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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Something something about chickens and coming home... [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-11
We begin today with Lauren Aratani of the Guardian writing about the global market meltdown yesterday in the U.S. and earlier today in Asia.
The S&P 500 fell 2.7%, the Dow Jones dropped 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4% on Monday as investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Tesla’s shares had their worst day since September 2020, falling 15%. In Asia, stocks took their cue from Wall Street and fell sharply on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei and Taiwan stocks sliding about 3%, hitting their lowest level since September. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell more than 1%. [...] Since coming into office, Trump has started a trade war with America’s three largest trading partners. Trump has increased tariffs on China, first by 10% and now by 20%. He has pulled back on 25% tariffs against goods from Mexico and Canada, though he is still threatening to impose the tariffs against the two countries next month. Atlanta Federal Reserve’s closely followed GDP Now tracker – which forecasts US economic growth – is suggesting the economy could contract in the first three months of the year, largely due to an outsized drag from net trade. Trump has repeatedly balked at the idea that his trade policies have caused uncertainty.
Paul Krugman writes for his self-titled Substack that the Trump administration and MAGA, quite naturally, blames everyone and everythingfor the market meltdown but themselves.
So the Trumpers are responding in their usual fashion: blaming other people. Yesterday I wrote about the proliferation of conspiracy theories, with a special focus on “globalists,” which, let’s face it, usually ends up meaning Jews. The Trump economic team seems, however, to be pushing a different kind of excuse: The claim that Biden left behind a terrible economy, and that we’ll need to go through a painful period of “detox.” Now, you may wonder how anyone could characterize the economy when Trump took office, with 2.5 percent growth, low unemployment and inflation only slightly above the Fed’s 2 percent target, as terrible. But the Trumpist position, coming from multiple officials, seems to be that the prosperity was fake, that the numbers were exaggerated by bloated government spending and employment. Hence the need for a costly transition to an economy where workers are doing useful things. As usual, one has to ask: Are they ignorant or are they lying? And as usual, the answer is: Why not both?
Sam Gustin of The Nation reminds everyone that the toxic shoe salesman (toxic or tacky...whatever!) and his administration will attempt to hide it all within manipulated economic data.
The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are preparing to manipulate the federal budget and doctor US government data in order to mislead the American public about the true cost of their proposed $4 trillion tax cut, the draconian budget reductions needed to pay for it, and the ruinous impact these policies will have on the US economy, which is already veering dangerously in the direction of a recession. [...] Last week’s FESAC purge was particularly alarming because it came just days after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street plutocrat and Trump campaign bundler, announced plans to alter an important measure of US economic growth—Gross Domestic Product, or GDP—by stripping out all government spending. GDP combines consumer purchases, business investments, net exports, and yes, government spending, to measure the total monetary value of goods and services produced in the United States. There are many valid criticisms of GDP as a measure of economic health, including that it doesn’t account for unpaid work, the shadow market, income inequality, or climate change, among other shortcomings, but it is nevertheless closely watched by economists, governments, corporations, investors, and households worldwide. [...] By excluding government spending from the official GDP estimates issued by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Trump administration could downplay the economic damage of firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and slashing billions from the federal budget. In other words, they could gaslight the public into believing that the economy is doing better than it actually is, which could come in handy if economic conditions continue to deteriorate.
Chris Geidner of Law Dork writes that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a challenge to the State of Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday took up a case challenging Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors, after having previously turned down many other similar challenges in the past. The law, which protects against efforts to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity, was upheld last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on a 2-1 vote. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Christian counselor, Kaley Chiles, and their petition for review was explicit about Chiles’s intent here. It was also notable that the court took up the case as it is still considering the challenge from trans kids, their families, and medical providers to state laws restricting gender-affirming medical care — puberty blockers and hormone therapy — for transgender minors.
Choe Sang-Hun and Pablo Robles of The New York Times writes an impressive chronicle on how South Korea's embattled and impeached President Yoon Suk Yeon attempted to take over the country by force.
The picture that emerged shows that Mr. Yoon began nurturing a military takeover much earlier than commonly believed, and hatching emotionally driven plans to hamstring his political opponents. But it also shows that, for all his preparation, he made a series of major miscalculations. The first was overestimating his allies. Lacking a majority in Parliament, Mr. Yoon needed a military willing to use brute force on his behalf. But as courtroom and parliamentary testimonies revealed, he failed to win support from the broader military leadership, relying mainly on one loyal ally who shared his wild dreams: his defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, a retired three-star Army general. When Mr. Kim was the president’s chief of security, his bodyguards gagged and dragged away dissidents who shouted criticism at Mr. Yoon during public events. Now, as defense minister, he roped three generals into the martial law plan, telling Mr. Yoon that he should trust their loyalty. [...] Mr. Yoon’s second big miscalculation was failing to predict how fast ordinary South Koreans would mobilize to stop the troops taking over the Assembly. Their actions gave opposition lawmakers time to gather and vote down the martial law order. There were other blunders, too.
Finally today, we have Joel Guinto and Jonathan Head of BBC News with the widespread reports that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity” for his war on drugs during his administration.
The 79-year-old was taken into police custody shortly after his arrival at Manila airport from Hong Kong. He has offered no apologies for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which saw thousands of people killed when he was president of the South East Asian nation from 2016 to 2022, and mayor of Davao city before that. Upon his arrest, he questioned the basis for the warrant, asking: "What crime [have] I committed?" [...] The ICC earlier said that it has jurisdiction in the Philippines over alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew as a member. But activists called the arrest a "historic moment" for those who perished in his drug war and their families, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but today, it has bent towards justice. Duterte's arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule," said ICHRP chairman Peter Murphy.
Everyone try to have the best possible day!
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