It's now official. The American economy has been in recession since February. Jennifer Rubin writes:
It should be noted that this happened before most business shutdowns occurred. While the pandemic indisputably plunged the economy further into recession, the Obama recovery — which President Trump conveniently ignored — ended on Trump’s watch.
To make matters worse, as with the Great Depression, the world’s economies have crashed as well. “Economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has forced the global economy into the worst recession since World War II, according to a report published Monday by the World Bank,” the Post reports. “The organization, which provides financial assistance to middle- and low-income countries, estimates that global gross domestic product will shrink 5.2 percent in 2020 as the pandemic continues to disrupt business, travel and manufacturing around the world.”
Trump broke the economy. And he doesn't know how to fix it. Others do. But they're not members of the Republican Party. And they could very well make matters worse. Trump claims that the new employment numbers show that the economy is a "rocketship." But he and his party are misreading the numbers:
Steven Rattner, former “car czar" in the Obama administration, observed Monday morning that “this is the big issue.” Declining unemployment, he said, is the result of the huge amount of liquidity the Federal Reserve added to the economy. Congress in 2020 also acted much more quickly with much more fiscal stimulus than it did in 2008. But, Rattner warns, while Democrats want to do more, Republicans are grumbling about too much spending. He predicts that the May jobs reports will only cause Republicans to dig in.
During the 2016 election, Trump claimed that "only he" could fix the country. It should be absolutely clear by now that "only he" -- with the help of his party -- can break it -- to the point where it can't be put back together again.
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6 comments:
What isn't "broken" today, Owen? The economy is broken The climate is broken. Civil society, especially in the States, is broken. I struggle to find a silver lining in any of this. I'm now revisiting books I bought at the turn of this century to find that most - not all but certainly most - of their predictions have come to pass. They have this bitter taste of forewarnings ignored.
It's getting pretty depressing, Mound. For comic relief, I tuned in a couple of days ago to "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming." Norman Jewison has a pretty good take on American paranoia.
The pigeons are so cute.
Hey I remember that movie! Yikes, t he turn of the century, o.k. we're 20 years into this century. yikes........
Trump can't fix anything. He couldn't even fix his own companies when he kept going bankrupt. Obama fixed the American economy and he gave people hope. Trump can't do that. He doesn't care enough to want to fix anything for any body, except himself and he can't even do that, hence the bankruptcies.
If Biden is elected, he is going to have to have a very strong Cabinet and some real brains to "fix" things. He will also need to have control of Congress and real control, as in the vote in a block to get things done. There is not much of a social safety net in the U.S.A. like there is in other countries. Right now in Canada, between our medical system and the programs the federal Liberals have implemented we look almost normal and people are going about their business as if things were sort of normal. The U.S.A. had 2 mile long line ups for their food banks. Canadians had their federal cheques and went to he grocery stores. Yes, we do have a deficient, but we don't have the broken society the Americans have. (yes we have problems and there are broken segments of society, but we are trying to do something about them, even if its not fast enough)
I am not looking forward to when the American banks start reposing houses and land lords start the evictions. that is when the real trouble will start. No we don't have "real" trouble down there yet. It can and will get worse. In my opinion, Trumps threats to bring in the military, which he did in Washington DC wasn't just for this round, its for a bit later when the economy really tanks and the people start to "fight" back. Back in the 1930s there was a miners' strike and its the closest the Americans came to a civil war. They even had plans in the 1930s to invade Canada if the "commies" took over. History is so much fun to read, sometimes. Then WW II started and there were jobs, so many in fact women went to work outside the home and there was even day care......
I'm quite sure things will deteriorate in the United States, e.a.f. For Canada, the trick will be stopping the contagion at the border.
Whatever he says, his admirers will buy it.
I understand that the Rothschilds have been planning this for 200 years but I don't know why they'd bother. Maybe Antifa knows.
It appears, John, that -- when you're rich -- you're immune to facts
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