Welcome to Stupid America!

From an article in the NYT, “America’s trade deficit in goods with the rest of the world rose to its highest level in history last year as the United States imported a record number of products, including from China, widening the deficit to $891.3 billion and delivering a setback to President Trump’s goal of narrowing that gap.” Fan-f***ing-tastic! I’ve been waiting for the right event to write a post about economics, and this report on the trade deficit is perfect in so many ways. Let me preface my comments by saying one of the few aspects of life that pervades all of society yet is little understood by the vast majority of people is economics! It is astonishing that such an important subject is so scantly understood by almost everyone in this country, beyond the supply-and-demand mantra. (I doubt most people can graph supply and demand curves.) While quantum physics, multi-variable calculus, and microbiology are examples of subjects that the average person can live without comprehending, economics is not if one wants to be an informed and useful voting citizen. Perhaps I expect too much. It should be critically important to everyone to grasp a rudimentary understanding of how individuals and firms (aka markets) and society (aka government) interact and allocate scarce resources–capital, labor, resources, and time. Morons of America fail to realize that economics is all around us every day and in every moment and in every decision. Unless we live in a limitless world then we cannot escape economics, yet most people have no clue what economics means. That, my friends, is the definition of a motherf***ing G.D. stupid America!

So, where to begin? First, as with every president, the state of the economy, in the short-term, is out of his control, until longer-term actions like legislation (e.g., tax cuts) and policy (e.g., tariffs and regulations) take full effect–usually 6-18 months from the time of implementation. In other words, it takes a while for any new administration to affect the economy, and traitor trump is firmly beyond the 18-month mark, so he, in short, owns this economy, for better or worse (and it is starting to show signs of weakness around the edges). Can you imagine how strong the economy might be if he knew what the f*** he was doing? Moreover, it drives me absolutely f***ing G.D. nuts when traitor trump claims (and others agree) he’s created the best economy ever in the first year of his presidency because at that point it really is still Obama’s economy; the only thing traitor trump can take credit for is not destroying the economy quicker! But morons of America don’t know any better because, of course, a $20.50 trillion economy (2018 estimate) turns on a dime! Naturally, MAGA morons believe traitor trump walked into the Oval Office, snapped his fingers, and then people suddenly started hiring more, buying more, and making more. F*** me! I’m surrounded by idiots of America.

Second, traitor trump pretends to know everything (indeed, more than anybody else) about the economy (e.g., “trade wars are good, and easy to win” or coal is making a comeback in America because he simply says so, never mind the economics of energy dictates that coal is no longer competitive with natural gas and oil–this is a continuation of a long-term economic trend, which he cannot reverse). Even before MAGA morons elected traitor trump he demonstrated no basic understanding of economics. He thought the economy could bend to his whim: he’ll fix the trade deficit by mere fiat or wishful thinking. Guess what? Sudden, capricious tariffs are not a way to fix the trade deficit. Because other countries will (and do) retaliate. So, here we are with Mr. Economics thinking he’s fulfilled one of his campaign pledges. Only he can correct the trade deficit because previous administrations were so dumb they let other countries take advantage of America by somehow letting us demand cheaper products from other countries like China.

Third, he still doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a trade deficit. He acts as if it’s a perpetual amount of money that other countries owe us or that other countries are taking our money (presumably against our will), but in reality, all a deficit means is that we import more than we export, so a trade imbalance in and of itself is not a bad or a good thing, per se. It is simply one measure of economic activity and health, but according to traitor trump, it’s the single barometer of the nation’s economic acumen (or lack of it)–or in his own parlance how much America is getting “screwed” by other countries. The entire purpose of international trade is to leverage a national competitive advantage–in both directions. Typically, one nation provides to another nation some good or service that the home nation cannot do for themselves better or for cheaper or not at all. One hopes that the amount and extent of trade will be mutually beneficial (i.e., free and fair) to both countries. Anyone who has taken an international economics course understands this. I know, I know. I’m talking about a 400-level college topic to a remedial 090-level college algebra America. Because this country is stuck on buying cheap then we are China’s best, willing customers. That includes the traitor trump family (“allegedly”) where their merch is produced. The hypocrisy is astounding yet completely lost on MAGA morons and RepubliKKKlans.

Last, traitor trump has no motherf***ing clue how tariffs work. Whenever he discusses the topic he intimates that other countries pay for tariffs as if the Chinese government, for instance, must reach into its treasury and pay a penalty to the U.S. government. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tariffs are a tax that the importer pays to the home government. One could reasonably argue that some foreign companies may wish to cover (or that government subsidizes) the added tax expense to keep the total expense of exporting their products the same (and therefore competitive); it is one option for exporters. The more likely consequence is that the importing company absorbs the tax expense initially; however, the cost of the tax is eventually passed down to the end consumer. In other words, it becomes inflationary, and not only inflationary to the imported products but to domestic substitute products as well. Consider traitor trump’s brilliant steel tariff. Not only does it cost more to bring steel into the country, but it inherently incentivizes domestic steel producers to increase prices to match import prices. So when idiot traitor trump and MAGA morons think tariffs are only punishing other countries, it is in effect punishing the very same average American that his idiot supporters like to think he cares about (think farmers).

Traitor trump in all his stupidity unnecessarily set himself up to fail with his ridiculous economic and trade pledges, and MAGA morons and RepubliKKKlans are so f***ing stupid they believe whatever B.S. he is selling them as being easy: trade wars are good and winnable, 3-5%-plus annualized GDP growth, reducing the trade deficit, or cutting taxes and reducing the national debt. He keeps telling everyone that everything is just so easy to fix because, unlike himself, all his predecessors were just too f***ing stupid, so here we are in the midst of the presidency of the dumbest person ever to hold office and things are starting to show signs of cracking. Welcome to stupid f***ing America!