Gryzemuis on 28/11/2018 at 12:03
What's the alternative ? Let GM take in American subsidies. And close American factories before they close foreign factories ?
What do you want ? Pure unbridled capitalism ? Profit is everything ? Companies have no responsibilities except to their stockholders ? Socialist help for the rich, poverty for the rest ?
demagogue on 28/11/2018 at 12:22
The first thing he could do is not double the price of car parts just because they come from China.
Government subsidies for energy efficiency & green tech is a standard thing. There's a simple economic justification because the unfettered market will lead to a non-ideal Nash sub-equilibrium for all kinds of reasons, path-dependency, consumer ignorance, negative externalities & the tragedy of the commons, etc. The ideal equilibrium would maximize utility, but you have to get over the financial hump that's restricting it & counteract the externality effect. Once the tech is developed the equilibrium is supposed to click into place. Trump doesn't understand equilibria, market forces, or capitalism, and his worldview is basically mercantlism, all markets are zero-sum, an economic system that fell by the wayside by the early 19th Century. So of course he's not going to understand the significance of or difference between subsidies or tariffs as it relates to economic nationalism. But whatever.
Nicker on 28/11/2018 at 19:34
The meta-issue here is the expansionist business and economic model. The demand for more markets, bigger market share, more sales, is simply not sustainable.
The central presumption of all business models (corporate, national, continental, global), is growth. Growth in resources, production, markets, diversity of products and consumers of the same. Shareholders and voters expect it and any business or government which fails to deliver is headed for trouble.
All that economic growth demands population growth, as if 7.2 billion was not enough already. In the past there have always been new continents of people to exploit for resources, increasing populations of consumers and a seemingly limitless ability of the environment to absorb the effluent.
We are reaching the absolute physical limit of consumerism, both in terms of economics and, more importantly, ecology. Any attempt to rescue industries like the auto sector will eventually hit this wall, assuming they don't simply take the welfare and run first.
Nicker on 29/11/2018 at 15:49
But I digress...
Rachel Maddow draws obvious but overlooked parallels between Richard Nixon's crimes and the many public and private attempts of Trump to obstruct justice.
[video=youtube;T-Bb2R9jncQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Bb2R9jncQ[/video]
Whatever else the usual suspects want to say about the quality of Trump's presidency, can they deny his criminal activity in this regard?
Renzatic on 29/11/2018 at 20:29
I'm sure someone could find a way.
demagogue on 30/11/2018 at 02:12
I guess they have evidence of treason if they make up their own facts.
Plot twist: the cold war ends and the US celebrates by instituting show trials.
But they didn't see that coming.
Nicker on 30/11/2018 at 02:36
In another plot twist, the day after Trump provides his written answers to Mueller's questions, Cohen cops a second plea deal over lying to Congress. He reveals that Trump continued to be involved in a real estate deal in Moscow, during the campaign, even though Donny Boy denied it. Cohen lied to protect that denial and plead guilty today.
Any bets that one of Mueller's questions was did you have your tiny, grabby hands in Moscow during the election? and that Trump's answer (in order to not contradict his public statements) was... NO!
Tic Tac Doh!
Addendum:
[video=youtube;BCKBe8mtaV8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCKBe8mtaV8[/video]
Dia on 30/11/2018 at 12:28
This one had me cracking up towards the end of the video. For some odd reason, I got a kick out of Don Lemon (of CNN) getting a kick out of Trump & Manafort not having synched their lies (towards end of video). This just gets better and better.
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