Tuesday, September 02, 2025
Gallup Poll Has Trump Job Approval At Only 40%
The charts above are from the Gallup Poll -- done between August 1st and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,094 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
GOP's Trickle-Down Promise Is A Myth - Money Flows Upward
The following is part of a post by Ali Velshi at MSNBC:
For more than 40 years, we’ve been sold a myth: that America’s rich and powerful were under siege — over-taxed, over-regulated and carrying the weight of the economy on their shoulders.
We were told that if you ease up regulations on the rich, they will prosper and the benefits will trickle down to the rest of the population. But the reality is that economic policy has only succeeded in rewarding the rich — and it’s done so at the direct expense of the middle class, the working class and the working poor.
Let me explain the root of the problem: According to the Economic Policy Institute, largely due to new technology, U.S. worker productivity grew 59.7% from 1979 to 2019, meaning workers have become almost 60% more productive at their jobs in the past four decades.
However, a worker’s reward for all that extra output over the same period has only been a 13.7% wage increase.That’s a gap of 46% between what workers are being underpaid relative to their output. In more practical terms, that’s about $9 an hour in lost potential earnings for the typical worker.
Let’s focus on just the middle class for a moment: From 1979 to 2019, middle-income workers saw just 13.7% growth in wages, adjusted for inflation. America’s lowest-paid workers fared worse, gaining just 3%. But the already high earners, the top 1%, their income grew by 160% over the same period. For the top 0.1%, their income grew by a staggering 345%.
Consider all the income earned by households in the U.S. in a given year. The share of that total U.S. household income going to the middle class was 62% in 1970. By 2022, it had dropped to 43%. The upper-income share did the opposite: It was 29% in 1970 and rose to 48% in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. . . .
If we want to reverse this, we have to make deliberate, systemic choices, like universal health care, which would end the tie between jobs and health insurance. Countries with universal systems spend 30–50% less per person than we do and get better outcomes. This reduces the economic insecurity that forces workers to cling to bad jobs for the sake of benefits.
We could also implement universal and subsidized child care. Affordable child care would free millions, especially women, to fully participate in the workforce. Quebec’s subsidized child care modelincreased female labor force participation and paid for itself in new tax revenues from mothers joining the workforce. . . .
For decades, we’ve been told that prosperity trickles down. But it hasn’t, it’s been sucked upward. While the top 1% have thrived, everyone else has been told to work harder, retrain, move somewhere with better opportunities, and wait their turn.
An economy that works for everyone isn’t a fantasy; it’s a choice. We’ve just been making the wrong one. These policies aren’t radical; they’re a return to the basic American deal: If you work hard, you should share fairly in the prosperity you help create.
Monday, September 01, 2025
Happy Labor Day!
"All hail the American worker. On Monday, we celebrate Labor Day, an excellent reminder to honor the people who make this country run: the construction workers, the nurses, the line cooks, the librarians, the school bus drivers, good-hearted Americans who show up every day. Happy Labor Day." - Dan Rather
Iceland Is Rated The Most Peaceful Nation (The U.S. Was 128th)
The Institute for Economics and Peace has released its 2025 Global Peace Index. The GPI rates each country on its level of peacefulness. In this latest report, Iceland is rated the most peaceful nation. The United States finished far down the list - at number 128.
This is the 19th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness, covering 99.7 per cent of the world’s population. Produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.
This report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies. It uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.
For a larger image that may be easier to read, just click on the chart.
The Seeds Of Trump's Destruction Have Already Been Sown
Robert Reich issues us that Trump is doomed to fail:
Rest assured. The seeds of Trump’s destruction have already been sown. He will overreach. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of birthright citizenship, for example, and Trump announces he’s not bound by the Supreme Court, the uproar will be deafening.
Or the economy will bite him in the butt. As prices continue to rise and job growth continues to slow — due to Trump’s bonkers import taxes (tariffs), his attempt to take over the Fed, and his attacks on immigrants — America will fall into the dread trap of “stagflation”: stagnation and inflation. After months of this, his base is likely to turn on him — remember, many voted for him because he promised to bring prices down — and he and his Republican lackeys in Congress will be toast in the 2026 midterms.
Or his brazen corruption will do him in (he’s personally raking in hundreds of millions from crypto, for example). Or Putin will do him in (if Ukraine falls to Russia or an emboldened Russia strikes Lithuania). Or the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
He no longer has any truth-tellers to advise him — he has purged all of them. And a president who’s flying blind, without anyone around him to tell him he’s about to crash, will inevitably crash. Many innocent people will likely suffer “collateral” damage. But at least the nation will see him for who he is and consign him to the dustbin of history.
None of this argues for complacency. We must continue to fight — demonstrate, phone your representatives and senators, boycott corporations and organizations that are caving in to tyranny, protect the vulnerable, make good trouble.
But please do not fall into denial or despair, and don’t let anyone else.
Stagflation Is Likely Coming To The U.S. Economy
From the pen of economist Paul Krugman:
Sometimes the state of the economy offers clear guidance on what policies should be undertaken. And, in the short term, the policymakers who make those decisions are at the Federal Reserve. Yes, fiscal policies – taxes and government spending – also have significant effects on the economy. But fiscal policy is slow to change – typically, it requires passing legislation. In contrast, the Fed can have an immediate effect on the economy by lowering or raising the Federal Funds rate – the short-term rate that the Fed has direct control over. Since fiscal policy can only be implemented with long time lags, it’s basically the job of the Fed to keep the economy on an even keel.
When the inflation rate is low but the unemployment rate is high, as it was during the Great Recession in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed should cut the federal funds rate. By lowering the fed funds rate, the Fed makes it cheaper for banks to lend. This boosts the spending and investing activity in the economy and brings unemployment down.
When inflation is high but unemployment is low – that is, when the economy is at risk of overheating -- as it was in 2022, the Fed should raise the fed funds rate. This slows down spending and investing and brings inflation down.
But when the unemployment rate and the inflation rate are both too high — what economists call “stagflation” — the Fed faces a dilemma. Cut the fed funds rate ratesto support employment and you risk worsening inflation. Raise the fed funds rate to fight inflation and you risk raising unemployment. With stagflation, there are no easy answers, just a tradeoff of risks.
And this dilemma looks very relevant right now: many economic indicators suggest that the United States will soon undergo at least mild stagflation.
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