TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart On June 17, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Approved by both houses of Congress, the bill’s intent was to lessen the harm caused by the Great Depression of 1929. Although America’s leading economists opposed the bill, an incompetent group of politicians ignored their warnings and sent it to President Hoover for his signature. Needless to say, it was a disaster. Not a single reputable economist has ever sanctioned the establishment of tariffs on imports as a constructive effort to grow the economy. What works are free trade agreements between various nations. [In his final weeks in office, Republican President George H. W. Bush signed the agreement on December 17, 1992. The House and Senate approved NAFTA less than a year later in a bipartisan fashion with Democrat President Bill Clinton signing the Implementation Act in December 1993.] Prior to Trump, a phrase likely to be used by historians when referring to the failures of th...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart When Trump was evicted from the White House on January 20, 2021, the economy of the United States was nearing a second Great Depression. You never heard this on the evening television news broadcasts. They would never make their leader look bad. His failure to lead our nation in the fight against Covid-19, combined with a fiscal policy of “trickle-down economics,” a policy which failed three previous Republican presidents, unemployment was rising, small businesses were nearing bankruptcy, and increasing uncertainty resulted in a nosedive on Wall Street. In 2025, Trump is dumb enough to continue the worst fiscal policy in American history, “trickle-down economics,” and has added an even more destructive policy, huge tariffs. The lengthy fight to create a free economy with our allies was flushed down the toilet. Tariffs never work, but Trump doesn’t care. Afflicted with malignant narcissism and a corrupt Supreme Court, he is mad with power. A lifelong schoolyard b...

There is no gentle or kind way to offer you the truth: our government is fucked up, and I’m afraid many of the problems are irreparable. Musk and Trump have no understanding about how the American economy functions. If we move right to the core of the problem, the one group to blame for the destruction of America is the mainstream media. The once respected Fourth Estate has failed its purpose. Every journalist appearing on the boob tube is a coward and a liar by omission. Not a single “news service” is doing the right thing, calling Musk and Trump what they are: Nazis. Their fascist agenda is contained in Project 2025. Trump lied, claiming that he knew nothing about it although every word, every idea, comes from his speeches at his infamous hate rallies. It is an undeniable fact that Trump nor Musk know absolutely nothing about economics at any level. Right-wing extremists exist because millions of American voters chose ignorance and believe their lies. For example: when the stock mark...