Offthemat

The GDP that has been bolstered by government jobs and government spending? We’re getting away from that.

“Scholars now believe that these policies may have reduced trade somewhat but were not a significant cause of the Depression among the large industrial producers.” And you shouldn’t listen too much to those Wall Street carried interest folks, they’re unholy, and will exploit anything to fleece you. In about six months or a year, or a couple of weeks, when all this starts paying dividends, we’ll be fine. We’ve got some in the market, some in gold, and some in cash that’ll be real handy now that it’s time to buy.

“The 1930 enactment of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in the United States and the worldwide rise in protectionist trade policies created other complications. The Smoot-Hawley tariff was meant to boost farm incomes by reducing foreign competition in agricultural products. But other countries followed suit, both in retaliation and in an attempt to force a correction of trade imbalances. Scholars now believe that these policies may have reduced trade somewhat but were not a significant cause of the Depression among the large industrial producers. Protectionist policies, however, may have contributed to the extreme decline in the world price of raw materials, which caused severe balance-of-payments problems for primary-commodity-producing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and led to contractionary monetary and fiscal policies.” https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression/Causes-of-the-decline China is a special case and I fully support punitive measures against them. Though the administration’s numbers show that we’re not hitting them as hard as they hit us, just almost.

No we didn’t. It’s reciprocal. Why do you believe it’s okay for other countries to have tariffs on our goods, but catastrophic for us to put equal tariffs on them.

Women and children hardest hit.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone claim that tariffs were the cause of the depression. Most economists today recognize that the Fed probably deserves the most blame, while an untimely tax increase and the tariffs didn’t help, they were enacted after the depression had already begun. Here’s a link to your NPR that might help you. Odd that the Fed seems to be up to their old tricks, again. https://www.npr.org/2025/03/06/nx-s1-5318076/tariffs-great-depression-explainer

If so, why have you been complaining so loudly for the last couple of months?

That’s only for entry, right?

He’s certainly in the top 2 this season.

Hercules Hendrickson

Defeating a two time Hodge winner should be criteria enough. Congratulations Cowboy!

Waste, fraud, and corruption.

Bedbugs have a higher approval rating than dimocrats.

Is this like playing whack-a-mole? Could we get a scorecard?

The only thing I find obvious about this is that dimocrats don’t want the administration using Signal. Maybe because they can’t crack it.

Waltz also said he didn’t know Goldberg and had never talked to him.

It sounds like a copout to me. Eighth grade math is basic math, isn’t it? Does it even include algebra? Fourth grade reading? These skills can be taught in the classroom with little, or no, reliance on homework, negating any impact by parents. Unless you’re talking about classroom discipline, which is still the school’s responsibility. The proof is in the backlash against school boards by parents when they discovered what was being taught in online classes during the pandemic. In an adaptation of another phrase: it’s like they’re more concerned about boys getting to use the girl’s bathroom than anything else.

How does parenting cause 8th grade math and 4th grade reading scores to fall.

I only got one vote.

Maybe we could hold a raffle or something.

Didn’t you find the story in the NYTimes?

It’s in his name, he’s Tripn.