Outside the Beltway

Much of what Donald Trump has claimed about how he built his fortune is a lie, and at least part of it originated in his father’s shady efforts to evade taxes.

Thanks to a last-minute agreement, the United States and Canada reached an agreement for a revised version of NAFTA. It’s a got a new name, but it’s basically NAFTA 2.0.

Elon Musk has apparently come to his senses. At least for now.

The legal troubles for Tesla’s Elon Musk just got a lot more serious.

President Trump is once again threatening to lower the tariff hammer on one of America’s most reliable allies and biggest trading partners.

Donald Trump’s trade war is helping China expand its diplomatic influence.

As expected, President Trump announced a new round of tariffs against Chinese goods yesterday, and China quickly retaliated.

President Trump is set to expand his ill-advised, economically ignorant, trade war with China.

The Federal Budget Deficit is set to end the Fiscal Year close to $1 trillion, and to continue growing after that.

The #MeToo movement brings down the head of a Fortune 500 company.

Jobs growth in August was slightly better than expected, but still nothing overly impressive.

Amazon has joined Apple to become the second American corporation to reach $1,000,000,000,000 in market valuation.

Entertainers work for a living, too.

There’s no real plan and nobody appears to know what waits on the other side, but the United Kingdom continues to meander towards Brexit.

An occasional series makes a return.

President Trump’s much-hyped replacement for NAFTA doesn’t really amount to much and won’t amount to anything unless he can get Canada, and the U.S. Congress, on board.

Donald Trump is now attacking his own appointee to head the Federal Reserve Board.

As much as we hate paying $200 a month for television, the future is likely going to be worse.

Laura Ingraham has responded to the deluge of criticism to her foolish and disturbing commentary. This response is also disturbing. Her attempt to walk back the racist tone of her monologue falls flat. Her statement trying to make her views more clear reveal more of her limited thinking on this matter and in general.

President Trump appears to be ready to expand his ignorant, counterproductive trade war with China.

In an obvious effort to pander to the city’s taxi industry, New York City is placing new limits on ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft.

There’s been a noticeable drop in foreign tourism to the United States since Donald Trump became President.

In a rare red-state victory for labor unions, Missouri voters rejected a right to work initiative by an overwhelming margin.

Total compensation has been going up and the non-wage portion of said compensation is basically “eating up all” of the past increases since approximately 1974 resulting in a stagnant hourly wage.

Forty-two years after being founded in a California garage, and twenty years after nearly going broke, Apple Computer has become the first publicly traded company to top $1 trillion in value.

Jobs growth fell short of expectations in July but was still relatively decent. Wage growth, however, remains stubbornly stagnant.

The natural intuition of the aluminum tariff is that it would help Alcoa, the largest manufacturer of aluminum in the U.S. But apparently these things are a bit more complicated that one’s intuition would indicate.

The recent report of 4.1% GDP growth over the previous quarter is indeed welcome news. However, taking a look at the data both recent and in the past and there are some reasons to be concerned about GDP growth in general.

One of the biggest names in Hollywood stands accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women in yet another ground-breaking report by Ronan Farrow.

I have heard Trump supporters offer the following rationale for Trump’s tarris, “It is a bargaining strategy.” Then they sit back and smirk, and tell me, “Trump really wants zero tariffs, but to get these other countries to come to the table he has to get their attention. And once he has softened them up, they’ll be willing to reduce their tariffs.”

Trump’s trade war will claw back 25% of the growth in GDP, slightly more than 20% of the wage growth and more than wipe out all the jobs his tax cuts would provide.

The economy grew at an exceptionally strong pace according to the first estimate of GDP growth, but several caveats remain.

President Trump and the President of the European Commission announced an agreement late yesterday on trade issues, but it’s long on promises and short on results.

If President Trump’s trade war continues, it could have a serious impact on the political fortunes of President Trump and his party.

The President is apparently getting ready to take yet another ill-advised step in his ill-advised, economically illiterate trade war.

Despite Republican hopes, the tax cuts passed by Congress in December are not manifesting themselves in increased wages.

The 34-year-old Facebook tycoon is now worth more than 87-year-old Warren Buffet.

Federal law protects internet companies from liability for statements written by others.

The ill-advised move is sure to raise costs for businesses and consumers and roil global stock markets.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 213,000 in June and the unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent.

The National Debt has passed $21,000,000,000,000 for the first time in history just as the nation begins its return to the era of trillion dollar budget deficits.

Donald Trump’s trade war continues to have negative consequences for American consumers and businesses.

California’s legislature has moved to block localities from imposing taxes on soda and other sugary drinks.

Once touted as an example of his deal-making prowess, Harley-Davidson sent a rebuke to President Trump by announcing it was moving some manufacturing to Europe to counteract the impact of his ongoing trade war.

Not surprisingly, Canadians aren’t too thrilled with Donald Trump these days.

Three months after it started, the Trump Trade War is already starting to have a negative impact on American businesses and American consumers.

President Trump once said that “trade wars are good and easy to win.” It’s only been three months since he started this war and we’re already finding out just how wrong he is about that.

Donald Trump wants Republicans to make his immigration policies the centerpiece of the midterm campaign. What could possibly go wrong?

Words mean things. Unless they don’t.

Not surprisingly, Canadians aren’t very happy about President Trump’s attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.