This was disappointing. I'm so tired of generational identity politics. It is IDIOTIC to label millions of people as 'Boomers', as if the guy who lost his machining job in the '90s is the same as the Wall Street financial dude who made out in 2009. So F%$#@&G tired of this. Very disappointing to see Oren ape the popular trend.
Agreed on the stereotype issue, but otherwise it was a funny and true take on ideologues of all ages who just can’t absorb accurate information that is incongruous to their fixed opinions. The ability to change one’s mind and admit one was wrong are indicators of both intelligence and character.
On point. A person can be very sympathetic to what Trump wants to accomplish with tariffs and be honest saying they have no idea how it's going to work out. I don't think Trump knows.
So to write a dramatic farce as generational conflict over tariffs for the holidays is idiotic. It does nothing to address the uncertainties we face over the new and substantial tariffs. It is neither humorous or serious.
You're right. And I've heard more than one millennial or zoomer 'influencer' talk about the possibility of 'generational warfare' over issues of finance, home prices, etc. I know Oren wouldn't be in that camp, but I think it is best to steer completely clear of pitting people against one another based on their age. Especially in the political environment we are currently in.
My Thanksgiving Gary won't care about Oren's silly, never ending battle with fellow elites over economic arcana. Why is Oren so insecure? My Gary will want to talk about other initiatives from the founder and intellectual lodestar of the "new" right-Don.
My Gary will want to ask why Don gets to openly pocket billions in crypto corruption, especially when it's in exchange for pardons of Chinese criminals convicted of laundering money for Hamas and other terrorist groups. Or why Switzerland brought Don gold bars and a Rolex clock to bribe him over tariff rates, similar to Tim Cook's fake trophy, Vietnam's golf resort, and Qatar's 747. Or why he randomly raised tariffs on Canada after seeing a silly TV ad where Reagan talked tariffs. Perhaps he'll ask why Don tariffed Brazil because they're prosecuting their former prez, a fellow coup plotter? He may ask why the "new" right's signature economic policy achievement-the BBB, hoses workin stiffs and rewards the plutocrats while plunging us further in debt. He'll want to know if Don is a socialist since he took ownership shares and future profits from Nvidia, US Steel, Westinghouse, and others. He'll want to talk about masked agents on his streets seizing mom's from school pick up lines, why our president threatens military heroes from the opposition party with sedition and death, why RFK Jr is such a lunatic who insists on endangering children. He'll want to discuss why we're massing our military on Venezuela's doorstep, after randomly blowing up small boats Don claims are transporting fentanyl, a clear lie. He may ask why DOGE decimated our civil service while doing nothing to dent our debt, and allowed the world's richest man to kill some of the worlds poorest people just before he landed his trillion dollar pay package. He may even want to delve into what Don's fam is getting from their cozy relationship with Middle Eastern nations. He may fret that Don will be even more incoherent at 82. My Gary has always been curious about the insurrection, and how the "new" right somehow rationalized it. Oh, I almost forgot the biggest question MAGA is obsessed over, Don's rabid quest to deep six the Epstein files:).
So many questions, so little time. Maybe someday, after the DonOrenomics induced manufacturing renaissance has arrived in rural America, Oren won't feel the need to be so defensive...
You raise an interesting question about the hoped for manufacturing renaissance. It seems that would only happen if the market believed the costs of building here would remain (over the long run) lower than building overseas. It seems some have argued that if the tariffs are viewed as temporary, it might be better to pay them than to risk the capital needed to build in the states.
Maybe Gary would want to muse on why Mr Trump, and his family, stayed politically active through the Democrat lawfare that cost him at least a billion dollars over fake indictments? Seems like an interesting question for a, supposed, grifter of Trumps persuasion when he could have easily retired and so, ended the pain.
Why wouldn't they stay active, their net worth has skyrocketed this year as he pockets billions from his crypto corruption and Middle Eastern deals? Public "service" has proven Don's most lucrative career endeavor, far surpassing inheritance and being a game show host. Gary also watched the insurrection, listened to the damning testimony of the Republicans Don had appointed to his own administration, and found himself perplexed by Don's pardon of felons convicted of seditious conspiracy. He wonders why Don's flock excuses him for the worst acts ever committed by a US president?
Oren's pre-thanksgiving failure. I enjoy witty snarky critiques if they're done well. Oren's was not. The tone was arrogant, not witty. No verbal cleverness, faux sympathy, not fun, not funny. I don't disagree with much of Oren's overall assessment of economic rationalization (handwaving) over the last few decades, but Oren is taking a victory lap on tariffs when the race is barely started. The tariffs are in constant flux and the true effects won't be felt for at least a couple of years. In the meantime Federal economic data gathering and reporting is being dismantled and abandoned. That is an ominous signal int the start of a supposedly new economic regime.
Small details left out undercut the veracity of what Oren asserts. For example, from the article: "Mention also the new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which finds that tariffs tend in fact to be disinflationary because of their many macroeconomic impacts beyond changes to price levels." The study he links to says "Exploiting this quasi-random nature of tariff variations, we find that a tariff hike raises unemployment (lowers economic activity) and lowers inflation." Raising unemployment is clearly not pro-worker, and lowering economic activity is not pro growth regarding rebuilding our industrial base.
As a progressive, I also believe that rebuilding America's industrial independence is existentially critical. I believe wealth inequality is a fundamental problem that has to be dealt with by radically rolling back the rules of incorporation and the political power of concentrated wealth. The working class, which is 95% of Americans must have far greater political agency to gain the material security that will ensure the continuation of the American experiment.
Tariffs are a tool that can be used in conjunction with other incentives to re-establish America's industrial independence. This administration is radically incompetent and corrupt beyond comprehension. Oren needs to come to terms with Trump's reality. Oren has admitted a lack of coherence in Trump's policy making in the past. But he still try's to defend the administration. The problem is not just tariff incoherence. It is authoritarian flouting of law, degradation of civil and dignified behavior and norms, disgusting overwhelming levels of corruption and self dealing, actual weaponization of the Justice Department and an ongoing effort to gain personal control over a military force. Those things undermine any principled effort to reform our economy and so far it appears to be a new variation of the old economy. IE, more power and wealth to the financial elite with rhetoric about how good it is for workers, and of course ginning up social issues as a distraction from the root power issues.
Oren, deal with the Trump problem honestly and realistically. The neoliberal Summers, Chicago School economic orthodoxy of the last decades clearly failed with regard to workers and did very well by the financial elite. You are correct about the failure of those policies. And, Any basic Marxist analysis would have and did tell you that would happen. Labor is local, capital is mobile. Duh. Trump/MAGA is far too imperfect a vehicle to manifest meaningful corrections and improvements. You need to disentangle yourself from trump and shed the arrogance, particularly against the massive cohort of boomers who are essentially economic progressives along with the youth who are economic progressives. That is, if you actually want to build a useful movement. If your aim is divisiveness to maintain the status quo, keep up the good (bad) work.
My Thanksgiving conversation: Everyone I know has come to dislike Vance. Really really dislike him. He won one election....barely.....and that was only because Tucker pushed Trump to endorse him. And he only has his VP position because of tucker....not because he earned it. They are best buds. Vance lacks the principle to OPENLY break with Tucker (not just Fuentes, who is really a minor character).. Tucker is much more dangerous. And looney crazy. Also, Vance is just not likable....tries too hard to be a "bro." And acts like he is the smartest person in the room. There are other, much better choices for 2028. Let Vance and Tucker and tucker's antisemitic brother and tucker's son all ride into the sunset. That's what everyone at my Thanksgiving table will agree on. (And, oh, I'm not Jewish; I'm Catholic, in case you wondered.)
This is hysterically funny: Fuentes is now mad at Tucker because Tucker brought him to his studio, had a "We're all bros" dinner with him, then gave him a super-friendly interview.....BUT, when he got some blowback, said that Fuentes is an antisemite. So, Fuentes -- rightfully so -- calls this out as two-faced:
A wonderful effort in pompous condescension, bravo. The sort of seriousness and wisdom one would expect from a recent Tucker Carlson guest. Such excellent bedfellows you new right people have!
I lol'd at this: "that free trade with an authoritarian country and its state-controlled market is the real free market," Waow guyz did y00 no Canada is an authoritarian country??? Or any of the number of allies we've started bizarre trade wars with? Lmao.
Also the entire last paragraph reminds of the words of another pompous, condescending technocrat ideologue. Namely, Barack Obama and his argument-avoiding claims about opponents being on the wrong side of history. It's bizarre to see supposed 'conservatives' now making circular arguments built upon little but the alleged fact their opponents are old, hidebound, and out of fashion. Trendiness and fashion as represented by new right buzzwords like "knowing what time it is" are the precise opposite of sensible and principled conservatism.
It can't be too late to kiss this clownish new right movement goodbye. You've had your shot and all your influence has accomplished is a colossal increase in conspiratorial thinking and antisemitism.
no mention of trump rolling back tariffs on groceries to help cost of living? is that not implicit admission that the tariffs did increase the cost of living ?
I think Oren’s satirical approach is refreshing, especially since it does seem like the boomers (MY generation too) are the biggest cheerleaders for the globalist status quo. Touchiness on this point might be a sign of something else.
This was disappointing. I'm so tired of generational identity politics. It is IDIOTIC to label millions of people as 'Boomers', as if the guy who lost his machining job in the '90s is the same as the Wall Street financial dude who made out in 2009. So F%$#@&G tired of this. Very disappointing to see Oren ape the popular trend.
Agreed on the stereotype issue, but otherwise it was a funny and true take on ideologues of all ages who just can’t absorb accurate information that is incongruous to their fixed opinions. The ability to change one’s mind and admit one was wrong are indicators of both intelligence and character.
On point. A person can be very sympathetic to what Trump wants to accomplish with tariffs and be honest saying they have no idea how it's going to work out. I don't think Trump knows.
So to write a dramatic farce as generational conflict over tariffs for the holidays is idiotic. It does nothing to address the uncertainties we face over the new and substantial tariffs. It is neither humorous or serious.
You're right. And I've heard more than one millennial or zoomer 'influencer' talk about the possibility of 'generational warfare' over issues of finance, home prices, etc. I know Oren wouldn't be in that camp, but I think it is best to steer completely clear of pitting people against one another based on their age. Especially in the political environment we are currently in.
Boomercon here with an economics degree. I agree with this piece except for the generational insults. Just stop it.
My Thanksgiving Gary won't care about Oren's silly, never ending battle with fellow elites over economic arcana. Why is Oren so insecure? My Gary will want to talk about other initiatives from the founder and intellectual lodestar of the "new" right-Don.
My Gary will want to ask why Don gets to openly pocket billions in crypto corruption, especially when it's in exchange for pardons of Chinese criminals convicted of laundering money for Hamas and other terrorist groups. Or why Switzerland brought Don gold bars and a Rolex clock to bribe him over tariff rates, similar to Tim Cook's fake trophy, Vietnam's golf resort, and Qatar's 747. Or why he randomly raised tariffs on Canada after seeing a silly TV ad where Reagan talked tariffs. Perhaps he'll ask why Don tariffed Brazil because they're prosecuting their former prez, a fellow coup plotter? He may ask why the "new" right's signature economic policy achievement-the BBB, hoses workin stiffs and rewards the plutocrats while plunging us further in debt. He'll want to know if Don is a socialist since he took ownership shares and future profits from Nvidia, US Steel, Westinghouse, and others. He'll want to talk about masked agents on his streets seizing mom's from school pick up lines, why our president threatens military heroes from the opposition party with sedition and death, why RFK Jr is such a lunatic who insists on endangering children. He'll want to discuss why we're massing our military on Venezuela's doorstep, after randomly blowing up small boats Don claims are transporting fentanyl, a clear lie. He may ask why DOGE decimated our civil service while doing nothing to dent our debt, and allowed the world's richest man to kill some of the worlds poorest people just before he landed his trillion dollar pay package. He may even want to delve into what Don's fam is getting from their cozy relationship with Middle Eastern nations. He may fret that Don will be even more incoherent at 82. My Gary has always been curious about the insurrection, and how the "new" right somehow rationalized it. Oh, I almost forgot the biggest question MAGA is obsessed over, Don's rabid quest to deep six the Epstein files:).
So many questions, so little time. Maybe someday, after the DonOrenomics induced manufacturing renaissance has arrived in rural America, Oren won't feel the need to be so defensive...
You raise an interesting question about the hoped for manufacturing renaissance. It seems that would only happen if the market believed the costs of building here would remain (over the long run) lower than building overseas. It seems some have argued that if the tariffs are viewed as temporary, it might be better to pay them than to risk the capital needed to build in the states.
Maybe Gary would want to muse on why Mr Trump, and his family, stayed politically active through the Democrat lawfare that cost him at least a billion dollars over fake indictments? Seems like an interesting question for a, supposed, grifter of Trumps persuasion when he could have easily retired and so, ended the pain.
Why wouldn't they stay active, their net worth has skyrocketed this year as he pockets billions from his crypto corruption and Middle Eastern deals? Public "service" has proven Don's most lucrative career endeavor, far surpassing inheritance and being a game show host. Gary also watched the insurrection, listened to the damning testimony of the Republicans Don had appointed to his own administration, and found himself perplexed by Don's pardon of felons convicted of seditious conspiracy. He wonders why Don's flock excuses him for the worst acts ever committed by a US president?
Good luck America.
exactly! great reply karl!!!
Oren's pre-thanksgiving failure. I enjoy witty snarky critiques if they're done well. Oren's was not. The tone was arrogant, not witty. No verbal cleverness, faux sympathy, not fun, not funny. I don't disagree with much of Oren's overall assessment of economic rationalization (handwaving) over the last few decades, but Oren is taking a victory lap on tariffs when the race is barely started. The tariffs are in constant flux and the true effects won't be felt for at least a couple of years. In the meantime Federal economic data gathering and reporting is being dismantled and abandoned. That is an ominous signal int the start of a supposedly new economic regime.
Small details left out undercut the veracity of what Oren asserts. For example, from the article: "Mention also the new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which finds that tariffs tend in fact to be disinflationary because of their many macroeconomic impacts beyond changes to price levels." The study he links to says "Exploiting this quasi-random nature of tariff variations, we find that a tariff hike raises unemployment (lowers economic activity) and lowers inflation." Raising unemployment is clearly not pro-worker, and lowering economic activity is not pro growth regarding rebuilding our industrial base.
As a progressive, I also believe that rebuilding America's industrial independence is existentially critical. I believe wealth inequality is a fundamental problem that has to be dealt with by radically rolling back the rules of incorporation and the political power of concentrated wealth. The working class, which is 95% of Americans must have far greater political agency to gain the material security that will ensure the continuation of the American experiment.
Tariffs are a tool that can be used in conjunction with other incentives to re-establish America's industrial independence. This administration is radically incompetent and corrupt beyond comprehension. Oren needs to come to terms with Trump's reality. Oren has admitted a lack of coherence in Trump's policy making in the past. But he still try's to defend the administration. The problem is not just tariff incoherence. It is authoritarian flouting of law, degradation of civil and dignified behavior and norms, disgusting overwhelming levels of corruption and self dealing, actual weaponization of the Justice Department and an ongoing effort to gain personal control over a military force. Those things undermine any principled effort to reform our economy and so far it appears to be a new variation of the old economy. IE, more power and wealth to the financial elite with rhetoric about how good it is for workers, and of course ginning up social issues as a distraction from the root power issues.
Oren, deal with the Trump problem honestly and realistically. The neoliberal Summers, Chicago School economic orthodoxy of the last decades clearly failed with regard to workers and did very well by the financial elite. You are correct about the failure of those policies. And, Any basic Marxist analysis would have and did tell you that would happen. Labor is local, capital is mobile. Duh. Trump/MAGA is far too imperfect a vehicle to manifest meaningful corrections and improvements. You need to disentangle yourself from trump and shed the arrogance, particularly against the massive cohort of boomers who are essentially economic progressives along with the youth who are economic progressives. That is, if you actually want to build a useful movement. If your aim is divisiveness to maintain the status quo, keep up the good (bad) work.
Awesome. Particularly the transfer of wealth quote from Buffet. Selling the farm to pay for chinese trinkets and trash. All the way back in 2003.
Thank You!
You've got a lot of Gary's who just discovered they're Gary's in the comments
I recognise the screaming and crying of my fellow boomers, the con named Gary, here in the comments. Like they say, the hit dog yelps.
The bad things mentioned about Trump below are mostly true, but then so are the good things about what he has done that Oren mentions.
Many of us did very well, from making the working class of our generation much poorer.
The stereotyping and condescension in this piece reflect the poor character of the writer.
Informative and creative, thanks!
LOL. Gary is going down!! (With love and respect of course)
My Thanksgiving conversation: Everyone I know has come to dislike Vance. Really really dislike him. He won one election....barely.....and that was only because Tucker pushed Trump to endorse him. And he only has his VP position because of tucker....not because he earned it. They are best buds. Vance lacks the principle to OPENLY break with Tucker (not just Fuentes, who is really a minor character).. Tucker is much more dangerous. And looney crazy. Also, Vance is just not likable....tries too hard to be a "bro." And acts like he is the smartest person in the room. There are other, much better choices for 2028. Let Vance and Tucker and tucker's antisemitic brother and tucker's son all ride into the sunset. That's what everyone at my Thanksgiving table will agree on. (And, oh, I'm not Jewish; I'm Catholic, in case you wondered.)
From a fellow Catholic: how much Tucker do you listen to? Every episode, all the way through? Or just enough to confirm preconceived notions?
This is hysterically funny: Fuentes is now mad at Tucker because Tucker brought him to his studio, had a "We're all bros" dinner with him, then gave him a super-friendly interview.....BUT, when he got some blowback, said that Fuentes is an antisemite. So, Fuentes -- rightfully so -- calls this out as two-faced:
https://x.com/DineshDSouza/status/1992584216115323098?s=20
And of course there's Tucker's love of Islamic countries:
https://x.com/therightmelissa/status/1994487891054268777?s=61
So, yeah, I listen to him enough.
Clever AND informative! Bravo.
Bless you, Oren! Just what I needed for Thanksgiving. Some receipts!
A wonderful effort in pompous condescension, bravo. The sort of seriousness and wisdom one would expect from a recent Tucker Carlson guest. Such excellent bedfellows you new right people have!
I lol'd at this: "that free trade with an authoritarian country and its state-controlled market is the real free market," Waow guyz did y00 no Canada is an authoritarian country??? Or any of the number of allies we've started bizarre trade wars with? Lmao.
Also the entire last paragraph reminds of the words of another pompous, condescending technocrat ideologue. Namely, Barack Obama and his argument-avoiding claims about opponents being on the wrong side of history. It's bizarre to see supposed 'conservatives' now making circular arguments built upon little but the alleged fact their opponents are old, hidebound, and out of fashion. Trendiness and fashion as represented by new right buzzwords like "knowing what time it is" are the precise opposite of sensible and principled conservatism.
It can't be too late to kiss this clownish new right movement goodbye. You've had your shot and all your influence has accomplished is a colossal increase in conspiratorial thinking and antisemitism.
no mention of trump rolling back tariffs on groceries to help cost of living? is that not implicit admission that the tariffs did increase the cost of living ?
Groceries all domestic except for wealthy.
I think Oren’s satirical approach is refreshing, especially since it does seem like the boomers (MY generation too) are the biggest cheerleaders for the globalist status quo. Touchiness on this point might be a sign of something else.