While helping Trump tank the economy, you will be saving money for that tanked (recession) economy with money that you did not spend on unnecessary items. I have no idea what the next four years will bring other than the same chaos it did last time Trump sat on his throne. Chaos is what I saw, and it has already started with all the idiotic things that are coming of the Mar—o—idiot compound. I have to admit that the one thing Trump does is that he does not hide all his corruption the way most politicians do. Way too many members of both parties go in poor and come out rich. Maybe some people can take in money and not give favors back in return, but that is not how our corrupt system is designed to work. The same people who designed the system are the ones benefitting by enabling themselves to get rich at the taxpayer’s expense.
Not related, but I did not post for a few days as I was in excruciating pain and had to keep my leg elevated; I don’t do laptops.
The stock market had a record-breaking run last year, but members of Congress still managed to outperform it with their portfolios making staggering gains in industries where they wield legislative power and influence, such as tech and energy.
More than 20 members made almost double the S&P500 average gain of 24.9 percent last year. The top five performers — Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Roger Williams (R-TX), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) — increased the value of their portfolio value by more than 100 percent, according to a new report.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has become a lightning rod for anger over lawmakers trading in stocks in recent years and has, according to the report, “an almost cult-like following for her financial disclosures,” saw the value of her household’s portfolio rise by 71 percent.
The report comes as several bipartisan measures aimed at banning the trading of stocks of individual companies by members of Congress appear to have stalled, despite overwhelming public support. A total of 11 bills have been proposed by lawmakers since 2022, but none have made it to a vote.
One of those efforts was spearheaded by Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who worked on a bill with former Republican representative Matt Gaetz. When asked to comment on the news that many members of Congress had outperformed the market again, Ocasio-Cortez said: “I don’t think that members of Congress should be trading and holding individual stock.”
“We are privy to very sensitive information, not just in terms of classified information, but also in terms of the social dynamics and the political dynamics in the House. We are privy to knowing when legislation is more likely to pass, that which is least likely to pass, amendments that might happen, and we’re often the first to get notice of developments,” she said.
Paul Krugman is an economist who wrote for the New York Times. He is now retired but continues to write. The quote below is from one of his recent articles, which is now free.
Still, Trump says he plans to go through with high tariffs and mass deportations. If he does, inflation will spike; Goldilocks will be badly injured if not killed.
Will this cause a major political backlash? God knows.
Clearly, many people voted for Trump because they believed his promise that he would not just reduce inflation, but actually bring grocery prices down. Yet doing so, as one analyst put it soon after the election, would be “very hard.” That analyst, of course, was Trump himself.
The question is, have Trump supporters gotten the memo? The latest Michigan Consumer Survey shows a spectacular partisan divergence in inflation expectations:
Democrats, like most economists, expect Trump’s policies to cause higher inflation. Republicans, however, appear to believe that he can wave a magic wand and make prices fall.
What will happen when prices keep rising? Will these voters feel betrayed? Or will Trump, Elon Musk and company manage to do what they’re trying to do with the fires in Los Angeles, and blame wokeness? (Or will they, as I suggested the other day, just fudge the numbers?)
I remain highly uncertain both about what Trump will do and about how it will be received. But I would argue that the fact that he inherits an economy in such good shape is actually a problem for his agenda.
