Could Trump crash the US and Global Economy?
Bond markets are roiling…
‘There’s no plan’: as instability in global bond markets rises, what are the knock-on effects?
When Donald Trump was asked recently about the threat of rising interest rates on US government debt, he told baffled reporters: “The ultimate intervention is our military. And if we have to use that, we will.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, his bellicose words did not soothe fractious bond markets, and his resumption of the bombing campaign against Iran only made matters worse.
The past fortnight has seen a wave of instability sweeping through government bond markets in major economies – with knock-on effects for millions of borrowers. The interest rate, or yield, on 10-year US government borrowing hit 4.8% on Friday, up from 4.64% 10 days ago. At one point midweek, the 30-year yield touched its highest level since 2008.
Neil Shearing, the chief economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said one impetus for the current wobble had been markets taking a fresh look at the state of US public finances. “There’s been a recalibration,” he said.
The Guardian
…as Trump ratchets up debt…
High debt and high prices catch up to Donald Trump as midterms near
In the nearly two years since President Donald Trump clinched his return to office, the US economy has come under great duress, leaving families and businesses to suffer through the expensive consequences of constant global conflict and soaring government debt.
It was the financial frustration of a pandemic-weary electorate that helped Trump and his fellow Republicans take charge in Washington in 2024, which they promised to use to defeat the scourge of inflation and slash the profligate government spending they saw as the root of the problem.
But Trump’s actions in office have complicated – if not undermined – those pledges. With two months until the midterms, some of his policies have prolonged or worsened the economic fortunes of those he promised to help.
It began with a punishing global trade war, which exacerbated the nation’s long quest to bring down the cost of living in the years following the pandemic. This week, the president escalated that offensive and took renewed aim at Canada, setting off a costly tariff tit-for-tat that could drive up prices for Americans.
Nor is the war with Iran anywhere close to complete. The seemingly intractable conflict, which reached the six-month mark on Friday (Saturday NZT), has kept fuel prices sky-high. And the costs of Trump’s ongoing military intervention have further exacerbated the nation’s fiscal woes, helping to send the debt soaring past $40 trillion (NZ$67.5t). The development has roiled the bond market in ways that have implicated Americans’ finances, chiefly by making borrowing, including mortgages, more expensive.
The president still maintains that his administration has helped families and businesses, and righted the wrongs of his predecessor, Joe Biden. But polls increasingly suggest that voters have tired of Trump’s appeals for patience as he enacts his full agenda. That appears poised to turn the midterms into a referendum on Trump’s credibility on the economy – a key source for his political rise.
New York Times
…the vast majority of people don’t seem to appreciate the damage Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ caused debt by awarding massive tax cuts to the mega wealthy.
- Nearly $1 trillion for the top 1%
- A major inheritance-tax break for the extremely wealthy to benefit the wealthiest 0.2% at roughly $211 billion
- Large corporate tax benefits worth $918 billion
- The top 1% gets $975 billion while millions lose health coverage.
This extraordinary corporate welfare for the Billionaire Class who donated to Trump amounts to the greatest kleptocracy empowering a plutocracy that we have ever witnessed.
Trump making $1.8Billion in side hustles is sickening and his Tariff war against allies and foes alike make him ripe for downfall.
At some point the market will decide Trump can’t pay back the debt and when that happens the economic bloodbath will be extreme.
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The trump phenomenon is breathtaking for it’s bold depictions of madness. The USA’s elected a nutter. Trump, is quite insane and yet he’s given anything he wants, from gold plated mansions to access to nuclear weapons. Trump makes the film ‘Idiocracy’ look like a documentary. If you haven’t seen Idiocracy then you absolutely must.
Idiocracy. A window to the very, very, very, very near future.
https://youtu.be/gSgBTb3wmMI?si=iFBQBA0yl6_fpuHY
Flicks. https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/idiocracy/
If the American people don’t act, and urgently, the USA will end up looking and smelling like a grubby barbecue after a long-weekend piss up.
In AO/NZ we have a similar problem. Just look at luxon? He’s an incompetent. His useless entourage are equally so. His bald head pops up here and there to open his cod mouth while we wait in expectation then get nothing…not a thing. Our governance has no new ideas, our governance is a witless collage of dimwits surrounded by lessor dimwits and so on and so on. They’re cruel to the innocent, they’re in devious collusion with greedy bankster criminals and the best they can think of doing that, and I use the word ‘think’ advisedly, is to be ever more cruel to those now most suffering.
And here’s who’s to blame. Yep. You and you and me. Evil does certainly prevail when good people fail to act.
Here’s what we must do. Mandate our vote then lower the voting age to 16.
Then, ask, read demand from the crown, a public, royal commission of inquiry up and into everything economic and political spanning the last 90 years, since the formation of the hideous national party.
The whole of the collective “West” has gone insane, not just Trump. Here in NZ our politicians and media sail towards an election with few comments about what the Gulf war means to us. To put it starkly the world oil supply was fully utilised before Trump’s war. Now 20 percent isn’t flowing and we are saying nothing.
Trump is totally insane – we must all see that. For the USA to continue to ignore this is a danger to our whole world. He should be sectioned, removed from power and any decision-making. He has already proven that he is more interested in his ego with his name being splattered all over the place and has made so many serious judgments with his negotiations with Iran. He doesn’t look healthy and I believe he is now in panic mode. That doesn’t auger well for the rest of the world. Why can’t our world ‘leaders’ join together and sort this sad but precarious situation out? Of course Luxon can’t be part of this – he’s similar in many ways i.e. taking bribes from the wealthy and giving them the cream from the top. This house of cards will come crashing down and will have catastrophic consequences for the rest of the world.
Trump is a politician. All US polles predominantly work for the 0.1%. When things go pear-shaped, the 0.1% become even richer while everybody else suffers. Trump is the latest, but he will not be last pollie to serve the 0.1% at the expense of everyone else. Trump is not the problem, the political system he fronts is the problem. Politics, democracy, its all fcked, that’s our problem…this is the problem the world over.