Pussycat, you obviously know a lot more about economics than I do so I really can't argue effectively with you. I've heard the Sunday morning TV experts say there are many more factors at play that determine how the economy is doing than who is President at any moment. The real worry I have is the monstrous and ever growing national debt. Roosevelt and Obama spent our way out of national financial crises. which was probably a good thing. So far no political party has actually had the political will to enact policies that are aimed at long term financial good of the country b/c it would cost too many votes. W financed the Iraq war by borrowing shitloads from the Chinese. I fear Trump's tax cut will only benefit the wealthy and only for a short time. Here's a list of the % different Presidents have increased the debt. Even "Mr Conservative" Reagan increased the debt by 186%, 3rd most in history. Someday the financial balloon is going to burst and we will see another Depression.
Originally Posted by chuckles
I agree with you. The interest is crushing. Once the economy is stablized a plan has to be enacted to pay down the debt. Having high deficits is stimulating, and the Obama deficits were a combination of high spending on relief because of unemployment, low tax revenues because of weak growth, and high spending to stimulate the economy. But the spending went on for eight years with little result because trade deficits were so high.
Trump is also running high deficits, which are very stimulative. And there's still low interest rates which help a great deal. But the change he's made is reviving manufacturing to increase wages and employment. He's done this by protecting domestic industries like steel, aluminium, and anything effected by Chinese imports.
The ideal would be to bring the trade deficits down, and then we wouldn't need such low interest rates or deficits.
With higher employment and wages we will not need high corporate taxes, and tax revenues can be high enough to pay down the debt without creating unemployment or slow down growth.