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Ken Collins: It’s not Trump’s policy affecting the U.S. economy

Our present day leader is always bragging about two things. How he won the electoral vote, as antiquated as it is nowadays. The only mention of the popular vote is when he claims millions of illegal votes were cast. Sad. And the other claim is how well our economy is doing.

The second point has some caveats. Most economists will tell you that it takes about a year or so before a new administration’s policies have much of an effect.

The first two years of Obama were, obviously, effected by the worst recession since the 1930s. But about two years into his term, his policies were starting to turn hundreds of thousands of job losses into gains. His last six years of job growth were some of our best in decades. This while all of Europe and the world were still trying to recover from the 2009 fiasco. The U.S. came out of it faster than any other country. To do this in spite of what Europe and Japan, even China, were experiencing was amazing.

I have a friend who is owner of an international paper company. He has told me many times how the U.S. was far and away better than the rest of the world, economically, during those years. So Obama was able to overcome some tough conditions.

Trump, on the other hand, is riding a worldwide wave of better economic news. Europe and Asia are finally doing well the last couple of years. His first-year job growth was almost as good as Obama’s last six. But, it still isn’t his policy affecting things yet.

Let’s see what 2018 and beyond do. His tariffs will, according to almost all economists, probably hurt the U.S. And they aren’t going to help our friendship with our world allies either.

He wanted Russia to be re-included to the G7 summit. The reason they were kicked out of the Summit is the fact that they invaded Crimea. Does Trump know that? And they have interfered with many democratic elections around the world and most definitely ours, too. Apparently, that does not bother him.

Our POTUS is friendlier to some of the  world’s worst despots than our allies. He’s even PO’d Canada! Is that possible? World leaders play him like a cheap fiddle. Show him a red carpet and a parade, and you have him in your pocket.

His deficit-exploding tax break is not the answer. Former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush tried it. Didn’t work. You know the definition of insanity? Trying the same thing over …

So we’ll see what happens over the next two-plus years. If Trump is still president and has any cabinet/administration folks not in jail or “retired to spend time with family,” his reckless policies, as some politely put it, will either work or not. Don’t expect any help from Canada, though. Or the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, France.

Ken Collins

Oak Creek


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