Opinion - Leland Vittert's War Notes: Betting Against America

Yahoo

12-04-2025

NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 pm ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.
Editor's note: The week of the Masters – and certainly the Thursday and Friday of it – should be considered national holidays.
But they are not – therefore, I offer you an abbreviated War Notes so you and I can get back to what we should be doing – eating pimento cheese sandwiches and watching golf.
Reckoning: Finally, America's elite universities face a reckoning over:
Their wildly illiberal neo-Marxist views and the pulling of federal funding.
Listen to conservative activist Christopher Rufo on The New York Times' 'The Daily' podcast:
🎤 'And so look, reforming institutions, you have to deal with three things. The raw material of politics is money, power, and status. And so as I run campaigns, for example, the successful campaign to oust the president of Harvard University at the beginning of last year, that's what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about how can we take away their money? How can we take away their power? How can we take away their status to the point that we're causing so much pain to the decision-makers, in this case, the members of the Harvard Corporation, so that they have to change?'
Their insane endowments – some are the size of a small country's GDP – yet rising tuition on degrees with no ROI – think a Ph.D. for $300k in feminist poetry.
Hear what Scott Galloway had to say:
'If you're in the top 1% income earning a kid in a top 1% household you're 77 times more likely to get into an elite school than the bottom 99. Is that what America's about? So I believe that if you are not growing your freshman class faster than population growth and you have an endowment over a billion dollars, I think you should lose your tax-free status because you're no longer a public servant. You're a hedge fund with classes.'
The growing realization by much of America is that a 4-year degree is no longer the ticket to a better life than their parents.
Watch tonight: Chris Cilliza on whether American universities are just another institution that President Trump will destroy or if they destroyed themselves.
For the first time in a major financial crisis, people are betting against America.
Typically, in a financial crisis, everyone buys U.S. Treasury bills because the safest bet is in the full faith and credit of the United States.
The price of treasuries goes up with higher demand, and then the yield goes down.
This has allowed the government (whichever party is in control) incredible flexibility in past crises.
Think about all the debt issued during COVID at very low interest rates.
People wanted security, and the United States provided that.
For the first time, the opposite is happening.
The yield on treasuries is going up, and the price is going down – more people are selling than buying.
Yes, I know this is an overly simplistic view, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.
The lack of demand for treasuries at a time of financial panic is different and dangerous.
As Axios puts it, 'The world's hot new trade is 'sell America.''
As we told you when President Biden told everyone the economy was great, people don't need to be told how to feel – and right now, Americans are scared. So is the rest of the world.
Consumer confidence is at its second lowest since 1952 – Trump must address this by something other than saying how many great deals he will do.
The tariff policy is all over the place.
Will tariffs pay off our national debt, or are they negotiating tools?
They can't be both.
Trump's goals appear ever-changing and ill-defined.
Are we uniting the world against China, or is this about bringing iPhone manufacturing to America?
The world no longer sees America as an honest friend and ally.
This is the biggest problem: If America first becomes America alone, then China will fill the void.
We have spent the past 10 days largely defending President Trump for a Ronald Reagan-like gamble to confront China and level the playing field.
💪 Trump and his team must figure out a way to do it that makes America stronger while taking this gamble.
Yes, but China and the Democrats keep undermining him.
Reality: He is the president – it's his job to figure it out, sell it to the American people and stay the course.
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