The three big economic crises of the past fifty years were the stagflation of the 1970s, the subprime housing and financial collapse of 2008, and the Covid pandemic and lockdowns of 2020. To get out of the first crisis, Ronald Reagan chose classic supply-side economics: slash taxes and regulations and get the government out of the way.
During the second crisis, Barack Obama's strategy was a traditional Keynesian strategy of loading up on nearly $1 trillion in new government spending and a vast array of new financial regulations.
In the aftermath of the Covid lockdowns, Joe Biden tried an even more radical economic doctrine called Modern Monetary Theory, which was Keynesian economics on steroids. The Biden team believed that Obama failed because he spent too LITTLE money, so they opted to spend and borrow multiple times what Obama had tried.
What were the results? Under Reagan, the supply side tax and regulatory cuts spurred a ferocious recovery that lasted eight years 1982-90. Under both Biden and Obama, the economy limped out of recession. The Reagan recovery was twice as strong as Obama's or Biden's.
Where does that leave us? Trump wants to jumpstart the economy with another round of supply side steroids and the media is convinced it will wreck the economy and make inflation worse. Go figure.
2) Merrick Garland Defends the Injustice Department
This week Attorney General Merrick Garland penned a piece in the Washington Post attacking those who would dare question the integrity of his agency.
Garland assures us that there is no deep state or political weaponization of the Justice Department on his watch. (This is the man who oversaw the raid on Mar-a-Lago.) He claims that any complaints about his agency are just "conspiracy theories." After defending the DA in the Trump trial, he even claimed that the real bad actors are those who dare question the integrity of his agency because this is "undermining public trust in the judicial process itself."
Garland worries that those who expose the politicization of the Justice Department are inciting violence against DOJ employees. We are all against violence, but it is deeply disturbing that the top law enforcement official in the country hears no and sees no evil in the agency that he directs. The wholesale denial only plays into the hands of the conspiracy theorists he says he's worried about.
Nearly half the country recognizes Biden's justice system is rigged against conservatives, yet AG Garland has not taken ANY action to clean up the stench of corruption in his department.
How many people has Garland fired for abuse of power?
Garland says "attacks on the Justice Department must end." No, Sir. The widespread corruption of the agency you run must end. His denials only confirm that this fish really does rot from the head down.
And to think that Garland was this close to becoming a justice on the Supreme Court. Thank God for Mitch McConnell.
3) Blackrock Continues to Sprint Away from ESG Mania
More evidence that our anti-ESG campaign is working:
Egan-Jones is a distant third in the proxy adviser business, behind two giants Glass Lewis and ISS, which scored a C and an F, respectively, in our most recent Pension Politics report card. Competition with them can only be a good thing.
Egan-Jones says its "Wealth-Focused policy" prioritizes "maximizing shareholder value" by opposing ESG resolutions, including opposition to "environmental and social due diligence" and diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
That's music to our ears.
What shareholder in their right mind wouldn't choose the option of maximizing shareholder value?
We hope state pension managers, in particular, take notice of the new kid on the BlackRock.
You can see how all of the investment management firms score on their proxy voting behavior on our updated site:
In model year 2027, which is just two years away, manufacturers will be required to sell at least 32% electric vehicles. They won't even come close.
We've warned many times that the government will NEVER succeed in getting Americans to buy cars they don't want. We have here more evidence that Joe Biden was the worst thing that ever happened to the EV industry.
