Trump and his minions believe they have a mandate to completely dismantle the American economy. I guess it’s because the “vibes” over egg prices were so bad? Really?
President Trump believes it’s worth risking pain to achieve his medium-term goal of rewiring the U.S. economy. He is attempting a form of economic shock therapy, while accepting there could be collateral damage.
That willingness to shrug off risks of inflation or recession is now rattling financial markets and confidence — and has itself emerged as the biggest near-term economic risk.
The administration has embraced that the economic disruption it envisions could be painful.
Not painful for them of course. Trump’s cabinet is full of billionaires.
Axios says this means that there will be no Washington cavalry coming to save us. I kind of doubt anyone believes that anyway.
Trump is seeking to rapidly undo a global economic order that has been decades in the making. Americans enjoyed the fruits of cheap goods made around the world, at the cost of a diminished domestic manufacturing base.
He envisions an economy with many fewer bureaucratic paper-pushers and much more factory work.
He seeks to bring down the deficit while keeping taxes low — which only pencils out if there are major cuts to America’s social welfare programs.
Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent says we’ve become “addicted to government spending and there’s going to be a detox period.” Ok.
Axios does point out that the American economy was in good shape with a 4% unemployment rate and a .5% inflation rate in 2024. In fact it was the envy of the world. But, you know, there were bad “vibes” about something which the media pumped like we were in the Great Depression and Trump ended up eking out a palty victory last November,
The Trump team rejects that view completely, arguing that Biden handed over an economy so terrible that it demands a wholesale rebuild. “Biden left him a pile of poop,” as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put it on Bloomberg TV last week.
They say the numbers were “illusory” and that the economy is in such terrible shape that it requires a massive intervention. (You can believe me or you can believe our lying eyes.)
And anyway, they don’t care:
Administration officials are increasingly acknowledging the potential costs of the adjustment.
If trade wars mean U.S. farmers get shut out of foreign markets they’ve spent decades building, well, there “may be a little bit of an adjustment period” as Trump said this in this week’s Congressional address.
What if the stock market drops, hitting Americans’ retirement accounts? “I’m not even looking at the market, because long term the United States will be very strong,” Trump said this week.
Axios notes that economic change is often painful. (Ya think?)
Americans who voted for Trump seeking a return to the low-inflation, steady-eddy conditions that prevailed in 2019 may be in for a rude awakening. But the president and his advisers believe they have a mandate for big-time change, whatever the costs.
I’d like to give a shout-out to everyone in the media who pumped the “eggs” inflation story like it was Pearl Harbor in the run-up to the 2024 election. They seemed determined to punish the old man and his Black lady successor for the fact that they didn’t entertain them enough setting the stage for this completely unnecessary, counterproductive “shock therapy.” Thanks a lot.