General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmericans do understand that Trump is wrecking the economy. Even Republicans.
Govt Money Market rate
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/performance-and-risk/31617H102
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https://digbysblog.net/2025/04/11/making-america-scared-again/
Apparently, people do understand that Trump is wrecking the economy. Even Republicans.
Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second-lowest reading on records going back to 1952. April’s reading was lower than anything seen during the Great Recession.
President Donald Trump’s volatile trade war, which threatens higher inflation, has significantly weighed on Americans’ moods these past few months. That malaise worsened leading up to Trump’s announcement last week of sweeping tariffs, according to the survey.
“This decline was, like the last month’s, pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region and political affiliation,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a release.
“Sentiment has now lost more than 30% since December 2024 amid growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year,” she added.
This is particularly ominous and totally self-inflicted:
Expectations for inflation rates in the year ahead surged to 6.7% this month from 5% in March, the highest level since 1981, while expectations for the next five to 10 years climbed to 4.4% from 4.1%.
If people do lose faith that inflation will ever get back to normal in the coming years, that would make it extremely difficult for the Fed’s monetary policy to fight inflation.
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No kidding. The fact that he had a strong, growing economy and has purposefully thrown it over a cliff is the best evidence there is that there’s something very wrong with him this time. This is not the way he usually operates. He is the guy who takes credit for others successes and blames others for his failures. Something’s different and he’s even more reckless and rash. His faith in his own instincts is completely dominant now and that’s terrifying.
People can see this and it’s translating into pessimism about the economy. And that could end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy as we watch him decompensating before our eyes.
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OrlandoDem2
(3,234 posts)Now is the time for this of us on the Left, as well as other normal Americans, to make it clear that Trump’s policies are awful for Americans. His leads a cult and he is hurting our wallets.
I’m spending as little money as possible until this shit (Trumpism) ends!
c-rational
(3,203 posts)OMGWTF
(5,131 posts)OrlandoDem2
(3,234 posts)
al_liberal
(487 posts)Could have just assumed credit for Biden’s economy and golfed for 4 years.
dalton99a
(94,113 posts)
Kid Berwyn
(24,392 posts)Besides fire everyone working in the federal government serving We the People?
Trump really is doing the best he can to destroy the United States of America.
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)“ The fact that he had a strong, growing economy and has purposefully thrown it over a cliff is the best evidence there is that there’s something very wrong this time”
Same as before… are you kidding me? He MURDERED over 1 million with covid last time and f the economy with his covid lies etc. I guess that was not enough. Not to mention everything else. Set up the Ukraine war as well. But now WS and the rich are worried due to his obvious ILLEGAL INSIDER manipulation of the market and the resulting financial fallout. It’s just clearer to some now what his true goal is.
Ol Janx Spirit
(1,012 posts)...people seem to care about. Time and again political fortunes are tied to the actual monetary fortunes of the voting public--even among those that vociferously proclaim their love for and allegiance to a historical figure famously known for putting morality--or a certain form of it at least--over wealth. And yes, while most of us are guided by at least some set of moral values, those clearly tend to be subservient to wealth. This tension between wealth and morality is a big part of the reason we have the budget deficits and national debt that will now be used by the political right to crush those without the resources to fight them. We want society to do some good things--help feed the poor; provide healthcare to the indigent; protect the food supply; protect the water supply; ensure some form of basic fairness; try not to allow runaway poverty--but we do not want to pay for it, so we have decided to fund it through debt we pass down to future generations rather than give up our hard-earned money in the amount of taxes it takes to actually fund these things and the giant military we hope will protect us from foreign invaders. Even nuanced moral and economic arguments like the fact that affordable healthcare for everyone is better for almost everyone economically seem to be pushed to the side--and even used against politicians when convenient--when arriving at the voting booth. The reason Republicans consistently poll higher than Democrats on the question of which party is better for the economy seems to be based entirely on their consistent desire to cut taxes. Would you like to use extrajudicial means to deport people? Sure thing, just cut my taxes. Would you like to kick poor people into the ditch? No problem, just cut my taxes. Want to pollute my air; ruin my water; eliminate my child's access to education? Whatever, just cut my taxes. But WHOAH NOW, my paycheck doesn't seem to buy what it used to...so you're out! It is such a tortured irony that those of us that want good things for everyone are left to cheer for this Administration's destruction of the economy in order to oust them in the next election cycle. And unfortunately we know that in the election cycle after that we are just as likely to lose power again to the same forces. We are caught in a feedback loop of self-destruction.
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)Paragraphing is useful skill.
Ol Janx Spirit
(1,012 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)
llmart
(17,615 posts)I can't tell you how much I agree with your opening statement (and everything after that). I would count myself as one of those people who wants to see the economy tank, if only because that would open people's eyes to how unsustainable our unfettered and rampant love of capitalism is not only destroying America's moral fiber but the planet we live on.
Ol Janx Spirit
(1,012 posts)...we have come to dominate the earth and have an impact on every part of it on which we have set foot--and even many we haven't. There is an extreme tension that exists between the economy which demands ever more workers to produce all of the both incredible and mundane products we can imagine, and with the earth's environment which does not care one bit about what we desire and will absolutely leave this planet uninhabitable if mismanaged. The economy is an entirely human imagined construct that wields incredible power. So much power that it seems inevitable that it will eventually destroy the one thing the species that invented it depends on to survive. Stopping this iteration of political adherents is essential to the future of the planet, but it is by no means the end of the struggle. My hope is that at some point we will learn what it takes to avoid disaster.
c-rational
(3,203 posts)Meowmee
(9,212 posts)Also stop price gouging etc. in all aspects including hc. And everything that causes poverty in the first place.
Ol Janx Spirit
(1,012 posts)...why is that not a fact so obvious that we do not even need to debate it before putting it into action? Why do 99% of the population allow 1% of the population to shirk their civic responsibility to help take care of society's needs if in nothing else than great appreciation for their lives of luxury? Many books and philosophical tomes have been written around this subject going back to ancient cultures, and there are actually many reasons this is true even in our own time. But, it is generally true that the more you need the help of others the more you appreciate and support a community that seeks to ensure the prosperity of all; the less you need the help of others the more you appreciate and support a community that seeks to only serve your needs and desires. This is actually true across the economic scale, and it seems to have some exponential growth as you get higher in wealth. Wealth in every society since the invention of the human concept we call money has equaled power. Power means you can ensure that if you don't want to pay taxes to support society in general you don't have to. Therefore, unfortunately--taxing the rich is not going to be a thing we can count on to bail us out. In addition, it is almost impossible to tax the very wealthy because they do not get a paycheck like the vast majority of tax payers. In fact, we all take some advantage of this system. If you buy a home and get a loan for $500,000.00, the government does not count that loan as income and tax you that year as if you got paid $500,000.00 in income. So, when Elon Musk gets a billion dollars in stock options from one of his companies and takes out a $500 million loan against it to fund his lifestyle, the government does not count that as income for him. His effective personal tax rate is whatever interest rate he can get from the institution that loans him the money--but it creates no money for the treasury other than the taxes the institution--probably also a business that is well-connected--pays. These rules could be changed, but the people in charge of them are also wealthy and will never--and I mean never--change them willingly. History has shown that the rebalancing of the poor vs. rich dynamic is almost always through violent means. What we must all hope is that we can find a way forward without that outcome.
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)Congress and politics are corrupt and money talks... etc. etc. ps. add some paragraphs, it's easier to read 😁
Ol Janx Spirit
(1,012 posts)...where we (many of us anyway) are stuck between a future we want and a current reality that will not ever let us get there. And considering that workers have been striking against bad governance for at least the last 3100 years we can say this problem is not new. We must somehow envision a future that does not depend on politics alone or the hope of a collective morality to move society in a positive direction.
Aristus
(72,180 posts)“Ah still bleeve in hee-im cuz he’s doin’ good thangs fer the cuntry!” 
FoxNewsSucks
(11,701 posts)
Aristus
(72,180 posts)His tee-shirt is spelled correctly. 
HorsesflyHigh
(36 posts)
gulliver
(13,985 posts)We lost in the last election, and we need to own it. The suffering that working- and middle-class Trump voters experience is not a "we told you so" if we are smart. It's a chance to ask average and commonsense people who are reachable on the center right to switch to us or switch back.
Our message needs to be, "Hello, working and middle class. We want to work for you. We're sorry if some who claim to speak for the Dems may have given you the impression that Dems will focus on anything but the economy, national healthcare, responsible gun ownership, and reproductive freedom going forward. They don't speak for us. We're not going to do anything that isn't a priority for the democratic majorities of those who vote for us. We work for you. Vote for us.
llmart
(17,615 posts)And yet here we are.
raccoon
(32,390 posts)Except you're too chicken to do that.
Martin68
(27,741 posts)FB who insist Trump's kicking global ass with his big, beautiful tariffs. I throw facts right back at them.
Warpy
(114,614 posts)since it has provided us with billionaires who consider themselves a new and improved Master Race while decreasing our purchasing power year after year. Maintaining the stability of such a patently unfair and dangerously lopsided system seems like a bad idea to ,a lot of people out there.
The problem is thinking they can control what happens next or that the next economic paradigm will be any better than this one. The potential is for a far worse one, innovation and entrepreneurship choked off completely as the US sinks into decline and the billionaires suck up the remaining spoils.
Change carries great risk and can go either way. A lot of people out there are willing to takethat risk these days, even if it is accomplished by a man-baby who pulls bogus numbers out of his ass and eschews the advice of real experts. They're not all crazy, either.
The next 3.5 years are going to be tough ones to live through, especially for people who tend toward anxiety. I can't make any economic predicitions, but I imagine at the end there will be a lot more people dependent on alcohol and/or benzodiazepines.