The Republican Trump regime has come out with its first economic policy
paper. Democrat Larry Summers call this “voodoo
economics” . This is very funny on multiple levels.
Many would argue that it was the Clinton regime (with Larry Summers in
charge of economic policy) which began the transformation of the U.S. economy
from what was still a relatively strong and prosperous entity into the
hopelessly crippled, financial
Ponzi-scheme which it has become today. It was during the Clinton years,
with a Democrat at the helm of the U.S. economy that the Wall Street crime
syndicate was fully unleashed upon the U.S. – and the world – through tearing
up the Glass-Steagall Act (1933).
Not only did that crime against humanity mark the beginning of the worst financial
crime spree in the history of humanity (X 100), it also marked the
beginning of the financial cannibalization of the U.S. economy, not just by
the criminal banks, but by the all of the mega-corporations owned by Western
oligarchs . It was during the Clinton years that the U.S. government
concluded its most significant “free trade” deals.
These corrupt agreements were stacked so heavily in favor of the interests
of these large corporations that the populations of all parties to
these trade agreements lost. The United States lost jobs, mostly well-paying
manufacturing jobs. Roughly 50 million Americans are permanently unemployed
today, no longer even counted by the government’s fraudulent “unemployment
statistics”. A large chunk of that total was created during the Clinton
years.
The trading partners of the United States who were the recipients of all
this exported manufacturing also lost. Their corrupt governments allowed the
mega-corporations exploiting those nations to pay slave-wages to their
workers, while contributing little-to-no tax revenues to those economies.
Lose/lose.
The only significant exception to this “free trade” carousel of misery was
China. China’s government played the game with Western mega-corporations, but
on terms which allowed the Chinese people to significantly improve their
standard of living, and with China’s government able to leverage this
increased economic activity to the point of transforming itself into a global
powerhouse – the new “growth engine” of the global economy.
The economic bubbles which ended up imploding during the reign of error of
George Bush Jr. were all germinated during the Clinton years, with Larry
Summers spreading most of the economic fertilizer, personally. What are Larry
Summers credentials for criticizing the Trump regime today? What has he done after
all the damage he did to the U.S. economy?
He spent part of that time as president of Harvard University, where his
principal “accomplishment” was managing to incur a $1 billion loss for the
university, in financing just $2 billion of debt. Of course that was just
part of the losses he racked up while mismanaging Harvard. Altogether, Larry
Summers was a $1.8
billion mistake during his short tenure as Harvard’s president. Today,
Larry Summers is a Harvard professor – teaching courses in how not to
run a university.
But we would be remiss in not giving Republicans their share of “credit”
for transforming the U.S. from an economic juggernaut into a bankrupt
deadbeat, which only manages to stay afloat by using $trillions in counterfeit
money to buy its own worthless bonds.
Who can forget the “Reagan miracle”? Right-wing zealots still get wet
dreams thinking about the Reagan years. Yes. Through the magic of “Reaganomics”,
the world’s strongest economy managed to triple its national debt – in
just eight years. Not even Larry Summers could have done that.
After Reagan the Republican drowned the U.S. in debt, and after Clinton
the Democrat gutted the U.S. manufacturing base came George Bush Jr.: someone
who managed to combine the mismanagement and incompetence of the
Reagan and Clinton regimes. Like Ronald Reagan the “fiscal conservative”,
George Bush Jr. also managed to triple the U.S. national debt (again) in just
eight years. Like Bill Clinton, he also gave away million and millions of
U.S. jobs through more, phony “free trade” deals. Standing next to George
Bush Jr., Larry Summers actually looks like the “economic genius” he claims
to be.
Of course after eight years of Barack Obama, the knuckle-draggers who
still vote Republican will be foaming at the mouth by now. Where is the
condemnation of Obamacare (which as any good Republican can tell you “killed
the U.S. economy”)? The response to such accusations is to point out the
obvious: you can’t kill something which is already dead.
Regular readers are familiar with the chart above. The velocity of money
roughly translates into the “heartbeat” of an economy. What this chart
clearly shows is that the U.S. economy was already several years into its
present death-spiral before Barack Obama ever took his Oath of Office.
Barack Obama is a slick con-man who has spent the last eight years duping
the world into believing that the deceased U.S. economy is still alive. Using
Wall Street’s (and the Fed’s) counterfeit funny-money to pretend to
pay the U.S.’s bills, this Zombie Economy lurches from year to year without
any visible means of support to finance its extravagant spending – mostly on
hand-outs to the Rich and funding the war crimes of the U.S. military.
…and then came Trump.
Ronald Reagan was an actor pretending to be a president. Bill Clinton,
like Obama, was a sleazy con-man who convinced the world that the “voodoo
economics” (perpetrated by Larry Summers) was an economic miracle. Using the
most fraudulent accounting, he pretended that the U.S. economy was actually
in a budget surplus. George Bush Jr. was a buffoon of such epic proportions
that he made the U.S.’s population nostalgic for the incompetence and
corruption of Reagan and Clinton.
Then we have Trump. The Donald is someone who possesses no more intellect
than Junior, and even less qualifications to be president. Junior
actually had political experience before being parachuted into the White
House by his oligarch masters. Junior mismanaged the state of Texas as its
governor before he mismanaged the United States as its president.
Trump is also a buffoon, but without any political experience. His claim
to fame is being in the right place, at the right time, and getting lucky
in the real estate market – with his wealth providing him with a media
platform from which to shoot off his mouth. How do we know that Trump got
lucky making his original fortune in real estate?
The six times he has filed for bankruptcy since then are a pretty good
clue. The only reason Trump hasn’t already lost every penny of his wealth
(and then some) is because of the high-priced lawyers in his employ – and a
legal system designed to make it virtually impossible for the very, very Rich
to lose their ill-gotten gains.
Is there any possibility that Donald Trump and the economic pretenders
with whom he surrounds himself could craft a sensible, competent economic
plan which would “restore
greatness” to the United States? Absolutely not. Even History’s greatest
economic mastermind couldn’t breathe life into this corrupt, bloated,
bankrupt corpse. The only rational economic policy for the United States (and
most of the Western world) is a declaration of bankruptcy – followed by a Debt
Jubilee for everyone. Free
the slaves .
Wiping away all the $trillions in fraudulent debts which the oligarchs
hold over us (and then electing some honest, responsible governments) is the
only hope for the U.S. and the rest of the West. Barack Obama knew this, and
deserves some measure of credit for managing to hide this from most of
humanity for eight years.
The witless Trump undoubtedly has no idea at all that the United States is
bankrupt, and its economy in total ruin. Trump actually believes his
bombastic rhetoric and vacuous promises. His economic platform is
“voodoo economics” – just like the economic platforms of Obama and Bush and
Clinton and Reagan before him.
The great irony (and humor) here is that it took the election of Donald
Trump to provide Larry Summers with his first opportunity to be right
about something he said about the U.S. economy. It would give us all a good
laugh, if it weren’t so tragic.
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Jeff Nielson is co-founder and managing partner of Bullion Bulls
Canada; a website which provides precious metals commentary, economic
analysis, and mining information to readers and investors. Jeff originally
came to the precious metals sector as an investor around the middle of last
decade, but with a background in economics and law, he soon decided this
was where he wanted to make the focus of his career. His website is www.bullionbullscanada.com.
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The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author
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