"A pathocracy is a system of government where a small group of people with personality disorders, like psychopathy or narcissism, gain control over a society. People in a pathocracy are driven by self-interest, extremism, and disregard for others."
Or a "Pathokakistocracy". Let's not pull any punches here.
But not to worry, FOX News is now ready to start calling the Biden Economy the Trump economy. Then when the Trump tariffs put Goldilocks on life support, RW media will first deny it's happening; then blame evil Dem wokeness, for...reasons.
Ooof. Just once I’d really like to see the dems leave a total economic disaster for an incoming republican administration. Not that I want to see my fellow Americans suffer, but merely to give republicans a taste of what it really feels like. Dems spend most of their administrations recovering from republican disasters. Let the republicans see what that is like for a change. “The economy is too good for Donald Trump” indeed.
Yes! That’s been going on for decades. Republicans loot the economy; a Democratic Administration fixes it; the Republicans are elected and the looting begins again.
That was what a lot of people would say happened in 1980–it led to what was then considered the far right becoming respectable. It was terrible for Democrats, and forced them to become effectively conservative in the economic sense (Clinton’s great accomplishment being deficit reduction).
Of course Trump’s win reflects a widespread public perception that the economy is not good. It’s amazing how quickly people forgot “the great recession” and now assume that full employment is normal. Of course the other effect of the great recession was that the housing market cratered, leaving the supply of residential units way below what is needed and causing rents to spike to unaffordable levels, which may be what is making working people feel so squeezed now.
I think what this really demonstrates is the power of FOX and the other right wing media. This is happening world-wide. I think its a function of new forms of communicating that people don't know how to deal with.
Most people are uninformed. They're interested in style, sports, celebrities etc. Not many people are interested in history, economics and politics.
Only now we don't just have a wide swath of the public uninformed, they're purposefully misinformed by people who have an agenda.
No. White Americans have been like this since Brown v Board in 1954 attempted to make the system a little more fair to black Americans. “Busing” used to be their rally cry. Now, it’s “woke.” Same people. Same nefarious motivations.
Would point out that Clinton raised taxes, esp. on the well off (I remember, b/c I was well off) and that incomes went up during his time in office - including and especially the incomes of lower income folks.
The irony of this post in light of the fires in LA leaves me postless. There is real suffering, albeit not in the industrial/economic heart. There is a good deal, if not a new deal, to get done in the next four years. Trump will, sadly, to use his term, ignore that. There is no room for smugness in the days ahead.
Here on the Pacific Northwest, we're on our own. The MAGAs are delighting in the LA fires. My son is a wildland firefighter and he's down there now, prepositioning for initial attack if something else comes up when the winds kick up again on Monday.
We now have to learn to adapt and it's going to be up to our states. With MAGA, we can't count on Federal help.
I live in a forest devastated by climate change. Almost every day I burn slash piles from our fuels reduction program. Around us are almost 500,000 acres of doug fir dying from drought. We should make it through a "normal" wildfire, but all bets are off with a wind driven LA style event.
Best thoughts for the safety of your son, Sharon, and that of all the firefighters and first responders. I never, ever imagined I would wish we had the relative competence of the Dubya administration coming in, rather than the Line Dance of the Oligarchs.
Sharon, I hope your son remains safe. Even though I'm in the East, I appreciate his bravery and valor. We have had wildfires here but we get much more rain than you do, so they seldom occur. When they do, it's horrifying.
I'm in California just adjacent to the fires (we were evacuated on Day 1 of the Eaton Canyon fire, then put on evacuation warning, which was raised an hour or two ago). Thanks much to your son for helping California in this truly awful time.
So far, Trump has declined invitations to see the devastation for himself. No doubt, he'll throw some paper towels at people eventually, but I can almost hear him saying, "Who wants to see all that ash and rubble? What's wrong with those people?"
He’s not coming to California because if he saw what is really happening on the ground, he’d have to concede he has been lying. And then he’s so lacking in empathy he could not help in any way. Throwing paper towels? He’s more likely to be throwing rocks at Gavin Newsom!
with a photo from the 2018 Paradise fire, and didn't read the caption to realize he had not been onsite. In Trump's defense he is not the current President and did have obligations to attend to in the meantime (including a tee time.)
Trump won't be "ignoring" suffering. When it concerns someone or something he doesn't like (e.g., California), he will be actively trying to make it worse.
Assuming Trump et. al. destroys the economy (I'm willing to be they will), Democrats need to fix the economy for good. A huge, permanent wealth tax and large income tax increases at the highest levels. Oh, and a surtax on investment income. It won't happen. Too many Democrats are oligarch adjacent.
The trouble is half a loaf is better than none when it comes to the economy for all of us. Do you think the Great Depression is possible for the middle class?
Trump lies about everything and will continue to do so. I don’t believe anyone really voted for his economic policies. Rather, they opted for his central message of “don’t elect a highly qualified mixed race woman President.”
There can be nuance to this. Partly, sexism, racism, or more subtly, bias could be at play. But also, to Krugman’s question at the end of his piece, people didn’t like the truth in front of them: The economy IS better than it was, but the reset on prices hurt. Hey, that’s valid. People wanted their wages to go up AND, magically, prices to go back to what they were in 2020, with negligible interest rates. That’s perverse. And it’s “very hard,” as the great orange sage has now admitted. Meanwhile, back in October, that was the memory hole Trump exploited. Supposedly we had a “great” economy under Trump 1.0. What we had were stable prices and very low interest rates, but also relatively stagnant wages. People who voted on the economy were upset that everything had grown more expensive and that borrowing costs had risen. That means everyday commodities, but also cars and housing. Interest rates for cars and houses are hovering closer to 4-6%, depending on your credit score. Eggs, milk, meat have ceased to grow more costly, but food costs sit at a higher rung. Regardless of your income strata, unless you’re quite wealthy, you’re aware of these pressures. The swing right, wasn’t a swing at all; it was a slight nudge—and enough Dems weren’t thrilled with Harris’s embrace of the House of Cheney to simply not vote. NJ came with 6% of turning red—but that was down to several hundred thousand Democratic Garden Staters not voting at all. https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2024/11/analyzing-nj-election-turnout-numbers-harris-v-trump-2025-nj-governors-race/
So the question really is multifaceted. Will anyone notice if the prices of fruit and meat skyrocket because even a 10% increase in farm raids will result in major supply chain disruptions? Will anyone notice that cars rise 10-20%, or possibly higher, because even domestically made cars use imported parts supplied from Mexico and Canada? Every appliance, too, that crosses our borders, from Mexico or China or Southeast Asia, will also get more expensive, possibly substantially.
Logic says yes. We’ll all feel this. But if Trump has managed to jail or mute his opposition and we become Hungary, where my note here could draw an IRS audit or worse, then inflation will be the least of all evils from the kleptocracy to come.
The majority of people in the areas voting for Trump had things in common: less education, less wealth, worse health among them. Mad as hell about the price of groceries, they do not understand nor do they believe climate change. There's no hope for Homo sapiens sapiens. The species is rapidly succumbing to its least admirable characteristics. Humans are showing that they truly are greedy, barbarous and cruel--thanks to Trump giving permission.
Thoughtful comment but underscores the pretextual nature of economic anxiety as an excuse, or a permission to vote against a mixed race woman. We can all go down the trumpian rabbit holes, but racism is at the core of all the pretextual nuances to vote for Trump.
It just occurred to me while reading your comment of why the cost of food is so important: On higher ticket items, no one knows the price anymore. When you ask if anyone will notice when car prices go up. No one knows what the price of a car is. Nothing that costs ove a few hundred dollars is advertised by what it costs. A new car is "299 per month". I noticed a radio advertisement for an HVAC company about the cost of a new furnace: It was "$69 a month" Right now, the most expensive item people buy and pay full price for is their 75" TV. With the Mango Mussolini's tariff, when those TVs go from $295 to $666, you will hear some screaming.
Professor Krugman, no one needs to tell you how economically naive 60% of Americans are. Quite frankly, almost everyone who voted for Trump trusts his pronouncements more than they trust their own ability to analyze the economic state of the country. He can tell them anything and they will believe it. He could even say that his insane policies prevented even worse harm to the economy.
They not only elected Trump to represent them, but they also elected him to do their thinking for them.
You have nailed their so-called thought processes perfectly. They simply don't have the intellectual "band width" to understand complex, and nuanced issues like how economics work. A subject that even the experts often disagree.
The Biden economic miracle is one (gargantuan) example of the unexpected successes of the Biden presidency. IMHO the fix was in once the billionaires and corp monopolies realized that Biden was beating them at their own game. The Biden admin was making government work in big ways that were threatening to the the control of the power elite.. He was taking big steps instead of the baby steps that they had become accustomed to and could tolerate. They couldn’t pull their well placed strings to stop or soften the blow of laws and policies enacted by the Biden administration. He caught them off guard. (I think he surprised us all.) So the gloves had to come off. Their ace in the hole was control of the media. And with that they won. I’m not sure if they know exactly what they won with Trump jumping the tracks. I’m guessing they are also uncertain about what trump will do and how to receive it.
I agree. When Harris announced the tax rate she would impose on oligarchs was lower than Joe’s plan, a few of the Big Boys temporarily stopped opposing her. But the anti-monopoly, pro-union, environmental agenda was just too much and they had to put their foot/feet down.
🎯We saw it happen in real time with the NYT getting pissy about not getting their interview, to all the slagging about his son's issues, to the massive number of the ridiculous "Joe is OLD! stories. When the economic numbers came out, they would be buried beneath all the propagandic takes on how badly Biden was doing. The media betrayed us by sane washing the Insane Clown Posse road show.
Trump gets away with this particular lie because the economy is a disaster for the bottom half who live paycheck to paycheck with no savings for an emergency. We live in fear of a health event that will wipe out everything. College and home ownership are increasingly out of reach. Retirement isn’t good either. Life expectancy for the lower half is way less than for rich people. So, while the overall numbers look good and stock market investors do well- many millions are quite insecure. The “woke” storyline works because people long for the middle class security of a previous era. Now two people in a family must work for much less of a life. The stress has caused fissures in family structure and more families are headed by a single parent. Sadly those affected don’t understand that the billionaire oligarchs have no plan to help, in fact they are vultures who want to decimate whatever is left of the social safety net. The democrats abandoned the working and middle class starting with Clinton. And whatever good they have done has not been communicated about. Don’t start with Obamacare! Yes, yes we got rid of those inhumane pre-existing condition clauses, and more people got insurance (though millions still don’t have it) but- the coverage is insanely expensive and always changing. Every year you are spending countless harrowing hours trying to figure out what to do for your family. And then, surprise- when a health situation arises, good much working with the company to get it covered! Even minor things like a broken arm can turn into a nightmare. I spent a year trying to even communicate with Blue Cross after a broken arm. They billed me for visits that never happened and didn’t honor the policy coverage for physical therapy. Hour after hour after hour of run around and thousands of dollars. Believe me- to regular working people with insane hours and schedules, people with kids, disabled family members, who cut their own grass, cook, clean, do their taxes, shop and everything else- all for themselves- these things are devastating. Obamacare should have been a starting point. Instead the greedy corporate insurance companies are even bigger. Medications are more expensive than ever. And people are sicker than ever as the medical industrial complex turns a blind eye to prevention and the government does nothing to tell the total truth about how nutrition affects health. I’m not even on the bottom end of the middle/working class and I have experienced this horrendous state of affairs. We both went to college, (with freaking loans!) and did everything “right.” The situation is far worse for most of the country. Those are the people believing Fox and Trump. How we fix it now that the fascists are poised to really wreck everything is beyond me.
Thank you for sharing this. May I add the damage done to AFDC by President Clinton? He turned assistance to the poorest families into state block grants. This enabled <Red> states to divert cash assistance into punitive requirements. Many (most?) states froze assistance for the next quarter century. Where AFDC - now TANF - originally brought families up to the Federal Poverty Level, current benefits in some states are 10% of FPL. Even in “generous” Blue states TANF brings recliners to only 29-39% FPL. I watched the impact of frozen benefits vs rising rents result in a tsunami of family homelessness. And with 2-5 year lifetime caps in assistance, poor families are trapped in poverty.
Working class and middle class white voters strongly supported union busting Reagan twice although he presided over the worst recession since the Great Depression, the acceleration of deindustrialization, and the redistribution of wealth upward. They also supported his successor, George HW Bush. After three straight Democratic presidential losses, Clinton adjusted to what white voters wanted. None of this was my preference, but suggesting Clinton alone was responsible for the rightward move of the Democratic Party ignores the message white voters sent and continue to send. At this point, if white voters aren’t happy with their lives, they need to find the nearest mirror and take a good hard look at the reason why. As a white voter, it’s downright embarrassing so many of us whine about our lives but keep voting for the men who promise absurdly harmful policies.
Lee, I understand what you’re saying. In fact, Republicans would have probably imposed even more draconian restrictions if Clinton hadn’t beat them to the punch on “welfare reform.” I do not blame him alone. But the Act that he signed has caused immeasurable harm and resulted in escalating family homelessness.
I use this example for two reasons. First, the poor have always been targeted for budget cuts, and Democrats are not immune from doing so. Second, the AFDC to TANF block grants is still considered a legitimate approach. The “unintended” (?) consequences of state-controlled federal block grants are not difficult to foresee. In the case of TANF, this includes escalating poverty in certain states (and eventually all states). No one can believe that $300/month enables a family to pay rent. And when homelessness is the result, the playbook increases the demonizing of the lazy poor. Which leads to more eligibility and compliance restrictions.
As someone who spent years scrounging up overnight shelter spaces for families experiencing homelessness (think: Minnesota winters…children….), I fear politicians do not want to learn from history. And they will repeat it.
Thank you! They vote constantly for the republicans to kill the middle-class and suck everyone dry so the rich don't have to pay even the small share they do.
I am touched by your story. You have done all the right things and yet the system keeps beating you down. I also agree with you regarding the Clinton years. Yes, the macroeconomy was excellent, but when he accepted the NAFTA negotiations, he was doing a big f**k you to unions and the middle class. Now the oligarchs are more powerful than the national government, and I don't see a way out of this, short of a major financial levelling event, such as a global depression, to tear down their power.
Just an anecdotal example of what young people are facing. My 27 y/o daughter is a physical therapist in Denver. Makes around $70,000. Has no student loan debt and no car payment. Yet she is struggling to find an apartment with rent (and all the other fees apartments add on these days) she can afford, that is in a safe area. I do a budget for her so I know what she is spending her money on, and she is not throwing it away.
I suppose my daughter could stop contributing to her 401k, but that’s not a great idea. She is in about as ideal situation as she can be. How do young people with student loans and car payments survive???? This is why so many are in mom and dad’s basement.
Our family is made up of all Dems. We all are seeing our college educated kids struggle. Of course they aren’t starving and have good lives. My point is just it is tough for kids who are in a good position to make ends meet while also trying to save some money; how devastating must it be for people making under $20 an hour. Or people who don’t have parents who are able to be supportive.
I just think we all need to be aware of this. I have always assumed people were in the cult for the hatred and racism, but there’s a lot more to it and we would be foolish to ignore this.
I said my family is all Dems. Not one of us has any delusions about what could be coming for this country. My point was we can’t think he won because of just hatred and racism. My daughter is in a good position and it is still difficult to find a place to rent. I assume there are plenty of people much less well off who have it a lot tougher and voted with that in mind.
Why they would think MAGAts will do anything positive for them is beyond my pay grade. But they are out there. Dems cannot dismiss all those voters as racist and misogynistic.
Dems cannot win elections espousing the view that racism, misogyny, and related “values” are the primary motivating factor for people voting R. Dems will have to change their message to win. But, in fact, racism, misogyny, and related “values” ARE the primary attractor of Republican votes and have been since 1968. No other factor rises above the level of background noise. The price of eggs is just an excuse.
Why is Trump so determined to go all in on tariffs? The obvious reason is that they give him an opportunity to acquire enormous bribes for himself and his cronies, from his authority to grant tariff exemptions.
That, and that is how the rich pay less and the burden of gov funding falls to the middle and poor classes. See the Robber-Baron era and the Smoot Hawley tariffs and the economic disaster they caused.
The key question is how far he will go blaming others for his inevitable failures. His whole life is n-tupling down. He’ll need a nonstop stream of internal and external enemies. Be ready to fight good, old-fashioned, twentieth-century fascism.
But we refuse to prepare, even mentally. Which helps him and ensures he’ll win.
The flip side of that coin is an object lesson for our future selves. Let’s not waste energy blaming him for ‘his inevitable failures.’ Rather, concentrate on blocking (or undoing) his unforeseen successes.
Careful! Unless you’re in the stock market or make a really good living wage, the economy is not good for most workers, living hand to mouth. All prices rising , but for working poor, their wages have not gone up equally. I am a nurse working with people on Medicaid in the poorest counties in Wisconsin. No employers are lifting people up with good wages because they don’t have to because minimum wage is still 725.. food banks are everywhere, resale shops and free clothing shops are everywhere, and the store in town that does land office business is Aldi. The Republican legislatures have done poor people a huge service here, but they still vote for Trump, a circular nightmare of a snake eating his tail.https://www.unitedwaywi.org/page/ALICE
His brainwashed cultists will never see anything beyond what he tells them - they left reality behind years ago. A huge selling point for this cult is the fact they never have to take responsibility for their actions - they just blame whoever drumpf tells them to.
My theory? The tarriffs aren't about onshoring manufacturing. They're about further shifting the tax burden to people who spend a majority of their income on goods (the poor and middle class).
That so many corporations and the fat cat CEO's running them, who have seen record or near record profits under president Bidens administration, have propped up, and are now genuflecting to this convicted idiot is the most dumbfounding aspect. They want us to pay all the tax's that badly.
Found on Bluesky, the word of the day:
PATHOCRACY
"A pathocracy is a system of government where a small group of people with personality disorders, like psychopathy or narcissism, gain control over a society. People in a pathocracy are driven by self-interest, extremism, and disregard for others."
The word everyone needs to learn is "kakistocracy."
"government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power."
This will be a kleptokakistocracy.
Or a "Pathokakistocracy". Let's not pull any punches here.
But not to worry, FOX News is now ready to start calling the Biden Economy the Trump economy. Then when the Trump tariffs put Goldilocks on life support, RW media will first deny it's happening; then blame evil Dem wokeness, for...reasons.
Or in the words of Ed Luce at the FT, “omnishambolicclusterfuckery”
Those Brits still know how to add useful words to the (mostly) common vocabulary.
At least he spelled it cluster and not clustre. 🤣
It is their language, after all! We just rent it in the US and Canada!
😄🤣😂
rent it asunder, they'd suggest...
Dr Bandy Lee's, Dangerous case of Donald Trump & Trump contagion are excellent on Trump regime.
Relabeling Fascism is a waste of time.
I don’t know if we actually have words for what the Orange shit gibbon is going to bring us.
This is so banal. We knew about T in 2015.
Or is it a contest for "who can call Trump the best name?"
I would be happy to participate in such a contest.
Easier than thinking................
Sounds about right.
Ooof. Just once I’d really like to see the dems leave a total economic disaster for an incoming republican administration. Not that I want to see my fellow Americans suffer, but merely to give republicans a taste of what it really feels like. Dems spend most of their administrations recovering from republican disasters. Let the republicans see what that is like for a change. “The economy is too good for Donald Trump” indeed.
Yes! That’s been going on for decades. Republicans loot the economy; a Democratic Administration fixes it; the Republicans are elected and the looting begins again.
That was what a lot of people would say happened in 1980–it led to what was then considered the far right becoming respectable. It was terrible for Democrats, and forced them to become effectively conservative in the economic sense (Clinton’s great accomplishment being deficit reduction).
Of course Trump’s win reflects a widespread public perception that the economy is not good. It’s amazing how quickly people forgot “the great recession” and now assume that full employment is normal. Of course the other effect of the great recession was that the housing market cratered, leaving the supply of residential units way below what is needed and causing rents to spike to unaffordable levels, which may be what is making working people feel so squeezed now.
I think what this really demonstrates is the power of FOX and the other right wing media. This is happening world-wide. I think its a function of new forms of communicating that people don't know how to deal with.
Most people are uninformed. They're interested in style, sports, celebrities etc. Not many people are interested in history, economics and politics.
Only now we don't just have a wide swath of the public uninformed, they're purposefully misinformed by people who have an agenda.
No. White Americans have been like this since Brown v Board in 1954 attempted to make the system a little more fair to black Americans. “Busing” used to be their rally cry. Now, it’s “woke.” Same people. Same nefarious motivations.
👆👆👆🎯And it doesn't help when formerly reputable media adopt a Fox-lite formula, sane-washing their abnormality.
Would point out that Clinton raised taxes, esp. on the well off (I remember, b/c I was well off) and that incomes went up during his time in office - including and especially the incomes of lower income folks.
The irony of this post in light of the fires in LA leaves me postless. There is real suffering, albeit not in the industrial/economic heart. There is a good deal, if not a new deal, to get done in the next four years. Trump will, sadly, to use his term, ignore that. There is no room for smugness in the days ahead.
Here on the Pacific Northwest, we're on our own. The MAGAs are delighting in the LA fires. My son is a wildland firefighter and he's down there now, prepositioning for initial attack if something else comes up when the winds kick up again on Monday.
We now have to learn to adapt and it's going to be up to our states. With MAGA, we can't count on Federal help.
I live in a forest devastated by climate change. Almost every day I burn slash piles from our fuels reduction program. Around us are almost 500,000 acres of doug fir dying from drought. We should make it through a "normal" wildfire, but all bets are off with a wind driven LA style event.
Best thoughts for the safety of your son, Sharon, and that of all the firefighters and first responders. I never, ever imagined I would wish we had the relative competence of the Dubya administration coming in, rather than the Line Dance of the Oligarchs.
Sharon, I hope your son remains safe. Even though I'm in the East, I appreciate his bravery and valor. We have had wildfires here but we get much more rain than you do, so they seldom occur. When they do, it's horrifying.
I'm in California just adjacent to the fires (we were evacuated on Day 1 of the Eaton Canyon fire, then put on evacuation warning, which was raised an hour or two ago). Thanks much to your son for helping California in this truly awful time.
So far, Trump has declined invitations to see the devastation for himself. No doubt, he'll throw some paper towels at people eventually, but I can almost hear him saying, "Who wants to see all that ash and rubble? What's wrong with those people?"
He’s not coming to California because if he saw what is really happening on the ground, he’d have to concede he has been lying. And then he’s so lacking in empathy he could not help in any way. Throwing paper towels? He’s more likely to be throwing rocks at Gavin Newsom!
Barbara,
I did not realize this. Thanks. I saw this article
==>https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/us/politics/los-angeles-fires-trump-newsom.html
with a photo from the 2018 Paradise fire, and didn't read the caption to realize he had not been onsite. In Trump's defense he is not the current President and did have obligations to attend to in the meantime (including a tee time.)
==>https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/donald-trump-seen-playing-golf-hours-after-hush-money-sentencing-exclusive-photos-reveal/articleshow/117154250.cms
Tim
Not being the current president didn't keep him from machinations with dictators, and befouling the Notre Dame Cathedral reopening ceremony.
I heard it on NPR news yesterday.
Trump won't be "ignoring" suffering. When it concerns someone or something he doesn't like (e.g., California), he will be actively trying to make it worse.
Assuming Trump et. al. destroys the economy (I'm willing to be they will), Democrats need to fix the economy for good. A huge, permanent wealth tax and large income tax increases at the highest levels. Oh, and a surtax on investment income. It won't happen. Too many Democrats are oligarch adjacent.
The trouble is half a loaf is better than none when it comes to the economy for all of us. Do you think the Great Depression is possible for the middle class?
I mean — why would Trump listen to a Nobel Prize-winning economist?
You are writing with even more speed, clarity, and humor than ever. I figure you’re feeling free without an editor or institutional affiliation.
I remain,
A Fan
I noticed that too! Yeaaay Krugman.
Trump lies about everything and will continue to do so. I don’t believe anyone really voted for his economic policies. Rather, they opted for his central message of “don’t elect a highly qualified mixed race woman President.”
There can be nuance to this. Partly, sexism, racism, or more subtly, bias could be at play. But also, to Krugman’s question at the end of his piece, people didn’t like the truth in front of them: The economy IS better than it was, but the reset on prices hurt. Hey, that’s valid. People wanted their wages to go up AND, magically, prices to go back to what they were in 2020, with negligible interest rates. That’s perverse. And it’s “very hard,” as the great orange sage has now admitted. Meanwhile, back in October, that was the memory hole Trump exploited. Supposedly we had a “great” economy under Trump 1.0. What we had were stable prices and very low interest rates, but also relatively stagnant wages. People who voted on the economy were upset that everything had grown more expensive and that borrowing costs had risen. That means everyday commodities, but also cars and housing. Interest rates for cars and houses are hovering closer to 4-6%, depending on your credit score. Eggs, milk, meat have ceased to grow more costly, but food costs sit at a higher rung. Regardless of your income strata, unless you’re quite wealthy, you’re aware of these pressures. The swing right, wasn’t a swing at all; it was a slight nudge—and enough Dems weren’t thrilled with Harris’s embrace of the House of Cheney to simply not vote. NJ came with 6% of turning red—but that was down to several hundred thousand Democratic Garden Staters not voting at all. https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2024/11/analyzing-nj-election-turnout-numbers-harris-v-trump-2025-nj-governors-race/
So the question really is multifaceted. Will anyone notice if the prices of fruit and meat skyrocket because even a 10% increase in farm raids will result in major supply chain disruptions? Will anyone notice that cars rise 10-20%, or possibly higher, because even domestically made cars use imported parts supplied from Mexico and Canada? Every appliance, too, that crosses our borders, from Mexico or China or Southeast Asia, will also get more expensive, possibly substantially.
Logic says yes. We’ll all feel this. But if Trump has managed to jail or mute his opposition and we become Hungary, where my note here could draw an IRS audit or worse, then inflation will be the least of all evils from the kleptocracy to come.
The majority of people in the areas voting for Trump had things in common: less education, less wealth, worse health among them. Mad as hell about the price of groceries, they do not understand nor do they believe climate change. There's no hope for Homo sapiens sapiens. The species is rapidly succumbing to its least admirable characteristics. Humans are showing that they truly are greedy, barbarous and cruel--thanks to Trump giving permission.
The planet will be better off without us.
Oh, yeah. I have faith that it will recover nicely, once we're gone.
This is sadly true, it's not like we can cull the superstitious, destructive, simian-types causing the problems.
Thoughtful comment but underscores the pretextual nature of economic anxiety as an excuse, or a permission to vote against a mixed race woman. We can all go down the trumpian rabbit holes, but racism is at the core of all the pretextual nuances to vote for Trump.
It just occurred to me while reading your comment of why the cost of food is so important: On higher ticket items, no one knows the price anymore. When you ask if anyone will notice when car prices go up. No one knows what the price of a car is. Nothing that costs ove a few hundred dollars is advertised by what it costs. A new car is "299 per month". I noticed a radio advertisement for an HVAC company about the cost of a new furnace: It was "$69 a month" Right now, the most expensive item people buy and pay full price for is their 75" TV. With the Mango Mussolini's tariff, when those TVs go from $295 to $666, you will hear some screaming.
Seems to me those who voted for Trump voted for increasing permission to be mean, to deny common ground and destroy common good.
👆👆👆🎯Misogyny and racism are never late amongst the cretins.
Professor Krugman, no one needs to tell you how economically naive 60% of Americans are. Quite frankly, almost everyone who voted for Trump trusts his pronouncements more than they trust their own ability to analyze the economic state of the country. He can tell them anything and they will believe it. He could even say that his insane policies prevented even worse harm to the economy.
They not only elected Trump to represent them, but they also elected him to do their thinking for them.
You have nailed their so-called thought processes perfectly. They simply don't have the intellectual "band width" to understand complex, and nuanced issues like how economics work. A subject that even the experts often disagree.
Even your coda song today is too good for that orange excuse of a man. Thank you sir.
“I hear hurricanes a-blowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers over flowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin”
- J. Fogerty
Thanks too for your coda song memories.
The Biden economic miracle is one (gargantuan) example of the unexpected successes of the Biden presidency. IMHO the fix was in once the billionaires and corp monopolies realized that Biden was beating them at their own game. The Biden admin was making government work in big ways that were threatening to the the control of the power elite.. He was taking big steps instead of the baby steps that they had become accustomed to and could tolerate. They couldn’t pull their well placed strings to stop or soften the blow of laws and policies enacted by the Biden administration. He caught them off guard. (I think he surprised us all.) So the gloves had to come off. Their ace in the hole was control of the media. And with that they won. I’m not sure if they know exactly what they won with Trump jumping the tracks. I’m guessing they are also uncertain about what trump will do and how to receive it.
I agree. When Harris announced the tax rate she would impose on oligarchs was lower than Joe’s plan, a few of the Big Boys temporarily stopped opposing her. But the anti-monopoly, pro-union, environmental agenda was just too much and they had to put their foot/feet down.
They are so f*cking transparent.
🎯We saw it happen in real time with the NYT getting pissy about not getting their interview, to all the slagging about his son's issues, to the massive number of the ridiculous "Joe is OLD! stories. When the economic numbers came out, they would be buried beneath all the propagandic takes on how badly Biden was doing. The media betrayed us by sane washing the Insane Clown Posse road show.
Trump gets away with this particular lie because the economy is a disaster for the bottom half who live paycheck to paycheck with no savings for an emergency. We live in fear of a health event that will wipe out everything. College and home ownership are increasingly out of reach. Retirement isn’t good either. Life expectancy for the lower half is way less than for rich people. So, while the overall numbers look good and stock market investors do well- many millions are quite insecure. The “woke” storyline works because people long for the middle class security of a previous era. Now two people in a family must work for much less of a life. The stress has caused fissures in family structure and more families are headed by a single parent. Sadly those affected don’t understand that the billionaire oligarchs have no plan to help, in fact they are vultures who want to decimate whatever is left of the social safety net. The democrats abandoned the working and middle class starting with Clinton. And whatever good they have done has not been communicated about. Don’t start with Obamacare! Yes, yes we got rid of those inhumane pre-existing condition clauses, and more people got insurance (though millions still don’t have it) but- the coverage is insanely expensive and always changing. Every year you are spending countless harrowing hours trying to figure out what to do for your family. And then, surprise- when a health situation arises, good much working with the company to get it covered! Even minor things like a broken arm can turn into a nightmare. I spent a year trying to even communicate with Blue Cross after a broken arm. They billed me for visits that never happened and didn’t honor the policy coverage for physical therapy. Hour after hour after hour of run around and thousands of dollars. Believe me- to regular working people with insane hours and schedules, people with kids, disabled family members, who cut their own grass, cook, clean, do their taxes, shop and everything else- all for themselves- these things are devastating. Obamacare should have been a starting point. Instead the greedy corporate insurance companies are even bigger. Medications are more expensive than ever. And people are sicker than ever as the medical industrial complex turns a blind eye to prevention and the government does nothing to tell the total truth about how nutrition affects health. I’m not even on the bottom end of the middle/working class and I have experienced this horrendous state of affairs. We both went to college, (with freaking loans!) and did everything “right.” The situation is far worse for most of the country. Those are the people believing Fox and Trump. How we fix it now that the fascists are poised to really wreck everything is beyond me.
Thank you for sharing this. May I add the damage done to AFDC by President Clinton? He turned assistance to the poorest families into state block grants. This enabled <Red> states to divert cash assistance into punitive requirements. Many (most?) states froze assistance for the next quarter century. Where AFDC - now TANF - originally brought families up to the Federal Poverty Level, current benefits in some states are 10% of FPL. Even in “generous” Blue states TANF brings recliners to only 29-39% FPL. I watched the impact of frozen benefits vs rising rents result in a tsunami of family homelessness. And with 2-5 year lifetime caps in assistance, poor families are trapped in poverty.
Working class and middle class white voters strongly supported union busting Reagan twice although he presided over the worst recession since the Great Depression, the acceleration of deindustrialization, and the redistribution of wealth upward. They also supported his successor, George HW Bush. After three straight Democratic presidential losses, Clinton adjusted to what white voters wanted. None of this was my preference, but suggesting Clinton alone was responsible for the rightward move of the Democratic Party ignores the message white voters sent and continue to send. At this point, if white voters aren’t happy with their lives, they need to find the nearest mirror and take a good hard look at the reason why. As a white voter, it’s downright embarrassing so many of us whine about our lives but keep voting for the men who promise absurdly harmful policies.
Lee, I understand what you’re saying. In fact, Republicans would have probably imposed even more draconian restrictions if Clinton hadn’t beat them to the punch on “welfare reform.” I do not blame him alone. But the Act that he signed has caused immeasurable harm and resulted in escalating family homelessness.
I use this example for two reasons. First, the poor have always been targeted for budget cuts, and Democrats are not immune from doing so. Second, the AFDC to TANF block grants is still considered a legitimate approach. The “unintended” (?) consequences of state-controlled federal block grants are not difficult to foresee. In the case of TANF, this includes escalating poverty in certain states (and eventually all states). No one can believe that $300/month enables a family to pay rent. And when homelessness is the result, the playbook increases the demonizing of the lazy poor. Which leads to more eligibility and compliance restrictions.
As someone who spent years scrounging up overnight shelter spaces for families experiencing homelessness (think: Minnesota winters…children….), I fear politicians do not want to learn from history. And they will repeat it.
Thank you! They vote constantly for the republicans to kill the middle-class and suck everyone dry so the rich don't have to pay even the small share they do.
I am touched by your story. You have done all the right things and yet the system keeps beating you down. I also agree with you regarding the Clinton years. Yes, the macroeconomy was excellent, but when he accepted the NAFTA negotiations, he was doing a big f**k you to unions and the middle class. Now the oligarchs are more powerful than the national government, and I don't see a way out of this, short of a major financial levelling event, such as a global depression, to tear down their power.
Just an anecdotal example of what young people are facing. My 27 y/o daughter is a physical therapist in Denver. Makes around $70,000. Has no student loan debt and no car payment. Yet she is struggling to find an apartment with rent (and all the other fees apartments add on these days) she can afford, that is in a safe area. I do a budget for her so I know what she is spending her money on, and she is not throwing it away.
I suppose my daughter could stop contributing to her 401k, but that’s not a great idea. She is in about as ideal situation as she can be. How do young people with student loans and car payments survive???? This is why so many are in mom and dad’s basement.
Our family is made up of all Dems. We all are seeing our college educated kids struggle. Of course they aren’t starving and have good lives. My point is just it is tough for kids who are in a good position to make ends meet while also trying to save some money; how devastating must it be for people making under $20 an hour. Or people who don’t have parents who are able to be supportive.
I just think we all need to be aware of this. I have always assumed people were in the cult for the hatred and racism, but there’s a lot more to it and we would be foolish to ignore this.
If your daughter (or any other middle class person) thinks Republicans will make things better for her, she is delusional.
I said my family is all Dems. Not one of us has any delusions about what could be coming for this country. My point was we can’t think he won because of just hatred and racism. My daughter is in a good position and it is still difficult to find a place to rent. I assume there are plenty of people much less well off who have it a lot tougher and voted with that in mind.
Why they would think MAGAts will do anything positive for them is beyond my pay grade. But they are out there. Dems cannot dismiss all those voters as racist and misogynistic.
Dems cannot win elections espousing the view that racism, misogyny, and related “values” are the primary motivating factor for people voting R. Dems will have to change their message to win. But, in fact, racism, misogyny, and related “values” ARE the primary attractor of Republican votes and have been since 1968. No other factor rises above the level of background noise. The price of eggs is just an excuse.
Why is Trump so determined to go all in on tariffs? The obvious reason is that they give him an opportunity to acquire enormous bribes for himself and his cronies, from his authority to grant tariff exemptions.
Yes and tariffs can be redistributed as tax cuts for those who don't need it.
That, and that is how the rich pay less and the burden of gov funding falls to the middle and poor classes. See the Robber-Baron era and the Smoot Hawley tariffs and the economic disaster they caused.
The key question is how far he will go blaming others for his inevitable failures. His whole life is n-tupling down. He’ll need a nonstop stream of internal and external enemies. Be ready to fight good, old-fashioned, twentieth-century fascism.
But we refuse to prepare, even mentally. Which helps him and ensures he’ll win.
The flip side of that coin is an object lesson for our future selves. Let’s not waste energy blaming him for ‘his inevitable failures.’ Rather, concentrate on blocking (or undoing) his unforeseen successes.
Careful! Unless you’re in the stock market or make a really good living wage, the economy is not good for most workers, living hand to mouth. All prices rising , but for working poor, their wages have not gone up equally. I am a nurse working with people on Medicaid in the poorest counties in Wisconsin. No employers are lifting people up with good wages because they don’t have to because minimum wage is still 725.. food banks are everywhere, resale shops and free clothing shops are everywhere, and the store in town that does land office business is Aldi. The Republican legislatures have done poor people a huge service here, but they still vote for Trump, a circular nightmare of a snake eating his tail.https://www.unitedwaywi.org/page/ALICE
I just wonder how long it will take before his followers see his destruction of the economy rather than what he tells them to see!
His brainwashed cultists will never see anything beyond what he tells them - they left reality behind years ago. A huge selling point for this cult is the fact they never have to take responsibility for their actions - they just blame whoever drumpf tells them to.
My theory? The tarriffs aren't about onshoring manufacturing. They're about further shifting the tax burden to people who spend a majority of their income on goods (the poor and middle class).
Bingo! See the historical Smoot-Hawley tariffs for a historical example.
He’s going to blame the Democrats AND fudge the numbers
Mr. Magical Thinking, is Trump. Your choice of musical exclamation point was brilliant! (OMG, we really did dress like that!)
MAGA will blame the Democrats when it all goes pear-shaped, just like they always do. Reality has no part in their world view.
That so many corporations and the fat cat CEO's running them, who have seen record or near record profits under president Bidens administration, have propped up, and are now genuflecting to this convicted idiot is the most dumbfounding aspect. They want us to pay all the tax's that badly.