Today In Biden Land

[TitoFan]

Back when Trump took office in 2017, the economy shot up impressively. I imagine job creation went along with it. Republicans (Trumpers and non-Trumpers alike) jumped on those stats like a hungry Doberman on a raw T-bone. Yet I always knew Donny was only riding Obama's coattails. Measures Obama had taken or helped along were only then beginning to provide fruit. So Trump swoops in and takes all the credit... and his adoring public believed every word.

The economy did not shoot up impressively when Trump took office. If you compare the last three years of Obama and the first three years of Trump then two million more jobs were created under Obama. The economy actually slowed down under Trump but it was on a slow upward swing that started in 2009 and Trump came in for the last few years of that swing when things had recovered to the point where economic conditions were feeling much better for Americans. He passed a massive tax cut for the wealthy and cranked up government spending to the point where he was running a trillion dollar deficit in the middle of an economic expansion but still didn't crack three percent growth. He got one year of two point nine percent the same as Obama. Benefitted from hundreds of billions of losses in the fracking industry which basically subsidised fairly cheap gas for most of the time he was in office too.

Well, the last years of Obama showed considerable upswing as evidenced by a graph I saw on leading economic indicators. Unfortunately the graph I saw didn't go beyond 2016. I just remember 2017 being a banner year for the stock market. I saw considerable personal gains in some investments of mine. 2017's performance hasn't been matched since, to my knowledge. I do know Obama assumed the presidency right at the start of the 2008 recession, so he must've done a pretty good job with the economy to get it turned around like that.

[Kirkland Laing]

Back when Trump took office in 2017, the economy shot up impressively. I imagine job creation went along with it. Republicans (Trumpers and non-Trumpers alike) jumped on those stats like a hungry Doberman on a raw T-bone. Yet I always knew Donny was only riding Obama's coattails. Measures Obama had taken or helped along were only then beginning to provide fruit. So Trump swoops in and takes all the credit... and his adoring public believed every word.

The economy did not shoot up impressively when Trump took office. If you compare the last three years of Obama and the first three years of Trump then two million more jobs were created under Obama. The economy actually slowed down under Trump but it was on a slow upward swing that started in 2009 and Trump came in for the last few years of that swing when things had recovered to the point where economic conditions were feeling much better for Americans. He passed a massive tax cut for the wealthy and cranked up government spending to the point where he was running a trillion dollar deficit in the middle of an economic expansion but still didn't crack three percent growth. He got one year of two point nine percent the same as Obama. Benefitted from hundreds of billions of losses in the fracking industry which basically subsidised fairly cheap gas for most of the time he was in office too.

Well, the last years of Obama showed considerable upswing as evidenced by a graph I saw on leading economic indicators. Unfortunately the graph I saw didn't go beyond 2016. I just remember 2017 being a banner year for the stock market. I saw considerable personal gains in some investments of mine. 2017's performance hasn't been matched since, to my knowledge. I do know Obama assumed the presidency right at the start of the 2008 recession, so he must've done a pretty good job with the economy to get it turned around like that.

The stock market is not the economy.

The reason you got a nice bump in 2017 is that the GOP passed a big corporate tax cut. Stock prices reflect expected future profits and also demand for the stocks. The corporate tax cut increased future corporate profits and put those profits in the hands of shareholders who recycled them back into the stock market as they have nothing else to do with their money but invest it. So extra money in the market bids up stock prices and bigger corporate profits (less tax) do the same.

But the stock market is not the economy. What the corporate tax cut did was to take money out of the economy and put it into the financial speculation economy. If Trump had passed a bill allowing collective bargaining and worker seats on the board of corporate directors (like for instance Germany) markets would have seen that corporate shareholders were going to get a smaller share of future income and workers a larger share and stock prices would have fallen.

If Trump wins in 2024 and the GOP control congress then I'll make a not so bold prediction that 2025 will also be a banner year for stocks and financial assets in general because the only legislation of any significance the GOP will pass will be another tax cut for the wealthy and the money will be pumped into the stock market and other financial assets.







This graph tells you everything you need to know about how the economy has gone since Reagan took office and started massive upward redistribution of wealth. And notice it continued to go up during the Clinton years. It turns out that the Democratic party is funded by a tiny elite just like the GOP and they like tax cuts too. Or at least they like the much lower tax environment they're in now. They're happy to pay a few percent more in income tax, not investment taxes of course but that's it. So Obama putting the top income tax rate up to 39 from 36 under Bush is about as much as they're happy to pay. Three percent on income tax on income over 250k, no increases in investment tax is basically the big argument on tax matters between the two parties today. Bear in mind back in the fifties and sixties when the economy was growing five percent a year with three percent employment, back when America was great, the top rate of income tax was ninety one percent.

Next year when Trump is telling America it's about to be destroyed by socialism if he doesn't win the election ask yourself does this look anything like a socialist economy to you?

[NoSavingByTheBell]

https://youtu.be/I3UuxCO7b18?si=5FnNZrbIYg02FZXU

[palmerq]

https://x.com/JosephPolitano/status/...015699965?s=20


GDP is up at the fastest rate for a few years, here's why that's bad news for Joe Biden- NY Times pitch not(probably I didn't check it yet)

[Kirkland Laing]

https://x.com/JosephPolitano/status/...015699965?s=20


GDP is up at the fastest rate for a few years, here's why that's bad news for Joe Biden- NY Times pitch not(probably I didn't check it yet)

https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon/sta...30070225498148

[palmerq]

https://x.com/JosephPolitano/status/...015699965?s=20


GDP is up at the fastest rate for a few years, here's why that's bad news for Joe Biden- NY Times pitch not(probably I didn't check it yet)

https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon/sta...30070225498148

That is one of the best.

[Kirkland Laing]

Did you know that the pharmaceutical industry and the Chamber of Commerce are currently suing in court to block a Biden administration prescription drug price initiative that reduces the deficit by $100 billion?

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/sta...98162071806160



Leg text for $14.3 billion Israel aid package, fully offset with cuts to enhanced IRS funding under the Inflation Reduction Act.I’d heard words like “nonstarter” from Dem side to characterize paying for emergency aid. Can’t imagine they’ll go for this

https://twitter.com/josephzeballos/s...75353786720360



Nobody has ever loved any cause as much as congressional republicans love rich tax cheats.

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/sta...81915267842286



The IRS is building a free digital tax filing system so you won't have to pay for TurboTax etc. The GOP's offsets for the Israel war funds strips funding for it.
Then Hamas perpetrated the deadliest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust- and the TurboTax lobbyists cited above apparently saw their golden opportunity

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status...99223004647437