The Man Who Would Be Great

The election nears, and our erstwhile president constantly reminds us that we must vote Republican if we want him to continue making America great.  I certainly want America to be great, so it seemed a good idea to organize my thoughts on the great man’s leadership in the endeavor to make it so.  Three headings suggest themselves:  the economy, foreign policy, and culture.

The Economy:  How really, really rich can the really rich get?

          It never hurts to begin with a bit of historical context.  Although Trump likes to bray about how he has gotten the US economy back on track, the fact is that it was booming under Obama.  The DJIA on January 1, 2009, the day Obama took office, was 7949.09.  By the time Trump took office, it had risen to 19,827.25, an increase of nearly 150%.  Perhaps Trump’s election gave the market a big boost.  Even so, the DJIA on November 7, 2016, the day before Trump was elected, was 18259.60, an increase of nearly 130%.  

          The GOP had wanted to deregulate the financial sector since Reagan, and Clinton finally helped them accomplish this.  Under Bush II the financial sector ran amok, leading to the 2008 financial collapse.  The economy was a mess when Obama took office.  During his administration, corporate profits reached unprecedented levels and job growth was continuous month-to-month for more than six years.  (When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 94 consecutive months of job growth, the Trump administration touted this as evidence of its economic success, even though Trump had been in office less than 18 months.)

          By all these standards—stock values, job growth, and corporate profits—the economy flourished under Obama.  And, of course, Trump’s election ensured that the GOP would get another big tax cut.  The prospect of all this cash made the rich positively wet between the thighs and, combined with the easy money policies of the Fed, sent them on a buying spree whose consequences are not yet clear.  

          Trump and the GOP claim $23 billion in savings from deregulation; this figure is controversial, but I have no doubt that the corporate sector will reap substantial savings from “deregulation,” since this is often just a euphemism for allowing corporations to outsource their costs while retaining their profits.  Trump’s evisceration of the EPA is a suitable example.   The pollution of the air, land, and water will continue to have costs—cleanup, remediation, medical care.  But if corporations are held to lower standards, or no standards at all, these costs will increasingly fall on the citizenry.  

          And, of course, there is Trump’s nasty little trade war.  That seems to be a losing proposition, as our trade deficit with China grows.  It is clear that Trump doesn’t understand trade.  The reason that we have trade deficits with countries like China is that we are richer than they are and, thus, can afford to buy more of their stuff than they can of ours.  And part of the reason we are richer is that our strong economy is a desirable asset, leading to an Investment surplus.  Countries send the money we spend to buy their products back to us in the form of investments.  So…when Trump says we need to get rid of trade deficits, he is saying that we must make the US a less desirable place to invest and thereby render ourselves poorer.

          And, in typical Republican fashion, Trump is running up huge deficits and inflating the public debt.  The GOP used to chide the Democrats for being the party of “tax and spend.”  Now the GOP has become the party of borrow and spend.

          But one thing remains constant under Trump:  inequality between the very wealthy and everyone else continues to increase, as it has since 1980.  And wealth translates nicely into political power.  Which translates into wealth.  And so on and on.  

Part 2, some reflections on the great man’s foreign policy, will be up tomorrow.  Meanwhile, dig this reflection on the state of our culture.