Lost in all the howling about DOGE, the rogue judges and the Ukraine happenings is the Trump economic policy that is slowly coming into focus. One of the reasons the administration pushed for the continuing resolution was that they needed time to put together budgets and spending priorities based on the cuts they are now making across all agencies of the government.
It is why they were so mad about the grandstanding of Thomas Massie. He is clearly someone who does not understand what they are doing and too addled by the brain-rot of libertarianism to ever understand it. He wanted to waste time and political capital on a pointless fight over pennies. The administration has bigger plans for reorganizing the government that needs time to develop.
The new economic model will be based on cheap energy, cheap money, low taxes on labor, limited regulation, and tariffs on imports. You can hear all of these when Trump seems to speak off the cuff. His plan to eliminate taxes for those earning under $150,000 per year is a good example. That is not just a tax cut for the wage earner, but also a tax cut for the employer.
The point is to make labor relatively cheaper for domestic employers, while using tariffs to make cheap foreign labor relatively more expensive. This is not a lot different from what Reagan tried to do in the 1980’s with Japan. Instead of being limited to trade issues with specific countries, it is to be the general policy. The goal is to boost domestic production in order to lower imports.
That is the show this week. The first part is a summary of the current economic model which no one discusses anymore. Back when it was coming into focus, people debated it and those opposed turned out to be right. The second part is about the schemes to unwind the old model and create a new one. Trumponomics is Abenomics but for a continent sized country with the global reserve currency.
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This Week’s Show
Contents
- Intro
- Post-National Economics
- Examples
- Trumponomics
- Will It Work?
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Trump should have done this stuff in his first term, when there was still some runway left. The fact that rat-faced Chuckie Schumer changed his tune so quickly tells that me as a peasant I can expect to get fucked by this CR.
Even though I agree with what Trump is trying to do in principle, it seems way too late to avoid the iceberg. Let’s just hope that the ideas being pushed don’t get tarred along with Trump when the economy blows up late 25/early 26.
As I understand it, the CR keeps spending at Biden’s level until they work out the 2026 budget this fall. That explains why Chuck-You was so quick to turn tale and support it (why wouldn’t he, it’s mostly his doing). I’m unsure why Trump would want to be saddled with these commitments, especially considering how limited he is with time before midterms.
Because the alternative is the bill gets passed with changes making it worse, after a week of anti-Trump hysteria. They have one shot to get this right so they have to avoid the usual traps. It could still fail, as dickheads like Massie are not alone in the GOP.
That’s my take on it also. Some of the less retarded Democrats got out their box of crayons and drew big block letters for Chuckie explaining how it is way better for the depths of the recession to be happening in the middle of next year, vs late 2025.
All I can infer is that the devious representative from Tel Aviv is working against us.
One of my regrets in life is that I was at a college graduation where this slimy creature blurted out his anodyne ‘commencement speech’ and I did not heckle him.
“The fact that rat-faced Chuckie Schumer changed his tune so quickly tells that me as a peasant I can expect to get fucked by this CR”
Oh for sure, it tells me they’re so desperate to keep .gov money flowing or the entire economy will tank because its all fake
My take: The economy was tanking late 2019, the west needed to go 0% bound and print again. The Russians and the Chinese said fuck off, we aren’t going to continue to let you print and dictate to us. So instead we got covid, but and its a big but, we also got a shit ton of inflation from the printing this time since those two refused to absorb it for us like in 08. Trump wants to get rates lower, but he needs an excuse, a way to drive people into US debt because they’re so frightened it will… Read more »
I don’t understand why Trump 2.0 would delay things if they want lower rates. The inflation from last year’s spending bill is now starting to show up in PPI, so if they wait, they will be trying to force the Fed to lower rates into an inflationary environment.
Why wait and waste political capital on a second Trump vs JP showdown? Push for it now if lower rates are desired.
I have no idea. All i know for sure is that no one is telling me the truth. Sometimes when everyone is lying to you, you need to listen to what you enemies are stating for more information:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/03/call-your-senators-this-morning-to-object-to-the-continuing-resolution-that-will-enable-cuts-to-social-security-medicare-medicaid-veterans-programs-and-more.html
They seem to believe that this will gut SS and medicare medicaid. I don’t think they’ll touch SS, but i’m all for gutting medicare and medicaid. They spend almost a trillion annually and only something like 19 or 20% of that is via taxes.
Its not very different from the position the west and ukraine are taking with all this cease fire talk. You give us everything we want and we give you nothing! I mean who couldn’t accept a deal like that? 😉
Not to mention that the harridan Bohemian Grove camper, aka former Stasi nudist blurted out they ‘never had any intention’ of honoring the Minsk Accords.
Could also explain why Unke Warren Buffet is sitting on a mountain of cash for the last few quarters.
Yea, I’ve been watching that too. Whatever you may think of old Buffett personally, he’s one of the best investors humanity has ever produced, so if he is betting cash in the numbers he is, it’s worth paying attention to.
As you said above, the entire thing has been fake since at least 2008, and that can’t go on forever, he seems to be thinking there will be a fire sale soon.
“Whatever you may think of old Buffett personally, he’s one of the best investors humanity has ever produced,”
Meh. Compared to Pelosi, he’s a piker.
Agree, that odd old man, insider that likely knows where all the bodies are buried … is one to watch. None of my holdings are in equities. Hey, when I saw what the government to the north did to the truckers, anyone that donated .. I promptly yanked six figures OUT of TD (Toronto Dominion), had others in my family pull every cent out of TD, Canada related investments and banking. Total divestment of all things Canada. Our tiny, tiny group of people un-Canada’d almost a cool million. A drop in the massive sea? Yes. But let’s try a million… Read more »
I’m not as worried about that. Go ahead and pass the CR, and have DOGE audit the spending. Anyone who is defrauding the system, while knowing that he will get caught, deserves whatever he gets. Which, hopefully, is something like being fed live to feral swine.
Trump is trying to make some crucial changes but they will come to naught unless: 1. He reverses course and doesn’t import infinity Indian H1Bs, increases by at least 10x deportations and manages to end birthright citizenship. As is, our replacements will simply steal a country with a more sound economy thanks to Trump. 2. The Trump administration becomes more than the Trump show and he can pick someone Israel doesn’t like. So far his domestic cabinet is busy fighting anti Semitism and not much else. AG Blondi seems to be auditioning for a host job on Fox with over… Read more »
“As is, our replacements will simply steal a country with a more sound economy thanks to Trump.”
Dunno. I figure they won’t have to import a whole lot more before they will have to open a season on the varmints…
I don’t think the tariffs will apply to software. It is astonishing how quickly huge numbers of software jobs are in places everywhere but America. You can go day-to-day and see entire listings move to Hyderabad or Sofia. Uber seems to be entirely an off-shore development shop now. I am not sure how they will make foreign labor expensive in the software industry – one of the few that provides upper middle class jobs. My hope in the bigger picture is that the government’s radical downsizing will provide the labor needed for all of the jobs that Americans didn’t have… Read more »
The University of California campuses look like the University of Peking!
I heard the Admin didn’t want the extra sideshow of a shutdown and all the hysterical theatrics that would ensue. Too bad, as every shutdown results in people realizing most of the government is a big Jobs Program. (Maybe he could have kept the parks going somehow, just to make the medicine go down better.). And, bring on the theatrics, as it only reminds people why they voted for Trump to begin with.
Right now they have the kooks on their heals, which is why Massie was activated to try and help the kooks.
They had the kooks on their heels but the kooks are regrouping and counterattacking. The Democrats have a lot more judges to undermine Trump. Most Republicans don’t want major changes they just want to pretend they are Maga so it is business as usual with the budgets. Time will tell if Trump administration can successfully counterattack the counterattack.
My understanding is that Massie was opposed because he regards a CR as nothing but a bait-and-switch. Vote for this CR now and next year we’ll implement all these cuts recommended by DOGE. Based on history, he believes there will be no such cuts. In any case, it’s hard to regard CRs as anything but the crappiest form of legislation, bundling everything together to avoid making tough, unpopular decisions about specific programs.
Spectacular. I am probably going to have to listen to this one twice. Some points of order, though: Canada is one of America’s largest trading partners. Trust me – if we “went away” – you guys in America would notice the same way any business would if they lost one of their major key clients. You Yanks would undoubtedly fare much better than we would… but if we go back to the Dirty 30’s, a LOT of you Yanks will go with us. The same danger confronts yourselves and Europe as well. The problem is that unlike Trump – most… Read more »
Hey Filthie,
There is a lot of good will in the US for Canada. I wish you well.
Heck, after Minnesota, it is one of my favorite states.
hehe nice left handed compliment
Hi Filthie, I’m becoming more and more embarrassed by the day to have to live with demented people here in Canada. I’m in Colorado for hols shortly; if asked I’ll say I’m from north Montana.
I agree that Trumps grand plan is necessary but we are starting to see the whores in Congress are working behind the scenes to dilute, modify and block the really transformative stuff. Trump will hit a wall by summer where the impact of EOs dissipates and he switches to fighting the swamp for every inch of progress. The GOP of course will stab Trump in the back like last time. Im thinking the best Trump can do is to crash the stock and real estate markets then withhold the inevitable trillions in bailouts.
Sir John Glubb was right !
https://notesfromthepast.substack.com/p/the-disintegration-of-civilizations
My understanding is that Trump didn’t want to waste his, only requires 51 Senators, once a year budget reconciliation on this continuing resolution. He wanted to keep his powder dry for a real budget in the Fall.
The WH made this clear with the GOP caucus of both houses. They had a meeting two weeks ago in which they told them they needed time to put together a budget based on what DOGE has done and then cuts being made to staff and programs. They actually said they needed 100 days. Massie was in that meeting, so he knows the plan, but he chose to be a douche anyway.
I really hate that guy.
what is massie’s play here?
Also, when the 200% tariffs get slapped on French wines, he expects the Canadians to resort to smuggling their Mother Country’s goods across our northern border to escape the duties.
I think this explains his initial focus in interdicting fentanyl. The narcotic is a convenient proxy for any controlled substance, be it French brie or Chinese meth.
Trump is attempting to do more than reorganize the US economy, he’s trying to remake the global trade and finance system. What I can’t figure out is how he’s going to deal with the dollar. People argue that the global trade system is out of balance because the US runs a huge trade deficit, but that’s not true. Our chief export is the dollar. It’s a commodity, indeed, a desperately needed commodity used for trade, debt servicing and collateral. If the US reduces its trade deficit, it will reduce its export of dollars, which will cause all kinds of trouble,… Read more »
“Trump and his Treasury Secretary Bessent seem to be cooking up some type of Plaza Accord or Bretton Woods to deal with this problem. That would be huge.” Perhaps, but relations with the Europeans do not seem as congenial as they were back in the 80’s. Plus you need to be able to trade actual products, which both blocks had a lot of back then, not so much now. Trading pieces of paper back in forth lacks the same weight. The Europeans need to be brought to heel if you are going to try and replay the cold war with… Read more »
The way I framed it is the great powers will come together like a chancery court, with the US as the chief justice and controller of the global currency. Together, the great powers will manage the global economy, but individually they will have their own area of control, like a district court judge.
I could see that as how the Trump faction views it. And if that were to occur it would be a very soft landing. And the Euros and Democrats still think they can have their WEF ideals. Do you think it will be that unmessy in practice?
Agree. This idea of de-dollarization is off the mark. There’s no alternative nor does China want the job of being a reserve currency, even a regional one, as that would require running deficits like the US. No thanks. But I’m still confused as to how the US can reduce its trade deficit without squeezing the dollar higher – too high for the system to handle. The demand for dollars isn’t going to change anytime soon so a reduction in dollars exported would starve the Eurodollar system. How do you maintain or reduce the price of something when the supply gets… Read more »
Paul Craig Roberts points out that tariffs are a tax on consumption rather than a tax on labor or capital, which is sound policy from an economic point of view. Conventional economists are too tied to the “free trade” ideology to recognize this. Trump’s political success will be tied to the success of his economic policy, which is always the main motivation for voters. Trump’s critics on the right have pointed out that part of the reason for his 2020 loss (besides the fraud) was that his economic policy did not deliver enough benefit to the working class to motivate… Read more »
I disagree. This is the real problem that Team Trump must tackle:
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252960
That guy has been predicting the imminent collapse of the economy for decades.
That is a bit disingenuous zman. He is much less a “doomer” then quite a few others you might read. The math says collapse, but faith can keep you running in mid air for quite some time ;). In fact i’d argue we are already collapsing, its just a very long and slow process. Karl was 100% correct about covid too by the way.
The problem with Karl is he never understood how the global financial system works. He still thinks in terms of money printing and hard money. The appetite for government debt is seemingly limitless because treasuries are the global store of value. They are a proxy for present and future business. As a result, we have options that no other country has. Think of it this way. Imagine the United States has access to an unlimited mine of gold. We can mine not only what we need, but what the world needs as much as we like. That is what the… Read more »
“The appetite for government debt is seemingly limitless because treasuries are the global store of value.”
Then why QE and force rates to 0%? I think its because it isn’t limitless. When you have to do things like that, its because the market will not accept the rates you want.
Think of the dollar as a commodity on par in importance to oil. Oil is the backbone to everything in the modern world. Well, the dollar is the backbone to global financial and trade system. Without the dollar – or even enough dollars – that system grinds to a halt. But unlike oil, which is produced by many countries, the dollar has one source, the US. Everyone thinks that we run a trade deficit, but we don’t. We export dollars and treasuries (which are a store of dollars), which the world desperately needs. In fact, you can tell that we… Read more »
Sure, i get how the reserve currency role works. And i believe other countries do also and how they lose out because of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Munich_speech_of_Vladimir_Putin
I think they’ve been planning and working since then or longer on how to get out from under that yoke. The world works how you state, but my question is, for how much longer?
Actually, Americans – at least some Americans – suffer from the dollar being the GFC just as much as the rest of the world. We have to run trade deficit with manufacturing economies which means that our manufacturing sector is much smaller than it should be, which hurt blue collar workers. The problem for Russia, China, India, etc., is that there is no alternative to the dollar. What’s more, the Eurodollar system is a voluntary system. We don’t force the countless private businesses and banks to trade and lend in dollars. They do it because it’s what’s best for them.… Read more »
“Then why QE and force rates to 0%?”
Because 2% is not creating dollars fast enough for the seemingly limitless appetite. Higher rates slows the money printer go brrrr.
Ha i agree steve!
I also think that if they’d let the market do what it wanted in 08 rates would have done the exact opposite. They said it was a liquidity crisis. If banks want to attract liquidity then they’d have to offer higher rates, but that would have tanked the stock market even more. So they had to QE and 0%. banks get free liquidity and the stock market booms, rewarding lemmings.
that link looks like some sort of html time portal.
While he has never once updated his website.
karl is good on the vaxx, but tiresome else wise.