‘It’s not who you know. It’s what you know.

Until the Big Man takes over.’

–Bill Bonner

The latest news, from Associated Press, tells us more about how America’s ‘Caesarist’ government functions. AP:

Goods that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term are excluded from the tariffs.

Canada’s central bank says 100% of energy exports and 95% of other exports are compliant with the trade pact, known as USMCA. The Royal Bank estimated that almost 90% of Canadian exports appear to have accessed the U.S. market duty free in April.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the commitment of the U.S. to the core of USMCA, reaffirmed again last week, means the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods remains one of its lowest, and over 85% of Canada-U.S. trade continues to be tariff free.

Tariff free? What was all that talk of a 35% tariff tax?

Earlier this year, we guessed that the trade war with our neighbors was mostly for show; it would rehearse the spat Donald Trump had with them during his first term. Full of sound and fury, it ended up signifying nothing.

Then, when The Donald went back on the warpath, it looked like this trade war would do serious damage to the world economy, after all.

But wait…there was a pause…a delay…a renegotiation…and — it turns out — an exception.

The substance of US policies may not change as much as people think. But the style is very different.

The big evolution of the US government from ‘neoliberal,’ more-or-less ‘consensual’ democracy to a ‘Big Man’ or ‘Caesarian’ form has been widely noted. It is a shift of power from the legislature to the executive…from the rule of law to the rule of the Big Man, similar to the shift in Rome in 21 BC, when Augustus upstaged the Senate to rule the empire.

The Democrats are, of course, branding the Trump administration as ‘authoritarian.’ They’re not wrong about it. But they don’t mention that it was they who provided much of the substance – unlimited spending, unlimited executive power, and unlimited backing for Israel. As for the style, they wouldn’t mind it at all if the same heavy hand were at the end of Hillary Clinton’s arm.

Good or bad, whoever’s fault it is…the Big Man now has his big derriere in the big chair in the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Prior to Donald Trump, for example, it was presumed that the statisticians were honest number crunchers…and that POTUS wouldn’t presume to argue with them. But now, the same man who thinks he can reduce drug prices by ‘1,500%’ thinks he knows what the employment numbers should be.

Of course, the numbers do not at all mean what most people think they mean. But at least they were supposed to be misleading on a non-partisan basis…giving false signals to both Republicans and Democrats alike.

And the numbers this year have generally flattered the Trump team. For May and June, the BLS initially reported 291,000 new jobs. Last week’s revisions wiped out all but 33,000 of them.

Donald Trump didn’t object to the old numbers. They seemed to show that his economy was, as he put it, “BOOMING under TRUMP.”

The new numbers are the ones he didn’t like; they showed that his economy is not so great after all.

But unlike other presidents from ourmore ‘consensual democracy’ days, who would have accepted the new numbers for what they were — statistical noise — the Big Man wants the BLS to get in harmony with him and sing his praises. Now the distortions will no longer be random mumbo jumbo but a deliberate attempt to bamboozle the public.

I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY.

She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.

The Big Man also claims to know at what interest rates the Fed should make credit available to member banks:

Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW.

Presidents have often tried to get the Fed to loosen up — to help them win an election, for example. But never before has a POTUS publicly described the Fed head as a ‘moron.’

This is something different. It’s Big Man government of a particular sort.

But how far will the Big Man go?

More tomorrow…

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