“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Dean Baker: The Federal Reserve Board and the Presidential Candidates
Some of the folks watching the Republican presidential debates were struck by the fact that Donald Trump was apparently unfamiliar with the concept of the nuclear triad: that the United States maintains a nuclear force composed of land based missiles, submarine based missiles, and strategic bombers that can deliver nuclear weapons. This is the sort of basic knowledge of the U.S. military that someone hoping to be president should have.
In the same vein, there are aspects of economic policy that all the candidates should know. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Federal Reserve Board and its importance to the economy, most of the candidates seem to be failing as badly as Donald Trump did on his nuclear triad test.
The basic point is that the Fed has enormous power to control the pace of economic growth. It cannot always speed up growth as much as it might like, as we saw during the last recession, but it is quite capable of slowing the economy if it believes that it is growing too fast. It does this by raising interest rates.
Jeb Lund: The Republican presidential field is so similar, they may as well keep running
Whenever a Republican candidate vanishes from the national stage like an oversexed teen in a slasher flick, as Lindsey Graham did on Monday, professional and armchair pundits give in to the urge to discuss how the absence will reshape the race, because it almost feels like this sort of disappearance has to. People will notice, and the plot will change, right? Well, it’s time to resist that impulse, because it won’t.
Under normal circumstances, it would be nice if Graham’s departure inspired a few other candidates to slink from the diners of Iowa and New Hampshire and allow us to witness a showdown among a limited roster of “serious” contenders so we can have a serious political discussion. This assumes the latter is even possible and that the candidates desire it any more strongly now than they did when Wisconsin governor Scott Walker exited the race and made that very appeal directly.
Megan Carpentier: Donald Trump’s ‘schlong’ remark just telegraphs the man’s own insecurities
Donald Trump has a schlong problem.
His is not really a problem with women’s bodies per se, though that’s almost certainly related. After multiple “jokes” about dating his daughter, his insinuation that Megyn Kelly was mean to him at the debate because she had her period, his tendency to call women “pigs” and “disgusting” and his stated horror that Hillary Clinton went to the bathroom during a commercial break in the midst of Saturday night’s debate, he most certainly has the kind of issues with women which any one of New York’s 12,000 psychologists would likely be happy to assist him.
No, Trump’s primary problem is one loosely oriented around the male anatomy: he thinks people, particularly women, when they lose are getting “schlonged”. He believes that there is nothing more humiliating, nothing more evocative of loss, nothing that epitomizes capitulation in the face of one’s opponent’s triumph than being penetrated by a penis.
If Sigmund Freud could rise from the dead, he’d sit up, point at Donald Trump, say “I told you so” and go back to being dead, assured that his theoretical legacy was secure for another hundred years.
Robert Reich: Of Rotten Apples and Rotten Systems
Martin Shkreli, the former hedge-fund manager turned pharmaceutical CEO who was arrested last week, has been described as a sociopath and worse.
In reality, he’s a brasher and larger version of what others in finance and corporate suites do all the time.
Federal prosecutors are charging him with conning wealthy investors.
Lying to investors is illegal, of course, but it’s perfectly normal to use hype to lure rich investors into hedge funds. And the line between the two isn’t always distinct.
Hedge funds are lightly regulated on the assumption that investors are sophisticated and can take care of themselves.
Perhaps prosecutors went after Shkreli because they couldn’t nail him for his escapades as a pharmaceutical executive, which were completely legal – although vile.
Steven W. Thrasher: ‘No indictment’ for Sandra Bland: black women’s lives just don’t matter
The depressing news came in late Monday night that a grand jury in Texas has declined to find anyone culpable for the death of Sandra Bland, who was allegedly found hanged by a garbage bag in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, in July.
No one, the grand jury thinks, is responsible for Bland’s death except for, well, Sandra Bland.
Not Brian Encinia, the police officer who needlessly arrested Bland for failing to signal a lane change and who screamed “I will light you up!” at the top of his lungs, threatened her with a taser, and caused Bland to scream in terror, “You just slammed my head into the ground!” according to dashcam footage.
Not the jail which so failed in taking care of Bland’s well-being while it was charged with control of her body that she wound up dead.
Not whomever in the system who was responsible for leaving a garbage bag in her cell.
The special prosecutor has said that the case as “still open,” though no one has been indicted. But when the grand jury reconvenes next year it should issue a wide-ranging indictment – and it should be sent to all of us in the United States. Because we have all failed Sandra Bland: the state of Texas, and the United States and even those of us who believe that Black Lives Matter.
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