US Treasury Secretary, Sideshow-Steve Mnuchin is again looking to borrow a trillion dollars to cover government deficit and Trump's latest tax cuts.
Axios sums it up:
Treasury borrowing surpassed $1 trillion during President Obama's first term as government spending soared amid the stimulus to combat the 2008 financial crisis, but it has steadily declined in the years since, settling down to $519 billion in 2017 before nearly doubling last year.Yeah, Obama had to borrow a trillion to fight the Great Recession of 2007/2008 he inherited from the profligate Republicans. Trump is forcing the US to borrow that same amount, for the second year in a row, in a boom economy. He's putting America in hock to pay for tax cuts for the rich and major corporations. Which means if the next big recession arrives next year, Washington will be tapped out and incapable of stimulus spending. And, true to form, Mitch McConnell is now talking about slashing Medicare and Social Security to ease Trump's deficits.
Gee, let me see. If I was the head of a hostile foreign power and I had control of that other nation's leader and I wanted to eliminate that country as a thorn in my side, what would be better than to create a boom economy on borrowed money and then use that to leverage considerably more indebtedness so that, when the rebound recession hits, my stooge's government is tapped out, unable to save itself through traditional stimulus spending. But, of course, that's conspiracy thinking and there's no reason to imagine Trump might be someone's useful idiot undermining the economic integrity of the United States and leaving it utterly defenceless to a devastating recession.
Update:
In a new video posted online on Monday titled "Why Trump Won," Harper defends Trump voters as "not the ignorant and misguided deplorable depicted in mainstream media, they are our family, friends, and neighbours."
"Many Americans voted for Donald Trump because the global economy has not been working for them," Harper says in the video.
"We can pretend that this is a false perception. We can keep trying to convince people that they misunderstand their own lives, or we can try to understand what they are saying and offer some solutions."
He then posits that the way to serve these "ordinary people" is through "populist conservatism," that’s grounded in "tried and true conservative values."
The four issues Harper says conservatives should focus on are:
Market economics;What a total jackass.
Trade;
Globalization; and
Immigration.
Going infinitely into debt eventually means you'll need to borrow in order to pay the interest due.
ReplyDeleteBC's total Govt debt is at $65 billion, divided by 4 million people equals roughly $16,000 per BC resident.
But Gov't says don't look at that, look at the debt/GDP ratio instead.
So as the debt grows, as long as GDP grows everything is ok.
So GDP had better grow.
So as the debt grows, as long as GDP grows everything is ok.
ReplyDeleteBut!! that will not carry on forever, will it?
The feeding frenzy of infinite growth is , I fear, starting to collapse.
Forget the ; but the economy is doing good whilst it is , it is at our offsprings expense!
We are mortgaging the future.
When people like John Boulton suggest this ( https://www.rt.com/usa/449982-john-bolton-oil-venezuela/) to bolster a 'fake economy then the truth is out..
TB
But, think of your pension funds. What will they invest in?
ReplyDeleteUU
That's an interesting link, TB. Thanks. Trump continues to insist America should have 'taken' Iraq's oil as tribute for removing Saddam Hussein. With Trump's mentality paired with a belligerent creep like Bolton what could possibly go wrong? You might enjoy my post focusing on Bolton's note pad when he turned up at a White House press briefing today.
ReplyDeleteThe Russia conspiracy theory you have continuously advocated for Trump's profligacy and behaviour is nonsense, in my view, but you must have your jollies for your beliefs. About the only thing we disagree on. I feel the US is quite capable of ruining itself all on its own, and capable of employing well-paid revisionists to put the blame on someone else at the behest of the people with real money. Kind of like having keen public servants happy to sell their souls for a sinecure, a professional Fraser Institute if you will, paid for by the people's taxes to conjure up justifications out of thin air for everyone else's imagined sins.
ReplyDeleteThere's you, hoping against hope that there is some vestige of honour and decency remaining in the USA, and then there's me, who gave up on that hope in the '90s after US capital trashed Russia. They rapaciously looted the place, and the native strongmen from Commie times saw what was happening and took their "share" as well. If Putin was one of them, a point vigorously advocated by the West of course because what a great whipping boy to have when there's some foul-up to blame someone for, then the bastard I suppose is getting what he deserves.
On the other hand, if not, he's vilified for the purposes of convenience. Given how the US has invaded the world, torn the place apart for its convenience and grabbing of other people's wealth and resources while planting 700 or more imperial military bases on foreign lands which are staffed by dumb hicks with big boots from small town America armed to the teeth but who never paid attention in school, I find Russia's transgressions completely minor by comparison.
Frankly, I believe I'm right and you're a dreamer. And now with Stevie harper sniffing around angling for a luxury retirement package by saying anything the big boys want on cue with whatever reserves of "gravity" he has left over from being a totally untrustworthy, lying cheating blight on our Canadian landscape as PM, I'm even more sure it's an internal US neocon/neoliberal combined put-up job.
Too bad from my point-of-view that you seem unwilling to face the reality of dirty money willing to do or say anything compared to how you face trouble head on in environmental matters, which I admire. I just think your tired old points and holdout for vestiges of US decency are wearing thin, but acknowledge your right to promulgate them, just as I feel free to completely disagree.
Once a week, Saturday mornings for two hours or more, some old friends and I gather for coffee and a face-to-face political thrash. Shades of pre-internet days, real talk that gets loud sometimes! There's one retired RCMP guy of no mean intellect whose views could be a double for yours. I'm serious. It's uncanny and he hasn't a clue about you or progressive bloggers - not interested. Yet we part as friends each time after almost seven years of this convention, agreeing to disagree on some things. He was rather good as a Mountie and never lost a case where he was lead investigator, so the judges rather liked him, because there were never any illogical loose ends. Politics is more amorphous and subject to emotion and intuition, though.
And I'll be voting Green come what May.
BM
ReplyDeleteWell, BM, Elizabeth May thanks you for your support.