For the politically connected, the entrenched bureaucracy, the deep state, the political class, the insiders, the swamp, the news media, this is the best week since the 2016 election.
For the rest of us, it is the worst week since Trump arrived on the scene. They just Made America Sightly Better Than Average Again.
Two bad things happened yesterday:
1. The stock market experienced one of its biggest losses in history.
2. Congress passed a bloated spending bill that is an unnatural disaster.
The two are related but there is more bad news that affects everything else. The Trump tariffs are in a word, bad. If the Donald is using deceptive taxes on American consumers (tariffs) including industrial consumers who use steel to create other jobs (as in our entire industrial base) as a bargaining chip (as I think he is doing) this will self-correct. If on the other hand, Trump is taking economic advice from the Dobbs, the Bannons and the Coulters, we are all in big trouble. The Trump Train will lose its steam. The fictional Blue Wave will sweep over all of us. Say hi to President Booker and Speaker Pelosi.
Let us hope the president sees the light on free trade. In the meantime we have a Dem/RINO coalition that passed a horrific spending bill. How much this contributed to a market crash and how much was the president's hubris, is impossible to determine. The details of the bill, toxic as they might be, will be discussed elsewhere. The size of the debt-compounding Omnibus was felt immediately by anyone who had hopes of retiring someday. It wrecked 401's as soon as it was unveiled.
Markets possess wisdom that the Ryans and McConnells never seem to grasp. It looks grim but the sun just might just push aside the clouds after all. President Trump, front and center once more, has threatened to veto the demonic handiwork. Encouraging, but it is probably the details that bother the president, and not the homage to Obama-debt pork barrel destruction the Ryanistas have provided.
Poison is poison if it is promoted by Democrats or Republicans or Trumpsters or populists or cheerleaders. Impediments to free trade = poison. Fiscal recklessness = poison.
Once more, we have to decide if we are advocating for proper nouns, or we are advocating for principles.
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