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Trump Hires Ricochet Contributor as Top Economic Advisor
The road to the White House goes through Ricochet. From Politico:
Larry Kudlow will be the next director of the National Economic Council, succeeding Gary Cohn as President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, a person close to the matter said on Wednesday.
Trump offered the job to Kudlow, a CNBC personality who has been a regular outside adviser to the president, over the phone Tuesday night while Kudlow was at dinner at Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan, the person said. Kudlow accepted.
During the call, Trump said he was seeing Kudlow’s photo on television and told him: “You’re looking handsome, Larry.”
I better spruce up my LinkedIn profile.
Published in General
Just as Trump uses Twitter, Kudlow uses Ricochet?
Kudlow is unambivalently pro-Trump so Trump will trust him. And then, can explain to him why Tariffs are almost always bad.
You know I didn’t expect but I am kinda-sorta liking this Trump guy.
I really think this is the actual dynamic. Trump knows it’s stupid.
I’m about 83% convinced it’s just a negotiating ploy. That doesn’t mean the announced tariffs won’t be implemented; when bluffing it’s important to sell your bluff which means you’d better be fully prepared to follow through. So, for this particular game of chicken we’ll know more if/when we see what response is forthcoming from our trading partners. So far, looking at NAFTA et al it seems to me Mr. Trump is in the drivers seat so I expect to see some improvement in our relative position tariff wise. It’s true that tariffs are a tax on the consumers of the country that imposes them and also that they create disruptions in the economies of various countries. Since I know that Kudlow understands all this fully his appointment gives me an extra reason to believe Trump knows this too and is playing both our allies and enemies. If that is true don’t expect the story to come out before it plays out, that would be stupidity worthy of bureaucrats.
It may not work or may only partially work but I’d rather see him give it a good try than not.
As to Kudlow worrying about hearing “You’re Fired.” that’s just ridiculous. He knows Mr. Trump, knows his management style and will not be non-plussed when Mr. Trump does things to agitate him. That’s just Trump, means almost nothing, should be pretty much ignored. Just do the job. Kudlow has been through the wringer in life and has come out solid and stable, he isn’t easily disturbed.
You know, he didn’t promise to repeal the mandate, he promised to repeal Obamacare. He’s at least partially responsible for that failure no matter how much he tries to pin it on Mitch McConnell.
When did he ever do that?
Isn’t this still on the agenda?
Sorry, I don’t share your optimism about that, since it’s been promised that more are coming, and there’s an attempt to renegotiate NAFTA baked in somehow.
If it’s any consolation, I probably would have agreed with you if we had this conversation the week before this tariff nonsense started.
No one anywhere in the GOP did any preparation for this moment. They should’ve done a one year roadshow on how terrible the ACA is and how bad it was before that ,and only then try to fix it politically. So many of those guys are just pure liars.
Not putting his name to the “Against Trump” issue of National Review is “praising of Trump during the primaries”?
I supported the idea of the “Against Trump” issue, but it largely turned out to be mistake — especially since Trump won the presidency.
I think Kudlow simply remembered Trump’s thoughtfulness when Kudlow was dealing with some problems decades ago and did not see Trump as the cartoon figure that most of the Manhattan-based folks at National Review accepted as fact.
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I think Kudlow has supported tariff-type instruments against China. Before being hired, Kudlow says that the tariffs would never hit Europe. That seems like an okay idea for the NATO countries which meet that 2% GDP military spending requirement (United Kingdom, France, and maybe Greece, Estonia, and Poland), but why should the rest of Europe be able to take advantage?
Keep in mind that the order permits the negotiation of exceptions in bilateral agreements. So we can let our friends off the hook if they’re willing. The EU is pouting because it doesn’t allow its members to do bilateral agreements. Britain will be able to do so post-Brexit and the rest of the countries we would traditionally consider allies can do so right away. It’s push back against huge trade blocs that curtail our sovereignty. The TPP had a few good features (anti-China), but way too many flaws. The good features can all be implemented with bilateral agreements.
First, he supported the ten-year trillion dollar cut and complete federalist restructuring of Medicaid in the first two failed attempts at rejiggering (best word I can come up with).
Second, his new entitlement for national childcare turned into a Rubio proposal to change the withdrawal rules of Social Security with zero budgetary impact.
I started out better-than-Hillary and have wound up at far-better-than-expected (I grew up in NYC with Donald dominating Page Six so my expectations in certain arenas were very low).
How do I get a position on the spicy meme team?
One of my favorite tee shirts:
“Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency.”
Kudlow is not coherent when he babbles about the dollar. He likes and excuses fake low interest rates no matter what. The End.
I think I prayed for this. I know I wanted this. It’s overdue.
Well done and congratulations and good luck with the new job, Mr. Kudlow.
That sounds nice, but he did fail to do it.
I think I saw those headlines but totally missed reading them. That I can totally get behind and sounds great, though I’ll have to read that proposal.
Yeah, I think there’s actually less difference in our opinions than it appears. You’re just at “far-better-than-expected” whereas I was at “better-than-expected”, and am now am a bit more skeptical again.
I need to find that post with the @umbrafractus Scale of Trump Opinion again to see where I am there. I was definitely at 2 on that scale at one point but now I’m not sure where I am because I forget the other numbers.
Kudlow 2008.