Tag: finance

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXII. – Support Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. – Save. YOUR. Own. Job, Home, Security.

~ tomdolen


*** “Trump lacks the emotional stability, knowledge, critical-thinking skills, and judgments to be commander-in-chief….More surprising than Trump’s lack of knowledge about geopolitics is his ignorance of economics, the field in which he was given a bachelor’s degree….The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself all the time….His entire life Trump has been a con artist.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]

Trump wants to control the U.S. Federal Reserve. ALL evidence, and many economic experts and historians say this would be a DISASTER – for YOU. Some evidence follows.

It is. IMPERATIVE that Jerome Powell remains on the Federal Reserve Board. – for YOUR sake. Please, plead,, beg, urge him to remain until his full term ends in January, 2028. Please contact him in a manner of yourchoosing:
mail: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitutional Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20551
email: use the Federal Reserve Board website
phone: 888-851-1920; 202-974-7008
TTY: 877-766-8533
Fax: 877-888-2520

Tell Mr. Powell “America needs you on thenFederal Reserve Board. Please stay for your full term. Thank you for your outstanding service to America.”

Consider the following so YOU know some of the circumstances. – what financial experts and historians are saying would be likely results if Donald John Trump controlled America’s central. They are NOT good. – for. YOU.

1] “But the larger, longer-term and probably irreversible danger would be an erosion of the United States as the financial center of the world, and the role of the U.S. dollar as the world’s undisputed reserve currency. In this regard, Trump and his minions seem oblivious to the havoc they could create. Either that, or these are the intended outcomes, which is more cynical and more malevolent than I even give these people credit for.” [ Edward Lotterman; “This is how the Fed ends, with a whimper”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 1/18/26 ]

2] “Powell defends the Fed – and the nation”. [ John Rash; Minnesota Star Tribune; 1/17/26 ]:
A] “..scores of former Fed chairs, Treasury secretaries, leaders of international institutions and even a few Republican senators, sensing an attack not just on Powell but on Fed independence. lent their voices..”..an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine {the Fed’s} independence,”..”
B] “History is replete with ruinous political interference in central bank matters. Most infamously in interwar Germany, whose hyperinflation gave rise to radicalization [and Hitler]…as well as Turkey, Argentina and Venezuela in the postwar era..”
C] “This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is the foundation of our economic success.”

3] “What a Trump-Controlled Fed could Do to the Economy”. [ Jeff Sommer; New York Times ]
1] “Veering sharply downward from an appropriate interest rate would probably affect the economy in stages, Mr. Duy told me.” “The impact on inflation might not show up for 10 to 12 quarters,’ or up to three years,,”..”
2]. “Then here are broader repercussions. I’d expect a loss of public confidence in the Fed. And if the institution were no longer functioning independently, it could lose some of its capacity for quick, deft responses to emergencies.”
3]. “A political Fed might not be able to safeguard the value of the dollar, which is the linchpin for the entire global financial system. Investors around the world would be less likely to keep their money in U.s. assets. That would weaken the U.s. economy and hurt people in the United States..”
4] “U.S. consumers would have to live in an environment in which higher inflation – and periodic efforts to tame it. – became the norm…..”living standards would drop..”

4]. “In 1st year of his second term, Trump leaves economic stamp” [ Ben Casselman; New York Times; 1/22/26 ]:
1] “..economists from across the ideological spectrum warn that Trump is setting the country on a path that will, in the long run, leave the economy less dynamic, the financial system less stable and Americans less prosperous in the decades ahead. “We’re weakening the special sauce that made America so great,”…..”
2] “..Trump has begun his second term with what amounts to an all-out assault on many of the institutions and policy paradigms that have long been seen by leaders of both major parties as the foundations of American economic strength.”
3] “..many economists..are much more worried about Trump’s efforts to undermine the Fed’s independence, which, if successful, could make it harder for the central bank to rein in inflation – or, in a potentially even more damaging scenario, cause investors to lose faith in the value of government-issued bonds or the dollar……They are worried about yawning budget deficits…..They are worried that by defunding universities and revoking student visas, the Trump administration will make the U.S. a less attractive place to do scientific research. And they are worried that by using his powers to attack his enemies and reward his friends, Trump will erode the system of rules and laws that for decades has made the U.s, the safest place for investors to bet their money and for entrepreneurs to build their businesses.”

*** “The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself..” [ David Cay Johnston ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXXIX – Trumpian Economic Policies Make Depression More Likely

~ tomdolen


*** “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by the facts.”
[ historian. Barbara Tuchman ]

Watch YOUR wallet, YOUR job, YOUR home, America’s financial stability.

First: read two articles: Thom Hartmann’s “The Coming Republican Depression: How the GOP Turned. America Into a Powder Keg, and Is About to Light the Match” [The Progressive Populist, September, 2025], and Colby Smith and Stacy Cowley’s “Critics see risk in Fed cuts to oversight” [ New York Times, November 19, 2025].

Second; Pray. And hope patriotic American officials will overcome Trumpian stupidity and corruption.

Consider these excerpts from Thom Hartmann’s “The Coming Republican Depression:
1]. “Republicans may be fixing to crash the economy again – Republican presidents oversaw 10 of the last 11 recessions and the Republican Great Depression – and they’re doing it to satisfy the greed of the billionaires they serve…..in 1929, Republican deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, financial speculation, and an all-out assault on labor exploded into the Republican Great Depression. Today, every one of the fuse lines that set off those explosions is once again being laid by a Republican president and Party…They are actively destabilizing the pillars of our economy, undermining our democracy, and gutting the social contract that has held us together for nearly a century.”

2]. “We are now living under a Republican president whose party has:
– Repeatedly held the full faith and credit of the United States in debt ceiling standoffs designed to force cruel cuts to programs that serve ordinary people;
– Demanded the Fed lower interest rates in a way that could push the nation into an inflationary spiral even as wages stagnate and housing becomes unaffordable for the bottom 90%;
– Pushed for an end of regulations on banks, fossil fuel companies, tech monopolies, and Wall street speculators, even as their recklessness increases systematic risk;
– Championed massive tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations, ballooning the deficit while cutting benefits and raising taxes on working people;
– Enabled trade wars and supply chain disruptions while cutting support for green manufacturing and public investment
– Promoted and made billions from crypto;
– And perhaps most grotesquely, embraced an open authoritarianism and white nationalism, eroding the rule of law and the very stability on which economic confidence depends.
Every one of these moves destabilizes the foundation of modern prosperity. And every one of them echoes the warning signs of past collapses.”

*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” [ Justice Louis Brandeis ]

Consider these excerpts from Smith and Cowley’s. “Critics see risk in Fed cuts…”:

1] “..a list of directives for Fed examiners and supervisory staff across the country that significantly curtailed how closely they scrutinized lenders. It followed a host of changes made by Michelle W. Bowman [Trump appointee]..”
2] “current and former policy-makers and legal experts were already worried hat those changes would encourage exactly the kind of risk-taking that could sow the seeds for the next crisis….hat supervisors will be less equipped to spot such a crisis in advance, risking deeper damage to the economy.”
3]. “The memo also outlined changes that sought to limit the oversight power of two groups created by the Fed’s board after the 2008 financial crisis.” [stupidity, ideology, corruption?????]
4] “The Fed is not the only financial regulator undergoing upheaval to align with the Trump administration’s vision. The president wants more sway over how the central bank and other independent institutions, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, oversee Wall Street.” [dictators do NOT want anybody to have ANY independence – their “vision’ is control]
5] “Another regulator, thre Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…has already been gutted.” [their ‘crime”? – they forced banks and other lenders to give back $20 billion to people like YOU!!! – we can’t have that!!!]

*** “The more lies are told, the more important it becomes for the liars to justify themselves by deep moral commitments to high-sounding objectives that mask the pursuit of money and power.” [ Bertram Gross ]

[NOTE: ask YOURSELF; Why do we have financial regulations? is it because we “hate banks and bankers”? is it because we’re jealous of rich people? Perhaps it’s because the world track record since at least the 1700s has DOCUMENTED the proclivity of “financial wizards,’ Wall Street, the banking industry of multiple countries, to take risks that blow up – and lead to destructive financial crises – of which 1929-41 is only the most documented for causes, suffering, results [like World War II].]

*** “Being ignorant is not so much Shame, as being unwilling to learn.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXII – Privatizing YOUR Government

~ tomdolen

*** “For one person alone to have the Government of a people in his hands, would be too great a Temptation. It tends to excite and draw forth Pride of man, to make him unsufferably haughty; it gives him too much liberty to exert his corruptions and it encourages him to become a Tyrant and an oppressor, to dispense with Laws and break the most solemn oaths.” [ John Barnard, 1746 ]

This post is built around Cullen Murphy’s “Feudalism Is Our Future,” The Atlantic; July, 2025. Read it VERY carefully. Among other crimes against America, the Trump DICTATORSHIP is working to dismantle YOUR government – to split off government functions and give them to private companies to do for profit. PRIVATIZATION, along with. DEREGULATION, have been two major Republican goals since at least 1981. This will mean less transparency, less accountability, less concern for YOUR civil rights. Feudalism was ended to give ordinary people – like YOU – more rights, income, respect. WHY should you be surprised that the Trump DICTATORSHIP would want to bring it back?

*** “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.” [ John C. Calhoun ]

6] “As the pace of privatization picked up in the 21st century, the idea of “neo-feudalism” began to interest scholars and theorists….Most of the scholars are profoundly wary: They foresee an erosion of transparency, a disregard for individual rights, and a concentration of power among an ever smaller group of wealthy barons, even as the bulk of the population is relegated to service jobs that amount to a modern form of serfdom.” [read & think on this again]

11]. “Oversight more broadly – of the environment, food, drugs, finance – has been drifting for decades into the hands of those being overseen. In their 2021 book, The Privatization of Everything, Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian documented the loss of public control over water, roads, welfare, parks, and much else. The deliberate dismantling of government in America in recent months, and its replacement with something built on privatized power and networks of personal allegiance, accelerates what was long under way.” [read & THINK on this again, and again…]

*** “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of every good government.” [ Thomas Jefferson ]

1] “the Trump administration are beguiled by imperial Rome. They see themselves as interpreters of its lessons – beware immigration; uphold masculinity; make babies – and inheritors of its majesty.



2]. “More and more public functions are now likely to be outsourced. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has bveen pushing for years to privatize health care for veterans…Mehmet Oz, has argued for privatizing Medicare – a program he now oversees. The administration has shown interest in taking apart the National Weather Service and spinning off some of its functions. It is looking into fully privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which underpin the nation’s mortgage industry.”

3]. “The president has floated the idea of privatizing the United States Postal Service. On his first day in office, he issued an executive order allowing the Justice Department to again send inmates to prisons run by private companies…He has promised to deport millions of undocumented people, and elements of that effort are being privatized. Politico reported this spring that investors led by Erik Prince….had sent a proposal to the White House arguing for the creation of a private military entity to set up “processing camps” and conduct roundups, possibly with the help of private citizens deputized to make arrests. The administration…did award a $151 million contract to the charter company CSI Aviation to operate deportation flights – an opportunity “too valuable not to pursue,” according to an executive of one of CSI’s subcarriers.”

4]. “In the 1980s and ’90s, privatization started gaining traction again….Anti-government sentiment created opportunities, and entrepreneurs seized them. Privatization was also pushed by policy makers who saw outsourcing as inherently more efficient….”

5] “..even before Trump took office a second time, there were roughly twice as many people employed by private contractors to do the federal government’s business as there were federal employees.” {!!!!! read this again !!!!! twice as many people ‘privatized” doing “government” work for private companies as real federal government employees. How many of the private company workers were targeted by the. DOGE BIG. FRAUD. to be eliminated???????]

*** “I think every nation has a right to establish that form of government under which it conceives it shall live most happy, provided it infracts no right or is not dangerous to others.” [ George Washington. ]

7] “Holding a monopoly of the money supply was once a hallmark of public power. In the span of a decade, private cryptocurrencies have undermined that control while at the same time enabling a wide range of illicit activities…In the U.S., Trump and his family are heavily involved in the crypto business. in April, the president announced that he would invite the top 220 investors in his $TRUMP meme coin to a private dinner; the value of the meme coin rose within hours by 60 percent..”

8]. “A monopoly on the legitimate use of force – replacing the knights and pikemen of sundry vassals with professional standing armies – was another traditional hallmark of public power….Globe-spanning private military companies such as the Wagner Group and Triple Canopy recall the roving mercenary Landsknechte of yore….From 2007 to 2012, the U.S. alone spent $160 billion on private security contractors. Growing up alongside them – an industry even larger in size – are the private intelligence-gathering companies, such as Palantir, on which the U.S. spends a significant portion of its intelligence budget.”

9] “In the U.S., anyone with money and a need now hires private security guards, who outnumber police officers by a ratio of 2 to l. Among companies based in the U.S., the third-largest global employer – After Amazon and Walmart – is a private security firm, Allied Universal.”

10]. “Privatization has also upended the law. One example:….the growing use of compulsory arbitration, written by corporations into private contracts, as a way of settling consumer and employment disputes. The public court system is clogged. Arbitration – the “outsourcing of jurisprudence,”…- creates a parallel private system, one in which efficiency may be more highly valued than public oversight or due process.” [note – check the winners & losers under corporate forced arbitration procedures. who do YOU think the “judge’ is gonna be !!!!!!!!! ]

12]. “In 2008, desperate for cash, Chicago privatized its parking meters, selling off the rights to all the revenue for 75 years to a group of investors led by Morgan Stanley. A “true-up” provision requires the city to compensate investors for lost revenue when meters are taken out of service……………..The rights to operate toll highways have been sold off by some jurisdictions to private companies, including foreign ones. The fine print in the contracts often prevents improvements to adjacent roads on the grounds that such enhancements would create undue competition. Private prisons generally put a quota clause into their agreements. States and municipalities may be hoping….to reduce their prison populations, but the beds in private prisons must be filled regardless.” [read all this again – THIS – is “privatization”. in action. how much of this waste did DOGE end????????????]

13]. “Control and accountability are the bedrock……. in a privatized world, government becomes “diffuse, unstable, unpredictable.” and the skein of responsibility more and more attenuated. contractors hire subcontractors, who hire subcontractors of their own.”

*** “The end of all good government is to cultivate humanity, and to promote then happiness of all, and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, etc., without injury or abuse done to any.” [John Wise]