Lloyd Green

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Lloyd Green

Double-digit inflation, high unemployment and the Iranian hostage crisis left Jimmy Carter a one-term president. Still, his watch was consequential. The US and China normalized relations, Egypt and Israel made peace and Russia invaded Afghanistan. Beyond that, the US returned the Panama canal and in Iran the shah fell to the Islamic revolution. After 444 days in captivity, 53 American hostages were freed moments after Ronald Reagan became president. Carter died in December, at 100.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Lloyd Green

In nearly 100 days on the job, Donald Trump has outlasted Liz Truss and a fabled head of lettuce. That’s a fact, not an achievement. Like the hapless British prime minister, the 47th president blazes a trail of wreckage. Chaos is his calling card. If, when and how the carnage ends is anyone’s guess. The US simultaneously wages economic war on its allies and China. Tariffs soar. It’s as if Trump forgot the words “Smoot-Hawley” and “Great Depression”.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Lloyd Green

“Biden was mentally sharp, even if he appeared physically frail,” Chris Whipple wrote in The Fight of His Life, his 2023 book on the 46th president, who was then warming up his re-election bid at the age of 80. In that book, Whipple quoted Bruce Reed, a senior aide, describing a long-distance flight. When others appeared exhausted, Biden was raring to go, Reed said. Biden showed “unbelievable stamina”.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Lloyd Green

Annie Karni, once of Politico, covers Congress for the New York Times. Her colleague Luke Broadwater, once a Pulitzer prize winner for the Baltimore Sun, makes the Trump administration his beat. As co-authors, at book length of Mad House, they deliver a sharp and wit-filled portrait of Capitol Hill dysfunction. Generally unflattering, Karni and Broadwater dedicate their book on modern US politics to “the leakers, gossips, and busybodies who populate the halls of Congress”.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Lloyd Green

“Trump backs down on tariffs, again. And it doesn’t look strategic,” a headline blared on Wednesday afternoon. At the end of trading, equities had recovered a portion of their losses. But plenty of damage had been done. Markets were thrown into turmoil, interest rates jumped and business activity took a hit. Beyond that, the possibility of a recession grew – and the possibility of a default by the US inched up to 6%, according to prediction markets.