Economy

Trump Uses the Shutdown He Created to Evade Legal Liability and Possible Impeachment

Posted by on December 27, 2018 at 11:15 am. 2 Comments :

The United States federal government has now been shut down for five days during the holiday season. While Donald Trump initially said that he would proudly take responsibility for the shutdown, he has lately been frantically trying to shift blame to the Democrats, even though he explicitly promised not to do that. It’s an act of such brazen duplicity that it should serve as a warning to anyone considering putting any trust in anything that Trump says.

Donald Trump Impeach

However, Trump’s exploitative nature had not yet begun to peak. It is now being reported that he has his government lawyers citing the shutdown that he is wholly responsible for as an excuse to delay a civil trial into his financial corruption. According to Politico:

“Justice Department attorneys representing Trump asked a federal appeals court on Wednesday to postpone indefinitely all further filings in an appeal related to a suit that the governments of Maryland and Washington, D.C., filed over Trump’s alleged violation of the Constitution’s ban on foreign emoluments.

“The government’s brief is not due until Jan. 22, but DOJ lawyers asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va., to put the appeal on ice until the shutdown ends.”

Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the shutdown could result in the furlough of some federal employees whose services might be required for the lawsuit. Of course, anyone whose work is deemed critical would still be required to report for work. And a case involving unlawful activity by the President that could lead to impeachment would surely meet that criteria.

The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits gifts to the President from foreign and state governments. The lawsuit filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia alleges that Trump is profiting from such expenditures at his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Many representatives of foreign governments have admitted that they are booking rooms at the hotel in order to curry favor from Trump. And the self-dealing also extends to other Trump properties and other organizations patronizing them, including the Republican National Committee.

For Trump be exploiting the shutdown this way is further evidence of his arrogance, entitlement, and disrespect for the law. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will be out of work – or working for no pay – during the holidays. They will be struggling to buy groceries and pay mortgages while Trump exploits their hardship to avoid accountability for his criminal behavior. On Thursday morning he even tweeted a veiled threat to hold Democrats hostage if he doesn’t get his way:

First of all, how did he determine that “most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?” And what if they are? Is he implying that it’s his intention to bring hardship to federal employees based on their political party? Perhaps what’s more important is that most of the people harmed by the shutdown are likely Trump supporters in red states who are reliant on government services. Not that he actually cares about any of them.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s transparent prejudices and political vengefulness is not only improper, it’s callous and sickening. But his attempt to profit from the suffering of others by asking the court to delay judgment on his malfeasance is cynical and self-serving. He must not be permitted to tarnish justice by turning his shutdown policy into a legal excuse to evade the punishment he so richly deserves.

Trump’s Ludicrous Demand to ‘Feel’ the Stock Market Proves He’s an Economic Imbecile

Posted by on December 24, 2018 at 11:33 am. 2 Comments :

One of Donald Trump’s favorite subjects to brag about is the performance of the stock market since he became president. He has proclaimed himself to be a brilliant economist who knows more than anyone else, despite his six (at least) bankruptcies. And he promised that he would achieve historic gains through the sheer strength of his will. But given the recent turn of events in the markets, Trump is resorting to his customary back-up raving: Blaming anyone and everyone other than himself for the bad news.

Donald Trump, Stock Market

What’s happening in the markets was perfectly predictable. In fact, it was predicted here on News Corpse at the beginning of this year in a warning to Trump not to rest his laurels on the market’s performance:

“It’s always dangerous to rely on stock market performance to validate the economy. There are too many factors that can shift investor sentiment. It is a fluid indicator that could reverse course tomorrow. Indeed, many stock analysts regard the market’s current position as overvalued. These analysts are predicting a “correction” that could send the markets down significantly. Furthermore, the market does not reflect the economic realities of most Americans. Other economic indicators (i.e. wages) are showing only small advances. The beneficiaries of stock gains are predominantly the usual suspects of the GOP (Greedy One Percent).”

Trump chose to ignore these warnings. Instead he ventured off on a campaign of idiotic initiatives intended to make cosmetic improvements in the state of the economy. That failed bigly. Trump’s agenda was centered on three actions that informed economists knew wouldn’t work.

First there was his Tax Scam, a reform bill that provided most of its benefits to corporations and the wealthy.But it was also an unnecessary stimulus to an economy that was already overheated and it produced new debt in excess of $1.5 trillion, which makes investors nervous about rising inflation and interest rates.

When an economic stimulus is used at a time when it isn’t needed, that means that it won’t be available in the future when it might actually be useful. That led to investors looking forward to a future market correction, or even a bear market, and the government would have no tools to respond or mitigate the damage.

Second, Trump declared a trade war on pretty much the rest of the civilized world. His attacks extended to old foes/competitors like China, but also to friends and trading partners like Mexico and Canada. The result was a weakening of economic alliances and cooperative trade relations. Trump’s revamped NAFTA is a perfect example of a trade agreement that did nothing but alienate our allies. It also harmed the economies of those nations, which made them less able to consume American goods and services.

Finally, Trump’s tariffs accomplished only the price inflation of imported products into the U.S. It means that Americans would have to pay more for the same goods because the tariff penalties would be added to the cost for consumers. That is not the way to boost economic activity domestically, or exports to foreign markets who are responding with retaliatory tariffs of their own.

All of this has resulted in a stock market that is suffering its worst December since the Great Depression. It’s down 2,000 points this week, and 5,000 this quarter. As noted above, this was predictable. But Trump chose to lie to the American people about his divine ability to push the market ever upward. That is already causing some serious harm to the people who were foolish enough to believe him.

In the meantime, Trump is tweeting incoherently about “feeling” the market. In one tweet he literally said to “Feel the market, don’t just go by meaningless numbers,” and in another he said “The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market.” Really? The market is one of the most data-driven institutions in the public sphere. And while it can sometimes react emotionally, it always settles into what the numbers tell us.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s childishly simplistic understanding of the market (and everything else) is reminiscent of Stephen Colbert’s admonition to “go by the gut” rather than the brain. Which Trump agreed with saying that “My gut tells me more than anybody’s brain.” No, really, that’s exactly what he said:

WHOA: Former Reagan Budget Chief Tells Fox News that Trump is a ‘Madman’ Who is ‘Out to Lunch’

Posted by on November 23, 2018 at 12:46 pm. 2 Comments :

It isn’t often that Fox News broadcasts anything that is remotely critical of Donald Trump. That would be contrary to the mission of the State TV cable network. And it is even less common that the criticism would come from a devout conservative whose credentials reach back to the hallowed administration of Ronald Reagan.

Donald Trump, Fox News

However, that’s precisely what happened on Black Friday morning as former Reagan budget chief, David Stockman, sat down for an interview with confirmed Trump-fluffing Fox Business host, Charles Payne. The interview began innocently enough with Payne acknowledging the recent stock market decline which continued on Friday. But Payne was not prepared for Stockman’s response (video below):

Payne: How far down do we go from here?
Stockman: I have no idea but I know the foundation is not stable. We’ve got a perfect storm of a madman in the White House, who’s pursuing trade wars, border wars, a fiscal policy that is totally out to lunch, and attacking the fed.”

Whereupon, Payne interrupted Stockman and diverted him from a discussion about how badly Trump is managing the economy to some absurd speculations about an imaginary war between the U.S. and China. Clearly Payne wasn’t going to allow Stockman to educate the willfully ignorant Fox News audience about Trump’s foolish economic agenda. Payne thought it would be better to fear monger about a war that no sane analyst is predicting. And it went downhill from there:

Payne: It’s kinda harsh for you to call President Trump a madman.
Stockman: Oh, absolutely he is.
Payne: Because he’s fighting back against unfair trade, intellectual property theft, a country that’s building man-made militarized islands […] You don’t think that we should be pushing back against China?
Stockman: No. China is not a threat to us whatsoever. If they want to waste their money on sandcastles in the South China Sea, be our guest. […] China’s economy is a house of cards. They’ve got forty trillion of debt. It is the biggest speculative building spree in history. Without our export markets, without 4,000 Walmarts and everything else in America, their economy would collapse. They don’t dare threaten us.

So Payne successfully sidetracked the conversation from Stockman’s initial commentary that Trump is a “madman” who is “out to lunch” with regard to the economy. But only to get walloped by Stockman’s astute insight into the weakness of China’s position in relation to the U.S. Which exposes another of Trump’s painfully misguided assessments of the world order.

For a bona fide acolyte of St. Reagan to rip apart a Trump/Fox News narrative like that, it can only bode ill for Fox’s efforts to keep the Deplorables in line ideologically. They must be having hemorrhages trying to reconcile these notions and decide whether to believe the Reagan guy or the stuttering Fox News host. Now that’s entertainment.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Dazed and Confused: Trump Warns that Democrats Will ‘Obliterate ObamaCare’ in Deranged Rant

Posted by on November 6, 2018 at 2:37 pm. 3 Comments :

Well, it is literally impossible to ignore any longer. The evidence is just too convincing and voluminous. And anyone denying it is hopelessly engulfed in a severe case of cult worship. The unarguable truth is that Donald Trump is suffering from acute senile dementia. And the latest proof came on Monday night as he closed out his midterm campaign tour.

Donald Trump

At the last of his cult rallies (thirty-nine in total), Trump sought to make his closing arguments for preserving the Republican Nationalist Party’s congressional majorities. And diverting briefly from his primary theme of racist hatred for immigrant refugees, he tried to persuade his Deplorables that voting for Democrats would be a bad idea – as if they ever considered doing so. But Trump’s remarks, as usual, were steeped in ignorance and a hefty measure of confusion. He blabbered that:

“If Democrats gain power on Tuesday, one of their very first projects will be a socialist takeover of American healthcare. You know what’s happening. And your taxes are gonna triple, maybe quadruple. You’re not gonna be happy. I know you well. The Democrat plan would obliterate Obamacare. It will also – which is good – but leave the bad parts behind. It will destroy Medicare. And by the way, if you notice we got rid of the individual mandate in ObamaCare.”

There is so much wrong with that that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with the fact that there is no Democratic plan for a “socialist takeover of American healthcare.” At least not any more socialist than the one that is already the most popular government program in American history: Medicare.

Then Trump acknowledges the blind obedience of his glassy-eyed cult followers by noting that he knows what will make them happy, like the authoritarian parent who orders his children to shut up because he knows what’s best for them.

However, the most ludicrous part of that comment was Trump’s assertion that Democrats are plotting to “obliterate Obamacare,” the program that they created and passed through Congress without a single Republican vote. Trump belatedly caught himself almost complaining about the end of ObamaCare. Then, realizing that his disciples might revolt at the thought of defending it, Trump stumbled into a painfully awkward walkback, saying that ending the successful program would be a good thing.

It is Republicans that have been threatening the repeal of ObamaCare for years, even voting dozens of times to do so. Trump himself has been purposefully trying to sabotage it ever since he took office. He even proclaimed proudly (and falsely) that he had “essentially repealed Obamacare“ by foolishly doing away with the individual mandate. And later in his incoherent rant he promised his sheeple that “You’re gonna have great, great advantages with healthcare when you see what we’re doing.” Of course, no one has seen anything that either Trump or the GOP is doing because they have no friggin’ clue what to do.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

For Trump to pretend that it’s the Democrats that will end ObamaCare is just plain bonkers. And to offer that as a reason to vote against them, when it’s what his true believers crave, just makes it worse. Trump is now entirely unfettered by any shreds of sanity. Fortunately for him, his base is just as mentally deficient as he is and they won’t notice that anything is wrong. It’s a perverse cycle that rewards his psychological devolution with ever louder applause from the deluded and devoted zealots who have made him their cartoon idol.

A Tweet For Everything: What Trump Said About the Stock Market Just Six Months Ago

Posted by on June 25, 2018 at 3:53 pm. 1 Comments :

The current President of the United States has shown repeatedly that he is an unstable and ill-informed custodian of the nation’s resources. Donald Trump has a tenuous grip on the complexities of economics, and reacts out of panic and vengeance more than careful study and reason. As a result the country has been burdened with policies that work against the interests of its citizens.

Donald Trump, Stock Market

About six months ago Trump joined with the Republican Congress to pass a tax reform bill that was widely criticized as a giveaway to the wealthy that would balloon the national debt by trillions of dollars. Trump celebrated the legislative victory at a White House ceremony where he reduced it to flagrantly personal terms saying that “It’s always a lot of fun when you win.” It didn’t get a single vote from Democrats.

Republicans, however, were swelling with pride, despite the unfavorable public response shown in most polls. The Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said confidently that “When people see their paychecks getting bigger in February […] that’s going to change its popularity, I am convinced.” The GOP Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, gloated that “My view of this is, if we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work.”

I hope he’s dusted off his resume, because the latest polling shows that the Trump Tax Scam is less popular now than ever. It currently has about thirty-four percent approval from the American people. Which isn’t surprising considering the fact that it was crafted to benefit corporations and the rich. Which makes this Trump tweet from December 14, 2017, all the more ironic and sad:

Well, that rosy scenario has wilted. Trump told reporters when the bill passed that “the results will speak for themselves.” Six months later it’s clear that his prediction is true, in the worst possible way. Workers have not received the benefits they were promised. Businesses are taking their profits and putting them into stock buybacks that benefit the executives. Harley Davidson announced today that is the latest company to be moving some of their operations (and jobs) out of the country.

On top of that, the stock market suffered a serious decline on Monday with the Dow Jones down 328 points (1.33%), and the Nasdaq down 160 points (2.09%). The market is negative by almost two percent year-to-date, and is down over 500 points since the tax bill was signed. Even more troubling is that it is off about 2,300 points from its high in January. You don’t hear Trump talking about any of that.

Short term movement in the market is never a good indicator of trends over time. But Trump’s boasting about the market’s performance has blown up in his face because he doesn’t understand it in even the simplest terms. And the trading in the wake of the tax bill, Trump’s punitive tariffs, and associated red flags in bonds and overseas markets are telling us a cautionary tale. At some point the markets are going to reverse course, as they always do, and it may come sooner rather than later. But Trump’s mismanagement of the economy has left us with few and/or weak tools with which to respond. The smart money is taking protective measures, and so should we all.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Threatens to ‘Take Away Credentials’ of Media that Doesn’t Slobber Him with Praise

Posted by on May 9, 2018 at 11:21 am. 4 Comments :

Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual World Press Freedom Index. The most recent study reported that the United States fell to 45th place, a new low. Much of that decline was attributed explicitly to Donald Trump, whose open hostility to the media has been a core component of his presidency.

Donald Trump

Continuing to push forward with his aggressively anti-First Amendment agenda, Trump took to his official presidential policy platform – Twitter – and posted a comment that is a further demonstration of just how extreme his hatred of the free press is. This tweet should frighten all Americans who value constitutional principles and the indispensable role the press plays in democracy:

There is so much wrong with that tweet that it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, the economy has been expanding for nearly ten years, and that expansion began near the beginning of President Obama’s first term. Contrary to Trump’s claim, for which he provides no factual support, the economy has largely stalled as of late. The Dow Jones is down year-to-date. And Trump has been undeservedly taking credit for an economy whose performance has trailed that of Obama’s.

Secondly, Trump is actually admitting that, in his view, any media that is negative is therefore fake. It isn’t surprising to learn that he feels that way, but it’s a little surprising that he says so publicly.

Third, Trump’s reference to network news being ninety-one percent negative about him was likely taken from Sean Hannity’s program last night. Hannity reported that statistic based on a dubious study by the ultra-rightist media watchdogs at NewsBusters. And he wrapped the biased data in the same package as Trump, fretting about his negative coverage despite the utopia he’s supposedly presiding over. This is another example of Hannity serving as a close advisor to this fumbling president (video below):

Hannity: “President Trump’s poll numbers, they’re rising. This despite a Newsbusters study showed that newtwork news broadcasts in this country featured negative stories about the President 90% of the time. Wow. And I told you journalism is dead.”

Notice the similarities between Hannity’s commentary and Trump’s tweet. But the most troubling part of Trump’s tweet is his threat to revoke press credentials for any media that fails to exalt the Dear Leader. Trump has long pined for a submissive press corps that only celebrates his every word and deed. This isn’t the first (or twentieth) time that Trump has attempted to punish the press by banishing them from the White House or worse, challenge their licenses. Last October he explicitly tweeted that threat saying:

The fact that Trump repeatedly takes this censorious position is evidence that it isn’t just an offhand remark that he doesn’t mean literally. He is deadly serious about his intention to gag any media that dares to criticize him. And in advance of that he has been avoiding any independent media for most of the last year. He’s only held one solo news conference (February 2017, just after the inauguration) during his entire presidency. And he hasn’t given an interview to a non-friendly (i.e. Fox News) outlet in the past year. What’s he afraid of?

The World Press Freedom study noticed these disturbing trends for American journalism. They addressed them specifically in their report as reasons for downgrading the U.S. position:

“In 2017, the 45th President of the United States helped sink the country to 45th place by labeling the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, attempts to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routine use of the term ‘fake news’ in retaliation for critical reporting, and calling for media outlets’ broadcasting licenses to be revoked.”

The American people need to be alert with regard to the threat that Trump represents to the freedom of the press and the sustainability of democracy. These are not idle threats made as political rhetoric. They are dangerous challenges made by a wannabe dictator who truly believes he has the right to muzzle the media and mislead the people. We the people cannot let that happen.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

It’s Tax Day and Donald Trump is Tweeting Up a Storm to Celebrate, But…

Posted by on April 17, 2018 at 11:12 am. NO Comments :

Never one to care anything about facts or truthful dialogue, Donald Trump is attacking the arrival of Tax Day with a celebratory zeal that is entirely out of whack with reality. So what else is new?

Donald Trump

Trump’s day always begins with his most pressing presidential duty: post nonsense and/or rage on Twitter. This Tuesday morning is no different. So here is what the Tweeter-in-Chief is obsessing over while waiting for his tee time in Palm Beach:

Indeed, everybody is talking. Unfortunately for Trump, they are mostly saying that his tax scam bill isn’t helping to do anything but blow up the federal deficit. A poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal show that a pitiful twenty-seven percent think Trump’s tax bill is a good idea. Another poll by Gallup puts those who disapprove in the majority at fifty-two percent. And an analysis by Bloomberg shows that Republicans are going to find it difficult to run on the tax issue in the 2018 midterms.

So happy tax day everybody. We may have a bill that is only benefiting the wealthy, but it is also likely to throw the members of Congress who forced it on us out on their asses.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump’s Ignorance of Wall Street Would Be Hilarious if it Weren’t So Dangerous

Posted by on March 27, 2018 at 7:39 pm. 1 Comments :

The topics Donald Trump takes up on Twitter almost always fall into one of two categories. Either he is lashing out at a perceived enemy (fake news, Alec Baldwin, etc), or he is exalting himself for something for which he doesn’t deserve any credit. The patterns are predictable and invariably involve childish outbursts.

Donald Trump

One of the most frequent subjects of his self-praise involves the performance of the stock market. He likes to point it out whenever it goes up and baselessly attribute that activity to his unique awesomeness. And for some reason, he never mentions it when it goes down. News Corpse noted this peculiarity back in January, which was the last time that Trump tweeted about an up day in the market. He’s been uncharacteristically quiet on this subject until yesterday. The article warned that Trump’s bragging would come back to “Bite Him in His Sh*thole Country” and said in part that…

“It’s always dangerous to rely on stock market performance to validate the economy. There are too many factors that can shift investor sentiment. It is a fluid indicator that could reverse course tomorrow. Indeed, many stock analysts regard the market’s current position as overvalued. These analysts are predicting a ‘correction’ that could send the markets down significantly.”

Apparently Trump failed to heed my warning. Yesterday he posted a tweet congratulating himself again on a big market gain. He’s Replying to a CNBC tweet that notes “Dow posts third best one-day point gain ever.”

Indeed the market soared 669 points on Monday. What Trump failed to mention was that on Thursday it dropped 725 points, and went down another 424 points on Friday. That’s a total of 1,149 points. So Monday’s gain didn’t come close to making up last week’s losses. And to make matters worse, the market took another dive today of 344 points. So the market is still down 824 points since Thursday. In fact, it’s down 2,759 points in the past thirty days, which puts it deep in “correction” territory.

The most often cited cause for this recent decline is Trump’s ill-considered and reckless declaration of a trade war with Asia and Europe. And his recent tax scam legislation that gave corporations and the wealthy big tax cuts and exploded the national debt by over a trillion dollars didn’t help matters either. Knowledgeable analysts recognize that Trump and the Republican Congress are squarely to blame for our current state of economic crisis.

The actual damage that Trump does is only one part of what makes him so dangerous. His insistence on lying about his failures afterward congeals the whole mess into a spreading catastrophe. The dimwitted disciples who can never find fault with Trump will believe whatever he tells them to believe. Consequently, they have no idea of where the market is now or what reasonable steps should be taken to mitigate any further harm to the American families who rely on their investment earnings for current or future needs. And the GOP Congress and Trump have shown clearly that they couldn’t care less. But then, we already knew that.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s Lawyer Tries to Deflect Crimes with Desperate and Obviously False Attacks on the Media

Posted by on March 10, 2018 at 2:21 pm. 4 Comments :

The Stormy Daniels affair is turning into one of the most persistent scandals of Donald Trump’s presidency. And given the sheer volume of scandals, that’s really saying something. It doesn’t help that this incident involves Trump’s own personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 in hush money to keep Trump’s infidelity out of the news. Cohen is a long-time Trump toady who can always be relied on to prop up his pal, no matter how repulsive his behavior.

Michael Cohen

Having made himself the subject of the Stormy affair by asserting that he paid her from his own funds, Cohen is now as much an accomplice as he is an attorney. And his story that he ponied up the cash out of the kindness of his heart is falling apart. Consequently, he is adopting the tactics of his boss in order to deflect attention from his own potential criminal liability. On Saturday morning he tweeted this:

Cohen has somehow gotten the impression that the media is obsessed with his email account. In fact, they are just being responsible journalists by reporting that his contacts with Stormy were made using his Trump Organization email address. That’s relevant due to his prior insistence that the arrangements he made with Stormy had nothing to do with Trump and Trump knew nothing about them. By the way, that would be a violation of the New York Bar Association’s standards of conduct. An attorney may not take actions on behalf of a client without full disclosure and permission.

Having no other defense, Cohen is resorting to attacking the media on a completely different topic. And, much like Trump, his attack is rooted in deliberate falsification of reality. Cohen saying that he didn’t see reporting about the jobs numbers anywhere except for Fox News is really just a confession that he doesn’t watch anything but Fox News. Every other major news organization reported these numbers, as they do every time they are released. Just a few obvious examples:

So Cohen didn’t see or hear any of this? Is he blind and deaf? Or is he just a lying, propaganda sewer who parrots the anti-media bullshit of Donald Trump? If nothing else, he’s exposing his fear about the legal walls that are closing in around him. This painfully desperate tweet is evidence of his knowledge that he and his favorite client are going down fast. And there’s nothing he an do about it.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The Trump Stock Market Meltdown: Make No Mistake, This is Trump’s Fault

Posted by on February 5, 2018 at 1:39 pm. 2 Comments :

The Stock Market closed down today by more than 1,100 points. That would make it almost 2,000 points lower in the last three days. This is the worst decline in over two years. And it totally belongs to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

For the past year Trump has been bragging about the performance of the stock market and taking credit for its rise. That was a pretty stupid thing to do given the vast array of influences on the market and its volatility. Particularly when we have been stretching out the second longest bull market in history.

Three weeks ago, while stocks were still rising, I wrote an article warning that Trump’s bragging would come back to “Bite Him in His Sh*thole Country.” The article said in part that…

“It’s always dangerous to rely on stock market performance to validate the economy. There are too many factors that can shift investor sentiment. It is a fluid indicator that could reverse course tomorrow. Indeed, many stock analysts regard the market’s current position as overvalued. These analysts are predicting a ‘correction’ that could send the markets down significantly.”

But Trump continued to boast about numbers that he obviously knows nothing about. And now the market is trending lower as if to mock the President’s arrogance. But it needs to be noted that there are tangible reasons why Trump is to blame for this sell off. Many economists are citing something that Trump regards as one of his greatest (only?) accomplishments. And even Trump himself raised it during his speech in Ohio today. When he wasn’t accusing Democrats of “treason” for not applauding him at the State of the Union address, he said this:

The tax cuts that Trump was obsessed with were never a good idea. Their benefits were heavily slanted toward corporations and the wealthy. But they were also an unnecessary stimulus to an economy that was already overheated. That was all that Wall Street needed to justify dumping stocks whose valuations were out of sync with reality. His tax bill also produced new debt in excess of $1.5 trillion. That makes investors nervous about rising inflation and interest rates.

Finally, when an economic stimulus is used at a time when it isn’t needed, that means that it won’t be available in the future when it might actually be useful. So investors are looking forward to a future market correction, or even a bear market, and the government will have no tools to respond or mitigate the damage. Therefore, many are getting out now and moving their assets into safer investments or cash. And none of this would be happening were it not for the greed and ignorance of Donald Trump and his allies in Congress.

Trump’s relentless bragging about the market when it was up presents an interesting problem for him. Who will he blame for the decline? He got exactly what he wanted with the tax bill, which received no Democratic votes. There is no one other than himself to which this can be attributed. Of course, that won’t stop him from inventing some culprit to point his bony fingers at. His narcissism is all-consuming and his GOP supporters still seem unwilling to put their country above their noxious party. So be prepared for more scapegoating as Trump continues to panic and his fear drives him further into desperation.

UPDATE: And that didn’t take long. Sean Hannity is blaming Obama for the Trump Meltdown.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.