Do I remember correctly that trump was elected mainly on improving economy?
That’s what I heard people said, but I suspect it was more the anti-immigrant, christian nationalist, white supremacist, misogynist not wanting to out themselves so they said things like the ‘price of eggs’ or ‘the economy’ instead of ‘I’m scared of everything I don’t understand like diversity and worker solidarity’ or ‘i don’t want to be treated the way I treat minorities’.
That’s what they kept saying…
2 trillion, so far!
I’m so glad that as a millennial I get to live through so many different historic times…/s
Would you prefer to live through the world wars or the cold war? Or any other time in history?
Didnt your hobo turned ccc worker turned GI great grandpa have the coolest life. Your gen Z sibling gets a similar experience.
“…and right here is where I’m going to manufacture the worst economic crash since the literal Plague.”
Plague massively increased economic situation of peasants in western Europe.
Only in the long run. A lot of them died and suffered horribly first.
Of course, first things need to hit rock bottom for regular people to demand fair treatment.
…and cancelling 500k work visas just few days ago, that should hit the economy too
And everyone being deported as well. Even most of the illegals paid into the economy. Now we’re taking that away and spending who knows what to create chaos.
But all the government institutions are being dismantled, so why have taxes at all?
Need to pave a road to your house? Pay it yourself! Need to drive on a road you haven’t paid for? Pay the toll to the owner.
Libertarian police
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.
It hits even harder then that, I know a family of truckers that never stops working, but they’re Lebanese and not natively born yet are all U.S. citizens, so for now they’ve all decided to finally take time off untill this blows over, leaving an even bigger hole in our economy to fill for natural born citizen.
As bad as this is, it can still get a lot worse. The market seems to be pricing in a high probability that Trump will reverse course. If the tariffs stay on for at least a few months, there will certainly be a recession, probably a depression, and possibly social unrest that will take decades to fully recover from.
When things really crash is when the rich will decide to pay their cash and start buying up shit, and then we will think the economy recovered but really all that happened is another wealth redistribution in the wrong direction
As an impoverished no body with nothing to lose in this country, I’ve just been laughing my ass off.
Time to recycle some things…
Better quality version (I think)
“1,000,000 men out of employment”
Certainly showing it’s age there. You’d never see unemployment statistics announced that way today. Not even sure if this is because of how “men” used to be used to refer to people in a more general way, or because women didn’t make up a significant portion of the workforce (or because they didn’t care about that demographic…)
“Net loss of gold in exports” too… Usually we see GDP used for that kind of statistic now
we’re in a recession right now. this is the beginning of one. people mass selling off their stocks to take money and that shakes all markets down the river is exactly a recession start. get ready folks.
You know what I find funny. The US fucking whinges about China nearly all the time. Yet they seek to become Insular and Autarkic. They make the same mistake the Qing Dynasty did.
Edit Addendum: The Qing dynasty, is often seen as prizing its material abundance and cultural legacy so highly that it sometimes failed to adapt to new challenges and technological advancements. This narrow focus is often cited as one of the factors that contributed to their eventual decline.
Equating the greatness or state of the nation with it’s wealth.
Exactly, those who think themselves perfect doom themselves.
We’re gonna get a shit ton of austerity here and then future children will learn about the Trump tariffs in school.
I just find it a little ironic that the genius voters that ushered in Reagan and neo-liberalism are the same voters that support Trump and his destruction of said neo-liberalism.
Never underestimate American idiocy
As foretold by the prophetical Team American: World Police
The Powers That Be aren’t going to tolerate this for very long.
Trump is fucking with their money.
Nah. Rich people profit from recessions and other crisis. They have enough money to buy everything and then are even richer afterwards.
That is why everyone lets Trump do whatever he likes.
See, that’s what you don’t understand.
They can never get enough. It’s a competition with their peers.
Like a children’s game.
I understand that perfectly, they like the crisis situation because they hope to acquire more, and maybe even loose a couple of aspirant mill- or billionaires on the way.
They do see it as a game, and thus big disruptions create great new chances for them to gain even more.
They have enough money
Their money is in shares and bonds, not cash.
Stocks aren’t real resources, they are imaginary potential resources. Stocks market fluctuations are important only as long as people think they are. Like a king who is a king only because his subjects consider him a king.
Tell that to the people living on automatic withdrawals from their IRA accounts 🙄
Oh, so my 401k losing money isn’t real? Damn, that’s a relief.
Some stock have value because the company is profitable, solid and is making money. I am no investor but Coca Cola I would imagine fit the description.
C’mon keep it going!
