Did Donald Trump just say he expects an economic catastrophe? Not quite. But what he said is arguably even worse, especially when you put it in context.
And Trump's apparent panic over the recent good economic news addresses what I believe to be the greatest mystery in American politics: Why have so many people joined and handcuffed themselves to a personality cult centered around a man who poses an existential threat to our lives Nation represents democracy and who is also a complete show-off on a personal level?
But what did Trump really say last Monday? Strictly speaking, he didn't wish for a crash, but rather predicted one, stating that the economy was running out of “fuel” and that he expected the inevitable crash this year “because I don't want to be like Herbert Hoover.”
If you think about it, this is not at all what a man who considers himself a brilliant economic manager and supposedly cares about the well-being of the nation should say. What he should have said was something like this: “My rival's policies have led us to disaster, but I hope that catastrophe doesn't come until I'm in office, because I don't want the American people to suffer unnecessarily , and have been ever since. “I’m a very stable genius, I’m the only one who can fix it.”
But no, Trump says he wants the disaster to happen when someone else is on call, specifically and explicitly, so he doesn't have to bear the responsibility.
Speaking of which, when did Trump start predicting economic catastrophe during the Biden presidency? The answer is: before the 2020 election. In October 2020, for example, he claimed that a Biden victory would “trigger an economic catastrophe of epic proportions.”
Now everyone who makes economic forecasts gets some things wrong. I personally predicted a recession if Trump won in 2016, in part because markets seemed to believe a Trump victory would be bad for the economy. But just three days after the election, I backed down from that prediction and acknowledged that I had briefly succumbed to biased reasoning.
Trump, on the other hand, has been predicting disaster with Biden for more than three years without ever admitting that his predictions did not come true. Instead, Trump has treated us to a series of false and desperate claims about the state of the economy. No, the price of bacon has not “quintupled” under Biden.
Some of these false claims fall into the category of “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?” Last month, for example, Trump stated that gasoline costs “$5, $6, $7, or even $8 a gallon,” although nationwide Huge billboards can be seen advertising slightly higher gasoline prices. over 3 dollars.
Maybe Trump doesn't get out much.
But what he definitely does is watch a lot of TV, which means he's aware that the stock market has risen quite a bit recently. This obviously worries him. In fact, he seems so unnerved by the rises in stocks during Biden's term that in one of his final speeches he managed to dismiss those rises as irrelevant—they “just make rich people richer”—while simultaneously boasting about them: “The stock market is going “It’s good because a lot of people believe we will win the elections.”
If that sounds ridiculous, that's because it is. Here we have a man who has spent much of his time in office bragging about a soaring stock market suddenly declaring that stock returns are poor when someone else is in power, while simultaneously insisting that he takes credit for that deserves the good things. (or are they bad?) This is what happens when he doesn't even run the country.
Is that important? Trump may want an economic crisis, but as far as I know he has no means to create it. But as I wrote recently, there is a danger that pressure from Trump and his allies will cause the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates too high for too long.
Practical concerns aside, Trump's tantrums about the economy and the stock market raise the mystery of his political appeal.
I hate to say it, but I understand why millions of people are drawn to Trump's dictatorial ambitions, his support of violence, and his statements that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” The sad truth is that there have always been many Americans who fundamentally did not believe in America's democratic ideals.
But I find it baffling that Trump isn't paying a higher political price for his bluster, his whining and his self-serving lies.
The MAGA guys [siglas en inglés de “Hagamos que Estados Unidos vuelva a ser grande”] They tend to idealize the 1950s, relying largely on a fictional image of what life was really like back then. It was especially terrible if you weren't a white man, but even if you were, it could be pretty bad. What we had in the 1950s, however, was an image of how men should behave, an image that emphasized stoicism, honesty, and a willingness to take responsibility for one's own actions: what my parents would have called a human being [una persona buena y honesta].
Trump is far from being a good and honest person. However, his supporters either don't see it or don't care, which in my opinion is further removed from traditional values than anything woke or socially and racially conscious in the world.
Paul Krugman He is a Nobel Prize winner in economics. © The New York Times, 2024. Translation of news clips
Follow all information Business And Business on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter
The five-day agenda
The most important business quotes of the day, with the keys and context to understand their significance.
RECEIVE IT IN YOUR EMAIL
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_