Mr. Trump decided to show up in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving. The president knew his decision to fire Admiral Spencer was a dumb move. Trump wanted to protect Navy Seal Eddie Gallaher’s Navy Seal pin. Trump disregarded military protocol. Military personal around the world told Trump he’s a dick for intervening in a situation that didn’t require his help.
Holiday shoppers are out in force, and most of them have to take out loans in order to make this holiday season bright. American consumers are neck-deep in debt. One out of three Americans think they will go deeper into debt by the end of the year. If consumers stop buying after the holidays, Gross Domestic Product growth will take a serious hit in 2020. More than 70 percent of the country’s GDP growth comes from the consumer sector of the economy.
Fed Chairman Jay Powell took the press Fed Board members won’t cut rates at the December 11th meeting. The mounting consumer debt, as well as Trump’s trade war, could throw Trump’s great economy in the toilet next year. GDP growth at the end of the third quarter was one percent less than the 3.2 percent growth in January 2019.
The president believes his tariff wars will reduce the deficit and make China kiss his McDonald’s loving butt. But that strategy has inherent issues. The tariffs cost Americans $40 billion over the last 16 months. Trump still claims China pays the tariffs, but consumers know that’s not true now that most of the tariff increases hit the retail level. The first group of tariffs didn’t impact consumers as much as the last round. And if Trump keeps the December tariffs on the table, consumers will feel the impact more than they did at the beginning of the year.
Huawei is still bad news, according to the Trumpster. Mr. Trump claims Huawei spies for the Chinese government. The president wants to force China to sign a trade deal by holding China’s tech industry hostage in the United States. But Huawei doesn’t need U.S. business as much as the U.S. needs Huawei. Huawei is the second-largest smartphone vendor in the world. Ren Zhengfei’s $100 billion company continues to develop smartphones that compete with the top-of-the-line Samsung phones. Samsung is number one in the smartphone business.
China’s economy has Trump’s tariff flu. Plus, Chinese consumers are in the same boat as American consumers when it comes to carrying a lot of debt. The Chinese want to sign a trade deal to ease some of their economic issues, but they won’t sign unless Trump drops the tariffs and stops blackballing Huawei.
Dil Bole Oberoi
