The $14 trillion emergency

25 years of trade deficits add up

The employment figures for August were lame. The good news was federal employment dropped another 15,000. The bad news was manufacturing lost another 12,000 jobs. The unemployment rate was listed at 4.3% but nobody believes that number anymore.

The New York Times reported, “TRUMP’S ‘BOOMING ECONOMY’ STUCK IN FIRST GEAR.”

Oh wait. That was Pravda.

NYT reported, “Second Weak Jobs Report Undercuts Trump’s Claims of a Booming Economy.”

The story said:

The release of a second consecutive poor jobs report on Friday confirmed the reality that Mr. Trump has been trying to avoid. The labor market is stalling—and the nation is facing real strains—under the weight of his economic agenda.

Eight months into his second term, the sum of Mr. Trump’s high tariffs and mass deportations appear to have created noticeable pressure on employers. The economy added only 22,000 jobs in August, according to the latest readout from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate rose slightly, to 4.3 percent, a nearly four-year high. And the revised data showed that employment fell by 13,000 in June, the first net loss of jobs since the end of 2020, when the pandemic was raging.

Analysts offered a variety of explanations for the slowdown. The president’s tariffs on nearly all imports have driven up costs for companies and prices for consumers. Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown has made it harder for many businesses to find workers, while simultaneously reducing the need for them because they now have fewer customers. The federal government has cut jobs directly and canceled grants and contracts hat have bled into the private sector. The uncertainty surrounding Mr. Trump’s ever-shifting policies has made corporate executives more cautious about hiring and investing.

Blah, blah, blah.

The report’s data show how false the complaint was that Trump fired the previous BLS chief because he didn’t like the numbers. He fired her because she was another dumb DEI hire by Biden.

Trumponomics reminds me of Reaganomics in 1981 when Ronaldus Magnus raised interest rates to usurious levels to break inflation and after a year or so of pain, the economy blossomed triggering 35 years of expansion.

As a side note, he slapped protective tariffs on Japan and saved Harley Davidson. Vroom, vroom.

Donaldus MAGA is on a mission to save manufacturing. A look at the numbers show exactly why this must be done immediately, if not sooner.

In the first quarter of this century (2000-2024) trade deficits totaled $14.3 trillion. We can talk about the National Debt of $37 trillion all we want (a reminder: Social Security has a $2.7 trillion SURPLUS).

Last year, we had a trade deficit of $1.2 trillion in manufacturing. Services offset that and made the net deficit $918 billion.

Without manufacturing, that National Debt will grow as the tax base deteriorates and the joblessness pressures the government to spend more money on food stamps and rent help so people can eat Cheese Puffs while playing Call of Duty in a rent-free $3,000-a-month rental.

The cumulative trade deficits on manufacturing are even worse with a cumulative deficit of $17.5 trillion over 25 years. More than half of that trade deficit was from Red China—$9.2 trillion.

Last year, U.S. manufacturers saw combined revenues of $6.5 trillion, up 0.8% from the previous year.

Inflation was 3% last year. Manufacturing is not treading water and has not since we allowed Red China to dump products in our country.

Donaldo Minimus (that would be me) figured out a way to increase manufacturing by up to 18%. Zero out the trade deficit on goods. That could add up to $1.2 trillion to our manufacturing and Make America Great Again.

But keep the trade surplus in services because that is a profit.

The good news is Donaldus MAGA is way ahead of me. His tariffs have the World Economic Forum, Congress and other proponents of globalism throwing fits. Some stupidity called the Court of International Trade tried to freeze his tariffs and make the government refund importers $200 billion.

PBS—no longer funded by taxpayers—pouted, “Postal traffic to US drops more than 80% after trade exemption rule ends, UN agency says.”

Aw. No more getting around import duties by using the U.S. mail. How will we ever get our fentanyl now that Trump is blowing up the drug runners?

(Have you noticed that Democrats lately are now “due process” like Gomer Pyle shouting “citizens ay-rest” at Barney?)

The vote was 7 Democrat judges to 4 Republican judges with 3 of the Democrats saying the president does not have the right to impose any tariffs, despite the law saying he does in emergencies.

Since when is a $14 trillion deficit in this century alone not an emergency?

That is like saying a homicide rate of 78 per 100,000 black people in the national capital is acceptable. Democrats have done that too.

Refunding tariffs is absurd and will only wreak havoc in America, which is always the Democrat plan post-Obama.

CNBC reported:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that he is “confident” that President Donald Trump’s tariff plan “will win” at the Supreme Court, but warned his agency would be forced to issue massive refunds if the high court rules against it.

If the tariffs are struck down, he said, “we would have to give a refund on about half the tariffs, which would be terrible for the Treasury,” according to an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.

As Bessent said, the Supreme Court likely will reverse the tariff decision but Democrats already damaged Trump’s presidency in the pretend court.

Some would argue that we should not put the economy in his hands and they could be right. But if not the president, who gets that control? Unelected bankers who have the power to print money and lavish $3.1 billion on their offices in Washington DC alone?

Just remember, when the press calls something an independent agency, they mean accountable to no one. Trump dumped another 15,000 unaccountables in government last month.