaveholders in the south, the founding fathers wrote a constitution that could unite the fledgling country while still laying the foundation that would ensure one day that all would truly be equal in the eyes of the law. This marvelous document would hardly have been written by today’s politicians who lack the written skills, the verbal skills, the intellect and the morality of our founders.

But “Happy Independence Day”? Not Happy Birthday? Ever wonder why we celebrate July 4 as the “birthday” of the country? Why isn’t it January 14th? Well January 14, 1784 was when the Continental Congess officially declared the sovereignty of the country. July 4, 1776 was when the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence. So saying the July 4 is the birthday of the country is like declaring you are 8 years old on the day you were born. That is why I call July 4 as Independence Day and I call January 14 as the country’s birthday. Disagree? Well I am used to being in the minority.

I love this country. But every time I visit my parents and brother’s graves in Atlanta I am struck by the absence of American flags in the neighborhoods through which I travel. I have also noticed when I visit my daughter in northern Virginia that I do not see American flags there even though most of the residents are dependent upon the government for their livelihood. In my neighborhood in Knoxville there are American flags galore. I have one at the entrance to my driveway and another at my boat dock. Why is that? Is it because those neighborhoods are mostly democrat and today democrat translates to being less patriotic? Pardon me if I think that is total lunacy. People of all stripes should be patriotic and love this country. Where else is there the richness of expression coupled with the abundant wealth of its citizens? Precious few countries would tolerate – or even guarantee – the protests of the left. I am reminded of the migrant who was enroute to the southern border. Asked why he was taking the long arduous journey, he replied that he wanted to live in a country that had fat poor people.

Granted, there have been times when I have disagreed with those entrusted to lead the country. There have been times in which I knew that the federal government’s actions and those of the state either by individuals or collectively were wrong. I have worked in my own small way to voice my displeasure and try to change it. But never have I stopped loving this country. Those on the extremes, especially those on the left denigrate the country and seek to fundamentally change it. They want the constitution either re-written or abolished. They want to get rid of the Electoral College. They call their opponents names, boycott their products, conduct violent (yet mostly peaceful) demonstrations, shout down opposing speakers, teach divisiveness in our public schools and universities and want to affect change that will ironically hinder their freedoms of speech and expression. Are they too dumb to see that? Apparently so or else Bernie Sanders, AOC, and their like would not have a prominent voice in today’s political world. Yet I welcome that diversity and do not want it muzzled although many would like to muzzle those like me.

This is a country with Ophrah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson and countless blacks making millions of dollars in entertainment, sport and in commerce and yet very few have said “thank you America.” Instead, folk like Reps. Al Greene, Jasmine Crockett and Maxine Waters, people like Al Sharpton. Jesse Jackson and Ibram X. Kendi are whining about how oppressed they are and say that they want to change the system that creates their wealth. Give me a break. Many have had their success because of the grievance lobby gravy train while others like Labron James draw attention away from their million (and often billion) dollar incomes by adopting the rhetoric of the left. Poor babies. 

I have always been amused by blacks with degrees from Harvard telling other blacks that they are victims and are being oppressed by the system. Look at all the grifters who exploit white guilt to line their own pockets with little that redounds to poorer blacks. Then there is the poverty establishment that exists only if they keep black people in need. And don’t get me started about the education-industrial complex which rather teach kids grievances rather than how to read.

My Dad often said that he would never live to see black children and white children going to school together. He said that the whites would not stand for it and would start shooting blacks to stop integration. Yes Georgia could be a violent hateful place. Yet Dad and Mom were in the first wave of black teachers in Atlanta assigned to previously all-white schools. Also little did Dad realize that his youngest son would help integrate the University of Georgia.

I have often said that the uniqueness of America is that here the descendants of slaves can be the teachers of the descendants of those who owned their ancestors. This is particularly true is a place like Gray, GA where many of my cousins are school teachers and are teaching the descendants of the plantation owners. We have all come a long way from where I once would get arrested for sitting in the front of the bus and might fear for my life if I did. Those who say we have not made progress are fools and should be ignored. Those who reject America for not always living up to the words of the founding fathers would, I guess, reject Christians for not living up to the words of the Bible. But how pure are they to their ideals – however warped?

I am glad I am here. I am glad for my heritage. I am fortunate to share in the wonders of this beautiful country. I love you America. Happy Independence Day.