The world and at least half of America have had a massive allergic reaction to the anything-but-new Trump administration. The administration has perfected a simple routine where whatever it does or says on any subject inevitably blows up in its face.
Tantrums abound—they are the news. The disasters are simply waiting to get a word in edgewise, and that’s not happening yet. Absolutely nothing useful has been achieved.
The rot is deep and getting deeper. This is a corpse saying it feels great and it is great and the gangrene is just a coincidence.
The “achievements” so far include:
Totally antagonizing and infuriating Canada and the European Union in two sentences.
Driving allies away in sheer disgust to the extent of excluding America from major policy initiatives.
Destroying US trade worldwide.
Making the US government administration totally dysfunctional.
Compromising US revenue and increasing Federal debt.
Compromising the Federal budget, which is by now more likely to win a Pulitzer for fiction than any level of credibility.
Ignoring and worsening previously extremely serious domestic economic issues hurting the domestic economy.
Criminality is completely out of control. Agencies are being gutted.
It’s textbook mismanagement. You’d fail first-year economics, unless your teachers lynched you.
Let’s try warily to put an accurate perspective on this mess:
America’s highly insulated bottom-line private capital is usually safe and well out of the danger zone. This time it’s directly in the firing line thanks to property market jitters and capital market spasms. These market volatility moves reflect unstoppable knee jerks, and they’re lethally costly.
The US national sport of fraud is now a large spreading expensive stench and nobody’s winning. People are getting trashed every second. This applies in spades to the capital markets as well. The “living dead of 2008” are still around and so are the people who caused 2008.
Main Street is not remotely in anything like good shape. People are living paycheck to paycheck, plus credit. US retail recorded a coy 0.2% rise in spending in comparison with the official 2.8% inflation rate. That’s less than 1%. Those pockets are hurting, badly.
The future is already buried under decades of neglect.
This almost total negativity in every sector obviously can’t end well. That’s not the problem. The problem is an ongoing legacy of total failure, wrecked lives and multigenerational bankruptcy.
Millennials, Zoomers, and Alphas were already broke and unable to access a viable future. In comparison with the 1950s, they’ve got no way of achieving anything like that standard of living. They already work multiple jobs just to cover daily costs. they can’t buy homes or even have lives to live.
Beware of idiots bearing future disasters.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
