Tag: Economic Woes

Inflation, The Ugliness

Most of us are dealing with surviving this current rash of inflation….our gas, food and housing is far more expensive than say a year ago.

AS the situation drags on it drags working families into a pit of despair….and the solutions are not there to protect the families from failure….the face of inflation just keeps getting uglier and uglier…..

Inflation is beginning to show its ugly side, polarizing political systems and fueling strikes and protests that disrupt economic activity. It’s happening in France and the UK and will occur across every country highly dependent on food and energy imports — the two drivers of today’s inflation surge.

Inflation, the sustained rise of the prices of everyday items, has two sides — the bad and the ugly. The bad side is mainly about economics. It’s crushing family budgets, making it hard for low- and middle-income families to afford to put food on the table, gas in the car, and live in a comfortable place.

In addition, the bad side of inflation is about slower economic growth — even a recession — as higher spending on essential products leaves minimal funds for discretionary items. For instance, the US GDP growth declined by 1.6% in the first quarter of 2022. That’s primarily due to a shortfall in consumer spending, as inflation runs at multi-year high no matter how it is measured.

The ugly side of inflation is social and political unrest. It polarizes political systems and pushes societies into chaos, as high inflation turns slow economic growth into outright recessions and even depressions, throwing people out of work. Germany’s economy back in the 1920s experienced among the worst hyperinflation periods the world has ever seen, and the political and social unrest that followed attests to the dangers.

https://www.ibtimes.com/inflation-beginning-show-its-ugly-side-3557876

Times are tough and will most likely get even tougher…..and what is the president doing to help American families?

A gas tax holiday.

I have made my thoughts known on the idea of a gas tax holiday….

Answers To Inflation

I do not see this as the answer, as you can read……

All the American oligarchs are worried that any attempts to curb inflation will hurt productivity and that would lessen there profits….and we cannot have that now can we?

I say screw ’em.

They have enough cash on hand to manipulate the markets in their favor let them live off that while we fight inflation…..let them see what it is like to struggle…..American families have been doing it for decades while the oligarchs getting richer by the month.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s Putin’s Fault (Why Not?)

Inflation is soaring in this country, maybe the world, and now we have a brand new excuse…..It is Putin’s fault.

Just Stop It!

Let’s be honest…..2021 was a banner year for the oil industry alone…..

While millions of working people have been hurt by surging gas prices, a new analysis out Tuesday shows that 25 of the world’s biggest fossil fuel corporations collectively pulled in an “eye-popping” $205 billion in profits last year—and Big Oil is exploiting Russia’s war on Ukraine to charge even more at the pump in 2022 and advance its financial interests.

(commondreams.org)

We here in the US blame so many others for our growing problems…..for the GOP it is Biden’s fault or Clinton or Dems…..the Dems along with Biden are blaming the Ukrainian conflict and Putin as the culprit….

“Today’s inflation report,” US president Joe Biden told us on March 10, “is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike.”

It’s the latest in a long line of dodges on the causes of US inflation, which took a dive in early 2020, then began its steady climb toward the current official rate of 7.9%.

The first explanation was that inflation increases were “transitory.” That explanation made sense. Or would have, anyway, if Congress and the Biden administration had brought government borrowing and spending levels back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Instead, they decided to go bigger. When the causes aren’t “transitory,” the effects won’t be either.

Because Biden and Congress were unwilling to rein in borrowing and spending (requiring the Federal Reserve to continue flooding the economy with newly created money), new excuses were required.

Next came “well, if you really think about it, inflation is GOOD – look, higher wages!” And, the US Labor Department did report an average pay increase 4.7% in 2021. But since prices jumped by at least 7%, those “higher wages” actually amounted to significant pay cuts.

(antiwar.com)

Inflation is caused by increasing the money supply faster than society increases its production of goods and services for sale. Everything else is an effect, not a cause.

Vladimir Putin came to Biden’s rescue and gave him yet another lame excuse to draw out pain instead of facing, and acting on, the truth.

Keep in mind that inflation was high before the invasion of Ukraine….and now Biden has an excuse he can use to the benefit of the greed of corporations.

All this ‘found’ cash over a $1 billion to send to Ukraine will just add to the deficit and give the GOP a weapon to be used in campaigns…..and the next Congress will have to face this question and the debate to cut social services will be the game of the day.

In other words the people of the US will pay the price for all our ‘support’ for Ukraine and their struggle against Russia.

For Christ sake…..stop worrying about a world away and start caring about your neighbors for they are far more important.

Sadly most of this will fall on deaf ears for few Americans actually care about their neighbors or their countrymen.

It is pathetic!

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27Apr21

I stated several times during the last four years that I thought that the last president surrounded himself with morons as advisers…..and the biggest moron was a economic anchor on CNBC, Larry Kudlow…..basically he played an economist on TV.

As someone who studied economics I heard nothing from this person that would have lead me to feel confident that the last guy had good advice.

Over the weekend this toad opened his mouth and spewed stupid.

To the point hat I shot coffee out my nose.

He was helping spread the bullsh*t that Biden’s climate change ideas would eliminate red meat from our diets……of course this is just a BS line because they have nothing else but lies and disinformation.

And now for the stupid from yet another Trump moron…..

Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host and former Trump economic advisor, raged against the idea of “plant-based beer” on his Friday-night show and falsely claimed that President Joe Biden’s climate plan would require Americans to give up meat.

“Get this: America has to stop eating meat, stop eating poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats,” Kudlow said. “OK, you got that? No burgers on July 4. No steaks on the barbie. I’m sure middle America is just going to love that. Can you grill those Brussels sprouts?

“So get ready: You can throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled Brussels sprouts and wave your American flag. Call it July 4 green,” Kudlow said.

(businessinsider.com)

Think about his last statement….a plant based beer.

What does this moron think beer is made from?

To be fair FOX has walked back this amount of stupid…..

The network has since walked back Kudlow’s claims. Fox News’ John Roberts told viewers on Monday that Kudlow had highlighted a study from the University of Michigan and wrongly linked it to Biden’s plans to mitigate the climate crisis.

“On Friday, we told you about a study from the University of Michigan to give some perspective on President Biden’s ambitious climate-change goals,” Roberts said. “That research from 2020 found that cutting back how much red meat people eat would have a drastic impact on harmful greenhouse-gas emissions. The data was accurate, but a graphic and a script incorrectly implied that it was part of Biden’s plan for dealing with climate change. That is not the case.”

AS typical conservs making something out of nothing…..a lie that becomes news.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2020 The Worst In History

There are so many events that could make the year 2020 as the worst in history……but for this post we will look at the economy….

The markets are at all time highs….and too many in Congress want us to believe that the economy is going great guns…..it is not….maybe for millionaires but as a total entity…..2020 SUCKED!

The final report on the 2020 economy is in, resulting in bleak historical comparisons but also hope for a better 2021. In terms of the specific numbers, the economy grew by 4% in the final quarter of the year, below estimates of 4.3%, reports CNBC. For the full year, that means the economy—as measured by gross domestic product—shrank 3.5%. Coverage:

  • Comparisons:The economy’s yearly decline of 3.5% is the worst in 74 years, reports the AP. In 1946, the mark was 11.6%, thanks to the end of World War II. The 2020 decline is the first since a fall of 2.5% in 2009, during the Great Recession. The worst ever was 12.9% in 1932, during the Great Depression.
    Context: All in all, given the pandemic and unprecedented political turmoil, “the economy closed in fairly good shape,” writes Jeff Cox of CNBC. “There has been a broad recovery, but economically speaking, we’re not out of the woods yet,” is how Ben Herzon of IHS Markit puts it to the Washington Post.
  • On the horizon: Economists expect sluggish growth to continue in the early part of this year before picking up later if vaccines get the pandemic under control, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Coming out of the disaster of the pandemic, we’re going to see outsized growth from the second quarter onwards and a sharp decline in joblessness,” says Joseph Brusuelas of RSM US LLP. Two estimates cited in the story predict annual growth of 4% or 5% in 2021.
  • Relatively stable: The figure of 4% in the final quarter follows wild swings earlier in the year. GDP contracted 31.4% in the second quarter before rebounding by a record 33.4% in the third, notes CNBC.

So basically do not buy the hype that the media and the GOP would have you believe…..

They are LYING!

Keep in mind….a booming market does not an economy make.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Winner-Take-All Economy

We are told almost daily of the attributes of the “free market” economy….but those markets are far from free….for many years I have written numerous times about this lie….this illusion…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/09/20/free-markets-truth-not-spoken/

https://lobotero.com/2020/05/25/that-free-market-illusion/

Then there is the economic inequality….where 1% of the population owns more than the bottom 80%…..but how bad can it possibly be?

Well as you might imagine I have also written numerous posts on this as well…..

https://lobotero.com/2014/02/25/the-increasingly-unequal-states-of-america-income-inequality-by-state-1917-to-2011-economic-policy-institute/

https://lobotero.com/2018/03/17/inequality-how-bad-can-it-be/

After WW2 the economic growth ranged across all levels of society but that equality was to be short lived……our economy has become winner take all….and each passing year the inequality spreads.

In the three decades following World War II, the US saw economic growth that was shared across all levels of income, from the working class to the richest 1 percent. But that changed after the mid-1970s as income inequality increased exponentially during the next four decades.

A new study by nonprofit research organization RAND nails down what really happened. It shows that this rising inequality took a substantial bite out of the earnings of up to 90 percent of American households.

In this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, we talk with the authors of the RAND study, mathematician Carter Price and labor economist Kathryn Edwards.

Price and Edwards detail the unique approach they took in putting this report together. Up until now, they explain, nobody had devised a formula to show just how individuals and their families were affected by the rising inequality across the entire income spectrum. 

Proof Positive of the Winner-Take-All Economy

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A Look At That Great Economy

Trump keeps telling the people of the US that this economy is great and that we all will be on easy street soon enough……(well that part was me being sarcastic…..

I would like to know where it is so great.

Jobless rates are still not good……even the last numbers were not so great….

New unemployment data came out Thursday morning, and the numbers are not sitting well with Wall Street investors. The Labor Department says 898,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week, exceeding estimates by about 70,000, reports CNBC. The figure is up more than 50,000 from the previous week and is the highest since August. The stock market opened an hour after the report came out, with the Dow down about 300 points in the early going, or roughly 1%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down similar percentages.

“Given that we’re seven months into the pandemic now, these are still incredibly high numbers for initial claims,” AnnElizabeth Konkel of the job site Indeed tells the Wall Street Journal. Also contributing to the sour mood on Wall Street is the increase in COVID cases and continuing uncertainty about whether lawmakers in DC will be able to settle on a coronavirus relief package, per the Journal.

What part of unemployment is great for us mere mortals?

The threat of a massive new round of layoffs looms. Officials in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, announced a new operating budget this week that includes the elimination of 659 jobs, including 130 health workers in the midst of a pandemic. Rutgers University is planning additional layoffs after the 900 layoffs and 6,400 furloughs it has already implemented. The Tropicana casino and resort in Las Vegas announced 828 layoffs while Rochester, New York schools are cutting 200 non-teaching personnel.

The predictable result of this has been hardship and poverty for millions of unemployed or partially employed workers. Several new studies have shown a significant growth in poverty, particularly in the period after the expiration of the $600 weekly unemployment supplement at the end of July.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/16/jobs-o16.html

Then there are those markets…..the game that only the wealthy get to play…..seems they are in a bit of a funk as well….

After last week’s strong performance, the stock market now can’t find any forward momentum. On Thursday, the Dow fell 19 points to 28,494, the S&P fell 5 points to 3,483, and the Nasdaq fell 54 points to 11,713. Worse-than-expected unemployment data, rising pessimism about a coronavirus deal in DC, and a continued rise in cases in the US and around the world were blamed for the market malaise, report the Wall Street Journal and the AP.

“The stimulus talk continues to be a little negative, and the virus outbreak in Europe that’s going to probably cause more shutdowns in various cities and countries, that’s a little bit of a negative, too,” said Scott Wren of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The day started out even worse, with the Dow falling about 300 points, though the selloff eased considerably in afternoon trading.

What do you think 8 million people think of this “great economy”?

The world’s poor have been hit the hardest by the pandemic—and in the US, that group includes 6 million to 8 million more people than it did a few months ago, according to two studies released this week. Columbia University researchers found that the number of poor people in the US actually fell in the early months of the crisis, when the $2 trillion Cares Act provided $1,200 stimulus checks and an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits, but the gains were reversed as aid dried up, causing 8 million people to fall into poverty since May, reports the New York Times. Researchers from Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, who measured income by year instead of by month, put the number at 6 million, including 2.5 million children.

“These numbers are very concerning,” University of Chicago economist Bruce D. Meyer tells the Times. “They tell us people are having a lot more trouble paying their bills, paying their rent, putting food on the table.” The studies found that Black and Latino Americans are around twice as likely to be in poverty as white Americans. Authors of both studies found that the Cares Act had been extremely successful in keeping people out of poverty and urged Congress to consider their research when crafting future stimulus programs, the Guardian reports. “The Cares Act was very successful,” says Columbia researcher Christopher Wimer. “But one of its shortcomings was its temporary nature.”

What part of this with less than 3 weeks until the election talks of a better day to come?

My question is do the voters truly give a shit about their fellow Americans?

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–25May20

Today we remember our veterans and those lost in combat…..I will wait for the traditional day….

This Memorial Day eCard - Free Memorial Day Cards Online

News success for our workers (sarcasm)….nearly 40 million unemployed….

More than 2.4 million people applied for US unemployment benefits last week, per the AP. That means roughly 38.6 million people have now filed for jobless aid since the coronavirus forced businesses to shrink their workforces, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figure is slightly below last week’s revised total of 2.7 million claims, notes the Wall Street Journal. An additional 2.2 million people sought aid under a new federal program for self-employed, contractor, and gig workers, who are now eligible for jobless aid for the first time. The continuing stream of job cuts reflects an economy that is sinking into the worst recession since the Great Depression. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the economy is shrinking at a 38% annual rate in the April-June quarter. That would be by far the worst quarterly contraction on record.

During April, US employers shed 20 million jobs, eliminating a decade’s worth of job growth in a single month. The unemployment rate reached 14.7%, the highest since the Depression. Millions of other people who were out of work weren’t counted as unemployed because they didn’t look for a new job.

What better time than a pandemic to lay-off health care workers…..(again…sarcasm)……

Even as American deaths from COVID-19 exceed 90,000 and frontline health care workers are needed more than ever, hospitals and other medical facilities, guided by market forces, are closing or laying off large sections of their workforces.

The US Commerce Department reported at the end of April that health care spending by consumers had dropped by 18 percent during the first quarter of 2020. This is the largest drop since records began in 1959, contributing substantially to the annualized 4.8 percent decline in US gross domestic product. Morgan Stanley forecasts a breathtaking 37.9 percent decline in GDP during the second quarter

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/22/hosp-m22.html

An update…..the number of deaths should read 96,000+…….

But not to worry those parasites on Wall Street are still making money hand over fist while the rest of us suffer…..

While many Americans are facing financial hardship due to the coronavirus outbreak, US billionaires saw a boost in net worth in the first two months of the pandemic, according to a new report.

According to the report, published on Thursday by the left-leaning think tanks Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, the total net worth of all US billionaires got a $434 billion boost since March 19, when many US states were placed on lockdown.

According to Forbes, 623 billionaires live in the US, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, investor Warren Buffett, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The report indicates that just those top five billionaires saw their wealth increase by a total of $75.5 billion, or 19%. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-billionaires-434-billion-richer-during-pandemic-report-2020-5

Ain’t an oligarchy great?  (Once again…..sarcasm)….

Sorry for the bad news…..someone has to tell you since the government does not want to….

Be Well….Be Safe….Be Informed

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That “Free Market” Illusion

We hear a lot about “free markets” and “free trade” these days…well for many decades…..it has been the clarion call of conservs….

Let’s look at the term “free markets”…..

A free market economy is a type of economy that promotes the production and sale of goods and services, with little to no control or involvement from any central government agency. The economic system is primarily based on supply and demand. Order and power in a free market are decentralized, with individuals making all of their own voluntary economic choices.

In a free-market economy, firms and households act in their own self-interest to determine how resources get allocated, what goods get produced, and who buys the goods. A free market economy functions in the opposite manner as a command economy works, where the central government gets to keep the profits and choose how to use them.

Read More….https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/free-market/

That is what a free market world would look like if it were truly a free system…..it is not.

Let’s be honest……A pure market economy has no barriers to economic exchange: you can sell anything to anyone else for any price. In reality, this form of economics is rare. Sales taxes, tariffs on imports and exports, and legal prohibitions—such as the age restriction on liquor consumption—are all impediments to a truly free market exchange.

So free market is total BS.

Now comes the term “free trade”…..Free trade is a largely theoretical policy under which governments impose absolutely no tariffs, taxes, or duties on imports, or quotas on exports. In this sense, free trade is the opposite of protectionism, a defensive trade policy intended to eliminate the possibility of foreign competition.  

Free Trade has an ugly side…..

  • It causes job loss through outsourcing: Tariffs tend to prevent job outsourcing by keeping product pricing at competitive levels. Free of tariffs, products imported from foreign countries with lower wages cost less. While this may be seemingly good for consumers, it makes it hard for local companies to compete, forcing them to reduce their workforce. Indeed, one of the main objections to NAFTA was that it outsourced American jobs to Mexico.
  • It encourages theft of intellectual property: Many foreign governments, especially those in developing countries, often fail to take intellectual property rights seriously. Without the protection of patent laws, companies often have their innovations and new technologies stolen, forcing them to compete with lower-priced domestically-made fake products.
  • It allows for poor working conditions: Similarly, governments in developing countries rarely have laws to regulate and ensure safe and fair working conditions. Because free trade is partially dependent on a lack of government restrictions, women and children are often forced to work in factories doing heavy labor under slave-like working conditions.
  • It can harm the environment: Emerging countries have few, if any environmental protection laws. Since many free trade opportunities involve the exporting of natural resources like lumber or iron ore, clear-cutting of forests and un-reclaimed strip mining often decimate local environments.
  • It reduces revenues: Due to the high level of competition spurred by unrestricted free trade, the businesses involved ultimately suffer reduced revenues. Smaller businesses in smaller countries are the most vulnerable to this effect.

(thoughtco.com)

There you have it “Free Markets” is an illusion….”Free Trade” is an illusion……all made up benefits to make it more appealing to the workers which are continuously scorched by the lies of the oligarchs.

We have come to a point in our nation’s public discourse where there is a widespread realization that many of the economic policies pursued and promoted by our political, business and media elites have failed us in multiple ways. We have heard our trade policies called “Free Trade” and “Free Market”, but those statements were often dishonest.

When crafting these agreements, our elites have been responding to incentives which are beneficial to their institutions but detrimental to the well-being of American citizens.

Traditional conservatives have been observing and asking about these policy failures for some time and have been met with name-calling and general denigration. During this current pandemic crisis, the magnitude of the failure of these misguided agreements and policies has become unavoidably obvious.

The Illusion of ‘Free Markets’ and ‘Free Trade’

Be Smart!

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And Join a Union and fight for your rights and your life….being a passive spectator will NEVER give you the end that you seek.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Covid Capitalism

The workers are losing their jobs….and yet the markets are doing so well during this time that shareholders are making billions…..why is this?

Five major U.S. corporations that have laid off thousands of workers in recent weeks have simultaneously dished out hundreds of millions of dollars in cash dividends to wealthy shareholders, drawing outrage from Sen. Bernie Sanders and others who say the companies should be using the money to keep people employed.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that manufacturing giant Caterpillar, toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker, clothing company Levi Strauss, office furniture company Steelcase, and World Wrestling Entertainment have paid out a combined $700 million in cash dividends to shareholders while they shutter operations and lay off employees as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the U.S. economy.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/06/outrageous-major-us-companies-hand-shareholders-hundreds-millions-dividends-while

Seems like bodies are commodities…..

The allure of capitalism has never been a clean or ethical one—the very roots are predicated on a system of continued growth and extraction, only becoming less feudal and more “modern” with the advent of beliefs that technological advances could usher in continued input to help the system survive. This has been true in some ways, such as the advent of fracking, which was able to massively disrupt Hubbert’s peak (the bell curve expected to show the gradual diminished reserves of oil). That peak was extended like a covid graph 10 days after an evangelical beach party. The rub with all things extractive and unsustainable is that there is always inherent blow-back. Just because there is more petro-product to burn doesn’t mean those greenhouse gases won’t build up from actually burning them—there will be hell to pay. This is because the natural world has a way of slapping down hubris with an intangible, almost sentient response to the greed.

Capitalism’s Voracious Appetite: Bodies are the Commodities

Instead of helping the US deal with the coming viral storm….companies kept shipping much needed supplies overseas…..

U.S. companies continued their massive sell-off of medical masks overseas throughout March, well after the coronavirus began infecting Americans and draining hospitals of critical supplies and even as White House officials raised red flags, a USA TODAY investigation found. 

America exported more protective masks — including disposable surgical masks and N95 respirator masks — this March than in any other month in the past decade. In all, $83.1 million worth of such products were sent from the United States to the rest of the world, according to an analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau trade data for the export category that includes textile-based protective masks.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/05/08/u-s-companies-kept-shipping-masks-overseas-despite-warnings/3090505001/

The capitalism has grown into profits even at the price of screwing the country…..there is no “patriotism” in the souls of these corporations….

…consider 23 ways in which it is a crisis of and by capital and its class rule profits system:

+1.  The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back. United States capitalism was already on the verge of a major recession before COVID-19 hit.  All the classic signs were there:  absurdly inflated P/E ratios s (an absurdly inflated stock market), massively deb-leveraged corporations, giant consumer and student debt, savage economic inequality (so extreme that the top tenth of the U.S. upper 1 percent had more wealth than the nation’s bottom 90 percent), tens of millions living just one inadequate paycheck away from being unable to meet basic living expenses, and more.  If the virus hadn’t broken that camel’s back, something else would have done the job, albeit with a less devastating impact than an epic pandemic.

Coronavirus Capitalism and “Exceptional” America  

It is time for a change….but this election will bring NO CHANGE….mostly a few reforms that do nothing but strengthen the hold that capital has on the nation….and more people will suffer and die…..

WE NEED CHANGE NOW!

WE NEED STRONG UNIONS!

Will you be part of it or just a by-stander?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Economic Realism–2019

We hear almost daily at a Trump rally just how good the economy is doing since he became president….I will admit that the markets, stock markets, are doing well and that is where it ends…..there is nothing good happening beyond those hollow promises.

Trump and the GOP keeps Tweeting about what great condition the economy is in….but I feel they need a refresher course….the economy means….”the wealth and resources of a country or region, especially in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.”

Markets are soaring…the economy not so much.

I mean a 10% drop in manufacturing (I thought it would all come back under a Trump admin) and investment lagging…..all thanks to the economic policies of this president….

Decisions based on false or misleading information can lead to wrong and harmful solutions. The constant harping on Chinese trade having “cost” America millions of jobs is false, especially given what we now know: that 85 percent of American job losses have resulted from technology, not trade.

This complicated issue is detailed in a Yale University School of Management report. However, this is not the end of the story.

Millions of simple manufacturing jobs have been replaced with service and advanced manufacturing jobs, where America still leads. In fact, American manufacturing’s major problem right now is a shortage of a million skilled workers. We need better worker re-training programs and a campaign to change attitudes towards the social standing of skilled workers in place of our current hyper-focus on college degrees.

Trump’s Trade War Has Dire Consequences

Americans are starting to see just how disastrous Trump policies are for them….these policies may help his rich friends but do very little for mainstream America…..

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters said they are not better of financially since Donald Trump took office, a new poll of likely voters finds.

The October 2019 poll conducted by the Financial Times and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found that 31 percent of potential U.S. voters reported being worse off financially since Trump took office in January 2017. An additional third of Americans surveyed, 33 percent, said there has been no change in their financial status under the Trump administration.

Just over one-third of those surveyed, 35 percent, said they were better off since Trump moved into the White House.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-presidency-helped-americans-financial-standing-poll-us-voters-1469625

The bottom line on the economy is…..not good.

While you weren’t looking — perhaps while you were watching impeachment hearings – the trade war with China went completely off the rails and lost its meaning.

To understand why, you have to know why the US started a trade war with China started in the first place. It started with a very specific investigation — an investigation into China’s theft of US intellectual property (IP) using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

The investigation determined what many in the business community had been talking about for years, the fact that China abused its US partners, stole the IP of American companies, forced those companies to reveal their technology to Chinese counterparts and muscled US firms out of the Chinese economy in favor of state owned enterprises (SOEs).

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-trade-war-us-china-tariffs-lost-no-meaning-2019-11

Sadly those so-called “Free Markets” are killing the very sector it is suppose to help and advance…..

National industrial policy was once something you might read about in today’s equivalent of a friend’s Facebook post, as hard as that might sound to believe. It was in newspapers; it was on the radio. Taxi drivers had opinions about it. That all changed in the last 35 years, when the rise and fall of the stock market and a shallow conversation about unemployment rates took over. Industrial policy became an inside-baseball conversation, and to the extent that it was discussed, it was through the prism of whether it imperiled the golden gospel and great economic distraction of our time, “the free market.”

The decades of free-market propaganda we’ve been exposed to are basically an exercise in distracting the public from the meaningful choices that are now made behind closed doors. The two big political parties that outwardly represent symbolic issues like gun rights and school prayer spend the bulk of their time and political energy on complex industrial and regulatory questions.

America Will Keep Losing Its Middle Class as Long as ‘Free Markets’ Dominate the Economic Debate

Trade wars do nothing to help the Middle Class advance….and after so many years of a “free Market” mentality the proof is in the dwindling of the Middle Class.

The stock markets are not the economy in its entirety.

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