Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

OK, I'm leaning towards 'dangerously incompetent' again

[ame]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/805538149157969924[/ame]

[hack]

Cocktail-party chatter FWIW from a China hand here yesterday is that somebody pro-Taiwan in his camp put him up to it. Not a policy position, but someone would like it to be.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I've heard it might've been Bolton or someone close to Trump that Bolton's aligned with.

[froot loops]

The Chinese haven't been devaluing the Yuan for a while now in the way that he is talking about. They been trying to get it to be stronger, any devaluing tricks lately have been to offset when the dollar strength surges.

On top if that, someone needs to explain the burdens and benefits of being the Worlds reserve currency. I suspect that would fall on deaf ears.

[hack]

Looks like Bolton does have a pro-Taiwan rep from the past...

[hack]

On top if that, someone needs to explain the burdens and benefits of being the Worlds reserve currency. I suspect that would fall on deaf ears.

Yeah, I agree. That said, we are awfully far away from any currency threatening the dollar there. Trump can behave as if the USD isn't the defacto global currency for eight years and still hardly dent its status, as I understand it.

[froot loops]

Definitely on that, it's not going anywhere but I'm talking more about the benefits side. This is a very hard argument to have because arguing a conterfactual in the face of somebody arguing about losing manufacturing jobs is hard. The same voters who went to the polls to pull the lever for Donald Trump to Make America Great Again also go to Walmart for their low prices, especially in Rural America where Walmart is the only game in town. At one point Walmart was proud to promote they sold Made in the USA products until it became a burden to the bottom line and China came online as a viable manufacturing exporter.

[hack]

Ah. You meant something aimed at Trump voters. Gotcha. Yes. It's a two-step argument:

1. It's really and truly robots that have taken "your" jobs

2. At least you get more-affordable goods

All that can fit in a tweet. Thinking out loud here about packaging information for public consumption, but everybody knows that sound bites have to be short. It seems like Trump knows that they also have to be incredibly simple and clear. I don't know that, for example, HRC's people knew/acted on this.

[entropy]

hack... but if you can't afford the more-affordable goods, do you really care at that point? I'd suggest those people are just looking for jobs and anything that helps that cause is good.

Probably a very rational thought process in their shoes.

[froot loops]

That's why it is hard to argue a counterfactual for this, they want to buy the cheaply priced items and have the high paying job. You start some kind of trade war based on this reasoning you will have a hard time getting either.

[entropy]

I don't think they're worried about buying cheaper Nike shoes.. who cares if they go up another $20/shoe. They're worried about paying utility bills..

[froot loops]

It is more than just shoes, it is clothes, it is groceries, it is the cell phone you buy. It all adds up. Everything you buy has lower prices due to trade agreements.

[entropy]

I'd suggest there is more of hierarchy of needs.. and if you are struggling for the basics, trade agreements are irrelevant. You want a job.

[Whitley]

Trump names Dr. Ben Carson as HUD Director.

[Whitley]

A good article from the Freep on Betsy DeVos:

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/stephen-henderson/2016/12/03/betsy-devos-education-donald-trump/94728574/

snip:

This summer, the DeVos family contributed $1.45 million over two months ? an astounding average of $25,000 a day ? to Michigan GOP lawmakers and the state party after the Republican-led Legislature derailed a bipartisan provision that would have provided more charter school oversight in Detroit.

GLEP also pushed hard ? and successfully ? to lift the cap on charter schools a few years ago, even though Michigan already had among the highest number of charters in the nation despite statistics suggesting charters weren't substantively outperforming traditional public schools.