Memo To Scottie, The Donald And The Ghost Of King George,Too (There’s No Damn Trade Emergency!)

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Our clueless Treasury Secy says he’s going to get right in the face of the Supremes during their Wednesday hearing on the Donald’s egregious abuse of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

“I’m actually going to sit — hopefully in the front row — and have a ringside seat…..They can say what they want. I’m there to emphasize this is an economic emergency.”

Well, it’s no damn emergency at all!

The nation’s yawning trade deficits are the predictable outcome of the Fed’s pro-inflation policies, but these assaults on prosperity have been underway for more than a half century since Nixon torched the gold standard in August 1971. While these huge, chronic trade deficits are persistently damaging, there is no red hot emergency whatsoever that would justify the president exercising unilateral taxing powers of such sweeping and massive magnitude as would have made King George himself envious.

In fact, the inflation-adjusted trade deficit for goods and services reached 2% of GDP way back in 1985, 3% in 2001 and has oscillated between 2% and 4.5% of GDP ever since. So there is nothing new on the data board that hasn’t been with us for most of this century to date.