To understand the true depths of the corruption of the Trump administration, you can't look at each story individually. You have to look at several of them at once to understand what's really going on.
Take these two stories:
Story Number One: Trump's Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, profited by short-selling stock in a Russia-linked company that the New York Times was going to publish a story about, revealing the connections between Russia and Ross. Ross sold the stock three days after receiving a list of questions from the Times, which is insider trading.
Story Number Two: Today Harley Davidson announced that it would be moving jobs to Europe in response to tariffs imposed by the EU on their motorcycles, put in place in response to tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by Donald Trump.
On the face of it these don't seem to have much to do with each other. You need to do a little analysis.
As on noon central time the Dow has dropped 400 points. The market has lost all the value gained so far this year.
During the campaign Trump said he loved trade wars. Trade wars are easy to win, he said.
This is manifestly false. Because we are the highest-cost provider, most American companies are going to lose market share. Workers are going to lose their jobs (as Harley Davidson showed). The cost of most goods will rise (like the 20% price increase in washing machines that has occurred since Trump imposed tariffs on them last year).
"Easy to win" means Trump can personally make money off the trade war. In 2006 Donald Trump said that he hoped the real estate market would tank so that he could go in and profit from other people's misery. In 2008 it did and millions of Americans lost everything.
That's how Story Number One explains Story Number Two. Donald Trump is starting a trade war in a blatant attempt to manipulate markets. Somewhere out there a Trump crony, perhaps one of his Russian buddies, is shorting stock. Others are lying low, waiting for stock prices to drop until they can snap it up at bargain basement prices.
Then, as he does with everything (North Korea, splitting up immigrant families), Trump will do a total 180 on trade and drop all the tariffs. The markets will rebound, share prices will skyrocket and everyone will start buying the stock that Trump's cronies bought at the bottom of the trough.
Trump is waging a gigantic insider trader scam that makes Ross's paltry scheme look like tiddlywinks.
I don't know how the money will get back to Trump -- he's got a lot of shell companies. We'll never really know until his impeachment hearing reveals his taxes.
But there's also another reason for starting this trade war. Trump wants to make his base angrier and angrier. Trump voters in Wisconsin will lose their jobs at Harley Davidson directly because of Trump's tariffs on European steel and aluminum.
But Trump will blame that on the EU. Trump is intentionally inciting anger against allies that have stood by us for decades. He's deserting our allies in Canada, Europe and Asia while nuzzling with dictators like Kim Jong Un, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin.
And Trump voters will swallow the lies that Trump and his official propaganda organ Fox News keep spewing because they love to hate.
No comments:
Post a Comment