***. Adam Smith: Progress depends on society being “well governed.” The optimal locus of the “government” is individual ethics. An ethical person is just; plays by the rules; makes others feel secure. But in a society of less than angels, society requires an efficient, effective institutional government to police the behavior of those few who would not otherwise play by the rules. [ Ryan Patrick Hanley, editor: “Adam Smith” ]
This post presents excerpts from “When Future Historians Write About the Fall of American Economic Power, Will Trump Be the Turning Point?” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; March, 2026 ]:
8] “..twice in the past 12 months the value of the dollar has taken a huge hit, in both cases because the world freaked out at Trump’s insanity and started to sell dollars.”
9] “..he went to Davos and blithered through a semi-coherent speech that left international leaders wondering about his sanity, his judgment, and his reliability…the judgment and reliability of the United States itself. Trump’s own economic illiteracy and impulse-driven policies…have damaged the value of our currency and may have put the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency at risk.”
***. “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
[ Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. ]
2]. “For more than a hundred years, the United States has been the cornerstone of international economic stability. The independence of our central bank [the “Fed”] has been a part of it, as has the strength of the dollar…And now Trump and the GOP are threatening it all. Trump has added $2 trillion to our national debt in the past 12 months, and he’s on course to do it again [or worse] this year.”
11] “The big impact..could come if international investors and other countries conclude it’s unlikely that the US will be able to repay our debts. Ever since the Bush Crash of 2008 revealed how deregulation had corrupted our banking system, foreign investors holdings of US debt have steadily declined.”
*** “The American people are a very generous people ans will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.” [ Will Rogers ]
1] “America’s economic system has never been fair or perfect, but for more than a century it rested on basic guardrails that kept instability in check and allowed us to fight for progress and win. Those guardrails are now being stripped away by policies that favor wealth and power over accountability and long-term stability.”
*** “Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy.” [ Jorge L. Borges ]
3] “When Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981, our national debt was less than one trillion dollars, because every president from FDR to Truman to Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon to Ford to Carter had worked to pay down the roughly 140% of GDP debt we ran up fighting World War II.”
4] “Across those same presidencies, America had also built a broad and strong safety net for its citizens, primarily through the New Deal and Great Society programs. And Republicans hated it all, particularly because it’d been paid for with a 74% to 91% income tax on billionaires and a 50% income tax on corporate profits.”
5] “..over the course of the Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts and two illegal wars, four Republican presidents managed to add more than $37 trillion to our national debt.”
***. “I need to pay higher taxes. I’ve paid, in absolute, more taxes over ten billion [dollars], than anyone else, but, you know, the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes.” [ Bill Gates ]
6] “The grimmest consequence of this is that we’re spending. $1.2 trillion every year on interest payments on our national debt. That’s money that could otherwise have gone to create a national healthcare system, provide free college education, or help people buy their first homes. but, instead, is going to payments to wealthy investors here and abroad who hold US Treasuries.”
7] “Up until recently, we were able to pull this off because the US Dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for the better part of a century….here’s a huge worldwide demand for our currency….that, in turn, is essentially a subsidy for Americans of all stripes: lower mortgage rates, lower car loan rates, easier credit, and US-based companies can more easily finance growth and new product development.”
***. “No society can..be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of..members are poor and miserable..It is but equity..that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have..and share of the produce of their own labor as to themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.” [ Adam Smith ]
10. “As the dollar drops in value, that’s ultimately reflected in everything imported becoming more expensive [which drives inflation],..”
12]. “Trump’s willy-nilly tariffs, often used to extort other nations into giving his family a new hotel or golf course, his constant lies on the international stage about everything from renewable energy to our “right” to invade a foreign country and capture its leader, to his killing fishermen off the coast of Venezuela and his current threats against Iran, all argue against trusting us.”
13]. “Trump’s already destroyed our soft power by gutting USAID, ruined our relationships with our allies by embracing Vladimir Putin and trash-talking NATO and the EU, and now is shaking confidence in our remaining democratic allies by imposing police-state tactics on Blue cities.”
***. “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all…The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affections, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”
[ George Washington ]
14] “The BRICS. [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] countries are on the move, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE having recently joined in an agreement to use their alternative currencies instead of dollars.”
15]. “India and the UAE are now trading in rupees and the dirham, and China is using yuan to buy natural gas from the UAE. China has almost entirely abandoned trhe dollar for their trade with Russia, the UAE, and Iran. Like South Africa, Brazil has increasingly been using the real and the yuan to settle bilateral trade with China, bypassing the US dollar.”
*** “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.” [George Marshall; U.S. Secretary of State, on the Marshall Plan]
{NOTE: On this critique of Trump’s economic policies – AGAIN, to be fair – ask YOURSELF does his policy satisfy the Founders” TEST: does it ‘..promote the general Welfare..”????? Will America be better off from Trump’s rhetoric and actions????? Do Trump policies contain the wisdom of the “Marshall plan”??? The wisdom of several presidents before him in reducing the national debt????? Are YOU and YOUR children and YOUR grandchildren going to be better off because of Trump policies????? Expert, world-wide, fact-based economic analysis says YOU, America, will NOT be more prosperous and fair because of Trump’s STUPIDITY and INCOMPETENCE.]
With Justice For All 