Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter

November 20th, 2024

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SGT
November 20, 2024

Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter

November 20th, 2024

Here is the Wednesday newsletter, now buzzing on Beehiv! 🐝 Stay tuned for fresh updates, exclusive content, and more—delivered straight to your inbox.

CURRENT EVENTS

Trump potential Secretary of the Treasury scrutinized

Our take: President-elect Trump is said to be considering Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan for Secretary of the Treasury. This article, rightly in may instances, questions the dubious choice of putting a titan of private equity in charge of the financial markets not only in our country, but largely around the world, as most financial markets take their cues from the US.

The issue we see here is the article seems to paint the picture that this incestuous relationship is somehow novel. It is not. Let’s look at the history of the past several Secretaries of the Treasury and see where they came from: Janet Yellen had little to no private sector experience, and oversaw an economy that had one of the worst bouts of inflation of the history of the nation. Steve Mnuchin had extensive private sector experience, including both Goldman Sachs and private equity markets. Jacob Lew ran large parts of Citigroup. Timothy Geithner was a career bureaucrat and Fed insider. Hank Paulson was the CEO of Goldman before he was appointed.

Our point here is you cannot have it both ways. There has been outcry that some of Trump’s appointees have no experience in the field they are being tasked with running, and should be disqualified because of that. Now we have a person imminently familiar with the subject he would oversee, and its painted as a huge conflict of interest and he should be disqualified because of it. We don’t know what the right answer is, but we do know we can’t have it both ways.

COURTESY: FORTUNE

Texas mulls optional bible study in schools

Our take: We included this article largely because we found it very interesting and did not know exactly how to think about it. The concept of using the bible as an educational tool without indoctrinating kids while doing it is interesting. There are many good lessons in the bible that transcend religion: treat others well, don’t harm people, etc. That said, it seems like it would be a very difficult needle to thread. It is interesting that we have seen similar stories from multiple states in the past several weeks. We previously shared similar issues arising from proposed policies in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and now Texas. It sure looks like this is an issue we will be grappling with for some time.

COURTESY: NEWSWEEK

Republican senator declares he will not support legal workaround for Trump nominee

Our take: North Dakota Republican Kevin Cramer stated he would not support using a legal loophole to push through the appointment of Matt Gaetz to the role of Attorney General. At issue here is a process called Recess Appointments. This was a temporary work around from centuries ago when Congress would sometimes not meet for long periods of time. In order for the government to run properly in the event a key cabinet position became vacant and congress would not be in session for some time, a Recess Appointment could be made so we had a capable person in the key position for up to 2 years before the Senate could meet again and go through the constitutional process of actually confirming (or denying) the nominated party.

This is not the world we live in anymore. Congress not only meets regularly, but technology exists to connect the entrie body even if they cannot be in the same place physically. If the Republicans go down this road, it will cost them a lot of political capital and credibility. We hope they are smart enough not to try this slimy trick. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.

COURTESY: NEWSWEEK

TIP OF THE DAY

Write things down instead of typing them. Writing something down rather than typing it could help you retain information better. Researchers found putting pen to paper boosts connectivity between different areas of the brain.n.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" - John Wooden

SOURCES: