January 2–Trump's credibility hits new low
January 4–Trump's approval hits new low
January 7––Trump's behavior hits new low
January 12–Trump's behavior and credibility hit new low
January 17–Trump's approval and credibility hit new low
January 24–Trump's credibility nonexistent
January 28–Trump declares polls measuring approval, behavior and credibility" fake news"
January 30–the bottom not yet in sight
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
"The Mouth" goes to Davos
Today, of all things, we were treated to seeing Anthony" the mouth" Scaramucci being interviewed in Davos. Is he back on Trump's team or is he on his own dime? Who knows. He actually had something interesting to say but more about that later. Meanwhile Trump's you should excuse the expression" Brain trust" is also there. I'm talking about the estimable Wilbur Ross, Gary Cohn and of course Steve Mnuchin. Mnuchin was applauding the weakening of the dollar, and hoping it continued, because it would have a positive effect on US exports. You may recall that during the campaign Trump's economic guru Peter Navarro had convinced the Donald that all of the US economic problems, real and mostly imagined, would disappear if we eliminated trade deficits with China. In those days Trump was railing against the Chinese government devaluing it's currency, apparently not realizing that I had ended a few years ago. Now the munchkin is apparently advocating US do something similar. This will probably be known as the Chinese gambit period. Apparently Mnuchin did not consider the effect of a declining dollar on the role of the US primary reserve currency and the effect on rates demanded in future treasury auctions.
Trump is apparently going to give a speech Friday promoting his America First economic program. He has just placed tarifs on large washing machines and solar panels. There is an interesting article in the January 23 new York Times pointing out this is likely to cause a loss of jobs in the United States whereas Donnie will doubtless claim he is creating them. If our fearless leader explains his economic theories in his usual fashion it would be nice if people such as Christine Lagarde or Mario Draghi would take the podium to gently but insistingly rebuke him. Probably won't happen in public but the private conversations wouldn't be interesting to say the least.
Meanwhile, back to" the mouth". For the first time in my hearing at least someone aligned with Donnie talked about the virtue of increasing aggregate demand and thus energizing the virtuous cycle in this country and how it would be beneficial to not only the US but the world in general. Holy smokes, has he been talking to real economists in Davos? Of course he did not explain the mechanism to increase aggregate demand. He did not, for instance say that aggregate demand suffers because of the inequality of income and wealth in this country and that the best way to cure this is to give tax cuts and benefits to segments of the population with high marginal consumption rates instead of giving tax cuts to corporations and people who have more money than they know what to do with. Maybe someone there will explain that to him.
Like everyone I suppose, I can't wait to hear the speech from our man in the White House. And of course I can't wait to hear his own critique of his performance although it is somewhat predictable.
Trump is apparently going to give a speech Friday promoting his America First economic program. He has just placed tarifs on large washing machines and solar panels. There is an interesting article in the January 23 new York Times pointing out this is likely to cause a loss of jobs in the United States whereas Donnie will doubtless claim he is creating them. If our fearless leader explains his economic theories in his usual fashion it would be nice if people such as Christine Lagarde or Mario Draghi would take the podium to gently but insistingly rebuke him. Probably won't happen in public but the private conversations wouldn't be interesting to say the least.
Meanwhile, back to" the mouth". For the first time in my hearing at least someone aligned with Donnie talked about the virtue of increasing aggregate demand and thus energizing the virtuous cycle in this country and how it would be beneficial to not only the US but the world in general. Holy smokes, has he been talking to real economists in Davos? Of course he did not explain the mechanism to increase aggregate demand. He did not, for instance say that aggregate demand suffers because of the inequality of income and wealth in this country and that the best way to cure this is to give tax cuts and benefits to segments of the population with high marginal consumption rates instead of giving tax cuts to corporations and people who have more money than they know what to do with. Maybe someone there will explain that to him.
Like everyone I suppose, I can't wait to hear the speech from our man in the White House. And of course I can't wait to hear his own critique of his performance although it is somewhat predictable.
Monday, January 22, 2018
Forest Trump's Excellent Davos Adventure
So, the Trumpmeister is off to the world economic summit in Davos . There he can hang out, maybe, with the real Business and financial tycoons he always wanted, but was never quite able, to be. Perhaps he could share a drink and conversation with fellow American George Soros, who is typically in attendance. One might hope that our boy was going to learn something about the macro economics. There will be real economists there, not like his economic advisers Cohen and Mnuchin. He might even learn that his greatest economic fear, trade deficits, are in economic terms a deficiency in savings buy the country experiencing a deficit.
He will be treated with some deference as he does hold the office of the presidency in the most powerful country on earth and that office and that country, as opposed to the person who unfortunately now holds that office, are entitled to respect. One subject that will doubtless be addressed at the summit is base erosion and transfer pricing(BETP). It has been a constant topic for economists and politicians, other than the politicians in this country, we don't seem to address it rigorously. To be sure, our guys do talk about corporate inversions but seem to think they are solely the result of our tax code. These are the guys who consistently say we have the highest corporate taxes in the world, looking only at the nominal rate, whereas it was quite clear that after all the exclusions and deductions the actual corporate tax rate was about at the average of the OECD countries. Now, of course, we are low. Our politicians never talk about the despicable behavior of Apple and the way it has bilked our country from its proper share of corporate profits transferring its intellectual property to an Irish affiliate and using transfer pricing.
The Donster will probably wish to regale the Davos crowd with his incredible economic successes based upon tax cuts and regulation repeal. Although there may be some polite listening, generally speaking this crowd is of wee bit more sophisticated than Trump is used to addressing. We can be sure that when he comes home, Trump will say that he has developed some great close working relationships and friendships and that everyone was wildly impressed with his acumen and now seek his advice. But even though he has told them his tricks, we will continue to lead to the race to the bottom on tax rates requiring those sneaky Chinese to once again devalue their currency.
It will be interesting to see his reaction if he is not greated with that sort of over-the-top pomp and circumstance that he loves so well. He probably has advance people seeking to arrange such and even more importantly, ferreting out the best cheeseburgers in town. I wonder if he will take Stormy.
He will be treated with some deference as he does hold the office of the presidency in the most powerful country on earth and that office and that country, as opposed to the person who unfortunately now holds that office, are entitled to respect. One subject that will doubtless be addressed at the summit is base erosion and transfer pricing(BETP). It has been a constant topic for economists and politicians, other than the politicians in this country, we don't seem to address it rigorously. To be sure, our guys do talk about corporate inversions but seem to think they are solely the result of our tax code. These are the guys who consistently say we have the highest corporate taxes in the world, looking only at the nominal rate, whereas it was quite clear that after all the exclusions and deductions the actual corporate tax rate was about at the average of the OECD countries. Now, of course, we are low. Our politicians never talk about the despicable behavior of Apple and the way it has bilked our country from its proper share of corporate profits transferring its intellectual property to an Irish affiliate and using transfer pricing.
The Donster will probably wish to regale the Davos crowd with his incredible economic successes based upon tax cuts and regulation repeal. Although there may be some polite listening, generally speaking this crowd is of wee bit more sophisticated than Trump is used to addressing. We can be sure that when he comes home, Trump will say that he has developed some great close working relationships and friendships and that everyone was wildly impressed with his acumen and now seek his advice. But even though he has told them his tricks, we will continue to lead to the race to the bottom on tax rates requiring those sneaky Chinese to once again devalue their currency.
It will be interesting to see his reaction if he is not greated with that sort of over-the-top pomp and circumstance that he loves so well. He probably has advance people seeking to arrange such and even more importantly, ferreting out the best cheeseburgers in town. I wonder if he will take Stormy.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Trump and Rorschach
In this country we seem to have a tendency which is almost an obsession to label people and concepts. The tendency is when meeting someone and talking to that person to conclude he or she is a liberal, or a conservative, or a Republican, or a Democrat, or a Catholic, or an atheist, etc.. Then, having concluded that we can ignore or agree with the substance of whatever that person says solely because he or she is a liberal, or conservative or religious or something. Labels are substituted for analysis
With Trump this truly is an obsession. What are the proper labels? For a while there was a discussion about whether he was a narcissist. The author of the description of narcissism in DSMIV said Trump did not fit the clinical definition of a narcissist and to call him a narcissist was unfair–to narcissists. He explained that narcissists by and large did not exhibit the same behavior as Trump, who he characterized as an ignorant, self-centered and deceitful jerk. Recently the discussion has been whether he is a racist. Those endless and repetitive useless panels on the News networks do seem to be obsessed with this question. The question is irrelevant. Just describe accurately what he says and what he does. It speaks for itself and doesn't need a label.
In fact Donald Trump is really a nothing. He is not a conservative or a populist or anything else. He is a free floating, untethered ignorant, incompetent , lying jerk. He is in many respects like a Rorschach ink blot. What people conclude about him says far more about that person than it does about Trump. If, for example, someone says he is doing a fine job and being treated unfairly you learn much more about that person than Trump. For another example, my reaction to Trump fairly indicates that I am in angry old man who is disappointed to say the least about many of my fellow citizens.
An unconfirmed rumor from an unreliable source States that Trump himself once took a Rorschach test. He said the first inkblot reminded him of himself playing golf. The second appeared to be him closing a deal. The third appeared to him to be him constructing a great building. At that point there was no purpose in showing him any more inkblots. His self obsessed personality was clear.
The chore now for Congress and the administrative agencies is not how to understand him, or to work with him, but to devise a way to work around him. He needs to be surrounded by people with pacifiers or better yet, he needs to be functionally gelded and isolated until his term is over. Of course, some of the people around him need to go. He should be allowed to have nobody in the upper reaches of his administration named Steve or who is related to him.
With Trump this truly is an obsession. What are the proper labels? For a while there was a discussion about whether he was a narcissist. The author of the description of narcissism in DSMIV said Trump did not fit the clinical definition of a narcissist and to call him a narcissist was unfair–to narcissists. He explained that narcissists by and large did not exhibit the same behavior as Trump, who he characterized as an ignorant, self-centered and deceitful jerk. Recently the discussion has been whether he is a racist. Those endless and repetitive useless panels on the News networks do seem to be obsessed with this question. The question is irrelevant. Just describe accurately what he says and what he does. It speaks for itself and doesn't need a label.
In fact Donald Trump is really a nothing. He is not a conservative or a populist or anything else. He is a free floating, untethered ignorant, incompetent , lying jerk. He is in many respects like a Rorschach ink blot. What people conclude about him says far more about that person than it does about Trump. If, for example, someone says he is doing a fine job and being treated unfairly you learn much more about that person than Trump. For another example, my reaction to Trump fairly indicates that I am in angry old man who is disappointed to say the least about many of my fellow citizens.
An unconfirmed rumor from an unreliable source States that Trump himself once took a Rorschach test. He said the first inkblot reminded him of himself playing golf. The second appeared to be him closing a deal. The third appeared to him to be him constructing a great building. At that point there was no purpose in showing him any more inkblots. His self obsessed personality was clear.
The chore now for Congress and the administrative agencies is not how to understand him, or to work with him, but to devise a way to work around him. He needs to be surrounded by people with pacifiers or better yet, he needs to be functionally gelded and isolated until his term is over. Of course, some of the people around him need to go. He should be allowed to have nobody in the upper reaches of his administration named Steve or who is related to him.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
In Bullshithole Country
There has been a lot of feces to clean up at the old corral at bullshithole ground zero, AKA the Trump administration. As one unidentified junior staffer said" old shit for brains really stepped in at this time", doubling down on the current metaphor. Apparently dump thought his shit hole remark was pretty darn clever and would be widely appreciated by at least Republicans . He called some of his fellow dumpsters and got pretty good reviews. Imagine his surprise when even Republicans started criticizing him.
The cleanup crew called for concerted remedial action. No problem said dump I will just deny saying it and call it fake news. Understanding that he is pretty much a one trick pony(which not incidentally shits all over) his hazmat crew said fine but we need some support from others. Now, the problem was that his logical supporters, senator Cottonmouth from Arkansas and Sen. Perdition from Georgia had already stated the absence of a recollection of what was said. However, perhaps by use of hypnosis, these two sycophants, although not able to recall what was said, were able to have a clear recollection of what was not said. Then, later, their position changed to he did not say" shit hole" but said" shit house". Thus did two more Republican stalwarts lose whatever integrity they might've had trying to cleanup one of Dumpo's piles. They were later joined by Home Sec. Nielsen who recalled that there were angry words said, but couldn't recall what they were, but had a refreshed recollection of what they weren't. Rumor has it that in DSM V there will be a new syndrome called "total recollection of that which never happened".
In other Breaking News Trump was honored by a visit from the leader of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, whom Trump called a great leader. This guy is generally thought by most to be a totalitarian klepto- crat. Trumpo is understandably jealous of people like he and Putin who can use their positions to just steal from the country while he has to make money from his office by renting or leasing his hotels and facilities to those seeking to curry favor. It just doesn't seem fair.
In a really interesting story, the administration told Steve Bannon not to answer any questions about what happened after the election, claiming apparently executive privilege. Apparently only Don Junior can claim attorney-client privilege. This administration is the one who continually says they will be open and transparent and answer all questions. Maybe not.
The White House staff has added the new movie" The Post" to the list of" don't let him see this" along with such others as Schindler's list.
The cleanup crew called for concerted remedial action. No problem said dump I will just deny saying it and call it fake news. Understanding that he is pretty much a one trick pony(which not incidentally shits all over) his hazmat crew said fine but we need some support from others. Now, the problem was that his logical supporters, senator Cottonmouth from Arkansas and Sen. Perdition from Georgia had already stated the absence of a recollection of what was said. However, perhaps by use of hypnosis, these two sycophants, although not able to recall what was said, were able to have a clear recollection of what was not said. Then, later, their position changed to he did not say" shit hole" but said" shit house". Thus did two more Republican stalwarts lose whatever integrity they might've had trying to cleanup one of Dumpo's piles. They were later joined by Home Sec. Nielsen who recalled that there were angry words said, but couldn't recall what they were, but had a refreshed recollection of what they weren't. Rumor has it that in DSM V there will be a new syndrome called "total recollection of that which never happened".
In other Breaking News Trump was honored by a visit from the leader of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, whom Trump called a great leader. This guy is generally thought by most to be a totalitarian klepto- crat. Trumpo is understandably jealous of people like he and Putin who can use their positions to just steal from the country while he has to make money from his office by renting or leasing his hotels and facilities to those seeking to curry favor. It just doesn't seem fair.
In a really interesting story, the administration told Steve Bannon not to answer any questions about what happened after the election, claiming apparently executive privilege. Apparently only Don Junior can claim attorney-client privilege. This administration is the one who continually says they will be open and transparent and answer all questions. Maybe not.
The White House staff has added the new movie" The Post" to the list of" don't let him see this" along with such others as Schindler's list.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Strange doings at the offal office
As George W Bush remarked after dumbo's inauguration address, that was some "weird shit". Apparently longing for the days when he was hey TV personality, and not incidentally got higher ratings then Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don Trumpolini treated us to another episode of his unreality show. He brought in the press to demonstrate that he knew nothing about his own agenda on the immigration issue. Rumor has it that prior to the Press being admitted, the Republicans in the room saying a rousing chorus of" how great thou Art".
Donnie apparently thinks it is his magnetic personality that causes the press to listen to him and not because he unfortunately is the president of the United States and of course they will be there to record his grotesque, meretricious performances. Many had thought he had hit bottom but he surprised us by sinking the offal office to a new low. There were fun moments such as when in response to Sen. Feinstein dumf forgot what his position was on immigration requiring representative McCarthy to gently correct him. Donny was enormously pleased with his performance and the high ratings it received. He later celebrated by making off-camera remarks about the shit hole countries these immigrants come from. That caused lots of reaction .
The tsk tsk wing of the Republican Party was in a dither being forced to respond. As one congressman stated this puts me in a horrible position because I have to say one thing about him for the primaries and another for the general election. This is totally unfair to me and I wish he would quit disclosing what an unprincipled jerk he is.(That last remark is off the record).
Based upon my experience as a construction laborer going to the bar to drink beer on payday, I am pretty sure what that element of the base was saying." That ol Trump he really tells it like it is. We need to get those people out of here. Remember when that Roman guy, Cesar Chapman wanted to make unions for those people. We've had enough of that shit."
The deaf wing of the Republican Congress didn't hear him. And of course the huckleberry hound bitch explained that his whole agenda is to help the American people.
On the plus side, we can expect a flood of Norwegian immigrants who wish to escape from the Country described as the best place in the world to live happily and which has an excess of oil money. Our guy in the offal office is prepared to welcome them even though he is still pissed off because he is yet to receive either the Nobel literary prize or the Nobel Peace Prize that his predecessor received even though Donnie has already had the greatest accomplishments ever by a president other than maybe Warren G Harding.
The press is getting bolder, shouting out to him the question" are you a racist"? I anxiously await one of them asking" why are you such an asshole?
Donnie apparently thinks it is his magnetic personality that causes the press to listen to him and not because he unfortunately is the president of the United States and of course they will be there to record his grotesque, meretricious performances. Many had thought he had hit bottom but he surprised us by sinking the offal office to a new low. There were fun moments such as when in response to Sen. Feinstein dumf forgot what his position was on immigration requiring representative McCarthy to gently correct him. Donny was enormously pleased with his performance and the high ratings it received. He later celebrated by making off-camera remarks about the shit hole countries these immigrants come from. That caused lots of reaction .
The tsk tsk wing of the Republican Party was in a dither being forced to respond. As one congressman stated this puts me in a horrible position because I have to say one thing about him for the primaries and another for the general election. This is totally unfair to me and I wish he would quit disclosing what an unprincipled jerk he is.(That last remark is off the record).
Based upon my experience as a construction laborer going to the bar to drink beer on payday, I am pretty sure what that element of the base was saying." That ol Trump he really tells it like it is. We need to get those people out of here. Remember when that Roman guy, Cesar Chapman wanted to make unions for those people. We've had enough of that shit."
The deaf wing of the Republican Congress didn't hear him. And of course the huckleberry hound bitch explained that his whole agenda is to help the American people.
On the plus side, we can expect a flood of Norwegian immigrants who wish to escape from the Country described as the best place in the world to live happily and which has an excess of oil money. Our guy in the offal office is prepared to welcome them even though he is still pissed off because he is yet to receive either the Nobel literary prize or the Nobel Peace Prize that his predecessor received even though Donnie has already had the greatest accomplishments ever by a president other than maybe Warren G Harding.
The press is getting bolder, shouting out to him the question" are you a racist"? I anxiously await one of them asking" why are you such an asshole?
Sunday, January 7, 2018
There is no other name for it
Question: What do you call someone who lost $1 billion in one year, and in the casino business for gods sake? Answer: A business genius. What do you call someone who, like honey boo-boo and the duck dynasty guys has his own reality show? Answer: a theatrical genius.(It is a little-known fact that Einstein while at the Institute for advanced studies had a local TV program called" the PhD candidate". The contestants we're asked to create a coherent theory combining gravity with the other three forces. When they failed, and they all did, Einstein would say" you're transferred", and send them to the University of Phoenix to teach intermediate kudoku.)
What do you call someone who's plan to ensure the safety and security of his country is based on the precident of the Maginot line? Answer: a military and defense genius. What do you call someone who believes he can manipulate the near dictator of China by offering a piece of chocolate cake? Answer: a geopolitical genius. What do you call someone whose response to concerns about climatic change is a call to revitalize the coal industry? Answer: a scientific genius. What do we call an "Author" whose ghost writer describes him as having the attention span of a child with ADD? Answer: we call him a literary genius.(Rumor has it that he is still livid about being bypassed for the Nobel Prize for literature.)
Apparently Einstein and others such as Richard Feynman, John von Neuman etc. did not wander the halls proclaiming themselves to be a genius. They left that to others. You can imagine the frustration of our man Donnie as he waits to be called a genius as he so richly deserves. What is a fellow to do? Or to put it another way, who can be better to recognize a genius than a genius? Others may call it ignorance, incompetence and delusion but there is one guy who knows better. What do we call him? Answer: God help us we call him the president.
What do you call someone who's plan to ensure the safety and security of his country is based on the precident of the Maginot line? Answer: a military and defense genius. What do you call someone who believes he can manipulate the near dictator of China by offering a piece of chocolate cake? Answer: a geopolitical genius. What do you call someone whose response to concerns about climatic change is a call to revitalize the coal industry? Answer: a scientific genius. What do we call an "Author" whose ghost writer describes him as having the attention span of a child with ADD? Answer: we call him a literary genius.(Rumor has it that he is still livid about being bypassed for the Nobel Prize for literature.)
Apparently Einstein and others such as Richard Feynman, John von Neuman etc. did not wander the halls proclaiming themselves to be a genius. They left that to others. You can imagine the frustration of our man Donnie as he waits to be called a genius as he so richly deserves. What is a fellow to do? Or to put it another way, who can be better to recognize a genius than a genius? Others may call it ignorance, incompetence and delusion but there is one guy who knows better. What do we call him? Answer: God help us we call him the president.
Monday, January 1, 2018
2017: the year in review
IT SUCKED
What is reminded of a phrase in one of Tom Lehrer's songs–" what nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man."
Donnie's next stupid idea will be the" public/private" infrastructure program. Be prepared for privately owned toll roads and toll bridges, the ownership of which will be subsidized by you and me. The Republicans have already squandered the tax proceeds from foreign affiliates that could have in large part paid for a real infrastructure program by our government which is to say by us collectively.
Where does one go after achieving maximum cynicism?
What is reminded of a phrase in one of Tom Lehrer's songs–" what nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man."
Donnie's next stupid idea will be the" public/private" infrastructure program. Be prepared for privately owned toll roads and toll bridges, the ownership of which will be subsidized by you and me. The Republicans have already squandered the tax proceeds from foreign affiliates that could have in large part paid for a real infrastructure program by our government which is to say by us collectively.
Where does one go after achieving maximum cynicism?