Austerity looked good in the UK at first as well. Right wing economics have a record of failure that goes back decades. Sadly, right wing ideologues, like Republicans eternally addicted to the failure that is Reaganomics, never learn their lesson.
Depends on how you define success. If you define economic success as general prosperity, then conservative economic policies do, indeed, have a long and well-established record of failure.
However, if you define success the way conservatives do--creating widespread misery while enriching the wealthiest few--then conservative economic policies are eminently successful.
Or if you define success as the architects of the scheme likely did - transfer as much wealth to the obscenely rich as possible, then Reaganomics has been wildly successful.
By 2019 Argentina owed about $323 billion to various entities like the International Monetary Fund and private bond holders . It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the money the US Government has pledged to
Argentina winds up paying off the private bond holders. I’m not discounting Trump’s affinity for
a cozy relationship with right wing
economists turned Presidents of financially strapped countries, but
I believe we can follow the $ $ straight into the hands of the wealthy that took a big risk and lost .
In any event, the austerity measures
that will follow will result in belt tightening for the many and a reprieve for the rich. And the beat goes on . . .
I wouldn't mind some relief for the Argentines tho. Despite what happened in the '80s, there are good people there. South America is a Petri dish for bad economic ideas, and a few good ones. Bad examples perform a service when they are seen clearly. Thanks to Dr Krugman; and it might be worth examining what happens now, as you say.
Don’t forget privatization. The Brits are now horrified by the problems Thames Water is having — sewage spills, degraded pipes and so much debt they can’t afford to fix things. And it’s not just the privatized water systems:
“ UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation:
Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010”
Too bad our media won’t cover stories about the failures of Reaganomics, preferring the right’s anti-government spending/austerity frame. According to British economist Simeon Wren-Lewis the British media has the same bias which he has named “media macro”.
The Times covered the failures of Reagonomics years ago; again, it's no longer news. I have a printed copy of one article somewhere. The main point of that article was that people still talk about Reagan's initial tax cuts and persist in ignoring the fact that he had to increase taxes a year or two later when "trickle down" didn't work.
It may not be news, but it is a fact that should be publicized frequently. Thats why our Founder's wanted a free press. But we lost the "free press" decades ago to corporate control, to CEOligarchs.
Look at what happened to UK after relying on Wind Energy (when there's no wind) and what happened when they allowed, at the urging of Angela Merkel, to accept Immigrants from the Middle East that Saudi, UAE, Qatar won't accept. Same with France, Sweden, Italy, GERMANY of course, & other EU nations that are fast becoming 3rd World Countries.
Milton "inflation is forever and always a monetary phenomenon" Friedman's school of economics involves using austerity and not monetary policy to control inflation? It's very interesting to see the lack of awareness on your part of the beliefs and reasoning of policy choices of your perceived political opponents. If you wanted to attack Friedman's actual ideas like money supply targetting or his libertarian politics, that would be one thing. But lying about his beliefs is just weird.
Secondly, it was Carter and not Reagan (who dr Krugman advised on policy) who instituted Volcker as the head of the federal reserve to bring down inflation. Carter was also the president who undertook most of the privatization, with Reagan doing very little on that front. Also balancing the budget has been a thing in American politics since at least the 1920s. Austerity is just doing that by cutting expenditure.
Also a strong anti-government spending bias at least in the US and UK. Years of propaganda promoting Reaganomics/Thatcherism is hard to undo even when the failures are so evident. I think the right uses the socialism and immigrants fearmongering to distract from the fact that their economic agenda is a huge loser.
Austerity works very well for the .1%. The uber-wealthy and the mega corporations always get magnitudes richer, and far more powerful. In that respect, its not a failed policy. It works great. Remember the American billionaires/corporations currently supporting Trump&CO hate the very concept of "Democracy". They have said so, and they have demonstrated it to us repeatedly.
I worked in Brazil and Argentina during the worst years of hyperinflation. When I asked why this was allowed to continue, I was told exactly what you say - that the uber-wealthy of those countries, most of whom lived in Miami or NYC, made millions, if not billions, as a result.
Biden & his 3rd wife Ashley's TRANSITORY INFLATION reached 9.1% and totaled nearly 30% in 4 years... And yes, CUE CARD JOE secured the border while IMPORTS slept in luxury hotels with hot chef prepared food and Homeless Americans slept on sidewalks.
It's pointless to argue with you, but I will simply point out that the inflation Biden inherited from Emperor Dipshit was the direct result of Emperor Dipshit's mishandling of the pandemic. But you wouldn't understand that as you clearly don't understand the economics that drive inflation.
When Ashley’s Husband took over, Transitory Inflation was 2.4%… Feel Free to Fact Ck that with your Brainwashed CNN Groupies.
Cue Card Joe’s JOB NUMBERS were mostly REHIRES from the JoeMicron-19 Virus Shutdown (Per CBS New)… And Joe’s numbers were OVERSTATED by nearly 1 MILLION. His BLS Chief issued the correction after Good ol’ Nancy forced out “mentally sharp Joe.
Oh, and crime numbers were UNDERSTATED… FBI issued corrections AFTER Joe’s UNELECTED Teleprompter finally beat Medicare
Or we could behave like the richest country in the world should behave, and find housing for all those homeless Americans. But then again, it might mean the billionaires would have to forgo that sixth mansion or that second yacht...or the new wife's most recent plastic surgery.
Per FORBES, Hillary, Biden, & Kamela (not a typo) had more BILLIONAIRE$ who funded & supported them than TACO J. Trump. And per official IRS data, The Donald’s beautiful Tax Cuts benefitted Lower & Middle Class the most, NOT the Top 1 Percenters that CNN & MSNBC been brainwashing their Lowly Paid & Dwindling Viewers. FACT CK ME, Please.
Why did Joe & his wife ASHLEY give $ 2 BILLION to Stacey Abrams, which she admitted in an interview she received.
Why did Biden & His Cue Cards waste $ 42 BILLION on their internet project that connected ZERO?
Biden’s DHS/FEMA diverted monies to communities accepting Biden’s special IMPORTS. Why? = DHS/FEMA Announces $380 Million in ADDITIONAL Funding to Communities Receiving Migrants
Release Date: August 28, 2024
And recall, Martha’s Vineyard quickly & efficiently removed 50 Venezuelan Migrants from MV island…. = “THEY KNOW HOW TO DO IT.
French farmers may have better memories than American farmers. Many Americans cannot remember which president and political party held office during major events. MAGAs think Obama was president during hurricane Katrina and during the financial meltdown in the fall of 2008. George W Bush has gone missing from their minds. They also believe Biden was president during the Covid lockdown in 2020, when of course Trump was president. On the Democratic side, the deindustrialization of the late 1970s and early 1980s has gone missing so the 1990s NAFTA treaty and Clinton gets blamed for the loss of manufacturing jobs. It’s like some new form of dementia.
American's didn't have the common sense to blame Bush2/Cheney for 9/11, even when it was shown over and over that Bush&Co had been repeatedly warned that Bin Laden was going to attack, and warned in detail about the "how" of an attack.
Yet Americans rallied behind Bush2, and authorized him to trash the USA, right along with Iraq and Afghanistan. Hussein offered to surrender to the Bush2 people (and be allowed to flee with his stolen billions). Nope. They were determined to invade. To put on their "Shock and Awe!" show for the corporate media. "Scud Stud" and all that.
Evidently, US Farmers must take multiple blows to the head; but they still don't learn. Those pesky cat and dog eating immigrants live rent free in their heads.
Most farmers in the US are rich families or large corporations. They'll get bailouts. The real small farmers won't get anything. But judging from a friend of mine, they'll stick with Trump. After decades of anti-Democrat propaganda they won't vote for a Democrat no matter how much Republican policies hurt them.
Democrats need to work with Independents.
We also need open primaries and/or ranked choice voting.
When will farmers learn? Never. Given the opportunity they would vote for Trump again because you can’t fix stupid and there is no cure for hate and racism which these people are consumed with.
You were listening to Marketplace last night. I haven't heard or read any follow up with the affected farmers to know how they feel. Maybe they have shifted their opinion of Trump. I do suspect that farmers who aren't directly affected are clinging to Trump with their fingernails.
They'll keep supporting Trump because FOXnews and right wing media keep telling them that everything bad that occurs is the fault of Democrats, liberals, "illegals", women's lib, and now: trans-persons.
What a great idea. Let’s take food out of the mouths of people all over the world (including our own country) and give the money to another narcissistic fool who is also leading his own country down a dark rabbit hole.
I appreciate your warning: IT GETS ECONOMISTIC FROM HERE ON. Please continue to provide “economistic” enlightenment at this level of comprehensibility. For me, that’s where your Substack adds significant value.
So Trump hurts farmers by killing USAID, which bought billions in ag products, and then by raising tariffs, which are killing US soybean sales to China. Now he rubs salt in the wound by using tax dollars to bail out Argentina, the country that lowered its tariffs to capture the Chinese soybean market the Great Wheeler-Dealer left on the table.
As I have noted elsewhere, not only is this risking American taxpayer dollars for what looks like a windmill tilt, it is also going to exacerbate the disquiet for Trump being felt in the soybean belt.
The US basically hasn’t sold any soybeans to China this year due to tariffs. Within hours of the announcement of US support Argentina dropped the export tax on their soybeans and cargoes bound for China were being booked the same day.
Trump’s policies have basically destroyed a large agricultural export market for US farmers.
Most farmers seem to love Trump and MAGA. Is it because they love pain? or perhaps just ideology? Most of the farmers will stick with MAGA and Donald regardless of how much he punishes them.
The US must NOT bailout the farmers who, stupidly, believed Trump’s lies about Trump Tariffs. They must feel the pain the way the rest of the US will feel. Trump must go - join the Anti-Orange Scum nationwide protests on Saturday October 18th!
It is very hard to justify any sort of export tax in my opinion. It seems like rent seeking from the government and, as such is an impediment to a fair market
Argentinian here. I don’t support Milei policies in general nor the temporary drop of export taxes on the soy (in a desperate attempt to prevent a run to the dollar one month before the midterms election), but why is reasonable/fair to expect that Argentinian farmers should pay export taxes in order not to compete with US farmers, which not only don’t pay these taxes but even receive subsidies?
You’ve got it exactly backwards: Argentina’s government had dropped the export tax on farmers trying to stop the rise of the dollar. The agreement with the US came after that. In fact, reinstating the tax was part of the discussions with the US, and it happened shortly after the agreement. So, the US is getting so,etching out of this ( although likely not worth the risk )
Because Milei's made up crazy economics ruin countries and now they need to be saved.
Trump can't let it be seen that this type of ideology is a failure...so back to being an interventionist (which is something he and MAGA are against apparently)
Trump is a murderous bastard who cares only for his own welfare. He does not care a whit about killing millions and it is why he is compared by me an other to Hitler. He is Americas Hitler. Cutting off a few billion that save millions of lives is just sick. For a few pennies basically we can save millions of lives but he would rather watch children starve to death or die of totally preventable diseases we USED to make available to the world. He is just a sick, twisted, demented man with no heart or soul. I hope what kills him is long drawn out and painful, he;'s rearned that.
Is it possible that forming an alliance with Argentina has nothing to do with economics? Argentina has historically been a safe haven for Nazis. These war criminals need some place to go when they are defeated.
The United States provided just as open a haven for Nazi criminals as anywhere else after World War II. NASA's space program, in particular, was a wholesale takeover of the German V-1/2 rocket research team.
None of the policies and actions The Felon is orchestrating would be possible without the quisling Republicans in congress. How quickly they bent the knee and kissed the ring without consideration to what he would require as a result of their allegiance. Hate cloaked as America First saw aid ripped from those countries in desperate need of help. Hate cloaked as Christianity saw unbridled support of Israel and the death and starvation of 1,000s in Gaza. Hate cloaked as Economic Policy saw tariffs applied at record highs against some of our most steadfast allies. F47!
I think it's more about greed for wealth, power, and position, and their indifference to suffering, than hate. Result's the same. My Congresswoman is so very self-righteous and holier than thou as she supports trumpmonster.
Milei’s economics will implode Argentina’s economy as much as previous governments did. In addition, Milei has a significant conflict of interest because like Muskrat, he’s started his own unregulated cryptocurrency.
It could wind up crashing the economy around the world and causing Great Depression 2.0. Trump and his family have already made a fortune with Trump’s own cryptocurrency, and Muskrat also has his own cryptocurrency. All of this is a recipe for stealing from the public to stuff their own bank accounts!
Good point. I see it as analogous to what happened when the stock market crashed in 1929. Most people will lose everything, but the proprietors of unregulated cryptocurrencies will get out before disaster strikes. Of course, there is a possibility that some cryptocurrencies will go kaput, like what happened with Sam Bankman-Fried.
Advocating for the Nordic system, which would benefit the entire country, even the wealthy, especially in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
Expanding our *current* social democracy will *heal* the nation. We have had a more fully developed social democracy in our history, by American standards according to AI, and we need to expand it to rebuild our economy and rebuild the middle class, especially because of job-loss due to Artificial Intelligence.
Fresh vision...
A New Beginning….
New Mexico will start to provide universal childcare to all their citizens in November, as well as breakfast and lunch for students, and free college, which aligns perfectly with social democracy, the system in the Nordic countries. They *will* prosper because of it.
I asked Artificial Intelligence what would be the most just, equitable and stable political / economic system, and it identified social democracy, the Nordic model, as the best system the world has to offer. It WORKS.
Social democracy is *NOT* socialism. They are *vastly* different systems.
Social democracy is a *CAPITALIST* system with strong safety nets.
Both socialism and *unbridled* capitalism are prone to corruption and instability.
Social democracy has its roots in basic Christian principles of loving others but does not establish a state religion.
Expanding our social democracy would provide the following:
1. Universal healthcare. (It’s cheaper with everyone paying in.)
2. Universal college.
3. Universal childcare (some Nordic countries charge a small amount).
4. Retraining programs and long-term unemployment for people who lose jobs due to tariffs, and AI. It will rescue A LOT of people because they expect at least a 20% unemployment from AI. (I’ve heard higher from a tech scientist, as if we needed something else to worry about).
We have elements of a social democracy, but the Republicans have been trying to dismantle it for decades by gutting social programs.
Social democracy helps to mitigate the impact of wealth that compounds, moves up, and concentrates into fewer and fewer hands, as evidenced by the 902 billionaires we have. That concentration and moving up of wealth impoverishes everyone else.
There's a high degree of trust in community and the government in social democracies, and low corruption.
Because they have no college debt, buy homes earlier, and have no medical or nursing-home debt they are able to pass their homes and wealth to their children, who are able to pass their wealth to their children, and on and on, so it creates generational wealth.
Norway, a strong social democracy, is one of the happiest countries on earth; they don’t suffer the stress of surviving in a technologically ever-changing, inflationary world as much.
They pay slightly higher taxes but they never lose their savings or homes to college, medical debt, or nursing-home care, all included in their taxes so they can pass their wealth on, creating generational prosperity.
When you spread the cost and risk across the entire population it's *less* expensive to cover everyone because of the sheer scale of everyone paying in. And of course, they have retirement and housing subsidies for the elderly.
They are a highly educated population and have higher-paying jobs.
We're paying an average of 20% in tariffs across the board anyway (and a plethora of other taxes too), so we might as well get something for that money, and universal healthcare and free or low-cost education would be a step in the right direction.
SEVENTY nations have universal healthcare. We are the *only* first-world country that does not have universal healthcare. Norway’s had universal healthcare since 1912! It’s CHEAPER.
Also, universal healthcare may help to *incentivize* corporations to produce in America because they would no longer have to pay up to 30% in private health insurance for their employees.
Universal healthcare could attract so much business back to America that it would produce wealth and taxes that would help to pay for universal healthcare.
Also with universal healthcare companies could hire full-time instead of part-time; they hire part-time to avoid paying for healthcare. They'd have a more stable, innovative, up-to-date, healthy workforce.
With Artificial Intelligence, people are going to be thrown out of work left and right. Salesforce just laid off 4000 employees due to AI, and I saw a list where tens of thousands have been laid off due to AI.
With improving our *hobbling* social democracy, people who lose jobs to AI would have access to retraining and long-term unemployment until they got back on their feet and are re-tooled, and would not lose their home or shelter, and be able to college-educate their children regardless of their financial status. It's an incredible system.
Social democracy could fuel an even greater TECH BOOM!
We'd invest in human capital — invest in the creativity of the human mind — which is very, very profitable...
Actually, social democracy in America starting in the 1930s to about 1979 helped to build Silicon Valley through low-cost college education — which created *incalculable* worldwide wealth and innovation.
We give subsidies and bailouts to *private* corporations; shouldn’t we invest in human capital, in people?
Social democracy is a WIN-WIN because it puts the economic engine — the middle class — to work with higher wages, creating and innovating, and re-tooling when necessary! It would create a strong and creative workforce.
A top-heavy economy like we have is NOT sustainable. It's prone to *shocks* and will falter, because the stock market needs consumers.
Without consumers, the stock market is not stable…
When the wealthy realize that when we had a strong social democracy it built Silicon Valley and grew our economy and supported and stabilized the stock market, then they'll jump on board.
We’re faced with a choice of sharing the wealth or hoarding and crashing.
Also, ALL social programs create great *wealth* and *taxes* and raise GDP. They are a net *benefit,* not a net loss to Main Street, and a support to Wall Street (including through higher consumption and more investment into 401Ks).
If you hear talk about universal healthcare, it’s good to support it. It will save your savings and your home from medical debt. And if you hear about “free” (paid by taxes) college tuition, it’s good to support it; your children will be able to buy a home faster with no college debt and you both will be able to pass your wealth to your families.
If someone tells you that social programs are “socialism” please tell them that’s not true. They are mostly INSURANCE POLICIES paid for by taxes.
Socialism is where the government “owns the means of production,” owns private industry, and that’s *not* going to happen in America, and I personally wouldn’t support it either. It’s not a stable economic / political system.
I feel if people call Congress and raise our collective voices (see list above), we can successfully change the national conversation with positive solutions. It would give hope!
Ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask.
If we raise our collective voices unrelentingly we can change the national conversation instead of getting caught up in their drama and chaos. We need to put forward positive solutions that everyone can support.
Everyone needs healthcare, and because of the $1.5 trillion cut to Medicare and Medicaid, I think even his supporters will be ready for universal healthcare now, especially if they understand it’s cheaper, that it’s NOT socialism, it’s an insurance policy paid for by taxes, and that they won’t lose their savings or home to medical debt and pass their wealth to their children. It’s perfect timing to make a national call for universal healthcare!
If Germany can rise from the ashes of a despot and Japan can heal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we can rise too!
This regime will not last forever; that is a foregone conclusion; nothing lasts forever. That’s just life!
Please save and share with everyone and call and share this with Congress.
Yeah I'm in. Now all we need is a way to get there. I am not as pessimistic as many who seem to be writing America off. The future is still open, at least from my vantage point. But no question America has been failing the grade for a long time.
I agree. It’s possible we could have a big Blue wave in 2026 and 2028, even with gerrymandering. People need healthcare and affordable groceries. They can’t possibly want power more than their lives (I hope). 😊
I’ve read that during the Great Depression Americans were so fed up with Republicans the Democrats held power for 50 years!
It’s all about education and taking action.
The hard part is crossing over into MAGA Land and getting the info to where it needs to go. They need to “do the math.”
As some wag put it, there are 4 types of countries, developed, underdeveloped, Japan and Argentina. No one can work out why resouceless Japan is so rich nor why resource rich Argentina is so poor. The most likely explanation is simply cultural. If Argentina had been colonised by Britain it would have been as successful as all the other anglosphere countries. It would have the Westminster system of government and protestant work ethic. Instead it's stagnated and lurched from crisis to crisis, like all the Iberian colonies. It's a bit taboo to point this out but the correlative pattern is so strong it's hard to deny.
Why are the Anglophone countries rejecting their heritage and embracing the Iberian model now? It’s one of the most confounding trends the early 21st century.
Yes, a model (rule of law, relatively honest elections, and so forth) which has served our country very well since the founding in 1780's. As well as our dealings with other countries in NATO, the UN, etc. I know they are not perfect, but we became the richest country in history getting along with our allies and other countries and with free trade.
It is crazy to turn our backs on all of that.
Trump says that everyone is stealing us blind. But we keep getting richer and richer. I say let them keep stealing and let's see how rich we become.
I think that Donald is so greedy and self-centered, that he cannot stand to see others prospering. He thinks that everything is a zero-sum game and that if others are doing well then it means that he is not doing well, or they are getting something which he should have gotten. But most successful people and businesses do well when their customers and/or clients or patients do well. We all prosper and do well together. But that is a foreign concept to Donald.
I'm not sure how much they are, although I'll agree Trump is presiding over a sort of 'latinisation' of the US government, blatantly corrupt and violent. Ironic really, given his racialist policies.
There used to be strong empirical evidence for this uncomfortable theory of Anglo-Saxon superiority. But Farage raised some doubts, and then came Trump…
Some have argued the US has always had one foot in the Latin American camp. Crime and corruption, for example, has long been closer to Latin American norms than other anglosphere or Northern European nations.
“ I can see no legitimate reason for the U.S. government to risk billions in American taxpayer dollars in an almost surely doomed effort to bail Milei out.” Agreed - it’s politics. But it pales in significance to the billions in American taxpayer dollars in the complicit criminal effort to support Netanyahu’s genocide in Palestine.
Young Argentine couple with preteen daughter renting neighbor's house in my affluent DC 'burb. Diplomatic license plates on both brand new Mercedes/BMW/Audi SUVs (arrived with window stickers from local dealerships).
Exclusive private school for the girl. They leave out lots of packaging from Balducci's, Saks, highest end butchers and fishmongers on recycle/trash days. They don't appear to work outside the home. Their Argentine Spanish speaking guests drive similar diplomatic-plated vehicles.
Been here a long time, and have seen other nations' diplomats rent for a year or three. None so ostentatiously. No austerity for these folks.
Austerity looked good in the UK at first as well. Right wing economics have a record of failure that goes back decades. Sadly, right wing ideologues, like Republicans eternally addicted to the failure that is Reaganomics, never learn their lesson.
Depends on how you define success. If you define economic success as general prosperity, then conservative economic policies do, indeed, have a long and well-established record of failure.
However, if you define success the way conservatives do--creating widespread misery while enriching the wealthiest few--then conservative economic policies are eminently successful.
Or if you define success as the architects of the scheme likely did - transfer as much wealth to the obscenely rich as possible, then Reaganomics has been wildly successful.
By 2019 Argentina owed about $323 billion to various entities like the International Monetary Fund and private bond holders . It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the money the US Government has pledged to
Argentina winds up paying off the private bond holders. I’m not discounting Trump’s affinity for
a cozy relationship with right wing
economists turned Presidents of financially strapped countries, but
I believe we can follow the $ $ straight into the hands of the wealthy that took a big risk and lost .
In any event, the austerity measures
that will follow will result in belt tightening for the many and a reprieve for the rich. And the beat goes on . . .
I wouldn't mind some relief for the Argentines tho. Despite what happened in the '80s, there are good people there. South America is a Petri dish for bad economic ideas, and a few good ones. Bad examples perform a service when they are seen clearly. Thanks to Dr Krugman; and it might be worth examining what happens now, as you say.
Loved the closing line reference!
Inflation counts even when people want to ignore it. We will see.
Don’t forget privatization. The Brits are now horrified by the problems Thames Water is having — sewage spills, degraded pipes and so much debt they can’t afford to fix things. And it’s not just the privatized water systems:
“ UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation:
Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/16/uk-public-paid-200bn-to-shareholders-of-key-industries-since-privatisation-study
Too bad our media won’t cover stories about the failures of Reaganomics, preferring the right’s anti-government spending/austerity frame. According to British economist Simeon Wren-Lewis the British media has the same bias which he has named “media macro”.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/blogs-and-reviews/how-broadcast-media-created-mediamacro
Fiona Hill's book, There is Nothing for You Here, shows the horrible results of Thatcher's policies in the United Kingdom.
Ordered the book.
The Times covered the failures of Reagonomics years ago; again, it's no longer news. I have a printed copy of one article somewhere. The main point of that article was that people still talk about Reagan's initial tax cuts and persist in ignoring the fact that he had to increase taxes a year or two later when "trickle down" didn't work.
It may not be news, but it is a fact that should be publicized frequently. Thats why our Founder's wanted a free press. But we lost the "free press" decades ago to corporate control, to CEOligarchs.
Combined with deregulation. When the fox is in charge of the henhouse....
The oligarchs own the media. Of course they prefer the economic system that keeps them rich.
Look at what happened to UK after relying on Wind Energy (when there's no wind) and what happened when they allowed, at the urging of Angela Merkel, to accept Immigrants from the Middle East that Saudi, UAE, Qatar won't accept. Same with France, Sweden, Italy, GERMANY of course, & other EU nations that are fast becoming 3rd World Countries.
Mr. Google, Siri, Bing are your friends. It happened a few times already.
Milton "inflation is forever and always a monetary phenomenon" Friedman's school of economics involves using austerity and not monetary policy to control inflation? It's very interesting to see the lack of awareness on your part of the beliefs and reasoning of policy choices of your perceived political opponents. If you wanted to attack Friedman's actual ideas like money supply targetting or his libertarian politics, that would be one thing. But lying about his beliefs is just weird.
Secondly, it was Carter and not Reagan (who dr Krugman advised on policy) who instituted Volcker as the head of the federal reserve to bring down inflation. Carter was also the president who undertook most of the privatization, with Reagan doing very little on that front. Also balancing the budget has been a thing in American politics since at least the 1920s. Austerity is just doing that by cutting expenditure.
Robert Jaffee - what you say about Thatcher and debt is not accurate. British govt debt was more than 40% of GDP when she took power (1979), but only about 25% when she lost power (1990). See 8th chart of: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/articles/trendsintheukeconomy/2015-02-27
She also robbed the National Health Service.
Just as Trump will rob Social Security and Medicare.
Oh come on! we all know now that the reason for all the issues in the West is "Socialism, and immigrants". And so many believe that, I despair!
Also a strong anti-government spending bias at least in the US and UK. Years of propaganda promoting Reaganomics/Thatcherism is hard to undo even when the failures are so evident. I think the right uses the socialism and immigrants fearmongering to distract from the fact that their economic agenda is a huge loser.
Exactly!
Rightwing Economics is the unlearned lesson of Boom-Bust cycles.
Austerity works very well for the .1%. The uber-wealthy and the mega corporations always get magnitudes richer, and far more powerful. In that respect, its not a failed policy. It works great. Remember the American billionaires/corporations currently supporting Trump&CO hate the very concept of "Democracy". They have said so, and they have demonstrated it to us repeatedly.
I worked in Brazil and Argentina during the worst years of hyperinflation. When I asked why this was allowed to continue, I was told exactly what you say - that the uber-wealthy of those countries, most of whom lived in Miami or NYC, made millions, if not billions, as a result.
Biden & his 3rd wife Ashley's TRANSITORY INFLATION reached 9.1% and totaled nearly 30% in 4 years... And yes, CUE CARD JOE secured the border while IMPORTS slept in luxury hotels with hot chef prepared food and Homeless Americans slept on sidewalks.
BIDEN FOREVER.
You feel me, man?
It's pointless to argue with you, but I will simply point out that the inflation Biden inherited from Emperor Dipshit was the direct result of Emperor Dipshit's mishandling of the pandemic. But you wouldn't understand that as you clearly don't understand the economics that drive inflation.
NYET..
When Ashley’s Husband took over, Transitory Inflation was 2.4%… Feel Free to Fact Ck that with your Brainwashed CNN Groupies.
Cue Card Joe’s JOB NUMBERS were mostly REHIRES from the JoeMicron-19 Virus Shutdown (Per CBS New)… And Joe’s numbers were OVERSTATED by nearly 1 MILLION. His BLS Chief issued the correction after Good ol’ Nancy forced out “mentally sharp Joe.
Oh, and crime numbers were UNDERSTATED… FBI issued corrections AFTER Joe’s UNELECTED Teleprompter finally beat Medicare
I agree.
We should prioritize ILLEGAL Migrants, put them up in luxury hotels while Homeless Americans sleep on the sidewalks.... Nothing wrong with that.
Or we could behave like the richest country in the world should behave, and find housing for all those homeless Americans. But then again, it might mean the billionaires would have to forgo that sixth mansion or that second yacht...or the new wife's most recent plastic surgery.
Good point…
Per FORBES, more BILLIONAIRE$ funded & supported The Middle Class Kid than TACO J. Trump…
And more BILLIONAIRES supported Hillary Lewinsky & Ashley’s husband.
Per FORBES, Hillary, Biden, & Kamela (not a typo) had more BILLIONAIRE$ who funded & supported them than TACO J. Trump. And per official IRS data, The Donald’s beautiful Tax Cuts benefitted Lower & Middle Class the most, NOT the Top 1 Percenters that CNN & MSNBC been brainwashing their Lowly Paid & Dwindling Viewers. FACT CK ME, Please.
Good question..
Why did Joe & his wife ASHLEY give $ 2 BILLION to Stacey Abrams, which she admitted in an interview she received.
Why did Biden & His Cue Cards waste $ 42 BILLION on their internet project that connected ZERO?
Biden’s DHS/FEMA diverted monies to communities accepting Biden’s special IMPORTS. Why? = DHS/FEMA Announces $380 Million in ADDITIONAL Funding to Communities Receiving Migrants
Release Date: August 28, 2024
And recall, Martha’s Vineyard quickly & efficiently removed 50 Venezuelan Migrants from MV island…. = “THEY KNOW HOW TO DO IT.
Perhaps- but I think most of the money will go to private bond holders that lost their ass
holding Argentinian debt instruments. Then they will put it into a Swiss bank account!
Just as with the EU bailout of Greece, most of the money went to rich investors. Greeks did not benefit much.
How often do U.S. farmers have to take a blow to the forehead from Trump/Musk's policy chainsaw before they realize Trump is not their friend?
China bought all of Argentina's (newly tax free) soy, with Trump now subsidizing the purchase, while U.S. farmers' crops sit in the silos?
French farmers would have filled the National Mall with manure and parked their tractors on the new White House patio by now.
French farmers may have better memories than American farmers. Many Americans cannot remember which president and political party held office during major events. MAGAs think Obama was president during hurricane Katrina and during the financial meltdown in the fall of 2008. George W Bush has gone missing from their minds. They also believe Biden was president during the Covid lockdown in 2020, when of course Trump was president. On the Democratic side, the deindustrialization of the late 1970s and early 1980s has gone missing so the 1990s NAFTA treaty and Clinton gets blamed for the loss of manufacturing jobs. It’s like some new form of dementia.
All US farmers remember are those payments under Trump 1. They are betting on the same bailout again, along with cultural bigotry.
Yep. Just don’t call it a “bailout” or a “subsidy” or “socialism”. Those words only apply when the aid goes to poor people and minorities.
American's didn't have the common sense to blame Bush2/Cheney for 9/11, even when it was shown over and over that Bush&Co had been repeatedly warned that Bin Laden was going to attack, and warned in detail about the "how" of an attack.
Yet Americans rallied behind Bush2, and authorized him to trash the USA, right along with Iraq and Afghanistan. Hussein offered to surrender to the Bush2 people (and be allowed to flee with his stolen billions). Nope. They were determined to invade. To put on their "Shock and Awe!" show for the corporate media. "Scud Stud" and all that.
Evidently, US Farmers must take multiple blows to the head; but they still don't learn. Those pesky cat and dog eating immigrants live rent free in their heads.
Lies work.
Most farmers in the US are rich families or large corporations. They'll get bailouts. The real small farmers won't get anything. But judging from a friend of mine, they'll stick with Trump. After decades of anti-Democrat propaganda they won't vote for a Democrat no matter how much Republican policies hurt them.
Democrats need to work with Independents.
We also need open primaries and/or ranked choice voting.
You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West.
You know…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTQ7__NNDI
Is it possible that enough American farmers also bought Trump's message of hate and fear?
Not only possible, very likely.
When will farmers learn? Never. Given the opportunity they would vote for Trump again because you can’t fix stupid and there is no cure for hate and racism which these people are consumed with.
You were listening to Marketplace last night. I haven't heard or read any follow up with the affected farmers to know how they feel. Maybe they have shifted their opinion of Trump. I do suspect that farmers who aren't directly affected are clinging to Trump with their fingernails.
They'll keep supporting Trump because FOXnews and right wing media keep telling them that everything bad that occurs is the fault of Democrats, liberals, "illegals", women's lib, and now: trans-persons.
What a great idea. Let’s take food out of the mouths of people all over the world (including our own country) and give the money to another narcissistic fool who is also leading his own country down a dark rabbit hole.
I appreciate your warning: IT GETS ECONOMISTIC FROM HERE ON. Please continue to provide “economistic” enlightenment at this level of comprehensibility. For me, that’s where your Substack adds significant value.
I could follow it all but that one chart was beyond me. And it wasn’t explained. Where was Robin?
So Trump hurts farmers by killing USAID, which bought billions in ag products, and then by raising tariffs, which are killing US soybean sales to China. Now he rubs salt in the wound by using tax dollars to bail out Argentina, the country that lowered its tariffs to capture the Chinese soybean market the Great Wheeler-Dealer left on the table.
Bottom line: Trump hates farmers who love Trump.
As I have noted elsewhere, not only is this risking American taxpayer dollars for what looks like a windmill tilt, it is also going to exacerbate the disquiet for Trump being felt in the soybean belt.
The US basically hasn’t sold any soybeans to China this year due to tariffs. Within hours of the announcement of US support Argentina dropped the export tax on their soybeans and cargoes bound for China were being booked the same day.
Trump’s policies have basically destroyed a large agricultural export market for US farmers.
US farmers seem to like the pain; they figure they will be bailed out by the next Congress, maybe?
Most farmers would have committed to their crop before Trump’s “Liberation Day”. It seems they have been caught up in the wake of geopolitics
Most farmers seem to love Trump and MAGA. Is it because they love pain? or perhaps just ideology? Most of the farmers will stick with MAGA and Donald regardless of how much he punishes them.
The US must NOT bailout the farmers who, stupidly, believed Trump’s lies about Trump Tariffs. They must feel the pain the way the rest of the US will feel. Trump must go - join the Anti-Orange Scum nationwide protests on Saturday October 18th!
Unfortunately, the US will bail out the farmers, and Democrats will be willing to help. This is the corporate agenda to which both parties are joined.
It is very hard to justify any sort of export tax in my opinion. It seems like rent seeking from the government and, as such is an impediment to a fair market
Argentinian here. I don’t support Milei policies in general nor the temporary drop of export taxes on the soy (in a desperate attempt to prevent a run to the dollar one month before the midterms election), but why is reasonable/fair to expect that Argentinian farmers should pay export taxes in order not to compete with US farmers, which not only don’t pay these taxes but even receive subsidies?
DonnyJon is a real estate magnate. He just loves it when farms go belly-up and he can buy the land cheap.
You’ve got it exactly backwards: Argentina’s government had dropped the export tax on farmers trying to stop the rise of the dollar. The agreement with the US came after that. In fact, reinstating the tax was part of the discussions with the US, and it happened shortly after the agreement. So, the US is getting so,etching out of this ( although likely not worth the risk )
Thank you for the clarification
Yes! Tractors and trucks to the White House Lawn, or at least in the Mall... Tout de suite... Merci!
Because Milei's made up crazy economics ruin countries and now they need to be saved.
Trump can't let it be seen that this type of ideology is a failure...so back to being an interventionist (which is something he and MAGA are against apparently)
Trump is a murderous bastard who cares only for his own welfare. He does not care a whit about killing millions and it is why he is compared by me an other to Hitler. He is Americas Hitler. Cutting off a few billion that save millions of lives is just sick. For a few pennies basically we can save millions of lives but he would rather watch children starve to death or die of totally preventable diseases we USED to make available to the world. He is just a sick, twisted, demented man with no heart or soul. I hope what kills him is long drawn out and painful, he;'s rearned that.
JD Vance compared Trump to Hitler and now he is serving him — and Opus Dei.
Yes! Go! Go! Mince more....etc
Don't mince words, Ed. Tell us what you really think.
I never mince words...
"May his life be short and his death slow." Paraphrased from one of Lewis' Narnia books.
Is it possible that forming an alliance with Argentina has nothing to do with economics? Argentina has historically been a safe haven for Nazis. These war criminals need some place to go when they are defeated.
The United States provided just as open a haven for Nazi criminals as anywhere else after World War II. NASA's space program, in particular, was a wholesale takeover of the German V-1/2 rocket research team.
We also benefited significantly from the horrific experiments of Unit 731, and kept many war criminals out of the courtroom during the Tokyo Trials.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have also been Nazi safe havens, and for that matter the USA too.
I can't imagine DonnyJon learning Spanish. In fact, scratch that last word.
None of the policies and actions The Felon is orchestrating would be possible without the quisling Republicans in congress. How quickly they bent the knee and kissed the ring without consideration to what he would require as a result of their allegiance. Hate cloaked as America First saw aid ripped from those countries in desperate need of help. Hate cloaked as Christianity saw unbridled support of Israel and the death and starvation of 1,000s in Gaza. Hate cloaked as Economic Policy saw tariffs applied at record highs against some of our most steadfast allies. F47!
I think it's more about greed for wealth, power, and position, and their indifference to suffering, than hate. Result's the same. My Congresswoman is so very self-righteous and holier than thou as she supports trumpmonster.
Milei’s economics will implode Argentina’s economy as much as previous governments did. In addition, Milei has a significant conflict of interest because like Muskrat, he’s started his own unregulated cryptocurrency.
Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the cryptocurrency!
It could wind up crashing the economy around the world and causing Great Depression 2.0. Trump and his family have already made a fortune with Trump’s own cryptocurrency, and Muskrat also has his own cryptocurrency. All of this is a recipe for stealing from the public to stuff their own bank accounts!
Good point. I see it as analogous to what happened when the stock market crashed in 1929. Most people will lose everything, but the proprietors of unregulated cryptocurrencies will get out before disaster strikes. Of course, there is a possibility that some cryptocurrencies will go kaput, like what happened with Sam Bankman-Fried.
The question is, how well will cryptocurrency hold up in a crashed economy?
Advocating for the Nordic system, which would benefit the entire country, even the wealthy, especially in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
Expanding our *current* social democracy will *heal* the nation. We have had a more fully developed social democracy in our history, by American standards according to AI, and we need to expand it to rebuild our economy and rebuild the middle class, especially because of job-loss due to Artificial Intelligence.
Fresh vision...
A New Beginning….
New Mexico will start to provide universal childcare to all their citizens in November, as well as breakfast and lunch for students, and free college, which aligns perfectly with social democracy, the system in the Nordic countries. They *will* prosper because of it.
I asked Artificial Intelligence what would be the most just, equitable and stable political / economic system, and it identified social democracy, the Nordic model, as the best system the world has to offer. It WORKS.
Social democracy is *NOT* socialism. They are *vastly* different systems.
Social democracy is a *CAPITALIST* system with strong safety nets.
Both socialism and *unbridled* capitalism are prone to corruption and instability.
Social democracy has its roots in basic Christian principles of loving others but does not establish a state religion.
Expanding our social democracy would provide the following:
1. Universal healthcare. (It’s cheaper with everyone paying in.)
2. Universal college.
3. Universal childcare (some Nordic countries charge a small amount).
4. Retraining programs and long-term unemployment for people who lose jobs due to tariffs, and AI. It will rescue A LOT of people because they expect at least a 20% unemployment from AI. (I’ve heard higher from a tech scientist, as if we needed something else to worry about).
We have elements of a social democracy, but the Republicans have been trying to dismantle it for decades by gutting social programs.
Social democracy helps to mitigate the impact of wealth that compounds, moves up, and concentrates into fewer and fewer hands, as evidenced by the 902 billionaires we have. That concentration and moving up of wealth impoverishes everyone else.
There's a high degree of trust in community and the government in social democracies, and low corruption.
Because they have no college debt, buy homes earlier, and have no medical or nursing-home debt they are able to pass their homes and wealth to their children, who are able to pass their wealth to their children, and on and on, so it creates generational wealth.
Norway, a strong social democracy, is one of the happiest countries on earth; they don’t suffer the stress of surviving in a technologically ever-changing, inflationary world as much.
They pay slightly higher taxes but they never lose their savings or homes to college, medical debt, or nursing-home care, all included in their taxes so they can pass their wealth on, creating generational prosperity.
When you spread the cost and risk across the entire population it's *less* expensive to cover everyone because of the sheer scale of everyone paying in. And of course, they have retirement and housing subsidies for the elderly.
They are a highly educated population and have higher-paying jobs.
We're paying an average of 20% in tariffs across the board anyway (and a plethora of other taxes too), so we might as well get something for that money, and universal healthcare and free or low-cost education would be a step in the right direction.
SEVENTY nations have universal healthcare. We are the *only* first-world country that does not have universal healthcare. Norway’s had universal healthcare since 1912! It’s CHEAPER.
Also, universal healthcare may help to *incentivize* corporations to produce in America because they would no longer have to pay up to 30% in private health insurance for their employees.
Universal healthcare could attract so much business back to America that it would produce wealth and taxes that would help to pay for universal healthcare.
Also with universal healthcare companies could hire full-time instead of part-time; they hire part-time to avoid paying for healthcare. They'd have a more stable, innovative, up-to-date, healthy workforce.
With Artificial Intelligence, people are going to be thrown out of work left and right. Salesforce just laid off 4000 employees due to AI, and I saw a list where tens of thousands have been laid off due to AI.
With improving our *hobbling* social democracy, people who lose jobs to AI would have access to retraining and long-term unemployment until they got back on their feet and are re-tooled, and would not lose their home or shelter, and be able to college-educate their children regardless of their financial status. It's an incredible system.
Social democracy could fuel an even greater TECH BOOM!
We'd invest in human capital — invest in the creativity of the human mind — which is very, very profitable...
Actually, social democracy in America starting in the 1930s to about 1979 helped to build Silicon Valley through low-cost college education — which created *incalculable* worldwide wealth and innovation.
We give subsidies and bailouts to *private* corporations; shouldn’t we invest in human capital, in people?
Social democracy is a WIN-WIN because it puts the economic engine — the middle class — to work with higher wages, creating and innovating, and re-tooling when necessary! It would create a strong and creative workforce.
A top-heavy economy like we have is NOT sustainable. It's prone to *shocks* and will falter, because the stock market needs consumers.
Without consumers, the stock market is not stable…
When the wealthy realize that when we had a strong social democracy it built Silicon Valley and grew our economy and supported and stabilized the stock market, then they'll jump on board.
We’re faced with a choice of sharing the wealth or hoarding and crashing.
Also, ALL social programs create great *wealth* and *taxes* and raise GDP. They are a net *benefit,* not a net loss to Main Street, and a support to Wall Street (including through higher consumption and more investment into 401Ks).
If you hear talk about universal healthcare, it’s good to support it. It will save your savings and your home from medical debt. And if you hear about “free” (paid by taxes) college tuition, it’s good to support it; your children will be able to buy a home faster with no college debt and you both will be able to pass your wealth to your families.
If someone tells you that social programs are “socialism” please tell them that’s not true. They are mostly INSURANCE POLICIES paid for by taxes.
Socialism is where the government “owns the means of production,” owns private industry, and that’s *not* going to happen in America, and I personally wouldn’t support it either. It’s not a stable economic / political system.
I feel if people call Congress and raise our collective voices (see list above), we can successfully change the national conversation with positive solutions. It would give hope!
Ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask.
If we raise our collective voices unrelentingly we can change the national conversation instead of getting caught up in their drama and chaos. We need to put forward positive solutions that everyone can support.
Everyone needs healthcare, and because of the $1.5 trillion cut to Medicare and Medicaid, I think even his supporters will be ready for universal healthcare now, especially if they understand it’s cheaper, that it’s NOT socialism, it’s an insurance policy paid for by taxes, and that they won’t lose their savings or home to medical debt and pass their wealth to their children. It’s perfect timing to make a national call for universal healthcare!
If Germany can rise from the ashes of a despot and Japan can heal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we can rise too!
This regime will not last forever; that is a foregone conclusion; nothing lasts forever. That’s just life!
Please save and share with everyone and call and share this with Congress.
Keep dreaming and keep *hope*!
All things are possible…
Peace…
🦋😊
Yeah I'm in. Now all we need is a way to get there. I am not as pessimistic as many who seem to be writing America off. The future is still open, at least from my vantage point. But no question America has been failing the grade for a long time.
I agree. It’s possible we could have a big Blue wave in 2026 and 2028, even with gerrymandering. People need healthcare and affordable groceries. They can’t possibly want power more than their lives (I hope). 😊
I’ve read that during the Great Depression Americans were so fed up with Republicans the Democrats held power for 50 years!
It’s all about education and taking action.
The hard part is crossing over into MAGA Land and getting the info to where it needs to go. They need to “do the math.”
But I think if we hound Congress that will help.
Have a wonderful day!
🦋😊
Mostly it's about getting Dem turnout and "independent" turnout. And ensuring the elections are fair.
I agree… 🦋😊🌷
As some wag put it, there are 4 types of countries, developed, underdeveloped, Japan and Argentina. No one can work out why resouceless Japan is so rich nor why resource rich Argentina is so poor. The most likely explanation is simply cultural. If Argentina had been colonised by Britain it would have been as successful as all the other anglosphere countries. It would have the Westminster system of government and protestant work ethic. Instead it's stagnated and lurched from crisis to crisis, like all the Iberian colonies. It's a bit taboo to point this out but the correlative pattern is so strong it's hard to deny.
Why are the Anglophone countries rejecting their heritage and embracing the Iberian model now? It’s one of the most confounding trends the early 21st century.
Yes, a model (rule of law, relatively honest elections, and so forth) which has served our country very well since the founding in 1780's. As well as our dealings with other countries in NATO, the UN, etc. I know they are not perfect, but we became the richest country in history getting along with our allies and other countries and with free trade.
It is crazy to turn our backs on all of that.
Trump says that everyone is stealing us blind. But we keep getting richer and richer. I say let them keep stealing and let's see how rich we become.
Yep - it's served our country very well. But it hasn't served Trump until now.
I think that Donald is so greedy and self-centered, that he cannot stand to see others prospering. He thinks that everything is a zero-sum game and that if others are doing well then it means that he is not doing well, or they are getting something which he should have gotten. But most successful people and businesses do well when their customers and/or clients or patients do well. We all prosper and do well together. But that is a foreign concept to Donald.
I'm not sure how much they are, although I'll agree Trump is presiding over a sort of 'latinisation' of the US government, blatantly corrupt and violent. Ironic really, given his racialist policies.
The Iberian model? I have never heard of it. They have definitely doubled down on the Reagan/Thatcher model of privatization.
There used to be strong empirical evidence for this uncomfortable theory of Anglo-Saxon superiority. But Farage raised some doubts, and then came Trump…
Some have argued the US has always had one foot in the Latin American camp. Crime and corruption, for example, has long been closer to Latin American norms than other anglosphere or Northern European nations.
“ I can see no legitimate reason for the U.S. government to risk billions in American taxpayer dollars in an almost surely doomed effort to bail Milei out.” Agreed - it’s politics. But it pales in significance to the billions in American taxpayer dollars in the complicit criminal effort to support Netanyahu’s genocide in Palestine.
Young Argentine couple with preteen daughter renting neighbor's house in my affluent DC 'burb. Diplomatic license plates on both brand new Mercedes/BMW/Audi SUVs (arrived with window stickers from local dealerships).
Exclusive private school for the girl. They leave out lots of packaging from Balducci's, Saks, highest end butchers and fishmongers on recycle/trash days. They don't appear to work outside the home. Their Argentine Spanish speaking guests drive similar diplomatic-plated vehicles.
Been here a long time, and have seen other nations' diplomats rent for a year or three. None so ostentatiously. No austerity for these folks.
It will be interesting to know if the decision is actually a bailout of some NYC hedge funds & investors who currently owns Argentinian debt??