Sunday, February 19, 2017

The Fallacy Of Playing For All The Marbles



Donald Trump's sales pitch was that, as a businessman, he knew how to get things done. His first thirty days in the White House suggest that he doesn't know how to get anything done. But Joe Stiglitz suggests that, when it comes to economic relations between nations, Trump threatens to get a lot of things undone.

While there is some debate about the extent to which Trump is a “successful businessman,” there is no successful country that is grounded on the principles—or the lack of principles—upon which he has grown his businesses. Economists believe that a successful economy is based on trust, backed up by the rule of law. His standard business practice has been to stiff his suppliers, knowing that recourse to courts is expensive. Of course, over the long term, honest suppliers know this, and refuse to deal. Less scrupulous vendors overcharge and cheat, taking advantage too of the imperfections in our judicial system. But there is no successful economy based on the Trump model.

 Trump's inability to tell the truth is particularly problematic:

Trump cannot even be trusted to base statements on reality. He seeks to build himself up by belittling his predecessor. Trump is wrong in his characterization of where the U.S. economy is today. The country as a whole has never had a higher G.D.P. The crime rate and the unemployment rate are markedly lower than they were eight years ago. Yes, America faces a variety of problems—it always has, and what nation doesn’t? Ordinary citizens have not been well served by globalization. The problem, though, is not with globalization itself but with how we have managed it.

So far, globalization has been very unfair. But playing for all the marbles will not improve it. And playing for all the marbles is the only thing that Trump knows how to do.

Image: You Tube

10 comments:

Lorne said...

It must be particularly hard for Trump, Owen, probably due to the trauma that ensued when he lost his marbles.

Owen Gray said...

Trump's claim, Lorne, that there was a terrorist attack in Sweden a couple of nights ago should confirm the fact that Trump has, indeed, lost his marbles. Apparently, the Swedes think so.

The Mound of Sound said...

Thanks for the link, Owen. I helped myself to a couple of Stiglitz' observations myself. As for Trump I suspect he finds truth and nonsense interchangeable so long as his targeted audience accepts it.

Owen Gray said...

No matter what he does or says, Mound, 35% of those who voted think he's an oracle of - something.

!? said...

But wait! There was a terrorist attack in Sweden.

"Three suspected neo-Nazis were arrested in January after a Gothenburg Asylum centre became the target of a homemade bomb attack, leaving one person seriously injured.

Security services said all three suspects had previously been members of the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR), a group that openly promotes racist and anti-Semitic views and has vocally opposed non-white immigration to the country."


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/donald-trump-terror-attack-claim-sweden-neo-nazis-refugee-centre-florida-rally-a7588516.html

Owen Gray said...

Interesting,! But, like the "Bowling Green Massacre," we're dealing with mangled information. The attack occurred in January, not a couple of days ago. And it involved Neo-Nazis, not Islamic refugees. Trump has a fevered brain. And, unfortunately, the fever is spreading.

Steve said...

My kids will never be able to afford a house because the Chinese have gamed the market, thats all the marbles.

Owen Gray said...

My kids will not be able to afford a house either, Steve. And it's true that the market has been gamed. But it's not the fault of the Chinese. The answer lies much closer to home.

Steve said...

Ok the Chinese have take advantage of our own stupidity. They generate fake wealth in China and funnel it as fast a possible for real assets here.

Owen Gray said...

But we have constructed the system they're taking advantage of, Steve.