He’s no longer pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. He’s now claiming he has a right to fire members of the independent Federal Reserve, as the WSJ and NYT report. … My prior thoughts on the president’s march toward state-managed capitalism can be found here and here. … Actually, David Graham at The Atlantic thinks it’s more like “right-wing socialism.” And it’s not just state control over the economy. … An MSN copy of Graham’s Atlantic piece can be found here.

Update — 8.27.25 — From a reader: “I don’t want to get into liberal polysci 101 semantics with their obsession with terms, i.e. ‘genocide,’ ‘autocrat,’ ‘oligarch.’ But on the other hand, sometimes if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a duck ….” And to buttress his point, he sent in this NYT link.

Via Universal Hub, I really like some of the submissions for the new state flag, seal and motto – and I’m particularly impressed with how many of the submissions include the traditional Massachusetts (and New England) pine-tree symbol. Here’s hoping state officials somehow, somewhere weave the ye olde pine tree into a final design. … My favorite submission, shown above, provides multiple options on how to modify the current state flag and motto. I guess my first choice would be option A. But if people strongly objected to inclusion of an image of an Indian, then I’d go with option C (with a lighter blue background). … It’d be a shame to exclude a Native American from the flag, since the state of Massachusetts is literally named after the Massachusett tribe, for heaven’s sake. But these are overly sensitive times, so I fear the Indian is gone. … I love the suggested Dunkin’ flag (below), but I’m not sure it passes the dignified-symbol test. … And how can you not love the suggested motto: “Massachusetts: Witch-free since 1693.” … Actually, the motto on the simple doodle submission below is pretty damn good: “Freedom for All / Upheld by All.” …

Finally, please, let’s leave out political correctness or show-off modernist tastes that will only look dated within a decade or so. This is Massachusetts. Tradition and consensus matter.

Update — 8.29.25 – The Globe reports on the flag, seal and motto submissions — and prominently featured three of them (see below). I assume they were attractive to someone at the Globe. But not to me. The first two look like EPA logos. The third looks a like something from the Harvard Department of Biology .

He’s making it too complicated. It’s not catchy enough. But U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss is nevertheless on to something when he says Dems need to address what he calls ‘cost disease’ (i.e. the high cost of housing, health care, utilities etc.) and ‘social order’ issues (crime and other daily concerns and annoyances that people have to put up with). They’re not exactly populist rallying cries. But at least they’re not century-old political ideas being peddled as something fresh and new by certain young ones who don’t know any better. … And Auchincloss and his wonky ideas are attracting a moderate amount of attention of late, most recently from Greg Ip at the WSJ. … Considered a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate (or whatever), Auchincloss has also attracted the recent attention of the NYT’s Ezra ‘Abundance’ Klein, the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld, and the Globe’s Joan Vennochi and Carine Hajjar. 

Btw: I didn’t know Auchincloss was a fan of Jonathan Haidt, author of one of my all-time favorite political books “The Righteous Mind.” 

Update — From a HB reader, re J.A.: “It is unfortunate that a person with evident common sense has to cloak it in phrases like ‘cost disease’ which obscure rather than illuminate what needs to be done.    I felt the same way about Ezra Klein describing ‘Abundance’ – he evidently could only get people to perk up by describing how the Democratic NIMBY attitude impedes ‘sustainable’ green energy projects (which are unlikely to lead to abundance).    Ezra was devastatingly effective on a Jon Stewart podcast (see below – conversation starts at 5:40) demonstrating how the Dem/Liberal Process prevents anything from getting done – a major cause of ‘Cost Disease’ and why young people can’t buy homes and form families in Massachusetts.”

The Globe’s Kara Miller has a good piece on how President Donald Trump is now micromanaging the economy to the point of demanding the firing of the head of Intel, asking the CEO of Goldman Sachs to replace its chief economist, and canning the BLS commissioner for issuing a jobs report he didn’t like. But the march toward state capitalism, as the WSJ’s Greg Ip has put it, goes much further than Trump’s bombastic hiring and firing antics. His administration is now negotiating taking an equity stake in Intel and other chip makers, securing huge export license fees/taxes from a private company, putting massive pressure on the independent Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, imposing tariffs without congressional approval, threatening Apple and other tech firms if they don’t start manufacturing devices in America, berating Amazon’s chief for telling a truth about tariffs, threatening to strip government contracts from a former ally’s companies, telling private universities how to run their institutions and shaking them down in the process. …

Remember all of this next time Trump et gang react with road-to-serfdom horror to Zohran Mamdani’s call to build government grocery stores or dredge up age-old complaints about Democratic administrations’ past investments in Solyndra and other clean energy subsidies, etc. … Where are congressional Republicans today as Trump assumes greater and greater control over the economy? Where’s their bold Atlas Shrugged principles today? Their silent hypocrisy is deafening.

Update – 8.23.25 – Apparently some experts are referring to Trump’s actions as a form of “state-managed capitalism,” according to the NYT. I like that description more than “state capitalism,” and so, from here on in, that’s how I’ll refer to it. … Btw: I forgot all about the administration’s “golden share” stake in U.S. Steel.

Update II – 8.23.25 – Some conservative pundits aren’t happy with the state-managed capitalism trend, as Mediaite reports. And, yes, finally, at least one congressional Republican is voicing displeasure.

 

— And she should: “Editorial: Goldberg, office should be held accountable for CCC dysfunction” (BBJ)

— The chain has been losing market share for a while now due to poor product offerings, not just higher prices: “Stop & Shop announces plan to lower prices in Eastern Mass” (Boston.com)

— It must have been a very slow editorial-board news day when they decided to run this piece: “Sean O’Brien Has a Credit Card for You” (WSJ) 

— Unfortunately, the Cape & Islands long ago priced out most blue-collar and middle-class people: “Do You Have to Be Rich to Enjoy Martha’s Vineyard? We Found Out” (WSJ)

— Is this the same bank that just went public? Yes, it is: “Avidia Bank Could Lose $17M on Medford Lab Project” (B&T)

— PIMCO? The business of sports keeps evolving: “Boston Celtics sign new ‘investment partner’ in multiyear deal” (BBJ)

— They stop speaking truth to power when one of their own is in power: “The Boston City Council isn’t doing its job by dodging tough issues” (Globe)

— The latest Great Moderate Hope: “Meet the Democrat Republicans Fear in Red-State America” (WSJ)

— Never heard of Anadama bread before. Now I have: “New England Seafood With a Side of Punk, at Smithereens” (NYT)

— And Hey, Soul Sister has to rank up there too: “Worst song ever? Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ remains pop’s most loathed song” (Globe)

— UH cuts to the chase, as usual: “Quebec UFO cult whose symbol is a swastika entwined with a Star of David plans another topless-women parade on the Common” (Universal Hub)

Am I the only one who feels caught between two extreme views on recent local immigration matters, i.e. Pam Bondi’s view and Michelle Wu’s view? The former is easy to condemn. Threatening to withhold federal dollars to Boston and/or the state if officials don’t comply with their ICE-cooperation order, a form of collective punishment one normally associates with a totalitarian mindset, not a democratic one? Message to Pam: Not everyone here agrees 100 percent with Michelle Wu. …

As for the latter Wu view, it’s harder to condemn, if only at this moment, when the right is behaving so obnoxiously. Standing up to authoritarian Trump bullying is a worthy cause, so give Wu some credit for telling Bondi where to go. But the entire sanctuary-city mindset – you know, the one that led to an open border that Biden refused to close but Trump just did, or the reckless spending of billions of state taxpayer dollars on an insane hotel shelter program – has never been my cup of tea. The left’s past extremes are partly why we’re now caught between two extremes.

Update – 8.23.25 — From the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld: “Will Bostonians be holding the bag for Michelle Wu’s grandstanding?” … I get where Joe is coming from. Wu’s grandstanding is definitely grating. But who’s the one threatening to withhold funds over this issue? It’s the Trump administration, not the Wu administration.

I’m probably dating myself by citing the old Michael Kinsley definition of a gaffe as being a moment when a politician inadvertently blurts out a truth that wasn’t supposed to be spoken. In the case of Rep. Katherine Clark’s reference to Israel’s actions in Gaza amounting to ‘genocide,’ she didn’t commit a strict Kinsley gaffe per se, in that she blurted out a truth. Instead, her remarks probably reflect what she’s truthfully thinking or close to believing about Israel – and yet shouldn’t have said as the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the U.S. House. I guess that makes her original comment a variation of a Kinsley gaffe. … Anyway, Clark has since, somewhat unconvincingly, walked back her ‘genocide’ remarks, via the JNS and Globe.

Those concerned about the future of Boston’s biotech sector ought to read this NYT piece by Jacob Dreyer, who sounds the alarm and yet at the same time welcomes what the Chinese are doing to produce better, faster and cheaper drugs. He thinks China’s less expensive drugs will ultimately prove too irresistible for European and American consumers – and so the Chinese competitive threat is not going away. What should American biotech firms competitively do in response? Learn from the Chinese, just as the Chinese are eagerly learning from us, Dreyer says.

And here’s how not to respond to the Chinese competitive threat, also via the NYT:  “America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs.”

The biggest political story today in Massachusetts? U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark’s description of Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide,” as reported by the Globe, Axios, Politico and the Hill. As the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. House, Clark, D-Revere, is now the highest-ranking congressional Dem to use that highly loaded (and overused) word as applied to Israel. … Whether you agree with her or not, this is a big deal within Democratic circles, locally and nationally, and it could further damage an already strained relationship between Dems and many Jewish-Americans. 

Suggestion to local news assignment editors: get reactions to Clark’s remarks from other congressional delegation members, all of them Democrats. Is Israel committing genocide or not? 

Fyi: Do I think Israel has committed genocide? No. I’m not going there. Not even close. But when it comes to Israel’s current action in Gaza (as opposed to its justified initial post-Oct. 7 reaction), I’m a Tom Friedman-like supporter of Israel who loathes what the extreme-right Netanyahu government is doing in Gaza. Read Friedman’s piece. It’s a brutally honest and thorough column about what he’s calling “The War of the Worst.”

Update — 8.21.25 – Clark has since walked back her genocide comment. Her explanation isn’t exactly convincing. …. And, oh, the political damage (as minor as it may be) is already done. That’s something that can’t be walked back.

Let’s see. Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, a Democrat, is arrested for allegedly shaking down a cannabis executive. The executive turns out to be a long-time Democratic insider on Beacon Hill (as the Globe reports). Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled Cannabis Control Commission is a complete dysfunctional mess. … No wonder Gov. Healey and other Dems are ducking for cover these days, as WBUR reports. …

Update — 8.16.25 – At GBH, Mark Herz and Adam Reilly discuss the Dems’ dilemma when it comes to Tompkins.

Update II –– 8.16.25 – From Universal Hub: “Pols who demanded Fernandes Anderson quit the day she was indicted are saying, whoa, we need to learn more about Tompkins”