Daily Bread for 5.15.19

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-four.  Sunrise is 5:31 AM and sunset 8:11 PM, for 14h 39m 55s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today is the nine hundred eighteenth day.

Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1941, the first Allied jet-propelled aircraft, a Gloster-Whittle E 28/39, flies. 

Recommended for reading in full:

Annie Lowrey writes How Trump Thinks Tariffs Work (And How They Actually Work):

In Trump’s mind, tariffs are a potent, unilateral weapon, and protectionism is a potent, necessary economic philosophy. He argues that his tariffs are a direct tax on Beijing—a way of sapping Chinese manufacturers, raising American revenue, aiding domestic businesses, and giving Washington leverage in trade negotiations. “Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products,” he said on Twitter. “These massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.”

This is not at all how it works; the Chinese government is no more apt to fork over billions of yuan for Trump’s tariffs than Mexico’s government is to pay for a border wall. Rather, tariffs fall on the American importers of Chinese goods, who often pass those cost increases onto American consumers. That means every time Trump raises tariffs, he risks raising costs on families and businesses.

….

Trump’s misconceptions on trade are not limited to tariffs. He continues to argue that the United States’ trade deficit with China is a sign it is getting ripped off, and that it is bleeding itself dry by engaging in commerce with the Chinese: “The United States has been losing, for many years, 600 to 800 Billion Dollars a year on Trade. With China we lose 500 Billion Dollars. Sorry, we’re not going to be doing that anymore!” There are many issues with the two countries’ economic relationship, and many ways that China does not play fair. But trade imbalances are not in and of themselves a bad thing. The United States has a trade deficit with China in large part because goods are cheaper to produce there, and Americans choose to consume huge amounts of them; the deficit is not a way of measuring capital losses in the United States.

As for tariffs bringing “FAR MORE wealth to our Country”: The trade war thus far has not caused tremendous macroeconomic damage. But it has hit certain industries and businesses very hard—dairy farms in Wisconsin, for instance—while increasing consumer prices a smidge. Economists have estimated that Trump’s trade war cost the country a sliver of GDP last year, in part by forcing businesses to rejigger their supply chains. (The pain is worst in heavily Republican counties, one analysis found.) Given Trump’s new tariffs and China’s retaliatory measures, the cost might be yet greater this year.

(Emphasis in original. Trump is an ignorant person’s idea of a knowledgeable person, a dense person’s idea of a clever one.)

High school track star overcomes homelessness, receives college scholarship: