Our resident panjandrum held another of his show and tell meetings today. He had a room full of fortune 500 executives plus what passes for his brain trust. I didn't watch because clearly all that would happen the probably each person identifying himself and his company, as if everybody didn't know that, and then Trump talking about how he is moving forward swiftly and improving the economy. Nothing can happen of any use in such a meeting but when the president summons usiness executives to the White House they pretty much have to go. As usual, Trump is creating the appearance of progress as opposed to real progress.
There is an old joke about a businessman hiring a new head accountant. He asks each of the interviewees what 2+2 equals. They all dutifully say four. The last prospect, before answering, gets up, closes the door, comes back to the desk and says" what would you like it to be." He is immediately hired. I bring this up because of recent statements by Steve the munchkin, the new secretary of the treasury. Projections of most economists show the economy growing over some period of time prospectively at about 1.8%. The munchkin says they are going to use their own projections which will be somehow about 3% or so. He also has said that the unemployment rate numbers are wrong and that the administration will offer new ones. We know that Trump is incapable of excepting any numbers that are inconsistent with his fantasies. We also know that he makes extravagant claims about everything he does and its follows that no matter what most people's view of reality might be, Trump will succeeded in producing number showing magnificent, remarkable, fantastic increases in the economy. The only way to measure change is to consistently apply the same methodology to the same databases. When the Trump administration starts rolling out this nonsense, it will be incumbent upon academics and economists at places such as the IMF to provide an independent analysis consistent with practices that have been used
Many of trumps supporters say they base their support upon the fact that he was a highly successful businessman. Is there any real evidence of that? We know that one year or his businesses lost approximately $1 billion. We know that the lenders had to bail him out when he went bankrupt in the casino business. We know that his businesses now basically consist of licensing his name. We have no idea how much these businesses are leveraged and whether they actually turn a profit. The notion that he is successful is largely based upon the lavish lifestyle he leads. Ever hear of Bernie Maddox? Is there any reason to Think that Donald Trump is not a total fraud in everything he does?
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