What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Jacob]

It solution won't be automatic, but hopefully it will bump stocks.

We'll have to pull the trigger and bite the bullet on this, and make sure we're aiming our actions to revolve around a wide range of targets.

[The Minsky Moment]

His blog is still up and running.

He's still giving high scores to bad movies.

What was the name of that again?

[jimmy olsen]

His blog is still up and running.

He's still giving high scores to bad movies.

What was the name of that again?

http://kinemalogue.blogspot.kr/

[derspiess]

Today students across the country are protesting pun vioelence.

It's a rifle problem.

It solution won't be automatic, but hopefully it will bump stocks.

It'll be full semi-automatic.

[Admiral Yi]

Very spiffy looking blog.

[Ed Anger]

The Shape of Water review title:

Troy McClure's pre-ordered blu-ray

[jimmy olsen]

Joy

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/trump-hires-perpetually-wrong-tv-pundit-larry-kudlow-to-run-the-economy

"I HAVE NO IDEA HOW BRIGHT HE IS": TRUMP HIRES PERPETUALLY WRONG TV PUNDIT TO RUN THE ECONOMY

Larry Kudlow, come on down.

BY BESS LEVIN
MARCH 14, 2018 6:25 PM

In the ongoing joke that is the Trump administration, where the press secretary is fielding questions about an alleged affair with a porn star, the secretary of state is getting fired via social media, the secretary of education is flunking quizzes on national television, and the boss is spending his days getting into one-sided Twitter feuds with everyone from members of his own party to professional athletes to the Academy, it's tough to come out looking more ridiculous than the day or hour prior. If the last year has taught us anything, however, it's that this group of people always rises to the occasion. And on Wednesday, they outdid themselves, hiring a Reaganite TV economist who blew the financial crisis—along with virtually every other call he ever made—as the president's top economic adviser.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has definitively asked Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn as National Economic Council director, and Kudlow has accepted. The White House confirmed the report on Wednesday afternoon, and a formal announcement is expected on Thursday. In Kudlow, Trump apparently saw a track record that was too good to pass up, what with Kudlow's time in the Reagan administration espousing trickle-down economic theories that have never once worked; his years at Bear Stearns when he allegedly had a $100,000-a-month cocaine habit and was eventually forced to resign (he reportedly gave up drugs not long after); and his time hosting The Kudlow Report on CNBC, during which he published blog posts with predictions like, "I'm going to bet the economy will be rebounding sometime this summer, if not sooner," just months before the global financial crisis. For a president who apparently gets his national security news not from daily briefings but from the gang at Fox & Friends, Kudlow is the perfect guy to dole out economic advice.

Paul Krugman
✔
@paulkrugman
OK, so it's Kudlow for top economic adviser. At least he's reliable -- that is, he's reliably wrong about everything. We all make mistakes, but if Kudlow says it, you know it won't happen http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2018/03/larry-kudlow-is-usually-wrong.html ...

David Rothkopf
✔
@djrothkopf
Only a president who views everything through the lens of TV could think Larry Kudlow was suitable to be National Economic Advisor.  Because he's not an economist in any sense of the word, he just plays one on television.  Fake experts for fake advisory roles.  Trumptopia.

1:58 AM - Mar 15, 2018

Wall Street, however, isn't sold. As my colleague Bill Cohan, a former investment banker, told me, "While I respect Larry for his political and economic insights, I would have preferred if Trump had chosen someone less wed to the ideas of trickle down economics. I am old enough to remember that that didn't work the first time a President listened to Larry 35 years ago." Even people who like Kudlow have their doubts. "Larry is a very congenial guy, he's a gentleman," said Westwood Capital Managing Partner Daniel Alpert. "But I go back to my time in the middle of the crisis, when we were on TV together quite a lot, and he's really a virulent Tea Partier who believes the government has absolutely no place in the economy. I like him personally . . . but he's really horribly opposed to government influence of any sort."

Earlier this year, Kudlow actually sounded momentarily sane when he came out against the president's tariff plan. But it appears that Trump has already begun to beat that urge out of him, telling reporters yesterday that Kudlow "has come around to believing in tariffs." Nevertheless, some on Wall Street are apparently looking on the bright side. "People here think it's good news that he loves capitalism and corporations and profitability," a senior executive at a large investment bank told me. "He knows that business isn't evil." That said, "I have no idea how bright he is or if he has good predictive skills."

Seeing as he got such a great reaction when he announced plans to slap steel and aluminum imports with 25 percent and 10 percent import tariffs respectively, Trump is now apparently considering imposing tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports, going after the technology and telecommunications sectors in particular. According to CNBC, penalties could also include restrictions on investments and visas for Chinese travelers. In an interview this afternoon, Larry Kudlow said he believed a tougher approach toward China was warranted, just before the Dow closed, down 248.91 points, with the S&P 500 dropping to 2,749.48.

...

[Admiral Yi]

Timmy, have you ever read an article who's conclusions you were skeptical about?

[jimmy olsen]

Timmy, have you ever read an article who's conclusions you were skeptical about?

Yeah, but why would I post them if I think they're crap?

[Eddie Teach]

Timmy, have you ever read an article who's conclusions you were skeptical about?

Yeah, but why would I post them if I think they're crap?

Perhaps you only skimmed them.

[The Minsky Moment]

Larry Kudlow is an objectively awful choice.  Rothkopf's tweet nicely summarizes it.

Also if that's what you're going to do, hire Jim Cramer instead, at least he is entertaining.  And no low energy problem there.

[Grey Fox]

You guys don't realise Kudlow is a Canadian plant.

[Barrister]

You guys don't realise Kudlow is a Canadian plant.

???

[Grey Fox]

He's been saying good things about NAFTA according to tweets Daniel Dale has been posting.

[crazy canuck]

Trump bragged about not knowing what he was talking about when he said the US had a trade deficit with Canada.  Then tweets that he actually knew all along. 


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-trump-boasts-that-he-made-up-trade-facts-in-meeting-with-trudeau/

U.S. President Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech in Missouri on Wednesday that he made up facts about trade in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a recording of the comments obtained by The Washington Post.

The newspaper said in a report posted on its website that Trump had insisted to Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbour to the north without knowing whether or not that was the case.

Trump said on the recording that after Trudeau told him the U.S. does not have a trade deficit with Canada, he replied, "Wrong, Justin, you do," then added, "I didn't even know ... I had no idea."


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn't like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that's how I know!


The president said he then "sent one of our guys out" to check the prime minister's claim.

"Well, sir, you're actually right," Trump says in the recording. "We have no deficit but that doesn't include energy and timber and when you do, we lose $17-billion a year. It's incredible."

Trump regularly bemoans a trade deficit with Canada and complained about it in late February by saying: "We lose a lot with Canada. People don't know it. Canada's very smooth. They have you believe that it's wonderful. And it is, for them. Not wonderful for us."

But a different story is told in the recently released 2018 White House "Economic Report of the President" — an annual document prepared by Trump's own team which bears his signature and contradicts a number of trade statements and policies already articulated by him.

One example involves the supposed trade deficit with Canada. Trump keeps insisting it exists, but the document he signed states Canada is among the few countries in the world with whom the U.S. runs a surplus.

The document states: "The United States ran a trade surplus of $2.6-billion with Canada on a balance-of-payments basis."