Thinking Globally In A World Gone Mad
One of the themes I harp on quite a lot in these pages is the extent to which populism anno 2017 plays on the fears of those who feel as though the world has left them behind.
This notion of the disaffected American factory worker whose job went to cheap labor in China has been kind of crystallized into a rallying cry for Donald Trump's support base and the new President was more than happy to exploit the idea of the "silenced", downtrodden masses during his campaign.
The myriad problems with
H–Super piece thanks. We need people of all stripes+some leaders with backbone to move away from this awful administration and I think you are correct, the Orange/julius is starting to reach his expiration date. Didn’t take long for this drama to become unhinged.
Another thought. The American worker has been led down a road to ruin with fake promises from both democrats and even more so by republicans. Time and again they were told this trade deal was good for them when it was really only good for corporate bottom lines. Why wouldn’t most workers feel some kind of betrayal. Remember everyone has an agenda and time and again the american worker was moved further down in the list. Should they have seen this coming, you bet, especially when they are training some person from some other country for their job.
H – I’d like to hear your thoughts with regard to this hypothesis: That Trump is a minor factor in the so-called Trump Trade. That the trend pre-dates Trump, that it started in July 2016, paused during Oct and resumed on Nov 3rd at a time when the election was a coin-flip. That the forces driving this trend are powerful macro trends in asset allocation (outflows from bonds and inflows to equities) which are not getting nearly as much attention as Trump. What are those forces and trends? Candidates: loss of Central Bank power, risk of debt defaults, risk of currency devaluations, investment assets fleeing non-US economies, a rush to the dollar, a rush to US equities. What do you think? (Without dwelling on Trump too much, his effect on the migration of investment funds from debt to equities and from foreign to US is this: prior US administration was actively inhibiting debt defaults and currency devaluations, but this administration will be hands-off and will allow debt defaults and currency devaluations to occur sooner and deeper.) – Mark
“It is unquestionably desirable (again, from a utilitarian perspective) to create an open, global economy and to foster a shared human destiny. ”
Martin Sheff in his book “That should still be us: How Thomas Friedman’s flat world myths are keeping us flat on our backs” both questions such elitist thinking and shows convincingly that it is NOT desirable.
You seem to be a fast reader and big on convergences and divergences, read it for your self and see who does a better job of describing reality compared with beliefs, Sheff or Friedman (and you who apparently follow him as gullibility as others follow Trump) .
I agree that Trump can not turn back time but maybe he has a chance to alter the course of our shared human destiny in a positive direction.
I hate Thomas Friedman. Not necessarily because of his view of the world, but because a God awful writer and generally a complete fucking idiot.
Maybe pigs can fly? This president has no intention of a shared human destiny. Many of his followers want him to blow-up a system that they think has failed them. In many ways it has but this has disaster written all over it. There are no jobs coming back and safer is not scaring the rest of the world with empty threats. We are one event away from having 3-4 Trumps in Europe just waiting to lob a few economic bombs (maybe literally). This could get serious really fast (as in months not years) and lots of people will be collateral damage. I’m sure Trump, LePen, Wilders and a few more right wing crazies will be thinking of all those people as they move toward the destruction of the EU. RIGHTTTTTT!!!!! By the way Putin is sitting with a big smile on his face right now just licking his chops waiting to pounce.
I just read John Mauldin’s latest newsletter at http://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/tax-reform-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-part-one#end and now understand a bit more your and Heisenber’s concerns. Do you think that Putin is hoping for a world wide depression.? How could he benefit?