(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . “Greatest economy in the history of the world” – the lie that could end the American experiment [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-18 Of all the falsehoods spread by MAGA Republicans, an underrated one poses the gravest danger. The term “Big Lie” usually attaches to the nonsensical claim by Trump and his MAGA supporters that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from them by sinister forces. Yes, that’s big. But it is easily debunked. Most of the liars who generated that deliberate falsehood have now confessed to this in defamation cases or criminal proceedings. Arguably, the larger lie in its potential destructive impact is that the US economy boomed under Trump’s magic entrepreneurial touch. Trump has hammered this theme in virtually every speech since March 2017, two months after his inauguration, when the jobless rate fell unexpectedly (due to Obama’s policies). Earlier this month at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump said: “Under the Trump administration, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. There’s never been an economy like we had. With soaring incomes, rising wages, and household net worth hitting the highest level ever recorded. By far, greater than now, and by far greater than at any other time ... Nobody has ever seen an economy like we had.” Those who compare economies worldwide for a living know the opposite is true. The US economy faltered badly during the Trump years, following multiple extraordinarily foolish calls. Appalling fiscal collapse Trump’s first destructive decision was to slash the tax rate on the big, highly-profitable corporations from 35%, where it had been since 1993 (and much higher between 1942 and 1987), to just 21%. This immediately cut budget revenue, blew out the deficit and added trillions to the national debt. In 2019, the deficit was -4.7% of GDP, the worst of all developed members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). See green chart, below. Outcomes in Trump’s last year, 2020, were worsened by his gross mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. The deficit that year exploded to -15.0% of GDP, the worst on record by far. These plummeting deficits led to record debt, with an inexcusable $7.8 trillion added during the Trump period. The USA recorded the OECD’s worst expansion of debt from 2016 to 2021. Eight well-managed economies actually reduced their debt substantially during that period. See teal chart, below. Thousands of suicides following exports collapse Trump’s next harmful misstep was to impose unilateral tariffs, which provoked widespread retaliation, including cancellation of billions of dollars of farm exports. Primary products imported by China alone plummeted from $19.5 billion in 2017 to just $9 billion in 2018. Farmers rapidly lost their incomes, their savings, their farms and their lives. Best estimate of the number of farmer suicides, based on data from the National Farmers Union, the American Farm Bureau and clinical psychologists, is around 1,600. In frantic response to this, the Trump Government scrambled to borrow billions of dollars, including from China, to give to farmers in emergency relief. Between 2018 and 2020, the hapless administration gave idle farmers a staggering $70.2 billion, all borrowed and all incurring interest payments for the indefinite future. Countless farmers who had prided themselves on contributing to America’s prosperity and to its culture of rugged individualism were reduced to beggars. Low rankings in the OECD Wasteful spending escalated under Trump, including on scandalous cost overruns for military equipment, on extending the useless Southern wall, on transfers of hundreds of millions to his golf resorts for his solo golf outings, and countless other senseless projects and grifts. Regarding household net worth, about which Trump constantly lies, the highest he ever achieved was $110.1 trillion in the 2019 fourth quarter. This accelerated sharply immediately after his exit, reaching $143.9 trillion in the 2022 first quarter. Latest level is $142.4 trillion. By the end of the Trump presidency, the US economy was lagging badly within the OECD on most measurable outcomes and regarded widely by independent economists as the worst-managed in that group of 38 nations. The turnaround under Biden Fortunately, the economy is gradually recovering from the disastrous Trump years. We shall examine this in depth tomorrow. But will this be enough to dispel the myth of Trump’s economic supremacy, the falsehood which may well get him re-elected? * This is an edited version of an article published earlier today in Independent Australia, available in full for free here: independentaustralia.net/… [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/18/2212362/--Greatest-economy-in-the-history-of-the-world-the-lie-that-could-end-the-American-experiment?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/