If I was running for president, there isn’t much I would do differently than Trump on the economy:
1.) First, the useless wars have sucked trillions of dollars out of our economy and run up the national debt, much of which we now owe to China, Japan, and the Gulf States. Just imagine all the things that money could have done had it been invested here instead of on a crusade to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan.
2.) Second, Trump understands the most important problem with the American economy is globalization. Corporations can relocate overseas to avoid paying taxes. Rich people can hide their money in overseas tax shelters. Corporations can lay off their American workers, relocate to countries like Mexico, hire foreign workers at a fraction of the cost, and export back to the United States duty free and avoid paying taxes as well as our healthcare, environmental, and labor laws. We have also allowed a huge influx of immigrants to compete with American workers in non-tradable working class jobs like construction. If you are not going to address that fundamental problem, you are not serious about creating working class jobs.
3.) Third, everything else about the American economy turns on globalization. You can tinker with the tax code, but it isn’t going to make much of a difference (i.e., a 33% or 38% rate) if you can relocate your corporate headquarters to Ireland, or hide your wealth in the Cayman Islands. You can expand healthcare to millions of uninsured people, but you might just be creating another incentive to relocate production overseas. You can raise the minimum wage and heavily regulate the economy, but the jobs will flee a Michigan to an Alabama and then beyond to a Guatemala as long as free-trade exists. Finally, free college tuition and childcare might improve the life of some at the margins, but without millions of new jobs being created it will just drive up the national debt.
4.) Fourth, resource extraction industries – oil, coal, natural gas, timber, etc. – are the easiest way to stimulate working class employment. The Democrats want to ban fracking and shut down the coal industry in order to create “green jobs” in solar and wind. Not only is it ludicrous (too little energy generated), but it creates a false choice in energy policy. Texas is the king of oil, solar, and wind. Most Northern states are neither windy or sunny, but Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania have lots of gas. California has offshore oil.
5.) Finally, every other major country addresses trade policy from the standpoint of their national interest instead of dogmatic adherence to liberal abstractions. If it suits a Japan or a South Korea to be for free-trade, they are pro-free trade. Right now, it doesn’t suit China to care much about intellectual property rights, but that could change as it did in the past with Japan and South Korea. We lack the language and the concepts to even talk about a trade policy that is “good for the Americans.”
It is the morning after the first debate and I can’t remember anything Hillary said she was going to do about the economy except raise taxes, create a childcare entitlement, and create jobs in the solar industry. If nothing else, that was heard loud and clear in many parts of the country.
Update: RE: labor unions.
Labor unions are another issue that turn on free-trade and globalization. Within the Union, states that have right-to-work laws will have an advantage over those which do not in a common market. Businesses will flee states that offer fewer subsidies, have higher taxes, and stricter labor and environmental laws. See the exodus of jobs and people from states like California and Illinois to Texas and Florida.
The same principle applies to the world at large. It will be cheaper for many businesses to ship jobs and plants from Alabama and South Carolina to Vietnam and Mexico. Unless there is an external tariff that counterbalances the costs of production in the United States (taxes, labor, environment, civil rights, etc.), working class jobs will continue to be sucked overseas to low-tax, low-wage, low-regulation Third World countries.
If you are looking to reduce income inequality, the ideal economic system would shackle finance and banking to discourage speculation, encourage unionization, strongly discourage immigration, and maintain a much higher external tariff. This is the system we effectively had after the Second World War. The difference is that the wartime devastation overseas compensated for the reduction in the tariff for a few decades. When Japan and Western Europe rebuilt, the American economy became less competitive.
She’s going to create 10 million clean energy jobs. Is that on top of the six million Obama promised to deliver and never materialized?
And like all the tens of millions of 3rd worlders we have plus tens of millions more really demonstrate a burning desire for cleanliness.
Yep.
I guess she’s gonna subsidize all the illegal aliens to generate electricity by riding exercise bicycles at a $15/hr min wage.
How can the Clintons seriously believe in “Green Energy” being a plausible alternative unless they are lying to get environmental wacko votes, or got paid off by someone who wants them to kill the US energy industry.
I don’t think they actually believe in anything but the money. The money that goes to them, that is. Too bad about everyone else, especially the fools who voted for them.
That stupid supply side tax plan that Trump had to swallow to keep the GOP establishment off his back is hurting him.
He has changed the tax plan several times. I think he raised the top rate to 33%.
Trump made an excellent point about how America’s crumbling infrastructure could’ve been rebuilt several times over with the money spent on those pointless, endless wars in the middle east. The Catheter Queen offers nothing new or different, just exporting more American jobs and importing more violent brown people.
Catheter Queen, I like that.
I noticed Bedpan Hillary was wearing a devil-red pant suit in the debate, presumably to suggest that she is aggressive or something. I wonder just how many of those cult-leader outfits she has in her wardrobe? She’s got a new one for each day of the week. No doubt she spends a lot more on pantsuits than she does on donating to charity, even though limousine liberals like her claim to be very compassionate, caring people.
The $100bn of illegal gains in her Foundation should be able to cover a lot of clothes as well as a lot of medical care.
Trump’s message outpaces the messenger.
He won the debate by not flubbing. As long as he isn’t scaring people, they will vote against globalism.
My wife had breakfast with a female friend who grew up in Connecticut. She is often critical of Trump’s demeanor. She said he appeared to be more presidential than he normally is so he is winning her over.
This is where some people really make me want to throw up my hands and extricate myself to a life of hermitdom. None of the big issues matter, nothing that the candidate actually says matters. Just like Labrador Retrievers, all they notice is demeanor and intonation.
I know his performance was not a flawless thing. I never really thought about him before his Run. For what it’s worth, though – he now possesses my undying love, admiration, and gratitude. Any person, possessing a shred of Human decency, honesty, and integrity could NOT have listened to him last night, and NOT understood that he meant EVERY word he said, and he is 300 million gadjillion bazillion SINCERE in his reasons for running for office.
And this has the potentiality of hurting his businesses,too.
Meh.
Don’t know that slang yet?
All I was saying is he’s really sticking his neck out.
Meh
Indifference; to be used when one simply does not care.
A: What do you want for dinner?
B: Meh.
by Harold Lauder November 16, 2002
Unlike the bitch from Hell….
They have been calling him Hitler…he just came across as sincere. Even the beta boy qualifications on his $14 million was sorta school boyish charming. I also monitored the talk radio feedback…it’s a lot of people saying he should have x y z ed on her scandals so they are doing the scandal mongering for him. He’s got the plebs sputtering about this scandal and that.
I didn’t like Trump’s performance, but I didn’t like Hillary’s either, so … draw.
Culturally Americans are splintering apart and it is the economy that is the lynch pin of commonality.
So it is social respectability and the economy. With the Obama bubble either running out of gas and the banksters faced with a choice of tough medicine or blow up the dollar I dare say the Democratic party and the establishment as a whole is stale beer to a thirsty electorate.
Trump should allow one year for Bankruptcy for any reason (including credit cards and student loans). If people are stuck and can’t pay them off while they accrue penalties and fees, they won’t be there to grow the economy. Their credit would be ruined, but they wouldn’t be debt-slaves. You never hear about the great depression of 1920 because it was 6 months long because everyone declared bankruptcy and got a new start.
On top of everything else that’s going on, I still think the chance for a good sized economic downturn is fairly large, irregardless of who wins the white house. The federal reserve is still buying U.S. government debt, like nobody else wants it. The fed is still subsidizing the stock markets in QE whatever number they’re up to. I don’t know how many people believe the job numbers the government puts out, or whatever else statistics about the economy. 1 1/5 % growth is what they admit to, God only knows what it really is. Congress changed the banking laws back in 09 or whenever, so that the too big to fail banks could claim assets that they don’t really have. How long could something like that go on? Who knows.
Michael Moore @MMFlint
It’s over. Trump, the egoist, the racist, the narcissist, the liar, “won.” We all lost. His numbers will go up. She told the truth. So what.
?@ThaRightStuff TheRightStuff Retweeted Michael Moore
Trump killed on the economy, which is most important to people. This is why @MMFlint is so blackpilled right now. He knows.
If these people really cared about CO2 they’d be livid about Exelon mothballing the perfectly good Nuclear Power Plants in Clinton IL and the Quad Cities. What will happen if we dig up and burn every last bit of carbon we can lay our hands on is a legitimate scientific question, just no evidence that we are experiencing “catastrophic global warming” as the kooks insist and that we should destroy our economy in the midst of the free trade depression to appease the weather gods which have grown angry at us because republicans are driving SUVs blah blah blah. In the long run the plan should be to build more nuclear power plants to generate electricity and put them somewhere with a perimeter where a western style reactor meltdown like at Fukushima won’t contaminate any populated area. As for oil, there is no substitute we can pour into our 777s and fly across the pond, nor get in our cars and set out for a cross country journey with a refueling stop taking 2 minutes to pour in 12 gallons.
America’s involvement with Free Trade (NAFTA) and Globalism is a serious problem for the Working Class. The Democrats and CuckRepublicans have done nothing for our People for many years. The GOP should go in a new direction and focus on Economic Stability and Workers. That balance between Businesses and Workers. Good for everyone and the future of our People. Deo Vindice !