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Bloomberg Opinion

6 Nov, 9 tweets, 5 min read

As expected, Trump is dusting off his well-worn litigation playbook. He's:

➡️Pushed to stop ballot tallies in MI & PA
➡️Claimed negligence of a poll worker in GA
➡️Threatened to demand a recount in WI
➡️Threatened to sue NV for “illegal votes” trib.al/AK8NdVZ

@TimOBrien

Not only are these lawsuits plainly frivolous, they are old hat for Trump:

“He’s been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits over the last three decades or so,” writes columnist @TimOBrien, who was unsuccessfully sued by Trump for libel in 2006 trib.al/AK8NdVZ

The point of his lawsuits isn’t to cure an actual problem.

Trump has spent months claiming that elections and mail-in voting in the U.S. are riddled with malfeasance. They’re not, of course. His lawsuits are an extension of that push trib.al/AK8NdVZ

Trump’s true goal is to find something that he can blame for his own failures — in this current case, possibly losing the presidency.

Years down the road, Trump will point at these lawsuits as tangible proof that something was rotten in the 2020 election trib.al/AK8NdVZ

In fact, he will say, had the election not been rigged, he would have won.

That’s a two-fer for Trump: It allows him to avoid taking responsibility and helps him dodge the “loser” label he enjoys slapping on everyone else trib.al/AK8NdVZ

Trump learned long ago from the late Roy Cohn how to weaponize the legal system against:

✔️Business competitors
✔️The government
✔️Various critics trib.al/AK8NdVZ

For Trump, sometimes merely filing a suit got him just as far as actually going to court.

If it made a financial or legal problem go away, cowed an opponent or provided him with a fall guy, that was enough trib.al/AK8NdVZ

Here’s just a sampling:

1973: Trump countersues against the DOJ
1984: Trump sued the Chicago Tribune for libel
1990: Trump threatened to sue an analyst’s employer
2008: Trump sued Deutsche Bank for $3 billion

The playbook has always been the same trib.al/AK8NdVZ

With public faith in our core institutions once again under assault from Trump — and perhaps one of the last times while he’s president — it would be valuable for everyone involved to remember that POTUS is often a paper tiger, especially in court trib.al/AK8NdVZ

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More from @bopinion

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

4 Nov

Defying expectations, California voters have approved Prop 22, which exempts gig companies from a law that requires them to classify workers as employees.

Instead, ride-hailing and food-delivery apps can keep their workers as independent contractors trib.al/EfSjuO1

What does this mean for workers at Uber and Lyft, as well as grocery delivery services?

⬇️Fewer benefits
🚫Aren’t required to earn minimum wage trib.al/EfSjuO1

@Noahpinion

Strangely, this comes at a time when many states and cities are raising the minimum wage.

While it might be simply a function of a well-run corporate ad campaign, it might also reflect a general anxiety about the future of cities,” writes @Noahpinion trib.al/EfSjuO1

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Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

4 Nov

LIVE: Bloomberg Opinion’s best political, economic and market minds are joining forces to cover the election.

Follow along with our live blog here: trib.al/wHFBHGr

@TimOBrien

First, a disclaimer from @TimOBrien: Votes may take a few days to tabulate in some key contests. That's normal! That's OK!

It also means that #Election2020 blogging is all about uncertainty trib.al/wHFBHGr

@karlbykarlsmith

Let’s start with the economy, via @karlbykarlsmith:

It’s worth remarking how sensitive 2016 appeared to be to economic fluctuations vs. how seemingly irrelevant they are today. Instead, the swing this time seems to be dominated almost entirely by Covid-19 trib.al/wHFBHGr

Read 36 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

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3 Nov

Bumper harvests and healthy stockpiles coming into 2020 have helped the world dodge the worst of food-security worries triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But nutrition has suffered anyway trib.al/7Xb1aoQ

Malnutrition is the result of:

➡️Migrant laborers being kept home
➡️Children being shut out of school
➡️Workers losing jobs

The economic consequences in both emerging and developed markets will linger trib.al/7Xb1aoQ

Crippling food inflation has been averted this time, but there have been glimpses of panic:

🛒Empty supermarket shelves
🇻🇳Vietnam’s restrictions on rice
🇰🇿Kazakhstan’s restrictions on wheat and flour
🥩Infected slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants trib.al/7Xb1aoQ

Read 12 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

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2 Nov

After election day, there is a chance of constitutional chaos.

It could take the form of acute uncertainty, not only about who won the election but also about the process by which that question will be settled trib.al/sKzNZAb

We might have a perfect storm:

🗳️Close contests in key states
📬Issues with mail-in voting
🧐Allegations of voter suppression and fraud
🙅🏼‍♂️An incumbent who is unwilling to accept a loss
trib.al/sKzNZAb

It is essential to understand that Nov. 3 is only the first of three defining days.

The second is Dec. 14, when members of the Electoral College cast their votes. The third is Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress meets in joint session to declare the winner
trib.al/sKzNZAb

Read 14 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

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1 Nov

It’s easy to feel as if there’s no light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel:

📈ICUs are filling up
🔒Fresh lockdowns
💉Herd immunity a long way off

Yet we shouldn’t ignore the better news from Asia trib.al/X4AUjxs

The strategies pursued by South Korea, Vietnam & China are paying off. As of Nov. 1, the cumulative death rate per million is:

🇺🇸U.S.: 696
🇬🇧U.K.: 685
🇫🇷France: 563
vs.
🇰🇷South Korea: 9
🇨🇳China: 3
🇻🇳Vietnam: 0.36

[Chart shows data correct as of Oct. 30] trib.al/X4AUjxs

@LionelRALaurent

The perception of an Asian advantage often falls prey to essentialist thinking: that the East is doing things the West could never do, thanks to profound differences in values, politics and culture, writes @LionelRALaurent.

That’s not necessarily the case trib.al/X4AUjxs

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Bloomberg Opinion

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31 Oct

You’ve heard the scenarios:

Trump loses but refuses to leave.
Biden loses but refuses to concede.
Absentee ballots aren’t counted.
The angry left takes to the streets.
The angry right takes to the streets.
Lawyers take to the courts.
trib.al/IO736Nn

Into the pre-election turmoil comes a useful new analysis from the economists Michael Geruso and Dean Spears.

They warn of a significant chance that the presidential election could be swung by a few thousand disqualified ballots trib.al/IO736Nn

Their conclusion is stark:

"We find that it is much more likely under the Electoral College system than under a hypothetical National Popular Vote that the election outcome will be narrow enough to be reversible by judicial or administrative processes" trib.al/IO736Nn

Read 11 tweets

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