There is only ONE solution - & I know the world agrees - REMOVE TRUMP - he alone has destroyed the 'good' that USA represents maybe for decades. IF that is NOT enough for the yellow-back Republicans to join forces with the Dems & get him the hell out - they get what they deserve. NO ONE can save USA now - only Repubs uniting & getting that felon OUT OF the White House will stop the carnage.
You are probably right Anderson, but let us not forget that it was the Democrats and their insane policies (from open borders to the transgender lunacy, etc.) that elected Trump.
Mad is an understatement, thank you for the excellent summary. I agree, Trump has managed to ruin the reputation of the US which will take decades to recover, if at all, because he has weaponized his insane supporters. The good news, he has awakened Canada and the World that the US is no longer an Ally you can TRUST; unless you negotiate with Trump (for his personal benefit). US politicians need to stand up to Trump along with other countries.
Who could have believed the star (I use the term loosely) of "The Apprentice" could have been given so much power and influence over the World?
Precisely when do the actions of a Mad King constitute grounds for impeachment? He is accepting bribes, crashing the economy, exposing our cyber networks to attack, beheading our military officers (metaphorically), threatening to impoverish our elders and stymie the efforts of young people to buy homes and raise families. Not to mention grabbing innocent people off the streets and sending them into horrible conditions in exile without any due process at all. Do we wait until someone gives him the green light to invoke yet another emergency power and send troops to mow us protestors down in the streets? Oh, wait...he's also gutting FEMA and NOAA at the start of hurricane season, gutting the CDC on the cusp of a measles and flu epidemic, and trying to force women to be vessels for unwanted births and or to accept undue risks when a pregnancy fails of natural causes. And let's not fail to note his attacks on the civil rights of minority groups across this country, as well as on our allies abroad. High crimes and misdemeanors, ya think?
Thanks for a good summary. Ray Dalio, a respected investor, has a bit of a different view. He warns us not to “ make the mistake of thinking that what’s happening is mostly about tariffs “.
While he does not endorse the tariffs, he says that we are witnessing a breakdown of the major monetary, political and geopolitical orders.
Why ? Here are his answers :
1) too much debt
2 ) too much US dependence on international lenders and their goods has resulted in an unsustainable trade imbalance. Therefore, the monetary/ economic order must inevitably change ;
3) the domestic political order is breaking down. Why ? Gaps in education levels, opportunity levels, productivity levels and values. Polarization has resulted in a refusal to compromise which in turn produces autocratic leaders ;
4) the international geopolitical world order is breaking down and multilateralism led by the US is being replaced by a unilateral, power - rules approach ;
5) the US is engaged in a trade war, a geopolitical war, a technology war and select military wars.
Seems to me ( what do I know ? ) that the age of illusion and delusion is now over. We are witnessing a repeat of the economic and political chaos of the period from 1924/5 to 1938 ( when the Depression ended ).
Thanks, David. Dalio's argumentation makes sense. The current levels of debt everywhere are unsustainable, and we are in for a nasty correction. I would add one other factor: massive global demographic changes will also have a profound impact,
1. Yes the markets have fallen . But it’s only fallen beck 12 months or so. It’s not the end of the world, as the markets were hugely over valued. And everyone should have known this. Markets do what they are supposed to do. Ebb and flow as the economy goes. Sensible people should be able to see this on the yearly chats.
2. There is too much fat in government . Has been for years. No one gets fired after 5 years, wait a little while and the good people will be hired back. We need some of this in Canada. Our postal people want 6 percent per year and a 4 year contract and it is a dying industry.
3. Manufacturing. All the CEO’s are responsible for this in the decades long rush to globalize . The consequences are a) stolen technology ( almost criminal and gone forever) right in front of our eyes. B) lost manufacturing. Maybe it can be recaptured in the next 11 years.
I don’t like trump.never have. The Crimea war happened on his watch in 2014 . (I think that’s accurate) . Putin has something on trump and for this reason alone should be barred from being president ( in my opinion. )
Notice how quiet and supportive the white house billionaires are? Could it be that they have all been selling short into this market? And when Mad King Donald does enough damage, he will cancel and/or renegotiate tariffs and then they will buy back in and make more billions both ways?
Welcome back Diane. Lets look at the (dim) bright side for a moment. DT ran on a fix the economy promise, which openly featured the tarriff threat. He told everyone he was going to do it, and he did. The results of this rodeo will be clearly visible over the next 6 months to the American electorate. It will be easy to pin the blame on the GOP elephant.
So what is keeping the DEM donkeys from capitalizing on the emerging global crisis? The Americans are still a sensible and democratic folk, as the recent election in Wisconsin demonstrated. Musk could not buy it.
Why has the democratic party leadership imploded?
It is easy to curse the darkness, but we need a bringer of light.
I think it is because of fear for personal safety and that of loved ones. There are only 535 Members of Congress (100 in the Senate and 435 in the US House of Representatives). It is not too far fetched to believe that dossiers of surveillance of children, spouses, etc are on each of these peoples desks. Enforcement/threat by paramilitary such as Proud Boys, etc. Fear is a great silencer.
I read a post on Substack reiterating this and calling for democratic minded Billionaires to fund security so that these politicians can vote their conscience instead of voting out of fear.
Imagine hiring a ceo who inherited $500 million and someone managed to go Bankrupt SIX times! Hey anything is possible in the good old USA. Sure sounds like the ideal presidential candidate.This is exactly what Canada needed to realize how a great big wealthy polite country can emerge as a world leader not only economically but also culturally. “ I am sorry ,we apologize “ is what my neighbours along with perfect strangers greet me with after I have raised my Giant Canadian flag in the front yard of our Naples home.my response is Vote!!!
Trump has just clumsily done what need to be done for the past thirty years - end the role of the United States as the global sugar daddy.
It had to happen - America simply cannot afford the magnitude of its trade imbalance while footing the bill for the defense of the free world.
It has been a shocking turn of events but one that should have been anticipated given the level to which US debt has risen.
Other countries (including Canada) have enjoyed higher living standards than the US by letting the US foot the lion's share of military spending.
Their quest for ever higher social spending has not only absorbed their their defense funds but also has left them with crushing debt levels that is seeing their standards of living declining.
Their levels of productivity are also in decline as a result of unsustainable social benefits.
The American standard of living has also been falling - primarily because the promised benefits of off-shoring have not materialized for the workers that have been displaced.
Promises from both the Republican and Democrat establishments for aid came to naught precipitating Trump's first election Victory.
Given another chance, the Democrats learned nothing from their earlier defeat and proceeded to embrace the neo-progressive conceit of being morally and intellectually superior to middle America.
The time has, in fact, come for Americans to enjoy what they they have enabled so many countries to do - up their standard of living.
They are doing this by giving notice to other countries that the subsidy of their standard of living and defense is going to be reduced.
This notice has been portrayed as an abandonment - it is not.
It is an adjustment and an adjustment needed to ensure America can balance its social costs with the costs of preserving global democracy without further growth of government debt.
It is America, not other countries, that has caused massive levels of US military spending. Contributions by non-US NATO members are mostly to the benefit of the US defence contractors. Famously, the Department of Defence is unable to account for many billions of dollars it has received from the public. I am more than six decades old and the amount of public monies taken from America s themselves to support the lavish lifestyles of defence contractors has been a well-known source of bitterly comic movies and sketches my entire life. If you are concerned about debt levels due to the cost of the military, maybe start by reeling in the cash cow that is deliberately nourished by the military industrial lobby and its political allies. And regarding American bases all over the world, those are there primarily to protect and pursue American interests, particularly regarding private business interest in fossil fuels, minerals, and other natural resources, or the movement of American-owned goods from cheaper manufacturing regions to places that will buy those goods. Not mentioning these facts is a tactic of the Trump administration.
Without the protection afforded by US military deterence, Communist China could, along with Russia, easily defeat and subjugate the Western Democracies.
No matter how it was achieved, US military power has protected you over the six decades of your life.
You have enjoyed freedom, lived comfortably and in peace, but seem to resent the country and people who have made that possible.
You also seem to forget that your country and its government is no bastion of fiscal efficiency - it has its own black holes into which billions have disappeared.
(The standard of living you have enjoyed by not having to maintain a credible military is, none-the-less, on the decline because it cannot be sustained given the demand placed upon it by Ottawa’s mismanagement of immigration policy.)
The bottom line is that the bill for the secure life you have had has been picked up by your American neighbours - now that you are being forced to pay your share, you feel even more aggrieved with them.
Parts of what you say, Mik, may be true, but at what cost? The combined US trade deficit with the world in 2024 was $1.2 trillion. Since "liberation day," ten trillion in stock market valuations have evaporated. The trade war will not be resolved overnight so the stock market will remain depressed for a long time. It's sheer incompetence or madness not to have anticipated such a debacle.
'Trump’s across-the-board tariffs of 10% on everything imported are essentially the first national “sales tax” in American history and should technically only be approved by Congress.'Yes Diane. NThe tariffs are illegal as there is no national emergency. There is now a move to get Congress to remove the right of that vile dangerous fool to impose tariffs. My question to you is canTrump be stopped in this way as the world economy is ruptured? Remove Trump is best but how? And then Vance? even as bad and dangerous.
Excellent thank you. What is maybe the worst aspect in the long run, is that the reputation of the USA is trashed and will take probably a generation to be rebuilt following the Mad King Trump era.
Buffett is right when he warned in March against tariffs “because they are an act of war.” In 1930s the Smoot-Hawley tariff was choking the Japanese economy and pushed Japan to attack the US in 1941. There is a risk of a similar scenario unfolding with regard to China. Escalation of the tariff war with China may yet push China to an act of aggression, and history will repeat itself.
Yes, the mad king. But madness is not his inherent character, he is mad now because his stupid expectations begin to fail, begin to unravel.
The whole tariffs idea was based on the expectation that companies inside and outside of the US would build factories here, the US, and hire US workers.
That idea is about to face the reality.
The expectation that other nations will kowtow to the US in negotiations for better tariffs is about to face reality.
The US does not hold commanding economic and military powers anymore, but this mad king either does not or pretend to know that it does.
The next few months will show the truth.
Either Trump will back down on tariffs or the US and the world will suffer a severe depression.
Everyone will suffer, but rest assured , the suffering threshold of the US citizens is much lower than that of the world.
There is only ONE solution - & I know the world agrees - REMOVE TRUMP - he alone has destroyed the 'good' that USA represents maybe for decades. IF that is NOT enough for the yellow-back Republicans to join forces with the Dems & get him the hell out - they get what they deserve. NO ONE can save USA now - only Repubs uniting & getting that felon OUT OF the White House will stop the carnage.
You are probably right Anderson, but let us not forget that it was the Democrats and their insane policies (from open borders to the transgender lunacy, etc.) that elected Trump.
Mad is an understatement, thank you for the excellent summary. I agree, Trump has managed to ruin the reputation of the US which will take decades to recover, if at all, because he has weaponized his insane supporters. The good news, he has awakened Canada and the World that the US is no longer an Ally you can TRUST; unless you negotiate with Trump (for his personal benefit). US politicians need to stand up to Trump along with other countries.
Who could have believed the star (I use the term loosely) of "The Apprentice" could have been given so much power and influence over the World?
Precisely when do the actions of a Mad King constitute grounds for impeachment? He is accepting bribes, crashing the economy, exposing our cyber networks to attack, beheading our military officers (metaphorically), threatening to impoverish our elders and stymie the efforts of young people to buy homes and raise families. Not to mention grabbing innocent people off the streets and sending them into horrible conditions in exile without any due process at all. Do we wait until someone gives him the green light to invoke yet another emergency power and send troops to mow us protestors down in the streets? Oh, wait...he's also gutting FEMA and NOAA at the start of hurricane season, gutting the CDC on the cusp of a measles and flu epidemic, and trying to force women to be vessels for unwanted births and or to accept undue risks when a pregnancy fails of natural causes. And let's not fail to note his attacks on the civil rights of minority groups across this country, as well as on our allies abroad. High crimes and misdemeanors, ya think?
Thanks for a good summary. Ray Dalio, a respected investor, has a bit of a different view. He warns us not to “ make the mistake of thinking that what’s happening is mostly about tariffs “.
While he does not endorse the tariffs, he says that we are witnessing a breakdown of the major monetary, political and geopolitical orders.
Why ? Here are his answers :
1) too much debt
2 ) too much US dependence on international lenders and their goods has resulted in an unsustainable trade imbalance. Therefore, the monetary/ economic order must inevitably change ;
3) the domestic political order is breaking down. Why ? Gaps in education levels, opportunity levels, productivity levels and values. Polarization has resulted in a refusal to compromise which in turn produces autocratic leaders ;
4) the international geopolitical world order is breaking down and multilateralism led by the US is being replaced by a unilateral, power - rules approach ;
5) the US is engaged in a trade war, a geopolitical war, a technology war and select military wars.
Seems to me ( what do I know ? ) that the age of illusion and delusion is now over. We are witnessing a repeat of the economic and political chaos of the period from 1924/5 to 1938 ( when the Depression ended ).
Thanks, David. Dalio's argumentation makes sense. The current levels of debt everywhere are unsustainable, and we are in for a nasty correction. I would add one other factor: massive global demographic changes will also have a profound impact,
Hi. Let’s think a little deeper on this.
1. Yes the markets have fallen . But it’s only fallen beck 12 months or so. It’s not the end of the world, as the markets were hugely over valued. And everyone should have known this. Markets do what they are supposed to do. Ebb and flow as the economy goes. Sensible people should be able to see this on the yearly chats.
2. There is too much fat in government . Has been for years. No one gets fired after 5 years, wait a little while and the good people will be hired back. We need some of this in Canada. Our postal people want 6 percent per year and a 4 year contract and it is a dying industry.
3. Manufacturing. All the CEO’s are responsible for this in the decades long rush to globalize . The consequences are a) stolen technology ( almost criminal and gone forever) right in front of our eyes. B) lost manufacturing. Maybe it can be recaptured in the next 11 years.
I don’t like trump.never have. The Crimea war happened on his watch in 2014 . (I think that’s accurate) . Putin has something on trump and for this reason alone should be barred from being president ( in my opinion. )
Obama was president whem Crimea was forcibly taken by Russia. And he fiddled.
Notice how quiet and supportive the white house billionaires are? Could it be that they have all been selling short into this market? And when Mad King Donald does enough damage, he will cancel and/or renegotiate tariffs and then they will buy back in and make more billions both ways?
Welcome back Diane. Lets look at the (dim) bright side for a moment. DT ran on a fix the economy promise, which openly featured the tarriff threat. He told everyone he was going to do it, and he did. The results of this rodeo will be clearly visible over the next 6 months to the American electorate. It will be easy to pin the blame on the GOP elephant.
So what is keeping the DEM donkeys from capitalizing on the emerging global crisis? The Americans are still a sensible and democratic folk, as the recent election in Wisconsin demonstrated. Musk could not buy it.
Why has the democratic party leadership imploded?
It is easy to curse the darkness, but we need a bringer of light.
I think it is because of fear for personal safety and that of loved ones. There are only 535 Members of Congress (100 in the Senate and 435 in the US House of Representatives). It is not too far fetched to believe that dossiers of surveillance of children, spouses, etc are on each of these peoples desks. Enforcement/threat by paramilitary such as Proud Boys, etc. Fear is a great silencer.
I read a post on Substack reiterating this and calling for democratic minded Billionaires to fund security so that these politicians can vote their conscience instead of voting out of fear.
Hopefully this will happen.
Imagine hiring a ceo who inherited $500 million and someone managed to go Bankrupt SIX times! Hey anything is possible in the good old USA. Sure sounds like the ideal presidential candidate.This is exactly what Canada needed to realize how a great big wealthy polite country can emerge as a world leader not only economically but also culturally. “ I am sorry ,we apologize “ is what my neighbours along with perfect strangers greet me with after I have raised my Giant Canadian flag in the front yard of our Naples home.my response is Vote!!!
Trump has just clumsily done what need to be done for the past thirty years - end the role of the United States as the global sugar daddy.
It had to happen - America simply cannot afford the magnitude of its trade imbalance while footing the bill for the defense of the free world.
It has been a shocking turn of events but one that should have been anticipated given the level to which US debt has risen.
Other countries (including Canada) have enjoyed higher living standards than the US by letting the US foot the lion's share of military spending.
Their quest for ever higher social spending has not only absorbed their their defense funds but also has left them with crushing debt levels that is seeing their standards of living declining.
Their levels of productivity are also in decline as a result of unsustainable social benefits.
The American standard of living has also been falling - primarily because the promised benefits of off-shoring have not materialized for the workers that have been displaced.
Promises from both the Republican and Democrat establishments for aid came to naught precipitating Trump's first election Victory.
Given another chance, the Democrats learned nothing from their earlier defeat and proceeded to embrace the neo-progressive conceit of being morally and intellectually superior to middle America.
The time has, in fact, come for Americans to enjoy what they they have enabled so many countries to do - up their standard of living.
They are doing this by giving notice to other countries that the subsidy of their standard of living and defense is going to be reduced.
This notice has been portrayed as an abandonment - it is not.
It is an adjustment and an adjustment needed to ensure America can balance its social costs with the costs of preserving global democracy without further growth of government debt.
It is America, not other countries, that has caused massive levels of US military spending. Contributions by non-US NATO members are mostly to the benefit of the US defence contractors. Famously, the Department of Defence is unable to account for many billions of dollars it has received from the public. I am more than six decades old and the amount of public monies taken from America s themselves to support the lavish lifestyles of defence contractors has been a well-known source of bitterly comic movies and sketches my entire life. If you are concerned about debt levels due to the cost of the military, maybe start by reeling in the cash cow that is deliberately nourished by the military industrial lobby and its political allies. And regarding American bases all over the world, those are there primarily to protect and pursue American interests, particularly regarding private business interest in fossil fuels, minerals, and other natural resources, or the movement of American-owned goods from cheaper manufacturing regions to places that will buy those goods. Not mentioning these facts is a tactic of the Trump administration.
Without the protection afforded by US military deterence, Communist China could, along with Russia, easily defeat and subjugate the Western Democracies.
No matter how it was achieved, US military power has protected you over the six decades of your life.
You have enjoyed freedom, lived comfortably and in peace, but seem to resent the country and people who have made that possible.
You also seem to forget that your country and its government is no bastion of fiscal efficiency - it has its own black holes into which billions have disappeared.
(The standard of living you have enjoyed by not having to maintain a credible military is, none-the-less, on the decline because it cannot be sustained given the demand placed upon it by Ottawa’s mismanagement of immigration policy.)
The bottom line is that the bill for the secure life you have had has been picked up by your American neighbours - now that you are being forced to pay your share, you feel even more aggrieved with them.
Parts of what you say, Mik, may be true, but at what cost? The combined US trade deficit with the world in 2024 was $1.2 trillion. Since "liberation day," ten trillion in stock market valuations have evaporated. The trade war will not be resolved overnight so the stock market will remain depressed for a long time. It's sheer incompetence or madness not to have anticipated such a debacle.
'Trump’s across-the-board tariffs of 10% on everything imported are essentially the first national “sales tax” in American history and should technically only be approved by Congress.'Yes Diane. NThe tariffs are illegal as there is no national emergency. There is now a move to get Congress to remove the right of that vile dangerous fool to impose tariffs. My question to you is canTrump be stopped in this way as the world economy is ruptured? Remove Trump is best but how? And then Vance? even as bad and dangerous.
Excellent thank you. What is maybe the worst aspect in the long run, is that the reputation of the USA is trashed and will take probably a generation to be rebuilt following the Mad King Trump era.
Buffett is right when he warned in March against tariffs “because they are an act of war.” In 1930s the Smoot-Hawley tariff was choking the Japanese economy and pushed Japan to attack the US in 1941. There is a risk of a similar scenario unfolding with regard to China. Escalation of the tariff war with China may yet push China to an act of aggression, and history will repeat itself.
Welcome back!!!
Yes, the mad king. But madness is not his inherent character, he is mad now because his stupid expectations begin to fail, begin to unravel.
The whole tariffs idea was based on the expectation that companies inside and outside of the US would build factories here, the US, and hire US workers.
That idea is about to face the reality.
The expectation that other nations will kowtow to the US in negotiations for better tariffs is about to face reality.
The US does not hold commanding economic and military powers anymore, but this mad king either does not or pretend to know that it does.
The next few months will show the truth.
Either Trump will back down on tariffs or the US and the world will suffer a severe depression.
Everyone will suffer, but rest assured , the suffering threshold of the US citizens is much lower than that of the world.