Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

He really is that stupid.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

No one could have predicted…

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night Open Thread: ‘Adult’ Beverages

Late Night Open Thread: ‘Adult’ Beverages

by | 43 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

*Not* an adult:

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    1) the tweet strongly suggests he doesn’t know how bills get to his desk to be signed

    2) as others on twitter have noted, he’s posing with a blank sheet of paper

  2. 2.

    Yarrow

    From the last tweet:

    It will never not be weird that a 71 year-old man with 5 kids and multiple grandkids only has pictures of his mother and father visible where he works.

    “Works.”

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    wait… what? trump is talking about firing the Fed chairman? I didn’t think the President could do that
    ETA: That was just on MSNBC as the shutdown begins

  4. 4.

    Yarrow

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: According to this Forbes article from September, the President could remove him.

    The Federal Reserve Act doesn’t explicitly give the U.S. president power to fire the Fed board members. But section 10 has a mysterious little phrase indicating it’s at least possible.

    “…thereafter each member shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”

    That’s all it says on the subject, as far as I can tell. The Act doesn’t define what the word “cause” would entail. But Congress clearly thought the U.S. president should be able to remove board members before their terms expire, under certain conditions.

    Another norm he could break.

  5. 5.

    Raoul

    Some of the Bills that the Madame Tussauds figure is ‘signing’ appear to be, Blank pieces of Paper.

    I expect better from a tourist trap like that.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    One thing no one seems to have mentioned is the impact on transgendered military that Mattis’ leaving will produce. Expect that issue to re-appear come March 1, on the front burner with the heat under the kettle turned to 11.

  8. 8.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    It will never not be weird that a 71 year-old man with 5 kids and multiple grandkids only has pictures of his mother and father visible where he works.

    Trump is 72, he’ll be 73 in June.

  9. 9.

    Platonailedit

    The ‘adults’ in the room didn’t really act like adults, did they now? They let the totus thug inflict whatever permanent damages on all fronts he could in under two years. So, fuck the adults.

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    @Raoul:
    I assumed they were the gas and electric bills for the WH since he had signed the only stuff I heard passed the House & been signed about 8 hours before the tweeted this picture

  14. 14.

    lollipopguild

    “Work, work, work………….” hat tip to Mel Brooks who never knew that “Blazing Saddles” was a prediction of the future.

  16. 16.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    @Yarrow:

    And his supporters as well as his GOP enablers will see nothing wrong with it. Although, there seems to be some cracks forming. Fox News has actually been criticizing him and Graham was calling for congressional hearings on the Syria troop withdrawal. It’s not for the right reasons, but I wonder if Trump could tear apart the American right.

  18. 18.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Financial markets would react to Trump even talking about firing the Fed chair. Trump isn’t supposed to a Fed governor for policy disagreements, but only some other unspecified ’cause’. I don’t think it’s ever been tried on the chair. Would be a huge mess, and probably illegal, and another constitutional or governance crisis of some sort. Trump won’t help but blurt out that he wants Powell out for messing up his beautiful Trump economy with interest rates, that is, for policy disagreements. Maybe Lester Holt can drag it out of him during an interview.

    Actually, I think Powell is running a very dovish policy, compared to recent recoveries. But Trump wants the economy juiced up, and the stock market buffed and puffed until the bubble blows up and it all comes crashing down.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This guy has a screen shot of a report that suggests trump can remove Powell as Chair but cannot remove him as a member of the Board of Governors. It predicts little change to Fed policy but ‘such a move would sow confusion’ and destabilize markets

    James Pethokoukis @ JimPethokoukis
    Here is a bit from a JPMorgan report exploring the issue of whether the POTUS can remove the Fed chair

  20. 20.

    Keith P.

    For drinks, I offer the MAGA (Midori, amaretto, grenadine, and absinthe). If it tastes like shit, blame the help.

  23. 23.

    jl

    @Yarrow: The stock market is sensitive to interest rates. The macroeconomic level of real investment, that is needed to make real goods and services in future, is not so much sensitive to the interest rate, especially if economy right at full employment. Increasing aggregate demand more important in short to medium run. And it is questionable whether US economy is at full employment. Employment population ratio for prime age men still not at 2007 levels,and for women just reached it, both still far below 1999-2000 levels.

    So, these guys, who I see include the genius Jim Cramer, are moaning that the Fed is not making their money shuffling business easier. I see hedge fund managers are also featured prominently in the article.

  26. 26.

    patroclus

    Well, Trump could try to remove Powell but, assuming Powell challenged it, that would be decided by the courts. And, there are precedents about what “for cause” means and Humphrey’s Executor would also seem to be on point. (FDR tried to fire an independent commissioner at the beginning of his first term and got slapped down by the pre-court-packing fight USSC). And he’d have to fire him directly and not pressure him to retire/resign, which is something he doesn’t like to do. And, the FOMC seems likely to have hiked rates for the last time for awhile so it is very unclear whether firing just one guy would change policy at all, which is headed for neutrality. It’d be an interesting fight but would spook the markets even more and wouldn’t gain him much politically, if at all.

  28. 28.

    sukabi

    All of this crazy shit is making impeachment much more likely and much sooner. That’s the silver lining I’m taking from this insanity.

  30. 30.

    jl

    @jl: I should have specified real investment is not that much affected by small to moderate variations in interest rates we’d see from any responsible Federal Reserve policy. Volcker showed if you jack them up high enough you can stop things.

    LA times has some detail and history on firing Fed chair:

    Trump said he won’t fire the Federal Reserve chairman. That’s wise, because he probably can’t
    By JIM PUZZANGHERA
    OCT 11, 2018
    https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-trump-federal-reserve-fire-20181011-story.html

    No Fed chair has ever been removed by a president, though Chairman Thomas B. McCabe was forced to resign in 1951 under White House pressure after clashing with President Truman’s administration.

    The Federal Reserve Act, which created the central bank in 1913, states that Fed board members can only be “removed for cause” by the president before their term expires. Powell’s term as chairman ends in 2022 and his term as a governor ends in 2028.

    The law does not specify the definition of “for cause,” a term that applies to officials in other independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission. In a 1935 case involving President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s removal of an FTC commissioner, the Supreme Court ruled that such officials could not be fired for political reasons.

  31. 31.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Where did I say Cramer was an economist? I didn’t know he was an attorney, but I never suspected him of being an economist. It never occurred to me to wonder what he was. Didn’t seem worth the effort.

  34. 34.

    patroclus

    @jl: Well, technically, Humphrey’s Executor held that the Estate of Humphrey was entitled to back pay (he had died and the executor had challenged the firing), but FDR interpreted it as holding that he couldn’t fire an independent commissioner and didn’t do it again. FDR was so pissed about it that some have argued that that case (and not the Commerce clause and minimum wage cases) pushed him into the court-packing effort.

    On the shutdown, unless Trump offers the Dream Act or something just as good, there is no incentive for the Dems to negotiate whatsoever until after 1/3. So, it’s either a clean CR or nothing until then (and the price goes up after that).

  35. 35.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Anyone who does business using lots of leverage really really hates increases in interest rates, because it increases their cost of doing business bigly, and does so very quickly. Next in line are long term real investments in residential and commercial real estate, but income and demand growth are important moderating factors (if people have the money to pay higher rents or prices to cover the higher costs of carrying the debt, then an increase in interest rates not so important). Next industrial and manufacturing structures. Other business investment, not so much.

    But anyone who shuffles money and plays debt hide and seek games financed with leverage is hurt badly, and they are first to yowl that they are being murdered and persecuted, and wonder aloud why filthy rich sketchy business people are not allowed to make a living anymore.

  37. 37.

    Platonailedit

    It's official. The government has shut down for the third time in a year.

    Republicans still control the White House, the Senate, and the House.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 22, 2018

  38. 38.

    patroclus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It depends on where we are in the business cycle as to whether rate hikes are considered to be good or bad policy. And it also depends on what parts of “Wall Street” we’re talking about – some parts always hate it and some parts always like it. Generally, rate hikes should occur as the economic expansion is gathering steam but should peter out as the expansion approaches its natural end cycle (which is where we are now).

  39. 39.

    Aleta

    No one who worked for Trump is an adult unless s/he speaks directly to the public –describing dangerous behavior and who else was there. Adults give warnings out loud, not just to people in their little circle, and not just in a leaked letter. Until a steady flow of names of enablers appears in print and each is asked why, everywhere they go, there won’t be enough will to oppose him.

    They’re afraid of losing their money. It’s blackmail again — they repeat to each other, “Can’t risk upsetting the economy.” Might lose our investments. Trump depended on this fear during his casino scam, and for years he’s watched his investors and workers weigh their potential losses and stay quiet. Then he saw it happen on a national scale in 2007-8.

    No one who leaves his administration is respectable until they tell the people the truth. Weird how “public service” means “don’t tell the public.”

  42. 42.

    NobodySpecial

    The media is wired for Republicans, and prove it every election year.

    The Business sector is also wired for Republicans, and prove it every election year and every budget fight.

    No wonder the kids don’t trust either one.

  43. 43.

    Chris Johnson

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I really think Russia is controlling Fox, like they’ve controlled the NRA. Fox criticising Trump could be seen as further underlining of the message Putin had for Trump at that summit: ‘not enough’. If you look at all the panicky, brazen shit Trump has been doing since then, it looks like he’s panicking and trying to wreck the United States as quickly as possible, including stuff that wouldn’t fly with Republicans (in part because even traitorous Republicans would like to get something from their treason: they’re in it to hang on to power, not to burn everything down)

    All of a sudden it’s ‘burn everything down’. Syria, Deripaska, shutting down the government: this is no longer about what helps Republicans. They would probably use all that stuff as bargaining chips but suddenly Trump is just giving it all away. There’s gotta be a lot of panic in DC among traitors.

Comments are closed.