Where TF is the Border Wall?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by MoneyMatthew, Aug 22, 2018.

  1. All we have to do is elimate/reduce the "aid" paid to Mexico to fund the wall. Hardly a no-brainer.
     
    #71     Aug 23, 2018
  2. Tony Stark

    Tony Stark

    Trumps #1 ET ballwasher 007.
     
    #72     Aug 23, 2018
  3. The number pales in comparison to what Dems did.
     
    #73     Aug 23, 2018
  4. Tony Stark

    Tony Stark

    Obama cutting the deficet in half? Clinton turning the Reagan Bush deficet into a surplus?
     
    #74     Aug 23, 2018
  5. vanzandt

    vanzandt

    At 380M/year.... that'll take 30 years at 12B for the wall. I'm sure that aid we give them is for drug interdiction and the amount is valued over several different metrics. Think we have problems now... I'd hate to see what would happen if their DEA was on its own.
     
    #75     Aug 23, 2018
    Cuddles likes this.
  6. That's all the aid we give to Mexico?
     
    #76     Aug 23, 2018
  7. Obama adding 10 Trillion?

    Clinton enjoying a free windfall from 'funny' mortgage numbers?

    Nothing to see here folks.
     
    #77     Aug 23, 2018
  8. Tony Stark

    Tony Stark

    Did Alex Jones tell you it was 25 billion?Thanks for showing us what a fucking moron you are.
     
    #78     Aug 23, 2018
  9. Tony Stark

    Tony Stark

    What Obama polices added up to 10 trillion?

    You are aware that Bush also encouraged lending to people who couldn't afford it and it was much worse under him than Clinton along with wall street heavily getting in on the action right?
     
    #79     Aug 23, 2018
  10. piezoe

    piezoe

    Ten Trillion?? , not sure what that figure includes. But whenever a discussion of the Obama deficits comes up it needs to be recognized that Obama inherited a exceedingly deep recession. Large deficits are the norm in times of recession; enormous deficits will be the norm in times of exceedingly deep recessions..

    Leaving aside questions of cause and guilt, it was only through very unusual measures taken in the waning hours of the Bush administration that the World was saved from a full-on depression. The Obama Deficits, which of course declined as the economy recovered , were largely a result of continued war, continued recovery measures and further economic stimuli. The previous Bush administration created huge deficits due to tax cuts and the Iraq war.* The cost of that continues to this day. In a Johns Hopkins study, the total cost including interest and veterans benefits was estimated at 3.5 to 4 Trillion , but that was 8 years ago, and our involvement has not entirely stopped, so the total cost will continue to escalate. The TARP program (troubled assets relief program) reached about 0.7 trillion, but that money was eventually recovered including some interest. So there is practically no net direct cost attributable to TARP.

    What should be of great interest now that we are technically at full employment, is what fraction of the cost of the Trump tax cuts and additional interest will be passed on in the form of inflation in coming years, and whether another à la manière de Bush administration market collapse will eventually occur from market excesses brought on by over stimulation of an economy not in recession. As before, we can probably count on the ingenuity of Wall Street , to invent new products aimed at taking advantage of an overly robust economy.

    We are not blazing a new economic trail, so much as we are repeating selected features from the second Reagan** term and combining them with a repeat of the latter Bush administration's mistakes. We should expect similar results. That would include accelerated wealth disparity along with stagnation of real wages. Nominal wages will grow of course. but inflation could be expected to hold real wages in check and, as before, may cause a decline in real wages at the low end of the spectrum. It will be of interest to see how this current attempt at doing the same thing and expecting different results works out.*** Chances are good that it will be the administration that comes after the Trump administration, and possibly even after the Pence administration, that finds out.

    ______________________
    * According to Modern Money Theory a country with a fiat currency can carry a deficit continually so long as its productivity can keep up. Productivity increases can compensate for increases in money supply. And of course Wars have a large impact on productivity. Some of that is related to the production of the machinery of war , and some to the replacement of assets destroyed in war. From the viewpoint of thermodynamics, war is a horrible waste; from the viewpoint of the businessman, War is opportunity. Let us hope that going forward the thermodynamic perspective will receive more attention.

    ** the entire Trump Campaign and Presidency, seems a comic pastiche of the Reagan campaign and Presidency, right down to the MAGMA slogan . Certainly the over the top application of supply side economics is there. Will the result be different this time. Not according to Einstein.

    ***Actually I think the result will be as intended, but no politician on the right is going to admit that the intent all along was to help themselves and their friends.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2018
    #80     Aug 23, 2018