Trump is Increasingly Nationalizing the U.S. Economy - Gee, What Could Go Wrong!?
Should U.S. taxpayers be putting their faith in Trump’s hands?
Trump is continuing to seize power over the U.S. economy, more reminiscent of state-managed capitalism under authoritarian regimes, than a free market system. Even with these autocratic steps which are antithetical to what once was orthodoxy of the Republican Party, they are silent.
We’ll review three recent steps Trump has taken to nationalize our economy, and why these steps, given his track record are so dangerous and problematic.
We have already covered Trump’s unilaterally imposed trade war, the most significant escalation of tariff use since the 1930s. Trump’s haphazard rollout has already led to mass confusion, including global postal services suspending deliveries to the U.S. this week. His invoking of a national emergency to enact his trade war is also facing major court challenges. And so on. It’s a mess!
But as has always been his pattern, when Trump gets away with one thing, he pushes the boundary still further. He has now taken three additional steps to consolidate power over the U.S. economy, putting unbridled power in the hands of one man. And that one man has a quite checkered past and present with business success! To say the least. Let’s review.
1) Trump Fires the Head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics
In Week 39, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over a report showing the impacts of his first months in office, and replaced her with an inexperienced loyalist. The BLS is - well, was - a world renowned data operation, thought of as the gold standard.
Already, Bloomberg News reports Wall Street is becoming less reliant on government data after Trump’s partisan firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and will instead increase use of private data services such as Challenger, Gray & Christmas and ADP Research. An autocrat gets his way, but undermines faith in data and the economy.
2) Trump Reshapes the Federal Reserve
From the start of the second regime, Trump has been openly bullying and castigating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who he appointed during the first regime. The aim has clearly been to force Powell out, but to his credit, since Week 1, Powell has said he ain’t going nowhere, and Trump cannot fire him.
The workaround has been to intimidate others at the Fed, in an effort to seize control in a coup of sorts of this independent agency. In Week 39, Adriana Kugler threw in the towel and said she would resign. Now, Trump is targeting Lisa Cook, another Biden nominee.
Why does this matter?