What Exactly Is The Trump Fix For The Economy? - by Jim Hightower

[DonViejo]

In Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, it was his frequent, unbridled slaps at Wall Street elites and arrogant, job-busting corporate executives that gave him the “populistic” patina he needed to win. But wait a minute: Who are those guys escorting The Donald into the Oval Office?

Oh, my God, they’re Wall Street elites and arrogant corporate executives! Trump campaigned on the theme of remaking Washington by “draining the swamp” of pay-to-play corporate favoritism and cronyism. But those swamp critters are the very ones who are buying favors from the president-to-be by putting up tens of millions of dollars to pay for his inaugural extravaganza and his transition operation.

The transition team itself, which is literally shaping and staffing our next national government, is a viper’s nest of pay-to-play corporate interests. The teams setting up the various agencies and writing their agendas are dominated by top operatives from anti-worker corporations and from the same Wall Streeters whose casino-style speculation crashed our economy in 2007 and crushed the middle class. Now they are on the inside, deciding who will fill more than 4,000 executive positions and run our government.

Some 850 of these corporate high rollers and lobbyists huddled with Trump early this month for a fundraiser at a posh Manhattan restaurant to pay for putting together his government — and theirs . The room was filled with moneyed elites, such as Paul Singer, the hedge-fund billionaire and extremist laissez-faire ideologue. These are not people who are going to finance any sort of working-class populism; they instead intend to use The Donald’s victory to impose a plutocracy over America.

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http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-fix-economy/

[LonePirate]

1. With a 3.5% GDP increase in Q3, does it need to be fixed?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-third-quarter-gdp-revised-up-to-3-5-gain-1482413502

[geomon666]

3. It will when they're done with it. n/t

[Caliman73]

5. Yes it does.

The way in which it needs to be fixed is that the benefits of that growth need to be distributed more equitably. Right now what we have are good indicators of growth that show that the infrastructure of the economy is decent. The problem in the last 30 years has been how the benefits of our fairly stable economy have been distributed to fewer and fewer people.

I don't think that it is enough to argue about the rates and growth because a lot of people are not seeing growth in their own incomes or economic stability. Also, a lot of people who have gone to school to get "better paying jobs" are still saddled with debt, which creates a precarious situation for them and stifles their purchasing power.

So bottom line... the economy is good but it is not working for everyone and that is the fundamental problem with our country for the last several decades.

Trump is not going to do anything to fix that. All indicators suggest that he is going to make income inequality substantially worse.

When you cut taxes, the economy actually picks up a bit, as it did with Reagan in the 80's. There will be nothing really behind the bump (as in the 80's) and eventually their will be a painful correction. The problem will be the same as in the 80's and again 2008 where people in the middle and working class won't see any growth, but the pressure to purchase will be high and creditors will swoop in again creating a massive debt bubble which will burst around Trump's 3rd or 4th year in office, unless the Fed steps in again.

The truth is that Republicans do not know how to run a national economy. Trump can't even run a decent business empire so we are not in good shape right now.

[LonePirate]

7. There were other factors besides tax cuts which caused an economic uptick in the 80s.

Namely significant interest rate cuts and a massive reduction in energy costs.

As for the current day, doing nothing will be better for the economy than whatever the Republicans plan to enact come January. It certainly won't be anything that addresses inequality.

[Caliman73]

8. Oh definitely.

My response was simplistic with regards to the uptick in the 80's.

[treestar]

2. Nothing

He's got nothing. He will leave it as is and wheel and deal to his benefit.

[gratuitous]

4. Trump's fix is easy to explain

Convert as much of the national treasury as possible to private use by a coterie of a select few. Slots are limited, so be sure to get your application in as soon as possible.

[BSdetect]

6. We need to hammer home his hypocracy re promises.

It ought to be obvious the those who voted for him but it will be shrouded in MSM crap.

I don't know how you can convince those people about anything real when they have already seem what he is like in his rallies.

We can only try.

[louis-t]

9. Nothing needs fixing, leave it the fuck alone.

Problem is, the ideology hasn't changed. They still think they have to muck it up. They will.