Global Investors Are Telling Donald Trump His Deficits and National…
Washington is unnerved these days about budget deficits and the national debt. Deficit angst comes along periodically, often as a pretext for cutting social spending. This time, however, there’s genuine cause for alarm. Outsized deficits are par for the course when the economy is in recession or reeling from a shock like the pandemic or the financial collapse; most of… Continue reading
Post-Pandemic, a Strong Expansion Needs Less Personal Saving or More…
For two generations, economists and other custodians of financial propriety have chastised Americans for not saving enough. Getting the public to pay attention took a pandemic. Facing a real possibility that COVID-19 and the resulting economic havoc might leave them unable to pay their mortgages and feed their families, moderate- and middle-income Americans began saving as much as they could—and…Continue reading
$900 Billion in COVID Spending for Everyone Is Just What…
Both progressives and conservatives criticized the three major COVID-19 relief laws enacted over the last 12 months for giving away too much of their $4.85 trillion in new spending, tax credits and sweetheart loans to businesses or city and state governments that don’t need the help. While attracting fewer complaints, the three relief Acts—the CARES Act of March 2020, the…Continue reading
What’s Really Going on with GameStop
The investors’ struggle over the videogame retailer GameStop has been cast as David versus Goliath story. Allegedly, this is the tale of scrappy, small online day traders buying shares of a beleaguered company to thwart a hedge fund scheme to take it down. Like GameStop’s stock, this narrative is mostly speculation, because the facts about the buyers and sellers and…Continue reading
Biden Opts for Growth and Equity While Republicans Whine
Congressional Republicans who eagerly supported massive increases in the budget deficit under Donald Trump have been quick to resuscitate their deficit concerns so they can denounce President Joseph Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” In the words of Florida Senator Rick Scott, the plan is just “massive spending … with no accountability.” So, let us apply another dormant standard to…Continue reading
Donald Trump Is Trying to Pull Off a Scam, Not…
President Trump’s post-election machinations are not a bungled coup attempt; it’s a scam to sustain and enrich himself. A coup would require broad collaboration from the courts and, failing that, from the military. The evidence suggests that Trump may not even be serious about election fraud. If he were, he would have recruited serious election law experts in the states…Continue reading
Continuing Job Losses in Swing States May Seal Trump’s Fate
As Donald Trump sees it, “We are leading the World in Economic Recovery.” Yet, less than two weeks before election day, the economy is weaker than he will ever acknowledge. The number of employed Americans in September was still 7 percent below the levels in February: Eight months into the pandemic, 10.7 million fewer people have jobs than before COVID-19.…Continue reading
Unraveling Trump’s taxes: He Makes Money By Losing Other People’s…
Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump is a business failure who cheats on his taxes. But to borrow one of his favorite insults, the president may not be “the stone-cold loser,” many imagine. In some ways, he’s a success even considering his businesses generate vast losses and he personally liable for the hundreds of millions of dollars in bank…Continue reading
Donald Trump versus the Suckers Who Pay Their Fair Share…
We need a reality check. The news earlier this week that Donald Trump, who earned $434 million in 2018, paid little or no federal income taxes for years was staggering. Sand those revelations are even more shocking when we compare what Trump paid in federal income taxes to other Americans. Even when he paid a small income tax in 2016…Continue reading