Poof. There Goes Our Retirements
How long does it take to destroy a nation? It depends on the incompetence of the person elected to lead it.
Donald J. Trump probably will go down as Russia’s greatest sleeper agent, or the United States’ very own Caligula and Nero combined. As the world’s stability became shattered by his tariff actions, he flew down to his palace in Florida to play golf and bask in cash and adulation being given to him at his golf courses. The Trump version of fiddling while the world burned.
How did our once great nation end up with this flim-flam artist? A guy who held himself out as a business genius but went bankrupt 6 times. He is a marketeer who is better than any informational TV pitchman in selling junk. This is the guy who has pretty much wrecked the United States. It must have been his doppelganger that attended Wharton because Trump didn’t absorb basic economics taught there.
Trump’s first-term advisors were, for the most part, serious men and women who understood the economy, law and government. This time, I think he has picked those of no experience or accomplishments except blind loyalty to Trump to run the country. Of course, he is being aided by a Congress which has become less and less interested in governing but more and more ready to play politics.
How long will the courts be able to at least keep the appearance of a lawful administration that adheres to the Constitution? This week may see the end of Trump even pretending to obey court orders. I believe we are very close to tipping into full blown autocracy.
If Americans hadn’t had their retirement savings wiped out, we could take comfort in our 401-K balances. We are falling fast into not only a banana republic but a poor one at that. How do all the oligarchs feel now about losing their billions with a crazy tariff plan that was destined to fail.
What economist, whether they are Keynesian or from the Austrian/Hayek School, thinks slapping on tariffs will do anything more than wreck an economy and perhaps lead to an economic if not also a shooting war?
Trump has succeeded in wiping out more wealth in three days than the Great Depression did even adjusted for inflation. All in the name of some delusional take on a history that never happened. If tomorrow we could open manufacturing plants for cars, parts, trucks, and anything else you could imagine, they would require a fraction of the workers they did in 1960. The plant employees would be either engineers or janitors with nowhere near as many assembly workers.
And as to the high tariffs on places like Vietnam and Bangladesh, they can’t afford to buy much from us so of course we have huge imbalances. Does the United States really want to have our workers make blouses? How much would a garment cost if that were the case today?
Economics would tell us that countries should produce the goods and services that they excel at creating and making, and I underline services. Because nowhere in the Trump tariff formula are the services we sell included in the equation.
When Americans export expertise to the rest of the world, we are paid for that the same as if a car is sold. A book written by an American author that sells in 70 countries has a value. That is the same for music, films, and other intellectual properties such as software. In those areas, we have huge balance of trade surpluses in our favor.
Donald J. Trump is living a delusional lie. Enough Americans have bought into his fantasies to make him president for the second time. Oligarchs plowed billions into his campaign to sell the idea of his brilliance. They were just looking out for their bottom lines, not the country’s. So far, their portfolios are suffering as well.
They say the first 100 days are the most consequential in any administration. Trump is sure proving that right. I can only hope what comes next is nowhere near as earth shattering.
