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Trump's Second Term

TragicMonkey said:
I don't know whether it's a good sign or bad that all my bonds are held by a thing called "Vanguard"!
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"Vanguard" is just a front for the "Varangian Guard," the Byzantine Empire version of the Roman Praetorian Guard. Your bonds are held in a deep, dark, dank secret dungeon from which they will never emerge alive!
 
LiteBright said:
While this might sound silly like trump might try to bomb the bond market, there is a terrifying prospect behind this admission. I'm reminded of Thomas Friedman's very honest adage "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist". It is seldom said out loud but it is a brutal reality.

The US economy and its massive borrowing has always been underpinned by the world's mightiest military. The country owes so much money it could never hope to pay it back but that's never the point. Seriously, who is going to enforce debt obligations on the united states of america? No one, that's who. A country can own US debt but they will soon find out, if they don't know already, they're not allowed to sell it.

America will do it the nice way first, propping up the currency like they did with JPY this week (including Bessent's hilariously obvious "to-do" list leak). They will likely have to do it again. The message is clear...if your economy is in trouble, america will provide a little help to prop it up but you will not sell your US debt. If those measures don't work, the coersions will get stronger and stronger with the ultimate backstop being a nuclear armed US military that is ready to threaten anyone they need to.

Maybe this was just a stupid, offhand comment but I think we should be very, very afraid when a US president starts talking about using the us military to prop up the economy. As this administrations disastrous economic decisions start to come home to roost (ie the markets are not being propped up by unsustainable investments by AI hyperscalers) this could become a very real possibility. We are in uncharted territory here.
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The proposed military budget of the US next year is $1.5 trillion, this taking account of inflation is greater than at any time during WW2.

We do see that Trump believes the military should be for profit. As we see in Venezuela, as he proposes for Hormuz, even Gaza. As he hopes it will be in Greenland.
 
Blame Canada. Actually I wouldn't mind being the 11th province, at least until Trump's out of office.


Donald Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!! They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!! President DJT
 
Funnily enough, the EU had a similar problem with Switzerland being closely integrated into the economic block without being part of it.
It, unlike the US with Canada, managed to force Switzerland to adopt all its trade rules and regulations.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
Funnily enough, the EU had a similar problem with Switzerland being closely integrated into the economic block without being part of it.
It, unlike the US with Canada, managed to force Switzerland to adopt all its trade rules and regulations.
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The EU never forced Switzerland to adopt its rules and regulations. They did not threaten tariffs or a trade war. The just convinced the people of switzerland that it was better to be part of a common market than not. Trade deals don't need to be bellicose, they don't need to have a winner and a loser. The best trade deals leave (nearly) everyone better off.
 
Planigale said:
The EU never forced Switzerland to adopt its rules and regulations. They did not threaten tariffs or a trade war. The just convinced the people of switzerland that it was better to be part of a common market than not. Trade deals don't need to be bellicose, they don't need to have a winner and a loser. The best trade deals leave (nearly) everyone better off.
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I think that's one of the basic tenets of capitalism and the free market, isn't it that republicans support. Everybody wins. Countries can try to scam the system like China has done but everyone has still benefitted from cheap prices for lots of goods.
 
Yet again the Trump executive acts illegally.
A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s pause on issuing visas to immigrants from 75 countries on Friday.
In a 61-page decision, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas found that this policy was “contrary to law” and was “in excess” of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s legal authority.
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“Through the Policy, Secretary Rubio nonetheless overrides consular discretion and decision-making and dictates whether immigrant visas shall be granted or denied,” the judge wrote. “The Policy is thus patently unlawful and must be vacated under the [Administrative Procedure Act].”
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My guess is this will go to SCOTUS as another test of the balance of power between the legislature and the executive.
 
Anti French (and EU?) prejudice was part of the cause for the failure of the US / Canada talks.
The prime minister revealed that the U.S. had issues with Canada's subsidies for French culture; the prevalence of French-language media online and even the requirement to have bilingual labels on products sold in Canada.

"It was unacceptable right from the start, but the Americans kept trying and trying and we said no," Carney said. "Ultimately it's simple. That was never on the table for Canada and it would not have been acceptable to Canadians."
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"The U.S. introduced, in the last hours, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals," Carney said. "Because we believe in free trade, we're the partner of choice, in many respects, for countries around the world, and Americans wanted to restrict that, they had language to restrict that. Unacceptable."
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There is other stuff, like "the US signature is written in pencil".
 
Planigale said:
The proposed military budget of the US next year is $1.5 trillion, this taking account of inflation is greater than at any time during WW2.
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Just as an aside, do you have a reference for that?

The US committed thirty-something percent of GDP to wartime production. It's three-point-something percent now (of a much bigger economy of course).
 
Trump has given himself a new title;
"Now, as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred. The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible," Trump said.
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I realise the source is an anti-American propaganda site that the US government has tried to close down, but some of what it reports may be true.
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to seek accountability for those who pursued legal cases against him when he was out of office, speaking Friday at the Justice Department.
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Representative Jamie Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Trump’s speech a "staggering violation of [the] traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement and presidential political power."
Speaking outside Justice shortly after Trump spoke, Raskin said, "No other president in American history has stood at the Department of Justice to proclaim an agenda of criminal prosecution and retaliation against his political foes."
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www.voanews.com

Trump vows accountability for those who pursued him in court cases

Says American people gave him mandate for demand
www.voanews.com www.voanews.com
ETA Old news i know but I was struck by the new title.
 
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The Great Zaganza said:
Funnily enough, the EU had a similar problem with Switzerland being closely integrated into the economic block without being part of it.
It, unlike the US with Canada, managed to force Switzerland to adopt all its trade rules and regulations.
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No the Switzerland situation is very different. The Swiss wanted most of the benefits of what the wider EFTA was getting without any of the obligations and was told if they kept pushing that line, all deals with the EU were kaput.
 
a_unique_person said:
I think that's one of the basic tenets of capitalism and the free market, isn't it that republicans support. Everybody wins. Countries can try to scam the system like China has done but everyone has still benefitted from cheap prices for lots of goods.
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Not quite. That's just not a tenet of capitalism, much less of what Republican politicians support, though they're happy to try to use it as justification.

There are multiple forms of capitalism, after all. Well regulated capitalism, Keynesian capitalism being probably the most well known, is closer to ending up with everyone winning, yes. That is an effect and selling point, though, rather than a tenet. What Republican politicians support is largely laissez-faire capitalism, though. That's a much more vicious form that happily screws people over en masse. Any "everybody wins" spin is a thin propaganda spin facade.

As a general rule, capitalism's fundamental effect is to concentrate wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands. Benefits to the masses are incidental and far more than counterbalanced by their loss of power and how much the masses are exploited (and discarded when such is deemed more profitable). Rather than everyone winning, capitalism will effectively destroy civilization and enslave virtually all the survivors if left unchecked. It's only when the government regulates capitalism well and counterbalances it with socialist programs to keep the masses happy, healthy, and still powerful that "everyone wins. " Given that Republicans have long been working to cripple that government side, they deserve no credit at all for the "everyone wins" part. Oh, and before the easy knee jerk response about Democrats? No, they really have not been working to cripple the capitalist side at all.
 
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