Who’s winning?

[Sea Dangles]

27000
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[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

27000
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3.8%.

But let's not inject any positive facts, into a good liberal anti Trump rant.

He's right, that's not a good month's data in terms of trade numbers. But it's one data point. If Trump solidifies a trade deal with China that's beneficial to us, that's a lot of political capital for him heading into the election. They're scared.

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

27000
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Stocks are hitting record highs and layoffs and unemployment are at 50-year lows. Believe it or not, the Federal Reserve is prepared to cut interest rates soon because it’s worried about the economy.

Trump, who demanded the independently run central bank cut rates, is likely getting his wish, because his policies have the Fed concerned.

The central bank thinks White House trade wars with China and other countries hurt farmers, manufacturers and exporters, slowed the U.S. economy and reduced business investment.

With the reduction in business investment, investors still need a place for money and have put it in the market. That's why the Russell 2000 doesn't mirror the Dow. Big caps are safer than small caps. S+P was inside and the Nasdaq was down.

But keep believing the Stable Genius

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Stocks are hitting record highs and layoffs and unemployment are at 50-year lows. Believe it or not, the Federal Reserve is prepared to cut interest rates soon because it’s worried about the economy.

Trump, who demanded the independently run central bank cut rates, is likely getting his wish, because his policies have the Fed concerned.

The central bank thinks White House trade wars with China and other countries hurt farmers, manufacturers and exporters, slowed the U.S. economy and reduced business investment.

With the reduction in business investment, investors still need a place for money and have put it in the market. That's why the Russell 2000 doesn't mirror the Dow. Big caps are safer than small caps. S+P was inside and the Nasdaq was down.

But keep believing the Stable Genius

i’m not believing trump. i’m believing the stock market returns, published unemployment numbers, published gdp numbers. is trump
somehow getting fake numbers published?

You’re the one irrationally believing fanatics - those who simply cannot bring themselves to say anything good. because orange man bad.

i’m responding to actual facts.
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[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Stocks are hitting record highs and layoffs and unemployment are at 50-year lows. Believe it or not, the Federal Reserve is prepared to cut interest rates soon because it’s worried about the economy.

Trump, who demanded the independently run central bank cut rates, is likely getting his wish, because his policies have the Fed concerned.

The central bank thinks White House trade wars with China and other countries hurt farmers, manufacturers and exporters, slowed the U.S. economy and reduced business investment.

With the reduction in business investment, investors still need a place for money and have put it in the market. That's why the Russell 2000 doesn't mirror the Dow. Big caps are safer than small caps. S+P was inside and the Nasdaq was down.

But keep believing the Stable Genius

you’re talking about the Phillips Curve, the belief that at some point, low unemployment causes runaway inflation which can be countered by lowering interest rates.

here’s a video, where AOC of all people, gets Fed Chair Powell to say very explicitly, that the link between low unemployment and inflation is much weaker than we had thought. son not sure where you’re getting that the fed is worried about the economy. other than orange man bad, that is...

so who are you believing, exactly, when you say the fed is worried about the health of our economy?


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[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

i’m not believing trump. i’m believing the stock market returns, published unemployment numbers, published gdp numbers. is trump
somehow getting fake numbers published?
What fake numbers are you talking about? I said "Stocks are hitting record highs and layoffs and unemployment are at 50-year lows." Or do you refer to them as fake unemployment numbers that Trump claimed were phony till he was elected, that henceforth became true?

You’re the one irrationally believing fanatics - those who simply cannot bring themselves to say anything good. because orange man bad.

i’m responding to actual facts. Which of the facts I cited are incorrect?
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Originally Posted by Jim in CT

you’re talking about the Phillips Curve, the belief that at some point, low unemployment causes runaway inflation which can be countered by lowering interest rates.
How does that relate to anything I wrote?

here’s a video, where AOC of all people, gets Fed Chair Powell to say very explicitly, that the link between low unemployment and inflation is much weaker than we had thought. son not sure where you’re getting that the fed is worried about the economy. other than orange man bad, that is...

so who are you believing, exactly, when you say the fed is worried about the health of our economy?
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I think you have some kind of AOC syndrome, you certainly are infatuated with her.

As to who I'm believing, try these guys.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell has pointed to a number of national surveys as evidence business confidence took a hit recently, particularly in May after President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican imports unless his demands about tougher immigration enforcement were met.

The tariffs were not levied, but “it was a bit of a confidence shock" Powell told the Senate Banking Committee on July 11th.

In Albany, New York Thursday, New York Fed President John Williams, added his voice in support of a rate cut, citing uncertainties around trade and global growth and soft inflation. “The arguments, for adding policy accommodation have strengthened over time.”

Fed Governor Lael Brainard, in a separate appearance in Scranton, Pennsylvania, piled on. “Taking into account the downside risks at a time when inflation is on the soft side would argue for softening the expected path of monetary policy according to basic principles of risk management,” she told a community banking group.

Perhaps you can explain why the Fed might cut rates, instead of just claiming your hero (who you don't really like) is a stable genius?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

I think you have some kind of AOC syndrome, you certainly are infatuated with her.

As to who I'm believing, try these guys.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell has pointed to a number of national surveys as evidence business confidence took a hit recently, particularly in May after President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican imports unless his demands about tougher immigration enforcement were met.

The tariffs were not levied, but “it was a bit of a confidence shock" Powell told the Senate Banking Committee on July 11th.

In Albany, New York Thursday, New York Fed President John Williams, added his voice in support of a rate cut, citing uncertainties around trade and global growth and soft inflation. “The arguments, for adding policy accommodation have strengthened over time.”

Fed Governor Lael Brainard, in a separate appearance in Scranton, Pennsylvania, piled on. “Taking into account the downside risks at a time when inflation is on the soft side would argue for softening the expected path of monetary policy according to basic principles of risk management,” she told a community banking group.

Perhaps you can explain why the Fed might cut rates, instead of just claiming your hero (who you don't really like) is a stable genius?

pete, you’re trying to suggest that the fed cutting rates, is a sign they’re worried about the economy in a macro sense. i don’t think there’s any evidence of that. you are right that trumps trade fits are hurting some people, and trump deserves criticism for that. but the economy is roaring. healthier than
it’s been in my lifetime. it’s not perfect for all 320 million of us and never will be. but it’s the best it’s been in 50 years. yet you spend most of your time, despite this one post, dismissing that. because you have an agenda to bash him, and nothing else matters.
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[Pete F.]

Perhaps you can explain why the Fed might cut rates, instead of just claiming your hero (who you don't really like) is a stable genius?

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

27000
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So at what point did you sacrifice your morals for the dow?



On Monday, Donald Trump disinvited the then-British ambassador, Kim Darroch, from an official administration dinner with the emir of Qatar, because he was mad about leaked cables in which Darroch assessed the president as “insecure” and “incompetent.”

There was room at the dinner, however, for Trump’s friend Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, who was charged in a prostitution sting this year. Kraft was allegedly serviced at a massage parlor that had once been owned by Li Yang, known as Cindy, a regular at Trump’s club Mar-a-Lago. Yang is now the target of an F.B.I. inquiry into whether she funneled Chinese money into Trump’s political operation.

An ordinary president would not want to remind the world of the Kraft and Yang scandals at a time when Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest has hurled Trump’s other shady associations back into the limelight. Epstein, indicted on charges of abusing and trafficking underage girls, was a friend of Trump’s until the two had a falling out, reportedly over a failed business deal. The New York Times reported on a party Trump threw at Mar-a-Lago whose only guests were him, Epstein and around two dozen women “flown in to provide the entertainment.”

Epstein, of course, was also linked to the administration in another way. The president’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, was the United States attorney who oversaw a secret, obscenely lenient deal that let Epstein escape federal charges for sex crimes over a decade ago. On Friday, two days after a tendentious, self-serving news conference defending his handling of the Epstein case, Acosta finally resigned.

Even with Acosta gone, however, Epstein remains a living reminder of the depraved milieu from which the president sprang, and of the corruption and misogyny that continue to swirl around him. Trump has been only intermittently interested in distancing himself from that milieu. More often he has sought, whether through strategy or instinct, to normalize it.


This weekend, Trump National Doral, one of the president’s Florida clubs, planned to host a fund-raiser allowing golfers to bid on strippers to serve as their caddies. Though the event was canceled when it attracted too much attention, it’s at once astounding and not surprising at all that it was approved in the first place.

In truth, a stripper auction is tame by the standard of gross Trump stories, since at least the women were willing. Your eyes would glaze over if I tried to list every Trump associate implicated in the beating or sexual coercion of women. Still, it’s worth reviewing a few lowlights, because it’s astonishing how quickly the most lurid misdeeds fade from memory, supplanted by new degradations.

Acosta, you’ll remember, got his job because Trump’s previous pick, Andrew Puzder, withdrew following the revelation that his ex-wife, pseudonymous and in disguise, had appeared on an Oprah episode about “High Class Battered Women.” (She later retracted her accusations.)

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was once charged with domestic violence, battery and dissuading a witness. (The case was dropped when his former wife failed to appear in court.) After Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, was forced from his job for his involvement in Fox’s sprawling sexual harassment scandals, Trump hired him.

The White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned last year after it was revealed that both of his ex-wives had accused him of abuse. The White House speechwriter David Sorensen resigned after his ex-wife came forward with stories of his violence toward her.

Elliott Broidy, a major Trump fund-raiser who became the Republican National Committee deputy finance chairman, resigned last year amid news that he’d paid $1.6 million as hush money to a former playboy model, Shera Bechard, who said she’d had an abortion after he got her pregnant. (In a lawsuit, Bechard said Broidy had been violent.) The casino mogul Steve Wynn, who Trump installed as the R.N.C.’s finance chairman, resigned amid accusations that he’d pressured his employees for sex. He remains a major Republican donor.

In 2017, Trump tapped the former chief executive of AccuWeather, Barry Myers, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Then The Washington Post discovered a report from a Department of Labor investigation into Myers’s company, which found a culture of “widespread sexual harassment” that was “severe and pervasive.” The Senate hasn’t yet voted on Myers’s nomination, but the administration hasn’t withdrawn it.

And just this week, a senior military officer came forward to accuse Gen. John Hyten, Trump’s nominee to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of derailing her career when she turned down his sexual advances. “My life was ruined by this,” she told The Associated Press. (The Air Force reportedly cleared him of misconduct.)

Trump will sometimes jettison men accused of abuse when they become a public relations liability. But his first instinct is empathy, a sentiment he seems otherwise unfamiliar with. In May, he urged Roy Moore, the theocratic Alabama Senate candidate accused of preying on teenage girls, not to run again because he would lose, but added, “I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win.” The president has expressed no sympathy for victims in the Epstein case, but has said he felt bad for Acosta.

Trump seems to understand, at least on a limbic level, that the effect of this cavalcade of scandal isn’t cumulative. Instead, each one eclipses the last, creating a sense of weary cynicism that makes shock impossible to sustain.

It was just three weeks ago that E. Jean Carroll, a well-known writer, accused Trump of what amounted to a violent rape in the mid-1990s, and two friends of hers confirmed that she’d told them about it at the time. In response, Trump essentially said she was too unattractive to rape — “No. 1, she’s not my type” — and claimed that he’d never met her. That was a provable lie; there’s a photograph of them together. It didn’t matter. The story drifted from the headlines within a few days.

Since Epstein’s arrest, many people have wondered how he was able to get away with his alleged crimes for so long, given all that’s publicly known about him. But we also know that the president boasts about sexually assaulting women, that over a dozen have accused him of various sorts of sexual misconduct, and one of them has accused him of rape. We know it, and we know we can’t do anything about it, so we live with it and grow numb. Maybe someday justice will come and a new generation will wonder how we tolerated behavior that was always right out in the open.