Um, your guy is swimming for air.
First he leaves the national security people swinging in the wind announcing he wants Putin to come visit in the Fall.
Then he bites back on the Fed, which in any decade would do the same given the numbers.
A wee bit over his head I may say:)
Children lie as a matter of their first line of defense. trump has never matured beyond that.
6
By Trump's logic, the Fed would only raise interest rates when the economy is weak.
He must be taking lessons in economics from Erdogan.
7
Although I’m used to it by now, every time I read- “In a flurry of early-morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump complained...,” my heart sinks. I know that whatever follows will be a string of incoherent, ignorant, grammatically challenged rants about people, places and things - i.e. ideas, which have had the misfortune to stray into Trump’s firing line. In this particular case Trump displays his usual breathtaking ignorance of economic principles which would be straight out of a first year introductory course at a third rate community college, let alone Wharton.
Whether addressing healthcare, geopolitics, immigration, trade policy, or the domestic economy Trump (and his deluded supporters) will always turn reliably to their “amygdalas” for solutions. Not a great way to run a country.
8
FROM THE ARTICLE
In the interview with CNBC, the president described the tit-for-tat threats on China as a poker game, saying the trade conflict was “the right thing to do for our country.”
“I raised 50, and they matched us,” he said. “I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.’”
COMMENT
Huh?
Unlike trump (apparently), I understand the contradictions in the measure of his economics-'infected' policies and his complaints, as described in this article. The only 'thing' that makes no sense is his tweet that "[China] can't match us because otherwise we're always going to be behind the 8-ball."
Huh? and Huh? again. (Maybe he was under the influence of an 8-ball?)
5
When everything goes right, Trump will take credit. When thing goes wrong, Trump will always blame other people for their fault. What a guy!
7
I know more than my economists.
I know more than my bankruptcy lawyers
I know more than my repo man.
I know more than my warden.
9
"Trump Blasts Fed et. al. for putting his personal finances and reelection campaign at a disadvantage"
Fixed that for you.
6
"The president’s tweets displayed 'a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.'”
Other than that, Trump's right on the money, isn't he? As he himself says, “I raised 50, and they matched us...I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.’”
Wait, what?
6
“The practice, known as “catch and kill,” effectively silenced Ms. McDougal for the remainder of the campaign.”
This is so ridiculous. She SOLD her story to the Enquirer. She wasn’t “effectively silenced”. This is exactly what her sale price was.
1
Just one more area, economics, that Trump knows nothing about and does not care how his behaviors and rants harm others.
12
You have to sincerely wonder if he is a total ignoramus in this - and every other - area, or if he's (nonsensically) blaming his own Fed, (as he blames his own Intelligence agency,) for any potential self-inflicted mess that comes along. He certainly is well aware of how gullible the base is. He's becoming more and more drunk with power as the weeks roll by, and this is a terrifying power grab whose grip is gaining in strength with every month that passes. Soon enough he's going to make a play to control interest rates himself.
9
Get rid of this guy. Now he appears to think our Central Bank should be politicized. The independence of the Federal Reserve Bank is a cornerstone of monetary policy. I repeat, get rid of this guy.
11
Donald Trump, Larry Kudlow and their fellow travelers are turning the USA into a third-world economic administration and the country will soon be treated like a third-world player on the world economic scene. Whether they like it or not, the Federal Reserve is reacting to the excessive stimulus being created by their deficit-prone fiscal policies very much in the way it is mandated to do. It's primary mandate is to protect the currency by controlling inflation, so if fiscal policy is stimulating inflation, monetary policy damps it down. the Fed's independence is absolutely essential for maintaining trust in the dollar, without which the US dollar cannot survive as a world reserve currency and the primary medium of international exchange.
Likewise, the bunch of them, and especially Wilbur Ross, systematically fail to understand the harm to US interests of their trade policies, because they don't understand how international retaliation, disruption of trade flows and negative leverage on profits works. Their collective ignorance and disingenuity is already having a noticeable negative international impact on confidence and trade flows to the detriment of the US and other related economies, and it will only get worse the longer and the deeper this foolishness prevails.
7
Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University, said the president’s tweets displayed “a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.”
Not just economics, name the subject and the same could be be applied.
22
Does anyone out there really believe that Donald J. Trump, the many times bankrupt successful businessman, actually understands anything about macroeconomics? Cause and effect is distorted in Trump's delusional mind. Trump believes what he believes regardless of the evidence against his belief. And that my fellow Americans is the modus operandi of our president. SADD doesn't begin to describe the deep hole we are allowing Trump to dig our economy into.
8
Hey drama queen, enough excuses already.
You inherited a beautifully growing economy, with a constantly lowering unemployment rate and a deficit that was cut by 2/3 compared to where the GOP left it when Bush stepped down.
The US was and today is the wealthiest country on earth.
And all you manage to do is to complain? And to tell us that we should imagine that our allies and all main US institutions are our enemies whereas our enemies are smarter than we are and should now be hugged and praised and pleased 24/7 ... ?
Why wouldn't you take an "economics for dummies" course, so that at least you can start to understand that there is something called capitalist market dynamics, which include the risk of inflation if you sign huge tax cutting bills for the wealthiest into law at a moment when the economy is ALREADY booming and unemployment at its lowest possible ... whereas it's the CORE business of any Fed to stave that off through increasing interest rates ... ?
So stop blaming those who merely take their job seriously for the disasters of your own making, and start DOING something about it.
It's not Europe or China's fault that income inequality and poverty are increasing in the wealthiest country on earth, it's Washington's fault, and you where hired to solve that problem, rather than blaming others and then making it even worse.
Come on Trump, roll up your sleeves and start to MAGA ... !
24
Mr. Prasard said it right in describing Trump's brilliance "a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.” The Donald also misses the facts the the ECB is raising rates just as are Fed is doing. But heck to have any understanding of what is going on in the US and the world, economics or not, you have to read and listen to others. Not a trait that exists with this man for he knows everything. Just ask him!
7
Says the man who ran several businesses into the ground, ran a fake university (and lost that court case), and declared bankruptcy time and time again.
15
Not sure how soon this "stable genius" President would blame Constitution for restricting Presidential power, even though he previously denounced American constitutions- publicly. He might soon blame American President for not allowing America to become great....
I'm sure even then majority of GOP congressmen and his core vote bank would support this "greatest president in American history"- "believe me"!
7
When the stock market tanks--and it will--thanks to Trump's incompetence, sanity might once again find a place in our benighted country. Until then, we have no choice, it seems, but to suffer this fool's daily incompetence.
8
Mr. Trump is short sighted and only cares about what happens every quarter so that the media narrative looks good to boost his ego . As a president he has to think long term prosperity of the country. His base has already forgotten the painful days of 2008 recession. Mr Trump will not be there to clean up the mess of his short sighted views.
5
I dunno what's worse: punching your own people in the face, the complete disinterest in what makes a strong dollar, the Venezuelan strongman approach, or the bit where we're overheating the economy by pumping money to the richest and tearing apart the regulatory systems that keep us safe and spread at least some of the loot around.
But I do know that we're all going to pay through the proverbial for this craziness.
10
The Fed, China and Europe? What about Swaziland, Mongolia and California, Donnie?
6
Trump and crew rise to the standard of the classic quip: they know nothing and understand even less.
6
DJT has used this trick before and very effectively in at least one case. Recall how his assertion "rigged election" election got into the heads of just about everyone that was involved; the media, President Obama, Comey, H Clinton. Don't lrt that happen again.
4
To Ron Moore and the rest of the farmers, midwesterners who voted for a non-politician with no experience . You wanted him, you have him, you deal with him. As far as the rest of us are concerned - cry me a river.
9
I never suspected that the defining attribute of American leadership would become juvenile, petulant, grade school whining. It makes me proud to be an American in the Land of Perpetual Childhood.
10
The U.S. "economy " may be doing well, but this refers to the economy of investors, both foreign and domestic. Yes, the investor class -- the wealthy -- is doing quite well.
Average Americans are losing spending power. There has been a 4% drop in our nation"s workforce participation in 10 years, and "employment" is defined as having worked "at all" in one month. (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Americans are working less than in the '70s. That 3.9% unemployment rate is derived from the government's bizarre definition of "employed". (above)
There is no way that 96% of Americans between 16 and old age are working 37 hours per week, at one company, 50 weeks a year, for several years -- which is a better definition of employed than the government uses.
That mass tax reduction for the wealthy added to the deficit, and so far has done nothing for the working class.
Trump's punishing tariffs have only hurt Americans, especially his red bases of farmers and small businesses. The rest of the world can still exchange the goods they need with one another--the U.S. is excludrd.
Amd if you can't find a decent full-time job, you're not alone -- they don't exist.
14
Sadly, Trump's administration of 'experts' have proven to be selfish and greedy. They are more interested in lining their own pockets and that of their wealthy corporate contributors. If the economy doesn't put more money in their hands, it doesn't work. If it enriches them by millions, it's in great shape.
8
Trump's economic team has no real economists on staff. Steve Mnuchin is a former investment banker, film producer, and hedge fund manager. Larry Kudlow is a financial analyst and TV commentator - a pundit essentially. Wilbur Ross is an investor. These people understand business, but they are not economists who understand the model of the global economy and how policy changes affect the U.S. as a whole. It's not surprising that their policies are having unintended consequences. And tweets won't stop them.
21
On thing is for sure, he’s no patriot. His only drive is self ambition. He promotes this with every tweet and deed.
17
so when the economy tanks, it will be china's fault, the fed's fault, germany's fault, but not trump's tariffs nor trumps tax cut.
33
@doc Yep... That's Trump's MO. He blames everything on everybody else, and then says he is the only one that can fix it. Because, as he is fond of saying, "I am a stable genius.", his base will clap and roar their approval, because they know a genius when they see one.
3
Why would the President be worried about interest rates? He certainly can't be worried about the countries debt based on his budget and tax plan. It must have something to do with his personal and business loans.
16
As always, Trump contradicts himself in a single statement.
"We are the strongest economy in the world, doing better than any of our competitors. Everyone is taking advantage of us."
How can this self-contradicting stance make sense to anyone?
22
What's with this guy? Always in search of new enemies. Why doesn't someone in charge of adult day care at the White House tell him the real enemy is Vladimir Putin -- not the fed, not the EU, not NATO, not Montenegro, not Angela Merkel, not Theresa May, not Venezuela, not the free press, not the FBI, not his intelligence chiefs and not anyone else his peanut brain wants to single out next. A "stable genius" should concentrate on cleaning up horse pucky and leave economics to those who know something about it.
31
I think of Turkey and Erdogan as the trailer for the movie MAGA. So many similarities. On interest rates, they are on the same page in demeaning their economic advisors if rates go up, in spite of there being compelling reasons to raise them. However, Erdogan has an advantage - he just changes the advisors. I wouldn't put it past Trump if he finds a way to do the same.
10
@Jud Hendelman When I first read of Erdogan’s purge and how easily it happened, it sent chills down my spine.
As an American, I feel our exposure to the daily chaos of this Tabloid Presidency may be desensitizing us to the incremental steps in this same direction.
8
@Jud Hendelman, interest rates do not even cover the risks in places like Turkey.
He's got John Bolton et al for that. Check what Bolton's doing to the NSC--and what was done at FBI, EPA, State and so on.
1
It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump’s “America First” policy, (a misnomer, as it is actually a “Trump First” policy) results in golden egg thinking, rather than golden goose thinking. As he did in his business career, he makes decisions that maximize short-term gains solely to bolster his image, often at the expense at long term gains that are truly enriching.
As often as Trump likes to brag about his business acumen and personal wealth, his absence from the top 500 list of billionaires is telling, especially for someone who is so image-conscious.
It is a tragic comedy of errors that the American right became so desperate to stick it to the left that they accepted such an empty vessel as their figure head. And we will all pay the price for this man’s hubris. Talk about a BAD DEAL.
36
In another article in today’s issue [“Trump Doubles Down on Russia.”], the NYT portrays a schism between Trump and his intelligence and foreign policy teams arguing that recent actions taken to punish Russia are contradicted by Trump’s personal overtures to Putin. True, but has the NYT never heard of the carrot and stick approach in order to change bad behavior? Economic sanctions and other tough measures apply the pressure, but the possibility of their removal provides an incentive for Russia to change.
In this context the other measures taken by Trump regarding trade and his criticism of the Fed can be seen as part of a multi-prone attack on what Trump sees as the true source of our problems, namely our weakened position relative to the world economy. As he correctly believes, Russia with its great population, strategic importance, and vast natural resources is not a “foe,” but a potential ally in countering China’s ambitions to replace the US as the preeminent economic power in the world. To disenchant China is his central policy goal which is not contradicted by any of his actions. As the article points out, there is always the possibility of unintended consequences and unwanted side-effects, but risk is something a leader must be willing to take for the sake of his ideals. The Gordian knot can never be logically untangled so it must be cut if we are ever to make any progress.
The country in which US tariffs have had the most impact is Canada, not China, not Japan and not the EU. The US has a trade surplus, not a deficit, with Canada. Other than a few selected goods and services, such as sugar quotas in the US and dairy quotas in Canada, there have been no tariffs between our two countries. So please tell me: how does imposing tariffs on Canadian exports make any sense at all and what does it have to do with your rationalization?
26
“I raised 50, and they matched us,” he said. “I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.’”
Oh good! I'm so glad to learn he thinks of it as gambling as he mucks about with our money, our futures, our stability (or former stability), our livelihoods. The country is just one great big casino to him. We saw how well he ran casinos, didn't we?
He certainly isn't a good businessman, and he obviously knows nothing about economics. He's not even a good gambler.
32
@JD, Trump is the only multiple bankrupt in the history of the casino business.
3
Or even a good deal maker, he has yet to reach a single one.
4
“The United States is the hottest economy and investment destination in the world right now,” thanks largely to Mr. Trump’s policies, Mr. Kudlow said. “Money is flowing in from everywhere, and that’s terrific.”
Not that most of Trump's Faux News-watching base would get it, but this statement highlights the duplicity of this entire administration. The lie is in what he DIDN'T say.
Money is, indeed, flowing into the US ...so that companies can buy back stock and give huge payouts to shareholders and C-level executives, not for business expansion/hiring or increasing average workers' wages.
39
The economy may be booming but for the 82% who are not managers or owners, their wages when adjusted for inflation have actually fallen. The GOP tax cut was done and voted in by the very people who directly benefit. And those same people want to cut the already-shredded safety net out of "fiscal" responsibility....to pay for the extra wealth they received and most of the country did not. Now, with Trump's trade wars some of those same Trump supporters are further burdened with falling agricultural prices and suspended company expansions. But have no fear....Trump will never accept responsibility for his own actions....or even taped words. Of course he will sling blame around.
36
@Susan Susan, I am happy you understand, but most of the 82% have to be slapped up side the head to understand as they can only deal with reality on a day to day basis.
3
Every time Trump filed for bankruptcy or was accused of fraud, he no doubt resorted to similar finger-pointing and “not my fault” defenses. Aided and abetted by a servile Republican Congress and his cultish supporters, this one man wrecking crew is poised to seriously damage our economy, our foreign policy and the rule of law. Were you China or Russia would you not take this unprecedented opportunity to pull out all the stops to bring us to our knees?
33
Europe and China may have indeed manipulated their currencies. Left out of the equation is the buying public's insatiable thirst for goods at the cheapest possible price, no matter what. Sam Walton tried to bring American goods to the market place at reasonable prices. Not good enough for Americans. We, the buying public, are our own worst enemies.
1
Trump is half right.
1. The Fed did not allow money to find its price. Next crash they out of ammo. Will be a disaster. They also stoked bubbles in property and stocks.
2. China will rule the world. We did nothing while they fixed their curreancy. We claimed "free market' while knowing they were not free market.
3. Tariffs have their place. That place was on Chinese goods 20 years ago. Problem is that Team Trump so hopeless and hapless that whatever tariffs they do impose will likely make things worse.
4. Merkels was/is a disaster on immigration.
@scientella, by absolving corporations of taxation, Trump set up shareholders to be wiped out by managements taking their companies private.
1
This is an instance where Trump is catastrophically wrong.
The EU and China are not manipulating their currencies but the USA. The dollar is too high without the economic justification.
It is insanely stupid that those entitled to collect the money are borrowing it. The US government has the taxing authority but doesn’t use it.
It is extremely irresponsible that the government accepted the monetary and fiscal obligations but refused to increase the taxes to pay for them. That’s mathematically irrational behavior.
The government is promising to pay off the national debt but is cutting the taxes, the very prerequisite to meet the financial obligations.
That creates the conditions for the eventual financial meltdown or another Great Depression or the astronomically rampant inflation to wipe out the colossal national debt.
Nobody will ever pay it off because the politicians have no guts to increase the taxes. It means the government must either declare the bankruptcy at one moment in the future or just start printing the money or the rest of the world will stop holding its savings in the dollars and return them to the USA, thus creating the inflation at home.
Once the dollar loses its value, the foreign imports will become too expensive so we will go back to the manufacturing for our very needs.
Once it happens don’t fall for the economist explanations that nobody could predict it. Such an outcome is mathematical certainty.
6
He is just setting up the blame before the elections -- if the promised boom in salaries doesn't happen and there are layoffs or business closings because of tariffs, he has already laid the ground for blaming others, naturally not himself or his heartless policies.
He is crazy, or sick, let's say, but never underestimate his incredible acumen at figuring out what is the best strategy for him, and him alone, and being actually way ahead of the game.
13
@nothere trump is always one step ahead of the American public. His ego will be our downfall.
1
In 2008-2009, in the middle of a collapse, Republicans complained that expansionary monetary policy would “debase the currency”. Where are these folks now?? It’s even more of a risk now that we are at or near full employment. The madness and hypocrisy on the right just wont stop.
One more reason Wharton should offer Trump a refund-they obviously didn’t teach him anything.
25
Sigh. Same story every day. Outrage over the ineptitude and vileness of Trump. It becomes exhausting. I read the NYT readers comments and agree with almost all of them. Most get it, but his base does not, and they are in control. Until the economy collapses under the weight of exploding deficits, foreign investors pulling their money out of US Treasuries, rampant, uncontrollable inflation (it’s coming), nothing will change. The Republicans are afraid of the base, and few have the moral courage to stand up to these ignorant voters who have been given so much voting power over the urban elites. The GOP is complicit with the powerful US moguls who gladly manipulate these same voters. The Trumpists rage against being called ignorant, even though they are exactly that. Sadly, it won’t happen in time for the midterms. It will happen, but until then don’t expect anything to change. Hate to wish for bad economic news, but the longer the inevitable is delayed, the worse the outcome for Democracy.
3
Trump appears to be placing his bets on his ability to hold his base of disenfranchised and or self-entitled voters from 2016 by playing the empathy card..."I feel your pain - look at what all these bad people/countries did to you...it's so unfair!! " (ironic given that empathy is one of many skills he lacks).
What's truly sad is with so much noise blocking the signal, no Republicans willing to challenge him or "resign" on principle, and the very real prospects of an economic downturn - his voter base will dig in its heels in 2020...simply because they won't be doing any better than they were in 2016.....and more likely they will worse off.....and the last person they will blame is Teflon Trump.
4
We are at a trade disadvantage. We have a huge portion of the buying market and 5% of the world's population. Most of those people live less well than we do, and in enough countries they live cheaply enough that they can work for a fraction of what we need.
When labor and transportation is cheaper elsewhere, production shifts. When the growth market shifts elsewhere, and labor there is cheaper, production shifts. When national tax laws, health policies increase the cost of labor, and when national tax laws increase the incentive to move production, then production moves. When production assets produce more short term revenue being split up and sold (think of Twinkies) production shifts.
We can do things to take back the advantage. We could move to universal healthcare and make it a cost a company in taxes regardless of where they produce. We could get rid of tariffs, but look at value add taxes - tax the output of domestic and foreign labor, rather than have domestic labor taxes for things like healthcare and FICA. We could create incentives for investment by taxing the heck out of Wall Street short term gambling. We could look more closely at the trend of selling our productive businesses to EU members.
There are a lot of things we can do. But we do the stupid stuff instead. It is all part of Trump's Obama negating policy: Do Stupid Stuff.
5
Throughout history there have been those left behind by a growing economy. When they get upset to some great degree they start to wish not for their own prosperity but merely to wreck the prosperity of others. They seek a barbarian like leader who will smash the rules and destroy a system they see working against them. The leader need have no skills other the willingness to feckless destroy.
And trump was elected.
He has no idea what he is doing; without thought, everything seems easy, for example, trade wars. And millions of Americans and others will be hurt by his stupidity of issues and inability to value relationships.
His only concern is for constant attention regardless if it is positive or otherwise. He will tune in only to the liars and sycophants who praise his policies.
4
The "old mainstream Republicans" of the corporate and country club garden variety have been calling for the Fed to raise rates for the past five or more years. (Reason: hold the expansion in money supply that can cause inflation).
And here is the Donald trying to trash the independence of the Fed whose mandate is to hold the line on inflation. (Why: the real estate business is heavily dependent on debt and always want lower interest rates and higher inflation rate.)
So this is another instance where Donald's narrow experience and inability to listen and learn is making him make stupid calls that may reduce support among the old mainstream Republican establishment.
The guy is shooting at his foot again and that is GOOD.
2
@MTA, there is no rational justification for monetary policy to have any purpose other than maintenance of stable risk-adjusted yield curves reflecting a stable time value of money.
Trump's tax "reform" has already knocked at least 10% off NYC real estate values, and it may leave a lot of developers with big debts and unsold properties.
Fed determines interest rates to control inflation. What does repeatedly failed businessman Donald Trump understand about inflation? This indivual is willing to put anyone under the bus if his personal interest is affected. Does he understand that Fed is not his personal bank and he is not a king of US? His ridiculous threats are another example how unqualified this guy is for the job.
4
Donald Trump needs to keep his mouth Shut or he's going to drive this country into another recession at best, we don't want this clown bankrupting the nation like he did on the businesses he took over, but couldn't manage properly.
I'm afraid history is starting to repeat itself with him, only we are the one's that are going to be stuck with the bill and the bankruptcy.
8
I sit here and try hard to imagine the president of the United States, up at 3:00 in the morning, compulsively typing unprocessed rants into one of the social media. It's beyond me. It just doesn't seem possible.
Every time I am a little less shocked that Trump simply and absolutely lacks any ability to curb his urges. The man obviously has no idea at all that sometimes we all just need to shut up.
12
It doesn't matter what he says. When he isn't lying, he's just wrong, when he's lying, he's purposefully wrong, and when he pretends to understand complex issues, he's just lying and he's wrong. The truth is not in him, and he should no longer be given the benefit of the doubt. The only appropriate response to him at this point is either "Prove it" or "Shut up".
35
@expat The enablers in Congress are all benefiting from his policies. Lying has become money in their pockets just like in trumps. This is how Russia does it. The 1% keep on ruling like never before under this administration.
13
Trump continues to blow hot air up everyone’s private place. The RMB has moved down 3%-5% in 6 months from 6.40 to 6.70. That’s 1/3 to 1/2 of Trump’s tariff. US importers will pay the tariff and watch the RMB erode the full 10% US tariff.
Joke’s on the American People. They lost their export market to China permanently ( a very long time).
The shocker is that the Republican controlled Congress has done nothing to intervene to protect the livelihoods if their constituents. The President Gone Wild has a child, Kudlow, as an advisor, and Navarro an outlier shunned by every reputable economist. I followed Navarro for years. International Econ is a newer interest of his. Trump didn’t bother to consult teams of skilled economists; nope! He has his chips in those boys. The American People will pay after Trump’s gone. It is about to get drop dead serious as Trump thinks he has only on hand to play. Smart people will analyze, duck and cover.
11
Attention current president of the United States. Canadians does not want to buy your dairy products because they are full of strange hormones. We monitor our dairy production to correspond with with demand. We do not overproduce like American dairy farmers. Former tofu aficionados have turned away from your soybeans because they contain GMOs. There is no point exporting your cheese either, we are just not interested in buying it.
21
Maybe the president should start looking closer to home as to who is hurting the US economy. Just maybe it has something to do with all the stupidity coming out of the White House these days. I am a little amassed that Wall Street has not reacted more negatively to it all. However the Republicans seem to like it for some unfatomable reason and most investors on Wall Street are republicans, I would guess. So the question is whether they make decisions based on sound long term planning or on febrile republican Trumpism. I wwould suggest the latter.
1
Doesn’t he ever get tired of ranting? The man’s anger could light New York for a year. If he believed in renewable energy, that is. Seriously, it’s the Tantrum of the Day Club.
7
Trump Nations hypocrisy is boundless.
They attacked low interest rates when Obama was President.
They attacked deficits as well.
They attacked Wall Street stock market growth as fake.
Now everything they do and everything they say is the complete opposite of the basis upon which Trump ran for the office.
9
nonsense!!! what he says is total rubbish. the economy is very strong, perhaps too strong. the fed has an obligation to moderate any possible overheating. while china does not play by the rules, it will be trump's tariffs which will certainly dampen economic growth not only in america but also worldwide. etc.
19
It wasn’t that long ago that he was griping that The Fed was holding down interest rates to prop up the last administration.
6
That there is any support at all for our wanna be dictator is unbelievable. The Fed's independence has been the basis for its ability to make calm decisions despite political noise.
1
So that big 21% Tax cut for rich corporations and owners didnt hurt? Loading up future generations with 2T national deficit didnt hurt? Trump and the GOP really think Americans are stupid but actually, not all of us voted for Trump.
28
Trump isn't interested in a healthy U.S. economy. He is interested in fomenting chaos and creating enemies because this is how he can continue to claim that "only I" can solve these problems (of his own making.) A calm, peaceful and productive America offers Trump no opportunities to put himself at the center of the kind of pugilistic spectacle he requires to motivate his base to rally around him. Are you not entertained!?
16
DJT is about the only beneficiary if the Fed and the media if DJT's comments distract from the Fed's legitimate role in forming and executing monetary policy. DJT uses the know nothing assertion to his advantage better than any other modern politician. Recall his campaign assertion that the election is rigged against him? DJT repeats these baselees, false claims early, often and loudly. The result in the rigged election nonsense was he got into the heads of Obama, the media and the leadership of the FBI and significantly altered and indeed stopped their taking action on well established Russian activity in 2016. Actions which would have been detrimental to DJT, his staff and in all liklihood the success of thevDJT campaign.
4
So soybean farmers are upset that their candidate is doing what he promised? Could it it be they were completely unaware of what the policy proposals would be, blinded by celebrity and duped by wealthy republican campaign donors? Wow, whodathunk...
How those Hillary emails looking now?
23
As far as I'm concerned, any farmer who supports Trump deserves to go bankrupt. To support treason, white nationalism and a full frontal assault on our democracy - indeed, on the very idea of democracy - for personal gain as Trump's supporters who farm apparently are only too happy to do is beyond contemptible. I only wish that there were a certification - such as 100% organic - by which one might know whether the produce sitting on the grocery shelf comes from a pro-Trump farm or, conversely, from a pro-U.S.A. farm. Let the former rot on the shelf.
7
The only thing keeping the economy going is the irrational belief in the market that being given all the sweets in one basket will make the gdp grow beyond imagining. Tax cuts, disciplining of China, repatriating offshore dollars, low wages, small government, cheap oil and deregulation - all the rainbows and fairy tales that any investor and businessperson could want. Eventually, reality will dissolve the dream and the money turn to smoke but right now Trump keeps the business community entranced with his gifts.
7
I have heard and read our “economy is booming”; once again, this boom has not “trickled down” to most people. High supply-side tax cuts and large federal spending spending to offset high tax cuts, together with deregulation, historically benefit some in the short-term and harm more in the long-term. Wages have not increased apace, medical insurance companies are cutting benefits and increasing premium costs. Tariffs on imports are an additional tax on consumers and are already hurting American farmers. One can reasonably surmise Social Security and Medicare will soon go the way of food programs for the poor and working poor because of someone must pay for large tax cuts. People often vote against their own economic interests when promises are made that cannot be kept. The smoke and mirrors narrative is always the inference jobs will become immediately available, economic concerns of average Americans immediately addressed, when the realities are, at most, hopes the insanity of consistently bad, short-term economic policies will one day work for them. They were never designed to work for average workers but to satiate short-term greed associated with Gilded Age thinking, as well as some politicians all having an aversion to rational, balanced long-term economic planning.
10
We are witnessing the swift decline of the US as a leading democracy and champion of the market-based economy and rule-based international trade system in real time. If history is any guide, political and economic tensions would ultimately lead to violent conflicts. If Trump and the Republican Party hold on to power in the next election and in 2020, there would be a realignment of the current geopolitical powers. US vs EU and US vs China with Russia the main beneficiary as Nato disintegrated.
12
>
The Fed has one purpose to control inflation, which can be caused by cutting taxes in a strong economy, which is what Trump did.
Remember Trump is a day trader; he does not care what happens when he's out of office and we have run away inflation. He'll be too busy counting the family revenues of his tenure.
Remember DTJ is all good; it's everybody and everything else that's the problem. This is his worldview in a nutshell.
Thanks Bernie
8
@Prometheus, no, the Fed is also supposed to use monetary policy to cover for the complete incompetence of Congress to use fiscal policy to maintain full employment, under the "dual mandate" that makes the Fed incompetent to maintain stable yield curves reflecting the risk adjusted time value of money.
@Steve Bolger
Sorry. I misspoke the primary purpose of the Fed is to control inflation.
@Prometheus, the time value of money is the basis of value of all fiat currencies. Tinkering with interest rates has created a fake market in the $trillions of dollars in "derivatives" designed to offset the erratic moves of "dual mandate" monetary policy which are a product of artificially-created risk.
Those personal tax cuts that many cheered about will slowly disappear from the wallets of those who were happy to see some extra income due to the tariff war.
Trump, the grifter and bankruptcy king of Queens and icon of failed businesses is not what I want in charge of our economy. He has already added to the national debt, you know, the deficit that the GOP hounded Obama about for years.
13
@Dan, rich people in highly taxed states are going to find themselves walloped by increased taxes and loss of equity in real estate by April 15, 2019. Absolving inanimate corporations from taxation is all that the lied-about "tax reform" accomplished.
2
It would seem counter-intuitive to raise interest rates right when the stagnant US economy shakes off its lethargy and booms. Raising rates would draw in outside money putting upward pressure on the dollar and making it more difficult for US exports. How can the economy overheat currently when it just started booming? Would it not been more prudent to delay raising rates?
@Gram Massla
It's called fine tuning to avoid inflation.
2
@Gram Massla - You need to take a basic economics course. The economy hasn't been stagnant. Corporations are sitting on huge cash reserves. Trump's tariffs are what are going to hurt exports and cause prices to inflate.
5
@Gram Massla
I agree that it would be prudent to hold off on further rate increases until the effects of the most recent rate increases can be gauged. It takes a significant amount of time for the effects of rate increases from the Fed to filter through the economy. Given the low growth rate in wages, I don't see this economy as overheated.
1
We are going straight to obscurantism:
Trump does not understand trade or how to negotiate better trade deals, confuses bilateral with multilateral; furthermore, he is convinced that his experience as a Chapter 11 businessman made him an expert in the macroeconomy.
If the above is not enough, we have a president who seems to be close to treason, Putin's puppet and, probably getting really rich, for the first time.
The signature of this presidency is determined by Trump's tax returns and Russia's interference in our elections. We are back to square one 2016.
12
Trump cries how China. manipulates its currency but what do you think quantitative easing was?
Printing tens of billions to give to banks and big corporations for 0 intrest for years. Stuffing their accounts full for free. Sure the stock market rises like crazy but the money you get in your paycheck is worth half what it was before the crash.
7
@gene, "Quantitative easing" is just buying up toxic assets for electronic credits.
1
What about the deficit? What about our National Debt?
For some reason I was thinking that these were important factors?
10
The article states that the tax cut has injected new stimulus. I would like to see proof that the tax cut has done anything. The federal spending, I can understand as a stimulus. Please provide data showing that the tax cut has helped. If there is no data don't put it in the article.
15
I don't know anything about how economics works. I have a vague understanding that China "manipulates its currency," which somehow hurts us.What the Fed is or does is a total mystery to me.
However, I can read newspapers and watch news on TV, which help inform my opinion. Then I can decide which of these news sources I want to believe (i.e. validate my uninform gut reactions).
Therefore, I'm just as qualified to run the country as Trump.
I don't even need to listen to policy briefings from experts in my own administration, because my intuion makes me smarter than all of them. Besides, they're all just part of the Deep State.
And of course, anything that Obama did is by definition wrong; so all I need to do is the opposite of what he did.
(Or if I end up doingthe same things, I'll just lie and deflect. My base loves me, no matter what I do.)
22
Greenspan called the slippery slope "animal spirits." Trump is saying don't put the brakes on til I get re-elected.
In the meantime he has put in people who disrupt all regulation. It's a re-run of the great recession of 2008.
And soybeans is a good example of lack of regulation by the government of Roundup which has been banned by just about everybody including California, but I saw huge containers of the stuff floor to ceiling in my hardware store.
Regulations are necessary. They are for the health of our economy and our people. When we turn over our right to rein in those who put their profits above our welfare, we cease to be a democracy and surrender to oligarchy.
10
This is a man with an IQ of about 11. Now he is an expert on world economics. Lord have mercy on us all.
19
Trump’s playbook: It’s always someone else’s fault. Constantly generate new controversy to deflect sustained attention away from any one thing.
However, I do continue to have a problem with the Times’ coverage of the trade war. Trump lumps China, Canada, Mexico, and the EU all into one group and makes no distinction, but the Times tends to do the same thing on the other side of the argument.
There are legitimate trade grievances with China. China does have a history of manipulating its currency, although I think experts think that has not happened as much in the last three or four years. China has engaged in dumping and theft of intellectual property. There are legitimate concerns about environmental damage caused by China and about the treatment and low wages of Chinese workers.
Bernie Sanders has argued for fair trade, not unfettered free trade. He’s said that a trade war with Canada and the EU makes no sense and that Trump’s policies are haphazard and reckless. But, he’s also said that we should adopt policies to prevent the outsourcing of jobs to low wage countries. See https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-statement...
5
Your president appears to not understand economic policy. Yes, your economy is doing well right now. Notwithstanding the trade war that is about to impact your nation things are still looking good overall.
The Fed sets interest rates to counter threats to the economy. In this case the threat is that your economy will become so active that INFLATION will have an impact on the purchasing power of your dollars. To slow things down a bit the Fed will adjust rates upward to slow down borrowing and moderate things and keep stability in the economic system. If you are unaware of what inflation does to purchasing power talk to people about the high inflation of the early 1980s and what it did to the economy.
This is basic economics, and while Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin might understand, they have failed to brief their boss. I suppose they fear his reprisal to news that he does not want to hear. They don't want to see their names in his Twitter triads. That's courage.
Meanwhile other nations that do business with the US are adjusting policy and looking outward to counter the US trade tariffs that your president thinks will solve all of your problems.
It appears that he is not really concerned with the people, otherwise he might not have cancelled health insurance for several million of the poorest people in your nation in order to give the money to the richest people in your nation.
16
Not to difficult to see what's happening here. If the economy falters it's the fault of others. If it continues to grow, it's because of Trump.
28
Trump places our economic malaise on anyone but himself. The GOP proposition that massive tax cuts for the very wealthy would bring instant riches for all is a myth. Trump's trade war is proving to be a huge drag on our economic future. China, Mexico, Canada, and the European Union are actually fighting back; something Trump did not assume. We are losing America's leading place in the world established at the end of World War II, and slipping into the land of "powers that used to be" like Spain, England and France. Making America great looks to be making America a has-been nation.
40
Evertime the stable genius gets bad news he lashes out on Twitter blasting this institution or that person. He has no clue as to how the fed should work-as an independent entity, or that China might not agree with tariffs slapped Willy- nilly on its products. The Don has been having a lot of bad days as president and when he does he reverts to his Steve banon alter ego and simply attacks and vents in a vain, self serving manner to sooth his starving ego. The Don does not realize that the world will go on without him and he will become a parody more than the cliche that he and his followers represent.
30
If the farmers want to play soldier in Donald Trump's trade war, then a lot of them will be economically injured and/or killed. If they are willing to volunteer for a war started by their fearless leader, who is evading any of the economic injuries himself, since I guess he has an economic bone spur, so is incapable of participating in any of the economic fighting, then that is on them.
But given, that Congress just approved the ZTE deal on Trump behalf, with the Chinese government making a major investment Trump projects in Indonesia, it seems he gets to avoid all of risks of the economic fight, while getting of the advantages of selling weapons to the enemy, while others fight on his behalf (the farmers in this case).
In other words, the same ole Bonespur Boy, who conned the people of New Jersey in taking all of the economic risks of a casino, while he still made money, just less than what he would have made, if the casino had been a success.
Typical Donald, socialize the risks/costs and privatize his own gain, by having others play soldier in his wars.
43
I think President Trump's criticism of the Federal Reserve Board for raising interest rates is on target. Despite the low nominal unemployment rate, there is no sign that the U.S. economy is overheating. I believe that the U.S. economy should be run at full employment.
Interest rate increases hurt debtors and help creditors. In other words, they mostly hurt the working class and help the rich. This is something that progressives should be well aware of.
President Trump has also been criticized for breaking the tradition of Presidents not commenting on actions taken by the Fed. This is a tradition that should be broken. While the Fed should not be under the President's thumb, the impact of its decisions are too large for the Fed to be completely unaccountable to the public for its actions. Since Presidents are generally held accountable for the performance of the economy, they should be able to comment on the the actions of a body whose effect on the economy is at least as great as their own. However, such commentary should not turn into a campaign of harassment.
3
Trump is most likely complaining because the interest rates went up on money he owes.
We already know the Trump Organization can barely pay their taxes - most payments are made late and some properties have outstanding bills.
Look for Trump to schedule more weekend visits to one of his clubs. Every time he goes, Trump makes thousands by charging the Secret Service top dollar for food, beverages, golf carts and lodging. All paid for by We The People.
Remember, Trump is the sole owner of the Trump Organization. All profits go to him. Putting money in his own pocket was the motivation for his campaign, and the main goal of his presidency.
Vote Democratic on November 6th.
Every seat, every office.
Changing Congress is our best hope.
Turnout must be huge to overcome gerrymandering.
Vote.
45
@D. DeMarco
I agree that Trump's call for holding off on interest rate increases probably show that he is financially underwater. He would not support a policy that did not personally benefit him. That does not necessarily mean that keeping interest rates where they are is bad policy.
I also fully support your call to vote Democratic.
1
May be it is the US system itself that is hurting its own economy. Lack of good and widespread professional training, low productivity in many economic sectors, enormous income inequality, poor financial regulation, among many other factors. It's no use blaming the failures the US economy on others. It will only make matters worse for the US and for others.
12
@Bartokas, yes the US is even the last holdout from the Metric System. Between that and the monumentally stupid and intelligence-insulting legal system extortion racket run strictly for the benefit of lawyers, and 50 states plus a multi-district federal system to venue-shop, with no real public health care system at all, makes this country more hassle than it is worth to manufacture in.
3
Trump has no regard for the independent farmers - and those who support him are just dumb - corporate farmers will still benefit by scooping up the bankrupted family farms.
The same could apply to almost every other industries touched by the trade war on multiple fronts. His Commerce Secretary, Ross, used to be a vulture investor buying defaulted companies to squeeze the life out of their workers. So his holding a Campbell soup and a soda can like 2 grenades on CNBC might very well a different message
16
I wish the Democrats would choose a representative who’d counter-tweet to this president’s absurdities every time he twists the truth. It is not at all surprising that President Trump would start this blame game to distract from HIS OWN tarriff war.
Senator Warren, your tweets are often a perfect foil. However, there needs to be a stable and instant counter tweet to lay out actual facts.
The president owns this tax war along with Mr. Navarro, Mr. Lighthizer and Mr. Ross. Counter punching is so tribal, but I fear it is the necessary evil in current circumstances.
Once again, a Republican party, handed a sound economy, is stuffing itself to the detriment of the overall. Take a look at recent economic downturns. Who was in charge? Who followed to have to fix it?
21
@Alix I've been advocating for a shadow cabinet of knowledgeable progressives to counter the people Trump has put in. In the name of a few oligarchs they have had a field day robbing us of our rights. And contemplating wars we don't want.
You mention Senator Warren and she surely does her part in the financial arena. But we need to counter each and every cabinet secretary and the supreme court the same day they pronounce a new decision for corporations against us.
1
Compare Trump's two career tracks. He worked with his father for years, and when he, DJT, inherited the business, he inherited its infrastructure and methods, i.e., a complex, tried, and tested Rolodex. It was all worth about $1 billion in today's values. He thought he was a genius. But he went through a series of bankruptcies, and only with the help of TV and a gigantic ego, was he able to claim success. He never was a successful businessman but he played one on TV, and in the era of reality shows, that worked in some circles. In politics, he served no apprenticeship of any kind. He acted and still acts as if he's doing a reality TV show, and he's waiting for the producer to tell him that the show has been picked up for another season. Well, he met the producer in Helsinki, and he's invited him home for dinner, to meet the wife and kids and to take a tour of the plant. Maybe he'll even have a dog for the boss to pat. Trump never had to strive for anything. The most he ever had to do was follow the producer’s directions, and say “you’re fired.”
39
@Des Johnson - excellent assessment. There's also the problem of getting loans from foreign sources, laundering money through real estate, and the payback required.
27
Trump can not tolerate anything transpiring without the influence (interference) of his "genius". And there is no better stooge in all of government than Mnuchin. Trump will announce new massive tariffs on China next week when an uniformed Mnuchin is in Argentina for the economic conference.
Mnuchin wears his fecklessness like a crown and will offer an impromptu rationale divorced from any strategy for both the tariffs and his own exclusion from such an important decision . The conference will collapse in its wake.
Lost this week in the wake of Trump's bedlam was the fact that Japan and the EU announced the biggest trade deal in history . The world is moving on, and when the US economy collapses on itself, we will be isolated and without partners .
22
The President and his Men have a unique point of view about how economics actually works, but it does not seem to be based on any kind of facts. It is mostly magical thinking. In short, Trump needs to come to grips with the fact that you can't have your cake and eat it, too! In this case, though, insert "soy beans" for cake, and you will get the point, since farmers will be eating nothing but soy beans, soon.
We are in the process of pricing ourselves out of the global market and creating rising prices at home for most things, due to the perilous actions of the President. What looms on the horizon is an even bigger problem, and that is the creation of mountains of debt due to tax "reform" and the resultant short fall in tax revenue. Trump's predictions of increased revenue were based on hot air.
We have to wonder if our economy is actually doing as well as is hyped, since it doesn't seem to be correlating with much movement in wages or the actual strengthening of many companies even in markets here at home. We must think about the meaning of corporate tax cuts and tax cuts for the wealthy (which is kind of like actually having your cake and eating it, too) and the lessening of regulations, when it comes to our environment and the quality of life for the average person. Who benefits and what cost?
31
I thought everyone was going to be tired of so much winning. With the US economy so strong, why are there advance excuses being made for losing?
32
Most of the "foe" economies of the EU, whose exports to the US don't decline, use the Euro, which has appreciated against the dollar from its launch.
11
"Derek M. Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that China would be able to offset the effect of Mr. Trump’s tariffs through changes to its currency. However, any changes would have to be made gradually to avoid alarming investors and prompting capital flight, which could destabilize Chinese markets."
So ... in answer to Trump's proposals to counter China's currency manipulation (which, by the way, almost came to a halt under the Obama administration) ... China will start manipulating its currency again, so that contrary to US farmers, Chinese farmers won't be punished by Trump's economic theories.
Once again, the fact-free policies of the GOP will tank the US economy and destabilize peace in the world - all in the name of "patriotism" - whereas the majority of the American people keeps waiting for The Ideal Candidate promising heaven on earth before accepting to go voting. That's a "silent majority" indeed, but a majority as responsible for this GOP WMD disaster as Trump voters deluded by Fox News' fake news for two decades.
Wake up progressives!
The next battlefield is NOT turning the Democratic Party into the most progressive one in history, it is to end the current path of destruction and make a U-turn, so that we can at least start heading into the direction of progress again.
Once THAT battle is won, the next step is changing hearts and minds of ordinary citizens so that progressive policies get more public support.
43
@Ana Luisa
I have been saying this over and over again. You said it well and I hope people read and it sinks in.
The battle we are in is existential. The GOP's objective is authoritarian Plutocracy.
The social and economic mental models they embrace for this Nation have roots in the distant past of feudalism and more recently robber baronsim.
The political ones certainly are akin to the ones that plagued us in the first half of the 1900s.
The voting base that will allow and support the GOP's reversing of modern progress toward a peaceful liberal egalitarian democratic ideal is not pretty (not saying the individuals are bad/inferior but their group think is).
Beyond being authoritarian inclined this base is heavily tinged with willful ignorance, disregard/disrespect of facts, racism, theocracy, and other flavors of demagoguery. So the political structure that would ensue under the GOP will be tinged such. We see it horribly unfolding today.
This is NOT a Progressive vs. Conservative debate over method and means. That contention is healthy and comports with reality based reasoning methods.
No this for the very heart and soul of this Nation -its existential nature.
Will we be a Nation "by and for (all) the People" - peaceful, responsible, caring?
Or one more fascist in nature - perhaps rich - perhaps powerful - perhaps feared and placated - but always in the end catastrophic to humankind.
22
@Ana Luisa Excellent comment, but... It's not so much about policies, it's about looking tough, looking anything but a patsy, looking like a man who can deliver on his promises. In terms of electioneering, those promises worked, but in terms of governance, they were and are irrational. Never mind! They got him elected, and he thinks they will get him re-elected. We can;t wait until 2020 to find out.
7
Deeply ironic to accuse others of currency manipulation while attempting to push the USD down.
41
Trump is right about most things: China has been stealing intellectual property from the U.S. for years; Europe has been freeloading on defense; we haven't protected our national interests so we can pay homage to free trade; our immigration policy is counterproductive; we should foster good relations with Russia. But he's absolutely wrong about interest rates, it's imperative that they be normalized, i.e. at least doubled.
5
@Grunt Europe has not been freeloading on defense. Europe was made an offer they couldn't refuse: there was no political unit called Europe in 1945.
12
Wasn‘t that phase of historically low interest rates I.e in Europe caused by the US subprime crisis (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis)?
Due to these low interest rates, working people lost a lot of their (pension) savings. On the other hand are prices for housing growing rapidly.
With this background in mind, it is nice to hear that the victims are nowadays seen by the US administration as the guys that cause the problems.
20
Wholly incompetent and even reluctant to learn while in the office, finding scapegoats seems to have become a habit for Trump to hide his failures in governance. Bracketing the Federal Reserve with the perceived trade adversaries like China and the EU just illustrates the point.
43
The look on Trump's face in the photo is the look I've seen on both my father's face and that of my father-in -law : a look of fear, confusion and anger, as they gradually lost themselves.
49
A further demonstration, after Helsinki, that poor DJT is in so far over his head that he may never come up for air. The struggling US economy has an unemployment rate of 3.9%, the lowest since 2000. If DJT wants to talk seriously, let him bring up the stagnation of wages in the bottom half of the wage distribution, which is largely due to the weak intervention of the government on the federal minimum wage. This of course wasn't the case in the post-war period, the good old days that he is so fond of recalling. MAGA by getting serious about the minimum wage, which would be at over $10 per hour instead of $7.25, if it had kept up with the cost of living.
https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-annual-earnings-full-time-minim...
38
Maybe Larry Kudlow can explain to Donald Trump how his actions are affecting our economy and the value of the US dollar. And if he isn’t fired for doing that, he can repeat the explanation a few more times until Trump gets it.
26
@Mike Iker
Do you believe a ramped up distracted narcissist could even comprehend the concepts? Trump is peppered by too many issues. His narcissistic expression freezes him
Out of reflective thought. Trump just cost the Nation $10 billion in export sales. He should be imprisoned immediately. Article 25. But the Republican Congress wants a Supreme Ct Judge and the overturn of Roe v Wade. They are killing the society by their inaction to stop Trump’s out of the stadium trade policies.
1
Every time I hear Trumpkin’ is getting involved in economics of any sort, I’m reminded of the free market Chicago School Boys. Specifically, I’m reminded of their habit of creating economic chaos as an excuse to privatize the common wealth of a target nation while, when possible, installing a dictatorship. See Pinochet’s Chile, Argentina, Suarto’s Indonesia and and whatever is left of pre 9/11 Venezuela.
29
We are at a point in this farce of a presidency where we must stop analyzing statements of policy. Trump believes in nothing and has no strategy. The formula is always the same; lies--bad decisions--a reversal--more lies to cover it up.
Just focus on 1 thing. Get him out of office.
123
@Richard You say Trump believes in nothing and has no strategy.
I beg to differ. Trump/Kushner/Bannon have a strategy. And so far it's working just fine.
1
If you look up "economist" in the dictionary you'll find a picture of an actual economist, and then me way off in the background scratching my head. However, even I can tell that he has no clue what he's talking about and is likely steering us towards a recession. The federal reserve balances interest rates to keep the economy from veering off course. It's been historically low because the Obama administration was working us out of a recession. The economy "booming" forever is not a good thing. I don't care if the midterms are coming up.
21
We are told that your system is designed with checks and balances. How did Trump slip through the net? Why hasn't someone gone looking for a bigger net?
61
@Helen good questions. i think the same questions apply to the UK, brexit and May.
13
@Helen - US system has no real checks and balances when one party controls all the levers of government (president/administration, both houses of Congress, Supreme Court, independent agencies (commissioners appointed by president) and two-thirds of the state governments (which control redistricting for federal House of Representatives); and Congress refuses to put country ahead of party to do oversight on president.
25
@Bob T
Frightening. And potentially six more years! We live in dangerous times.
I've never understood the hostility toward China keeping it's dollar low, unless you are in Ag or manufacturing. For those of us buying goods who work service sector jobs or anyone going abroad, a strong dollar, especially against other important currencies, keeps prices low.
7
I for a brief moment mistakenly considered that Trump is worried because rising interest rates will make paying off the national debt harder... but then remembered that 1) He literally doesn't give a hoot about the exploding federal deficit and has done utterly nothing to control spending; 2) Rising interest rates can be good for those with large cash deposits (i.e. the 1%); and 3) Trump has a history of just declaring bankruptcy when the going gets tough.
He appears to simply view global trade as a big monopoly game where he is competing against the EU and China and doesn't care about the rules, who will be hurt, or the even consequences of his decisions/policy.... if/when he loses, he will blame everyone but himself and wonder why he can't just start another game.
70
@Rob - one can only dream that he picks up the Chance card that says "Go directly TO JAIL - do not pass Go, do not collect $200."
Someone who has been through multiple bankruptcies , had to abandon products that didn't sell and was in such a precarious financial position that banks would not give him loans, is the last person to be meddling in the economy.The economy is like three dimensional chess and he cannot even play checkers.In the guise of improving the economy he is putting our economy in a very dangerous position.
85
@Janet Michael
Nor is he any good at poker (leaving aside the deliciously mixed metaphor):
“I raised 50, and they matched us,” he said. “I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.’”
Isn't that the whole point? To keep raising all around until players fold or a person's bluff is called? Trump is not good at keeping a poker face or keeping his cards held close to his chest. He also doesn't know "when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em" and his habit of doubling down on everything will get him into trouble. Chances are that President Xi in China will call Trump's bluff and we'll see who has the Aces.
1
It is not that Trump is just ignorant-that also is true-but the most serious problem with Trump and economics 101 is that he is unhinged from reality. He has been separated from reality for a long time but it is getting worse day by day.
It is not worth trying to comment any longer with reason and facts. What is the use when the American public, American lawmakers and Americans in general do not seem to be able to comprehend that Trump is a very real danger to the world, not to mention to America. Those who do comprehend only have talk but no action.
Perhaps, when the global economic system collapses, Americans will wake up but it will be too late. The damage will have been done. Let it happen if that is the only way Trump can be effectively removed from office-malfeasance.
By the way, China nor EU have devalued their currency. The high US dollar is to blame which Trump help make. For those Trump base voters who do not understand economics, a real lesson is in the works. It takes about 6 months for the full effect of retributive tariffs from China, EU, Mexico, et al, to have full effect. Then the Trump base will see what his economic theories look like as they look out over fields of unsold soybeans-as South Carolinians look out over vacant production lines of BMWs. Oh yes, a real awakening is in the offing.
41
@Pushkin I live in SC, and I've been warning my neighbors for about a year now that Trump's anti-Europe rhetoric could come back and bite us in the rump here in the upstate. Until very recently, however, these Trump-supporting BMW and Michelin workers have been in denial than anything like this could happen. Now, I'm hearing the first stirrings of unease, though few of them are ready to jump off the Trump bandwagon just yet.
50
@Pushkin
I see the trade union guys starting to wake up to the fact that Trump (and corporate America) cares nothing about them. Lockouts by companies (e.g. National Grid) trying to squeeze more profit off their workers' backs will become the norm if this administration and GOP-led Congress have their way.
2
@Raindog63........I live in Wi where dairy, corn and soybean farmers are big Trumpers . Congress and State govt. is trying to find money in the farm bill to help cover losses but if NAFTA doesn’t get settled soon and the second round of tariffs from China go through in Sept. the Trump Train will derail in WI.
To summarise: Trump is complaining about Chinese and EU currency manipulation and in the same breath is complaining that the Fed isn't doing enough to manipulate the US currency...
And people wonder why he, and by extension the US, has a serious credibility problem.
95
The low number of USA citizens with the highest achievement in Higher Education: The Brilliant IQ Score, is the reason why the USA Economy is failing. Lack of Education, lack of doing Homework. Invention of New Products is what dominates profit. The USA needs to support Higher Education more. Actually the USA currently has a Red Flag on it, because the resources are there. With the amount of resources, the USA should have more people on Top with Brilliant IQ Scores, or close to, on their Resumes. Do not dumb down, but smarten up. Intelligence is Power. And Europe still dominates.
17
@Kim Susan Foster
You might want to look at who’s Mars landers worked and who’s Mars lander crashed because of bad software! (Hint: Europe’s)
While Trump's behavior appears as mostly erratic, he is systematically destroying or at least severely bruising all the sources of the power of the USA, starting with its credibility and following through with its alliances, its economy, its prestigious intelligence and law enforcement agencies, its vital democracy, its self-respect, its fundamental symbols (like the Constitution and the Office of President), its checks and balances, its moral standing, its reverence for immigration, for diversity... in short all that sustains its sense of hope - not just for America but for humanity in general (yes I am such a fan of the US). I don't think he will last more than a couple of weeks in an office for which it was always obvious that he was not suited anyways. Putin doesn't need anything more from Trump - he has already gotten more than he could ever have imagined. "Yes I did it! Yes I did it" said Putin in Helsinki. And the ball is not in Trump's court, it is in America's.
39
Trump mentions a 5 year trend of soybean prices declining but won’t mention that’s this is Obamas strong economy so why don’t we look at the last 5 years of our economy, Trumps new metric. Having said that Trump as usual is out of line attacking the independent FED. But I want to know is the Fed worried that wages will get above the 2.5 current rate leaving workers in a slightly better position?
Are they worried workers may get more then the 6 per cent they have gained over the last 30 years as opposed to the 500 % or more the top 10% has gotten?
I have no sympathy for the farmers who stand by our treasonous president who also doesn’t believe in the rule of law.
32
@Mike
The enemy is not China, Canada, Mexico, or the EU. The enemy of workers wages is the elite members of corporate America who is faced with wage demands will move production to automation or to third world countries. However the GOP has repeatedly lied that the "fault" lies with trading partners so the welathy can continue to steal the wages owed workers because so many people are looking for the "enemy" in thw rong direction.
29
Manipulation of emmision software notwithstanding, could it be that cars in Europe are of higher quality?
What I cannot fathom is the absolute silence on the part of the Republicans. It’s as if they have been hypnotized by this in such a shirt period of time. I hope that the tenor of these comments will translate into a democratic landslide in November because then he will be stymied and he will go ballistic. A Putin visit in November is window dressing.
26
Speculation: There is a standing group of Republican patriots, a few Democrats too, who keep in touch with one another waiting for the right moment to act. They understand it must be together, concurrent, and conclusive.
16
@robert rostand, m.d. Don't wonder about the republican silence. He has given them a big tax cut and slashed regulations across the board. They ae fat and happy.
1
Trump is simply attempting to land on a scapegoat for his abysmal tariff policies.
24
Trump raises tariffs on Chinese imports and China devalues its currency, effectively negating Trump's move.
So much for a "winning" strategy.
28
“Larry Kudlow, the chairman of the White House’s National Economic Council, said in an interview that the president strongly BELIEVED that his policies would increase investment and draw workers into the labor force without raising inflation”.
An intro course in Economics should make it clear that this Trump’s believe makes no sense. But Larry Kudlow surely knows not only this economic principle but also the troubled history of countless failures of Trump’s believes.
Just during this week, for 4 days after the Helsinki entirely unneeded summit the president BELIEVED that inviting Russians to investigate the former US dignitaries was a great idea. Trump must have also BELIEVED that the Senate would not vote 98 to 0 to reject this great idea of his. Trump must not BELIEVE that meeting Putin one-on-one will demonstrate with certainty that he is hiding something from the Americans but not from the Russians, and he certainly did not BELIEVE that the meeting would have provide Putin with yet another item for future blackmail against Trump.
But at least one Trump’s BELIEVE seems to be working: some Americans continue to think that going bankrupt 6 (Six!) times, as Trump did, is not enough to demonstrate his incompetency in Business & Economic.
47
@Grain of Sand
So true. A simple example. The low interest rates imposed to help the US avert disaster is not being rolled back because it part it worked and the economy is doing better. So Stumped complains that raising the rates is now bad for the economy. I mean, I know a lot of folks don't dig economics, so maybe they should listen to those that do or learn about it first before pontificating. But for the prez who has unbelievable business acumen (ha ha) to not get this is beyond the pale.
And his supporters keep on clapping, kind of like Nero and his fiddling while the empire burned. What will it take.
Thanks for your insightful comments.
34
Decades of US trade deficits, and falling wages for the bottom 50%, gives bipartisan policies since 1980 zero credibility.
TPP? TPP was written by lobbyists, for their corporate employers - period.
Further, "our" (actually the donors') legislators were not even allowed to leave the locked room containing the TPP with any notes or documents.
Do you know what ISDS is? The TPP contained a provision known as ISDS - Investor / State Dispute System - a court of judges - all of whom are appointed by corporations - to decide cases, and award damages to investors, to be paid by governments (federal, state, local). This supersedes sovereignty, as governments can't afford to be sued by corporations, by say, passing anti smoking laws, anti-pollution laws, etc - lest they be sued out of existence, with nowhere to appeal, just for not letting corporations have all the profits this court says they are entitled to.
Further, In any trade agreement, there are winners and losers. Those who do not have a seat at the table, are guaranteed to be losers. And the people of the US - especially workers - did *not* have a seat at the table. So, you can be sure that they were on the menu.
Again.
The main provisions of TPP were to preserve patent rights to ensure corporate profits - not to balance trade. Decades of trade deficits and declining US wages? TPP would have done *nothing* to turn that around.
7
I will agree that the TPP had a lot of troubling provisions. But the benefit to the pact was a hedge against Chinese expansion in the Pacific. Trump made no effort to renegotiate the TPP, just cancelled it outright. Now, Southeast Asia and Australia look to China for stability, undermining Trump's position on trade.
22
Re: "But the benefit to the pact was a hedge against Chinese expansion in the Pacific."
How?
I hear all kinds of general statements like that to defend TPP, with *zero* specific policies to back them up.
Whenever you look at any specific rule or policy that was in TPP, they are all "troubling", and they all look like they are in there for no other reason than to benefit the donors whose lobbyists wrote it.
What specific rules would "hedge against Chinese expansion"?
And even if there were any, why should we believe they will work? Bill Clinton promised that in exchange for most favored nation status, that China would level the playing field. Never happened.
Out government has *zero* policies left to benefit the long term economic interests of the nation. Our media won't even mention how corrupt we are. People are yawning at Trump's incompetence and corruption, because they have seen *decades* of increasing rot.
To a worker from the Midwest, Hillary getting $200K in personal income from banks for a 20 minute speech, cannot be anything but corruption beyond the pale. Legal? Sure. What has been made legal, is effectively criminal by any reasonable standard. Get ready for 6 more years of Trump, if we can't get Democratic candidates less corrupt than Hillary. Donor approval is now a liability more than an asset. But even when Democrats lose, their donors still get the policies they want, so they don't really care - they would rather lose than anger donors.
2
Re: "But the benefit to the pact was a hedge against Chinese expansion in the Pacific."
How?
I hear all kinds of general statements like that to defend TPP, with *zero* specific policies to back them up.
Whenever you look at any specific rule or policy that was in TPP, they are all "troubling", and they all look like they are in there for no other reason than to benefit the donors whose lobbyists wrote it.
What specific rules would "hedge against Chinese expansion"?
And even if there were any, why should we believe they will work? Bill Clinton promised that in exchange for most favored nation status, that China would level the playing field. Never happened.
Out government has *zero* policies left to benefit the long term economic interests of the nation. Our media won't even mention how corrupt we are. People are yawning at Trump's incompetence and corruption, because they have seen *decades* of increasing rot.
To a worker from the Midwest, Democrats getting $200K in personal income from banks for a 20 minute speech, cannot be anything but corruption beyond the pale. Legal? Sure. What has been made legal, is effectively criminal by any reasonable standard. Get ready for 6 more years of Trump, if we can't get Democratic candidates less corrupt than that. Donor approval is now more a liability with voters,than an asset. But even when Democrats lose, their donors still get the policies they want, so they don't really care - they would rather lose than anger donors.
1
"What does the President own and how long has he owned it?"
President Trump has long bragged about his wealth and in his words, "I'm going to run for President and make money doing it".
The President's refusal to reveal his income tax filings and to provide any details about his stock portfolio raise the obvious concern that he is making statements designed to enhance his wealth, part of being President and to "make money while doing it".
One hopes that the Mueller investigation or an SEC investigation will find evidence that the President has made decisions and promoted policies that increase his personal and family wealth. For example, does he own stock in coal and fossil fuel companies? Have he or his family members sold short on stocks that would be negatively affected by his actions?
It is scary to think that someone occupying the White House would take actions based on his desires to increase his wealth but Trump's lack of transparency about his financial holdings raises that specter.
40
Trump knows very little about very little. How dare he wag his finger at the independent Fed. Unlike him, they know exactly what they are doing. With fiscal policy running amok, the Fed can make more objective analysis about potential overheating of the economy. They need to normalize interest rates fast. I hope Larry Kudlow can give an Econ 101 lecture to Trump...he needs it badly!
23
@Sandy - This is not a surprise. The Fed has signaled for months that anticipates four interest rate rises this year. They are small, constant, expected steps for the purpose of giving the Fed flexibility or "tools" in case of another bad downturn. Why Trump lashed out at the Fed chairman makes no sense, unless it was merely that he was having a bad day for other reasons.
1
It is called the straight talk express. Trump is a truth teller. Love it.
5
We are lucky to have a president who is responsible for every good thing, but not to blame for any bad thing. Sort of like God.
22
Max Boot: “I say that as someone who worked to defeat him: I was a foreign policy adviser to John McCain in 2008 and to Mitt Romney in 2012. I criticized Obama’s ‘lead from behind’ foreign policy that resulted in a premature pullout from Iraq and a failure to stop the slaughter in Syria. I thought he was too weak on Iran and too tough on Israel. I feared that Obamacare would be too costly. I fumed that he was too professorial and too indecisive. I was left cold by his arrogance and his cult of personality.”
“Now I would take Obama back in a nanosecond. His presidency appears to be a lost golden age when reason and morality reigned. All of his faults, real as they were, fade into insignificance compared with the crippling defects of his successor. And his strengths — seriousness, dignity, intellect, probity, dedication to ideals larger than self — shine all the more clearly in retrospect.”
230
a few good points.. as a general critique, I think republicans overweight and overplay the short game / next quarter's / next election's results versus the long game.. President Obama had a longer game view of the world and frustrated many of our "capitalists" friends on the right... in quotations for a reason, as true capitalism is always adjusting to the long game..
6
Trump needs to go, every crummy day since he waltzed unprepared into the Oval Office has been destructive to this country and to the world. It’s like water torture having him poison everything he touches. Donald Trump is an epically unfunny George Costanza without the humanity, not one redeeming quality to his name.
22
Its time for Trump and his GOP enablers to GO!!!! Im Voting in November STRAIGHT DEM ticket.
29
Everyone's out to get us...except Putin.
31
Trump forgot the real culprits: Obama and Hillary!!!
I think Trump is losing his mojo.
7
Three words from the movie The Goodbye Girl sum up Trump nicely:
"Crackers! Animal crackers"
4
really? he blames the trading partners he threatened for responding with tariffs that hurt our economy? the man is a blithering idiot. everyone warned that this would happen. stop covering this as if his accusation is the news. the news is that we are in a trade war because of trump's ill-informed policies.
10
What does Donald Trump care about the U.S. economy in relation to the Fed, China and Europe?
If only we could see what Vladimir Putin's Pet Puppet aka Bone Spurs aka Golfheart is hiding from us in his personal and family income tax returns and business records then we would know what is driving the corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch welfare organized crime barbarian pirate family occupying the Oval Office of our White House.
17
Really? Trump: you are a completely damaged individual. Resign to cut your loses. Otherwise, you’re going to be broke!
12
Hasn't Trump created his own brand of terrorism against the United States? In a short period of time, he has destroyed our relationships with our allies, is in the process of creating a recession, gives comfort to neo-Nazis, cages immigrant babies who are ripped from their mothers’ arms, created a trillion-dollar deficit with his tax bill, is determined to destroy the healthcare system, started a trade war that hurts American consumers, is determined to get rid of all safety regulations that interfere with corporate profits, has turned the republican party into the corrupt party of Trump, has created a cruel partisan atmosphere that has divided the country, accepts Putin’s phony denials about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, has chosen allegiance with Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence agencies, and he says that our country is stupid. If we don’t get a majority of democrats in Congress so that we can reverse all the damage and if we don’t rid ourselves of this cancerous growth in the White House, he may be right about only one thing, that being we are a stupid country.
29
It's the radical agenda of Stephen Miller. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/stephen-miller-duke-donald-trump
11
What a scared, weak old man he is.
18
The Joker became POTUS. Where is Batman when you need him...
3
Of course. Trump appears to be a Russian agent and there’s nothing we can do about it.
All hail to Putin!
Vive le Vlad!
14
well, one thing for sure.. none of the problems in the world are Donalds fault.
13
It's always someone elses fault. We've heard this for over two years now. Typical Narcissistic response. Why even publish or broadcast the craziness. Stop goving him air time and that'll annoy him the most. Similar to not responding to a child having an tantrum.
33
@AJ exactly only in this case it'should not be a time out but a"cut off the oxygen, the patient is brain dead" moment.
10
President Trump, you have no idea what you're doing. You're complaining about the American economy when it's doing great. You yourself have exclaimed many times just how great the economy is doing. You passed tax cuts to stimulate an economy that is over-stimulated. You've cut regulations for the same reason. In other words, the reason you cite for almost everything you do is completely unjustified. The Fed's job is to ensure that monetary policy fosters growth in recessions while staving off inflation when the economy is robust - without political influence. Because you're an idiot on a galactic scale, you see negative consequences when the consequences are positive. The economy is doing great. Even with our enormous trade deficit with China. Even with all the regulations that you're now cutting. Even when the corporate tax rate at 35%. The only problem is you. All you had to do was nothing. Instead, you're attacking everything. The result will be a complete economic catastrophe. And it's your fault. 100%.
10
Sorry, I really want to make a cogent comment. but all I keep thinking is 'Crybaby In Chief'. This has probably been the pattern of the 'bankruptcy king' for his entire life...
22
US is history's richest country.
What possible disadvantage do we have? What possibly harm have we suffered?
That we need More???
Pathetic, bankrupt thinking, no principals, values or character. Republicans have shown their true colors, hidden previously by spin: complete amoral hypocrites.
8
So it's everyone against DJT (in his mind).
Or isn't it rather DJT against everyone?
It seems he is not taking it very well if there is some push-back.
That's (maybe) ok for a spoiled little brat, but not for someone holding the office of POTUS. Pathetic.
4
Trump needs to be taken out of the White House in a straight jacket. He sounds and acts like he needs his medication adjusted.
8
I call this "preemptive blaming":
Spew blame prior to an anticipated catastrophe.
The 1% tax giveaway, Volcker rule repeal (aka proprietary trading/gambling), and raising taxes on the 99% (aka tariffs) are all contributing to the next republican recession. The village idiot (aka Trump) wants to get out front early with the whining and blaming before his next train wreck.
I think we should blame that guy Trudeaumerkelmacronximay.
ps. We know that one third of that 1% tax giveaway went to foreigners (eg Putin). I wonder how much of that is being cycled back to congressional republicans through the NRA.
17
The Whiner in chief
is looking for scapegoats
when the stock market drops like
a stone in a pond
19
Trump’s weapon of choice is his HUGE Mouth ... and oddly enough his HUGE Mouth is his worst own Enemy ...
Those who Ply the Sword... Die by the Sword...
10
"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- HLM
Trump has sought out the most ignorant, irresponsible and morally corrupt individuals that exist, but their resumes are of high value to him because of such.
They are leading us down a road that is neither justified nor to be ignored; the future is a question mark.
The only way America can correct the steering on its Titanic is by adhering to the basic democratic principle afforded to us all: . . . vote in the mid-terms; individual's livelihoods depend upon it.
10
As you read this article, as well as so many others, remember the number of people who referred to Trump as a moron, an idiot, stupid, and so on. One never denied it and got fired, Tillerson, the rest denied it - McMaster, Tom Barrack, his friend, Cohn, some of whom were fired or left, and the list goes on and on. There's too much smoke for there plausibly not be a fire. In addition to many undesirable traits, like lying and blaming everyone else for his problems, he is just not real bright. Articles really shouldn't be surprised that he says contradictory things and seems to lack the basics of economics and a liberal education. (Poor Penn. Do you think this debacle will encourage universities to rethink legacy admissions?) But you have to write something, so carry on!
6
Would someone throw a bucket of water on him so he melts!
2
Is this fit of obfuscating pique in response to the disclosure of the existence of the Cohen tape?
7
As a small business owner with employees, I guess it's time for me to start the process of winding down my business for the inevitable collapse that will be coming unless some one who knows how to lead suddenly takes charge.
This is really getting out of hand. I don't claim to know much about business or economics. I'm by far not the smartest person in the room, heck I can't even balance a checkbook.
But I know how to lead, I know how to set goals, I know how to hire and surround myself by competent great people who I push to shine each day.
Just like ten years ago, the average joe, like myself will take it in the pants. This time there will be no pulling myself up by my bootstraps or forging ahead. What can I really do anymore when I go above and beyond only to be sucker punched by the clowns that run our government.
18
Perhaps we just let the economic data collectors do their jobs over the coming months. Let the Bull run around the China shop, and then tally up the damages when he runs out of puff. There's nothing like hard data to convince the Republican banderilleros to summon a matador.
5
I guess now we'll find out if Jay Powell (Fed Chair) took a loyalty oath to Mr. Trump.
5
I cannot understand how my Republican/Libertarian ”free market” friend can still support this guy. I think the RepUblicans in Congress as well as those Trump voters have been mesmerizerized in the same way that others who go ga-ga for cult leaders have become zombies. They sort of look like the living but they are ready to eat you alive.
4
Let’s see, who does that leave?
1
@Seldoc
Did he graduate from Wharton? Or just attend?
3
It will never, ever be his fault.
6
Dear Dotard Trump: everybody's raising interest rates in order to have a fiscal tool to work with when your bully's rule, know-nothing policy-induced recession hits us all.
5
Tumps hurts American economy!
2
Trump is so small and venal that he takes credit for Obama's economic successes and blames everyone but himself when he fouls up. He has appointed a bunch of grifters and crooks to his cabinet and loves dictatorship more than a free society.
16
You mean putting Russia at a disadvantage? Because that’s all trump cares about
1
So much for Mr Trump's Wharton education.
6
Says the guy who started a global trade war... this is beyond ridiculous.
6
“I alone can place blame on anyone but myself.”
That was the campaign slogan, right?
6
Seriously, the man is deranged.
And, yes, it had to have been the Russians because in their small lizard hearts even Republicans didn't want this 9-ring circus.
Or maybe they did. It's the way all empires implode...
4
And the Moon is made of Green Cheese. If it comes out of DJT's mouth it's Non-News.
3
Trump filed seven times for bankruptcy, and never paid his contractors. And, even worse refuses to show his taxes. So why should we listen to him when he complains about China and the E.U. It's all fake to deflect from him. Hope Cohen secret tape nails this scammer.
9
I don’t think anyone here objects to jobs for the US many of us just don’t think Trump has a clue what he is doing and we don’t think his trade war will work. If it does work I for one will be willing to concede that he is smarter and perhaps a better president than I thought he was. It would be sort of nice to think he was competent at something other than showmanship and confidence tricks. I will still think he is a liar, a bully, a narcissist, and an adulterer though.
3
The false prophet strikes yet again. As has happened throughout human history, leaders like Trump can always find a few million to follow him straight off a cliff. So long as they sing out his praises all the way down, he really could care less about their eventual fate. If his loyalists win again in 2018 and 2020, the United States will then have truly become a permanent ship of fools.
2
You know who really hurts the economy? Trump
Who hurts the environment? Trump through Pruitt
Who hurts education? Trump through DeVos
Who hurts civility? Trump
When does this guy get impeached? Forget proving treason - how about simple graft, malfeasance, and the continuing diminishment of America?
17
Who ya gonna go with, a group of educated economic experts versed in encouraging stability, or a President who espouses massive debt and won't reveal his very own tax returns, which might give us a clue into his own personal financial state? After all, he IS implying he is an expert here.
6
Originality. Invention. Creativity. That is what substantially affects the Economy. Not the superficial paper-pushing that Trump is using as the reason.
The USA population, is suffering from a Lack of Education. The percentage of the population is not as Educated as it should be. This includes both women and men, girls and boys. The Trump Administration does not support improving the quality of Higher Education, as well as the quality of K-12.
Brilliance is Power. Intelligence is Power. Trump and Pence cannot compete with people who have Brilliant IQs who are employed by The Private Corporations.
Considering New Products currently being designed to hit the World Market... (hopefully soon)... Trump and Pence will have nothing to do with the Economy. I suppose they will have more time to attend their rallies and multi million dollar parades.
2
No one has done more damage to the U S A economy than Donald Trump. He inherited a growing, steadily improving economy and has claimed credit for it. Now, he has imposed tariffs that are beginning to wrack havoc on our agricultural regions and put thru a tax decrease that has enriched himself and the upper 5% of our population on the pretext that workers would get the larger benefit. That is proving very wrong. In essence this pretender hasn't the foggiest knowledge of economics and is truly nothing but a hot air buffoon.
6
I alone can fix the economy!
2
Trump will do for America what he did for Trump Casino, he will bankrupt the country. Maybe then some of his hard core supporters will wake up to the fact they were conned.
3
Just dawning on him that inflation and/or recession looms, thanks to his lunatic trade policies, verbal attacks on Nafta, NATO, EU and China, and throwing $1.6 trillion of new national debt on the bonfire. Gotta blame someone else.
2
"Eswar Prasad ... said the president’s tweets displayed "a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.' "
That is cleverly said but too kind by a country mile. Trump lies about everything including business and economics. His utterances and policies have no basis in reality. From a business and economics perspective, his actions are nonsensical and self-defeating. His tariffs and other so called economic policies stem from the same root as everything else that he does: white nationalism and white supremacy. Besides his troubling Russia behavior, white nationalism is the only consistent theme of his erratic presidency. He would break anything and everything. He does not care about the wellbeing of the nation. He does not care about its democracy and its vital institutions.
8
Your various specialised government departments are supposed to the mouthpiece for the government - not the Commander-in-Tweets. It is called being tactful and diplomatic.
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/agreements-under...
3
Trump's tweets bring to mind the quote "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
Trump's ignorance of basic economics and everything else essential to running a minimally competent presidency is once again evident. Hearing Trump supporters declare his empirically obvious incompetence and ignorance to be disguised brilliance is classic cognitive dissonance. There is simply no more doubt about Donald to be removed. It is time for Congress to remove Donald. And when they don't; to remove the current Congress. Remember in November.
9
"I didn't do it," sez the prez. "They did."
Trump's locked in childhood. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is ever his fault.
4
Trump has to go! Enough! Russian meeting should have been the end.
Where’s the GOP? Those boys are counting money!
1
More Texans are getting fed up I tell ya! We are smart people in this great state! Trumps messing up America’
He inherited a robust economy from Obama. Could you imagine his bellyaching if he'd become president in 2009?
3
Captain crazy, our president. The pattern is always to go against anything that doesn’t originate from him and to attack any person, agency or regulatory part of the United States government. The GOP wants the endangered species eradicated without regulation because Republican owned companies either directly or the ones they lobby for can drill, mine, pollute un hampered by any safeguards for money in their pockets. Captain crazy is unhinged and rebounds with the mad mans vigor after the country is in shock that we can’t stop his insanity. He’s wrecking the country and the world.
2
Trump puts the U.S. economy at a disadvantage.
4
Trump has lost the USA 'goodwill', internationally, and that's worth money trade wise.
Here's an article on little ole NZ and how we get trade deals -
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104133204/qa-nzs-major-step-to...
1
Actually, the people who hurts the American's economy and around the world are Donald and Putin.
1
Strong words for our Clown King who never ever provides tangible facts to back up his claims. Donny, Extraordinary Claims require extraordinary evidence, not just you gut feelings. American's demand more than Hannity's musings. Facts Mr President, facts matter. If they don't believe that, it probably explains your multiple bankruptcies.
9
This man with his delusion of grandiosity thinks he is genius way above the Federal Reserve. He is amnesic about his bankruptcies.
1
Trump pefectly displays the arrogance of ingorance when it comes to the economy.
6
I hope the media is not still so easily made to dance to Trump's tune that they now shift off of Trump's recent vile, possibly treasonous behavior, just because of his new antics.
3
It is obvious that Mr. Trump is putting the economy in peril. Bur, he throws the blame on others. Very BAD!
2
And in another news:
Republican lawmakers backed away from a plan to reinstate stiff penalties on Chinese telecom firm ZTE, handing a win to President Trump, who had personally intervened to save the Beijing company
4
If the US was doing well companies such as Harley-Davidson would not be closing plants, downsizing at home, and moving some production overseas.
Trump created this problem, and his doubling and tripling down on it won't
solve it.
Lift the tariffs and let common sense prevail, something Trump is lacking.
4
so to be able to shift blame in the mid-terms to keep the vote of those who voted for him still not "winners" in the new economy which is of his own making - what a disaster for real-world businesses that depend on parts, supply chains, JIT mfg, etc. - in other words, the "value added" American economy AND due to the tit-for-tat tariffs imposed in response to Trump's ill-informed trade war, the rest of the American economy (farmers, raw materials, etc. and the service economy as it all trickles down). Trump is King Midas all right. . .in reverse.
6
I would love to see footage of the faces of people when Trump enters a room. Not those directly in his sight, having their games mask on, but the others, those who are not in Trump's line of sight. I believe many of the Congress men and women are intelligent people, intelligent enough to realize that Trump is not.
Trump is right about one thing: The global economy is far from perfect. But that is the only thing he got right. The solutions he suggests will never work because he believes he can just demand other countries to give USA money for nothing. Yes, for nothing. EU is not interested in protecting itself with guns, they want to protect themselves with regulations and agreements. EU has enough firepower to defend themselves against any attack with traditional weapons even without the help of US and they realize that a war that involves nukes only have losers. They also realize that it is pretty pointless for a foreign power to "conquer" them because, well, what would really change? What did USA win by conquering Iraq that they could not have gotten cheaper by trade?
In the end it is a null sum game that cannot be won, it can only be balanced. This balance is a delicate thing. The people in the room that Trump enters, the wast majority of them, know this. They also know that Trump is one of the few that does not understand it.
10
@Stefan
The President does understand that the “balance” would be better if Germany paid for its own defense do you understand that?
Of course Mr. Trump wants lower interest rates. He is the self-proclaimed "king of debt."
8
His lexicon of economics is drawn mainly from a slice of the economy, real estate and real estate development. He again slices that knowledge to golf courses, big buildings and branding.
Are you comfortable hopping into his unilateral economics car and playing chicken with the rest of the world. Waiting to see if he can make another country blink first? We can't eat his golf courses or buildings. Steak and wine anybody?
8
@richard wiesner: guess Trump's financing must be ARM........
As usual, Trump shows his ignorance of the basics of international trade and the effects of fiscal policy on the value of the USD.
Having fiscal policy our country in the hands of politicians is bad enough, given their dismal track record but giving them additional power in conducting monetary policy is a recipe for disaster.
Let the Fed do its job.
3
Chinese Telecom Firm ZTE gets a pass due to Trump.
After China gives a half billion dollars of financing to trump for hotels.
The first order of business for the new congress is to show us the tax returns.
9
And now the NFL has squashed his only win as President and will review their kneeling policy. Perfect end to the most imperfect week of any President ever.
7
Let me get this straight: Donald Trump has berated the G7, NATO, Theresa May, the Federal Reserve, the EU, China and for all we know, Mr. Rogers for putting America at a disadvantage. Donald Trump has to recognize what is putting America at gravest disadvantage is Donald J. Trump.
7
This is his usual way of shifting attention away from things like immigration, Putin etc. There is almost no point in continuing to publish what he says unless it is something really new and surprising. The rest is just calculated to get everyone upset and provide talking points for television hosts.
3
Let’s face it. Donny is in love. Unlike everybody in love, good sense and judgment to right out the window. We’re doomed.
3
Why does Trump always look puzzled? Or guilty? Or confused? Or angry? Or defensive? About his own actions, I mean.
4
He wants to control the narratives for the Sunday morning talk shows. He’s so predictable! Every Friday, something.
1
There's always an outside malevolent actor or actors seeking to harm the president or the US. Always. It's been that way since he was born. The entire world is out to get him.
1
Trump derangement syndrome really means that we are mapping the territory between insanity and madness. The world has seen megalomaniacs and dictators often before, but our real problems come from the GOP, which let him run loose without restraint.
5
This freight train seem to only be gathering speed. I dread to see what happens when it runs out of track. And when it does, perhaps then America will regain its sanity.
6
I guess this is an unpopular opinion, but Trump is right. Maybe not about the Fed, but EU and China, and Canada, Mexico, Australia, Montenegro, Chile, Venezuela, Japan, Malaysia... they all hurt the US economy. If they had not been so stubborn in insisting that they should also have a decent economy, USA would have much more. They should just realize that the best thing for them is to stop looking at their interests and instead support Donald's quest to... whatever it is.
7
@Stefan I know you are being sarcastic, but even so it's still a false narrative. "Decent economy" is not some thing that is in limited quantities and that countries fight over.
@citybumpkin
I believe that it is exactly that, a limited quantity of something, of resources, that countries are fighting over. They all want as much as possible but they also realize that, contrary to Monopoly, all players will stay in the game forever. The balance will change but no player stop trying to have more. No player will freely give anything away and if they have to give something away they will try to win it back.
@Stefan
Stefan, please provide examples that support your argument.
Thank you.
1
But, but, Mr. Trump! Unemployment has never been lower, growth better, or profits higher.
Which is it? Good or bad?
9
Yep... couldn't be tariffs that make no sense... skyrocketing national debt from that nifty tax plan, walking away from the TPP,
focusing on dying industries like coal while ignoring growth industries or putting them at a disadvantage like solar panels... couldn't be wasting hundreds of millions on wall that won't stop flies or not using federal power to control drug or healthcare costs... yep not me... time to spend millions at my resort that you pay for...
25
Despite claims by Trump that China, the EU and the Federal Reserve put the US at a disadvantage, it is in fact Trump who has put the US economy at a disadvantage. By pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord and NAFTA, killing the Asia Pacific Trade group, imposing tariffs that will impact negatively on US employment and economic growth, making rash statements about US interest rate settings and creating uncertainty with world trade generally, it is Trump who is the biggest obstacle for continuing sustainable US economic growth and prosperity.
27
If looking at his rocky business history (he would be richer if he' put his inheritance in index funds), I get the feeling that he never was terribly good at it to begin with, and now he seems to be less competent than he was an the past. If the (gutted with a pro-trump head) fed still thinks interest rates need to go up, I'd guess they probably do.
If he manages to push this on through, see you next recession.
15
Maybe ... but why is he trying to break their records? He's trying to do in less than 4 years what he claims the Fed, China and Europe combined couldn't do in decades.
5
Trump says that he turned over North Korea and Russia in hours! He thinks he is God...totally delusional and totally dangerous.
5
Naturally, Trump is assembling a stable of scapegoats in advance of the imminent recession/depression that will result from his and the Republicans reckless, incoherent economic policies. Today, irrational exuberance and US markets propped up by tax cut generated corporate stock buybacks. Tomorrow......??
64
Brilliance in brevity: "the president’s tweets displayed 'a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.'"
108
You could remove the word “economics” and substitute any other topic and the statement would be equally true. The adjective “breezy” is a perfect description of how very little he cares about what he says or what it means. It’s all just intended to stir things up and get him media attention. If it drives intelligent people nuts that’s just a bonus and good for a laugh. He has bigger boats than us anyway so he doesn’t care, do U?
3
China has been driving the USD/Yuan exchange rate lower for the past 6 months. Trump wakes up now? Trump can’t do a darned thing to stop this. More tariffs drive the rate lower yet again. Is there nobody competent in the WH to figure this out? My dog knew this directional change when it started, and asked me to short the Yuan, but there was no easy way. We aren’t done. The tariff impact will disappear into the Yuan drop. It has already dropped 6-7%. It’s simple. Again, what’s shocking is a President who is carping, avoiding any responsibility. On a nation-state basis, this is impeachable negligence, and it is continuing. People in the US, the ones Trump is responsible for, will be economically bankrupted, and soon.
25
@Ray S. China could easily retaliate by selling off their massive holding of US treasury bonds forcing interest rates up and putting the US into a recession.
4
@Ray S. Just a fact check. USD/CNY has been falling for only the past three months. Before that it was quite steady for several months, and before that, it rose substantially. PLEASE don't tell the WH about this movement in the Yuan. The last thing I want is the Trump administration devaluing the dollar in a currency war against the Chinese.
He left out the rest of the world, and extraterrestrials. In other words, anything and everyone is at fault except Mr Trump. Tariff wars are easy to win. This is just a tiny taste of what victory looks like. Wait a little bit more and you will get the full flavor of victory.
Enjoy !!!
43
Trump, the world’s weakest leader and most ardent victim and whiner, needs to shut his tweet. All he does is lie. Vote!
73
Hey, New York Times, take a page out of the ol' Trump playbook- there's really nothing wrong with your reporting of Trump Administration pronouncements that a (couple) of word(s) couldn't make right- Just begin each and every headline with:
TRUMP LIES...
49
First he says our economy is booming and then says the rest of the world is hurting our economy. Is he really this stupid or is he trying to influence his base somehow? His tariffs are only hurting the economy.
23
Please cite a credible source that any current growth is due to tax cuts. Reporters causally throw this into their story without any basis, even if it’s just background, and support a fade narrative. You do have a Nobel prize winning economist that writes for the paper whose columns you could consult on the topic.
53
What really hurts the economy is have an idiot for president who doesn't know anything about business, except how to hire lawyers to sue people and companies.
57
I hope the Fed Board of Governors ignores Trump and continues independently
22
So many “free traitors” in this comment section.
God forbid Americans should be employed manufacturing goods.
Heaven forfend that Manhattanites won’t have their summer vacations in Provence subsidized by an expensive dollar — on the backs of American factor workers.
4
@Frank, After your hero's performance in Helsinki, that's pretty rich calling anyone else a traitor.
What was the point of your post, other than to use the word "forfend"? The sarcasm wasn't good or even original.
As for American factory workers, you merely display ignorance; it has been well documented that the effect of trade on employment is negligible. The percentage of manufacturing in the US economy is holding steady at about 20%, but with fewer workers. Why? Automation, dear boy; automation. So even if manufacturing were to comprise a larger part of the economy, it wouldn't translate into millions of new jobs.
Last, the dollar exchange rate is exactly where it should be; it's determined by the market taking several factors into account; factors discussed in the article.
But that's Trump; he makes a huge mess because of his simplistic "understanding" of an issue, then whinges about how unfair the world is. He behaves like an 8-year old, and you think this guy is great?
152
It beggars belief that a man bereft of any real knowledge of how the US economy actually works is POTUS.
59
I puzzle that anyone would believe donald trump says about any issue, most certainly not the global economy.
37
Unfortunately, for Trump, he picked the current head of the Federal Reserve Bank. He can't blame Obama for the rising interest rates.
49
I depend on China for all the necessities of life, Clothes , TV's Phones, Computers and Cars so don't tax my basic needs with a tariff. I refuse to dress in homespun, which is the only thing, made in the USA.
25
Mr. Trump is under the impression that Federal judges (SC justices as well) sign bills. Enough said.
7
All countries manipulate their currencies including the US. Trump’s comments are an attempt to manipulate our currency. There is really no news here except that Trump is once again complaining.
13
Mr. Trump probably saw how the value of the dollar fell - correction, someone on his team saw it. It could never have anything to with his “performances” this past week.
5
Where’s the coherence? So he lambasts China while demanding Congress gives ZTE the soft treatment?
Policy Planning in the Trump White House:
Every morning at 08:30, a dartboard plastered with sticky notes holding various brainstormed ideas is brought to the Oval Office and hung on the wall. Trump, blindfolded, lobs a gold, jewel-encrusted dart at the board from behind the desk. Whichever idea the dart hits is actioned (if he misses he gets another go. If he hits Stephen Miller he gets an extra throw as a bonus). He repeats this every 6hrs and thus, policy is born.
17
The President "tries" to run the government by complaints and temper tantrums. Let's time him out for the rest of his term and get a grownup to replace him.
14
The promises of economic growth that Trump made in pushing through his tax cuts were unrealistic. So as is typical of him he'll not want to take any responsibility when the economy fails to grow as promised. So, what we are seeing in these tweets is a preview of his scapegoats.
21
Trump is full of himself. Cheaper Chinese products have helped the poor and middle class buy stuff they could not afford otherwise. The poor and middle class will be the ones paying for a tariff. They did not receive a tax cut like Trump's 400 million. Trump is the end will hurt the poor and middle class.
31
EitherWharton owns a refund to Trump because obviously he doesn’t learn basic economics or he just bought his diploma. I met schoolmates in junior college that look like Nobel laureates compared to him. Heck, the guy at corner store has a better understanding of trade.
And, you tell me that some people with bachelor and advanced degrees voted for him? If that’s the case, there’s no wonder why the American education system is not among the top. God save us all.
27
So Trump accuses China of being a currency manipulator while saying he should have the right to manipulate the US dollar.
23
There are pro's and con's associated with both a strong vs weak dollar. Trump claims to have done so well at Wharton he would know that unless he skipped or slept through that class.
16
Game Show Host as economist with authority ... what could go wrong ??
21
The Treasonous Fake President's attempts to comment upon, even in a fifty word tweet, macroeconomic policy matters reminds me of the staggering ignorance of his Energy Department Secretary, the brilliant R. Perry, when it had to be explained to him that said department's concerns chiefly dealt with nuclear power issues, not fossil fuels. Racks and racks of empty suits abound in this abject Administration.
13
The businessman simply doesn't get economics. Sure, banks are getting exceedingly low interest rates on what they borrow from the Fed. Depositors to the bank are getting zilch, and borrowers are getting slammed relative to what the banks are making. Companies are awash in cash. The problem is: with interest rates too low, what happens when the economy starts to dip (as it probably will as the "easy-to-win" trade war heats us). The Fed has no wiggle room to stimulate the economy when employers start laying off workers as consumers stop purchasing while the cost of non-essentials goes up thanks to Trump.
Of course, Trump is also setting the stage to "Blame the Fed" when the economy starts to slide.
Ignorant and arrogant all in one package - how efficient!
62
He should spend his well-earned vacation in an economics 101 summer camp.
19
So, do we have a free market of what? Tariffs, trade wars, tax cuts? Insulting allies? all this to get US a leg up on Germany? Our GDP per capita is $57,000, Germany's is $44,000. Seems the rich guy goes to the poker game with more money and raises until the others can't afford it? That is gaming the system aka cheating, and to what end so we can get GDP to $70,000 and Germany falls to $35,000? Our economy is recovering as expected. Europe practiced austerity and are recovering slower. It will all even out in the long run. If we cheatum, they will hate us and we won't win next time. I guess Mr. Trump knows about that, so he just goes to Russia for bailouts. Hmmm, Faust!
10
Follow the money.
According to the WSJ, Trump Org has $1.8 BILLION in loans. (“I’m the king of debt. I love debt.” DJT) Every Fed rate increase takes money out of the Trump family’s pockets. The gravy train for real estate investors consists of low interest rates and high inflation - exactly the opposite of what the Fed is doing. Plus he gives his base a Deep State scapegoat to blame when they don’t see that $4,000 salary increase he promised.
20
The Cornell professor is cited as saying effectively that currency exchange rates follow economic fundamentals faithfully. At least he's not displaying the "breezy ignorance."
2
This greaseball knows nothing about the world or world economies.. he will end up with charges filed against him re all the deals made with other criminal entities when his business empire would take money from anyone who lined up! Amazing that we are still seeing so much of this second rate gorilla who has been compromised by the Russians..either photos with hookers, or business deals and tax evasion..
12
The bottom line is that we were doing fine until Trump got elected.
48
Trump’s narcissism is that he expects only one way deals; he fleeces you and you take it. Fancying himself a ‘deal maker’ he whines most when his manipulations are rebuffed. Then you realize that he bankrupted himself six times. That’s his business plan. You can’t have a strong economy and a weak dollar. But then why should we expect him to understand that? And, BTW tariffs and tax cuts for the rich are going to tank the economy, but just not before the midterms!
38
Hey! Just in time for the Midterm Elections: Trump Recession!
Vote!
16
He forgot Hillary and Obama! I see no mention of Mars. I'm sure by Monday Sara Huckabee Sanders will be clarifying that he meant to include the Red Planet and that people heard "must" instead of Mars.
12
Please, I beg all media outlets to stop using the President’s name. Please refer to him as the president or better yet, the Administration. Focus on the story, the issue, the damage being done and then connect lawmakers who are allowing it to continue. Please. Please. Please.
19
@John LeBlanc: i couldn't agree more. omit the name. and never take your eyes and ears off of what goes on behind the scenes.
2
The sad part of this is that the Trump cultists, who also have am equally "breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics" will buy into this nonsense. Anything their Dear Leader says they believe.
27
Who knew this international stuff would be so complicated?!
23
"President Trump continued to criticize the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates, saying those moves are putting the United States at a disadvantage."
Never fear.
Once our Quisling in Chief's tariffs kick in our economy will take off like a rocket.
10
Aides said Mr. Trump was not trying to influence the Fed."
Totally agree. Trump’s statement has nothing to do with economics. Rather, he’s trying to rile up his base.
Trump’s base consists mostly of victims: victims of China and other powerful economic countries, victims of Wall Street, victims of foreigners, victims of religious persecution, and victims of ongoing Northern Aggression (that is, those still fighting the Civil War). He motivates his base by playing the victim card. By criticizing the Fed, Trump has created a new bogeyman and given his base yet another reason to feel victimized and aggrieved.
21
I'm so tired of hearing Trump carry on like this. American corporations hurt the U.S. economy. They took their operations overseas and their profits off-shore. Wall Street greed cause the mortgage-crises and the largest recession in recent history.
The economy will recover when business starts too invest in people, instead of robots, drones and AI.ed
There is a need for advanced skills training in tech and other competitive fields. Some people will need to have less in order for the masses to have a bit more.
22
True to form. He will probably have zero impact on the Fed. But he would have successfully set up an excuse for when the economy stops doing so well (which, just by the way, is primarily because of what Obama did and, by the way, the stock market doing well is being interpreted as 'economy doing well'. While there is some truth to that, it has also been clear for many years, the stock market is not correlated with workers' standard of living.)
8
@AP917 Sadly, the stock market ain't really doing that great...among other things not being reported.
5
@AP917 He will be ultimately appointing 6 out of the 7 Fed governors. From an article on CNBC: "The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is required to have seven members. It has three. Two of the current governors were put into their position by President Trump. Two more have been nominated by the president and are awaiting confirmation by the Senate. After these two are put on the Fed’s board, the president will then nominate two more to follow them. In essence, it is possible that six of the seven Board members will be put in place by Trump."
1
@cycledancing
Then God help us!
The time for talk is over. Trump has shown the world he does not believe in American values. The time to act is now before it’s too late. Impeachment is not about politics, it’s about saving the country, who we are as Americans.
48
Ultimately the world will have to stop using the US dollar as the international unit of foreign exchange. It will be replaced with an international unit, based on a basket of the world's major currencies. The value of individual national currencies then will adjust up or down vs. the international unit based on trade balance. Excess of imports over imports will lead to devaluation. Excess of exports over imports will do the opposite. Would that we had such a system now!
4
Correction: Penultimate sentence should have read;"Excess of imports over exports .."
1
Should the Fed raise interest rates ?
"Actually, no", according to Paul Krugman
"But do I think the Fed is right to be raising rates, and that we should start being worried about fiscal deficits? Actually, no, for two reasons. First, I might be wrong. And the costs of tightening when the economy still has room to grow are much bigger than those of waiting and discovering that we’ve overshot a bit."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/opinion/monopsony-rigidity-and-the-wa...
But then, again, as Anna Schwartz (Co-author, A monetary History of the United States ) noted Paul Krugman mischaracterized monetary policy in the United States in the 1930s and in Japan in the 1990s. (1)
But it must be a comfort to Mr. Trump, to have Mr. Krugman, for the second time, in his corner (The First time when PK declared "Trump is right on Economics")
(1) https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/wp/2007/2007-048.pdf
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/opinion/paul-krugman-trump-is-right-o...
1
It’s not about being right or wrong on interest rate hikes. It’s about the autonomy of the Fed. Presidential comments on Fed actions carry the risk of serious unintended consequences as damaging the institution and weakening the Fed.
23
@Gerhard Now wait just a minute! In the 2015 link you provide PK noted:
"Instead, Mr. Bush has chosen to attack Mr. Trump as a false conservative, a proposition that is supposedly demonstrated by his deviations from current Republican economic orthodoxy: his willingness to raise taxes on the rich, his positive words about universal health care. " Right.
Later, PK called DT a "blowhard." DT's words are cheap and meaningless. PK provides reasoning behind his opposition interest rate hikes. DT rants on something he appears to not understand a bit.
I am not sure what your point is here; i just get the old stopped clock vibe. Mr Trump might be accidentally right or in agreement, but, so what?
2
@Gerhard
"So am I saying that Mr. Trump is better and more serious than he’s given credit for being? Not at all — he is exactly the ignorant blowhard he seems to be. "
P. Krugman Same article you reference. Economy was still evolving, Now we may worry about overheating?
Fortunately the economy is still strong by numbers, so Trumps incompetence is modified. Strong economy yet still has severe income disparity which will hurt in the long run.
1
So if the Fed lowers interest rates at the President’s behest to help trade, doesn’t that make the US a currency manipulator?
30
The whole point of the Federal Reserve Bank was to insulate monetary policy from politics.
Trump thinks the entire world is supposed to revolve around him, so if the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, it must be an attack on his presidency. Never mind that interest rates are historically low and have beg likely to rise and have been rising since before he got elected.
Trump thinks our country is a tool for hours personal aggrandizement. Nothing but Trump matters.
16
The Pres is once again playing with something he doesn't understand. The Fed has done a pretty good job of keeping the economy stable in recent decades, except when Bush administration policies of deregulation overrode the Fed's activities and led to the 2008 recession.
Slow stable rises in GDP are good, faster is bad; Trump doesn't get it.
Deregulation works only in the short run, destructive in the long run; Trump doesn't get it.
Big tax breaks for those who least need them and trillion-dollar deficits are bad; Trump doesn't get it.
Badmouthing nearly everyone doesn't work; Trump doesn't get it.
Those who actually have knowledge and expertise on the economy know how best to manage it, those who glean their opinions from Breitbart don't; Trump doesn't get that either.
Despite years of bad business deals, constant problems with partners / banks / contractors, and repeat trips to bankruptcy courts; Trump doesn't get that his entire style doesn't work.
After failures with health care, immigration, allies & partnerships - just about everything he's tried - he still doesn't understand that he doesn't understand much. One of these days, after his present efforts backfire, he'll be saying "Who knew that trade & economy could be so complicated?". The answer will be "Just about everyone around you." But then he can always blame everything on Obama, and his core supporters will cheer him on, so that should take care of the problem.
83
@Mark Miller -- I agree with most of this -- but you cannot lay the blame for the 2007-2008 financial crisis at Bush's feet. No ... that went back to Rob Rubin and Clinton dismantling Glass Steagall. That was the original sin ... as it allowed for banks to become speculators and got rid of capital reserve requirements. Im not a Bush fan, and he doesnt get a pass on the Great Recession. But Clinton and Rubin deserve a great big part of the blame.
3
@Mark MillerHe understands very well that low interest rates benefit business and real estate. Nuff said.
4
In case you missed it, in other news today, Republicans backed off of reimposing sanctions Chinese telecom ZTE, sanctions which Trump suddenly opposed two days after a major Chinese firm put up $500 million in loans for a Trump-branded resort in Indonesia. "Handing a win to President Trump" the article says, but really much more of a victory for China, whom he "blasts" today. You really think so?
Eye on the ball, people!
54
Trump's distraction from his Putin problem. Putin has been particularly aggressive onward countries in Eastern Europe joining NATO, and Trump fell right in line with it ... why would we defend Montenegro? They are a very aggressive people - they could start a war! No one has yet stated why Putin and Trump would have that talking point. The fact is that Putin will drum up an excuse, and claim that Montenegro acted aggressively in order to rationalize a Russian "counteraction". The talking points puts it out there in advance that Russia is just looking for an excuse to interfere. And now Russia is meddling in Greece, trying to get them to oppose Macedonia entry into NATO.
Look if Putin would stop invading his neighbors (Crimea, Georgia), attempting coups (Montenegro, Ukraine, Georgia), murdering people using powerful lingering, environmentally toxic poisons (UK), overflying airspace in threatening ways (Estonia), and trying to interfere in national politics (Greece, France, Germany, Italy, UK, US), maybe all these countries wouldn't feel they need protection from Putin.
Putin is a very bad actor, and the US should consider stepping up clandestine activities to support Russian dissidents or even other oligarchs who could replace him. We need a comprehensive article on Putin's interference, not just drips and drabs.
15
Trump's make America great again strategy apparently is to turn on the inflation facet. Republicans are going along with this because they know their base is fundamentally ignorant about economic policy. Not only are Americans going to be taxed by unnecessary tariffs but they will watch their income in real dollars shrink as the cost of every thing rises.
23
I don't know too much about EU, Federal Reserve, but I certainly know China is hurting our economy and steal our high tech secrets. Trump MUST punish China immediately. Stop allowing Chinese students to come to the US to study science and engineering.
2
@Mclean4: I agree that you don't know much about the EU, and the Federal Reserve but, you also don't know much about world trade either. We sell a lot of stuff to China. Also there is no proof that China is stealing our high tech. When are you going to learn that "Fox News" lies about everything?
10
@Mclean4 - While you're at it perhaps you can tell Trump and co. to stop manufacturing their products in China.
4
@Mclean4: you might be right, china does take advantage of quite a number of foreign companies' knowhow. they are just beating us at our own game. remember when europe and the US started stealing slaves, way back when [not from china, but theft it was]. think "pest-infected blankets" which were given to first americans so they would die and make room for pilgrim settlers ... think biopiracy nowadays. think of all the raw materials countries in the northern hemisphere "buy" from the south at outrageously low prices ... think "free trade agreements" which include plenty of traps in their fine print ... i could go on & on. PLEASE, just try to see the broader picture[s] and make sure you use the same yardstick to measure actions [or stuff such as high tech secrets] taken on various sides.
“Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, said the president’s tweets displayed “a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.”
Trump, without any appreciable understanding of economics and only tuned to Fox News, an impeachable source of economics, is turning the World on it’s ear spewing non-facts to express his impulsive governing style.
He should be impeached because of ignorance. He is not smart enough to recognize it.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability; he
7
So far the Don has had nothing good to say about anyone or anything except Vlad. Perhaps he would like North Korea and the USSR, sorry Russia to join NATO or set up a separate defense pact with them. I just can’t wait until Russia invades one of the Baltic states to see our president flounder!!
17
@robert rostand, m.d.
True about Trump, but I'm in no hurry to see Russia invade the Baltics, particularly since Trump will do nothing.
11
Wow! The trip through Wonderland continues.
Trump is systematically blowing up our economy (even the entire world order) by trying to bend economic reality to match his fantasies. He’s then offended when that blows up, and blames the world for not conforming to his expectations.
Wake Up America! The ship of state is ablaze! Quit looking to “norms and models” to explain and excuse Trump - it won’t work. Face the obvious: Trump is so ignorant, he does not know or care what he does not know. He’s grotesquely unbalanced, and functionally Illiterate. All Things Come From These Hard Truths! We have a deranged baby in charge - and we will do anything except admit that obvious fact.
A tot slams a square peg into a round hole - over and over. It will not fit, it can never fit. In rage, he throws the toy against the wall and rages: He cannot see his error....
How is Trump in anyway different from this - ever? This is our President!
The only thing dumber than electing a Baby as President... is refusing to acknowledge we did it, and that it’s not working. Quit trying to explain the obviously wrong with unexplainable models. Take the baby out of the Oval Office and put in an experienced adult!
Problem solved.
30
@GWBear
I hope the explanation is this simple.
2
In this instance, I think the problem lies solely in the not thought through consequences of instigating a trade war with Europe and China.
Maybe the government should've formed a committee and debated the issues before putting on tariffs, because long term it is going to affect the incomes of people who previously voted for him. Exporters need certainty and regular income just like everyone else, so they'll vote with their pockets when it comes to the next elections.
Unthought of before the trade wars, the EU is now going to join the TPP (Trans Pacific free trade organisation), so I don't think a rushed decision to impose tariffs was thought through or debated in a committee Think Tank. NZ is going to be one of the first nations to get a free trade deal with EU.
Nations are versatile and will just morph into other groups and just ignore the USA. No nation is indispensable trade wise. (And if USA is thinking of doing trade deals with Russia they are not reliable payers of their bills. Years ago, our government had to bail out lots of exporters who exported to Russia because the Russians don't pay their bills.)
12
I used to read the comics in newspapers but gave them up sometime in early adulthood. I loved farce, satire and ridiculous situations. Thanks NYT and other media for putting the funnies on the front page.
10
Doesn't he realize that Russian meddling and hacking and cybertheft and Russian child and human trafficking hurt US Economy???
Not to mention amplifying military incursions and weapon sales in the Middle East and Ukraine and the "stans"
7
Business competition between free market economies is unfair?
Oh yeah, that's right.
Now I remember.
I learned that in Macroeconomics.
Or was it Microeconomics?
It was the one they graded on a curve.
8
It's always someone else's fault. Trump will throw anyone under the bus to protect himself. And his base believes him like sheep. I am shocked he forgot to blame the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress today.
17
And the T-loop continues...
#1 not my fault, blame it on x
#2 refer to #1
20
Blasting the Fed now? This president* certainly doesn't miss an opportunity to disparage and denigrate his own government, does he.
* not my President
24
Trump has poor counsel in economic realities-- ideologues, who don't understand basic, really basic economics. The dollar will fall-- in a precipitous way, as we lose our stature, our reputation, and our treaties, all happily trod underfoot by Bannon propaganda and Trump.
9
Of course he would blame everyone but himself for the boomerang results of his actions.
12
It's a mystery how Trump ever graduated from the Wharton School with an undergraduate degree in economics. It must either be incredibly overrated or terribly embarrassed.
30
@Seldoc
Knowing the man like we do I can imagine it was a combination of bribery, shortcuts, easy classes and pay to play.
19
@RLD
He did not graduate from Wharton, even though he wants everyone to think so. His general undergraduate degree is from The University of Pennsylvania. Wharton is a separate U.P. business school which is highly competitive. And how he got into and graduated from U.P. in the first place, also very prestigious and Ivy League is, on its face, suspect given his inability to to form a coherent English sentence with more than an elementary school level vocabulary. How did that happen? Money?
@TWR
Of course he bought his way in and out! Most of my 7th grade students - let me amend- that all could write sentences that were more clearer than his. They didn't consistently repeat what they said as he does.
Wharton is probably extremely embarrassed.
Dear trump voters,
How smart is your leader...
He now complains that foes make decision that goes against you. Isn't it what foes do ? So everything is right, no ?
What possible could go wrong ?
Move on another quarter like this and the US will all be by itself.
Good luck !
6
" ... the Fed's most recent rate hikes could dilute some of the benefit of the tax cuts Trump signed into law last year." Once again, everything ... everything ... is about Mr. Trump and his political situation. A higher rate might cost the Republicans Congressional seats, and so cost Mr. Trump his fawning Congresspersons. Its appalling that he looks at the country as his personal playpen.
10
Trump continues to cite national security to justify his tariffs. Perhaps the only national security threat is Trump himself.
He may think the world can't survive without him or the US but the global community is smarter and wiser. Yup, they'll do just fine without him.
12
Trump is evidence Lincoln was right when he said you can fool some people all of the time for the way he goes on and on believing he knows everything about everything despite his being so wrong about all things just about all of the time.
10
I don’t understand this latest Trumpet blast. Didn’t he just arrange to finance US growth with Russian piotr-dollars at his latest massively successful secret summit with Pooty-Tooty?
4
Can someone take the keys away from this guy before he crashes the bus ?!?!?
8
@Meza truly, we got a six year old who can't reach the pedals driving the Ferrari through a major city Spaghetti junction highway system. But Bus analogy will do too. (And yes, please someone Hide the Keys, and disconnect the spark plugs as well.)
3
Says the man who filed for bankruptcy how many times?
12
This is just the Trump preparing his excuses in advance for the failure of his actions and policies. When the economy tanks, jobs are lost and inflation takes off, it will, of course, be the fault of the Fed and the allies he threw under the bus and Europe and China with whom he started an insane trade war, not his incredibly stupid actions and policies.
Didn't he tell us so?
Would he lie?
20
Trump is good at destroying, whether out of spite or from ignorance, he is destroying the environment and destroying the economy and destroying the US standing in the world, and destroying the health care and destroying the middle class and the poor. He is good at funneling money to the rich,though.
11
That's nice, but please continue to focus on Russia. You're letting Trump change the subject ---- again.
8
At least we can plan on Mexico paying for the wall . . .
7
That Trump U education he got explains his knowledge of about how big economies work.
11
I'm surprised that you are not a Trump fan, thought Wyoming was Trump country! Gives me hope!
1
Trump and his terrified Republicans are jacking up the economy with funny money ... all to garner votes in November before the whole con collapses.
10
Bad tax policies including the untaxed multi-billion $$ Not for Profits invested in Wall Street -- tax breaks for billionaires -- and by not having had a proper interest rate prices of stocks have been run up to a ridiculous P/E ratio. John/Joan Q Public should not be a victim of speculators and inside traders -- as s/he now is. SICK OF IT. BTW where does the $$ from the tariffs end up?? in Treasury?
The dollar was about 1.35 against the Euro for years more recently closer to 1.20. (Everything seems to come from China -- (and if it's your Prada outfit that costs more-- paying more means more status...)
In the end none of this has anything to do with quality of life/global warming/housing/transportation/clean water altho I observe inflation in medical bills. Why 400$ for a routine basic meeting with my MD to get the approvals for blood work (which should be routine as I am Diabetic 2 an with raised LDL -- old ladystuff-- references for other routine stuff.) The system as is is absurd.. gazillions of middle men and we have a DC twitter machine creating dissent whenever possible-- who needs the Russians???
6
It’s incredible that his supporters think this is what it means to act ‘manly.’ He sounds like a petulant child!
11
He neglects to mention that his own ill conceived tariffs are rapidly becoming the number one threat to the economy.
11
Seriously, whose judgment do you trust, President Trump’s, or...
That’s right, “or” is the answer, every single time.
8
One doesn’t have to know very much to know for absolute certain that Trump will blame anyone else for one thing or other unfavorable to him in one way or other. This thing with the economy is just more thing along that line. Trump’s not exactly a take-responsibility person, to say the least. He does though clearly realize how to keep attention on himself which, I suppose, may satisfy his view of self as leader. Of course, this doesn’t help us of a representative democracy at all.
8
This is a question, not a comment. I need some clarification. I don't understand how this President has given himself unfettered power to impose tariffs. I thought that power belonged solely to Congress with the one exception provided in recent legislation that allowed limited targeted tariffs if needed to protect national security. Am I mistaken? What discretion does a President have to impose, raise, or lower tariffs (which are, after all, a kind of tax)?
7
It was an Obama era decision to make executive power stronger than ever. Although at the time Obama was using these executive powers for good intentions. A lot of republicans argued saying it is giving him too much power to do what he wants. Then comes trump, who is using that same thing republicans argued against to their advantage. I wouldn’t blame trump for this. He just grandfathered into a power rule
2
I understand that he's abusing the power that was provided in this Obama-era legislation, but he seems unfettered in any way. The narrow grounds for a national security tariff doesn't mean any tariffs any time, which he seems to believe he has the discretion to do. Doesn't Congress still have exclusive power to set tariffs aside from the narrow exception to which you refer?
Actually it was a Bush II/Cheney Era law called the PATRIOT Act that also established Homeland Security. It was what allowed tariffs to be used in cases of National Security, which meant mostly against Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea at the time.
Obama is only blamed for it because he was Forced to use it to get vital things done for The People as a way of overriding the intransigence of Sen. McConnell, who vowed to derail everything Obama that he could and would ensure that he would be a 'one term president'. Well, he is still trying to make Obama a one term president still, 9 1/2 years later.
So putting the 'blame' on Obama is an error; it is the Republican's own past legislation, based on lies and fear as they pushed an illegal war with Iraq thinking that they would hold onto the presidency, and is now coming back to bite em where it hurts: Their Wallets!
The Republicans usually dog-whistle these subjects with euphemisms and distractions, but rarely outright lies. Trump, however, never bothered to learn ANY of that stuff, he most certainly is outspoken on many subjects, and the large number of people he has publicly slandered and/or attempted to damage their reputations, and doing it out loud, in undeniable tweets that last forever.
And as far as lies go, not even Tricky Dick Nixon did not rack them up this far, this fast and this baldly.
Pence watches him like a snake in the grass, waiting for The Mistake; but Not acting now makes him a Complicit actor also
Takes the heat off that other thing in Helsinki.
8
If there is to be a recession it will be Trump's recession caused by uncertain markets, an overheated economy due to tax cuts for the rich, tariffs which will create unnecessary inflation and the loss of jobs. Trump will not wiggle out of this one by blaming anyone but himself.
11
@just Robert
Tragically, if the last 2 years are any indication, he will.
3
Blame it on Montenegro.
20
A simple reaction, no Trump, you hurt the US economy and its security!
12
Putin's puppet will stop at nothing to damage America's economy even as he colludes in keeping America vulnerable to Russian cyber attacks on the election machinery. He can't (yet) centrally direct the stock market, but when the order is given he will try.
12
So basically, all of the problems in the world today were caused by everyone but Trump - and Trump is the only person who can solve all of those problems. Which is why he is the greatest president ever. Got it. No collusion, no collusion, no collusion, no collusion....
29
Janet Yellen is less of an inflation hawk than Jerome Powell. Maybe Trump should have nominated her for a second term? Oh wait, she's a woman...
51
@tanstaafl - Not just a woman but a smart and competent woman and you know how Trump feels about smart, competent women.
6
Trump the dictator rules on any thing and everything that he clearly has no qualification for. Trump will drive USA into bankruptcy in exactly the same way as he did his failed businesses
21
Ah, there's the problem. President Trump is playing poker at the pool table. No wonder we're losing.
"In an interview with CNBC that aired Friday, the president described the tit-for-tat threats on China as a poker game ... .”
“I raised 50, and they matched us,” he said. “I said, ‘You don’t match us. You can’t match us because otherwise we’re always going to be behind the 8-ball.’”
15
Trump is off on his brand of False News. He says that the EU is manipulating its currency when it is precisely at what it has been lately: 1.17 to the euro. For the record, it is 2 cents more than when the euro was introduced.
9
Did the self-proclaimed "stable genius" take and pass an economics class at Wharton?
14
He took a pass.
6
This 71 year old can be duly ponderous and fairly slow on the uptake.
Once again we are reminded that we have a tragically unprepared and dangerously unprincipled ‘fake’ president who is an unabashed leech and an unrepentant liar. He should have seen that pulling out of the TPP gives China an open field to play in. He should recognize that withdrawing from NAFTA will harm many of the very people he claims to champion. He should understand that protecting dying industries to preserve jobs restrains the overall economy.
23
Hail the whiner in chief. It's always someone else's fault. SAD!
19
Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, said the president’s tweets displayed “a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.”
Should have read NO understanding of basic principles of economics.
There. Fixed it.
16
The Treasury secretary will meet separately this weekend with counterparts from G7 countries to discuss ways to coordinate “concrete action with regard to China and its economic aggression,”
I wonder what kind of reception he will meet from the other six nations. The last time the US met with the G7 it was virtually pistols at dawn.
10
I love this line:
“a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.”
One could easily expand that and replace "economics" with "everything"
16
Well, the Europeans are what he says they are and the Chinese are thieves nevertheless he's bundling this. what's funny about all this is he's hurting his own supporters with his tactics. I find that very pleasant.
6
@Bill Your last comment is true, but unfortunately his supporters don't believe this and unless everyone else (which equals more than his supporters) start voting against this man and Republicans we are headed for a very cold winter.
1
OK, this guy is going to cause a depression. He is taking a strong economy and threatening it along with those of Europe and Asia.
What can we do to stop him?
I don't want to spend my last years digging around in garbage cans.
I grew up on Depression stories.
The fact that this is being allowed, that this ONE person is empowered to destroy us all, is appalling. Theoretically this is a democracy.
We the people don't deserve this and also, ahem, most of us didn't vote for it either.
20
Correction: Trump is what hurts the US economy. Trump has filed bankruptcy how many times and then bragged about what a clever ploy it is...he has never lived as a normal American paycheck-to-paycheck and the deals he has possibly made with the Russian mob are now for all Americans to pay for.
20
Trump, as is so often the case, is doing exactly that which he in the same breath accuses others of doing: manipulating the price of US currency.
One ray of light here is that he doesn't buy into the knee-jerk idea that since in general we want to be strong rather than weak, a "strong" dollar must be good and a "weak" dollar bad. Much harm as been done by using "strong" and "weak" to describe currency exchange rates.
3
Always a conspiracy...Trump is just like his counter-part, Erdogan in Turkey who blames his high inflation on his central bank - and are you really surprised by that?
11
So the march to MAGA continues with the dismantling of the American system of government. First the decimation of the Dept. Of State. The continued attempted compromise of the Justice Dept, the dumbing down of the environmental laws carried out by what can best be termed a grifter and now the Fed. So along with the pathological lying their is also a need to destroy what one can't understand. Sort of like a kid tearing down blocks when he can't out figure what goes next.
11
Everybody is wrong. Donald Trump is right. Even the people who voted for him are wrong, as farm revenues are showing. But, the Russians are selling more soybeans to China and obtaining more US dollars that way. Trump is as right as Quisling was.
9
Trump is beginning to understand that he has been basking in the glow of a long, steady economic recovery that began during the early days of the Obama Administration; and that in due time all booms must come to an end. He is now getting ready to lay the blame on everyone and everything but Trump and his tax, trade and fiscal policies.
He's the cigar chomping fat cat on the Titanic who muscles women, children and invalids out of his way to get a good seat on the first lifeboat out.
12
China?
Trade. Go Canada Go!
Your country USA down south is virtually crumbling politically. In many ways, worse than what the Vietnam War and the troubles its opponents at home caused. Fewer in the streets so far, but Washington D.C. is shuddering like never before.
Why throw mud into your best friend and next-door neighbor's face? You haven't had war with us up north for 204 years. Economically, Canada buys even more from you than vice versa. More than $1 billion per day crosses the border. Why tariffs us? USA doesn't have the same situation with the EU and China. I'm certain that most of Trump's supporters haven't a clue that the USA's economy would crumble quickly without its northern neighbor. How has Trump ignored the facts? Or is his mind too consumed with the unmatched political scandal? Is it too tough for him to do anything other than make quick rude statements and idiotic decisions. I'm sure that "traitors" are always worrying about their past and future.
16
Trump is angry about rate increases partly because it undercuts his administrations policy of falsely inflating the image of his economy because it is the only point on which republicans can run in November. Why does this article make no mention of the other ways in which the economy is being used as a misdirection for the American people? Specifically, the way in which, against all reason, the stock market appears to be doing very well. When you strip away the fact that corporations are using their tax windfall to buy their own stock in an effort to artificially pump up the market, you begin to see that our economy is hanging by a thread because of what Trump and his administration have done over the last eighteen months. The farmers are feeling it already and so are many in the manufacturing sector. We are in the midst of a false economic narrative, and soon it will collapse because there will be no more stock to buy back or the money to buy it back will have been spent. No wage increases, no growth. Just a charade to make Trump and his cult look good for another few months. This is suicidal policy.
33
I thought the same thing when I was reading about massive stock buy backs yesterday. I’m also wondering what Trump’s end game looks like or if he even has a vision of where his policies will lead? You don’t go on a disruptive streak without an end in mind or the whole thing will come crashing down around your feet. Unfortunately, the people who will pay are the taxpayers and those about to retire.
7
@A
I'm afraid all of this this is above Trump supporters' heads.
6
The president knows nothing about economics (or about much else for that matter), refuses to listen to those who do, has no interest in learning what he doesn't know (a curve too steep?), and expounds only what seems to support his prejudiced assumptions at any given moment.
It's impossible to know if Trump believes what he spews because what he spews contradicts what me just spewed moments earlier. He concerns himself only with makes him look good.
Since nothing he does makes him look good, he is forced perpetually to push his narrative in new directions, sort of like a party balloon inflated to capacity and suddenly released to flutter crazily through its proximate space.
17
@John LeBaron And he seems barely literate. He might benefit from redoing Grades 1 through 6.
Why can't we require Congress people and Presidential candidates take a basic test at least as rigourous as a combined citizenship test and high school exit exam? Maybe add an macro econ 101 requirement? We require more of pet owners than our leaders.
22
@orze that would require a constitutional amendment. If we were to add any requirement I would want a psychiatric exam and require any candidate passes the citizenship test we administer to those seeking US citizenship. I bet not more than 10% of those in Congress today could pass that test.
9
Setting the stage to blame other people, rather than his own (lack of) policy for the upcoming (global) recession.
59
No, what is hurting the economy are those "YUGE" tax cuts, and creating a trade war with just about everyone on the planet.
And he majored in Economics at the Wharton Business School? How much did his father pay off the University of Pennsylvania to get Trump's degree in Economics?
It is clear he has zero understanding of economics, macro or micro. Nor, does he understand what happened in this country when the Us engaged in trade wards and there was no Federal Reserve.
So, another diversion from him announcing to the world, on Monday, that he is a traitor. and has committed treason.
96
Trump has bragged about "his" (really Obama's) economy. It will take about 8 months to a year to see the effects of Trump policy; Trump's economy.
12
The level of ignorance and inappropriate behavior in this president seems to be limitless. There are very good reasons that all other presidents preceding this one stayed away from commenting on monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. The primary one is that they recognized the wisdom in letting the experts calibrate interest rates and that the U.S. is a constitutional democracy that operates successfully when power is shared. This president finds all that bothersome and we will suffer the consequences of his hubris.
24
Rex Tillerson called it correctly. Two words to describe Trump, he was so right..
46
Practically
Trump vs. Everyon else on this planet ( included USA).
What about lots of small businesses in distress due to Canadian tariffs , does he care an ioata, nope.
What a stable genius he is?
Tomorrow he will start his propaganda, Abolish Fed Res.
9
@su -- Please provide facts to support the ridiculous claim "What about lots of small businesses in distress due to Canadian tariffs"
1
It was only yesterday he claimed Putin was responsible because he was the leader, just as he (Trump) was responsible for the US. Guess that only applied yesterday, not today.
20
The question is: Are all those farmers with bills to pay who have benefitted from NAFTA going to continue to support DJT and his policies?
Will they vote against their own best interests....again?
One wonders....
14
Of course they will. Rep. voters always vote against their interest.
13
@LJB
Before the last election more than 500,000 people in Kentucky had health insurance for the first time because of Obamacare, they voted for the guy who said he would overturn Obamacare. You wonder if the farmers are smarter? I don't.
9
LJB, I wonder how they feel about those wonderful tax cuts now that their overseas sales have dropped but gas and health costs haven't?
7
"Mr. Trump... is trying to make a booming economy a big issue in the midterm elections. The president’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, along with federal spending increases... " Thanks to Trump, the deficit is now $1 trillion a year. Eventually, when the economic you-know-what hits the fan, Trump will tell you that 'regrettably' he's coming for your Social Security and Medicare. "Golly Gee, so unfortunate, but who could have foreseen this"?
11
If there is a god, and recent and historical events belie that possibility, he/she will stop Trump from messing with the economy and its very complicated, not completely understand even by experts, and tripwire laced control rods like the fed and trade policy. He doesn't have a clue how it works except for simplistic trade balance bottom lines. Nor do his blue collar supporters and consumers who will be the ones to pay the price while he walks away blaming the recession and inflation on Hillary/Obama/the deep state and enjoying his last fat years with the extra wealth from the big tax cut he and GOP enacted.
20
The independence of the Fed is greatly impaired at present by the fact that there are only two confirmed Governors in office, namely Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard.
Randal Quarles was nominated on 7/22/17 to both the vacant seat expiring 1/31/18 and a full term running 2/1/18-1/31/32, as well as a 4-year term as VP for Supervision, but the full term nomination was returned to the President without a vote by the full Senate. He is therefore serving as an Acting Governor until he is either renominated or replaced. If he is replaced as Governor, he could no longer serve as VPS.
3
Add monetary policy to the long list of things Donald Trump knows absolutely nothing about, and about which he has zero interest in learning.
13
The 4th paragraph in this article is troubling, particularly
because it contradicts elements of numerous articles
published here in the Times (e.g., Dr, Krugman especially).
Characterizing the $1.5 trillion tax cut as a "stimulus"
is highly misleading. As has been reported many times,
the vast lion's share of those cuts went to the "top 1%",
and especially to corporations. Much column space has
been devoted to revealing that many large corporations
are using the tax relief to buy back their own shares.
(Why? Many reasons, but chief among them being that
large buy-backs drive share prices upward, setting the
stage for higher prices at the next pubic offering.)
Also, any claim that Trump's fiscal policies are the
primary reason for low unemployment and GDP growth
is equally misleading. Unemployment had already
dipped to 4.6% under the Obama administration
- down from 10.0% in 2009 - and the economy was approaching "boom" status as far back as 2015. It
was a long, hard struggle to shake off the effects of
the Great Recession, but by the time Trump took
office, the hard work had already been done. Most
of us knew in advance that Trump would take credit
for the accomplishments of his predecessor, but
seeing that come to pass makes it no easier to
swallow.
25
@CPMariner It seems to me that when a publicly held company uses its capital to repurchase shares it is, in effect, doing two things: 1) Diverting capital that could otherwise be used for investment to support growth and reduce costs, and 2) Artificially drive up share prices to enhance the value of stock options held by the corporate executives.
7
@LaVelle Messiah
Well, LaVelle, that's certainly part of the picture. Buy-backs also have the effect of reducing shares eligible for dividends ("treasury stock"isn't eligible), thus
reducing that burden. Also unmentioned is the fact that treasury stock is handy for fattening up shares available for stock
options as part of "Golden Parachutes" for
officers and directors.
But the central point I'd hoped to make is
that corporate tax savings went - as so
many economists predicted - toward buy-
backs rather than new investment. You
can also be fairly certain that officers' and
directors' salaries, fees and other bene-
fits took a substantial jump as well.
Beneath it all, my fear is of a plutocracy.
Sometimes I'm tempted to think we're
already there. I do believe you're thinking
along the same lines.
Fact: Trump's tariffs are NOT paid by the country upon whose products the tariffs apply. They are paid ultimately in the form of higher prices by US consumers on both the imports subject to the tariff and goods produced in the US.
Fact: A strong dollar benefits all consumers, the entire nation. A strong dollar makes imported goods cheaper for consumers. It also makes goods produced in the US cheaper for consumers.
Fact: A weak dollar harms all consumers and benefits ONLY a small group of workers and owners of the companies that export goods.
Trump's tariffs and Trump's effort for a cheap dollar are hostile to the interests of all consumers, the entire nation.
11
@Errol Actually, I believe that a weak US dollar makes US goods more appealing to international importers.
1
With all the trade wars that 45 got us into, huge tax cut while the unemployment is at an all time low, then what do you get?
Inflation, a hot economy, hardship in areas of the economy due to trade wars, that may expand to other areas as a chain reaction.
He is blaming the Federal Reserve already.
He is the Greatest president we have ever had, and everybody evil wants to bring him down.
I believe he is one of the weakest, uneducated and lacks the ability to educate himself.
A bad state of affairs this person.
10
Blame, blame, lie, lie more, blame some more. Trump presidency in a nutshell.
38
The European Union, and the UK despite Brexit, will stand up to Trump in trade war. We Europeans know that he was elected into office with the help of the Russian government who successfully duped so many US citizens with fake news - something the stable genius of a President knows all about as its biggest domestic perpetrator.
23
We are still the richest country on earth. We have the world's most powerful military and weapons. Just how are we at a disadvantage.
4
@Steve
America: Population 340 million; world's largest economy; world's mightiest military
Russia: Pop. 143 million; only the 12th largest economy; a faltering economy dragged down by a too-large military
How in heck is the U.S.A. being led by the nose by regional, not world, power?
8
@Lew Fournier
trump is certainly hiding something just as he's hiding his tax returns. The public it appears could care less about these things and he knows it. But what the public would care about is uncontroversial evidence attesting to trump's proclivities for salacious sex in full view. Doubtless this is what Putin has on trump. It's a KBG gimmick going way back, and trump is certainly naive enough to be caught up in it. .
don't you know? it's Obama's fault!! you should know by now! ;-)
What hurts the U.S. economy is a president who cares about Russia more than he cares about the U.S., a president who is more interested in padding his pockets with shady deals, tax dodges and bankruptcy filings than about good relations with our trading partners. We have a President who changes his mind more frequently than he changes his undergarments so that businesses are paralyzed, confused and uncertain about the future. We have a president who is a genuine threat to world peace and an enemy to our allies. How can this be good for business? We have a president who belongs in jail instead of the White House. Which business leaders want to invest under that cloud? No, Trump is the real threat to business, but more importantly Trump is a real threat to the future of America and a free society. Anyone, including the Republican Party faithful, who still support him are a real threat as well.
20
@Avatar Did he cleverly plan a conspiracy with Russia in order to cover up his meddling in the US election?
No, Mr. President it is actually you and none of your declared 'usual suspects' that is hampering the U.S. economy, despite your obedient advisors' contributions to the refrain. What you and they deem leadership and results is actually chaos and rhetoric. Further, it will be very interesting to see how your new ally Putin figures in the control of the disarray.
7
Well, trade is complicated and we all know that Trump has a difficult time with comprehension. Maybe he could get someone to explain it to him, but we all know he does not listen. Maybe he could read about trade, but it looks as though he does not read either. Maybe from Fox news?
Too bad, not much luck for this one either.
14
Trump seems to think that the value of the dollar or Euro are decided by the EU. Obviously not true. Both are floating currencies. Investors decide their value in a open market. A strong currency has a higher valuation, its a safer investment. Does he think that the value of the dollar should go down if our economy strengthens? Bizarre!
7
We need to deal with what Trump is doing, not what he is saying.
I am getting tired of otherwise intelligent people responding to what Trump says as though it has anything to do with a serious policy discussion. One day he says one thing. Then after a stir is caused, the next day he says something different and the game starts over. This has happened again and again and again. This is not leadership designed to solve problems. This is leadership designed to cause chaos.
Trump's ability to neutralize the U.S. by cutting it into pieces has been a great gift to Putin as has his ability to help weaken Europe and Great Britain
Without world leadership from the U.S. advocating and supporting democracy, we are heading into a world run by dictatorships.
Europe and Japan need markets. With Russia on their doorstep, Europe is finding itself moving toward China and Japan. Russia needs an economic engine and that leaves it moving toward the U.S.
Trump's only real contribution to economics is his ability to lead companies into bankruptcy and claim a growth in net worth.
We don't know if he really understands the economic implications of his different statements. He doesn't care. But he does know and care about the political implications of his statements. And they have been very effective.
The United States is a much weaker player on the world stage than it was before Trump became President. And it continues to get worse.
60
The tragedy for the progressive left is that we also would agree that the Fed is tightening interest rates too soon, before there are wage increases, and that China has been an unfair economic actor and that the penetration of Chinese trade has caused economic harm to many American workers. But we never got that narrative in place and now it has been seized by a television entertainer whose party hides behind it while destroying union rights, welfare state programs, and policies that actually would help regular workers. When Richard got part ran for president she talked about a trade agreement with the European Union because it could raise our labor and environmental standards. That was a visionary direction that Democrats never pursued because we became too allied with the finance sector.
5
I wonder how Trump thinks we are going to pay off the $ trillion dollar deficit created by his corporate tax break. Oops. My mistake, I put Trump and the verb thinks in the same sentence.
52
T is trying to divert attention from the Russian connection. While this story is important, please keep the pressure on regarding all things Russian and the administration.
14
I know of a farmer nearby that farms a small farm, 1500 acres. He had to have all his corn silaged. Between drought and trade wars, he’s in the red over $230,000 this year.
Our economy has been on a slow but steady rise since the financial crisis. It was just beginning to really respond and then trump got in office. He’s going to reck everything and we will be feeling it in the next year or two. Then the nation will take years to come out of it. I hope it’s not a depression.
72
Trump's attack on America includes this fake trade war. In our complex world no one nation can produce all of its needs and everyone with a masters in business knows it's an ironclad fact. Trump say that we can. It's the bedrock of his America First lies. So, he attacks the largest manufacturing nation in the world with massive tariffs that promise to do more harm to us than it will to China but those sanctions will tank the EU. Putin must be smiling.
When it comes to good business practices and the rules of a civil society good faith must comes first. Yet, Trump is bereft of good faith on any level. Just ask any of his wives, a graduate of Trump University, Michael Cohen or a caring conservative like me . . . Our markets leaders are are beginning to warn us of hard times ahead. Raise your hand if your think Trump is causal. Can we afford Trump's leadership another day? I think not.
66
It’s always someone else’s fault with Trump. Every single time. The exact opposite of how a mature, moral person behaves.
127
“Trump Blasts Fed, China and Europe for Putting U.S. Economy at a Disadvantage”
The headline should read; Citizens Blast Trump, Mnuchin, Kudlow, and the Republican Congress for Putting the American Workers at a Disadvantage.
Huge tax cuts for the rich, and corporations, and a pittance for the people. Tariffs that will create higher prices for Americans and the World Economies in revolt against the U.S.
51
The American Psychiatric Association gave us all, INCLUDING GOP, clear warning about Trump's capabilities as POTUS. ALL of their warning have proven to be accurate. Clearly, he has absolutely no idea, nor interest in learning anything and relies only on his ignorant beliefs. WHEN will the GOP begin the process to remove this man from office? The GOP majority congress knows full well Trump is repeating the failed policies of the past, yet they pander to his whims. WHY? WHEN will the GOP majority congress meet their obligation under their oath to office, and remove Trump from his office?
15
From frurtal red Wyoming:
"WHEN will the GOP begin the process to remove this man from office? '
If Enzie, Barasso and espcially Liz Cheny are representative of the GOP, then the answer to your question is NEVER!
1
I don’t understand what the US is complaining about. We receive an inexpensive, high quality work product from China.
Much of it labor intensive, low pay work that we no longer want to do in the US.
China should say, you don’t want our underpriced consumer goods? Fine, and put a big fat export tax on them.
10
Read “Beijing Jeep” available on Amazon. China wants open access to the US, to be able to buy any thing it wants, and for Chinese to freely emigrate to US and be granted US citizenship but China is closed to foreigners, a foreigner cannot buy anything in China of any significance, and though there have been millions and millions of Chinese-Americans there have been 0 American-Chinese says Harvard’s Eric Liu. China’s tariff on the US is 200 years old. Nothing gets into China except on terms benefiting Chinese or to help Chinese steal from nonChinese. If you think the trade war is something new, be assured it is not.
2
@ABC
There are serious problems in our trade with china. do I see Trump's shots over the bow as being helpful? No, I see him as retreating to a strange isolationism, which will give us less leverage rather than tilting the power to our gain. Mainly, I guess I am extremely skeptical that Trump has a definite plan or knows what to do beyond threatening to use a club and then using it - even if he clobbers his own foot.
9
Pretty sure as part of Putin’s summon to MOscow, the President also promised to tank our economy along with our democracy.
Brace for a serious recession/depression and it won’t matter to Trump because any money he’s gotten as an allowance are in rubles.
Co are hurting because of these tariffs
7
If Trump cared about national debt, he wouldn't have cut taxes for the rich, raising the 10-year deficit trajectory by almost 50%. Instead of the $9.4 trillion trajectory he inherited from Obama for the 2018-2027 period, we're now looking at $13.7 trillion in debt additions.
If Trump cared about working people, he wouldn't have thrown 3-4 million off health insurance so far, on his way to 7 million vs. the Obama baseline by 2026.
So what if GDP jumps due to Trump's tax cut and spending stimulus, which is 5x the size of the Obama stimulus? Real wages are falling, meaning the windfall is going to the top. In other words, the economy isn't shifting enough money to the top 1% already, so we're borrowing more to accelerate the process. It's theft on such a grand scale it's unbelievable.
We'd be in better shape if Trump had done nothing and let the Obama Boom continue without interference. Look no further than job creation, which was faster in the last 17 months of the Obama administration (3.54 million) than it was in Trump's first 17 months (3.22 million).
103
Why should we believe a 4-time bankrupt on the subject of the economy? But his advisers (who have no great economic chops either) should understand that the following items have placed us or are in the process of placing us at a disadvantage:
1. Ballooning federal deficits that force up the cost of borrowing (the Fed is simply responding);
2. Tariffs that increase prices and therefore inflation (the Fed is simply responding);
3. Withdrawal from multilateral trade talks and agreements that help expand the economy and create jobs;
4. Failure to invest in infrastructure that helps commerce.
Trump & Co. are the largest threat to our economy. And kicker is neither he nor his cabinet care, because they're all so rich it just won't matter to them when the rest of us go broke.
30
@Wilton Traveler
This scheme of theirs only increases the wealth of the rich and harms everyone else. They can always flee to their 4 or 5 homes around the world. The rest of us are stuck in the USA with a huge debt to pay.
5
Judging from the NYT, Trump got the headlines he wanted - making him sound tough and determined, rather than completely at sea - which is what would be evident if he actually held a press conference. He has again managed to manipulate the press into spreading HIS message,
Marshall Mcluhan was more on target than we knew - - the question is how can the press handle someone who doesn't CARE if he is caught in a lie - who only cares that he can control the next 3 or 4 news bites?
In this -trump is not engaging in a serious discussion about the economy or the balletic moves of the Fed to influence the economy without either shutting it down or encouraging irrational exuberance ( credit Samuelson)
He is issuing arm's length blasts - written by someone else ( except for "BAD" and "Really?") and seasoned with his anger. He keeps driving me nuts speaking in the infallible "we" as if he were pope or a monarch.
A careful examination of whether anything he says might a have some "truth" to it is irrelevant - one man should not be exercising so much influence over our national welfare. For a man so ignorant of the subject to level attacks and refuse to respond to evidence based questions - scary.
He is more a virtual presence - a brand - than a "real' one, because of the immense wall he has erected to keep out the press - and public.
What else will he be allowed to get away with?
Look in the background to see the ongoing destruction of environment and civil rights.
13
Cut taxes for corporations and the 1% and increase the deficit by trillions of dollars which of course makes interest rates rise. Wages have not increased. Compound that with a trade war and now a currency war all brought about by a President who appears more unhinged and more in the pocket of Putin. So of course it is everyone else that is to blame that the economy is not booming..
8
trump is a dimwit expressing his opinions about everything, even topics where he has no knowledge.he does not bother to learn.
janet yellen was doing a fine job. he should have just shut up and let her remain and do her job. trump.raised the gas prices, gave the ultrawealthy gop donors big tax breaks and his tariffs are causing prices to shoot up.he should just quit.
14
@Observer: Agree with all except I don't think "he" raised gas prices. It's the world market/ supply and demand there. But watch for him to realize they are up and start threatening oil companies.
It has been more than clear for a very long time - he is totally unfit for public office. Why are we even listening to the Fraudster. He is crazy like a fox and creates disturbance after disturbance for the sheer pleasure of destroying the USA and democracy and the Constitution. He is working on his mission of creating USA that is a colony of the USSR.
8
For a guy who has a Bachelor's degree from Wharton, you would think he would know why the Fed is raising rates. Then again, the super rich are never very concerned about inflation.
8
If Trump levies auto tariffs against Canada many people here will be screaming for our government to realiate by placing a blistering tariff on the huge amount of electricity we pump into the American grid.
The point being tariffs do nothing but punish everyone. The Republican Party doesn't seem to stand for anything anymore. Just a blind need for power...very scary.
Trump sure looks like he is deliberately trying to create a crisis...right out of the Putin Playbook for Dictators.
19
Uninformed tweets aren't policy. If they weren't coming from the President they would just be silly ramblings as opposed to news.
Keep reminding yourself: This. Is. Not. Normal.
And don't forget to vote.
10
So if I have this right, Trump is mad at the EU and China for manipulating their currencies, and at the Fed essentially for not manipulating ours?
7
The worst thing for this country is Donald Trump.
10
Big brain Trump never considered that interest rates might rise from artificial lows when he enacted the deficit bomb otherwise known as the Tax Cuts and Welfare for Wall Street Act? What a shocker. Now he's doling out the economic advice. Buyer beware on that - keep in mind he's filed 6 bankruptcies since 1991 for his various enterprises.
7
Trump is an uninformed, ignorant, failed business man who has no idea what he's talking about. Why is anyone listening to him?
8
Yes Donald everyone else is responsible hurting the US economy. You and your policies, corporate tax break, killing health care, random tariffs with our allies and trading partners have nothing to do with our economic worries.
Your lies and deception will come back to haunt us all!
7
Trump made this bed, let him sleep in it and enjoy the bed bugs. The U.S. imposed most of these rules that dictate world trade. The U.S. has imposed its' laws on foreign companies, levying hefty fines on them, and now Trump cries when the E.U. does the same. These complaints are nothing more than sore looser whining like a little ..... for loosing at his own game.
5
I have a feeling we will be witnessing Trump’s bigliest bankruptcy and the average citizen will be the ones holding the bag.
4
I say Trump is damaging our economy.
What say you?
10
ours also
2
and ours
1
are we sure that there is no one else to blame?
5
No one hurts the U.S. economy than Trump. His decisions of tarifs and trade are plain stupid. It is clear he does not know his basic 101 economics.
4
Latest book from Pres. Trump - 'How To Make Enemies and Influence No One. Summary; 'I'm great. Everyone else is wrong, devious and an idiot'...
6
"Hello, Kettle? This is Pot. You're black." Through Trump's embarrassment of a presidency and his pitiful understanding of trade he is doing his bit to ruin the US economy. And Congress just stands there and watches.
7
At this point I do not believe anything that comes out of Mr. Trump's mouth. He has no credibility, knowledge, brains or expertise. And he is an enemy of the United States.
13
Oh, woe is us. The US has been so totally taken advantage of that the Dow and other indices have more than tripled in the past 10 years. We are so dirt poor due to the Chinese and EU that the dollar is still the world's reserve currency and our interest rates are near historic lows despite Republicans haven given away over $5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich since W Bush. Times are really tough, with unemployment under 4%. Here's a great idea: Let's take a meat axe to a delicately orchestrated global supply chain that may cause German auto manufacturers to reduce their investments in South Carolina. Let's tax steel imoprts to help weak, undercapitalized American manufacturers, raising prices for other domestic industries that employ 10X more workers. Let's insult our biggest trading partner, Canada, to the point they cut their own deals elsewhere. Yes, America, stupid, alone.
9
Just what the US and world economy needs right now...an ignoramus with a megaphone.
5
hahaha nothing Trump can do about the Fed ... he already appointed the Fed chair
2
Trump is clueless. What's hurting America is his corrupt administration and moronic policies.
9
There are serious and competent economists and there is an incompetent president with an incredible erratic behavior and, at best, dubious business capabilities (by the way, where is Trump's tax return?)
I think that only a fool would believe what Trump says.
4
In Trumpland, there is always a foil, a scapegoat and someone else to blame.. always an excuse, always someone else's fault. Always.
The man is completely ignorant of global affairs, economics, government operations, our laws, etc. And doesn't care to learn, read, understand.
Instead, he just lashes out in some sort of bizarre word salad that his cult-following somehow believes and trusts.
6
Trump is trying to place blame elsewhere for his idiocy and the recession he will soon plunge us in to.
7
What Trump understands about economics you could stick under your thumbnail with room for his understanding of international diplomacy.
11
We already knew about China, the EU, NATO, Canada...
Now, it's the FED...
This guy has no limits!
7
This takes no great knowledge of economics: Trump's assets are heavily leveraged, and each increase in the Fed's rate increases his cost of retaining those assets. So, Sad D is simply whining about the effect of the Fed's actions on his business. So what else is new? This has only to do with Sad D's own interests and not the economic well-being of the country.
9
It’s pretty clear that Trump doesn’t fully appreciate the dynamics of global macro-economics. Increasing tariffs, expanding US debt load, and reducing tax revenues all contribute to both supply-side and demand-side inflation. Responses to these actions negatively impact foreign demand for both US products and our debt. Edicts and bullying simply don’t work once beyond our borders.
2
In an interview with CNBC this morning, Trump said that the stock market gains since his election justified his pursuit of a trade war, because "we're playing with the banks' money".
Perhaps the world should remember that the last Trump he was "playing with the banks' money, he needed to take six of his companies into bankruptcy. And he became permanent persona non-grata with the Western banks and bond markets.
For Trump however, there was a silver lining, as it enabled him find common interest with a group of Russian oligarchs. And, as a result, Donald Trump Jr. was able to say (in 2014) that "we have all the funding we need out of Russia". You can look that up...
Now, Putin has Trump dancing at the end of a strategically placed piano wire...
It's all there to see. As the President asks, "are you going to believe me, or your own eyes?".
11
Small correction - it was Eric Trump who made that comment, according to golf writer James Dodson.
1
Trump+Repubs should have invested $1.5 trillion into 21st infrastructure, innovation,technology+training, instead of giving top 1% $1.5 trillion to offshore! Robots replace more workers than corp moves. Tariffs price us out of existing markets. There are more jobs here than trained workers. EDUCATION is far better investment than building steel mills+coal mines China+soon N.Korea can sell MUCH CHEAPER! U.S. dominated by innovating+growing consumer base w/good paying jobs w/benefits! Regressing to 19th C. energy+'Gilded Age' policies benefits 1% and even greediest robber baron knows people NEED INCOME to be consumers.Top 1% buys custom cars+homes, designer clothes..they don't SUPPORT entire industries..Repubs are ripping healthcare from 50 million..that keeps them well enough to work AND keeps hospitals open! When 1% controls 40%, more tax+spending cuts will hurt all of us, while Trump acts as if it's we're living in 1980s!
4
Tariffs are putting the US economy at a disadvantage -his own economic policy that no informed economist or businessperson agrees with.
Tariffs are the most asinine "shoot yourself in the foot" policy response since the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 helped worsen a global Depression.
Of course he blames everything and everyone but his own misguided policies, which have turned every nation against the United States for violating the World Trade Organization rules that we helped establish.
It is appalling and insulting to justify tariffs against Canada using the pretense of "national security reasons."
Canada has been our peaceful neighbor since it was founded in 1867, fighting with our soldiers shoulder to shoulder when necessary.
US real interest rates are still negative 9 years into this expansion, with 4% unemployment. Interest rates are not the problem.
Tariffs, which impose double-digit consumption taxes on citizens, misallocate resources, devastate businesses, and invite tactical retaliation.
Trump could end those today, and the economy would strengthen.
But rather than admit a tactical blunder, he will let Republicans will get crushed in the mid-terms.
He is a man deeply out of his depth setting economic policy, serially bankrupting more companies than any person in modern history.
He enriched himself by conveying corporate assets to his person prior to bankruptcy, not management competence.
19
American ideal monetary policy is politically directed hyperinflation? Good-bye dollar hegemony and hello massive recession. I guess Americans made a ton of money off of 2008, so it kind of makes sense.
3
@Jillian L*American elites
@Jillian L
the united states is the biggest currency manipulator. what is quantitative easing? flood the world market with greenbacks printed out of thin air. thereby exports inflation to the rest of world.
2
I thought that his MAGAphant speech always includes the part about how our economy has never been stronger. Like international relations, Trump doesn’t even have a rudimentary understanding of trade and currency value.
6
Today Trump wants to divert media attention away from his Russian fiasco.
And what does Trump know about economics -- once the bankrupt-prone private businessman is well on his way to bankrupting the U.S. and the Republican members of Congress fiddle away.
31
When Mr. Trump says China, Europe and the Fed are hurting the U.S. economy, he's really means they're hurting his personal bottom line.
10
Trump Is spreading conspiracy theories that will cover up his failed policies.
12
Not exactly a new problem.
In the first weeks of Trump's presidency the Huffington Post reported that "Trump was confused about the dollar."
Trump wanting to learn about a complicated topic asked for a detailed briefing from leading economists.
Just kidding.
Trump called someone as clueless about economics (and integrity) as he was: National Security Advisor Lt. Gen Mike Flynn.
As the NY Times recounts the story:
"it was 3 a.m. when Mr. Flynn got a call from the president with an important question: Is it good for the economy to have a strong dollar or a weak one?"
"Mr. Flynn, whose background is in the military rather than in macroeconomics, said he didn’t know. He suggested that the president ask an economist."
Maybe Trump is still trying to find a decent economist who will take his call. Or maybe he's just as intellectually unfit for the job as he is emotionally and ethically.
And maybe farmers should put away the MAGA hats and dust off the Farm Aid ones.
45
A strong dollar means US workers pay checks have more buying power. He's trying to offset that buying power by raising the cost of goods through tariffs. Further he is using the phony argument of National security so he can do it without using the legal mechanism that are in place.
Essentially the President is fixing prices of foreign goods in order to gain an advantage for American companies at the expense of American consumers and foreign competition.
Manipulation is in the eye of the beholder.
29
The economy is going to start to slow down and it will start to show the impact of $1trillion deficit for the American oligarch, Mercers/Kochs/Adelsons/Wynns/etc. The deficit combined with the failed trickle-down economics of Saint Reagan, well, life is going to get tougher for the average American with stagnate wages, low/no benefits, no health care, etc. My sympathy for all those who are economically suffering and those who will suffer under the current leadership of the country. However, my sympathy must be re-balanced for those who willingly and happily voted for Trump AND still support him & the GOP!
44
Saving money used to be a thing. Earlier this week I got a big come on from an investment agency offering 2% (!) for a *minimum* of $5,000. Anyone who thinks that the $100 that would earned over the course of a year would make up for inflation is in sore need of a basic economics class.
Quit promoting consumer debt!
13
The Federal Reserve saved this nation and the world for that matter after the Republican zero regulation debacle of 2008. Wall Street bankers blew up the global financial system. The Republican congress refused to apply the necessary stimulus and opposed Obama at every turn.
Then the Fed stepped in and provided the liquidity the economy needed to repair itself. They held interest rates at essentially zero for years. The banks used that money to buy US treasuries which generated a pure profit stream for them to recapitalize their balance sheets.
Then the Fed began quantitative easing where they bought up federal securities en masse which kept bond prices low which kept mortgages and other loan rates very low. This also allowed the economy to heal.
Now, the economy is doing fine on its own, Trump passed a totally unnecessary tax cut that is overheating the financial markets and causing inflation. The tax cut boosted profits way up which has driven up stock prices. But we are now paying for that with higher interest rates and inflation.
The Fed has been forced to raise interest rates in response to the tax cuts.
The resulting inflation and higher rates are eating up any gains providing by the tax cut.
Trump made a mess and he blames the Fed for doing its job to clean it up. As for the EU and China, Trump started it. They will finish it and hopefully Trump also. Heaven knows, the congress wont do anything.
204
@Bruce Rozenblit
Actually the Fed gave away trillions of dollars to the global banks that wrecked the economy.
See QE2 and the Bernie Sanders audit of tee Fed.
If course of Trump gets his way, they will just put trillions of dollars straight until his bank account.
1
Why did the Fed get into rescuing capitalist banks in 2008 without exacting a price? I appreciate the remedy that the Fed put forth but who got more in return?
1
Low interest rates (and they are still low historically) benefit primarily the wealthy, by artificially boosting Wall Street. It should be no surprise they are favored by Trump.
10
I agree that China needs to be held accountable and enacting tariffs against them was something that should have been done. What I didn't expect was tariffs against everyone. A tiered approach would have been better.
And didn't then Candidate Trump say low interest rates were bad?
8
Massive tax cuts + increased spending + trade war + income inequality = some kind of looming crash/crisis nobody is currently predicting and will therefore blindside us in the not too distant future.
16
Trumps solution? $500 billion in new taxes on American business and consumers. Seems like something he would dream up.
6
Trump wants to make the dollar artificially weak to stimulate exports. Some folks call that currency manipulation...
His fixation on the trade deficit in goods is really odd and illustrates his very limited grasp of economics.
171
@random
trump asserts Canada has an unfair trade deficit when it really has a trade surplus. Doesn't matter, he hits them with tariffs willy nilly as well.
3
Fed raising interests rates puts the US at an economic disadvantage? Look no further than 2008 to see the "advantages" of a lax Federal Reserve.
7
Trump thinks he can handle diplomacy without US diplomats and trade policy without input from trade experts. Is anyone surprised to learn he also thinks he understands monetary policy better than economists and bankers? He's no rocket scientist, but that wouldn't stop him from criticizing actual rocket science.
15
@RBDMA
You seem to have forgotten Trump reassuring us that he "is a very stable genius".
I do agree with you. He is dangerous because he refuses to anyone around him who is not a sycophant and of course, they reassure him that he's a god reincarnate.
2
There is a fine line between the United State's economy "doing so well" and doing too well. The Fed tries to prevent the economy from crossing that line. That said, if the Fed increases rates too quickly it could slow growth, if it raises rates too slowly the economy could overheat and prices can grow too quickly, triggering a recession.
The Fed's role in managing the economy is exacerbated by Trump's myopic and ignorant focus on trade deficits with China and the EU as being inherently bad for the United State's economy and launching one of those oh so easy to win trade wars. But global economics is just not that simple. Yes, China has manipulated their currency, but China also finances our federal government's continued defect spending. China holds somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.8 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt - about 20% of the $6.2 trillion in treasury debt owned by foreign investors. Much of that was purchased as a result of its trade surplus with the US. This is not perfect global economics 101, but all of this is interrelated.
Ultimately, Trump is trying to deflect attention from the negative effect his trade policies are having on the economy, by blaming others. And those who are incurious enough to educate themselves, which seems at this point to be about 80% of registered Republicans, will again absolve Trump from blame.
14
Trump wants the Fed to goose the economy thru the November elections. But the Fed is worried about inflation. Whether or not four months of too low rates would do any damage I couldn't possibly say.
The temptation to politicians to goose the economy in advance of elections is exactly why we have an independent Fed. Whether or not Trump understands this I have no idea. I do know that he wouldn't care even if he understood. Even though if we did end up with significant inflation it would be bad for his political prospects, He doesn't worry about the long term.
20
@Jack Toner
I'm wondering if you think Trump has any political comprehension? I seriously doubt he understands the political process any better than why so many American citizens believe him to be a traitor.
He is a failed business man who lies constantly and must be backed by who will ever finance him, which is Russia according to his own family members. All that he knows how to succeed at is breaking stuff. I, too, thought anyone could see that but apparently the folks who voted for him are blind and deaf.
1
There is copious evidence of one fact: Mr. Trump has failed to meet the constitutional obligations of his office. He is morally and intellectually incapable to be president. Every day adds harm to the safety, security, prosperity of the American people. Every day brings the world closer to a collapse of the liberal world order that has bestowed us with the biggest gains (disproportionately of course) to world wide living standards in history.
It is in the hands of his government and congress to remove him from office. They have failed to do so. Now it’s the duty of the voters to limit his powers by a sweeping electoral defeat. There is no room for error anymore. It’s dire. Join the resistance.
268
From the man that never, ever takes personal responsibility for his actions. Ever. Never admitted any fault for any of the multitude of catastrophes and mistakes he has made, as president and in his life before that.
66
@Paul Johnson
That's not true. He just took complete responsibility for saying would instead of wouldn't.
1
Trump's spin is because certain red states are feeling the economic pain from Trump's trade wars with China and Europe. Trump is setting up the Federal Reserve as the fall guy.
116
Now let's wait for the right-wing hard-money extremists and gold bugs exclaim to condemn Mr Trump for 'debasing our currency' and 'flooding our economy with illegitimate fiat money' which will lead (any day now!) to rampant inflation and collapse of the greenback.
3...2...oh, never mind, it turns out all those guys attacking Mr Obama for much less weren't serious about their claims, they just didn't like a liberal black guy in the White House.
79
@Pquincy14 - minor correction - they didn't like a fairly centrist black guy in the White House.
Of course, Reagan, Nixon, etc. would all rank as RINOs now that the far-right took over the Republican Party.
5
tRump attempts to inoculate himself from blame for what is about to happen due to disastrous (deficit spiking) tax bill and bellicose trade policy.
Nice try. What tRump is attacking has been status quo for quite some time during the recovery. You own the changes you have made and approved.
The Obama recovery rolls over into tRump's latest and greatest bankruptcy. Thanks a lot.
11
Not a Trump supporter here and I agree with the comments below. But as the Times reported on Saturday, there are quite a few economists who dispute the idea that interest rates should be raised when there is high GDP growth and low unemployment. I agree with those economists. Using bad logic, does that mean I agree with Trump? Oy, I now have a headache!
1
@cjp - Trump hasn't listened to any of those economists.
6
“Mr. Trump’s sharp words come ahead of a gathering this weekend of finance ministers of the Group of 20 countries in Argentina, where Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, is expected to get an earful of criticism about Mr. Trump’s trade policies.”
I am surprised the US is still invited.
26
But Trump fails to mention the biggest impact on our economy; the tax cuts for the 1% that the rest of us will be paying for, for a long long time...
241
@Jon Creamer He does realize one thing -- that higher interest rates mean bigger debt payments which means the recession those tax cuts is going to dump on us will come sooner. He and the GOP greed-heads were counting on it happening far enough down the road that someone else would take the blame.
19
Trump has proven to be more harmful to the American economy than China, Europe and the Fed, period.
324
There is only one individual responsible for our current economic chaos, D Trump. He has so little understanding of how facets of our economy tie together and without advice, he remains blind to his impulsive actions. All these facts together make him dangerous to cohesive policy. We will eventually have a gordian knot in front of us.
22
The Blamer-In-Chief is Making America Great Again.
With spite, ill will, ignorance, tantrums, hissy-fits, white supremacy and a mad love affair with Vladimir KGB Putin and Russia's fake democracy.
The Trump Slump is coming and the Faker-In-Chief needs someone to blame for his award-winning incompetence, stupidity and unfitness for public office.
November 6 2018
Vote in record numbers, America.... for adults, not Republican children with severe behavioral disorders.
365
And Trump can't let them continue to do this when he already worked out an oil deal with Putin in Helsinki which will profit both him and his immediate family. If anyone is going to rip off the United States it should and will be him. Keep the fools concerned about other things like Germany's oil deal, Stormy, Fake News, MS 13, and the best yet, the PP tapes. Remember the theme song from the the Thieve Trump show, "Money, money, money...
14
More economic insight from the multiply-bankrupt stable genius.
Then the wranglers at the genius corral continue to insist that what the president says isn't what the president says, even if their confirmation is saying the same thing: "Aides said Mr. Trump was not trying to influence the Fed, but added that he would prefer if officials paused their plans to increase rates"
Got it? It's like when your parents would threaten to ground you if you did something they didn't want you to do. According to the Trump interpreters, that wasn't an attempt to influence your behavior.
20
Why haven’t I read any articles on the connection between tariff collections and the Republican efforts to pay for the massive tax cuts? (In contrast, cutting safety net programs is overtly being sold as necessary due to ballooning deficits.) Tariffs, which are ultimately paid for by the American consumer, are effectively a tax on the middle class to pay for the tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy.
21
First, we're the #1 economy in the world. Second, the greedy financial firms did the most damage to our economy in modern history, and the federal government eased the penalties on them since the new administration took over.
30
He's basically preparing to blame others for the recession he's creating. As we know, generating recessions is a tradition amongst all recent Republican presidents. Why do people keep voting them in?
794
@G Many are still stuck on religion and the main story of the Times digital edition of today. That combination is what's holding us all back.
4
@G
Because, a certain mass of southern white people don't mind economic punishment so long as the President goes of out of his way to humiliate black people.
4
President Trump's criticism of the Fed is especially disturbing. As he himself said in his recent interview, he looks at the interest increase in personal terms, not as President. Considering he called himself "the king of debt," he's thinking that lower interest rates mean a better deal for him when he needs to borrow. He neither understands nor cares whether the Fed needs to raise interest rates if he thinks it'll hurt his bottom line.
39
@jrinsc - his attack on the Fed is all of a part of his regular behavior. He reflexively attacks anything and anyone he can't control. Well, except for Putin. Exception to every rule.
8
The worst part of Trump is in those specific economic areas where there might be a legitimate issue to address; while we Americans are stuck with an increasingly illegitimate leader representing us. The scattershot attacks Trump recklessly pumps out just undermine everything. Enough!
11
Trump always has to find someone else to blame, to deflect criticism from his fragile ego. Trump's economic policies are only just beginning to effect our economy. In two to three years we will be in the Trump depression. Then who will he blame? Certainly not himself.
21
Trump and his fixation on Canadian milk. Canada and its mere 36 million people are such a threat to the USA. Good Grief.
157
Trump is complaining about the rate rise after he appointed a fed chair who is much more aggressive in issuing them than the woman he replaced? What?
22
Yes, let's follow Trump's advice, someone who has filed for bankruptcy six times, doesn't read, make up facts, and lies daily.
He doesn't understand anything about the US economy or the World. Number one CON MAN.
503
@Jacqu ie
… and this same guy sought deferrals five separate times to blatantly avoid military service in war time. He's not qualified to be commander in chief. trump doesn't know the first thing about military service or sacrifice.
7
@Jacquie
Amen sister!
4
@Jacquie. Yes. And followed by several hundred know nothing Republican legislators!
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When things are good it all happened after Trump got elected, if they are not they happened under another administration...the blame game by Trump if the GOP loses the House or Senate by Trump will be epic.
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When Trump/Conservative mismanagement of America torpedos the economy and sends us into another Bush-style recession, being able to lower interest rates to keep real Americans afloat will be extremely valuable. I really wish it was possible to communicate this fact to conservatives, but sadly they appear to be immune to learning.
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The European Central Bank takes care of stability in the Euro zone, it is independent and can certainly not respond to needs and desires of the US. Likewise it was not Europe’s fault and decision that the FED started to raise interst rates.
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If Trump claims the US is doing well then how has the policy of China and Europe hurt America. Trump takes credit for all the goodies then complains about an unfair world. This man has no capacity for linking ideas.
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@Llewis. "for linking ideas" is unnecessary.
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This is going to end like 1929. Stable Genius on charge.....
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For a guy who supposedly made loads of money from his inheritance, he certainly is so uniformed and uneducated about worldly matters, or he thinks he knows more than his ex[perts and advisors.
13
European companies employ about 600,000 Americans who earn by one estimate approximately $45 billion annually in wages. There has been a significant amount of foreign direct investment into the US as well.
Why can't Trump acknowledge this and what will he do if they al leave?
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Trump must be an absolute nightmare for currency traders.
9
OUR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS IN A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.
The Koch brothers-led International Mafia Top 1% Global Financial Elite Robber Baron/radical religion Good Old Boys' cabal hostile financial takeover plan to destroy OUR government is reaching fruition.
WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who can/will stop them from destroying democratic governments around the world. We desperately need the help of OUR five Past Presidents to save/preserve/restore true democracy in OUR America.
NOW is the time for our five Past Presidents to step up and work- together - to manage OUR U.S. government until Investigator Mueller completes his work to prosecute the traitors. They can put The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren under Citizen's Arrest and lock them up until Mr. Mueller is ready to prosecute.
They can also pass a Constitutional Amendment taking OUR entire judicial system out of the hands of any President so it cannot be manipulated by greedy Robber Barons. The Amendment must require 60% Senate approval for any Supreme Court, District Court and Appeals Court judge. Elected officials will be forced to work together.
Once OUR five Past Presidents - working together - purge the Koch-owned Robber Baron operatives from OUR U.S. government the remaining Socially Conscious/responsible democrats, independentsd and republicans can work together to put an end to this attempted hostile takeover.
NOW is the time.
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@njglea
You have some great ideas. Perhaps we should start our own independence hall in Philadelphia after our founding fathers and use it as a think tank to encourage the public to start a movement to restore order and the rule of law.
The only membership requirement is US Citizenship with no affiliated corporations, special interests groups, lobbyists, or PAC's.
Maybe we can start a new Independence Party to compete against the RNC and DNC with a real alternative.
A party that represents the public interest and not special interests.
6
@njglea - great list. Scary stuff is afoot:
"Trump Changes How Federal Agency In-House Judges Are Hired" - President Trump has issued an executive order that gives federal agencies far more latitude over hiring administrative law judges; essentially politicizing these roles.
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627826602/trump-changes-how-federal-agenc...
3
The Fed has not changed it's process of slowly raising rates for the past few years, a strategy that has contributed to an historically low unemployment rate, an expanding GDP, and higher corporate earnings.
I think I will continue to side with the professionals who are in charge at the Fed over a 5-time bankrupt and morally corrupt real estate mogul.
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@James
That makes most of us.
8
The Euro is usually higher than the US dollar or at par.
How is that 'currency manipulation'? Whereas China does fix its currency well below the US Dollar so its exports are cheap to Americans, and US imports to China are expensive.
Trump missed a golden opportunity to gather allies and together confront China's illegal and unfair trade practices with; tariffs, sanctions and other measures. Instead he arbitrarily slaps tariffs on every nation without any plan. May I use the word, 'incompetent'.
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@dsbarclay
Yes, you may. And please feel free to also use 'stupid' as a descriptor.
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@dsbarclay: Yes you can. But please note that China stopped manipulating its currency a few syers ago and has been propping its currency up for the past couple of years.
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@jas2200: yes, I've read that China 'stopped' pegging its currency directly. But what it does is force all Chinese companies to turn in their USDollars for their 'Yuan'. So they can still set their own exchange rate to a degree. I'm not a currency expert, but with an economy growing faster than the US, in theory, their currency should rise. In any case they put all kinds of other obstructions on imports. Steal IP and ignore Patent law.
The EU does none of the above.
Let's follow the advice of a failed businessman with multiple bankruptcies, rather than securing the guidance of skilled economists, experienced international trade experts, and seasoned Fed officials. What could possibly go wrong.....
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Trump, clueless as ever, can't help finding scapegoats for his own irrelevancy, a distraction that has nothing to do with the responsible jobs those 'in the know' are doing. Trump is a screwball, most damning in his latest move on stupid tariffs. This will rise the cost of living, on stagnant wages, for everybody, at home and abroad. For those skeptic about the coming self-inflicted carnage, just wait.
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