[Pain] HUGE, self-inflicted Recession incoming due to Trump/Musk

I can agree
but not working for food and shelter
I Think our company is rich enough for like
Free Lunches and breakfast for kids

Rocket River

 

the ads just write themselves…Dems would rather hold up signs tho

 

He described Trump when he said a fraudster always makes the biggest noise screaming and complaining The dude in the face covered in orange foundation cries about everything that doesn't go his way, and we all know he's a fraudster. He's a compulsive liar on top of that.

 

How's the dollar doing against the £ these days?

 

1 dollar equals .77 British pound.

1-dollar equals .93 Euros.

 

Rich Americans Cutting Spending Could Hurt the US Economy

The stock market volatility set off by concerns over President Donald Trump’s rapidly shifting trade war threatens one of the primary growth engines of the US economy: spending by high-income earners.

The well-to-do bolstered the economy over the past few years, keeping their wallets open even as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to stifle inflation, pandemic savings dwindled and lower-income consumers buckled under the strain of higher prices. Much of the spending by rich Americans has been fueled by what’s known as the “wealth effect,” a theory from behavioral economics that says robust stock market gains and rising home prices cause consumers to feel flush even if their incomes haven’t changed.

A market rout that began last month has shaved trillions of dollars off US stock values, spreading uneasiness that has some Americans reassessing their spending. Economists say a significant pullback from high earners would jeopardize an expansion that’s looking increasingly fragile. At their most recent policy meeting, last week, Federal Reserve officials pared back their growth forecasts for this year, amid increased uncertainty over the effects of the Trump administration’s policies. The median projection showed policymakers now expect the US economy will expand 1.7% in 2025 rather than the 2.1% they predicted in December.

Stock Market Gains Had Wealthiest Americans Feeling Flush


David Lowell, 66, didn’t think much about spending $40,000 to renovate his kitchen last October as the stock market boomed and his retirement savings and other investments grew with it. But after seeing the value of his portfolio drop by hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent weeks, the Roswell, Georgia, resident is thinking harder about his purchases. Lowell, who works in live-events production, says he’s still optimistic about the economy over the long run but is holding off from big splurges until stock markets rebound. “I feel a little uneasy after the last six weeks of this complete stock market capitulation,” says Lowell, who checks his accounts about four times a day.

The wealthiest 10% of households now account for half of all US consumer spending, up from about one-third in the 1990s.

While Fed officials and other economists have credited the strong job market and the wage gains it produced—particularly for the lowest-paid workers—as key drivers of the post-pandemic US expansion, the outsize role played by rich Americans has only recently come into focus. “We’re now at a point where the stock market—a strong stock market—drives consumption,” says Troy Ludtka, senior US economist for SMBC Nikko Securities Americas. “But the inverse is also true: A weak stock market can lower consumption.”

The increase in wealth experienced by the top 10% of households from 2020 to 2023 was almost without precedent, according to a paper published in May by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, enabling this cohort of “super rich” to keep spending even as their real incomes shrunk when adjusted for inflation. Gains among the wealthy were large enough to explain the rise in total consumer spending above its longer-term trend, according to the authors, economists Thomas Ferguson and Servaas Storm. A recent analysis by Moody’s Analytics found that Americans earning more than $250,000 a year now account for half of all US consumer spending, up from about one-third in the 1990s.



The wealthy’s dominant share of outlays helped the economy keep chugging along in recent years, even as other households fell behind on debt payments and dialed back their purchases. This lopsided spending pattern makes the current expansion more vulnerable, economists say. “What we have witnessed in the past two to three years is actually two different economic cycles between higher-income and lower-income Americans,” says Frances Donald, Royal Bank of Canada’s chief economist. “Anything that impacts your top 10% of Americans now becomes disproportionately important.”

After going mostly up over the past two years, US stocks plunged in the past month, erasing much of the gains seen since Trump’s reelection. The S&P 500 fell into correction territory—down at least 10% from its most recent peak—and despite a series of small rebounds is still down 8% from its February high.

When investor pessimism really takes hold, it can cause a swift hit to spending and growth. “It’s not like we continue dribbling out some low rate of our wealth. We clam up,” says Ferguson, adding that we’re not at that point yet.

There are signs that consumers across the income spectrum are already starting to hunker down. Retail sales increased less than expected in February after falling in January by the most since July 2021, a report from the US Department of Commerce showed. Spending at restaurants and bars fell last month by the most in a year.

 

US Consumer Confidence Tumbles Again to Lowest
Since Early 2021, During the Waning Days of Trump 1.0​

US consumer confidence fell in March to the lowest level in four years on concerns about higher prices and the economic outlook amid the Trump administration’s escalating tariffs.

The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence decreased 7.2 points to 92.9, data released Tuesday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 94.

 

I have a feeling that this number will go even lower

 

the monkey pushed the pharmaceuticals button, so now that’s the new random thing we’re going to have tariffs on before they get rescinded after the market has crashed yet again

 

Yeah, me too. He has a negative approval rating in almost every poll. It can get really bad if this psycho keeps up his constant chaos, and lies, and propaganda to distract from his madness while harming the middle class, sick, and poor.

 

Not so sure if those hands can feel.

“The president is a true mercantilist and just isn’t going to believe forecasts about how bad this can get,” said Michael Strain, head of economic-policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “He needs to put his hand to the hot stove and leave it there until he can’t bear it. The question is how long will that take?”

 

The Pharma tariffs are truly insane. Generics are entirely dependent on foreign supply chains. Most of them are even finished in foreign countries (mainly India and Israel). This will straight up raise the cost of health care on everyone.

Also the lumber tariffs are another stupid one. The US's beef with Canadian lumber is that in Canada the forests are primarily owned and managed by the government. And the governments here do a much better job of managing the forests so we end up with higher quality lumber at a lower cost. The US has called this an illegal government subsidy for years (which is why softwood lumber has been tariffed for years) but expanding those tariffs will just cripple the housing and construction markets. The US simply can't produce enough lumber to offset the loss of Canadian lumber. And Canadian lumber is higher quality compared to any additional new lumber that the US could produce.

 

The Senate voted Thursday to strike down a rule capping most bank overdraft fees at $5, a measure adopted late last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that had been expected to save Americans billions of dollars per year.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, was the lone Republican to oppose the resolution, which passed on a nearly party-line vote, 52-48. It will now move to the House, where Representative French Hill, the Arkansas Republican who leads the Financial Service Committee, introduced a parallel resolution last month.

The rule would have limited the fees banks and credit unions could charge when customers spend more than they have in their accounts, typically $35 per overdraft.

this, along with putting an end to capping prescription drug prices, will help the MAGAts out a lot when the inevitable recession hits

 

I just have to ask WHY, why is this something you would not want for the American People......just follow the MONEY, his friends at the banks will love this...........it literally does not help the Citizens at all, and this would be such an easy win for the middle class. This friggin moron will have us in a recession by Q3. What a group of MORONS

 

they go out of their way to screw over the working class every chance they get just to be rewarded with even more votes from them in the next election

these voters really are just mindless drones…NPCs…some evil republican puts in their programming and then beep boop bop these bots carry out their orders without a second thought

 

It’s not just here man. Same thing in other countries. Brain dead people voting for the same people making their lives worse. I can’t comprehend.