Timothy Taylor, the Conversable Economist, tracks down the oft-told story of William Lee and his knitting machine.

While tariffs and tariff threats have become a leading source of stock market volatility, they have had little impact on US business investment.

Last June, a private equity firm called Vintage Capital Management LLC agreed to buy Rent-A-Center Inc. for $15 per share (about $800 million total, $1.37 billion including debt). As is normal in public-company mergers and acquisitions, the deal could not close right away; Vintage owned another rent-to-own retailer and so there was likely to be a lengthy antitrust review. Vintage and Rent-A-Center agreed that if the deal had not closed by Dec. 17, then either party could walk away, but they also agreed that, if they were still waiting for legal approvals at that time, either side could extend this “drop-dead date” by three months (and then again by another three months).

White House advisor — just hours after President blasted the — doubled down Monday, singling out the central bank as the biggest threat to U.S. economic growth. Appearing on Navarro said the Fed should pause its interest rate hikes — not because growth is slowing, but because growth is strong with barely any inflation.