The View from Right Field

Helping People Takes More Than Just Raising Taxes and Spending Money

Taxes are going up in Illinois tomorrow.  The gas tax is going up 18 cents a gallon, and there are probably other taxes going up, too.  Also, there will eventually be new taxes on things like marijuana and sports gambling.¹  I understand why taxes have to go up.  Illinois has spent more than it has raised in taxes for so long that the time has come to start paying up.  I am not sure, however, that enough of the tax increases is going toward the unpaid bills and funding the pension promises the legislators have been making for years.  Actually, I am sure.  Enough isn’t going for these things.  But that is not what I want to talk (spelled “r-a-n-t”) about today.  I want to talk about how the Illinois spends its money.

One of the problems with the politicians we have in Illinois is they seem to think that, once they have passed the programs and appropriated the money, their job is done.  They think that all they have to do is spend money and problems will be solved.  Which is just so far from being true.

Foreign Policy in 2020: We Need a President Who Has Thought These Things Through.

While the world looks at the possibility/risk of war between the United States and Iran (understandably), let me suggest that I hope we have people thinking about Russia, China, and our future relations with them.  I doubt very much that President Trump is doing this or that he has asked anybody to do this.  However, perhaps people such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and/or National Security Adviser John Bolton are having it done at the staff level.

As for the Democratic candidates for President, maybe some of them are thinking about this, though it seems most of them are focusing on how to stand out among the twenty-some candidates running.  And in-depth foreign policy analysis isn’t the kind of issue that is going to separate you from the crowd.  (I don’t know how you tie foreign policy to “free” stuff, which seems to be what many of the Democrats are talking about.)  Still, hopefully some of them are actually thinking about this some – because it is important. 

@BernieSanders Wants to Forgive All Student Debt. Buying Votes from the Left.

(Here.) Which means that anybody who scrimped and saved to get through college with as little debt as possible was silly.  And anybody who didn’t go to the most expensive school and take out the most loans possible was foolish.

Also, it looks like the price of a vote has gone up from the time when a Chicago precinct captain could buy a vote for a new garbage can.  But I guess that is inflation for you.

Finally, more subsidies for the upper middle class and above.  I'm beginning to wonder how much the Democrats care about the poor anymore.

Making Inequality Worse By Lowering Interest Rates?

While the Federal Reserve did not lower interest rates on Wednesday, they did indicate they might do so later this year.  Which caused interest rates on bonds to go down, and stock prices to go up.  Once again, making those who are already well off (and have money in the stock market) better off.  And perhaps making inequality an even bigger problem?

@Cubs Baseball: Records and Other Things Unusual

Instead of posting about politics, etc., today, I thought I would do some baseball, about some of the more interesting/unusual games I have been to over the {many] years.

People have asked me what the longest game was (in terms of innings) that I have ever been to.  While I am not sure, I think it is 16 innings, which worked out okay on the Cubs scorecard at the time because they had room for eleven innings, plus columns for AB, R, H, RBI, and E, which makes room for 16.

Is “Tariff Man” Messing Up the Economy?

At one point in his dealings with China (which continue), President Trump called himself “Tariff Man” – apparently because he likes tariffs and thinks they are good things to impose and/or to threaten other countries with.  Which brings me to the tariffs that President Trump threatened to impose on Mexican imports into the United States if Mexico didn’t do more to stop people from entering the U. S. illegally. 

I have commented previously on President Trump’s arguably rogue or unilateralist approach to foreign policy.  I am not a fan of it.¹  I don’t think it’s good in the long run – or the short run – but I also don’t think it does any good for me to complain about it again and again.  And it gets tiring.  Therefore, this post.

But I think President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico in this case causes a different kind of problem that I haven’t commented on before, at least with respect to President Trump, so I wanted to do so. 

Fine-Tuning Probably Works Better on Pianos Than the Economy

The Federal Reserve has shifted course recently.  Previously, it indicated that interest rates would stay the same for a while (which was itself a change from indications last year that rates would going up this year).  Now, however, the Fed is signaling that, if the economy weakens because of “trade wars,” it might cut interest rates.

Some are calling this shift the “Powell put,” in memory of the “Greenspan put” in the 1990s/early 2000s, when then-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan cut interest rates, and kept them low, to try to keep the economy growing.  While Alan Greenspan’s low rates may have worked in the short run, some see those low rates as one of the factors causing the 2008 financial crisis.

Republican Versus Trumpian

Back in the middle of May, Janan Ganesh, a columnist for the Financial Times, said, per the headline of his column, “Trump needs more Trumpians in the White House.”  According to Mr. Ganesh:

“Between them, [national security advisor John] Bolton and [acting White House chief of staff Mick] Mulvaney stand for the kind of Republicanism that Mr Trump was meant to have slain in 2016. …

Mike Pompeo could be the secretary of state in a Republican government of yesteryear.  Treasury secretary Steven Munchin could have served any recent Grand Old Party president.  It is much harder to name members of this administration who are truly in President Trump’s distinct image.

Is an Attempt to Impeach President Trump Coming – And Who Will It Help?

I never thought I would sympathize with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and I still don’t.  But if ever I was going to sympathize with her, we are getting close to when it would happen.  Two people who might sympathize with her are a couple of her predecessors, John Boehner and Paul Ryan.  Messrs. Boehner and Ryan understand the problems that Ms. Pelosi is having with the impeachment wing of her party because of the problems they had with the right-wing crazies in their caucuses.  The members of the “Freedom Caucus” and others among the House Republicans seemed to have this theory that somehow it was better to hold out for 100%, and wind up with nothing, than to agree to accept 70%.

The impeachment wing of the Democratic caucus is causing Speaker Pelosi many of the same problems – and maybe even more because it appears to be bigger than the right-wing crazy group in the House Republicans.¹