The problem with having two news narratives running in the country simultaneously, is that real problems aren’t getting the attention that they deserve. Trump’s idiotic game with China and tariffs is causing an economic slowdown. MarketWatch:
The business environment is deteriorating — fast.
That is according to a gauge of business conditions tracked by Morgan Stanley, which said in a recent note that its proprietary Business Conditions Index, or MSBCI, fell 32 points last month, marking its sharpest collapse since the metric was formulated. The gauge touched its lowest point since the 2007-08 financial crisis. A separate composite business-condition index also fell by the most since 2008 and hit its lowest level since February of 2016.
Morgan Stanley’s report comes as stocks in June have mostly drifted higher in turbulent trading, with the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.70% entering correction territory on June 3, but gaining 6.3% since that point as of Friday morning trade, according to FactSet data.
Swirling anxiety around the U.S.’s trade relationship with China and other major international counterparts has hurt the confidence of business leaders because the unresolved tariff battles have made it difficult for corporate chieftains to develop business strategies and forced many companies to alter their supply chains.
Trump crows to his supporters about “billions of dollars coming in from China” because he flat out doesn’t know how a tariff works. His ignorance may insulate him for the moment but in the real world the games he’s playing have consequences, that other people will pay, in true Trumpian form.
Ugh!
I knew this was coming. What I’m worried about is that the worst will hit when the Democrats are back in power and have to clean it up. It is possible that Trump will coast through to 2020 without any of this splattering on him.
I’m more optimistic myself, Ursula. I fully expect an epic implosion next year that he’ll vainly try to shift blame for. After all, when it comes to world-class mismanagement, he’s had plenty of practice.
Truthfully? I’ve been looking for this to happen since he got elected. The surprise is in how much he’s been willing to screw over the Republican donor base in the process. The China thing in particular has cost them way too much.
The roots in this started with the GOP-Nazi cuts to all education and food assistance programs to the poor; and the Trump elimination of regulations in the banking industry – leading to skyrocketing interest rates on credit cards. It really accelerated with the Lyin Ryan and Senatortoise McTraitor TrumpTaxScam and now the tarriffs on goods from China and Canada. Personally, re: the TrumpTaxScam I went from receiving a small federal tax rebate for 2017, to having to increase my federal deduction by $300 per month to avoid having to pay a tax penalty. Greatest wealth transfer in the history of the USA to the extremely rich from everyone else.
I put the roots back to the dumbing down of America. An ignorant and uneducated populace is much easier to control. I started watching these trends back in the early 80’s and what I feared has come to pass. A good education was available in the public school system at one time, but no more, not for 40 some years.
Great point. The more educated, the greater chance one is able to think for themselves instead of buying into the control propaganda. I think the seeds of the decline may have started even before the early 80’s, in the early 70’s – when I was in public school. Underpaid under-supported teachers, states under-funding public schools, cutting programs and diverting funds to private schools, public unwillingness to invest in students (their future), and skyrocketing drug use among students. And on-top of it all, the rising cost of a college education and students saddled with debt for the rest of their lives from the predatory interest rates of student loans. US has fallen behind so many other countries in its public education system. Although many of our universities are still revered the world over, the best ideas and research results arising from our colleges are not being applied to fix our problems here, as is being done in so many other countries, putting us at a competitive and economic disadvantage worldwide.
He still has no clue – he claims that in the 50s and 60s, the government was paying cash because there wasn’t a deficit.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/25/1867153/-Trump-spins-another-tale-about-the-US-national-debt-and-tariffs
Trump has NO clue what the hell he is doing with his chest-thumping Tariffs and other stupid EO’s ….
He does no realize you don’t do like he did with all those failed businesses of his, you don’t go around telling everyone how great you are doing, then ride the avalanche down the mountain to the valley floor below and then claim bankruptcy all the way to tax relief at our expense …
Once he screws us into the ground, there are NO calls for bankruptcy to save us, (visions of bread lines, apple stands and fast-emptying shelves in the fallout shelters for the few remaining scorched, but still breathing bodies)
His flinging threats around the world to Iran and others is a good sign he is totally inept and a REAL threat to our nation … someone in the Republican Senate, PLEASE, get a spine and a brain, tone this idiot down … super glue the seat on his golden throne, might be a good start, then turn on a cell phone jam device in the hall outside …