Donald Trump might be the luckiest guy in the world. First off, in a single day he (a) was elected president of the United States, (b) escaped all of his criminal prosecutions, and (c) made several billion dollars from his now valuable holdings of Truth Social. He's also accomplished all of his promises:
He says he'll beat inflation, and it's already beaten. Last quarter it clocked in at 1.2% compared to the previous quarter. It was at 2.4% on a year-over-year basis.
He says he'll rein in illegal immigration, and it's already reined in. What's more, job demand has plummeted so pressure on the border will remain low.
He says he wants Israel to giddy up and finish off the war, and it's already winding down of its own accord because there are only so many Palestinians you can kill. It's likely to be over within his first year.
He says he'll turbocharge the economy, and it's already turbocharged. In the latest quarter, real GDP grew 2.8% and is now an astonishing 2.6% above potential GDP. That's the highest it's been in half a century.
He says he'll cut imports from China, and they've already been cut. Last year imports of goods from China came to 1.28% of GDP, the lowest in 20 years.
He says he'll get interest rates down, and they're already coming down. The Fed cut rates by half a point in September and has already promised more cuts to come.
He says he'll produce more oil and gas, and both are already at the highest levels in American history.
He says he'll get crime down, and it's already down because it never went up in the first place. The one thing that did go up was murder, and so far in 2024 it's plummeted to 4.4 per 100,000, the lowest rate in more than 40 years.
There's really not much left for Trump to do. All he has to do is not bollix things up.
We should put these charts up when Trump is inaugurated and the track them through his presidency, kind of like a report card. I may too sanguine here, but I don’t fear his presidency that much because of his incompetence (except for the Ukraine thing). There are no Supreme Court nominees to be had, he simply cannot deport ten million people without resources which he won’t get, the tax cuts were baked in. And whatever he does can be undone later. I do wonder about tariffs, if he pursues that policy there could be some negative consequences to the economy.
It won't matter, he was not elected on the basis of facts. He was elected on the basis that large sections of America are experiencing lower living standards.
The only think he can do is literally threaten America's corporations that he'll raise taxes if they don't lower prices. If the Dems had more balls, they'd have done the same.
The only thing I fear is the christo-fascist agenda of the people he's going to put in charge.
"There are no Supreme Court nominees to be had"
5 of the current Justices are 64 or older (Kagan, Roberts, Sotomayor, Alito, Thomas). Obviously, Kagan and Sotomayor will not voluntarily retire under a Republican President... but Sotomayor has had diabetes for 63 years, and the chance of her dying or being disabled by the disease is not negligible. As for the three wingnuts... I can easily see them pulling an Anthony Kennedy and resigning when they know they'll be replaced with younger wingnuts (probably of their choosing).
Dunno. I feel like we are overdue for a recession. And declining job demand seems like a bad thing to me, but what do I know?
The charts seem to indicate that either a market crash is coming or a major recession. Possibly both. Compare the roaring 20s and the crash of 2008 and the parallels are scary. Housing prices are unsustainable, the difference from 2008 is that there's not trillions of dollars of fraudulent loads hiding under A+ rocks.
Fun fact: Name the last Democratic President to see a recession start on his watch.
Answer: Harry Truman.
Name the last Republican President to NOT have a recession start on his watch.
Answer: Gerald Ford.
And both two-term Republican Presidents in that time had two recessions.
You might want to keep an eye on you investment portfolio and be ready to retrench to bonds. I certainly am.
I fail to see a more concise way to put it. And shoot, there's even pictures! But, when the MSM won't even...
Ne'mine, they might catch on in 2-3 years. It'll be clear AF by year 4.
All of these will no longer be a problem at 12:01 PM January 20th, 2025. Trump will have solved them all by terrifying them just by assuming office.
After Trump has installed his cronies is there some reason we should trust the BLS statistics?
There's really not much left for Trump to do. All he has to do is not bollix things up.
Luckily he can't help himself in that regard. He inherited a nice situation from Obama as well and look what he did with it.
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