TRUMP CAMPAIGN: America, you’ve never had it so good. Unemployment is below 4 percent. Wages are rising. Most importantly (at least to us), the markets are at record highs. It’s all due to the big tax cut and deregulation.
All of this will be destroyed if you elect a Democrat in 2020. They’re all socialists, you know, and they don’t appreciate the value of business and the importance of individual initiative. If I lose to one of those clowns, the markets will plunge and unemployment will soar. Is that a chance you’re willing to take? Are you willing to risk everything you own just to get rid of me because I’m a little rough with my mouth?
RESPONSE: There is a tiny bit of truth to this one. The markets won’t respond well to a Warren victory, even though she understands the economy far better than Trump does, because investors believe that Trump is on their side, and she isn’t. It’s the financial equivalent of identity politics, and it works to the benefit of right-wing strongmen everywhere.
In the long run, Warren’s predictability and willingness to follow the law may look better to the markets than Trump’s ignorance and capriciousness. It’s hard to tell at this point.
The argument about the tax cut and deregulation, of course, is mostly b.s. The biggest long term problem with our economy is the reduction in demand associated with demographic change and the hollowing-out of the middle class. The latter is due to increased inequality resulting, in part, from GOP taxing and spending policy. Trump and his regressive tax cut have only made this worse.