The reason freedom-loving people don’t like talk like this is because it flatters Mr. Xi for his success in terrorizing his people “with an iron fist.” Mr. Xi may be a smart guy, but you don’t have to be brilliant to rule when you can arrest or purge anyone at any time. All you have to be is ruthless and remorseless.
Mr. Rogan gave Mr. Trump an opening to speak such a truth, but the former President immediately pivoted to talking about his opponents in the U.S. This fits his pattern of describing his domestic opponents in nastier terms than he does rulers who imprison their people on a whim or start wars that kill tens of thousands of people.
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It would be reassuring if Mr. Trump said, at least once in a while, that these dictators are dangerous and the enemies of liberty. One place to start would be speaking publicly for the release of publisher Jimmy Lai from unjust imprisonment in Hong Kong. That would send a message heard ’round the world.
Also criticizing Trump is National Review‘s Noah Rothman.
More recently, Mr. Trump called Ms. Harris “mentally impaired” and a “s— vice president.” This is a former president of the United States, a man who might represent the nation again. And for those of you who dismiss this kind of language or, worse, defend it, if Mr. Trump is re-elected you shouldn’t be surprised if this kind of aberrant behavior continues. And everything about it will affect the future of the nation.
Trump has repeatedly re-upped the idea that broadcast licenses should be contingent on whether they are used to air content that offends him. Last November, for instance, he complained that MSNBC “uses FREE government approved airwaves” to execute “a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE.” He declared that “our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity.”
Now, Jack Salmon has a piece at the Liberty Lens Substack arguing that the CBO is indeed likely underestimating the path of interest rates. He writes:
Key to CBO’s long-term budget projections are its long-term projections of interest rates that affect the budget, including rates on various debt instruments issued by the Treasury Department. While the CBO’s interest rate projections for the coming decade show higher rates than over the past 30 years, rates on government securities are only forecast to be about a third of a percentage point higher over the entire 2024–2054 period of the projection compared to the 1994-2023 average (4.2% vs 3.8%).
In that post, Salmon focuses on why he thinks the CBO’s assumption about the impact that the U.S. growing debt-to-GDP ratio — from 100 percent to 166 percent of GDP in 30 years — will have on interest rates is off.
Roger Pielke praises “climate journalism done right.”
Glenn Moots explores the economics of so-called “price gouging.”
Jim Dorn reflects on his latest visit to Fudan University after 30 years.
