ON TAP

The headlines today are filled with alarmist language about how Trump’s retaliatory tariffs against China risk setting off a trade war. He’s imposing up to $60 billion worth of tariffs against an array of goods to compensate for a range of Chinese predatory tactics, including theft of intellectual property, subsidy of production below cost, and […]

Name, Please? Peter G. Peterson. And what makes you think you deserve admission to the Pearly Gates? I’ve led a virtuous life, made billions, and gave most of it to charity. What sort of charity? Well, I gave over $1 billion to create the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, to warn Americans about the dangers of […]

Democratic candidates in swing districts—even a few in solidly blue districts—are suggesting they might prefer a new and different leader in the House. Since the early 2000s, Republicans have been running against Pelosi, in classic Republican style, by alleging she’s the personification of coastal elitism. The charges have been leveled so many times, much as […]

Odd Couple. The pattern of Russian lying, in this case to deny any involvement in the murder of a former Russian double agent in Britain, sounds faintly familiar. The British government has identified the weapon as a military-grade nerve agent called Novichok, a compound made only in Russia. On Sunday, Putin called the claim “total […]

It’s maddening how the mainstream press absorbs and replays ruling ideology as fact. You have to be paying attention, or you don’t see it. Exhibit A is a seemingly neutral New York Times reporting piece on challenges facing Angela Merkel in her new term. The title is a little suspicious: “As Merkel Begins New Term, […]

Now that Rand Paul has announced he won’t vote to confirm Mike Pompeo as secretary of state or Gina Haspel as CIA director, and given John McCain’s prolonged absence from the Senate due to his illness (and his skepticism about Haspel’s nomination due to his longstanding opposition to torture), President Trump’s nominees will need at […]

Tom Friedman and the Reality Club. It was only a matter of time before reality hit Tom Friedman over the head. Or did it? After a long, long delay—decades actually—Friedman’s Wednesday column in the Times concedes that he might have been wrong about China moving to join the ranks of market democracies. His title is, […]

…over President Trump’s decision to stop the proposed purchase of computer chip manufacturer Qualcomm by Singapore-based Broadcom in the name of national security. Critics have termed the decision radical, and highlighted two ways in which it departs from the precedents set by the government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). First, the […]