Comment on Bernanke's prospects brighten; vote not yet set

Wall Street Journal: “U. S. stocks roared to another blockbuster showing in 2024. Few expect such a torrid advance in the year to come. The S&P 500 has climbed 24%, notching 57 record closes as the economy remained healthy, inflation ticked lower and an AI-fueled rally in big tech stocks powered on.” “Even with a stumble in the last few trading days, the broad U.

Donald Trump has often cast Washington, DC, as an urban hellscape, but the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said she had a “great meeting” with the president-elect on Monday and came away “optimistic that we will continue to find common ground,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Pentagon on Monday repatriated a Tunisian detainee who was brought to the U. S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the day it opened, was never charged at the war court and was approved for transfer more than a decade ago,” the New York Times reports. “Ridah Bin Saleh al Yazidi, 59, spent years languishing at the wartime prison because deals could not be made to repatriate or resettle him.”

NBC News: “The most expensive House primary in history. A stunning coup to unseat a sitting speaker. The frenzied battle to succeed him. A public campaign by congressional Democrats to force their own incumbent president off the ballot.” “Lawmakers have grown tired of the word ‘unprecedented,’ but the 118th Congress was unlike anything Washington has ever seen.” “The last two years were a story about the struggle for power.

“President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sent a message Sunday ordering nominees to refrain from any posting on social media as Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to start next week,” the New York Post reports. Said Wiles: “While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself.”

The Atlantic: “Donald Trump’s reelection should put an end to two progressive illusions: The first of these illusions is the notion that identity is political destiny; the second is the theory that the Democratic Party has been kept out of power by a white Republican minority thwarting the popular will through means such as voter suppression or gerrymandering.”