Farm Subsides, US and Iran Spat, The Michael Cohen Tape, and Facebook’s Record Decline

This week the show is produced for the first time ever in Oklahoma City. Trey, now officially part of Oklahoma Christian University, is joined by Ken who is preparing to move to Denver. The first topic is Trump’s trade policy. The Trey and Ken to differing degrees agree that subsides to farmers is simply a policy mistake fixing the earlier policy mistake of enacting tariffs. While Ken has some boundaries around the idea of free trade, both think that the current tariffs policies are reminiscent of the import substitution industrialization models of the 1980s and 1990s. Next up Trey and Ken look at the recent spat over Twitter between the U.S. and Iran. Here both hosts agree that the current foreign policy of acting belligerent randomly has not helped the U.S. cause. However the hosts disagree over the cause of this policy. Ken thinks it is part of a larger conspiracy where Putin controls Trump and Trey thinks, while it certainly benefits Russia, is more easily explained by an individual who is acting irrationally and that irrationality helps anyone who isn’t the U.S. Trey and Ken turn next to the Michael Cohen tape of a conversation with Donald Trump. The hosts agree that the tape is damaging and ponder why Trump would have agreed to release it. They discuss the possible implications of the content of the tape and consider how it might play into the Mueller investigation. Finally Ken and Trey briefly examine Facebook’s stock decline. At a 19% devaluation it takes the record for the biggest drop in one day ever. The hosts parse out the question to what extent, if any, recent privacy changes in EU law or backlash from data breaches has led to slowing user growth and, as a result, investor confidence.   Listener Support helps make The Politics Guys Possible. if you're interested in supporting the show go to politicsguys.com/support Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe Politics Guys on Facebook | XListener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.