Red Anxieties, Blue Anxieties

One Nation, Divisible by Our Worst Fears

Which prospect scares you more: A burglar breaks into your beachfront home, or rising seas leave it submerged? The answer may offer a clue about your background. Virginia Postrel says that Red America worries more about bad actors who cause deliberate harm, while Blue America frets over unintended (often non-human) dangers. Unfortunately, Postrel says, both are missing a larger point.

Flynn Scandal Magnifies Republican Divisions

When Donald Trump’s embattled national security adviser stepped down this week, he left a whirlwind in his wake: establishment and insurgent factions battling for power in the White House, the House GOP looking to protect Trump, and Republican senators weighing exposing him. Francis Wilkinson makes sense of the dizzying intra-party conflict.

What Impeachment Meant to the Founders

Depending on who you ask, the president can only be impeached if he’s broken the law, or he can be impeached whenever enough House members feel like it. (Neither is quite right.) To get at the truth, Cass Sunstein recounts how George Mason, James Madison and other revolutionary figures wrangled over what would become the Constitution’s impeachment clause.

Monopolies Are Worse Than We Thought

Slowing productivity, declining business dynamism, mounting inequality — economists are tracing a host of ills to monopolies (and their not-too-distant cousins, oligopolies). The bad news, Noah Smith warns, is that the trend is only accelerating in most industries.

Ritholtz’s Reads

• Apple: The greatest cash machine in history? (Musings on Markets)
• Donald Trump’s love of manufacturing is misguided (Financial Times)
• Should stocks be worth more now than they used to be? (Irrelevant Investor)

(Read Barry Ritholtz’s full daily news roundup.)

Bloomberg Gadfly 

• Give Cigna some credit: It’s definitely not timid.
• Verizon leads dash to issue debt before tax law changes
• Singapore’s banks should brace for a new sort of pain

(Read more from BV’s sister site for fast business commentary.)

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.