EDITOR'S NOTE: Steve Moore is back! He has returned from his leave of absence and is again at the helm of this fine publication.
1) 92% of Donations at Our "Independent" Federal Reserve Went to Democrats
Why are we not at all surprised by this study's findings?
Given this revelation, we found this line on the Fed website highly ironic:
"The Federal Reserve Board employs more than 500 researchers, including more than 400 Ph.D. economists [what do they all do?], who represent an exceptionally diverse range of interests and areas of expertise."
Speaking of that temple known as the Federal Reserve Board, Chairman Jerome Powell is in a rhetorical shoving match with President-elect Donald Trump. Trump says he might want to remove Powell, and the Fed Chairman claims Trump "is not permitted under the law" to remove him. He says no matter what the President decides to do, he's "not leaving."
Who's right? One of our favorite legal scholars, John Yoo of Stanford, concludes in his Fox News piece:
"Powell is not only politically unwise to claim independence from presidential control, but he is also legally mistaken. Trump can fire Powell under the laws that created the Federal Reserve as well as under the Constitution."
Yoo notes the Federal Reserve Act "provides no express protection against removing Powell as chair – though under the statute, Trump would need 'cause' to remove him from the board."
So Trump should be able to (at the very least) immediately demote Powell from chairman to regular board member.
We're not legal eagles, but Yoo seems to make an excellent point. Powell cannot be entirely insulated from political accountability. That's a danger to democracy. If Truman could fire General MacArthur, then Trump should be able to fire Chairman Powell.
3) Breaking Up Google Will Be a Great American Catastrophe
Google is one of America’s most successful, profitable and dynamic companies of the 21st century – and arguably over the entire span of U.S. history. It has delivered costless information and unleashed innovation that has led to extraordinary benefits for the U.S. economy, U.S. investors, and U.S. consumers.
Amazingly, the courts effectively agreed that Google captured its near 90% market share by providing a far superior product.
But a recent U.S. District Court ruling has charged the company with violating antitrust statutes despite rapidly FALLING costs. Hey! isn’t this the opposite of price gouging?
Now, the Biden Justice Department (and the courts) may require Google to split off Android, Chrome or other parallel services Google provides. These cease-and-desist orders will NOT help consumers and will only weaken a company that constantly lowers costs to consumers and adds many hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth to American shareholders and retirees. Americans OWN Google.
The net effect of these proposals would be to kneecap Google in ways that would hamstring the company, harm American consumers, and undermine the competitive foundations of the U.S. economy.
The chart below shows the ratio of current jobs in the states to their respective pre-pandemic levels. Last month we had to adjust the scale to make room for Idaho adding so many jobs.
This month, it's the opposite: DC is losing so many jobs that we had to extend the graph to the left.
Utah, which has consistently been ranked number one in Rich States, Poor States, is also well ahead of its pre-pandemic job level. Likewise, Texas and Florida have been near the top in terms of job growth since their economies reopened.
Way at the bottom of the chart are the usual suspects: New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, and Hawaii. Due in no small part to Governor JB Pritzker's disastrous economic policies, Illinois has gained no net jobs since the start of 2020 - five years and zero progress.
Lastly, Maryland continues serving as a good example of why we should always look at more than just the unemployment rate: the Old-Line State still has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country but also has fewer jobs today than pre-pandemic. At least Illinois is back where it started, while Maryland has lost ground.
The reasons that voters elected Donald Trump included concerns about inflation and immigration. But some liberal centrists – such as New York Rep. Tom Suozzi and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton – have also said voters were tired of causes promoted by social-justice warriors.
A new poll from YouGov highlights just how few Americans are marinated in "woke" culture. Just 20% of adults said that they regularly used the term "safe space," the most popular of the 30 woke terms tested. Other terms trailed further and further behind, including "white privilege", "trigger warnings", "gender non-binary", and "woke" itself. Only 15% of Black adults use the term "antiracism."
Maureen Dowd, the sharp-knives columnist, noted in a recent column that almost no Hispanics ever use the term "Latin X." And we hope readers don’t disparage today’s HOTLINE as a “microaggression.” (That’s the first time we’ve ever written that term.)
