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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
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I felt much better when we had a Dementia patient in the White House. Things were much better, government cared about the common working person. Now things are in a total disarray downward spiral at a record pace.
Jobs report was pretty good on Friday. The market as a whole imo was excessively run up in an attempt to support Bidens re-election. They created a story and were hoping people would move the trillions out of high yielding fixed accounts so they could sell them inflated shares before engaging the machines for the new quarter. Now they have a new story being supported by the majority here, that because their 401k took a hit, the world is now coming apart at the seams and you can thank Trump. I’ll personally wait for Trump to be proven wrong before… Read more »
Scott Bessent brought up a few good points in an interview with Tucker. “If tariffs are so bad, why do they [foreign countries] have them? If the American consumers are going to pay all the tariff, then why do they care about tariff?” https://x.com/MJTruthUltra/status/1908324565924585596
This is the highest in history and exceeds the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s. Tariffs cause economic destruction for everyone.
I agree fully with Trump’s goal of reciprocity, but what a disaster with how he is going about it. Clown show.
The tariffs are a small, involving less than 5% of the entire company, mostly affecting imports from overseas. Other countries have greater tariffs on our goods than we have on theirs.
We’ve been in the everything bubble for decades now, so much so that young families can’t even buy homes because everything is so expensive, and our small towns are hollowed out and are filling up quickly with illegal immigrants. All it takes is a pinprick to blow it all up.
We are entering a new world order and these are shocks to the system.
Other countries give us low price consumer goods to raise our standard of living. We give them back worthless paper money. We have been getting the greatest deal of all time.
Wait and see the pain and suffering that this will cause all over the world. Tariffs are mostly paid by the importing country. Get ready for inflation to roar.
I mostly agree. The part I would quarrel with is that we give them worthless paper money. The payments for imports do end up as a wealth transfer to somebody abroad, and persistent trade deficits have transferred trillions of wealth to foreigners.
Yes, the paper is not worthless, it is very valuable in the countries that accept it, so much so that many third world countries will destroy their environment and work adults and children in slave labor conditions to obtain it. Let China find some other market to sell to. Surely some other country without trade barriers will accept their goods, right? Right? What other large countries lack tariffs and trade barriers? I don’t think there are any, right? At its core, all we are doing is playing the same game that every other country on earth is playing and everything… Read more »
It’s a matter of how high our tariffs are. If they are truly designed to achieve reciprocity, that’s good. But many of the new ones go far beyond that. And doing it all in one shot is questionable because it’s so massively disruptive. I’d be inclined to identify the worst trade partners and target them first. And telegraph what we will do ahead of time. Trump did the opposite. Nobody expected something this big. During Trump one he pushed US manufacturers to move from China to places like Vietnam, which many did. Now Vietnam is whacked among the worst with… Read more »
He’s been talking about tariffs for 40 years. Trump told corporatios to move manufacturing back home. He’s got an entire Brain Trust – good, smart people – behind him putting together these tariffs. I’m trusting the plan, skeptical, but keeping an open mind. While I like Trump, I don’t praise everything he’s done, not by a long shot, so I can’t be accused of being a cheerleader. But my opinion is that the media and markets are way overreacting to this much as they did his phone call to Zelenskyyyy a few years ago. Trump even suggested today that the… Read more »
Worthless paper money is the truth. I remember when $100 was a huge amount of money. It is now like confetti. Try to go grocery shopping for a family of 4 and see how much they weekly bill is ($400 ++). You go to the store to pick up a few things and $50 for almost nothing. Money has lost so much value and will continue to do so under Trump Tariffs. I have been a Republican for decades and do not like what is going on at all.
Inflation under Biden was at 9% , look at businesses that are investing in the United States now, returning to the U.S we have been screwed for decades by NAFTA what good did it do for the American workers, it cost jobs.
There is no reciprocity in any of these tariffs. Reciprocal tariffs mean charging the same tariff that a trading partner charges us. These non-sensical tariffs are way more than that in every instance and highlights, as Mark rightly pointed out, the clown show that is going on right now.
Right, the lack of any honest attempt at reciprocity is particularly annoying. You’ve probably read about the bullshit, superficial formula they used.
He’s the president, Mark. My president. Your president. Do you really think you’re smarter than he is?
On some things, yes. And you could have said the same about Biden, and my answer would have been on everything.
Who isn’t? But, what he does have is the bravado of self confidence—in spades. He seems never to question what he truly believes. Who needs to read books or listen to pointy-headed professors? Not Donald J. Trump who has 1,000% self-assurance. Facts be damned; full speed ahead!
A moron is 100 times smarter than Dumpy Trumpy.
He is destroying the world economy.
We are now part of a World Economy, we do not live on an Island.
Trumpys are completely clueless to what is happening right now.
You do understand that using terms like Trumpys pretty much negates whatever else you might have to say, right?
And look at the massive errors in what Trump claims other nations’ tariffs are: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/04/trumps-tariff-rates-for-other-countries-larger-than-word-trade-data.html To repeat, demands for reciprocity are decades overdue, but this way of going about it is reckless and dishonest.
Mark, Do you think Trump is trying to hard to get things done before the midterm elections
Definitely, and I strongly agree with most things in the general direction of where he wants to take the country. But he has always been erratic and dishonest, and there are things he doesn’t understand. It’s up to us who want to see his general goals succeed to keep him in line. Indifference when he’s shooting himself is not support.
I can’t trust the Cato Institute’s figures. Maybe they are right, maybe they are wrong, I don’t know. But I do know that Cato has gone off the deep in the Trump era, and they are fully compromised by TDS. I wish I could trust Cato, but in this world, there are few neutral institutions that are not compromised. And those compromised institutions foam at the mouth about everything Trump and they lose all credibility or reliability. I don’t think this is reckless or dishonest at all. I’m trusting the plan and we’ll see how it goes. American manufacturers right… Read more »
Those are WTO figures and Trump’s figures have been ridiculed in many sources. Trump’s formula for “reciprocity” is a joke.
American companies are livid and dumbfounded. Well over half of S&P revenue comes from abroad. They now have no idea how their business will hold up after tariffs and retaliations.
You keep defending only Trump’s view of the unfairness in the current system, which I agree with. This is about how to fix it and execution.
“Well over half of S&P revenue comes from abroad,” and as Groucho might have said “who is she? I wonder if she’s still available”.
Best comment of the week. Bravo.
Then please tell other countries to lower their pre-existing tariffs on US goods.
Being an Illinoisan, Durbin is familiar with taxes.
Durbin is another word for a past its expiration date politician too greedy to step down.
Trump tariffs will put the world economy in a recession or worse a depression. This is going to be bad, very bad. Americans are going to suffer big time because of this. Trump is destroying the American dream.
President DJT is a multi-billionaire, successful in numerous businesses, and also oh by the way he’s been elected and re-elected President more than once. No one commenting here can say the same about themselves.
All due respect to Mark, but no one here is smarter or better-informed on these matters than President Trump. What audacity to doubt him.
Does that also mean you think that Barack Obama is smarter and better-informed than everyone else in our society other than those also elected President?
While trump got elected twice he never got the majority of the popular vote in either of his two victories. Only the second two term president in history to pull that off.
Durbin is just the turd that never drys up and stops smelling.
Negotiate is just another word for “you drop your tariffs and we’ll drop ours.”
So dick thinks we should pay tariffs but not collect tariffs.
Dick Durbin is so far gone to the left, just retire already and enjoy all your hidden money you ran through your wife’s lobbying.