Silence of the Lambs – Free Market or Flee the Market

  

Trump’s New CEO Donor-Sycophants at his Inauguration

Silence of the Lambs – Free Market or Flee the Market

We haven’t seen presidential incompetence like this for a century – the era where new tariffs fostered the Great Depression – or presidential corruption like our current grift-driven reality… ever! But with a GOP majority in the House almost always doing what the President orders, and the GOP Senate majority in pretty much the same mindset, the remaining branch of government, the “snail to the table” judiciary may be the only guardrail left against Trump’s autocratic incompetence. His on-again, off-again TACO tariffs and his Big Beautiful budget/tax bill – seemingly geared for a Cold War era of conflicts with an arrogant assumption that no amount of US deficit debt either will happen… or if it does… that it matters – are throbbing catastrophes that have just begun and are ramping up even greater economic destruction.

Whether you are a senior college administrator, particularly at major universities, a Fortune 500 CEO or a mainstream media maven, your relationship with the Trump administration is driven by FEAR. All roads lead to Donald Trump. CEOs used to scream like stuck pigs at economic policies they did not like. While a few brave souls tread lightly with debt analysis Trump just might not understand, for the most part there is a contribution-hurling, media controlling quivering mass of CEOs… most of whom are now corporate lambs. Silent lambs.

As currently configured, with no firm pushback yet from the US Supreme Court and clearly not Congress, Trump is the man in charge. Alone. By himself. Surrounded by the worst cabinet this nation has seen in centuries, perhaps ever. Notwithstanding that some of these “distractions” are truly serious issues, Donald Trump is the master of pushing outrageous behavior, that his MAGA constituency loves, as distractions to his two clear prioritized vectors: first, his immigration policy, which is being used as a convenient wedge to marginalize the Constitution itself – see my recent Expectations – Biting Off More than You Can Chew? blog, and second, the topic for today, Trump’s misdirected economic priorities, which benefit him, win or lose.

I’ve written a great deal about Trump’s misunderstanding of what tariffs really are, how they really work and how prioritized global tariffs, not in response to specific and limited tariffs imposed against us, have very little in the way of a likely positive outcome… and further, how threatening to use tariffs against specific US companies (Trump has already singled out Mattel and Apple) puts way too much power in the hands of one man… whose use of power is seldom for the benefit for most of us… usually just Trump individually and those rich cronies who bow down low to him.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, announced to the world business leaders are “begging to meet with this president and begging to come to the White House.” Do they want dispensation and exceptions to tariffs that could destroy their bottom lines or more direct government favoritism toward their corporations? As Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder is finding out as she seeks FCC and SEC approval, for her sale to David Ellison’s Skydance… facing a Trump lawsuit against Paramount subsidiary, CBS, for a purported distortion in that network’s minor 60 Minutes editing of a piece about Kamala Harris. A juicy settlement with Trump, all assume, would make the medicine go down smoothly… although Dems call that potential settlement with a direct payment to Trump, for a case that would most probably die in the courts, a bribe.

Trump has given the business world chronic and roiling instability. Business hates the uncertainty; CEOs cannot make serious business decisions without that certainty, most particularly in the supply chain reality of the 21st century. As Fareed Zacharia notes in this article for the June 8th Washington Post: “And what do business leaders say? Nothing. There are important exceptions: Ken Griffin, Larry Fink, Jamie Dimon and, of course, now Elon Musk.

“In the past, business leaders have routinely railed against higher taxes on businesses. Yet today, encountering a raft of new taxes in the form of tariffs, they have mostly stayed quiet. Many CEOs will not even dare mention that their prices will have to rise because of the new taxes on their imported goods. The new 50 percent tax on steel tariffs, for example, will benefit the steel industry. But studies have shown that for every job saved in that industry, there are 75 jobs endangered in industries that use imported steel in their products (such as cars and construction). Have you heard those CEOs complain? I have not.

“Consider the hypocrisy surrounding the budget bill. CEOs have long talked about the dangers of budget deficits. And yet, faced with a bill that will almost certainly result in $5 trillion added to the national debt over 10 years, most have taken a pass on objecting. (Officials at the Congressional Budget

“Business leaders must deal with America the way they used to deal with Third World dictatorships: Appease the supreme leader.

“Office estimate it adds ‘only’ $2.4 trillion to the debt because they have to work with the accounting gimmickry of the House Republicans, who deliberately end some tax cuts in year four so that they add less to the 10-year debt projections.) If you look at the numbers seriously, it is obvious that the only way to pare down the deficit is to make cuts in the largest programs such as Medicare and defense, and allow many of the Trump tax cuts of 2017 to expire. Instead, this bill does basically nothing to rein in Medicare spending, increases spending on defense and expands tax cuts substantially.” Continuing a tax cut for the richest in the land, at the expense of those at the bottom of the economic ladder, is fiscal insanity.

As we saw on June 1st, an assault of 117 Ukrainian drones took out about one-third of Russia’s missile-launching fleet of jet aircraft (which are no longer being manufactured, just upgraded) scattered across four airfields deep inside Russia. Each drone, costing hundreds of dollars, was devastating. The attack cost Russia an estimated 40 aircraft at an unofficial aggregate loss of over $7 billion. What’s the lesson for the American Department of Defense?

The asymmetrical warfare deployed by a lesser state against a militarily stronger state – one defined by pockets of clandestine rebel warriors, hit and run tactics, used successfully against French troops in Algeria and Vietnam and against US forces in Afghanistan and also Vietnam – is now replaced with very inexpensive land, sea and air drones capable of inflicting massive damage on sophisticated major power militaries. So, we’re building $15 billion aircraft carriers (built to last up to a century), requiring a further $100+ billion for the aircraft and support vessels… when an explosion of thousand-dollar drones just might take out the big boat itself.

And as for Medicare, we could bring down the cost of healthcare in this country, as other nations have discovered, with universal coverage. And this is no more “creeping socialism” than public schools. But big bucks talk, control, get what they want… until their dollars elect an autocrat who can ruin their lives with the stroke of a pen. And right now, when the GOP House is given Trump instructions, when major corporations are warned and when colleges and universities dare to challenge the Gospel According to Saint Trump, most are entwined in an intolerable slow judicial process with too many Trump appointees… and most jump amid the abject terror of opposing King Trump. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and even if this means my possible incarceration or loss of my law practice, I cannot mirror the fear of those overcompensated CEOs groveling at the feet of the greatest threat this nation has ever faced: autocratic rule by an utter incompetent.