Don’t Believe the Hype about this Being such a Great Economy…I’ve said all along the economy isn’t nearly as good as it’s purported to be. And now indications are things are likely slowing down. We don’t need a full-fledged recession to deny Trump a second term. A well-timed cooling-off period could be a small price to pay in removing a dishonest, divisive & dangerous demagogue: businessinsider.com/voters-like-the-economy-but-recession-could-cost-trump-2020. It could allow our nation a much-needed fresh start with a new president who strives to do what’s best for America & not entirely focused on themselves. And hopefully they can initiate policies to help the struggling middle class instead of being entirely focused on enriching the wealthy. Our economy is doing great for some, but way too many workers still aren’t getting ahead & it’s time to put this failed trickle-down experiment to bed for good. So as always here in Part 3, we have several articles hot off the newsfeeds explaining what’s really going on with the economy.
Most Living Paycheck to Paycheck
It’s revealed in this opening to usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/14/paycheck-to-paycheck-most-americans-struggle-financially-survey-says:
When you have a seemingly endless list of bills to pay and financial responsibilities to take care of, it can be tough to make sure there’s enough money to go around. The average American is struggling to make ends meet each month, with 59% of U.S. adults saying they live paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent survey from Charles Schwab. Furthermore, nearly half of survey participants say they carry credit card debt and struggle to keep up with the payments. If you’re having a hard enough time paying the bills and putting food on the table without racking up debt, saving for the future is probably the last thing on your mind. Only 38% of people have an emergency fund, according to Charles Schwab, and one in five Americans don’t have a dime saved for retirement, according to a survey from Northwestern Mutual.
Unyielding & Escalating Economic Disparity is Actually a Drag on Growth
See the last part to theweek.com/articles/858942/rich-peoples-excessive-income-about-strangle-economy:
Another thing Trump and the GOP have done is dump a giant pile of money on rich people with tax cuts, further exacerbating U.S. income inequality (which was already horrible). And all other things being equal, greater inequality means a weaker, more vulnerable economy. The reasons are threefold. First, rich people spend a smaller fraction of their income, which saps demand for goods and services. Second, lack of broadly-distributed spending power means less prospect for profitable investment — why start a new business when most people’s budgets are already tapped out? (As Matt Stoller argues, the investment problem is further exacerbated by galloping monopolization in most markets, which makes it all but impossible for new businesses to compete with existing behemoths, even if there are plenty of potential customers.) Finally, the one way the masses can keep up their consumption is by borrowing, which of course can’t go on forever — and when the economy does hit a rock, the ensuing recession will be much worse as the whole population struggles to escape a big debt overhang at the same time.
As economist John Kenneth Galbraith argued, one of the factors behind the great crash of 1929 was the “bad distribution of income.” The top 5 percent of Americans accounted for about a third of income in those days. Today the share of income going to the ultra-rich is about as great as it was in 1929. Chester Bowles, the former head of the Office of Price Administration in World War II, argued brilliantly that the bedrock cause of the Great Depression was “lack of sufficient money in the pockets of Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen[.]” In the ’20s productivity and profits soared, but wages did not (sound familiar?). Eventually investment in new homes and factories sagged, and the rest of the vast corporate pyramid — built without a sound foundation of working-class consumption — caved in on itself. A recession is coming, whether tomorrow or some future date. When that comes we should remember that a colossally top-heavy income distribution is a serious threat to our economy and take steps to fling money down the ladder.
Government of the Donors, by the Donors & for the Donors
Like a reverse Robin Hood, the transfer of wealth is actually going to the top as detailed in excerpts from marketwatch.com/story/trump-has-turned-the-government-against-the-middle-class:
The critical question is who writes those rules and who benefits from them. Under the Trump administration, the answer is clear: the economic rules have been rewritten to enrich wealthy donors and politicians and to hurt working- and middle-class families. Look no further than Trump’s signature legislation: his tax bill. Congressional supporters of the legislation repeatedly admitted that the reason they pushed the bill was to satisfy their donors. It’s not hard to see why; the vast majority of the benefits of the legislation go to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. And while most working- and middle-class families saw a temporary tax cut, the permanent tax cuts for corporations are paid for by permanent tax increases on the middle-class.
But if middle-class families were getting any benefit from the tax bill, it’s likely been wiped out by the new costs that Trump is imposing on them through tariffs. Trump claims these tariffs are about helping workers. But to the extent there is any coherent strategy behind them, they are aimed at helping large corporations secure even larger profits, not at increasing workers’ wages. While Trump argues that the cost of tariffs is being borne by China, the real loser is the American consumer. All told, these Trump tariffs cost the average family $831 a year, more than offsetting the average tax cut for a household in the bottom 80%. And now Trump is saying he’ll impose even more costs on the American people as part of his erratic and ineffectual trade policy. But this is not the only area where Trump is driving up costs for the middle-class to increase corporate profits; he’s used a wide range of government powers to take actions that hurt working families.
Trump has given away hundreds of billions of dollars to the wealthy and corporations, helping conservative donors, members of Congress, and himself. Meanwhile, he’s raised costs on American families through a mixture of cutting their wages, driving up their spending, and draining their retirement savings. By setting the economic rules of the road, government has the power to make it easier for some and harder for others. You can learn a lot about an administration’s priorities by seeing how it utilizes these powers. Under Trump, these powers have been used time and time again to benefit corporations and the wealthy at the expense of working- and middle-class families.
Sugar Highs are Only Temporary
There is no bigger long-term strategy from this administration & the sugar high from their tax cuts are wearing off, as explained in this article pulled from rawstory.com/2019/08/sugar-highs-are-temporary-robert-reich-warns-trumps-economic-policy-is-extremely-dangerous-and-could-crash-everything:
On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich warned anchor Ari Melber that President Donald Trump’s “extremely dangerous” economic agenda could finally end the “sugar high” of the stock market and send America into a tailspin. “I think there are two big issues here,” said Reich. “He did not contribute to the fact that it’s a very, very long recovery. Long in the tooth. You get to nine or ten years and you’re almost definitely going to have a recession. But what he contributed to is, number one, this huge tax cut that was kind of steroidal lift, it was kind of a sugar high for the entire stock market that could not go on. It was temporary. Sugar highs are temporary.” “The second thing is China,” said Reich. “This trade war with China, not only is there no strategy, but it also is extremely dangerous. This is the largest and second-largest economies in the entire world. And to have them going at each other is dangerous for the whole world economy.” “This is the most unfocused president,” added Reich. “This is a president who not only doesn’t know details, but he lies about the details he does know. No, there’s not going to be any focus. There’s no economic strategy. There’s nobody around him capable of even advising him and having him listen to on economic strategy.”
Short Bits about the Economy
The labor market remains broken for those without college degrees. We need to aggressively pursue solutions which could include these ideas: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/14/the-us-labor-market-is-broken-but-an-opportunity-marketplace-could-save-it
The disparities have grown into grossly one-sided disproportions: yahoo.com/finance/news/ceo-pay-worker-difference
In this upside-down economy, it can’t be as great as Trump claims when it’s not so great, featuring exploding deficits & secular stagnation: npr.org/sections/money/2019/08/13/750567617/is-our-economy-in-the-upside-down
The American Dream best achieved elsewhere: vox.com/2019/8/15/20801907/raj-chetty-ezra-klein-social-mobility-opportunity
The root of the anger is in the lack of economic opportunity, which the far-right has mistakenly redirected the blame to groups like immigrants. They should instead be looking at corporate greed that suppresses wages: salon.com/2019/08/15/whats-destroying-our-civil-society-white-supremacy-or-relentless-corporate-marketing
What are we waiting for?: vox.com/2019/8/15/20807616/what-us-gets-wrong-minimum-wage
Healthcare keeps getting more unaffordable: axios.com/employers-health-care-costs-premiums-deductibles
The big con: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/18/trump-economic-record-one-big-lie
Technically, our manufacturing sector is already in a recession:
yahoo.com/finance/news/us-industrial-output-fell-0
thehill.com/policy/finance/457771-manufacturing-shrinks-raising-questions-for-trump
Our prez keeps lying to us here in the rust-belt states, because telling the truth would blow his cover:
rollcall.com/news/whitehouse/trump-reprises-one-man-savior-pitch-latest-visit-rust-belt-battleground
Coerced messaging:
gq.com/story/trump-speech-workers-wages
esquire.com/news-politics/a28728229/trump-shell-factory-workers-visit
More lies to support his fictional alternate reality: nytimes.com/2019/08/13/business/economy/donald-trump-jobs-created.html
The U.S. caste system leaves many groveling to the whims of the wealthy: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/americas-hot-new-job-being-rich-persons-servant
Trump envisions an authoritarian, white nationalist, oligarchy, propaganda messaging, demagogic-utopian dream in which the working class is given short thrift & remain a low priority: nytimes.com/2019/08/12/opinion/trump-billionaires.html
Many far-right echo voices totally out of touch: huffpost.com/entry/ben-shapiro-working-jobs-backlash
Trump’s rallies have gotten boring from the tiresome repetition & insults:
theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/trumps-new-hampshire-rally-was-2016-throwback
dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/16/1879472/-LOL-EmptySeatMAGATour-is-Trending
The prez acts on impulse without thinking things through, while he governs by spin instead of reality: huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-casino-executive-economy
While he’s increasingly showing signs of losing it:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/16/trump-seems-have-lost-it-so-what-do-we-do
Trump stewardship hemorrhaging money like a drunk sailor: mediaite.com/politics/u-s-budget-deficit-up-27-approaching-1-trillion
About a half-century behind the times, this Trump economic adviser has become a fiscal & monetary nitwit, literally disgraced as a laffing stock:
Every single second Trump serves as president he’s out of his element. And every second Trump holds the office our nation is at heightened risk: theweek.com/articles/859141/donald-trumps-moment-crisis
This may seem like a relatively minor deal but could become a big deal. When the prez cuts funding to research this issue & green lights the harmful pesticides that could be causing the problem, that’s purely idiotic: businessinsider.com/world-without-bees-food-less-nutritious-more-expensive
So Many Americans Continue to Struggle, Including…
Country residents: axios.com/the-rural-america-death-spiral
politico.com/story/2019/08/17/rural-digital-divide-democratic-candidates
Older residents: thehill.com/policy/finance/457447-report-americans-unprepared-for-retirement
Small business owners: thehill.com/opinion/finance/457315-lawmakers-should-spend-recess-talking-to-small-business-owners
Retail owners & workers: businessinsider.com/stores-closing-in-2019-list
Farmers: alternet.org/2019/08/trumps-big-farmer-grift-hes-giving-millions-to-the-rich-while-starving-the-poor
Truckers: businessinsider.com/trucking-truckers-bloodbath-signals-recession-inverted-yield
Workers feel trapped with a sense of alienation, as their wages & net worth are still struggling to recover: apnews.com/6c9263d76e9e477da15abaec2045f6c9/employees-feel-devalued
Labor lacks a voice:
time.com/5652321/workers-rigged-economy
alternet.org/2019/08/how-democrats-can-win-back-workers-in-2020
Trump is Very Worried over the Economy & Wants to Pass the Blame
He’s privately rattled since the economy looks to be slowing:
apnews.com/420ad0daa2fd4ed29a91b7335b9c390e/recession-signs-worry-trump
nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/frank-rich-trump-makes-herbert-hoover-look-like-fdr
dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/16/1879423/–He-s-rattled-Paranoid-Trump-broods-about-possible-recession
The signs are flashing red: theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/16/us-economy-recession-what-to-watch-for
Consumer sentiment is falling:
time.com/5654375/consumer-confidence-donald-trump
As a preemptive strike his base will believe because they’ll believe anything, Trump is blaming the Dems, the media, respected economists, the man on the moon & anyone else he can blame for a softening economy. But most of all, he wants to pin the blame on Fed Chairman Powell:
salon.com/2019/08/17/trump-blames-market-meltdown-on-fake-news-conspiracy-of-weenies
alternet.org/2019/08/heres-how-trump-will-desperately-try-to-save-himself-if-the-economy-tanks
To blame the Fed is disingenuous & patently absurd, because our nation is due for a recession after this long recovery, there are strong signals of a global slowdown, Trump has introduced such uncertainty, volatility & high deficits to the economy, & especially the China trade wars have almost everything to do with the probable downturn, not the Fed. Also keep in mind interest rates are still at historically low levels, so Trump has very little reason to complain:
vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/donald-trump-clueless-jay-powell
newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-trade-war-could-make-the-trump-recession-a-reality
The prez & his administration have no plan: washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-a-dream-team-for-mismanaging-a-recession
Most of Trump’s incoherent thoughts come from Fox fake news: thehill.com/policy/finance/457435-trump-hammers-federal-reserve-citing-commentary-from-fox-business
The buck stops where? Trump constantly blames others for things he doesn’t like which he himself is actually responsible for: dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/14/1879053/-The-TrumpRecession-approaches-as-a-clueless-Individual-1-shifts-blame
So rest assured he’ll keep lying about it:
theguardian.com/culture/2019/aug/16/seth-meyers-trump-lying-late-night-recap
crooksandliars.com/2019/08/twitter-speculates-about-obviously-drunk
And he’ll hide behind his security blanket of Fox & the echo: dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/14/1879056/-Trump-is-Panic-Tweeting-FOX-News-Denials-of-Imminent-Threat-of-the-Trump-Recession
So in his panic he’s lashing out, knowing a declining economy would spell doom for his reelection. A good economy would otherwise be about the only thing he could run on: alternet.org/2019/08/trump-is-panicked-and-lashing-out-at-his-own-appointee-as-clueless-while-markets-nosedive
It’s probably up to the next president to fix trade: vox.com/2019/8/16/20807099/trump-tariffs-china-trade-policy-democrats
There’s an irony in Trump’s nonsensical blather when he pressures the Feds to lower interest rates, in that when an economic downturn does hit, interest rates could already be too low to pump up the economy by lowering them further. Trump has already gone to the well of deficit-fueled tax cuts for the rich, so the arsenal to juice the economy during a slowdown is now limited: alternet.org/2019/08/trumps-allies-fear-he-is-running-out-of-tools-to-boost-us-economy-report
Despite Good Intentions, It’s Trump Who’s Hurting the Economy
I fully understand what Trump is trying to do by forcing a renegotiated trade deal with China, as they’ve been picking off our manufacturing jobs for decades & have no shame about stealing our intellectual property. But his dealmaking approach leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of working cooperatively by also bringing in our allies to help reshape multilateral deals, the president’s isolationist bilateral strategy of going it alone with tariffs that evolved into a trade war is a high-risk ploy. American consumers are really paying for the tariffs, many sectors of the business community are really feeling the pain, & I get the impression China is just stringing us along until they get to work with a new president in just a year & a half: bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-17/china-can-afford-to-wait-out-trump-on-trade-deal-opinion.
So I cheer on the president’s underlying intent since he’s the only president who’s even tried to address this serious issue in earnest, but I do question his tactics. If he can soon strike a good deal he’ll look like a genius. If he can’t or craters to a deal like with the new NAFTA which really does little to improve the situation (alternet.org/2019/08/why-trumps-new-nafta-and-closing-factories-should-strike-fear-into-the-heart-of-the-american-worker), his tariffs/trade wars will go down as a dud. And without a deal the economy will likely keep suffering, so here are articles speculating on where we’re heading as we head into an election year. The real shame of this is so many Americans are already in a precarious financial situation, so a recession could put them underwater:
newsweek.com/trumprecession-trends-dow-drops-800-points-americans-blame-president-looming-recession
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/14/trump-roils-markets-again
washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-scare-of-a-recession-calls-for-exactly-what-trump-cant-provide
washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-has-one-playbook-and-very-few-plays-left-in-it
nytimes.com/2019/08/15/opinion/trump-economy.html
thehill.com/policy/finance/457778-economic-angst-rises-at-bad-time-for-trump
huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-recession-2020-election
salon.com/2019/08/13/donald-trump-is-driving-america-off-an-economic-cliff-but-is-it-deliberate
salon.com/2019/08/14/there-is-a-1-in-3-chance-of-a-recession-by-2020-thanks-to-trumps-trade-wars
salon.com/2019/08/15/trumprecession-trending-will-he-get-the-blame-for-coming-economic-meltdown
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-15/trump-s-re-election-now-at-the-mercy-of-a-slowing-economy
bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-15/trump-recession-trend-is-going-to-stick
theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/16/trump-2020-reelection-message-economy
motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/08/trump-deserves-an-economic-downturn
nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/should-we-root-for-a-recession-to-get-trump-out-of-office
Looking Ahead to 2020
Trump looks for election fraud in all the wrong places. And he’ll ramp up the conspiracy of mass voter fraud when he loses in 2020: washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/14/trump-wants-focus-real-threat-elections-not-russia-imaginary-voter-fraud
Big money badly distorts politics & that needs to change: time.com/5651417/constitutional-amendment-campaign-finance
No wonder politicians cower to the rich: dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/18/1879798/-Citizens-United-root-of-all-government-evil
Please Dems, run on what’s popular: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/democrats-left-popular
Healthcare, infrastructure & gun laws at the core of the Dem platform: alternet.org/2019/08/trump-is-dividing-america-here-are-4-democratic-policies-that-can-unite-us
Immigration reform is popular: thehill.com/homenews/457180-large-majority-of-americans-want-undocumented-immigrants-in-us-to-be-granted
An assault weapons ban is popular:
rawstory.com/2019/08/its-not-democrats-who-are-making-guns-a-political-issue-its-all-the-dead-bodies
Trump backtracks again, despite practically everyone except some NRA members who favor background checks: newsweek.com/el-paso-dayton-trump-nra-red-flag-background-checks-guns
And the public has gotten scared: time.com/5653218/mass-shootings-stress
Even a Fox News poll bodes poorly for Trump. His disapproval ratings have risen into the high 50’s, plus in head-to-head matchups with top Dem contenders he loses badly & doesn’t make it out of the high 30’s:
nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/if-this-fox-news-poll-is-right-trump-will-lose-in-2020
washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/16/troubling-signs-trump-this-new-fox-news-poll
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/16/talk-about-electability-trump-is-not
thehill.com/homenews/administration/457480-trump-disapproval-rises-to-near-record-fox-news-poll
usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/15/trump-rating-down-fox-news-poll-following-mass-shootings
mediaite.com/trump/scaramucci-and-omarosa-appear-together-on-msnbc-to-assess-trumps-decline
thinkprogress.org/trumps-disastrous-trade-war-has-wiped-out-his-polling-advantage-on-the-economy-afe
palmerreport.com/analysis/anthony-scaramucci-might-actually-be-right-for-once
palmerreport.com/analysis/friday-night-news-terrible-trump-donald
And there are subtle signs his base is weakening. When & if the crap hits the fan over the next few months, that base could crumble. When a person keeps burning bridges along the way as Trump does, when the wheels do come off is when his approval ratings could tank. There will always be those mesmerized by him who’ll never leave his cult, but here’s hoping a good chunk of the GOP base can soon get a grip & clearly see the president for who he really is:
alternet.org/2019/08/trump-is-losing-many-of-his-2016-supporters
theweek.com/articles/858707/everyone-eventually-turn-trump-even-steve-doocy-
huffpost.com/entry/writer-predicts-the-humiliating-way-it-will-all-end-for-donald-trump
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/15/things-stay-same-until-they-dont
And yes, priority #1 is to defeat Trump: nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/electability-obsession-explains-democratic-focus-on-trump
I’m with Nichols. Anyone is better than a lying, corrupt demagogue. Even in 2016 I said Barney Fife or Homer Simpson would be a better president than Trump:
usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/08/15/2020-democrat-will-get-my-vote-never-trump-ex-republican
Can They Still Come to America?
We are a nation of immigrants. It’s how America was built. But we currently have leadership in place who want to dismantle who we really are. They’re bringing a culture of anger & hatred perpetrated by Trump & his racist/bigoted adviser from hell, Stephen Miller. Their intent is to terrorize families living here & at the border by ripping kids from their parents. These articles spell it out & our selected song is contained inside the article in the final link, & like the song says hang on to a dream, freedom’s light burning warm:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-waste-energy-proving-trumps-racism-get-him-out-of-the-white-house
theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/17/us-immigration-crisis-turning-point
nytimes.com/2019/08/17/us/politics/stephen-miller-immigration-trump.html
nytimes.com/2019/08/17/opinion/sunday/cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty.html
nytimes.com/2019/08/18/world/americas/guatemala-violence-women-asylum.html
huffpost.com/entry/mississippi-ice-raids-parents-baby-breastfeeding
huffpost.com/entry/proud-boys-mission-trump-antifa-portland
thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-declare-portland-rally-a-success-go-look-at-president-trumps-twitter
huffpost.com/entry/anderson-cooper-starts-show-donald-trump
salon.com/2019/08/18/donald-trump-and-the-republican-party-hate-america-its-time-to-say-it
axios.com/immigrant-owned-businesses-billions-economy
rawstory.com/2019/08/trump-is-the-nightmare-from-which-we-cant-wake-up
Song inside the link & posted are the opening lyrics… salon.com/2019/08/15/whose-america-is-it-neil-diamonds-big-inclusive-vision-vs-donald-trumps-narrow-hatred
Far
We’ve been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star
Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream
Recent Comments