The short answer to that is possibly YES, but it will be painful and no one will thank him for it in this decade.

For starters, Trump is the only person on the political playing field this side of Ron and Rand Paul who is willing to be honest about the predicament the U.S. finds itself in – wrestling with a massive trade deficit & national debt – and openly candid about the county’s options.

Donald Trump declared the U.S. never has to default on debt “because you print the money,” while trying to clarify his strategy for managing the national debt.

Trump insisted that he never said the U.S. should default or attempt to renegotiate with creditors, as had been reported.  

“People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt, and I mean, these people are crazy. This is the United States government,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on New Day. “First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?” Read Full Article

Thus far, it has been virtually impossible to get any politician to admit that money printing is not only the main tool of the U.S., but of every major economy in attempting to stave off financial meltdown of the global debt based economic system.

Trump on Debt

“I understand debt better than probably anybody. I know how to deal with debt very well. I love debt… but you know, debt is tricky and it’s dangerous, and you have to be careful and you have to know what you’re doing.” 

When Trump talks about ‘Making America Great Again’ he often talks of tariffs and the fact that the manufacturing sector has been decimated, and how it cannot compete with leaner rising nations. To that end, if Trump wants to make America great again, he will have to redevelop the country’s manufacturing sector and be competitive; to compete with those countries like China, whose workforce leave their homes for months on end to work and sleep in dormitories for dollars a day whilst saving as much as they can.

It’s hard to see how a top heavy empire in decline can compete with younger and leaner civilizations in their ascendency without ripping away state benefits and forcing people back to work on a much reduced standard of living.

‘To make America great again, we need to recreate the free-market environment that made her great in the first place. It’s not just the oppressive direct taxes that must go. It’s all the regulations that have driven up the cost of doing business, and labor laws that make employing workers so expensive and risky that business does all it can to create as few jobs as possible.’  Peter Schiff 

More savings and less spending is exactly what we need if we want the capital to rebuild our industry. Protective tariffs alone will not work, especially when there is little industry left to protect… But instead of criticizing Trump for his misguided advocacy of tariffs as a panacea, we should at least give him credit for recognizing a serious problem that so many others ignore. The real criticism should be directed at those who would allow America to continue down this self-destructive path.     

Read Full Article

Niall Ferguson’s Civilization addresses the historical reasons for the rise of the West, and many of the issues currently facing modern America.

Many Americans believe that their Exceptionalism exempts them from the catalogue of lessons from history, and this may be their undoing, but equally, it may just also be their salvation.

Whether the decline of the U.S. empire continues and ends where all empires meet their fate, in war, or whether the people choose to turn away from the criminal culture of corporate welfare that has latched onto the dying sovereign host, and embrace change, toil and free market salvation of their dream, is yet to be seen. But I think everyone can agree that this election is providing a clear crossroads in terms of direction and ideology.

Ivan Penaluna