ArcaMax

It feels strange talking about the world's richest man, only 53 years old, in the past tense. But that somehow seems appropriate for Elon Musk, who weeks ago was considered Donald Trump's co-president. Now he's clearly falling off that high perch, just as Tesla, his star asset, reports net income cratering by 71%.

Musk was undoubtedly a ...Read more

Many in the Democratic base are frustrated that their party isn't pounding away at Donald Trump over his attacks on the rule of law, academic independence and decency. That's not quite the case. Democrats and others opposed to the president's toxic agenda are seeing some success in the courts.

In Congress, however, Democrats currently have ...Read more

Let's cut to the chase. Most of Donald Trump's threats against Ivy League colleges are an attempt to divert attention away from an economy heading into crisis.

The trade war is producing economic and foreign policy nightmares. Despite the DOGE show, budget deficits are projected to rise further under Republican rule. The stock market is ...Read more

Donald Trump's defenders have taken great offense to suspicions by Democrats and others that the Trump family and its close circle are doing insider trading to profit from market convulsions. There's no "proof," they say.

It's true that there's been no proof so far, but there's surely enough smoke to warrant an investigation. Problem is, the ...Read more

This trade war with Canada is not the first. Forty-five years ago, Maine potato farmers piled rotten potatoes at their state's borders with New Brunswick. Blocking nine crossings, the Mainers accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing its potato growers, thus driving down the prices they could get.

The Maine potato industry had problems other ...Read more

On Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump sent his thugs to the U.S. Capitol where they proceeded to smash up "the people's house." Trump refused to admit that he had lost the 2020 election. He called the assorted vandals "patriots" and surrounded himself with men and women of low character. That should have been enough to disqualify him for another term ...Read more

"Move it back to the states," Donald Trump says about education, about FEMA and, as will probably happen, about Medicaid. What that would mean to Americans depends on what state they live in. As the federal government moves forward on this, it's a good bet that high-income states can handle the changes better than low-income ones.

Yes, it's ...Read more

There's much spinning over the grave lapse in national security captured in that group chat outlining a planned bombing raid on the Houthi militia. It goes that it was not that big a deal because the mission was a success. It was not OK. It was lucky.

The late-night comedians and "Saturday Night Live" had a good time turning the event into ...Read more

Thomas Jefferson referred to the U.S. government as a "common house" that provided the people protection and stability. Donald Trump is trying to evict Americans from that comfy home by making it hard to get benefits that should be thought of as a right.

Witness the slashing of basic government services in the name of deficit reduction, or ...Read more

Bernie Sanders can draw a crowd. No doubt about it. And as Democrats continue to feel their way out of the Trumpian swamps, you can't blame them for wanting to vent in large groups. Sanders has amassed them in Nebraska, Iowa and Arizona and has said things ripe for the political moment.

Addressing President Donald Trump: "I'm not going to ...Read more

Chuck Schumer is right, and James Carville is right. They don't want the Democratic Party getting pulled into MAGA's cyclone of ruinous policy. To get to safety, they are reining in the left flank for whom the fight is all. The hotheads don't recognize that bad timing loses battles.

Senate Minority Leader Schumer took a good deal of incoming ...Read more

Years ago, a contest was run for the most boring newspaper headline. The winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative," which appeared in the April 10, 1986, edition of The New York Times. "Worthwhile initiative" is a snooze-worthy phrase. Adding a reference to the quiet and restrained country to the north was seen as draining the last ounce of ...Read more

Boy, do I miss Joe Biden. I especially miss the former president when Donald Trump and his bobbleheads unfairly blame him for everything that's gone wrong since Inauguration Day. Trump has since proven beyond doubt that he can wreck the economy all by his lonesome. And that's not all he's wrecking.

Trump was handed a great economy, "The Envy ...Read more

You can get rich when stocks go up. You can get rich when stocks go down. When stocks go up, people who knew to buy them in advance may win big. If they go down, investors who had the wisdom to "go short" on them -- that is, bet on their decline -- can make a bundle.

Clearly, anyone who can predict what stock prices would do can make ...Read more

The "he" in this case was Rusty, an ornery old mutt who didn't do the cute doggy things that get clicks on social media videos. He wouldn't "sit." He'd rarely lick my face. And if a baby was gurgling nearby, he'd go the other way.

But Rusty had two things going for him. He was part Chihuahua, which meant he was small with a cute face. ...Read more

NIMBY stands for Not In My Backyard. It's often employed as a shaming tool to portray those unwilling to turn their neighborhoods over to developers as selfish or even racist. It's a weapon in efforts to plow through zoning laws put in place to preserve a sense of community and the comfort of continuity.

Some peddlers of builders' interests ...Read more

If Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to take down the U.S. auto industry -- and he probably does -- he couldn't have a better helper than Donald Trump. The American president's tireless efforts to slow America's shift to electricity-run transportation is a dream come true for China as it leads the world in that transition.

Electric vehicles ...Read more

Will the MAGA base ever figure out they've been played?

Farm country provided Trump with some of his most fervent support. Farmers are now being tossed aside by Trump policies, none of which he seems interested in dialing back.

A trade war would be disastrous. Farm products are a major U.S. export. Last year, the U.S. exported more than $30 ...Read more

Fentanyl presents America with a terrible dilemma. More than 74,000 Americans died in 2023 after taking fentanyl or other drugs with fentanyl mixed in. There is no proven blueprint for stopping the scourge. We've spent over half a century trying to address the problem. The war on drugs that Richard Nixon declared in 1971 has produced nothing ...Read more

As Elon Musk takes a jackhammer to American institutions, Democrats seem frozen in confusion. That's in part because Donald Trump serves as wingman, diverting attention from the sabotage of government services through a carpet-bombing of bizarre plans, most recently, having the U.S. empty Gaza of Gazans to build a Mediterranean resort for "the...Read more