Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:37 PM, for 13h 22m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 12.6% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the one thousand twenty-second day.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1883, Krakatoa erupts, destroying most of the island and nearby archipelago, and as a consequence “darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets halfway around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. The ash caused “such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration.” This eruption also produced a Bishop’s Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight.”
Recommended for reading in full:
Jennifer Rubin writes How to respond to a manic president driving the economy into the ditch:
First, they [candidates opposing Trump] should give a serious speech warning of the dangers of an escalating trade war and inveighing against the preposterous (okay, bonkers) order for U.S. companies to cease doing business with China. The Democrats would do well to point out that the real socialist seems to be the guy in the White House who imagines we have a command-and-control economy. The candidates should also explain that what he proposed, if ever enacted, would have devastating consequences for American consumers, workers and businesses.
Second, they should reaffirm the independence of the Fed and pledge to keep politics out of the central bank. They might want to point out that Trump was the one who replaced respected Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen with Jerome H. Powell.
Third, the senators in the Democratic presidential race should demand hearings when Congress reconvenes with Powell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and outside experts (perhaps past Fed chairs) to analyze what is going on and explain where this is all headed. What’s the end game? How do we “win”?
Finally, Democrats should explain what they would have and will do about China and the world economic trading system: Pledge to end silly spats with close allies, make whatever tweaks are needed to ratify NAFTA 2.0, revisit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which would have made China the odd man out) and convene our closest allies, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada, to agree on a joint strategy for addressing the legitimate issue Trump has long since forgotten, the theft of intellectual property.
Investor Stephen Weiss observes the ‘Biggest Risk To Markets Has Always Been Trump’:
Trade Wars and Climate Change: Farmers in rural Michigan get candid about their struggles: