Will Wall Street end Trump? It's a thought that has occurred to me.
The FT has reported that:
Wall Street stocks dropped on Friday as signs of strain among American consumers added to worries the US is heading for a bout of stagflation.
A batch of data added fresh evidence that consumers are growing deeply concerned about how President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs will affect the world's largest economy, while a separate report showed the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure rose in February.
This is the chart of the US S&P 500 index that tracks much of the US stock market:
This is a US phenomenon. It is costing a lot of people a lot of money, and they are the sort of people who will get upset by this.
This is the FTSE 100 chart for comparison:
There is no equivalent decline in the UK.
So, will Wall Street - and the communities of power that are associated with it - including wealthy America, very obviously - be the place where opposition to Trump becomes most readily apparent, most quickly?
Or will it be the Midwest person, dependent on their utility vehicle that is now going to cost a lot more, who will lead the backlash against the madness of King Donald?
I am not sure, but I feel that such a backlash will happen, and I very strongly suspect that Trump has not got the support from the military that he requires if serious threats against his government emerge. They are servants of the federal government that he is seeking to destroy, after all.
The situation we are living in is entirely unpredictable. That there are reasons to question whether Trump really has a grip on power is, however, worth noting. His position looks far from secure to me, given the massive range of people he will be upsetting.
The situation emerging in the US looks volatile and dangerous. No one can take pleasure in that. I do not. But the fact that the country seems to be potentially unstable has to be noted. That is what happens when a President declares war on the state he supposedly governs.
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“the communities of power that are associated with it – including wealthy America”………are probably very unhappy & indeed I sense their pain & am……….enjoying it.
Will Mango survive – maybe. Although the US military have a mango-in-chief they swear to uphold the constitution – be interesting to see what happen when Mango decides to re-write it. “I hold these truths to be self evident… etc “
I had been thinking for the past 2 months that since the February S&P 500 peak market, that the markets and wealthy America would end this madness. The magnificent seven have a massive power base.
All I can say is that during the crash of 2008, even though certain indicators were telling markets that the mortgages that made up the MBS portfolios were failing or not investment grade, the portfolios were still being exchanged/traded at huge velocity and of course some banks/funds were left holding bags of worthless assets. But others made huge sums. But the point was,the reality of the situation was not reflected by the trading – because the trading was not trading as such, it was just getting bad assets off your books.
But the point is, what is a market? I don’t think markets right, are made of consumers. Markets are actually made up of traders/fund managers. They really know what is going on. So you have a point. Like car salesmen – only they know how bad a condition it is in when they sell it to you.
Consumers are also voters who tend to not go and look and know less about what is going on and can be told that it is other countries for example or immigrants putting up the costs of your cars and groceries and fall for it.
But we have also got to accept that market traders can also obfuscate reality, cashing in on chaos, registering profits that are really just fire sales or the last dying embers of any value – after which there is nothing.
So you are right to point to uncertainty which will not help anyway actually.
Well worth watching the various segments of the MSNBC current affairs programmes on Trump related stuff from the week past, but this segment from Chris Hayes really stands out, I think, because it shows how far Trump and his acolytes are willing to go, and, more importantly, that they don’t seem to give a damn about who they upset.
https://www.msnbc.com/all
Also worth adding – as it’s not in any of these reports – that it being reliably reported that Trump had a conference call with the top execs of the various US car makers in which he apparently threatened retribution if they don’t absorb the cost of the tariffs. So, as two major law firms have already caved to pressure from Trump (their ‘sin’ was to have employed lawyers who have acted in cases against Trump) – though three more are at least standing up to him and have issued legal proceedings – it’ll be interesting to see whether the auto makers have a backbone or not.
Ivan
Apologies for delay in postingb this. I followed the link last night, went down a rabbit hole on MSNBC, and then the Daily Show on YouTube and never came back to post your comment.
Thanks – and good stuff
Richard
Re Trumps support from the military, I briefly chatted to the husband of one of my college friends at a reunion last week. He is a Naval officer seconded to NATO in Brussels. The message he was getting from his US colleagues was that they clearly understood their oath of allegiance was to the Constitution not the government. Anecdotal, but somewhat reassuring I felt.
Agreed
Thank you for raising the question of the US military. I cannot imagine any serious soldier being led by the shambles that is the Sec of Defence.
I do understand that all of this stuff is horrific. But Trump is definitely “Mr Bad Example”. So I hope you won’t mind me posting this link. If you can’t get a bit of a smile out of all of Trumps carp, what else can you do? Lets hope the US population will wake up to what a creep he is and get rid of him and Musk. I don’t have much hope at present, so all I can do is pray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DkpS1oXBQI
Ok do Trump is impeached and kicked out.
That means: Vance in the Oval Office and Musk’s plan forwarded by 3 years.
I’ll take the Trumpenfuhrer, to be honest.
I suspected things will go further than that.