Ken's Comments

From the moment President Trump announced "Liberation Day" and laid out a list of tariffs he planned to impose, we've heard from economists, politicians, the media and the Federal Reserve about the impact of the tariffs on consumers.  Clothing, food, technology, cars, and toys are some of the categories of products tariffs will effect.  But there is a key point they overlook in their complaints about tariffs. From the media, we see headlines like these: CNN - "'Sneakflation': How Trump's tariffs are gradually raising costs for American consumers." Forbes - "Tariffs may have a bigger impact on consumers than some experts think." The Hill - "The misery of auto tariffs is hitting families and factories." Then there was the Federal Reserve which held off changes in the interest rate citing the "uncertainty" caused by tariffs as their reason for doing so. Democrats' criticism has been a bit awkward because progressives su...

1.  Deportations  A common refrain from the ACLU*, and their Democrat and media allies is to say the illegal alien "has no criminal record" when objecting the Trump Administration's efforts to deport that person.  The statement may be true, but the statement was also true about the following individuals: Jose Ibarra had no criminal record prior to being arrested for the murder of Laken Riley. Victor Martinez-Hernandez had no criminal record prior to being arrested for the murder of Rachel Morin Jing Ming-Long had no criminal record until he was arrested for sex trafficking Mark Anthony Scaffe had no criminal record until he was arrested for rape and indecent assault and battery all involving a child under 14 years of age. Why isn't the fact that these individuals aren't supposed to be in the United States enough of a reason to deport them?  Why do the ACLU, Democrats, and the Media want to wait until an illegal alien has a criminal record before that person can be...

President Trump has begun using tariffs as a tool to bring other countries to the negotiating table to remove barriers to trade erected by other countries and to encourage them to purchase more American products.  Trump did this in his typical dramatic fashion, giving rise to dramatic reactions.  Wall Street reacted with significant losses for a few days and remains unsettled, financial experts have questioned the approach, and Democrats have seized on this to criticize Trump for his actions. Before looking further at the whining and complaining, let's remember that President Trump paused the tariffs for all countries that offered to negotiate - basically everyone but China.  People are wailing about tariffs that may never go into effect if the negotiations with other countries are successful. As for the whiners and complainers, if I could play the violin, I'd pull one out and play a sad song and then you I have no sympathy.  You've profited while America has suffere...

If you don't like President Trump's tariffs give me a better alternative.  I've listened to the naysayers, the free marketers, and no one is suggesting China isn't subsidizing their companies to enable them to dump steel and aluminum at below market prices or enabling the theft of technology.  But I don't hear them offering any new ideas for enabling American companies to compete and for American workers to regain the quality jobs that go with these industries other than for our companies to compete better.  I do have an alternative to tariffs but it probably would not be enacted.  But before I get there let me start by poking holes in the arguments of the naysayers, including those who complain that the price of products will rise and consumers will be the losers here.  Let's start with the point on which I believe there is little disagreement.  We do need to do something about the trade imbalance and China.  China has been waging economic war on th...