Tea at Trianon: President Trump’s “Impossible” Economy

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 4, 2018

President Trump’s “Impossible” Economy

From Gingrich Productions:

Early in his presidency, when Donald Trump said U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) would exceed 3 percent growth, the supposed experts in the mainstream media claimed such growth would most likely be impossible. In fact, they claimed unemployment would have to reach zero percent and immigration would have to double to meet such a high growth rate (despite the fact that 3.22 percent has been the average GDP growth rate over the last 71 years).

Well, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce on Friday, “real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018.” It seems President Trump has once again achieved the impossible. As it turns out, despite refrains from the elites in the media and establishment, the self-made billionaire who now leads our country knows quite a bit about creating a healthy economy. As I explained Friday during a Facebook Live, his massive deregulation effort, his determination to cut taxes on individuals and businesses, and his plan to renegotiate our international trade agreements has started to pay dividends. (Read more.)

From Townhall:

Meanwhile, the economy keeps on ticking. On the heels of consecutive, excellent jobs reports and a very strong quarter of GDP growth, CNBC flags another hopeful sign of economic health. One of the metrics on which the US economy has lagged for years is wages. Democrats have been zeroing in on that issue in recent months, arguing that the tax reform law has failed to increase pay for the American workforce, in spite of robust hiring, growth, and the tax relief provided to families and businesses. (Read more.)

Obviously, Trump's enemies are not happy. From The New York Times:

It is an embattled cause these days. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has reverted to autocracy, and Poland and Hungary are moving in the same direction. With the rise of Donald Trump in the United States, where Soros is a major donor to Democratic candidates and progressive groups, and the growing strength of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe, Soros’s vision of liberal democracy is under threat in its longtime strongholds. Nationalism and tribalism are resurgent, barriers are being raised and borders reinforced and Soros is confronting the possibility that the goal to which he has devoted most of his wealth and the last chapter of his life will end in failure. Not only that: He also finds himself in the unsettling position of being the designated villain of this anti-globalization backlash, his Judaism and career in finance rendering him a made-to-order phantasm for reactionaries worldwide. “I’m standing for principles whether I win or lose,” Soros told me this spring. But, he went on, “unfortunately, I’m losing too much in too many places right now.” (Read more.)