As a recent dataset sent to me from Bryan Riley of the National Taxpayers Union shows, this trade fight caused a 65 percent drop in American lobster sales to China from its 2018 peak. And according to the Financial Times, the E.U. took a page from the Chinese playbook and imposed an 8 percent duty on American live lobsters while letting Canadian lobsters in duty-free. Now the president is apoplectic at the situation and has crowned Navarro, who pushed him into this trade war in the first place, the Lobster King.
UCLA recently suspended a lecturer, Gordon Klein, after he declined a demand that he make a final exam “no-harm”—that is, it could only boost grades—for students of color traumatized by the events in Minneapolis. Klein refused, in accordance with guidance from UCLA’s administration not to give students much leeway on exams. In response, the activists launched a change.org petition to get Klein fired, and the school suspended him. His irritated reply to the activists—that he would not give preferential exam treatment to students because of their skin color—has prompted UCLA to investigate him for racial discrimination.
Democrats cite a spike in cases in Florida, Arizona and Texas as evidence of a virus resurgence. But more testing, especially in vulnerable communities, is naturally turning up more cases. Cases in Texas have increased by about a third in the last two weeks, but so have tests. About a quarter of the new cases are in counties with large prisons and meatpacking plants that were never forced to shut down.
Karl Dierenbach argues that the covid lockdown is itself fatal to human life. (HT Lyle Albaugh)
Here’s wisdom from Joakim Book.
George Will writes perceptively about Trump, the U.S., and China. A slice:
In the 2010s, the U.S. stock market rose 250 percent, almost quadruple the average gains of other national stock markets. (China’s rose 70 percent.) “By 2019,” [Ruchir] Sharma writes, “the United States accounted for 56 percent of global stock market capitalization, up from 42 percent in 2010. The value of the U.S. stock market, relative to all others, was at a 100-year high.” Today, “seven of the world’s 10 largest companies by total stock market value are American, up from three in 2010.” Globally, 75 percent of loans to individuals and companies are denominated in dollars, up from 60 percent before the 2008 crisis.
