Navigating The Most Top-Heavy S&P 500 in History | Prof G Markets
Trump administration eliminates the SEC crypto fraud unit, then Trump appears to make tons of money on illegal crypto schemes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybTPyNwIFv0
Tag: trump
Inside the Destruction of USAID with Dr. Atul Gawande
Because of Trump and DOGE’s cuts to USAID, 14 million more people will die by 2030.
It would take years to restore these lifesaving programs.
America was a great country saving millions of lives. Not anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZmQJ9rKC6s
A Failed Secret Mission in North Korea, and a Government Shutdown Deadline, Your Friday News Quiz
The first Trump administration killed North Korean civilians in a botched secret operation on North Korean soil. Trump did not inform Congress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwn371XO31s
Trump Is Embracing the Same Economic Populism That Destroyed Argentina
“Aside from his norm-breaking appeal, Milei’s approach is far different than Trump’s. Milei vowed free-market reforms to overturn decades of populist Perónism—a statist ideology that infected Argentina’s politics since Juan Domingo Perón won the presidency in 1946. His authoritarian approach has dominated the country’s politics for 80 years, with Milei beating Perónist opponents.
By contrast, Trump is overturning America’s historical embrace of free markets and free trade. He sets himself up as an all-powerful charismatic leader, inserts the feds deeply into the economy, and expands the reach of police and military forces. Like Perón, he’s doing it in the name of the “working class.” The U.S. Department of State once described Perónism as a “vague concept of social justice in some ways more akin to a religion than a political movement,” which sounds eerily like MAGA.
Perónism is more avowedly leftist than Trumpism, but MAGA’s “right-wing” policies sometimes seem indistinguishable from left-wing ones. Argentina’s populist movement has been successful at one thing: turning one of the world’s wealthiest countries into an impoverished basket case. Americans think of Argentina as a benighted third-world nation. But as economist Dan Mitchell explains, it was the 10th wealthiest nation in the world when Perón took over. It was often viewed as a European nation that happened to be in Latin America.
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On an unrelated note, Milei isn’t smitten by overseas authoritarians, unlike our president. Overall, Milei is using his power to loosen the government’s grip, whereas Trump—although he occasionally reduces regulations—is centralizing government power. The two men have bad hair and unpredictable temperaments, but beyond that the similarities dissipate quickly.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/trump-is-embracing-the-same-economic-populism-that-destroyed-argentina/
Trump’s New Trade ‘Deal’ With the E.U. Leaves Out Beer, Wine, Booze
“Americans who enjoy German lagers, Belgian saisons, and Czech pilsners will get no relief from the higher tariffs that President Donald Trump has poured on their favorite brews.
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The deal locks in the 15 percent tariffs that Trump has imposed on most European goods imported into the U.S., but it also serves as a promise from the Trump administration not to target European goods with product-specific tariffs that could be announced in the coming weeks or months—including potentially huge new tariffs on pharmaceuticals, something the White House has been teasing for months. The deal also creates a pathway for the United States to reduce its tariffs on European cars to the 15 percent threshold, once the E.U. reduces some of its own tariffs on American industrial goods.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/trumps-new-trade-deal-with-the-e-u-leaves-out-beer-wine-booze/
$500 Million To Paint the Border Wall? 5 of Trump’s Strangest, Most Expensive Vanity Projects
“The takeover has allowed Trump to flex his muscles, but it’s coming at a steep cost to American taxpayers. The Intercept reports that the use of military forces in Washington, D.C., could cost $1 million per day. With more National Guard members flooding into the capital, the campaign could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to The Intercept.
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“Trump hosted a “big, beautiful” military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army. The event, which happened to coincide with the president’s 79th birthday, included a barrage of tanks, jet flyovers, and soldiers walking through the nation’s capital, and ended up costing American taxpayers $25 million to $45 million. That’s “$277,778–$500,000 per minute,” Reason’s Billy Binion reported.
Trump has also displayed America’s military power at his Independence Day celebrations, including the 2019 “Salute to America,” which ran up a tab of more than $13 million, and the 2020 events in D.C. and Mount Rushmore that cost close to $15 million. Next year’s Independence Day, which will be America’s 250th birthday, is expected to be even bigger. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) appropriated $150 million to the Interior Department for “events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.”
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The OBBBA also allocated nearly $30 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detention facility maintenance, transportation costs, and recruitment efforts at the agency. ICE appears to be sparing no expense.
In addition to offering starting salaries of nearly $90,000 and signing bonuses up to $50,000, ICE has also wasted taxpayer money on marketing gimmicks and vehicle upgrades. Recently, the agency spent “$2.4 million for Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions, and other vehicles, as well as custom graphic wraps,” writes Reason’s Autumn Billings. These gold-detailed wraps include the words DEFEND THE HOMELAND, INTEGRITY, COURAGE, and ENDURANCE.
This vehicle spending is on top of the $700,000 that ICE spent on two gold-wrapped trucks, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used in a (cringe) recruitment campaign on X.
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On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the entire U.S.-Mexico border wall will be painted black. “That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb,” said Noem.
During his first stint in the White House, Trump proposed an identical plan. The Washington Post reviewed a copy of federal painting estimates at the time, which showed “costs ranging from $500 million for two coats of acrylic paint to more than $3 billion for a premium ‘powder coating’ on the structure’s 30-foot steel bollards.”
More than five years later, the cost to paint the border wall is sure to be higher.
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In 2018, Trump signed a $3.9 billion agreement with Boeing that would see the airplane manufacturer deliver two new jets to the Air Force One fleet by 2022. The planes are now expected to be delivered by 2027, years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
Under the terms of the contract, the cost overruns will be paid for by Boeing. Despite these delays, Trump may soon be flying in a luxury jetliner that was gifted to him by the Qatari government. While the president has called this new Air Force One “free,” renovating the plane will cost Americans millions of dollars. As The New York Times reports, the Pentagon recently transferred $934 million from a nuclear missile project account to a classified project, which “congressional budget sleuths have come to think…almost certainly” includes the renovation of this new jet.
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In January, Trump revived an executive order that he signed in his first administration to establish a National Garden of American Heroes. The garden, which is expected to open next year on America’s 250th birthday, will include 250 life-sized statues of American heroes.
But the $34 million project has run into a basic, but serious, issue: America doesn’t have enough quality sculptors to complete the garden by next July or a designated location to put it. Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, told Politico that the idea “seems completely unworkable.””
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/500-million-to-paint-the-border-wall-5-of-trumps-strangest-most-expensive-vanity-projects/
When It Comes to Fighting Crime With the National Guard, Trump Says, He Can Do ‘Anything I Want To Do’
“When Trump took control of the California National Guard last June, he relied on 10 USC 12406, a previously obscure statute that authorizes the president to “call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State” in three circumstances: 1) when the United States “is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation,” 2) when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States,” or 3) when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The government’s lawyers argued that Los Angeles’ protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown created both of the latter two conditions.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/27/when-it-comes-to-fighting-crime-with-the-national-guard-trump-says-he-can-do-anything-i-want-to-do/
‘Tariffs Will Simply Put Us All Out of Business’: Trump’s Trade War Is Crushing American Crafters
“As President Donald Trump’s tariffs make life less affordable and predictable for Americans, they’re also threatening to make it less creative. American craft stores are struggling to keep up with ever-changing trade policies, which are making the foreign-made products they stock more expensive and difficult to access. Many foreign craft supply companies are now unable to ship to American consumers at all.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/28/tariffs-will-simply-put-us-all-out-of-business-trumps-trade-war-is-crushing-american-crafters/
Is RFK Jr. ‘Weaponizing Public Health’?
“During the Biden administration’s four years, the CDC recorded a total of 527 cases. In just the first seven months of the Trump administration, there have been 1,408 cases with 176 hospitalizations and three deaths. That’s a 267 percent increase over the Biden administration’s entire toll. Instead of immediately recommending measles vaccines at the beginning of the outbreak, RFK Jr. initially advised giving vitamin A to children.
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The CDC’s manifold failures during the COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that it needs drastic reform and a return to its roots as an agency focused on fighting infectious epidemic disease. This evidently is not the sort of reform that RFK Jr. intends. Firing Monarez may not be “weaponizing public health,” but it sure looks a lot like gutting it.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/28/is-rfk-jr-weaponizing-public-health/
Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Make Wildfire Season Deadlier This Year
“Firefighters on the scene told the Times that “members of the crew were told not to take video of the incident.” When the two firefighters were detained, the rest of the crew was “denied the chance to say goodbye.”
“I asked them if his (family) can say goodbye to him because they’re family, and they’re just ripping them away,” one firefighter told the Times. A federal officer responded by telling him “to get the (expletive) out of here,” or he’d make him leave.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/28/trumps-immigration-crackdown-could-make-wildfire-season-deadlier-this-year/