What started out as "drain the swamp" is looking more and more like a crew of alligators. I see more political veterans than political outsiders.
Yesterday, Trump chose Steve Mnuchin, a Goldman guy, as his Treasury secretary. He will be the third U.S. Treasury secretary from Goldman, following Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson. But Mnuchin is probably more Goldman than any of them. His father worked there. So did his brother. Mnuchin is as close to pure blood Goldman Sachs as you get.
Can he even see the problems in our monetary system? Can he even see that there's something fundamentally wrong with leaving interest rates unnaturally low, so perversely low that the lack of interest on savings is hurting people, or is he so tightly bound to the Goldman world that it's normal and natural for he and his friends to take free money and make profits while ordinary Americans suffer?
Can he see that decoupling the dollar from gold and turning it into a debt instrument is the root cause of so many of our problems; not the least of which is the 40 year stagnation of American wages?
It's not that long ago, just the end of August, when the media was all pearl clutching because a Trump advisor, Dr. Judy Shelton, had implied a return to a gold standard has merit. She advocated for issuing bonds that are convertible to gold. We had hopes this sort of view might spread in the Trump administration.
Instead, it looks like we're getting someone as far from that viewpoint as, well, as the Fed.gov ruling class are now. You might want to go long on defense stocks or on real estate in the DC corridor. It might be a good time to open a bar outside Alexandria, say, or some other sort of service business in the beltway area.
Although I'm obviously a little bummed by the apparent conventionality of this appointment, but I'll give the guy some slack to see what he wants to do. Maybe he's been disgruntled with the failed monetary and fiscal policy all these years and really isn't that bad himself.
Trump gets 6 months of slack from me, a year at the outside. If he fails to start draining the swamp, if he is not even attempting to keep his promises, I will oppose him more vigorously than I supported him. I'm sick of letting these people stay 8 years in the White House, letting America go to the dogs.
ReplyDeleteIt gets easier once you realize that there is no way out of the fiscal hole we are in. Social Security, Medicare, and the Interest on the debt already account for more than the FedGov takes in through taxes. This leaves nothing to pay for Defense, Courts, Welfare, or any other government program.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the only way out is to cut ALL spending by at least half. That just isn't going to happen. Anyone in government who mentions cutting Social Security or Medicare will have a political career measured in hours once the AARP finds out.
The only possible solution for a politician who wants to stay employed is to kick the can down the road. That means low interest rates, runaway spending, and all of the other things that will eventually destroy the economy. We are riding this all the way to the bottom.
You're saying, "life's so much simpler once you give up all hope?"
DeleteWe used to say that at work.
I know a guy who is in his 70's. He is what most people would consider "well off" with millions in the bank. He and his wife get every kind of "old age" federal aid they can.--- Trump is a NEOCON! His presidency is Bush the third (or more correctly Goldman VI as every president since 1980 has been in the CIA/ Goldman pocket) Getting Trump elected was The best PSYOP the CIA ever ran. Oh we'll get "change" alright, But the "right" won't like it.-----Ray
ReplyDeleteI guess this was no surprise, right? Mnuchin was Trump's Finance guy during the campaign and this is his reward.
ReplyDeleteTo be anyone in finance, you must work for Goldman. That seems to be an unwritten law. Goldman is how the Fed distributes its "printed money" too. If you don't have cred as a Goldman alum, you can't play with the big boys. At least, thats how I'm interpreting this.
Trump definitely fed the gators in that swamp when he was making his fortune. Can anyone drain it unless they work in and understand the swamp?
No matter what, I'm still delighted by the Trump win. No 24-7 about breaking that ceiling! No Madam President crap! No gushing by the media over Bill as First Man! And on and on and on. Even if Trump breaks bad, he saved us from Hillary.
That is the safest way of looking at it. I fear that TRump, even with the best of intentions, is going to take some bad advice from people wedded to DC "business as usual", and some of his picks will reflect that. BUT if he holds firm on some of them, like Mattis, and avoids the mistakes, like Betrayus, he might do very well.
DeleteIf he at least follows through on stopping the muslim invasion and the flood of illegals, he will have given the country four years of relief from the horror of a Clinton rape-fest of the American culture and economy. Not to mention small children. Those two pedophiles need to spend the rest of their sick lives as the victims instead of the perpetrators. And then die of either AIDS or tertiary syphilis.
"Can he see that decoupling the dollar from gold and turning it into a debt instrument is the root cause of so many of our problems;..."
ReplyDeleteYes of course he can! That was the point of the whole exercise.
Yeah, some of his choices are a bit, uhhh..."distressing", but I'll give him 9 months to a year slack, just to see how things are going....
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I have some hope that Trump knows what he's doing, that he's putting in players that know the rules and can therefore use them to our advantage. We shall see. Sure hope we haven't been duped. Like anonymous, though, however it turns out, Trump is far better than Hillary.
DeleteDon't make the mistake of abandoning him because of what the media reports or what appears to be. I will judge him on what he does not what is said about him. As for his choices IMHO it may well be that the best person for a particular job working under Trump may be someone you or I would not have picked. So be it. Let's see what they do and not where they worked last. He has my support because there is no other choice and nothing else on the horizon. To be honest with you if he accomplished nothing more than appointing Supreme Court Judges who would uphold the constitution I would be overjoyed.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sessions for AG is not a bad choice for someone that has a REAL job to do. Sure would like to see General James Mattis as SoD, if President Trump can get Congress to waive that law...
DeleteI'd really like to see Mad Dog as Sec Def. He would get so many lefty's panties twisted it would be epic!
DeleteFor what it's worth constitutional experts/lawyers will tell you that there are no restrictions on who the president can appoint. The law in question is not constitutional. Of course, so many laws we enforce are also not constitutional but this time is different. This time we don't have a go along to get along president elect.
ReplyDeleteAs a lot of folks have heard already, Trump has confirmed he has appointed Mad Dog Mattis as Sec Def, so this point gets a little bit less academic.
DeleteIn reply to your post Graybeard, I too have that "queasy" feeling that maybe all is not kosher with Trump. This came about with his Financial Dream Team. The Goldman Sachs connections really worry me. Not that patriotism can't exist in the finance industry but these guys, at the top, have been a big part of the games being played and "Too Big To Fail" bailouts.
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing a scenario where the elites, knowing that the deplorables are rising up, are given someone to cool the flames and ease tensions. Like giving them bread and circuses. All while the game continues under cover of "drain the swamp." Could it be a scam once again? I hope not but we have been scammed enough that we are justified to be on-guard.
I'll give Trump a chance; probably can't really get a feel until 2018 ...
ReplyDeletebut it still boils down to Trump vs Hillary. Trump may not - probably won't - be the panacea many hope him to be, but I doubt he'll leave office with the country in worse shape than if H had been elected.
Q
Trump has "played with the big boys" for decades. Ya' think he doesn't know how high finances work? Or government finances?
ReplyDeleteIIRC, At the end of the 18th Century, England was broke. A century of war with France left the Royal treasury so deeply in debt it was paying almost nothing but interest. Forty years later, England is the rich. Britannia Rules the Waves. And what happened in between? The Industrial Revolution. The country can buy its way out of the debt hole, but not with the current insipid economy.