Another terrible pick by Trump.
I liked Trump and I voted for him, but now I just think he is a fucking idiot.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Trump's pick for Chief Economist wrote this ridiculous book, "Dow 36,000" at the top of the bull market in 1999. You pretty much can't do worse than this.
I'm telling you Mike. Dump and the CNBC morons are one of the same cloth, and many of them are connected to the Mike Maloneys and the Peter Schiffs and the Marc Fabers, and so on. I know you wanted to be optimistic this guy really had actual balls and intellect, but I'm glad you're seeing reality now.
ReplyDeleteBuyer's remorse? It would have been the same no matter who was elected. Even Bernie. Only a puppet can sit in that seat.
ReplyDeleteSo when I examine many of this guy's irrational and downright batshit decisions like hire this clown onto his economic team, I try to think about what a guy like Rick Santelli or a loon like Maria Bartiromo would have done if he/she were president and I don't think there would have been many differences at least from a lot of these decisions in which he basically outsourced to the Heritage Foundation anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis 3-D chess stuff sounds nice and a way to rationalize every piece of BS that comes from this administration somehow, but I much prefer simpler explanations as to why he's made so many terrible decisions in just a few months of being in office. Some people see a "strategy." I'm seeing a moron throwing random darts at the wall and missing 9/10 times, then when something magically goes right, he tries to take all the credit for it.
If HRC was the president, I wouldn't look at her BS through the CNBC moron filter, but rather the Wall Street shill centrist perspective, Obama 2.0 tactics and ultimately more gridlock with the GOP.
Probably sold a lot of books to the mob.....
ReplyDeleteAt the very beginning, when I saw his picks, I started to have my doubts, but I stayed hopeful. Then he threw Flynn under the bus and I pretty much knew the wheels were starting to come off. On economics, Mulvaney, Cohn, the Paul Ryan love, all disasters. And forget geopolitics--the Syria bombing was Iraq WMD's all over again. The guy is a moron. A complete and total idiot. I WANT him to crash the economy now.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been the same no matter who was elected. Even Bernie. Only a puppet can sit in that seat.
ReplyDeleteRight. No substantial change possible without "deconstructing the administrative state" first (Steve Bannon).
It looks like the administrative state is deconstructing Steve Bannon.
This 3-D chess stuff sounds nice and a way to rationalize every piece of BS that comes from this administration somehow, but I much prefer simpler explanations as to why he's made so many terrible decisions in just a few months of being in office. Some people see a "strategy." I'm seeing a moron throwing random darts at the wall and missing 9/10 times, then when something magically goes right, he tries to take all the credit for it.
ReplyDeletePresident's generally outsource their decision-making to "experts."
Their stamp on policy is in choosing which experts get to shape policy.
"Democracy" is really a struggle among factions of the elite and nothing is possible without being implemented through the administrative state. the president can take sides in the struggle among the elite factions but he cannot do too much in changing the administrative state that gives US policy continuity regardless of who wins the most recent election.
Trump outsourced health care reform to Paul Ryan and foreign and military policy to Gen. McMaster and Get. Mattis.
If he doesn’t like what's happening he can say "You're fired" within the executive branch or pick an other faction in Congress to align with.
I WANT him to crash the economy now.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people are going to get badly hurt when that happens, yet or seems to be the only hope we have for change. Which might even be worse. Benevolent dictators are few and far between.
A lot of people are going to get badly hurt when that happens, yet or seems to be the only hope we have for change.
ReplyDeleteThat's generally what it takes to wake people up enough to actually care.
Democracy needs to be participatory to be effective. Now it is mostly just going through the motions so the US can claim "freedom," even thought it is an illusion that is constructed by TPTB.
I think it is inevitable that Trump will cause a recession, likely by 2020. And he will blame Obama and Hillary.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe US economy is in recovery mode, with some "green shoots" sprouting.
but the financial picture is darkening.
The two sources of money creation are banks through extending credit (loans create deposits) and the government spending (crediting nongovernment accounts).
Banks credit extension is falling off a cliff and the government is approaching a debt ceiling with Goldman viewing the politics pessimistically.
Loan performance is also deteriorating.
If Trump's tax cuts (next item up on the agenda) go the way of health care, all bets are off.
https://youtu.be/OD04F2c6bec
ReplyDeleteBuyer's remorse? It would have been the same no matter who was elected. Even Bernie. Only a puppet can sit in that seat.
ReplyDeleteI must differ in the strongest terms here with you and everything Tom Hickey said and anyone succumbing to such illusions.
Not right at all. Just a facile cop-out to ignore the obvious: the president in particular, elected officials in general, have enormous power, and are only puppets if they decide to be.
This is what THEY want you to think: That THEY, the "deep state", TPTB, the billionaire class, whatever, is all-powerful. This belief is THEY's most powerful weapon.
The defeatists united - will always be defeated.
All we have to do is pass a JG for capitalism to roll over and die. Power based on class structure will implode. The liberal interventionists, neocons and war hawks will all shut up and go home, and we will all live happily ever after in a world of distributed prosperity. (snark)
ReplyDeleteAren't Trump's tax cuts for the rich? If they are for the rich wealth extractors then they really won't help the economy anyway will they?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Calgacus. The aristocracy fights so hard to keep people like Bernie out of the White House because they know how much power the president truly has.
ReplyDeleteThe aristocracy fights so hard to keep people like Bernie out of the White House because they know how much power the president truly has.
ReplyDeleteOf course "they" will try to act as gatekeepers. But if they fail, no worries. Look at what happened when Obama/Kerry negotiated a deal with Russia on Syria. Ashton Carter and the Pentagon literally blew it up in short order.
Now the Russians are convinced that the US cannot make a deal because rogue factions will blow it up. They have no one to negotiate with, that is, it is unclear who is in charge.
Tom, yes, that is what I and some others hold/held to be true. A JG gives people the power to say no. So it changes the economic structure of society. So all the other bad stuff - falls apart in pretty short order. "Capitalism" rolls over and dies, because it has a dagger in its heart.
ReplyDeleteThe worshippers of Mammon saw their temple teetering in the 60s/70s during your generation - during and because of the postwar era - and so they needed to change their underpants frequently. But people so often can't see their own power, actual and intellectual. They incessantly resign won games - because they think that is the thing to do y'know - and think things are so much more complicated than they really are. But the ruling classes can see their own power and the obvious - and this perhaps does give them some legitimate right to rule even.
Obama wasn't a progressive president because he very much wanted not to be. He never tried, while he always tried to abase himself before the ruling classes, who largely returned this love - to their dog. If he wanted to "make deals", do whatever progressive thing, he would have, especially in the manifestly uncomfortable-for-him period when he had majorities in both houses, especially in foreign affairs throughout his term, where the president's power is enormous, and Obama greatly, unprecedentedly, criminally extended it.
Where in the Constitution does it say Ashton Carter & the Pentagon have power over the President & the Secretary of State in foreign affairs? Imagine, as Chomsky suggested once, the repercussions if the President even simply announced that the US would (attempt to) follow international law - (after all, we USAns pretty much wrote it - (modern) international law).
Thanks for the agreement, Tyler. The ruling class still is terrified of Bernie & even that Trump might be a Bernie. Otherwise, why their interminable anti-Trump propaganda antics, that can even make him look reasonable?
Calgacus, I might agree if an ironclad JG was adopted as a constitutional amendment. Otherwise, I agree with Dan Lynch, it is just a matter of time before it is turned around, gutted, or repeal by TPTB that see their power and control threatened.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even the constitutional amendment that ended slavery de jure did not end it de facto, and while the descendants of the slaves are certainly in a better position now than their slave ancestors, it is still a pretty bleak life from many if not most of them.
Until the power structure that is base class structure is confronted there will be only temporary and palliative solutions. That means at a minimum getting the money out of politics, ending lobbying and locking the revolving door. This too will take a constitutional amendment after Citizens United.
And that just levels the playing field to the degree that significant change is possible. Then law have to be passed that deconstructs and levels the class and power structures that result in asymmetries which give a relatively small cohort social, political and economic control and create privilege and a double standard of justice.
Call this "Jacobinism" if you like.