136 Comments
User's avatar
Flier's avatar
Jun 2Edited

Writing of Trump's policies, Paul Krugman opined: "All of these policies have involved blatant violations of the letter of the law, . ." How is it they did not mention a similar violation when Biden instructed Secretary Mayorkas to let millions walk across the border?

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

A lot of things that happened during the last 4 years are hard to believe, but I wonder if the survival of Paul Krugman's credibility -- at least in some circles -- shouldn't be at the top of the list. Two days after Trump was first elected, in 2016, he predicted that this "irresponsible, ignorant man" would cause a big recession. Instead we had the best economy since 1969. Then, in December 2023, he had the nerve to write in the NYT: "Beware Of Economists Who Won't Admit They Were Wrong".

Expand full comment
LuAnn's avatar

I don't believe any economists anymore. I'll follow what Trump often says which is: We'll see.

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

Old George Bernard Shaw said it pretty well: "If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion."

But that might be a blessing in disguise! Given how many wrong conclusions and predictions they come up with ...

Expand full comment
revmaddog1948's avatar

I still really like Milton Friedman.

Expand full comment
Jim Nelson's avatar

You can put Paul Krugman's credibility in the file labeled "Urban Myths" right next to alligators in the NYC sewers and moon landings were faked.

Expand full comment
Epstein Did Not Kill Himself's avatar

I thought Krugman went away. Is he back again? He's just like hemorrhoids.

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

Maybe Krugman has dementia and memory loss like Biden?

Expand full comment
Playswithneedles's avatar

No, he’s just an idiot. Always has been, and his case of TDS has only made it worse.

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

He really is. The guy is just a joke. If I listened to him and invested based on his advice or commentary Id be broke. He seems to look at what Trump is supporting and then supports the opposite. And the Dems wonder why we all think they are stark raving crazy😂 Hope they never find a cure for TDS. Popcorn sales will plummet.

Expand full comment
Jim Nelson's avatar

Maybe Krugman and Jim Cramer should start an investment consulting firm called "Whatever We Say do the Opposite." They would make a fortune.

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

Correct, and I would add that there are a great number of so-called investor experts that could join them. The company should be named "Investment Fools". Seriously though, my financial manager, a longtime friend, told me once that NO ONE should listen to these celebrity investment guys unless you enjoy wasting money. I have a gold mine stock framed on my wall that I invested in on good advice from an expert back when I was in high school just to remind me to never listen to anyone I didn't personally know when someone offers advice on investments. The stock cost me $15.00 and is worthless for anything other than starting a fire.

Expand full comment
Jim Nelson's avatar

But I bet it looks good on the wall and is a great conversation starter.

Expand full comment
Brian LeMay's avatar

Plus TDS !

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

Yep, serious case too. I'm thinking the Krugman may need an intervention and a stiff dosage of red pills.

Expand full comment
LuAnn's avatar

The answer if you're a Democrat is: That's because. We're different and better.

Expand full comment
Retirednottired's avatar

You have clearly missed the secret clause in every law which says "Dems do not need to obey any law."

Expand full comment
Tim's avatar

He wasn’t watching those laws.

Expand full comment
MartyB's avatar

Nice column to start the week with. Thanks Don! Both of you!

Expand full comment
Playswithneedles's avatar

What about Playswithneedles? Aside from a pittance from Social Security, my retirement comes from income from my investments and I’m thrilled to report that they have regained all of the losses of the last few years and more.

The best part is not the money. It’s the peace of mind in not waking up every morning worrying about the future. God bless President Trump!

Expand full comment
Andrew Diseker's avatar

I'm a "buy and hold till the heat death of the universe" investor, but mainly my portfolios (one an IRA, one just a brokerage account) are both based on dividends rather than stock value, and even so my total value has increased. I do a bit of dividend re-investing but as a retiree I use my dividends to pay rent, freeing my SS for everything else. Just about the only reasons I've sold a stock are when it stops paying a dividend, or if I needed immediate cash. I haven't watched CNBC or Fox Business or anyone else in over 20 years. I seem to be doing okay in my ignorance.

Expand full comment
darrell's avatar

I have not owned a TV since 1998. Working real good for me. However I still have screen addictions.

Expand full comment
PM's avatar

I think Vanguard got a bad rep from being too close to Blackrock. Other than DEI, I have nothing but praise for them.

Expand full comment
darrell's avatar

Their DEI had three different letters. ESG = Equity, and Social Governance. Talk about illegal the CEOs of Blackrock-Vanguard-State Street were wielding power to shape woke-ness in our culture when not one of them were elected to any office. I knew that Budweiser had more sense than to use a chick with a d*ck to promote their top product. They were forced by the investment companies to get in line with the big three's ideology or they would pull their product out of huge investment portfolios. Someone needs to go to prison over that.

Expand full comment
PM's avatar

kinda scary that 4 or 5 corporations control all the others. Vanguard's CEO worked for Blackrock for 30 years. At least they're not pushing ESGs as they once were-change of heart? Nah-not making enough profit.

Expand full comment
darrell's avatar

When I would call Vanguard to do business I always ask if Vanguard is still pushing ESG and if the guy holding the phone doesn't know I know I'm speaking to a robot or a nut. They will never discuss it because the conversations are recorded. I guess we are the stupid ones for handing over our life savings.

Expand full comment
PM's avatar

darrell, there aren't enough prisons to hold them and those who forced trannies out of the closet. Men in women's sports? Much worse than keeping them pregnant and barefoot.

Expand full comment
darrell's avatar

so so true

Expand full comment
Darren's avatar

"Wages rising faster than economists predicted." "Inflation dropping faster than economists predicted."

As Peter Lynch once said, if all the economists in the world were laid end to end...it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Expand full comment
Andrew Diseker's avatar

But who would really want to lay those economists?

Expand full comment
Darren's avatar

You bring in illegals, the government pays them to do it with taxpayer money, and presto! economic boom, just like economists predict!

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

Good point.

Expand full comment
Steve (recovering lawyer)'s avatar

There are now four political parties in the USA: democrat, republican, RINO and Trump. Only one of them is truly interested in preserving the country. You guess.

Expand full comment
LuAnn's avatar

Yes to that, Steve.

Expand full comment
Retirednottired's avatar

Not a hard one, Steve.

Expand full comment
Marlan Hoerer's avatar

Like a boss PDJT has delivered what say you lying msm/dems ?? TDS is the new ptsd and ocd combined in intensity. Rock and roll on Poca-Man and PDJT !!

Expand full comment
BJ54's avatar

I love your columns.

Expand full comment
Shoveltusker's avatar

“Idiot crook with dementia” is the most cogent description of FJB yet devised.

Thanks DS ☺️

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

It could have been more succinct. "Idiot" and "dementia" have about the same effects, so just one of those would have sufficed.

Expand full comment
Shoveltusker's avatar

He was an idiot from birth, apparently. Only an idiot would plagiarize Neil Kinnock in a public speech and expect that nobody would notice. He did that 37 years ago.

Dementia first appeared after he was VP.

Expand full comment
Suzie's avatar

But “idiot” can also be inferred there to describe his acts as a crook being idiotic, separate from that of his physical state of dementia.

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

True, but there is an argument for being charitable, especially since it's now undeniable that Biden was so out to lunch that he was pretty much ignored and overruled by his White House cabal. They were the puppet masters pulling his strings and signing his EOs. Hence they're the ones who need to be held to account, because what they did was run a silent coup d’état, which is a form of treason. It was also unkind to Ole Joe, because he will forever be remembered not as a President but as some kind of stuffed puppet.

Expand full comment
Suzie's avatar

“Charitable” does not come into play with regard to Biden. He was a corrupt and indecent man without a care for the repercussions of his actions in his lust for fame and power. He went along with whatever he felt would benefit him, and him alone.

He was/is a contemptible excuse for a human being.

He deserves nothing but disgust and disdain.

And his wife as well.

Woe unto him, and May God have mercy on his soul.

Expand full comment
Wim de Vriend's avatar

'Cause you won't? I don't think he's got much time left. BUT - it's been noticed before that the worst of crooks provide solace for the rest of us, because we've never been THAT bad.

Expand full comment
Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

When he’s done stinking up this world, bury Biden face down to give his soul direction as to which way to stumble to his eternal home.

Expand full comment
LuAnn's avatar

Biden was always nasty and stupid.

Expand full comment
Shoveltusker's avatar

He is and always has been a sleazy, self-dealing, dishonest and arrogant prick. Even among the political class he stands out as a dirtbag. No charity from me.

Expand full comment
Don Fey's avatar

There is NO "winner" to today's poll as none of the choices are downsides!

Expand full comment
joated's avatar

You got that! I couldn't vote for any of the choices offered.

Expand full comment
Jim Murray's avatar

Adam Smith (1723-1790) taught the world through "Moral Sentiments" (1759) and "Wealth of Nations" (1776) that an economic system called capitalism based in morality and self-interest was the way to create wealth for the masses. Karl Marx (1818-1883) taught the world how to destroy wealth by destroying individuality, imposing slavery, demanding allegiance to the corrupt, all powerful, central planning state with his "The Communist Manifesto" (1848). Ayn Rand (1905-1982) told the world the nature of the fight between Smith and Marx in her wartime epic "Fountainhead" (1943). In "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) she described our present day world, a world in which corruption and incompetence rule the day around the world. Trump and his team understand the reality of the fight. What we are witnessing is pushback against the tide. Trump fully embraces Adam Smith's view just as surely as he rejects Marxism. Everything Don describes today is a reflection of the gains the Smith side is making.

Expand full comment
Suzie's avatar

Unfortunately, over the years Capitalists have taken the term “self-interest” a bit too literally scrapping the morality bit almost entirely.

Without consequences for their corruption, the immoral and corrupt will continue to act as they wish, corrupting the entire capitalist system itself, which is why it has garnered such a bad name.

“If all men were angels, we would have no need of laws,” as James Madison put it.

The lack of consequences for corruption and evil-doing over decades and decades has led us to this precipice we now find ourselves.

We need a robust, relentless and seen-to-be-active Justice Department cracking down on the lawlessness all around us if people are ever going to be even discouraged from committing such acts, much moreso, stop committing them altogether.

I am still waiting for that Justice Department to appear.

Expand full comment
Jim Murray's avatar

Trump is a revolutionary as much as Marx was. His task in a nutshell. No matter where you look today, capitalism is nonexistent. Instead, America has a heavily regulated semi-capitalism. Thank FDR for that. Rather than maligning capitalism, understand that the rest of the world is more Marxist than capitalist. More shackled than free. European governments of Americans think of as free societies, dictate educational opportunities and determine where individuals will be employed. Businesses require government approval before laying off or firing employees no matter how dire the business needs may be. The government takes 70% of more of everyone's earnings while disallowing citizen voting on all significant matters like constitutions. (Yes, that is true. Some EU countries, e.g., Germany, did not allow their citizens to vote on the EU Constitution.)

Expand full comment
RevMikeyMac's avatar

What a great post! Truth. Amen!

Expand full comment
Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

If we jailed all the Wall Street crooks where would our Congress Critters get all their insider trading information?

Expand full comment
Jim Nelson's avatar

Adam Smith's concept of the Invisible Hand is, in my opinion, pure genius. If markets get out of balance, they tend to self-correct. Unfortunately, politicians and bureaucrats with no skin in the game constantly get in the way via oppressive regulations and ill-conceived laws. Capitalism is still with us but mercantilism (aka crony capitalism) is its evil twin and practiced more and more by corrupt politicians.

Expand full comment
Joseph Kaplan's avatar

Does Pa have a governor? Maybe he was in maternity leave or something to not be part of this. Or maybe there’s no votes west of the Allegheny.

Expand full comment
Cookie McCall's avatar

Shapiro was in the crowd Friday night side by side with the steel workers

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

Shapiro was on board and supported it. He would have been really Democrat stupid not to do so.

Expand full comment
Joseph Kaplan's avatar

My point was he didn’t show up and problem wasn’t invited. You’d think he’d want to make peace with Trump to get some credit. These dems are too full of hate

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

I got it. They are far too hateful but not because of Trump himself. Its because they know he is successful and see the future of their power going up in smoke. They know they have gone too far left but cannot admit it. They are like a junkie who knows he is addicted but can’t admit it and seek help. They preached to us for decades about how they were the intelligent party. Now the country sees them for what they are, a hollow party with a bankrupt ideology lacking any real empathy for the working class. This will not be easy for them to admit and change because to do so will require serious repudiation of their core beliefs. Some charismatic pol might come along to get them excited again but it will require a complete revision to their ideology. The country, even old school Dems, are tired of the hate, dissent, and corruption. Some Dems will be banished to Siberia as a result. They did it to themselves. Time to invest in Siberian goods!

Expand full comment
revmaddog1948's avatar

821 a.m. I'm sitting on the side of my bed. I finished my first cup of coffee. I don't think I'll post this on Facebook. I'm enjoying our friendship and mutual support and a little bit of privacy so I can talk about my personal life a little bit more open way than I can even on Facebook.

Briefly, I not only voted for this, but I also clearly see God's providential hand in this and an answer to my specific prayer which may have happened after our company moved to Mishawaka and we brought assembly back from Mexico, but I don't remember the specific year other than it was after possibly 2000? Somewhere in that time period it dawned on me that the story of Jesus instructing one of the disciples to go fish and bring back a gold coin to pay for the temple tax was actually a heavenly hint on how to run our finances as a nation. Also, although I had fallen into the trap of thinking every president needed to be as smart as a lawyer or in the case of George Bush Jr well never mind but he was able to get everybody on board for the midterms of his first term in office. I've said enough and I take it back I am going to put this in the shepherds Journal blog but not in substack. Unlike my friends nobody shuts me up they just hide me or block me we're ignoring me until they're ready to talk me to me. I just got into a rant with a liberal friend on Facebook and I'm still not blocked or warned. It's a gift but then I have to hide a lot and either small churches or third shift or I have to be married as in my first wife who took all the black slack flack silly AI but she's cheaper than a third wife. Later Gators.

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

Anyone besides me keeping track of how often Krugman is wrong about an issue? My calculator is now displaying results in “powers of 10” trying to do so.

Expand full comment
Adorable Deplorable's avatar

So now Paul Krugman is a bad lawyer too?

Expand full comment
Reddog's avatar

No, just so partisan he forgets about what is best for the country and human beings.

Expand full comment
Andrew Diseker's avatar

Presuming he ever even knew to begin with.

Expand full comment
W.'s avatar

Another classic today. The poll first: Tapper's Book Hits Crapper. I see some commenter pundit-wannabe is calling for a boycott of nike. Good luck and full marks for creativity. I started and still bcott nike from the kapernick affair. Re krugman as an 'economics' expert, his credibility is right there with Tony F as a medical science mouthpiece. Sorry ... 'expert'.

A+ Don.

PS: I have submitted my paperwork to transfer to Gen Z.

Expand full comment
RevMikeyMac's avatar

In a similar vein, I have been boycotting Levi's jeans (and its other brands, like Dockers) since the late '70's/early '80's because they withdrew their financial support of the Boy Scouts of America (because BSA wasn't pro-homosexual at the time). Already way back then, Levi's was DEI/ESG... I buy Lee and Wrangler jeans instead...

Expand full comment
TeaPartyGal's avatar

Good for you for standing up for the Boy Scouts. I, too, think the BSA used to be a wonderful--I would even say "vital"--organization for strengthening young men in our country. I'm not close enough to it to tell, but it looks like they have been sliding away from their core mission now for a decade or more.

Expand full comment
W.'s avatar

You are correct. My grand daughter to my surprise had joined 'scouting' just before the epidemic. Lost interest after the lockdown. The uniform was the same. Very unfortunate all the way around. Thx for the like.

Expand full comment
W.'s avatar

Sorry Reverend. Some confusion as I have stumbled upon yet another shortcoming of the illustrious substack app.

Expand full comment
W.'s avatar

I guess I can't reply.

Expand full comment
Tina Laczko's avatar

My dad, a WW2 Pacific vet, worked for Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem PA. The company no longer exists, it is a casino and event space called Steel Stacks. He worked in the Basic Oxygen Furnace area of the plant as a supervisor. This was post WW2 technology and very high tech. The representatives from Nippon Steel toured the plant in the 1970s. They built a similar furnace in Japan. My dad was part of the tour and the Nippon execs were impressed with his knowledge of Japan. He explained he was in the battle of Okinawa and an occupying Marine in Japan for 2 years. They had a great conversation. In Bethlehem, the old 1910 Open Hearth furnace made most of the steel until the 1990s when the plant closed. They shut the BOF down before anything else. Bad management decisions killed the company.

Expand full comment
Sheila Barkofske's avatar

Fascinating recollection. I know I should know this, but the first question that popped up when this all came up, was why or how could Japan do Steel better than the US - bad management.

Expand full comment
Steven W Ham's avatar

Oh, that someone might have locked FJB in that closet!

Expand full comment
darrell's avatar

Steven surely you know FJB was only a talking head (and not a very good one) His decision to run the second time and drop out was all done precisely when it was ordered by the Swamp. FJB had to raise his hand to ask for permission to use the bath room. Once he was not allowed. I think he was visiting pope at the time.

Expand full comment