Credit: Getty Images.

Last Monday, President Donald J. Trump boasted that the U.S. government was getting richer thanks to his planned deal to take a 10% share in the chip giant Intel.

“I love seeing their stock price go up, making the USA RICHER, AND RICHER," he posted.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

In the real world, however, the price of Intel stock actually fell on Monday. It fell again on Tuesday.

But Mr. Trump is not one to be troubled by reality, nor by the fact that financial experts on the right and the left believe government ownership of stakes in private business and direct, centralized control of the economy is a bad idea. Mr. Trump is so convinced of his financial genius that he’s openly threatening to take shares in even more businesses, in what one economist with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute called “corporate shakedowns.”

There’s more: The president is also trying to seize control of the Federal Reserve, the independent entity that sets monetary policy, starting with the quite possibly illegal firing of a Fed commissioner who refused to bow to his demand to........

© Times Union