One of the things I really wonder is this. What if DOGE only manages to save several hundred billion. Its nothing compared to the $2T deficit, but what if this savings cuts 80% of the money that went into the pockets of politicians and their financiers? I think I would absolutely be happy if Pelosi lost 99% of her wealth, and had to survive on a $200k salary, which is still astonishingly generous compared to what most people make. Sure you have departments that do nothing useful, but many of those departments have people who mean well, and who are doing legit work, even if it is pushing paper around. Think of something as useless as a conference designed to push some bullshit woke agenda. You have the idiot presenters getting a ton of cash just to do a presentation, and this is the fraudulent waste, but you also have the venue that is a legitimate business, and it will suck if they now see a drastic decrease in revenue. Then you also have all the workers, anyone from security for the venue to the food catering, etc. All of this will be gone. So if we are going to have government waste, at least if it can be more equally distributed vs. concentrated by the elite. The spending needs to be cut back more gradually, since a new equilibrium for how much business is actually organic and not government sponsored is much lower than where we are today. But cutting $2T from spending is an instant depression. Even if your income taxes can go down 20%, or 50%, it won't help much if you jump by over 10% instantly in unemployment. And this is likely where we are heading. Its the Covid crisis all over again. Entire shutdown of the economy, followed by massive injection of money, and of course there were major supply chain disruptions. Now you will have an instant cut in government workers, which leads to massive drop in economic activity with no way to buffer this rapid drop.
I seriously doubt, even with mass firings, they will come anywhere near $2T in savings. Just think, they would need to ax 20 million people each making $100,000 to equal $2T 20 friggen million edit: btw Goggle AI calculated it at 20,000 lol
True, but I think a good chunk of that money is also going into pockets of politicians or friends without it being an actual employee. Think of it like a $2M fee for some type of artwork or bullshit like this.
No doubt there has been fraud, waste and corruption going on .... the last two months lol. But I wasn't born yesterday or last night or to Elves. They (Elon specifically) are just slashing and burning. There will be IMO a cost to pay, by all of us as is always the case, before it is all said and done. A net cost, not a net benefit.
or like the renovation at a park near me.. $10,000,000 for an aquatic center.. A freaken pool.. Caching!!!!
(CNBC) The “Trump Bump” — in which stocks and other assets, such as cryptocurrency, jumped after Donald Trump’s election and inauguration — appears to have leveled off. Nowhere is this clearer than in Tesla shares, which plunged on Tuesday, erasing most of a postelection pop driven by CEO Elon Musk’s association with Trump. Some concern over Tesla involves the company’s performance, while others are specific to Musk, who is spending much of his time in Washington D.C Consumers are also growing worried about the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the economy. A U.S. Conference Board survey showed pessimism around the availability of jobs, business conditions and future income — as well as heightened expectations for inflation in 2025. The 10-year Treasury yield, which is seen as an indicator of growth expectations, dropped on that news. Stocks continued to slide. If the trajectory doesn’t change soon, we could be facing a “Trump Slump.” + + + lololol putting it nicely, instead of how they truly want to say it Trump DUMP !!!!!!!!!!!!
Trump Aims at Chinese Shipping, Risking Another Shock for Businesses https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/business/trump-china-shipping.html --- Nearly 80 percent of American foreign trade by weight is transported by ship, yet less than 2 percent is carried on American-flagged vessels, according to Gavekal Research. --- “The proposed fees are huge, and they will get rolled into what shippers have to pay, and hence consumers,” said Willy Shih, an international trade expert at Harvard Business School. “It’s a really aggressive move that reflects an administration that is either out of touch with how the world really works or that doesn’t care and wants to cause chaos.” --- At least 15 percent of American exports would have to be shipped on U.S.-flagged vessels within seven years of the new policy, and 5 percent of fleets would have to be built in the United States. “There is no physical way in hell that U.S. shipyards can do that,” said Lars Jensen, chief executive of Vespucci Maritime, a container shipping consultancy based in Copenhagen. “The technical term for this proposal would just be ‘stupid.’”
Exactly the American-flagged shipping fleet is miniscule. Mostly back and forth to Hawaii by Matson. And has been for 50 years or more. Trying to change that in 7 years is Dotarded of course.
GE Transportation (US) Caterpillar (US)1 Cummins Inc. (US) Rolls-Royce Power Systems (Germany) MAN Energy Solutions (Germany) Wärtsilä (Finland) Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group (Japan) Brunswick (US) Volvo Penta (Sweden) YANMAR (Japan) Scania AB (Sweden) Deere & Company (US) Deutz AG (Germany) Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (South Korea) STX Engine (Hong Kong) the kicker is that the marine engines are built in us on many of these chinese ships.