sic, going short, economic calamity, Majority government. Lacks a Governing Majority

Mike Johnson’s Big Problem: House G.O.P. Lacks a Governing Majority

With a tiny House margin, right-wing defections and Democratic control of the Senate and White House, the G.O.P. has relied on Democrats to avoid calamity.

Adam Smith would be laughing too hard to say anything. Smith spotted the precise cause of our economic calamity not just before it happened but 232 years before – probably a record for going short.

“A dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitant,” Smith said in The Wealth of Nations. “If it is lett [sic] to a tenant for rent, as the house itself can produce nothing, the tenant must always pay the rent out of some other revenue.” Therefore Smith concluded that, although a house can make money for its owner if it is rented, “the revenue of the whole body of the people can never be in the smallest degree increased by it”. [281] *

亚当•斯密则会笑到说不出话来。他不是只在灾难发生之前，而是在232年前就发现了导致眼下这场经济危机的精确原因——也许创造了卖空的纪录。

斯密在《国富论》(The Wealth of Nations)中写到：“一幢住宅本身不会为其住户带来任何收入。”“如果出租给 房客，由于房屋本身不会创造什么，房客始终必须用一些其它的收入来支付租金。”因此斯密得出结论，尽管出租一幢房屋，可以为其所有者带来收入，“但人群的 总体收入永远不会藉此获得一丁点儿的增加”。（281页）

A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature.

Majority government - Wikipedia

short

1. The sale of a borrowed security, commodity or currency with the expectation that the asset will fall in value.

2. In the context of options, it is the sale (also known as "writing") of an options contract.

Opposite of "long (or long position)".


sic
adv.

Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.

[Latin sīc.]