16 Comments
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Paul Olmsted's avatar

Wouldn’t it be fair to say that the most likely beneficiaries of the bailout to Argentina are the “ friends” of our illustrious Treasury Secretary who would have suffered losses on their bond holdings if US

Taxpayers hadn’t been put on the hook to bail them out?

I also wouldn’t be surprised if the farm bailout gets into the hands of

the huge Agribusiness Lords first

as opposed to the mythical “ family “

farmer of yesteryear.

In any event, we seem to have plenty of money to support the rich

and powerful but when it comes to

SNAP programs for hungry children

— — you get the picture

Kathleen Weber's avatar

Who do I contact for my bailout? And what's the kickback percentage on bailouts these days?

Lance Khrome's avatar

The "double bailout" - in a regime of monstrous policy contradictions — has to be the most (to-date!) idiotic and self-harming...how could anyone in tRump's crowd NOT point out the obvious? SMFH.

Dennis Ryan's avatar

Appreciate the careful tutorials in plain language. Behavior - as in consumers, or any other player roles - is , I suppose, somewhat predictable in relation to the factors charted here. Until it is not - when buffeted from unexpected storms( natural, social). This admin. (sic) is composed to deliver storms. Primarily because the guy thrives in chaos. But also, Heritage Foundationers value chaos to dismantle governance & reclaim social structures. Departments of War & fat ICE are their controls for their chaos. Myopic delusions and difficult to factor into any analysis of economic behavior.

Theodora30's avatar

Krugman and Dean Baker do the same great tutorials. In fact they both have one up today.

Andy Fallat's avatar

Re the Ballroom: what goes up also goes down. The White House is the People's House. The Ballroom will forever be Trump's Ballroom. It is damned and doomed.

Lance Khrome's avatar

Can't wait for the next Democratic administration to call out the sappers and do a Gaza on that "ballroom" atrocity...then pile all the debris into dumptrucks and wheel it down to MAL.

Theodora30's avatar

Am I the only person who is upset that there will be no place for a First Lady who actually wants the job to do her work? Also the size of the ballroom will dwarf the main part of the White House and sit empty most of the time unless they decide to rent it out for bar mitzvahs and weddings. You can be there will be no quinceañera celebrations held there.

Maybe they can get those retractable walls so they can hold multiple events at once. As Dan Rather once said "In politics, everything is for sale; what matters is who can afford it."

Ken Anderson's avatar

It wouldn't surprise me if Trump rented out the ballroom to corporate bigwigs for events at a highly inflated price, as if there aren't already enough ways to bribe him.

Goodman Peter's avatar

We’ve never had a president who dominated the news cycle like T, and, effectively, pushed all news outlets to the center, editors have to carefully parse stories to not anger T. All the public knows and cares about is prices are higher.

However no shortage of restaurants with absurd prices and long lines.

No matter how outrageous T’s actions the polling places on 11/4 will be fascinating.. will the Ds make inroads, will some Rs begin to pivot away from T?

Of course the unanswerable question: if there a “Black Tuesday” hovering? Will the AI bubble burst?

Theodora30's avatar

The fact that the mainstream “liberal” media chose to let him dominate the news cycle back during the 2016 election is a big reason we are here now. They constantly covered his campaign rallies/speeches live. In fact CNN infamously kept the camera on the podium waiting for him to show while their hosts were put in a small box in the corner. In contrast they rarely showed any of Hillary’s rallies. As a result post election polls showed voters could name Trump — and Bernie’s — top issues but not Hillary’s even though her top issue was the creation of good jobs and the training to do them. She spoke about that non- stop but those speeches were rarely shown. I only heard it when I went to a rally because I never once saw a rally shown live on CNN or MSNBC. I did see plenty of coverage of both Trump and Bernie that year.

Ray Zielinski's avatar

If there was a centering of the news outlets, it was centered toward Trump’s view of events - far to the right.

Mason Frichette's avatar

Mr. Bernstein, did you "survive" your event in the tent? At this time, this country doesn't need a $300 million ballroom, which will be all done up in Trump's standard neo-Versailles, tacky whorehouse decor.

There is nothing wrong with holding occasional events in "the nicest tent." The idea that government officials need splendor, while citizens lack health care, adequate nutrition, and decent retirement is obscene.

Bruce Gelin's avatar

As always, this column is good informative reading. And your “rant” is totally justified. No apology needed.

Mark Rubin's avatar

I am not an engineer, but it strikes me that a semi-subterranean ballroom on the South Lawn would have avoided the disaster.

Essmeier's avatar

It wouldn't address the actual problem - Donald Trump hates the White House.