Will Trump be Re-elected?

[dualstow]

Ah, thank you. The last time I looked, I couldn't view it at all. Didn't know it was temporary.

[Cortopassi]

I'm sure we'd all love negative rates right? The bonehead is the one who is tweeting and will lose more and more retirees if interest income becomes an expense!

[Ad Orientem]

I'm sure we'd all love negative rates right? The bonehead is the one who is tweeting and will lose more and more retirees if interest income becomes an expense!

Please excuse the language but sometimes you need to call a shovel a shovel. Donald Trump is a fucking idiot. And a dangerous one at that.

[Kriegsspiel]

I get why governments want negative interest rates, but I don't like them. Disagree with Trumpus Magnus here.

[Ad Orientem]

He is talking about arbitrarily hammering down interest rates by FED decree to zero or negative. AND he wants to refinance our debt like it's some kind of chapter 11 corporate bankruptcy. Stating what I assume everybody on this forum knows, US sovereign debt is not negotiable. It's a cast iron contract. If any of the things he is discussing were attempted it would spark a global financial crisis that would make 2008 look like a walk in the park.

The man is a functionally illiterate knave.

[Kriegsspiel]

He is talking about arbitrarily hammering down interest rates by FED decree to zero or negative. AND he wants to refinance our debt like it's some kind of chapter 11 corporate bankruptcy.

I think by "start to refinance our debt. . . while at the same time substantially lengthening the term" he's saying that we'd start issuing negative interest rate Treasuries at longer maturities than 30 years. Not that once the Fed lowers interest rates below 0% we would call in every (non-callable) Treasury and tell people to buy them and pay us for the privilege.

What a sickening thought. I wouldn't be paying anyone to lend them money, that's for sure.

[dualstow]

Trumpus Magnus

[stuper1]

I'm sure we'd all love negative rates right? The bonehead is the one who is tweeting and will lose more and more retirees if interest income becomes an expense!

Please excuse the language but sometimes you need to call a shovel a shovel. Donald Trump is a fucking idiot. And a dangerous one at that.

Then he’s the luckiest man in the world.

Exactly. I don't get people who call him an idiot. For Pete's sake, he managed to get himself elected despite being opposed by every media outlet imaginable. His net worth is debatable, but certainly hundreds of times higher than my own. If you don't like his policies, fine, just state what you think he should do. But to call him an idiot is laughable to me, unless you're just using that as a general pejorative and not actually questioning his intelligence.

[Libertarian666]

He is talking about arbitrarily hammering down interest rates by FED decree to zero or negative. AND he wants to refinance our debt like it's some kind of chapter 11 corporate bankruptcy. Stating what I assume everybody on this forum knows, US sovereign debt is not negotiable. It's a cast iron contract. If any of the things he is discussing were attempted it would spark a global financial crisis that would make 2008 look like a walk in the park.

The man is a functionally illiterate knave.

What about when the US defaulted on its debt in the 1930's? Was that a cast iron contract too?

[flyingpylon]

What I don’t understand is why even after 3 years, some people continue to take everything he says at face value. So much of Trump’s communication is simply posturing to eventually arrive at something more realistic or reasonable.

[ochotona]

It's all posturing and tough talk until he wimps out / gives away the store to the adversary without getting anything in return for us.

[Libertarian666]

It's all posturing and tough talk until he wimps out / gives away the store to the adversary without getting anything in return for us.

Got an example?

[stuper1]

I'd love to see an example also.

On a different note, I think a lot of people dislike Trump because he's attacked various people say on Twitter. I recall somebody doing some checking on that and finding that Trump hadn't attacked anyone until he had been attached by them first, but when he does hit back, he hits back hard. Of course, you never hear it reported about the initial attack against Trump. I'm not from the east coast, but it seems to me that this is just your stereotypical New Yorker attitude. If somebody attacks you, then attack them back even harder. I say good for him, and I'm probably one of the least pugilistic type of people around. At least he's not a mealy mouthed wimp. If the American people don't like it, they can vote him out of office next year. I have my suspicions that more people like it than what some people realize.

[dualstow]

It's all posturing and tough talk until he wimps out / gives away the store to the adversary without getting anything in return for us.

Are you talking about N Korea?

[ochotona]

N Korea
Bolton is out, Iran sanctions may go away
Getting kissy-face right now with Xi so stocks don't crash
Maduro still there
Mexico still isn't paying

[Libertarian666]

N Korea
Bolton is out, Iran sanctions may go away
Getting kissy-face right now with Xi so stocks don't crash
Maduro still there
Mexico still isn't paying

Is N Korea not still talking with S Korea?
I don't know about Iran or Xi.
Maduro isn't our problem.
Mexico is helping reduce the severity of the invasion.

[stuper1]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

[ochotona]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

I don't think a quality attribute of a President is how readily he fires people who no longer fit his mercurial whims. Certainly the Constitution doesn't say anything about that.

The problem with Trump is that no one of quality is going to want to serve under him. You'd have to be a complete idiot / masochist to want to have him as a boss.

So it'll just be Trump alone in a room with a little red button.

[stuper1]

That's your read of the situation.

My read is that the guy has made billions of dollars during his lifetime. Have you ever seen someone do something like that without being able to work with other people? We know oh so little about what really goes on in politics. Basically everything we get comes third- or fourth-hand and through a media filter.

[Libertarian666]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

I don't think a quality attribute of a President is how readily he fires people who no longer fit his mercurial whims. Certainly the Constitution doesn't say anything about that.

Actually the Constitution does say something about that, namely:

"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. " (Article II, section 1)

Of course there is more about how he is elected, who is eligible, appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate, and so on.

But none of that changes the fact that the powers of the executive branch are vested in him.
Legally, he is the executive branch, just as in England, legally the King is England.
Anyone who serves in the executive branch gets power only by delegation from the President.

[stuper1]

Yup, and remember that Trump just fires people. Obama was more likely to have people offed with a drone strike -- judge, jury, and executioner.

[ochotona]

Ah, the old "King Can Do No Wrong" chestnut.

Have all drone strikes ended with Trump?

[moda0306]

Yup, and remember that Trump just fires people. Obama was more likely to have people offed with a drone strike -- judge, jury, and executioner.

Trump expanded drone strikes and the Afghan war and vetoed ending the Yemen war.

You’re really a great example of how a fucking moron could get elected President.

[ochotona]

That's your read of the situation.

My read is that the guy has made billions of dollars during his lifetime. Have you ever seen someone do something like that without being able to work with other people? We know oh so little about what really goes on in politics. Basically everything we get comes third- or fourth-hand and through a media filter.

He must've made billions (but we don't know because his finances have never been released) so he must work well with others. Wow, that is a stretch. Making billions is not a measure of much.

"Prosecutors estimated the size of the (Madoff) fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008."

[dualstow]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of ... erformance

A 2016 analysis of Trump's business career in The Economist concluded that his performance since 1985 had been "mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York."[42] A subsequent analysis in The Washington Post similarly noted that Trump's estimated net worth of $100 million in 1978 would have increased to $6 billion by 2016 if he had invested it in a typical retirement fund, and concluded that "Trump is a mix of braggadocio, business failures, and real success."[43]

He should have just bought Vanguard's 2015 Target Retirement Fund!