I'm increasingly concerned that we're treating Trump as an actual President with a plan. A month ago there was a beginning consensus that he's an aged, vindictive, incompetent has-been reality show star with advancing dementia! He's a nutso figurehead!
I was concerned as to why the media treated Trump as an actual candidate instead of ridiculing his mindless babble. Please, Mr. Candidate, show us how you will magically bring the price of eggs down on day 1. Show us how you will end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. What was your plan for healthcare? Give us some details.
The truly sad part was that he campaigned on retribution and vengeance. And now we see news outlets cowering before his threats. They made their bed and now they've got to sleep in it. I wish only sweet dreams for those sellouts. They got their web traffic and clicks, now they've got to pay the piper.
And thank goodness for spaces such as Substack where people, such as Mr. Krugman, are unwilling to cower and speak the truth. (from their perspective, mind you). Long live free press in any way, shape or form it lives these days.
Had they not treated him like an actual candidate, they would’ve further damaged their credibility in the eyes of the MAGAs and low information voters, losing them $$ and influence.
Trump has been tried to discredit the media since day 1 of his candidacy, because he was well aware that they served as a foil to his lies and misinformation. His efforts have largely worked, and now people get their information from Joe Rogan and Twitter instead. Very sad indeed.
A huge mistake the MSM makes about the MAGA movement is believing that they'll win back subscribers by catering to them. By and large, the chance of them subscribing to a real newspaper is about the same as that they'll buy season tickets to the opera.
I think that you've summed up what the people running our news media believe, but they're wrong about it. They already have zero credibility in the eyes of the MAGAs and the only way they could get that credibility would be to go so far down the rabbit hole that they'd lose everyone outside the cult. And for the most part the MAGAs don't read or watch non-MAGA media, so frankly there is little money or influence that can be lost by alienating an audience that they lost a long time ago.
The profit motive corrupts all. But social media, along with men like Trump, was really the death blow to “legacy” media. They simply couldn’t keep up with the breakneck pace of user generated content, which is not only free but also more addictive and attention grabbing than traditional news.
Exactly. The legacy media was built on a one-to-many relationship -- many readers/viewers per information outlet, with outlets generally competing on who got the story first, or reported in greater depth, and typically acting in good faith to get the stories right. Thus we could have a common information basis even as we disagreed about what it meant and what to do about it.
Social media blew that up by creating a many-to-many world -- everyone has a phone, anyone can publish anything no matter how stupid or outrageous or ill-informed on any number of platforms, without any editorial direction or overarching principles except self-interest. It becomes too hard to pick the signal out of the ever-increasing noise; people can no longer agree on what is signal and what isn't and will find input to support what they want to be true, rather than basing thinking on what we all know to be true. That of course leaves people vulnerable to grifters, profiteers, and propagandists.
That still doesn't explain the rise of FOX News to become the dominant voice of the Right, because while it has some internet presence, it's still primarily in a legacy-media TV format.
Thing is, I like to think most people can recognize tabloid garbage when they see it. One runs into the Enquirer when in the grocery store checkout line and laughs at its silliness but doesn’t actually take it seriously.
The perniciousness of social media is that people don’t realize they are reading tabloid-level takes because it’s disguised by the “prestige bias” of having large follower count, a blue check or by the persons fame. This is how someone like Elon musk retains credibility despite tweeting things that would get you laughed out of any room filled with independent thinkers.
Or, Donald, how you will get the hostages back on day one, or how you will end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours... oh yeah, where is the ...Beautiful health care plan... you promised in 2016???
Where's the wall? Where's the infrastructure bill? Why isn't anyone asking him about all of the things that he promised to do the first time that he didn't actually do?
And why would anyone vote for him this time when he failed to fulfill any of his campaign promises from his first term?
On the plus side, Hillary Clinton is probably grateful that he didn't have her arrested on January 20, 2017, as he promised to do on day one.
Please. Trump wants to disappear her (or maybe crucify her on the National
Mall). And Trump is less in control of his wants every day. He doesn’t care that would be an insane thing to even want. And his administration is staffed with either groveling lickspittals or soulless fucks who would be happy to kill for Trump as long as it advances their goals.
How many Trump family members receive SS protection? When Dems are back in control, let's pull the protection for all of the Republicans except DonOld. Barron would never leave his room. Melania would move back to Romania or whatever hellhole she came from.
OMG. Yesterday I was trying some 90s entertainment to take my mind of things, and now I realize, the dentist from the Coneheads movie who barely bats an eye when the oddly shaped patient on the chair reveals six rows of carnivore teeth, that is us now, isn't it? Everything monstrous is normalized.
I agree, but I've been concerned about that for a few years. As the MSM (including WAPO and the NYT) piled on Biden about his age, and excoriated Harris for not giving interviews, that same media barely covered trump's clear age-related deterioration. The press ignored trump's age issues that were on daily display in tweets and during rallies, along with his increasing reliance on sycophantic advisors with anti-American agendas. Think Stephen Miller and Project 2025. The fact is, many middle-of-the-road voters went for trump because the press coverage did not expose the actual plans for this presidency that were being spoon-fed to trump by dark actors with far-right agendas.
for someone incompetent he is quite good at dismanteling the american democracy while distracting everyone with his insanity.
He is stupid (or just doesn't care) about plenty of things but he did manage to get away with crime his whole life, did manage to become presidend 2 times while engaging in open treason.
He needs to be treated as a threat not dismissed as a clown.
The medias credulous treatment of this fascist clown is the whole reason we are in this mess in the first place. The Magas would rather destroy the country than admit they are wrong.
I would say, instead, that the "we" that is treating Trump seriously is a faction that is making its disloyalty to the American Republic more evident every day. The "we" who is you and me should be thankful that through their toadyism our opponents have made themselves so visible.
Thanks for that touchstone. Come to think of it, he has never created or made or sold any product, has he? Forcing others to give him a cut of their work, isn’t “business”.
"Apparently, free markets and democracy are mutually exclusive."
Sadly, this is it. More specifically, the Wall Street CEO set who own/control media outlets sanewashed him precisely because of his promise of big tax cuts. Which would've juiced the equities market, and thus the value of their beloved stock options.
Yup, the late 90s Republican pushed financial deregulation lead directly to the 2008/9 financial crisis...... And we still let the hedge fund manager pay only capital gains on their incomes.... Sometimes I fantasize about being a Christian, just to ve able to sooth myself thinking of these finance bros burning in Hell....
Dear prof Krugman, many thanks for your analysis and your numbers.
They really are a ray of light in this incredible reality show of “black is white and white is black; top is down and down is top” that this Trump Administration has been from Day1 (unfortunately not only in economic policies).
This is off topic, but in the late 70s I heard a folk song with the lyrics "I'll show you the black side of white; I'll show you the dark side of light." I thought it was called "The Illustrated Man." I've been unable to find it...anybody? It would be so appropriate.
I tracked down a DJ from the station (WSLE, Peterboro, NH), but he couldn't remember.
If you live in a state with a strong public-library system, ask a librarian at the largest or central branch; trained librarians are amazing researchers, plus many of them have broad-ranging interests and just *know* odd stuff. Good luck with this.
"the only question is how successful he’ll be at turning that dream into reality."
When your largest voting blocs are both under- and misinformed people and a cult that believes every line of b.s.,coupled with a cowered corporate media and dominance at aocial media, they could be pretty successful in making a complete fiction a fake reality. Its been the Trump m.o., from the economy, to immigration, to culture iasues.
Trump has had a unique power: when your voters believe everything, you can say ANYTHING.
"...President Trump declared this morning that two plus two equals three. Schools all over the country are scrambling to 'update' their grade school math workbooks to 'reflect' the new 'understanding'".
Yes. And while members of the felon’s voting blocs do say, when asked, that they are disappointed in many of his actions, including his failure to reduce the price of eggs, they would still vote for the felon instead his opponent if they were given a do-over. Why? My guess is that the felon’s voters are well-pleased that he is delivering on his central promise, which is the same as the central promise of the Republican Party since Nixon/Atwater initiated the Southern Strategy in 1968: the promise to continue the oppression of black Americans and other marginalized groups that they don’t like and to preserve the economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans.
Probably THE most ignored or underreported during the Trump years is the fact that the real m.o. and fuel for MAGA is white supremacy. It was evident the moment Trump came down the escalator to a crowd of sycophants and paid extras in 2016. It was certainly evident in his first term, and now the racism and bigotry are completely out in the open. The only people who can't or won't admit this fact are complete liars, morons, or just simply pay zero attention to any news media or current events.
It was a known known. I had to turn off the documentary When They See Us due to extreme psychic pain and dread. That was Trump then and this is Trump now. Same Russian asset wittingly or unwittingly. Who cares. The anti-American American donors and Fox Entertainment did this to us with the help of 100% of the Republican party who thinks their only job is activism and lobbying not representing the people who elected them. They do not care what their oath to the Constitution says and have no plans to uphold it. And when he said “look at my African-American over here” ten years ago at a hate rally as reported on June 3, 2016 everyone noticed but kept right on going. A man named Gregory Cheadle. Resistance to Reconstruction is futile. No one is going back in time. Trump talks like it’s the fucking 80s and it is not. There is zero chance he is going places now that folks are angry and talking. The third that did not vote at all will have to vote next time. No civil liberties for anybody if we cannot even muster a trip to the polls. Next time he comes down any escalator I want to see that long blood red tie get caught and then the cotton candy on his head. We have to run him out of town and off the planet. He is just a shitty ex entertainer and not remotely fit to do much of anything but fuck around with his phone and stochastically terrorize the entire world. Resign now like Nixon had to and get the holy fuck out of our lives forever. I love you deeply, We The People. I will give the rest of my life for our civil liberties. My rage and grief is at peak level and I will never recover from the donors and the Republican party’s attack upon us. And of course the Murdoch family’s decades long campaign against us just for a lousy buck. See you in the streets.
I will be there! Strong possibility I show up before #5. I am 77 and have nothing to lose. My 6 children are grown and self-supporting; I want to make damn sure they can continue to live and raise their families in a democracy and that my 11 grandchildren grow up in a democracy.
We overthrew an abusive king 250 years ago and we will do it again. It's in our blood, we know the drill.
He's actually said as much, that he'd send the military into our cities to put down any dissent. We should take him at his word - and be prepared in every way possible.
I would not be so quick in believing the Armed Forces would be so easily turned against the Constitution. Sure, there's a bunch of "Might is Right" bozos in it, like everywhere else (I see more the FBI as agents of sedition rather than law, in effect.) I don't think few trumpian fabrications are going to cut it with the chiefs, or the ones behind them. Of course, reality itself seems to be beating fiction all the time these days, and I have been copiously wrong before. At any rate, essentially, the whole military house is built on swearing fealty to the US Constitution, and to protect it from foreign and domestic enemies. My huge problem, on the contrary, is Schumer, Jeffries The Inadequate, the former presidents and vice presidents, the former secretaries of defense invoking intervention. Considering what's happening to those planes taking off against judicial injunctions, we are getting close to that need.
I think, and hope against all hope, that you're right about this. I don't believe, or at least don't want to believe, that the entire military would follow such grossly illegal orders.
Unfortunately, there are too many at all levels who don't take that oath seriously. Think Michael Flynn. Of course, for every Flynn, there's at least one Mark Milley. One thing is for sure, if King Krasnov makes good on his threat, the results will be ugly.
Oh, and yeah, Schumer an Jeffries make me sick, but Schumer especially. Jeffries at least voted against that appalling CR. When the next Senate primary arrives, I'm voting for absolutely >anyone< who runs against Schumer.
Not with you on that one, it wasn’t only Schumer. Together, those nine have way enough cred (in my book) to make theirs a genuine political decision, not cowardice. The tenth is that Fetterman lowlife, who should be tossed out of the caucus anyhow. My huge beef is with the House leadership, they are the ones not peeling votes off the slimmest of majorities, no matter all the opportunities the gross policy of the day offered. Take our few firebrands out, there’s no one home, with my best regrets to Nancy. It’s easy to look good, but winning is altogether a different thing. Schumer’s vote was a sad display? Yes, but take it as a proof of a rudderless situation and innumerable earlier party mistakes, not his dubious commitment to our principles, or to the gravity of the moment.
What did I say that you're not with? I never said it was >only< Schumer. I focused on him because he's the only one of the ten that I get to vote against.
Jeffries is at the top of house leadership, so I'd say we're on the same page there.
Regarding credibility of the ten betrayers and their decision being "genuinely political" vs. mere cowardice, what do you mean by that? Do you think it was good decision? Or simply a vote to please their wealthy patrons? If the former, why? If the latter, that would be political cowardice - putting re-election ahead of courage of conviction. Assuming they have convictions beyond getting re-elected.
I'm not sure what you mean about taking out our few firebrands. Al Green? IMHO he's the only one who's actions at King MAGA's hate speech was appropriate for the moment. The whole Dem caucus should have stood right up there with him. Instead, they brought cute little lollipop signs, and Jeffries "spoke" to him about "decorum". This is war! The time for "decorum" is long past.
We need Dems in both chambers to stand up and fight for us.
Probably not so easy. But since January 6th the militias have had plenty of time to accumulate guns and train themselves to fight. So maybe Orange Douchebag have his own guys at the ready. If the entire plan is to end with the tech bro Thielscape, a good old fashioned civil war will be convenient. There will be no 2026 midterms nor will there be 2028 elections. If Americans do not gather in protest in the 10th of thousands, you will loose your country.
The problem is half of your compatriots voted for Trump. They are far from disillusioned and willing to take every lie as the gospel truth. Honestly, it is scary to watch how gullible these people are. Not one has an ounce of critical thinking skills.
Under Bezos, The Washington Post has lost all credibility. It is now just an organ of the regime. A tragedy inside the larger tragedy we are all facing.
“The Washington Post just ran a story with the utterly credulous headline ‘Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.’”
Trump could declare himself president for life and they would probably run a headline ''Trump considers constitutional amendment for enhanced presidential terms''
I was fortunate not to be able to read it. I canceled after the Bezos endorsement fracas. Professional journalists and commentators have to read that sort of dribble. I don’t.
As I see it, in a nutshell, they're dismissing the classic economic theory of wealth creation through trade in favor of the magical thinking of social, political and economic isolation that they claim will result in "golden age" of the USA. The isolation may, due to the size of the USA, induce a period of internal growth, in certain sectors. To some extent it may even be self sustaining. However, the downsides learned from social history are manifest.
I don’t think Trump is capable of any sophisticated thought about economics, but some of those behind him, the cabal if you will, want to trigger a collapse for a variety of sinister reasons.
Well, I think the idea of crashing the Social Security system so that then the American people will think that it needs to be replaced by a private system is a pretty sinister thing.
I realize this is a forum for economic issues, but there are far more threatening issues than this dimension. Trump is rapidly taking us down the well-trod path toward an authoritarian dictatorship. His latest lurch was his illegal transfer of a hated minority to a concentration camp in El Salvador. "First they came for the communists, but I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist." You know the rest.
I think it's worse than an "illegal transfer of a hated minority to a concentration camp", if that's even possible.
But AFAIK nobody actually knows who exactly was deported to El Salvador, and the Trump administration brazenly ignored a court order to return the abducted people to the US. That's hardcore evil dictator stuff right there.
It may be worse than that. The Trump regime thumbed its nose at the judge who continues to apply constitutional law. Did the Nazis do the same, or did they completely capture the court system before starting their purges? If it’s the latter, then Trump has exceeded the early Nazi years.
2. Yes they're lying and yes..for now...the facts are easily checked but the MAGA fold is already trained to gobble down Fox pre-digested globules 'news'
3. Where will we go when they've torn down reliable reporting sources and replaced them with MAGA media?
4. Orwell must be spinning in his grave. Huxley too.
Hi Paul, I listened to Ezra Klein - 14th March - Is Trump 'Detoxing' the Economy on Poisoning it. In this episode with Gillian Tett, Ezra articulated some of the arguments that he said were underpinning what Bessent & others might be trying to do to the economy & that there might be an alternative plan behind what looks like economic suicide on the surface. They talked about the 'Mar-a-Lago Accords' and said:
"they also think that the dollar is overvalued by virtue of the fact that it is the world’s reserve currency, which means that people keep buying dollars and so that pushes up the value. And that’s made American manufacturing and industry less competitive and contributed to the hollowing out that they really don’t like.
So their vision for trying to reconcile the fact they want to keep the dollar dominant but they also want to weaken its value is the so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord. It would essentially entail a number of countries coming together to agree to weaken the dollar and, in exchange, America offering some form of tariff relief, some form of military protection, being allies and potentially doing other things like maybe swapping long-term U.S. debt for other forms of debt."
I haven't heard much discussion of this elsewhere and I'm interested if you've heard these arguments articulated and what you think of them.
"It would essentially entail a number of countries coming together to agree to weaken the dollar and, in exchange, America offering some form of tariff relief,"
We don't have any friends left. Which country would play ball with the US these days?
A previous Krugman newsletter had a one sentence reference to the idea of swapping bond yields for 100 year yields and he made it clear he thinks it will result in negative economic effects on the US.
After reading several assessments of the “Mar A Lago Accord”, it sounds like Trumpists believe they can push other nations to increase the value of their currency the way the US did with Japan in the mid 1980s. Of course that was just one country and Japan entered its Lost Decade shortly thereafter, so the conventional wisdom is China won’t capitulate after watching what happened with Japan. At this point Trump may end up alienating so many nations they do develop a joint currency and trading policy, but instead of devaluing the dollar AND keeping it as the world reserve currency they start to avoid the US altogether.
This is also what I am thinking -- that the "plan" is the so-called "Mar-a-Largo Accord" and it is not being explained because absolutely no one would be able to understand it, But I picture the Boss saying something like "Really? There could be a whole new global economic regime named (sort of) after ME?!! I am all in -- but don't bother me with the details. And also do not even think about the risk factors."
I also listened to the Ezra Klein podcast with Dr. Gillian Tett and my first reaction was that I am petrified. My second reaction is that I want to hear Dr. Krugman's analyses.
As for the liars, grifters, and speculators who appear to be in the process of imposing this plan on us, I can't believe that anyone is so naïve to assume that one by one individual countries will come to the U.S. and beg and plead to take the terms the regime plans to demand. For example, the U.S. GDP was ~$28T in 2023 and the combined GDP of Canada, EU, UK, Japan, Australia, + NZ was over $30T. So, how is it that the U.S. "holds all the cards" and can force others to do whatever the regime demands?
In fact, even today most or all of the major world economies outside of the U.S. (sans China) are meeting as a group to strategize about how to counter the regime.
This 'plan' and what it means for all of us, our lives, our families, what it is likely to do to our savings/401k, the value of our homes, what it will mean for our children's future, our national security, etc. must be explained in full and unvarnished terms. WE all have the right to know what the plan is and given what appears to be the massive personal costs that we all will bear (many will never recover), we have the right to decide whether we will accept the cost and risks.
I think the recession talk is a precursor to a Shock Doctrine approach to create a crisis then take advantage of it to smash entitlements. But maybe I am just cynical and pessimistic.
And THAT .. stay at home, disaffected, anti-democratic belief .. was the KGB's influence. They spend 85% of their KGB budget on "ideological subversion", to demoralize. It's the long game. A KGB defector talked about it explicitly in a 1980's interview.
The solution is TO WANT and TO SAY IT, to want a Democratic government that works for the best interest of the people. And to hold a sign, outside facing oncoming traffic, saying as much.
There are close to 400 million of us. The number in government leadership is MUCH SMALLER. We outnumber THEM.
Well, I think it's getting clearer now the ultimate target of building up oligarchic modern-tech Gilead, destroying the alliances and demonizing other democracies (making them enemies), that would allow the dictatorshiptransformation.
In this case I think half the electorate will not stand with the U.S. but side with the EU, Canada and Ukraine. I'm no longer a patriotic American that has confidence in my country. Also, I get nauseas thinking about the upcoming baseball season when there is pressures to stand for the National Anthem.
While I am pleased with your analysis of our economy, I feel that you also should not accept the current administration as legal. It has operated for three months by Executive Orders only. The Constitution defines three branches of government with divided powers. We only have one run-away executive branch with no guard rails. Congress has been MIA. Why has John Thune. Majority Senate Speaker, accepted a role as silent ascent? He and Schumer need to step up together and seize their legitimate powers.
I'm increasingly concerned that we're treating Trump as an actual President with a plan. A month ago there was a beginning consensus that he's an aged, vindictive, incompetent has-been reality show star with advancing dementia! He's a nutso figurehead!
I was concerned as to why the media treated Trump as an actual candidate instead of ridiculing his mindless babble. Please, Mr. Candidate, show us how you will magically bring the price of eggs down on day 1. Show us how you will end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. What was your plan for healthcare? Give us some details.
The truly sad part was that he campaigned on retribution and vengeance. And now we see news outlets cowering before his threats. They made their bed and now they've got to sleep in it. I wish only sweet dreams for those sellouts. They got their web traffic and clicks, now they've got to pay the piper.
And thank goodness for spaces such as Substack where people, such as Mr. Krugman, are unwilling to cower and speak the truth. (from their perspective, mind you). Long live free press in any way, shape or form it lives these days.
Had they not treated him like an actual candidate, they would’ve further damaged their credibility in the eyes of the MAGAs and low information voters, losing them $$ and influence.
Trump has been tried to discredit the media since day 1 of his candidacy, because he was well aware that they served as a foil to his lies and misinformation. His efforts have largely worked, and now people get their information from Joe Rogan and Twitter instead. Very sad indeed.
A huge mistake the MSM makes about the MAGA movement is believing that they'll win back subscribers by catering to them. By and large, the chance of them subscribing to a real newspaper is about the same as that they'll buy season tickets to the opera.
Yep, how's it working for CNN?
I think that you've summed up what the people running our news media believe, but they're wrong about it. They already have zero credibility in the eyes of the MAGAs and the only way they could get that credibility would be to go so far down the rabbit hole that they'd lose everyone outside the cult. And for the most part the MAGAs don't read or watch non-MAGA media, so frankly there is little money or influence that can be lost by alienating an audience that they lost a long time ago.
"...losing them $$...
This, in the nutshell is what is so very wrong with much or the media in the US.
The profit motive corrupts all. But social media, along with men like Trump, was really the death blow to “legacy” media. They simply couldn’t keep up with the breakneck pace of user generated content, which is not only free but also more addictive and attention grabbing than traditional news.
Exactly. The legacy media was built on a one-to-many relationship -- many readers/viewers per information outlet, with outlets generally competing on who got the story first, or reported in greater depth, and typically acting in good faith to get the stories right. Thus we could have a common information basis even as we disagreed about what it meant and what to do about it.
Social media blew that up by creating a many-to-many world -- everyone has a phone, anyone can publish anything no matter how stupid or outrageous or ill-informed on any number of platforms, without any editorial direction or overarching principles except self-interest. It becomes too hard to pick the signal out of the ever-increasing noise; people can no longer agree on what is signal and what isn't and will find input to support what they want to be true, rather than basing thinking on what we all know to be true. That of course leaves people vulnerable to grifters, profiteers, and propagandists.
That still doesn't explain the rise of FOX News to become the dominant voice of the Right, because while it has some internet presence, it's still primarily in a legacy-media TV format.
Explanation?
Thing is, I like to think most people can recognize tabloid garbage when they see it. One runs into the Enquirer when in the grocery store checkout line and laughs at its silliness but doesn’t actually take it seriously.
The perniciousness of social media is that people don’t realize they are reading tabloid-level takes because it’s disguised by the “prestige bias” of having large follower count, a blue check or by the persons fame. This is how someone like Elon musk retains credibility despite tweeting things that would get you laughed out of any room filled with independent thinkers.
Or, Donald, how you will get the hostages back on day one, or how you will end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours... oh yeah, where is the ...Beautiful health care plan... you promised in 2016???
Where's the wall? Where's the infrastructure bill? Why isn't anyone asking him about all of the things that he promised to do the first time that he didn't actually do?
And why would anyone vote for him this time when he failed to fulfill any of his campaign promises from his first term?
On the plus side, Hillary Clinton is probably grateful that he didn't have her arrested on January 20, 2017, as he promised to do on day one.
Clinton has nothing to be grateful about. She gets less safe every day.
Really? How exactly?
Please. Trump wants to disappear her (or maybe crucify her on the National
Mall). And Trump is less in control of his wants every day. He doesn’t care that would be an insane thing to even want. And his administration is staffed with either groveling lickspittals or soulless fucks who would be happy to kill for Trump as long as it advances their goals.
Have you noticed that Trump has withdrawn Secret Service protection from Ashley and Hunter Biden? What do you think he wants to happen to them?
And if he wants them--who have done nothing to him-- to be harmed, why would he not want Hillary Clinton, who has mocked him, to be harmed?
What Trump wants.
Somebody harms the people he is disparaging.
Then he has "plausible deniability".
Though HE ENCOURAGED other people to do harm to those opposing him.
He is too much of a coward to take action by himself, but encourages others to take action on his behalf.
Just like this :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket
The most commonly quoted, as invented in 1740 and handed down by oral tradition, is "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?",
Regardless of what Henry said, it was interpreted as a royal command.
How many Trump family members receive SS protection? When Dems are back in control, let's pull the protection for all of the Republicans except DonOld. Barron would never leave his room. Melania would move back to Romania or whatever hellhole she came from.
Well, we'll never have to vote again, he told the evangelical sheeple....
Slovenia. Economy is 91% of the EU average. Mountains, ski resorts, lakes, castles.
You mean the "concept" of a healthcare plan - that remains undefined.
Trump : "I have got concepts for all these bigly important things."
🤮🤬
Well, to be honest, he did explain some of his thinking behind his highest priorities and what do do about the war in Ukraine and the price of eggs.
From what I could discern, they all had something to do with shark attacks and whales being afraid of windmills.
OMG. Yesterday I was trying some 90s entertainment to take my mind of things, and now I realize, the dentist from the Coneheads movie who barely bats an eye when the oddly shaped patient on the chair reveals six rows of carnivore teeth, that is us now, isn't it? Everything monstrous is normalized.
That’s some of us, the majority are not going peacefully along with this madness.
I agree, but I've been concerned about that for a few years. As the MSM (including WAPO and the NYT) piled on Biden about his age, and excoriated Harris for not giving interviews, that same media barely covered trump's clear age-related deterioration. The press ignored trump's age issues that were on daily display in tweets and during rallies, along with his increasing reliance on sycophantic advisors with anti-American agendas. Think Stephen Miller and Project 2025. The fact is, many middle-of-the-road voters went for trump because the press coverage did not expose the actual plans for this presidency that were being spoon-fed to trump by dark actors with far-right agendas.
for someone incompetent he is quite good at dismanteling the american democracy while distracting everyone with his insanity.
He is stupid (or just doesn't care) about plenty of things but he did manage to get away with crime his whole life, did manage to become presidend 2 times while engaging in open treason.
He needs to be treated as a threat not dismissed as a clown.
The medias credulous treatment of this fascist clown is the whole reason we are in this mess in the first place. The Magas would rather destroy the country than admit they are wrong.
Who is "we"?
I would say, instead, that the "we" that is treating Trump seriously is a faction that is making its disloyalty to the American Republic more evident every day. The "we" who is you and me should be thankful that through their toadyism our opponents have made themselves so visible.
Granpa is ciearly sundowning.
👆This is the real truth.
Could all this be happening without Musk?
In other words, a rent-seeker.
Thanks for that touchstone. Come to think of it, he has never created or made or sold any product, has he? Forcing others to give him a cut of their work, isn’t “business”.
His "administration" is no more. Rather, you are now living under his "regime".
His dictatorship.
"Apparently, free markets and democracy are mutually exclusive."
Sadly, this is it. More specifically, the Wall Street CEO set who own/control media outlets sanewashed him precisely because of his promise of big tax cuts. Which would've juiced the equities market, and thus the value of their beloved stock options.
Unchecked free markets, if you please.
Yup, the late 90s Republican pushed financial deregulation lead directly to the 2008/9 financial crisis...... And we still let the hedge fund manager pay only capital gains on their incomes.... Sometimes I fantasize about being a Christian, just to ve able to sooth myself thinking of these finance bros burning in Hell....
Dear prof Krugman, many thanks for your analysis and your numbers.
They really are a ray of light in this incredible reality show of “black is white and white is black; top is down and down is top” that this Trump Administration has been from Day1 (unfortunately not only in economic policies).
Many thanks
This is off topic, but in the late 70s I heard a folk song with the lyrics "I'll show you the black side of white; I'll show you the dark side of light." I thought it was called "The Illustrated Man." I've been unable to find it...anybody? It would be so appropriate.
I tracked down a DJ from the station (WSLE, Peterboro, NH), but he couldn't remember.
If you live in a state with a strong public-library system, ask a librarian at the largest or central branch; trained librarians are amazing researchers, plus many of them have broad-ranging interests and just *know* odd stuff. Good luck with this.
"the only question is how successful he’ll be at turning that dream into reality."
When your largest voting blocs are both under- and misinformed people and a cult that believes every line of b.s.,coupled with a cowered corporate media and dominance at aocial media, they could be pretty successful in making a complete fiction a fake reality. Its been the Trump m.o., from the economy, to immigration, to culture iasues.
Trump has had a unique power: when your voters believe everything, you can say ANYTHING.
"...President Trump declared this morning that two plus two equals three. Schools all over the country are scrambling to 'update' their grade school math workbooks to 'reflect' the new 'understanding'".
Just like "the Gulf of America."
Magical thinking is a new major in American economics departments across the Fox network.
Yes. And while members of the felon’s voting blocs do say, when asked, that they are disappointed in many of his actions, including his failure to reduce the price of eggs, they would still vote for the felon instead his opponent if they were given a do-over. Why? My guess is that the felon’s voters are well-pleased that he is delivering on his central promise, which is the same as the central promise of the Republican Party since Nixon/Atwater initiated the Southern Strategy in 1968: the promise to continue the oppression of black Americans and other marginalized groups that they don’t like and to preserve the economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans.
Bingo.
Probably THE most ignored or underreported during the Trump years is the fact that the real m.o. and fuel for MAGA is white supremacy. It was evident the moment Trump came down the escalator to a crowd of sycophants and paid extras in 2016. It was certainly evident in his first term, and now the racism and bigotry are completely out in the open. The only people who can't or won't admit this fact are complete liars, morons, or just simply pay zero attention to any news media or current events.
Bingo indeed.
It was a known known. I had to turn off the documentary When They See Us due to extreme psychic pain and dread. That was Trump then and this is Trump now. Same Russian asset wittingly or unwittingly. Who cares. The anti-American American donors and Fox Entertainment did this to us with the help of 100% of the Republican party who thinks their only job is activism and lobbying not representing the people who elected them. They do not care what their oath to the Constitution says and have no plans to uphold it. And when he said “look at my African-American over here” ten years ago at a hate rally as reported on June 3, 2016 everyone noticed but kept right on going. A man named Gregory Cheadle. Resistance to Reconstruction is futile. No one is going back in time. Trump talks like it’s the fucking 80s and it is not. There is zero chance he is going places now that folks are angry and talking. The third that did not vote at all will have to vote next time. No civil liberties for anybody if we cannot even muster a trip to the polls. Next time he comes down any escalator I want to see that long blood red tie get caught and then the cotton candy on his head. We have to run him out of town and off the planet. He is just a shitty ex entertainer and not remotely fit to do much of anything but fuck around with his phone and stochastically terrorize the entire world. Resign now like Nixon had to and get the holy fuck out of our lives forever. I love you deeply, We The People. I will give the rest of my life for our civil liberties. My rage and grief is at peak level and I will never recover from the donors and the Republican party’s attack upon us. And of course the Murdoch family’s decades long campaign against us just for a lousy buck. See you in the streets.
#5. Martial law.
#6. Hundreds of thousands converge on Washington.
I will be there! Strong possibility I show up before #5. I am 77 and have nothing to lose. My 6 children are grown and self-supporting; I want to make damn sure they can continue to live and raise their families in a democracy and that my 11 grandchildren grow up in a democracy.
We overthrew an abusive king 250 years ago and we will do it again. It's in our blood, we know the drill.
Yes! Millions will take to the streets - me included.
"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country". -Nathan Hale
Didn't see that one coming, but it's brilliant. Eerily plausible.
He's actually said as much, that he'd send the military into our cities to put down any dissent. We should take him at his word - and be prepared in every way possible.
Tiananmen Square, right here in America.
Except that the US, unlike China, is a country with more guns than people.
Don't forget that most of the people with guns voted for -- and love -- trump.
The love may fade, given a bad enough economy.
I would not be so quick in believing the Armed Forces would be so easily turned against the Constitution. Sure, there's a bunch of "Might is Right" bozos in it, like everywhere else (I see more the FBI as agents of sedition rather than law, in effect.) I don't think few trumpian fabrications are going to cut it with the chiefs, or the ones behind them. Of course, reality itself seems to be beating fiction all the time these days, and I have been copiously wrong before. At any rate, essentially, the whole military house is built on swearing fealty to the US Constitution, and to protect it from foreign and domestic enemies. My huge problem, on the contrary, is Schumer, Jeffries The Inadequate, the former presidents and vice presidents, the former secretaries of defense invoking intervention. Considering what's happening to those planes taking off against judicial injunctions, we are getting close to that need.
I think, and hope against all hope, that you're right about this. I don't believe, or at least don't want to believe, that the entire military would follow such grossly illegal orders.
Unfortunately, there are too many at all levels who don't take that oath seriously. Think Michael Flynn. Of course, for every Flynn, there's at least one Mark Milley. One thing is for sure, if King Krasnov makes good on his threat, the results will be ugly.
Oh, and yeah, Schumer an Jeffries make me sick, but Schumer especially. Jeffries at least voted against that appalling CR. When the next Senate primary arrives, I'm voting for absolutely >anyone< who runs against Schumer.
No Republicans please!
Not with you on that one, it wasn’t only Schumer. Together, those nine have way enough cred (in my book) to make theirs a genuine political decision, not cowardice. The tenth is that Fetterman lowlife, who should be tossed out of the caucus anyhow. My huge beef is with the House leadership, they are the ones not peeling votes off the slimmest of majorities, no matter all the opportunities the gross policy of the day offered. Take our few firebrands out, there’s no one home, with my best regrets to Nancy. It’s easy to look good, but winning is altogether a different thing. Schumer’s vote was a sad display? Yes, but take it as a proof of a rudderless situation and innumerable earlier party mistakes, not his dubious commitment to our principles, or to the gravity of the moment.
What did I say that you're not with? I never said it was >only< Schumer. I focused on him because he's the only one of the ten that I get to vote against.
Jeffries is at the top of house leadership, so I'd say we're on the same page there.
Regarding credibility of the ten betrayers and their decision being "genuinely political" vs. mere cowardice, what do you mean by that? Do you think it was good decision? Or simply a vote to please their wealthy patrons? If the former, why? If the latter, that would be political cowardice - putting re-election ahead of courage of conviction. Assuming they have convictions beyond getting re-elected.
I'm not sure what you mean about taking out our few firebrands. Al Green? IMHO he's the only one who's actions at King MAGA's hate speech was appropriate for the moment. The whole Dem caucus should have stood right up there with him. Instead, they brought cute little lollipop signs, and Jeffries "spoke" to him about "decorum". This is war! The time for "decorum" is long past.
We need Dems in both chambers to stand up and fight for us.
Probably not so easy. But since January 6th the militias have had plenty of time to accumulate guns and train themselves to fight. So maybe Orange Douchebag have his own guys at the ready. If the entire plan is to end with the tech bro Thielscape, a good old fashioned civil war will be convenient. There will be no 2026 midterms nor will there be 2028 elections. If Americans do not gather in protest in the 10th of thousands, you will loose your country.
#6 Invasion of neighboring countries under the excuse of national security.
The problem is half of your compatriots voted for Trump. They are far from disillusioned and willing to take every lie as the gospel truth. Honestly, it is scary to watch how gullible these people are. Not one has an ounce of critical thinking skills.
Wrong.
40% did note vote.
30% voted Democrat
30% voted Republican
Republican majority was 1.5%
One of the smallest in USA History
Under Bezos, The Washington Post has lost all credibility. It is now just an organ of the regime. A tragedy inside the larger tragedy we are all facing.
“The Washington Post just ran a story with the utterly credulous headline ‘Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.’”
You can obviously stop reading at 'Trump has a plan'.
Good one!
Trump could declare himself president for life and they would probably run a headline ''Trump considers constitutional amendment for enhanced presidential terms''
At that point the The Washington Post and The Onion are indistinguishable.
Too late. Even Andy Borowitz has cut back on satire. The truth is so insane, satire is lost.
That article made me so angry- if I hadn’t already cancelled my subscription (doesn’t lapse for a few months) I would have after reading that.
Good for you!
I was fortunate not to be able to read it. I canceled after the Bezos endorsement fracas. Professional journalists and commentators have to read that sort of dribble. I don’t.
As I see it, in a nutshell, they're dismissing the classic economic theory of wealth creation through trade in favor of the magical thinking of social, political and economic isolation that they claim will result in "golden age" of the USA. The isolation may, due to the size of the USA, induce a period of internal growth, in certain sectors. To some extent it may even be self sustaining. However, the downsides learned from social history are manifest.
I don’t think Trump is capable of any sophisticated thought about economics, but some of those behind him, the cabal if you will, want to trigger a collapse for a variety of sinister reasons.
Sinister.
When they crash Government.
1. They can convert from public service to private service.
Government does not work.
Private service with maximized profits benefits Billionaires.
2. The Economy goes down. People need to sell assets, but when everyone tries to sell prices will go low.
Billionaires pick up assets for cents on the dollar. Cheap !
It's a Billionaire MONEY GRAB
Yes, it is.
I'm not sure the reasons are sinister. I think they really believe their rhetoric, after all, it's magical!!
Well, I think the idea of crashing the Social Security system so that then the American people will think that it needs to be replaced by a private system is a pretty sinister thing.
Trump is destroying the economy. We are living paycheck to patcheck after he fired my partner from her DEI civil service career. Please help us keep our child in school and raise funds to file lawsuits against the orange felon and muskrat: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/can-you-help-fund-my-partners-lawsuit
I realize this is a forum for economic issues, but there are far more threatening issues than this dimension. Trump is rapidly taking us down the well-trod path toward an authoritarian dictatorship. His latest lurch was his illegal transfer of a hated minority to a concentration camp in El Salvador. "First they came for the communists, but I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist." You know the rest.
I think it's worse than an "illegal transfer of a hated minority to a concentration camp", if that's even possible.
But AFAIK nobody actually knows who exactly was deported to El Salvador, and the Trump administration brazenly ignored a court order to return the abducted people to the US. That's hardcore evil dictator stuff right there.
BTW, there's another terrifying abuse on human rights going on, as the culmination of othering trans people. Read if you can get behind the paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion/trump-trans-denationalizing.html
It may be worse than that. The Trump regime thumbed its nose at the judge who continues to apply constitutional law. Did the Nazis do the same, or did they completely capture the court system before starting their purges? If it’s the latter, then Trump has exceeded the early Nazi years.
1. Love the musical coda
2. Yes they're lying and yes..for now...the facts are easily checked but the MAGA fold is already trained to gobble down Fox pre-digested globules 'news'
3. Where will we go when they've torn down reliable reporting sources and replaced them with MAGA media?
4. Orwell must be spinning in his grave. Huxley too.
Hi Paul, I listened to Ezra Klein - 14th March - Is Trump 'Detoxing' the Economy on Poisoning it. In this episode with Gillian Tett, Ezra articulated some of the arguments that he said were underpinning what Bessent & others might be trying to do to the economy & that there might be an alternative plan behind what looks like economic suicide on the surface. They talked about the 'Mar-a-Lago Accords' and said:
"they also think that the dollar is overvalued by virtue of the fact that it is the world’s reserve currency, which means that people keep buying dollars and so that pushes up the value. And that’s made American manufacturing and industry less competitive and contributed to the hollowing out that they really don’t like.
So their vision for trying to reconcile the fact they want to keep the dollar dominant but they also want to weaken its value is the so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord. It would essentially entail a number of countries coming together to agree to weaken the dollar and, in exchange, America offering some form of tariff relief, some form of military protection, being allies and potentially doing other things like maybe swapping long-term U.S. debt for other forms of debt."
I haven't heard much discussion of this elsewhere and I'm interested if you've heard these arguments articulated and what you think of them.
"It would essentially entail a number of countries coming together to agree to weaken the dollar and, in exchange, America offering some form of tariff relief,"
We don't have any friends left. Which country would play ball with the US these days?
A previous Krugman newsletter had a one sentence reference to the idea of swapping bond yields for 100 year yields and he made it clear he thinks it will result in negative economic effects on the US.
After reading several assessments of the “Mar A Lago Accord”, it sounds like Trumpists believe they can push other nations to increase the value of their currency the way the US did with Japan in the mid 1980s. Of course that was just one country and Japan entered its Lost Decade shortly thereafter, so the conventional wisdom is China won’t capitulate after watching what happened with Japan. At this point Trump may end up alienating so many nations they do develop a joint currency and trading policy, but instead of devaluing the dollar AND keeping it as the world reserve currency they start to avoid the US altogether.
This is also what I am thinking -- that the "plan" is the so-called "Mar-a-Largo Accord" and it is not being explained because absolutely no one would be able to understand it, But I picture the Boss saying something like "Really? There could be a whole new global economic regime named (sort of) after ME?!! I am all in -- but don't bother me with the details. And also do not even think about the risk factors."
I also listened to the Ezra Klein podcast with Dr. Gillian Tett and my first reaction was that I am petrified. My second reaction is that I want to hear Dr. Krugman's analyses.
As for the liars, grifters, and speculators who appear to be in the process of imposing this plan on us, I can't believe that anyone is so naïve to assume that one by one individual countries will come to the U.S. and beg and plead to take the terms the regime plans to demand. For example, the U.S. GDP was ~$28T in 2023 and the combined GDP of Canada, EU, UK, Japan, Australia, + NZ was over $30T. So, how is it that the U.S. "holds all the cards" and can force others to do whatever the regime demands?
In fact, even today most or all of the major world economies outside of the U.S. (sans China) are meeting as a group to strategize about how to counter the regime.
This 'plan' and what it means for all of us, our lives, our families, what it is likely to do to our savings/401k, the value of our homes, what it will mean for our children's future, our national security, etc. must be explained in full and unvarnished terms. WE all have the right to know what the plan is and given what appears to be the massive personal costs that we all will bear (many will never recover), we have the right to decide whether we will accept the cost and risks.
Hope to hear from Dr. Krugman.
I think the recession talk is a precursor to a Shock Doctrine approach to create a crisis then take advantage of it to smash entitlements. But maybe I am just cynical and pessimistic.
No, they’ve more or less said that and it’s what’s been done in other ascending and existing authoritarian regimes.
It’s mourning in America again
It wasn’t swing voters who voted for Trump that elected him. It was Democratic and swing voters who stayed home that defeated Harris.
And THAT .. stay at home, disaffected, anti-democratic belief .. was the KGB's influence. They spend 85% of their KGB budget on "ideological subversion", to demoralize. It's the long game. A KGB defector talked about it explicitly in a 1980's interview.
The solution is TO WANT and TO SAY IT, to want a Democratic government that works for the best interest of the people. And to hold a sign, outside facing oncoming traffic, saying as much.
There are close to 400 million of us. The number in government leadership is MUCH SMALLER. We outnumber THEM.
Amen to that brother.
Well, I think it's getting clearer now the ultimate target of building up oligarchic modern-tech Gilead, destroying the alliances and demonizing other democracies (making them enemies), that would allow the dictatorshiptransformation.
And of course, the heavy damage of the economy (and bying cheap the leftovers) is also a needed step for it.
In this case I think half the electorate will not stand with the U.S. but side with the EU, Canada and Ukraine. I'm no longer a patriotic American that has confidence in my country. Also, I get nauseas thinking about the upcoming baseball season when there is pressures to stand for the National Anthem.
Headlines and even whole articles in the WaPo are better appreciated for what they are by calling it “in the Bezos Post…”
While I am pleased with your analysis of our economy, I feel that you also should not accept the current administration as legal. It has operated for three months by Executive Orders only. The Constitution defines three branches of government with divided powers. We only have one run-away executive branch with no guard rails. Congress has been MIA. Why has John Thune. Majority Senate Speaker, accepted a role as silent ascent? He and Schumer need to step up together and seize their legitimate powers.
Historically, when a dictator loses consensus he starts a war and Trump has already indicated 4 lebensraum to invade.