Free Republic

Elon Musk, wielding a chainsaw, is overseeing a rapid shrinking of the nation’s largest employer: the federal government. There’s no doubt the federal government’s 3.02 million-person civilian workforce is massive. Yet some economists are confident the widespread terminations spearheaded by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will likely not devastate the national economy or even topple the historically strong jobs market. “It’s not going to tip the economy into recession by itself,” said Stephanie Roth, chief economist at Wolfe Research. That’s in part because the federal layoffs are expected to affect a small fraction of the much larger US labor...

CNN — On Saturday, President Donald Trump made good on his promise to impose steep tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners — Canada, China and Mexico — citing a national emergency on the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants into the United States. The action, which is expected to take effect on Tuesday, includes a 25% duty on all imports from Mexico and most goods from Canada (there’s a 10% carve-out for energy-related items such as crude oil), and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods imported into the United States.