Politics

Imagine if President Barack Obama — or God forbid, Bernie Sanders — decided to have the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

What if a Democratic president unilaterally jacked up tariffs and kicked off a trade war with our long-time allies — while getting pantsed in a trade war with the Chinese communist party? What’s worse, imagine if they demanded select privately held companies be part-owned by the U.S. government.

Screams of righteous outrage would echo from the steel and glass caverns of Wall Street. This would fulfill decades of stern warnings rooted in Milton Friedman shibboleths about free trade, free people, and fiscal responsibility.

But all this gets ditched when Donald Trump does it. Instead, titans of American industry abandon long-held free market beliefs and line up to perform ornate acts of supplication to the president. Apparently, if you have an unhinged would-be autocrat in charge of the national economy and so much business is wrapped up in government spending, the right thing to do is kiss his ass in the public square and say it smells like roses, later claiming that you did it all for the shareholders. It is better for the balance sheet to be in the mad king’s good graces.

All else aside, this is some great writing. It gets better from here.