Sorry for not posting much lately. I’ve been recovering from a medium-bad cold. Anyway, here goes with my various posts and musings:

Firms falling over themselves to win favored tariff status

No reports yet of specific Massachusetts companies sucking up to Donald Trump now that it seems likely a full-scale tariff war will break out on Day 1 of the second Trump administration. But you know some Bay State firms are joining others in lobbying Trump for special tariff exemptions. … I can think of more than a few high-profile area businessmen with import/export concerns and with close ties to Trump. Can you name one? … Btw: Trump now wants to use tariffs to crack down on illegal drugs and migrants flowing into the country? It’s apparently no longer about saving U.S. industrial jobs. …

Going after Elizabeth Warren’s consumer-bureau baby

The incoming Trump folks have set their sights on “vast changes” at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. …Strangely, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has long championed the bureau, doesn’t sound too alarmed. In fact, she seems rather confident the agency can withstand the challenges.

Fixing Charlie Baker’s bookkeeping blunder 

The Globe’s Larry Edelman has a good Trendsline piece on how the Healey administration is scrambling to clean up a $2.5 billion jobless-claims mess left behind by the previous Baker administration. The goal: Secure a deal with the feds before President Biden leaves office in January. … Without a deal, state employers could be on the hook for huge increases in their unemployment-insurance payments.

‘The Moulton Hullabaloo’: Is a truce near? 

U.S. Seth Moulton keeps giving interviews elaborating on his controversial trans-athlete comments in the days immediately following the election, suggesting he’s not overly concerned about the political consequences of his remarks. … And maybe he’s right. The NYT reports that some transgender activists are starting to question the aggressive “all-or-nothing tactics” used to isolate and punish those who disagree with trans-rights dogma. … My very humble suggestion: start differentiating between the rights of trans adults versus trans-right issues tied to children. That seems to be the political fault line dividing Dems (and most Americans in general, I’d add). …  That and pronouns.

Is your local college alma mater providing free tuition?

The Globe has a handy-dandy list of local colleges that are providing free tuition to at least some of their incoming students. There’s a surprising number of schools on the list. … While the trend is welcome, it does suggest that higher-ed institutions, along with health-care institutions, are in their own funny-money universe, where tuition prices are just targets on a dart board and expenses are treated as credits etc. etc.

School strikes: Saying ‘enough’ isn’t enough 

Gov. Maura Healey isn’t exactly saying “enough is enough” when it comes to the two remaining school-teacher strikes on the North Shore. But that’s what she’s generally trying to convey in addition to calling the ongoing strikes “unacceptable.” … The Globe has a piece on what can be done to avert illegal teacher strikes in the future. The issue of higher fines inevitably comes up. But higher fines are not going to work as long as judges behave like they’re appointed arbitrators and offer fine forgiveness if both sides reach a deal quickly. … Strikes are all about money. So focus on making strikes too costly for unions to contemplate. That’s the answer. … That and jail. But let’s stick with tougher fines for now.

Globe’s subscription growth stalls. Will Trump II help? 

The BBJ’s Don Seiffert reports the Globe’s recent growth in online subscriptions has stalled. … But here’s a thought: Subscription salvation may be just around the corner for the Globe with the second Trump administration coming into office in January. Recall that the last great subscription surge for the Globe happened during Trump’s first term. So all the Globe has to do now is find its inner MSNBC and – presto! – increased clicks and subs. … The Washington Post could use a badly needed Trump II bounce too, but that would take Jeff Bezos showing a journalistic spine. And that’s not going to happen.