The US economy faltered badly during the trump years, following multiple extraordinarily foolish calls.
trump ’s first destructive decision was to slash the tax rate on the big, highly-profitable corporations from 35%, where it had been since 1993 (and much higher between 1942 and 1987), to just 21%. This immediately cut budget revenue, blew out the deficit and added trillions to the national debt.
In 2019, the deficit was -4.7% of GDP, the worst of all developed members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Outcomes in Trump’s last year, 2020, were worsened by his gross mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. The deficit that year exploded to -15.0% of GDP, the worst on record by far.
These plummeting deficits led to record debt, with an inexcusable $7.8 trillion added during the trump period. The USA recorded the OECD’s worst expansion of debt from 2016 to 2021. Eight well-managed economies actually reduced their debt substantially during that period.
trump’s next harmful misstep was to impose unilateral tariffs, which provoked widespread retaliation, including cancellation of billions of dollars of farm exports. Primary products imported by China alone plummeted from $19.5 billion in 2017 to just $9 billion in 2018.
Farmers rapidly lost their incomes, their savings, their farms and their lives. Best estimate of the number of farmer suicides, based on data from the National Farmers Union, the American Farm Bureau and clinical psychologists, is around 1,600.
In frantic response to this, the trump Government scrambled to borrow billions of dollars, including from China, to give to farmers in emergency relief.
Between 2018 and 2020, the hapless administration gave idle farmers a staggering $70.2 billion, all borrowed and all incurring interest payments for the indefinite future.
Countless farmers who had prided themselves on contributing to America’s prosperity and to its culture of rugged individualism were reduced to beggars.
The US economy faltered badly during the trump years, following multiple extraordinarily foolish calls.
trump ’s first destructive decision was to slash the tax rate on the big, highly-profitable corporations from 35%, where it had been since 1993 (and much higher between 1942 and 1987), to just 21%. This immediately cut budget revenue, blew out the deficit and added trillions to the national debt.
In 2019, the deficit was -4.7% of GDP, the worst of all developed members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Outcomes in Trump’s last year, 2020, were worsened by his gross mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. The deficit that year exploded to -15.0% of GDP, the worst on record by far.
These plummeting deficits led to record debt, with an inexcusable $7.8 trillion added during the trump period. The USA recorded the OECD’s worst expansion of debt from 2016 to 2021. Eight well-managed economies actually reduced their debt substantially during that period.
trump’s next harmful misstep was to impose unilateral tariffs, which provoked widespread retaliation, including cancellation of billions of dollars of farm exports. Primary products imported by China alone plummeted from $19.5 billion in 2017 to just $9 billion in 2018.
Farmers rapidly lost their incomes, their savings, their farms and their lives. Best estimate of the number of farmer suicides, based on data from the National Farmers Union, the American Farm Bureau and clinical psychologists, is around 1,600.
In frantic response to this, the trump Government scrambled to borrow billions of dollars, including from China, to give to farmers in emergency relief.
Between 2018 and 2020, the hapless administration gave idle farmers a staggering $70.2 billion, all borrowed and all incurring interest payments for the indefinite future.
Countless farmers who had prided themselves on contributing to America’s prosperity and to its culture of rugged individualism were reduced to beggars.