Is the GOP even the party of fiscal responsibility and capitalism anymore?
It's funny that the GOP used to be considered the party of fiscal responsibility and capitalism, but under Trump it seems to be becoming more socialistic and with that, corrupt. See below:
1.) 10% credit card interest rate caps? How is this any different from policies such as rent control, which we know is an abject failure? Just as how rent control discourages development, CC interest rate caps would just discourage banks and CC companies from lending. At 10% caps, you would need a 700+ credit score to qualify. This would stop the economy in it's tracks
2.) Trump has already weaponized the DOJ and FBI. Isn't this what Russia did with the KGB and Nazi Germany with the Gestapo? Is my history wrong?
3.) Trump is now using the weaponized DOJ to gain control of the FED. I don't think this needs further explanation on a finance board.
4.) Weaponizing ICE to target immigrants. Hitler didn't target the Jews first. He targeted communists first then falsely connected Judaism with communism and blamed communism on the Jews (Judeo-Bolshevism)
5.) Increasing military budget to $1.5T. With almost $40T dollars of debt, budget cuts are what the US needs, not budget increases. This is not financially responsible at all.
Is this what the MAGA's voted for?
When were they? Since World War II, 10 of the 11 U.S. recessions have begun under Republican presidents. If Trump keeps going, it will be 11/12.
Republican economics always only work for the 0.1%. No shame to them for looking out for their own best interests, but it's just kind of sad how many dudes making $35k a year slob billionaires' knobs just so they don't have to acknowledge women and black people are human beings.
Reagan was the one that truly did in the actual ideals of old Republicans. Reaganomics is basically just "Kick the shit out of the can"
Donald Trump made it extremely clear that he was going to do all the things you listed, and said it over and over during his campaign. His voters either support it or purposely ignored it and pretended none of it would happen even though he said otherwise. I was accused of fearmongering many times when I said he would start trade wars or actual wars.
On the economic front, it's Trump flailing around in an attempt to regain any popularity. He's trying to set artificial price caps and do things that seem like easy fixes. Like, the credit limit seems like a great idea...Until card companies just start creating late fees and charge those instead. Everyone just shifts to the BNPL model. Or the military budget increase. It would clearly create jobs, and Trumps own actions trying to basically ban those defense firms from shareholder returns means he's basically trying to use the military industrial complex to artificially create demand for STEM jobs rather than, well, just committing to a concrete policy on STEM infrastructure.
As for Trump's using of the government to go after his enemies...That's just classic Trump, and it's been something he's wanted to do for a while. Different is, now the adults are out of the room.
We can debate about economic policies. I think they're dumb, some people think they're good, blah blah. Using the government to attack enemies is literally a violation of everything we stand for as a nation, and this will be something damaging long term. I can only hope that the midterms claw back a lot of the power Trump currently has
The buybacks thing is hilarious. He passed a tax cut in 2017 of which 81% went to corporations buying back his own stock.
Then, when he decides to be a neocon and needs the military to make lots of weapons, suddenly he whines about it.
I mean to be fair, ICE’s job is to target immigrants. Now they have reportedly hospitalised a family and left an infant child unresponsive after flashbanging a car full of Americans which is an entirely different matter but I’d posit that many of the Maga base indeed voted for this.
Red states are generally welfare states; they turnout for trump’s GOP not the establishment GOP. So I wouldn’t call these people hypocrites for blowing up the unstated fiscal rules.
Now there are indeed those, many who frequent this site, who are rampantly anti-globalism and decided to work in the global financial system, likely the most globalised industry in history.
They voted for a protectionist anti-globalist president whilst leeching off of the benefits of globalism. Those people are just parasites, and should be clowned.
When it comes to consistency, you can respect the nativist AF base more than WSO MAGA.
But as I always say, there’s great people on both sides
Let's just say that I might stop voting at this point.
Let's talk on the economics. There's an interesting podcast out on the 'Mishal Hussain Bloomberg' show (very good journalism and does interviews with people from all industries/regions) with Peter Navarro, Trump's tariff demagogue. He said that it was historically the Democrats whom were protectionist and very much 'tariff men'. Rather than the Reagonomic neoliberal model of supply-side reforms and tax cuts (that still facilitated ballooning the national debt), part of Trump's constituency genuinely believe that tariff revenue can be the largest source of income, enabling personal tax cuts (they will still use the Reagan / GOP playbook of tax cuts for the wealthy) that should be complemented with deregulation and supply-side reforms if you want solid growth. However, the big key is debt - I'm not American so don't know much about if Trump is planning or implementing spending cuts or reducing borrowing beyond the semi-parody of DOGE - right idea but it's a bit of a meme given Vivek and Musk walked out pretty early on it. Gone are the days of cheap debt, which is probably why Trump is launching up attacks on Powell & co to puppet in someone who will be a nodding dog and lower rates ahead of the mid-terms to stimulate the economy. Make no mistake, destroy central bank credibility and the yields will skyrocket and you will have a massive US treasury sell-off, possibly even influenced by the Chinese 'dumping' their US holdings.
2 good books on this: 'What went wrong with capitalism' - Ruchir Sharma and have to mention the GOAT, Ray Dalio's new book on debt
Interesting take, thanks for the book recommendations too.
Anything Ruchi Sharma writes is solid - loved his book on rise/fall of nations
Look, the two parties are converging via populism. The right calls it MAGA, the left is AOC and her ilk. Common denominator in populism in a late stage democracy becomes 'each the rich' and 'give me other people's money.' Which means massive money printing is highly unlikely to be avoided going forward, we will take increasing loads of debt to fund social obligations, and entitlement grows.
Incrementally, this makes the US (while still the leader today) less exciting as a place to start a new company / will make the dollar harder to defend / inflation will be structurally higher / the rich will find it less interesting a place to live & invest in. However, this is all a slow bleed so barring something like massive AI driven job losses, the US can remain the #1 (though declining on a relative basis) for many decades ahead -- maybe for another ~50yrs. If you are in the top 5% or have a path to getting there, the US will be a good place to be generally for millennials and above. For Gen Z and below, they will face the brunt of the negative tail of these short-term oriented policies
Politics is comprised of all sorts of unethical and power hungry people. Plenty of dems fit this description as well. However, Trump is most unethical self serving person we have ever had in the white house. He does not care American values. All he cares about about is what is good for himself and will continue on this path because republicans in congress are afraid to stand up to him and risk being voted out.
It's especially frustrating if you're a Ron Paul/Milton Friedman type. You have no one to vote for.
Ron Paul 2012 never forget
The GOP hasn’t been the party of fiscal responsibility in our lifetime.
I can’t believe people still buy into that bullshit.
No but they're not the party of "lemme make everything "free" (paid for by govt), tax the shit out of you, and let in every 3rd worlder with a sob story" party and that's enough to build a coalition these days.
Do you not see the contradiction here? Making everything free and paying for it through taxes is fiscally responsible. You may not agree with it from a policy perspective, but that is by definition fiscal responsibility.
And for what it's worth, Republicans are "lemme make everything free (paid for by govt), and lets not worry about taxes, and empower every violent assholes and domestic terrorist as long as they're white" and that's enough to build their coalition.
I know which one sounds better to me
I’m being taxed as much as ever, and things are as expensive as ever.
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