‘Trump’s tariffs would smother his economic successes’
Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux at The Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump “hopes to supercharge economic growth” by “imposing across-the-board tariffs of at least 10%,” but there is “strong evidence that such measures wouldn’t achieve the president-elect’s objectives,” say Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. The tariffs “would also likely trigger a trade war that would erode, if not overwhelm, the positive effects of tax reform and deregulation.” They would additionally “increase our production costs and reduce our competitiveness at home and abroad.”
‘Biden’s legacy is secure, but he could augment it by stepping aside’
Carrie Friedman at The Washington Post
Joe Biden should “step down and install Vice President Kamala Harris as the 47th president of the United States,” says Carrie Friedman. Biden “could show the world, show us all — but especially this country’s moms, daughters, and the Black and Brown women who have carried this country on their backs — that it can happen, it can be done.” The Supreme Court has “given the president immunity for official acts of the presidency. It’s time to take advantage.”
‘DEI attacks are widening the racial wealth gap’
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman at Bloomberg
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work “offers a path to real, lasting wealth generation, helps create a bigger consumer class, and it’s good for the economy,” says Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman. If “DEI is thoughtfully implemented, it complements — and doesn’t overshadow — industrious, creative work.” But “biases can push Black and Latino people into career pathways that are divorced from wealth-building,” and “as a result, underrepresented minorities remain a substantial part of America’s permanent economic underclass.”
‘Apps love to show us old photos. It might be harming us more than we think.’
Louis Staples at Slate
Many “digital memory prompts — being told ‘You have a new memory!’ by a device or app — are now a normal part of our lives,” says Louis Staples. But “sometimes, we’re reminded of things that aren’t so funny.” Smartphones “don’t always get it right, and they might be making our lives more difficult.” These “flashbacks also strip images of vital context,” and “only posting the good parts of our lives can contribute to feelings of distress” in others.