• OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Didn’t they already get something like a trillion dollar tax break in the first term? Once again the language used stuck on brinksmanship. The bad things are going to happen but never do. Until they do happen. The language never changes. It’s the goal posts that move. The bad things that happened are memory holed. The next set of bad things are on the brink of happenning.

    I’m pretty sure this is the primary mechanism that has enabled the slide into fascism. The population is reactive. Not proactive. If the perception is that something will happen, not has happened then you successfully subdued resistance all together. There’s nothing to resist if perceptually nothing ever happens. We will never actually eat the rich.

  • Juice@midwest.social
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    12 hours ago

    The whole point of the federal reserve is so that no special interest can seize control and crash the US economy on purpose. It sets up a political entity with vast but very particular powers, that is accountable to the president, so that it is almost always in the best interest of big finance not to crash the economy. The US government pays the federal reserve system, which is just a bunch of banks who buy into it, about 7-8% roi, to manage the money supply. Sometimes more money can still be made by crashing the US economy, for example the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, and technically recessions are pretty good for the ruling class predators, but for the most part it provides concrete financial incentives for major institutions to keep the whole thing on the rails. It protects the economy from rogue bankers who already wield an incredible about of undemocratic power, from doing something selfish that would harm the country.

    No one considered the possibility of a rogue president who selfishly wants to crash the US economy because he thinks it will help him become king. In that case, if he gets the approval of fed reserve bank executives, then there’s nothing stopping him.

    • TheBloodFarts@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      All these rules rooted to the notion of “well we can always count on the president to be a morally good and reasonable person” are incredibly naive. Are many governments like this?

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    Money has no meaning once it becomes infinite. Trump clearly has no idea what the Great Depression was, nor what lead to Weimer Germany’s collapse.

    On the plus side, it is a fascist society that will be left holding the bag of shit. The blowback from economic annihilation tends to blow apart old ways of doing things. Provided we assert ourselves, we can recreate the USA to be something that isn’t crap.

    …at least, I hope that is the silver lining to all of this. 😰

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 hours ago

      The blowback from economic annihilation tends to blow apart old ways of doing things. Provided we assert ourselves, we can recreate the USA to be something that isn’t crap.

      That only happened the last time (Germany I mean) because they lost a world war.

      And then this:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

      It didn’t just happen.

    • Juice@midwest.social
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      12 hours ago

      Centrist democrats in 5 years:

      “Fascism sounds great on paper but it isn’t economically viable”

    • Juice@midwest.social
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      12 hours ago

      I really don’t think Trump is creating an infinite money glitch, I think he is using the fed to crash the economy, and make a hefty sum on the side. Money isn’t a commodity like diamonds, where there is a limit to how much diamonds you can mine. Money supply is pinned to the productive capacity of a national economy.

      Money is a social relation. It takes the form of a commodity but oversupply and undersupply isn’t determined by the number of dollars in circulation, its a relation between what can be produced and what is actually produced

    • gndagreborn@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The thing is, american society is already standing on stilts. Economic catastrophy would be a huge opportunity for reform, but the cost to human lives and livelihoods would be uncertainly high.

      At this rate, it is inevitable.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          24 hours ago

          I mean it’s going to happen eventually, and unfortunately the economic impact will be global. But I think countries are already trying to insulate themselves from the worst of it.

  • Imperor@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    If Trump takes over the FED, the US economy will go into an absolute tailspin and depression. The only reason inflation has been sort of brought back under control is the FED. Trump has no fucking clue what he’s doing on a monetary level and neither does any of his ghouls and cronies.

    • relativestranger@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      they know what they’re doing. they’re lining all the right pockets. it’s just that they don’t give a fuck about anything else when it comes to ‘money’

      • Imperor@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They know what they’re doing when it comes to funneling money into their own pockets, I agree here. But they’ll do it in such a hamfisted way, that it will bring down the entire house of cards, because they don’t understand or bother to understand the systems they’re pilfering. Though, this might very well be part of what they want to accomplish anyway.

      • Rolder@reddthat.com
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        1 day ago

        Doesn’t really matter how many dollars you dish out if the dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on

      • JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        No they don’t know what they are doing.

        There is an economic theory called the J-curve. The idea is that if you cut public spending whilst cutting limits to bank lending, the private sector will make up for the reduction in public spending. J curve theory was popular in the 1970s, that period known for low inflation (/s).

    • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      There is a reason that gold is at an all-time high (~$3735). Even adjusting for inflation, it is higher than the 1980 peak following stagflation from the 1970s. Moreover, central bank purchases have been the backbone of the current gold market, with central banks now holding more gold than U.S. treasuries, something that hasn’t been the case since 1996. We’re witnessing the demise of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency in real time.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        There is a reason that gold is at an all-time high

        Yeah, loose monetary plus goldbug speculation. The spread between gold and silver, for instance, has been widening while gold and platinum contract.

        We’re witnessing the demise of the dollar

        We’re witnessing the reemergence of a multi-polar world. The dollar will take a hit. It’s not the end of dollarization.

        • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 day ago

          We’re witnessing the reemergence of a multi-polar world. The dollar will take a hit. It’s not the end of dollarization.

          the thing is that if the US really goes through balkanization, that puts an absolute end to the US dollar.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            if the US really goes through balkanization

            The US isn’t composed of geographically well-defined socio-ethnoc groups. There’s no bright line you can draw between Liberals and Conservatives, as evidenced by the number of “swing” states and the absurd lines you have to draw in order to gerrymander populations.

            Lincoln was right. We’re a nation that can be one thing or another. But a divide will not stand. Trying to put Texas and California and New York and Florida into separate counties won’t work any better today than it did in the 18th century.

            • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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              15 hours ago

              That’s not true, like at all.

              There is a world of cultural difference between NY residents, Texas residents, and Oregon residents.

              In fact, there’s about 5 distinct socio-economic regions in the US.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                14 hours ago

                There is a world of cultural difference between NY residents, Texas residents, and Oregon residents.

                There is a world of difference between Houston’s Third Ward, River Oaks, and Spring. Nevermind the difference between Sugar Land, The Woodlands, and Pearland. Or Austin, San Antonio, and San Angelo.

                Where do you draw the line? Even Republican gerrymandering experts struggle with this question.

                In fact, there’s about 5 distinct socio-economic regions in the US.

                Far more than that, if you’re looking closely

                • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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                  9 hours ago

                  No, its really about 5, distinct, socioeconomic regions in the US.

                  For example, the Great Lakes Region, the Pacific Northwest, Plains Region, etc.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                The West Coast could be its own countr

                Guess which state has the largest population of Republicans. Now guess the state that donates the most to the GOP. Now guess the state whose residents make to the highest percentage of Trump’s cabinet.

                • xyzzy@lemmy.today
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                  1 day ago

                  What a weird way to just say California is the most populous state. Guess which state has the most Democrats, leftists, and liberals. Also California!

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Interest free money for the rich while the supply side of the house is incredibly fucked up, especially in key areas such as fucking food and shelter. What could go wrong?!

      I, for one, look forward to the arrested development $15 banana costs after the hyperinflation kicks in!

      /s if that ain’t obvious

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 day ago

      If Trump takes over the FED, the US economy will go into an absolute tailspin and depression.

      I think you’re completely underestimating what Trump taking over the FED could do. he could literally print arbitrary amounts of money and spend them however he wants. it would basically make money meaningless, and we’d probably go back to trading goods-for-goods after a while, but short-term, it would give trump unlimited economic power and that is a very very very frightening thing.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        it would basically make money meaningless, and we’d probably go back to trading goods-for-goods after a while

        The barter system wasn’t ever a thing, Adam Smith was full of shit, and as long as the US government taxes us in USD, it’ll always be relevant to us.

        I should go exchange all of my savings for a different country’s currency before the shit hits the fan, but I’m not even sure which country’s currency would make sense.

    • mrmacduggan@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      I think he knows what he’s doing, since all he’s really doing is stuffing his pockets. Doesn’t take a genius to cartoonishly sell out the entire planet’s economy for personal gain. I’m sure if he manages to crash the dollar he’ll be thrilled to roll out Trumpcoin as the alternative and then rugpull the world a second time.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        he’ll be thrilled to roll out Trumpcoin as the alternative and then rugpull the world a second time.

        for a currency to have actual value, some government with real (military) power must demand that currency via taxation. otherwise, at least theoretically, the paper currency has no actual value.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      If Trump takes over the FED, the US economy will go into an absolute tailspin and depression

      We’re already 900k jobs off the beginning of the year estimate. Add in the tech sector investment in AI failing to pay out 2-3 years later, and Trump’s been kicking the shit out of a wheezing horse since he took office.

      Trump has no fucking clue what he’s doing on a monetary level and neither does any of his ghouls and cronies.

      Lowing interest rates on the eve of a recession has traditionally been a smart move. Much better than the Bush/Greenspan '06 decision to raise interest rates as the housing crisis began to spiral.

      But he’s plowing all this free money into a jobless crypto/tech bubble. Inviting enormous inflation in tech hardware and electricity, while these companies hemorrhage a bunch of jobs they have decided they don’t need anymore.

      This isn’t just Trump. It’s an economy wide death spiral that Trump’s being bribed into fueling.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        1 day ago

        Yeah this is essentially the end of neoliberal capitalism. We discovered that removing market regulations just males companies invest in unsustainable, short term schemes. What we are witnessing is the end of the ouroboros.

  • switcheroo@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    How the fuck did we get here so fast…??? This is fucking disgusting.

    We are about to the place where the military is going to have to take a long hard look at who’s side their on— the American people or Shitler’s because eventually the orange cancer is going to tell them to either full out bomb our own fucking cities, or our once-allies.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I want to believe the military would side with the people rather than blindly obey orders, but their track record hasn’t been great so far.

      • Juice@midwest.social
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        12 hours ago

        It’ll be messy. The best chance is if the rank and file corps break away from the higher level officers who are too ideologically or bureaucratically compromised to act against fascism.

        But I don’t see the conditions existing for that right now, although I’m far from a military expert. I know that a lot of soldiers are becoming pretty radical, at least when they leave the military they turn around and become socialists

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    i fucking warned about this

    Most of the experts who have worked within the Fed or studied it closely have never contemplated what could happen if an institution with so much unchecked power came under the control of one man.

    I literally talked about this 4 months ago.

    Basically, if trump gets a hold of the central bank, it’s over. The only way stopping arbitrary trumpian outcomes then is to completely de-dollarize the world (!!!). Imagine what that means.


    to be honest, i have been a fan of a (slow) de-dollarization for many years now. it’s just rapidly becoming way more urgent all of a sudden. we’re not even remotely there yet. there is still way too much dependency on the dollar for so many things. we need to change that. but changing that would require change in so many things, including a broad overhaul of worldwide neoliberal agenda.

    neoliberalism is already on the decline worldwide, but there’s still a long way to go.

  • Hayduke@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Congress could end this now. Call your local republican congressman and hold their feet to the fire.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Money, no matter how much of it you have or believe you have is only as valuable as everyone believes it to be.

    It’s a modern day religion.

    As soon as enough people lose faith in it, money becomes absolutely worthless.

    You could get to the point of saying you own all the money … but if no one believes the money had any value any more, all that money no longer matters.

    Wealth exists because we all believe in this world wide system of money and finance. If enough people stop believing or investing in it, all that wealth instantly disappears.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 day ago

      Money, no matter how much of it you have or believe you have is only as valuable as everyone believes it to be.

      It’s a modern day religion.

      the thing that causes the dollar to have value is the fact that the US government demands that the people pay a certain amount of taxes in USdollars. if you can’t pay that, you go to jail.

      so, the dollar is an extension of military power. they’re forcing you to do something, but instead of sending the military to your door directly and abducting you, they instead require that you either have a certain amount of dollars or they will send the military/police to your door. it’s a placeholder for military power.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      Well that’s why the people who have all the “money” stamp their name on all the property instead of holding it as cash.

      And any paper money has to have faith, even if its tied to gold you must have faith the government will actually keep their bargain. I personally would find it a blast to use gold and silver coins for everything just for the novelty of it. It wouldn’t be hard to do because very little costs less than a dollar anyway.

  • TipRing@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The US is increasingly resembling the 1986 comedy The Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelly Long.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Besides setting interest rates:

    In 1932, Congress gave the Federal Reserve the power to lend money to “any individual, partnership, or corporation” during “unusual or exigent circumstances.” The Fed used the emergency-lending provision to make a few modest loans during the Great Depression. The power then lay dormant until the 2008 financial crisis, when the central bank issued hundreds of billions of dollars in loans in an effort to rescue major financial institutions on the brink of collapse. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the Fed went even further, offering trillions of dollars in loans not just to big banks but to corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, and even city governments

    And:

    Perhaps even more alarming, control of the Fed would give the president a powerful weapon for punishing his enemies. The Fed is the central node of the U.S. financial system. Every major bank in the country holds a master checking account at the Fed, which they depend on to make and receive payments, manage their reserves, and access credit. The central bank, in turn, operates as the country’s main financial regulator: It determines whether banks are in compliance with existing laws on financial risk management and illicit transactions, for example, and has various ways to enforce that compliance, ultimately backed by the threat of cutting off access to the financial system altogether.

    The tools Trump has used so far to bend institutions to his will, such as withholding federal funding, are powerful, but they pale in comparison to the power of debanking.

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The downsides are basically unlimited. Skew energy markets to kill green energy, make the market look strong while hiding inflation data, scaring the world off the USD as a reserve currency.