4/4/25 – Pitts’s summary of the two main events in the recent past, NAFTA and China entering the WTO, are reasonable. However, the history of international economics has had many of these moments. Arguably, the start and the end of Bretton Woods were more consequential, especially in terms of global impact, than either of the former two events. This is why our point about evolving is really the way to think about this. Humans and the societies we create aren’t designed by our creator and therefore ourselves to be static. God didn’t make us puppets, and we don’t create puppets. We are dynamic and so are our creations. We can be afraid, or we can boldly create a better world for ourselves and for others. America, we need to get our mojo back.
Pitt’s framework of international trade within the context of Catholic social teaching is a good one to work with. International economics is composed of two main parts, trade (the current account) and macro (the capital and financial account), basically everything else, with both making up the balance of payments. There is also the closely related field of development economics, which basically focuses on helping developing countries become developed ones ideally in ways that are in the long-term interests of the country and its people. (This hasn’t historically been how western multilateral institutions have approached developing countries, but that’s another discussion.) Although capital movements and foreign direct investment are important, let’s focus on trade and how it overlaps with development economics.
He says, “First, in the wake of decolonization in the 1960s, Pope Paul VI’s ‘Populorum Progressio’ emphasizes the importance of just trade relationships (Nos. 58-61). For unequal countries, the market logic of fair [free] trade is not enough. Just as C.S.T. supports minimum wages as a way to ensure that workers are paid enough to respect their dignity, C.S.T. supports just prices in trade relationships to ensure that countries receive enough income to respect their dignity.” Some of the key aspects of fair trade are: fair wages, prices and access. He talks about tariffs as impeding developing countries’ access to markets.
Now, let’s consider fair trade from an American perspective. This administration presumably wants to revive our manufacturing sector. It feels that America is getting a bad deal and has been taken advantage of. Well, instead of punishing tariffs, which harm everyone, why not build mutually beneficial relationships and agreements centered around fair trade for all parties? To do this, however, one needs to come to the table in good faith and with an abundance mindset. An imperialistic mindset is the exact opposite of this, and as we have said before and as it has for Russia and Hungary, it will lead to our country’s impoverishment. This administration is stuck in the past and is a dead end. It does not have the vision, temperament or competence to lead us on this journey to a brighter future. The global economy is not a zero-sum game. Like everything else in life, it is fundamentally about relationships. To build strong ones, you have to treat others with respect and be willing to compromise and accept tradeoffs so that everyone can be better off. America, let’s imagine and build a better country and world.
What Catholic social teaching says about Trump’s tariffs
America’s Future Is Hungary
4/3/25 – Living a life with trust in God does not follow either of these paths. Many, if not all, of the great saints took (great) risks. The simple act of trusting God is a risk. Could we fail? Of course, but we could also fail without pushing ourselves. Might we die? Yes, but we could also die without taking risks. The act of discernment is to engage in a mystical language with our creator. We listen for whispers. Go here. Do this. Follow me. It is to let the heart, mind and soul be open. Lord, take me where you want me to go. It’s scary, but it’s also true liberation. God didn’t ask Moses and Jesus didn’t ask his disciples to be stagnant in the present or stuck in the past. We are asked to go beyond ourselves, and we trust God to walk with us in our journey. Our journey is never about getting to a destination. Our journey is the destination, but only if we have the courage and the imagination to let the burning bush speak to us or to believe in the resurrection.
4/3/25 – We’re stuck in this place between the template technocrats that copy each other’s models and ideologies and lack intellectual diversity and curiosity and the anachronistic a—holes who have a series of grievances about the dominance of the former group, some of which are legitimate, but instead of delivering a fresh future, they want to revert to a time that the world left behind because we grew out of it. You know like when you don’t fit into your old clothes anymore and need a new wardrobe. That’s basically what happens to our and the world economy. It keeps growing and keeps needing a new wardrobe. It also changes its styles and tastes because that’s what people do. They want to reinvent themselves. We have two models of governance that simply aren’t delivering for us.
The irony of the latter group is that the technofascist part of said “coalition” is supposed to be enamored with the future. You know living on Mars while being half human half robot and procreating with whatever we can get to live on an uninhabitable planet with us. You get the idea. For people whose image is based on “moving fast and breaking things” and scifi wet dreams, their greatest contribution is to arbitrarily cut our federal government, meaning trying to get the country to fit into the old clothes it grew out of. Setting aside the latter’s destructive greed, all of this is a poverty of the imagination and a lack of confidence in our country. Neither group is inspiring. In fact, they are exhausting. Instead of helping us set our sights on the future, they are either stagnant in the present or stuck in the past.
4/3/25 – rand paul has something to say about tariffs, does he? Let’s take this all the way, shall we. Let’s give rand paul what he wants. Let’s go back to the gold standard. Yes, indeed, these tariffs and the gold standard, that’s exactly what the country needs.
4/3/25 – Regarding the tariffs, Republicans are willing to destroy our country and our economy so that the unpatriotic parasites, our terrible billionaires who support a certain person and his kleptocracy, can get more, what else, tax cuts for themselves. We have some of the worst billionaires in the world. They are stupid, talentless, greedy, immoral, and on and on. We would be a better country if we could get rid of them. We should really try to get rid of them. The country hates them and with good reason.
4/2/25 – MAGA is going to fix the mess that they created. We are losing our friends. We are losing our reputation. We are losing our security. We are losing our government. We are losing our economy. And on and on. We are losing what makes Americans who we are. This is not making America great. It is making America like every other terrible country that has ever existed. It is making America a loser.
Do you know why some Republicans or even MAGA, such as joe rogan or ann coulter, are taking issue with certain actions such as aggression towards, of all countries, Canada (the best neighbor and friend we could possibly have), or not respecting immigrants’ due process or protestors’ free speech rights? Because even they understand that these actions are wrong and go against core American values.
The anti-Semitism on college campuses (and elsewhere) was despicable, but this is not how to deal with it. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Firstly, the Jewish and the Palestinian people deserve better than what they have been getting. They are both good, kind people, and we are confident that they can work out their differences. Gazans want to get rid of hamas. Help them do that. The Jewish and the Palestinian people need to have honest, respectful dialogue and find a mutually satisfactory compromise. We are certain that they can do this.
Taking over college campuses, disrupting them to express one perspective and making the environment uncomfortable or even dangerous for Jewish students, was totally inappropriate, and the faculty and the students who engaged in this activity should be held accountable. The views that some Palestinian supporters expressed were downright cruel towards the victims of October 7, 2023 hamas terrorism and callous regarding the Jewish people’s pain. However, violating protestors’ First Amendment rights is not how to hold them accountable. If they have violated the law, then they can face consequences for those specific actions. In any case, the institutions should hold them accountable. They failed in their duties, and the onus is on them to repair the harm.
Public money should not be going to elite private institutions. They are damaging our society by making it more unequal. Public money should also not be going to NPR or PBS. All of these institutions have become too ideologically liberal, and it is unfair to the American electorate as a whole to subsidize their activities. Public money should go to public institutions that can maintain an inclusive, ideologically balanced educational and research environment that reflects the values and serves the needs of our nation as a whole.
Immigrants are human beings, and their dignity, humanity and due process must be respected. We are a country of laws. The American people rightfully expect the law to be followed, whether it’s immigrants, protestors, other countries, whatever. Follow the god—m law! (See our numerous frustrations regarding this point from the very beginning of this “governing” nightmare.)
4/2/25 – There will be no third term for a certain person. It is a fever dream. He would be wise to end any flirtations with it now, before the American people end it for him.
4/2/25 – It’s not just about the loss. It’s that an ugly, stupid, genetic degenerate, total psychotic freak thought he was better than the American people. He thought he was our king and our ruler. He is nothing. He has never been anything. He is a loser. We will have justice for what the unelected white South African did to our country and to our privacy rights. Justice.