All posts tagged "Economic Policy"

WASHINGTON — This week’s dust-up over the Justice Department investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell isn’t just unprecedented, it’s also unwarranted — at least according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other leading right-wing voices.

To Cruz and co, Powell should have gotten the boot on day one of President Donald Trump’s second term.

“The notion of independent agencies is inconsistent with the Constitution,” Cruz told Raw Story at the U.S. Capitol this week....

This summer, Arizona small business owner Sara VanFleet twice had to write unexpected checks for thousands of dollars, thanks to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

In June, Trump raised tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from 25 percent to 50 percent.

VanFleet, who owns DB Trucks, a company in Glendale, Ariz., that builds and customizes water trucks, got an early morning call from her customs broker....

Donald Trump's decision to threaten massive tariffs on China only to retreat risks making the U.S. a “paper tiger” and encouraging Chinese aggression against Taiwan, a former U.S. ambassador to Beijing and a former CIA chief and defense secretary said.

“We have a very tough, tough position on Taiwan,” said Nicholas Burns, who was ambassador to China under Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, referring to U.S. support for the island nation whose independence Beijing does not recognize.

“If [Chinese President] Xi Jinping concludes from a tariff negotiations that the United States is in essence a paper tiger, that it doesn't mean what it says, that it blinks first, that's not what you want to have in his mind on something even more serious, which would be Taiwan, for instance, and a cross-strait invasion by the People's Liberation Army. ...

From the beloved children’s show “Bluey” to the blockbuster “Harry Potter” films, directors and producers have warned that President Donald Trump’s proposed 100 percent tariff on movies made in “foreign lands” would damage the U.S. entertainment industry’s ability to produce hit shows.

But Lamont Pete, a veteran reality TV producer, told Raw Story “nobody should really pay this much mind,” because Trump’s May 4 Truth Social post isn’t grounded in “reality.”

“When he came out and said this I don't think he really thought it through, but surprise, surprise, that would not be the first,” Pete said. “Honestly, I think nobody should really pay this much mind … that’s the most ridiculous s-–t I’ve ever heard.”...

If Republicans put 10% as much foresight into economic policy that they put into cultivating a culture warrior base or planning to invade sovereign nations when they get power, we probably wouldn't be in the situation we're in now.

...