For context, Yglesias has written detailed threads and articles on his blog about how devastating Trump's proposed economic platform would be to the economy, inflation, and the deficit. This is the response from an NYT economics reporter.
I'm not even a huge Yglesias fan or defender here, but he's getting a pass from me on this for actually caring about the truth, which is the only thing that should matter.
I'm actually an yglesias hater. but this is unequivocally true. a tarrif increase would lead to huge price increases and a trade war which would fuck over exporters. it's basic economics. putting a tariff on foreign goods would result in responses.
it's baffling that the media won't mention that this would hurt farmers and require another stimulus to them. china is a huge buyer of soy. the GOP used to be for free trade too lol. Obama did tariffs to protect steel which failed. trying to replace trillions ends in trade war.
just sharing a word and not defining outcimes is fucked up and negligent. the best media is engaging and useful not just regurgitating press releases but explaining the impact on the real world.
I keep thinking I'm the only person who remembers that we already had a whole trade war with China. Nice to know I'm not alone; now if we just had more company.
It's very annoying that Yglesias has some genuinely good takes on stuff like cars and housing but then turns around and says shit like "what if Democrats lose because they don't say trans people are bad"
I am in a similar boat, he has different focuses than me, but he does actually care about the truth here, which is highly offensive to a lot of the Trump fantasy.
I don't think any serious about economics would declare that the economy "only improved" during Trump's term, even ignoring how the economy did in fact crash after Covid. You'd want to have to dig in to at the very least the tariffs and the trade war.
And let’s be real. His performance pre-covid was ineffective. Trillions of $ in tax cuts pumped in to the economy for below trend line job and wage growth. Barely above trend line GDP. Ballooned the deficit by over $200B a year for all that “expansion”.
This drives me nuts. Like, we have decades of evidence that every Republican is both absolutely incompetent and criminally malfeasant when it comes to the economy.
It doesn't count if Democrats help Republicans save themselves from their own stupidity, you see. If Pelosi can shepherd through CARES, you can't blame Trump for telling people to inject bleach & take deworming meds
US politics is the hard men make good times meme but for the economy. GOP inherits a good economy and proceeds to fuck it. Dems take power and patch things together but fixing things is hard and people don’t like it so GOP wins the election and inherits a good economy.
If we let Trump wreck everything because of people in their mid-twenties who apparently literally don't remember the only bad economy they ever witnessed I am going to scream
Also, it's actually not your job as an econ reporter to only write about what's "useful" or "zinger-y." Just tell the truth! Is Yglesias right about Trump's platform or not?
I imagined that's what you meant, but kids of high school age are often aware of their families' financial hardships. As the son of a father whose union factory closed, I can assure you of that.
As soon as you accept the fact that the NY Times under the current Sulzberger very much wants Trump to win and is in the tank for him, all of their egregious horse shit makes a lot more sense.
Is Matt's analysis correct? Is there anything to worry about with Republican policies? That's of no interest to a NYT reporter, who's laser focused on the real question: is it zingy enough
I like how he confronts the accusation he hasn't paid enough attention to Trump's policy proposals and their affect on the economy, by saying he's voiced his disapproval on GOP's ill defined support of social programs
Seriously, this is one of the most frustrating communication styles, where a person gives the shape of a response that's completely divorced from actually addressing the point.
The worst fucking thing about Trump is how reporters & talking heads get to claim “of course he doesn’t mean that!” whenever doing so benefits him or them.
