Here’s a news flash from my Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold.
Sheldon Richman offers further thoughts on Trump’s recent visit to Europe. (HT Anthony Onofreo) A slice:
First, trade. Trump famously said to Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Union, “The Germans are bad, very bad. Look at the millions of cars that they’re selling in the USA. Horrible. We’re gonna stop that.”
I’m hoping that Trump is a demagogue who really knows better, because I can’t believe that anyone could be so ignorant or unintelligent as to think that selling cars to Americans is evidence of badness. I never dreamed that someone who offered me high-quality products was trying to harm me. (He also says Chinese exporters “rape” us.) It’s not just basic economics he’d have to be ignorant of; he’d also have to be clueless that German automakers have built cars in the United States for quite a while (the VW Passat, BMW X Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class), most of them for export, at least in BMW’s case.
Tyler Cowen is enjoying James Scott’s new book.
Bob Hessen alerts me to this interview with The Color of Law author Richard Rothstein. A slice:
But in his new book The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein argues that pervasive segregation cannot be chalked up entirely to the private prejudices of realtors and lenders or the personal choices of homebuyers. Rather, he writes, the racial separation of so many American neighborhoods is chiefly the responsibility of the public sector and, above all, the federal government.
The Color of Law shows that creating, and maintaining, residential segregation was at the heart of federal housing policy for decades. Rothstein assiduously documents the more explicit federal efforts, such as the racialized implementation of both public housing policy and the Federal Housing Administration’s loan programs.
Here’s Pat Michaels’s statement on the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty.
Alan Reynolds argues for cutting the corporate tax rate and for killing the proposed BAT.
Norbert Michel and George Selgin argue that the Fed should stop rewarding banks for not lending.
