Maxwell School News and Commentary

William Banks, on Bloomberg Radio, discusses President Trump’s Monday comments, where he supported a "very comprehensive" investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

"They are trying to threaten the Canadians into signing a deal that at this point the Canadians don’t want to sign and there is a gigantic bogeyman in the room which is the 25 percent tariff on Canadian auto imports," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

According to Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science, separatist aspirations are "alive and kicking" elsewhere in the world. That includes Catalonia and Scotland in Europe, and also French territory New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville.

"Trade policy has very little direct impact on the overall trade deficit in the longer run," said Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"What this deal really is signaling is that this administration is going to go forward with a 25% tariff on autos," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. "That's going to greatly upset our partners in the EU, in Japan."

"The tweet that he [President Trump] released on Monday morning where he admitted the purpose of the 2016 meeting was to get more information on an opponent...if that was the purpose of the meeting, that was clearly unlawful." He added, "now, Mr. Mueller and his team have all the more reason to want to talk to the President."

"If President Trump really wants to cut taxes on capital gains, he should go to Congress with a plan to do so directly, and not through a poorly designed back-door regulatory scheme," writes Leonard Burman, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says that FBI agent Peter Strzok's testimony across multiple reports has consistently maintained that the FBI's Russia investigation was impartial and without bias.

"We’ve never seen anything like this," Mary Lovely told the Associated Press. Lovely recently spoke with multiple news outlets about the trade war between the U.S. and China.