The statistics for the entirety of Donald Trump's time in office are nearly all compiled. As we did for his predecessor four years ago, we present a final look at the numbers. The economy lost 2.7 million jobs. The unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 6.4%. Paychecks grew faster than inflation. Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.4% after inflation. After-tax corporate profits went up, and the stock market set new records. The S&P 500 index rose 67.8%. The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2020 was the highest since 2008 and increased 36.3% from 2016. The number of people lacking health insurance rose by 3 million. The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Thic coincides well with the Dedication of the Memorial for the kids and teachers shot to death at Marjorie Stoneman Fouglas High School in Parkland, Floeida. Yay! What a great way to remember them. Second Amendment Summer is an insult to those victims abd their families. Monumental insensitivity to the victitis'sms of gun violence should be Desantis's legacy as Gov. of Florida!
Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views. But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world's wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later. read more
Dec 7, 2023 Eric Posner Although Donald Trump is many things, most of them bad, he was not a fascist when he was president, and he would not become a dictator if elected again. The power of constitutional and bureaucratic hurdles, combined with a dearth of sympathetic right-wing radicals, ensure that anarchy is more likely than tyranny. CHICAGO " Americans have worried about their presidents becoming dictators (or, in the old days, tyrants) ever since the Unites States was founded. The framers of the US Constitution understood that in classical democracies and republics, leaders often tried to seize power from legislatures and other assemblies. That is why they created a system of checks and balances on government power. read more
"$100 in 1980 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $382.88 today, an increase of $282.88 over 45 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.03% ... Inflation Calculator Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis read more
Trump negotiating for peace in Ukraine without Ukrainian and NATO participation indicates he listens to Putin more than any of our allies probably creates serious doubt if the United States is a reliable ally. We'been allies with those nations for many decades and now buffoons like Vance and Trump disrupt NATO. This is a major foreign policy disaster! They are both demonstrating such incompetence that nobody can even claim our National Security is as certain as it was under Biden.