John Cassidy's Blog, page 28

What Game Is Bernie Sanders Playing with Donald Trump?

Update: On Friday afternoon, Trump backed out of appearing with Sanders. He said he would wait and debate whichever candidate emerged from the “rigged” Democratic primary.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 27, 2016 11:21

Seventeen Words That Spelled Trouble for Hillary Clinton

I’d just posted a lengthy piece on Hillary Clinton’s general-election prospects when a long-awaited report from the State Department’s inspector general, a watchdog appointed by President Obama, was leaked, a day in advance of its release on Thursday. The report concluded that, as Secretary of State, Clinton violated the department’s rules by conducting official business via a private e-mail account and setting up a private e-mail server to handle and store her correspondence.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 26, 2016 13:55

The Challenges Facing Hillary Clinton

With some people I know in panic mode about the latest opinion polls showing Donald Trump performing well in a prospective fall campaign against Hillary Clinton, I thought it might be worth stepping back a bit and looking at the prospects for such a race in November. For Democrats and others alarmed by Trump’s advance, the outlook is reassuring, but not entirely so. Assuming that Hillary Clinton wraps up the Democratic nomination pretty soon, she will be the firm favorite to win the general election. But she faces some significant challenges, not least of which is confronting a demagogue who daily traduces her and her husband.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 25, 2016 07:41

The Economic Arguments Against Brexit

On Monday, Her Majesty’s Treasury released a report claiming that a “Leave” vote in the June 23rd referendum on whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union would plunge the British economy, which has been growing modestly for the past couple of years, into a slump. The report says that, in the event of “Brexit,” the unemployment rate would jump, while G.D.P., house prices, the stock market, and the value of the pound sterling would all be hit hard. To emphasize this message, the Treasury posted a big headline on the home page of its Web site: “UK economy would fall into RECESSION if Britain leaves the EU.” In case the message wasn’t clear, the word “RECESSION” was printed in red, with cracks in the letters.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 23, 2016 17:48

Clinton vs. Sanders: Peace Is Still Possible

In many hard-fought political races, there comes a time when tempers fray and emotion takes over. Right now, the Democratic Presidential primary appears to have reached such a point, with people on both sides going at each other with gusto, and some of the media getting swept up, too.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 19, 2016 16:26

A Narrow But Significant Win for Hillary Clinton in Kentucky

When she was last the center of national attention, Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat who is Kentucky’s Secretary of State, was being soundly defeated by Mitch McConnell in a 2014 Senate race that her Party had hoped to win. Shortly after ten o’clock last night, Grimes delivered more heartening news to the Democratic establishment, declaring that Hillary Clinton was the unofficial winner of the Kentucky primary. With about ninety-nine per cent of the votes counted, Clinton was running ahead of Bernie Sanders by just eighteen hundred votes. But Grimes, whose office was overseeing the election, said that she believed the lead would hold up, and the Sanders campaign didn’t contest her claim.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 18, 2016 05:31

Just How Rich Is Donald Trump?

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal became the latest publication to look into Donald Trump’s finances and question some of the claims that the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee has made about how rich he is. After examining a financial-disclosure form that Trump filed last year and doing some digging of their own, the paper’s Peter Grant and Brody Mullins estimated that, in 2016, Trump’s businesses will produce about $160 million in pre-tax income. (On Tuesday, Trump filed a new financial-disclosure form that is identical to the one he filed last year.)

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 17, 2016 15:40

Donald Trump and the “John Miller” Tape: A Question of Character

Back in the late eighties and early nineties, when I worked for the London Sunday Times out of New York and Washington, I sometimes wrote about Donald Trump—mostly covering his business deals, but also his personal life, which was splashed all over the New York Post and Daily News. In my recollection, Trump was easy to get in touch with, which was one reason why he got so much ink. After calling his office, you’d be put through to a woman named Norma Foerderer, who was his top aide. Foerderer, who died in 2013, would say that she’d check if Trump was available. You’d hear talking in the background, and then he would get on the phone and tell you how fabulously everything was going for him.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 13, 2016 12:15

Raghuram Rajan and the Dangers of Helicopter Money

Raghuram Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is a rising star in central banking. Since moving to Delhi, in 2013, after taking a leave of absence from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where he is a professor of economics, he has presided over a period in which the Indian economy has performed better than that of many other developing economies. G.D.P. growth has rebounded from a slowdown, and the rate of inflation has been halved.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 13, 2016 08:59

Nebraska and West Virginia Confirm It: Ted Cruz Is Done

Sad news out of Nebraska and West Virginia for horror-movie fans: Count Ted Cruz, the dark lord of Texas, won’t be returning from the dead, after all. Rumors to the contrary, which sped across the Internet on Tuesday, turned out, when the G.O.P. primary results came in later that night, to have been idle talk. From now on, viewers of the Republican nomination process will have to make do with just one scary creature in a featured role: the Frankenstein monster that is Donald Trump.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

View more on John Cassidy's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 11, 2016 04:50