Why Monopolies Are Bad

"Late last week, a little-known Chinese artificial intelligence start-up called DeepSeek revealed that it had come up with more advanced Artificial Intelligence than America’s Big Tech companies, and at a tiny fraction of the cost — even without access to America’s advanced chip technology.

"To add insult to injury, DeepSeek has made its technology 'open source' — that is, available to everyone.

"The lesson here is that Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google became too big, fat, and musclebound to remain sufficiently innovative. Instead of out-of-the-box invention, they specialized in marginal improvements.

"By contrast, Chinese tech corporations compete fiercely with each other. This has put them on the cutting edge — and why China has been able to come up with startling innovations (not only in AI but in electric vehicles, batteries, even TikTok and much more).

"China’s secret sauce hasn’t been big subsidies from the Chinese government creating giant 'national champions.' It’s been intense competition."

Click on the link below for more:

American Capitalism just got a black eye

Biden Reminded Us What We Have Lost

"In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that 'an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.'

"It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the 'Great Compression,' for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.

"That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the 'Great Divergence.' Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.

"Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.

"But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic 'elite' that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign."

Click on the link below for :

A Summary of the History and Danger Ahead Regarding the USA

Tariffs, Populism, And Economic Nationalism

"Skeptoid's wheelhouse is science vs. pseudoscience, so some of you might be asking why are we talking about an issue of political policy? We're not. We're talking about a question rooted in science: economics. Economics is very much a science, though there's always debate on whether it's a hard science or a soft science. It's generally considered a soft science, because it studies human behavior and societal interactions, which are harder to quantify and control compared to, for example, chemistry. Some argue that economics should still be considered a hard science due to its heavy dependence on mathematics, including calculus, statistics, probability, game theory, differential equations, and so on. However, these remain difficult to apply; you can mathematically develop all the predictive theories you want, but they're really hard to test by observing human behavior. And so today we are going to look at some hard examples of economic nationalism having been tried in three famous recent cases. Was it a bounty for their economies, or a bust?"

Click on the link below for the details:

Economic Nationalism: Bounty or Bust?

Can Taxing The Rich Balance The Budget In The USA?

This question does have an answer if one is open-minded and is fact-based in thinking. Below are representative opinions. I have mine:

Progressive:

Why neoclassical economics has failed

Bipartisan:

Could tax increases alone close the long-run fiscal gap? Yes.

Taxing the rich could raise trillions but that alone won't fix our fiscal crisis

Conservative:

Biden’s Math of Just Taxing the Rich Doesn’t Add Up

The Limits of Taxing the Rich

Unconditional Cash Transfers: An Efficient Way To Help The Poor

"You’d probably guess that a major factor contributing to homelessness is a lack of money. Yet, very few programs provide unconditional and lump sum cash to unhoused individuals as a solution. There are a number of barriers that have impeded the broad implementation of this type of assistance, which include the lack of policymaker support and public mistrust in homeless people’s ability to manage money. Our guest this week found that direct cash transfers actually result in net societal savings over time. Jiaying Zhao is an associate professor, Canada research chair and a Sauder distinguished scholar at the University of British Columbia. She co-authored “Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness,” which was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Zhao, who has personally experienced housing insecurity in the past, joins WITHpod to discuss the cognitive taxes of poverty, rethinking the homogenous narrative about who homeless people are, the most surprising findings from the study, intended policy changes and more."

Click on this link for a classic episode of "Why Is This Happening: The Chris Hayes Podcast"

Economic Myths Debunked

Click on the link below for the 10 biggest myths about the economy presented by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton:

https://youtu.be/HZ3j4hHMO5E

The Democratic Party And Economic Inequality

Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, is one of the most prolific communicators of the truth about the source of economic inequality in the USA. Click on the links below for a 2-part in-depth expose of such, and how the Democratic Party has not been aggressive enough in challenging the lies of Republicans regarding who is responsible for it:

America's Four Stories (Part 1)

America's Four Stories (Part 2)

A summary:

"The Democrats’ weakest story has been the Rot at the Top. Democrats have been reluctant to condemn economic elites who have grown richer than ever and who have used their affluence to corrupt the political system.

"This should not be surprising. Since the 1980s, Democrats have been drinking at the same funding troughs as Republicans — big corporations, Wall Street, and wealthy individuals. And as the Supreme Court opened the spigots of big money into politics, those troughs have become far larger, for both parties."

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"Bernie Sanders told this story about the real Rot at the Top, but other leading Democrats have been reluctant to tell it.

"The Democrats’ failure to tell this story has enabled Republican cultural populism to fill the void, offering Americans who were growing distrustful of the system an explanation for what had gone wrong and a set of villains to blame — immigrants, '“coastal elites,' 'woke'ism, the 'deep state,' transgendered people, 'communists,' 'socialists,' the 'Left,' Critical Race Theory, 'cat ladies,' and other bogeymen.

"But none of these is the real explanation. The real explanation, the real Rot at the Top, has been a new record concentration of wealth and power at the top — enough to corrupt our system of self-government."

Eisenhower Was Right

"President Dwight David Eisenhower, perhaps the last real Republican, had a 90 percent tax rate for the super-rich during his administration.

"Eisenhower explained it this way: The super-rich could avoid the high taxes by investing their money in things that make America stronger. If they wanted to avoid high taxes, he said they could invest in business expansions and higher employee wages. They could give a million or two to tax-exempt non-profits that feed, house, and clothe poor people of America, among other things.

"They did some of that, but the Eisenhower years generated enough taxes to launch and complete the labyrinth of interstate highways, the largest road project America had ever seen and is needed again."

Eisenhower Proved That Higher Tax Rates Could Work

It's Not A New Story

The USA just experienced a brutal "assassination" of the CEO of a major healthcare insurance corporation and there is no lack of conflicting responses to such. Much of the comments from social media are making jokes, fueled by legitimate anger over corporate greed in this area of our economy. While I abhor such responses, I understand what is fueling it. 

Click on this link for an article by my favorite American historian, which places this event in the context of other events in US history that were also motivated by corporate greed.

Beware The Billionaires

"This is an ideology gaining in popularity amongst tech billionaires that the world is inevitably heading toward a collapse, and that instead of trying to prevent that collapse, we should rip off the band-aid as fast as possible to get to the better world on the other side. While there’s a cold logic to it, it’s a dangerous philosophy that ignores the incalculable human suffering that such a collapse would create."

Click on the link below for more about this real sub-terranean movement that is visible through Elon Musk and most of Trump's support:

Why Some Billionaires Are Actively Trying To Destroy The World

A Summary Of Trump's Disasterous Financial Plan

"The economy was a key issue for American voters. Trump has promised to make incomes 'soar' and make the cost of living 'come tumbling down.' But economists — like Financial Times global business columnist Rana Foroohar — aren't convinced. Foroohar says that Trump's plans for deregulation, tax cuts, and tariffs will likely bring an economic downturn. She joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the practicalities of the Trump agenda."

Click on the link below for what is ahead for the USA and the planet if Trump is true to his word:

What Will Trump's Economic Plan Mean For America's Wallets?

Leading Economists Strongly Prefer Harris' Economic Plan

"Twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in a joint letter released Wednesday. Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner joins Morning Joe to discuss the economic plans of both Trump and Harris."

Click on the link below for the details:

Trump’s mass deportation and trade war plans will tank the economy

Trump's Tax Plan Was Harmful, Don't Accept Any New One

"The verdict is in: Trump’s tax scam was trickle-down economics on steroids."

Click the link below for a video from Robert Reich exposing Trump's economics:

Trump’s Tax Scam: Why Nothing Trickled Down

Tariffs: What You Rely On If You Are Economically Ignorant

"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is elevating McKinley, representative from Ohio from 1877 to 1891 and president from 1897 to 1901, to justify his plan to impose new high tariffs.

"Trump’s call for tariffs is not an economic plan; it is a worldview. Trump claims that foreign countries pay tariff duties and thus putting new tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will bring enough foreign money into the country to fund things like childcare, end federal budget deficits, and pay for the tax cuts he wants to give to the wealthy and corporations.

"This is a deliberate lie. Tariffs are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid not by foreign countries but by American consumers. Economists warn that Trump’s tariff plan would cost a typical family an average of more than $2,600 a year, with poorer families hardest hit; spike inflation as high as 20%; result in 50,000 to 70,000 fewer jobs created each month; slow economic growth; and add about $5.8 trillion in deficits over ten years. It would tank an economy that under the Biden administration, which has used tariffs selectively to protect new industries and stop unfair trade practices, has boomed."

Click on this link for more.

The "Multiplier Effect" In The Economy

Many economists will admit that economics is the "Dismal Science." Why? Because there are unaccounted-for variables. That said, the Multiplier Effect is science, thus real. In other words, when you spend money on ANYTHING, that goes through the economy and becomes worth more than the original amount of money many times over, to the benefit of all. The Democrats/Progressives recognize this reality, but the conservatives/Republicans/MAGA don't. That is why it is wrong for wealth to pool at the top of society unspent when EVERYONE benefits more when the middle and lower classes get more money because they SPEND more of their wealth.

It Is Difficult To Determine Causation Regarding The Economy

Click on the links below for several articles about whether Trump or Biden was better for the economy. It is important to consider all influences. One cannot just look at their effects presently:

The Trump and Biden Economies by the Numbers

Biden versus Trump's Economies

Biden versus Trump's Economy, in Eight Charts

How The Economy Really Fared Under Biden/Harris And Trump

Is Economic Growth Always Good?

"A 10th basic tenet of our system is that economic growth is always good.

"This, too, is utter bunk. Unconstrained economic growth is causing such grave harm to the climate that its costs are likely to be greater than the gains.

"Mainstream economists don’t measure the costs of growth. They talk about climate change as a so-called “externality,” as if it were just incidental to growth.

"But if you consider the deaths and injuries caused by chemical pollution, wildfires, and more intense hurricanes and storms, the costs of growth are huge.

"It’s possible to shift from an economy organized around growth to one organized around sustainability. How? Dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels. Limit what can be mined and extracted."

"Treat the Earth the same way we treat any limited natural resource: We prevent overfishing by limiting the amounts of fish that can be taken out of the sea over a given period of time.

"We should also limit the amount of gunk that can be put into the air, limit how much plastic can be produced, how much of our coastlines can be developed, and how much land can be owned and developed.

"In other words, if we accept that the Earth is a finite resource, let’s also agree that infinite growth will destroy the Earth. It’s already on its way."

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/debunking-myth-10-economic-growth

Trump Only Helped The Elite In His First Term

 Click on the links below for a clear understanding of what you will get under another Trump administration. If you are not in the 1% and vote for MAGA, you are gaslighted and gullible:

100 Ways, in 100 Days, that Trump Has Hurt Americans

The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises

The middle class needs a tax cut: Trump didn’t give it to them 

Trump’s Economy: 7 Broken Promises to Working Americans

A look at Trump's economic legacy

How Trump and Congress further rigged the economy in favor of the wealthy

How Trump Took the Middle Class to the Cleaners

Don't Believe The Lies: Democrats Best Against Crime And For The Economy

US Crime Rates At Historic Lows

The FBI released its latest Uniform Crime Reporting survey last week that revealed a notable positive trend continuing across the US—with violent and property crimes dropping by double digits.

Compared to January through March 2023, data from the first quarter of 2024 indicates that reported violent crime decreased by 15.2 percent.

Murder decreased by more than 26 percent.

Rape is down by 25.7 percent.

Robbery dropped by 17.8 percent.

Aggravated assault reports decreased by 12.5 percent.

Property crime also decreased by just over 15 percent.

The report includes data from more than 18,000 city, county, state, tribal, university and college, and federal law enforcement agencies.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/us-crime-rate-drops-to-historic-lows-new-q1-stats-show/

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Surging crime levels, out-of-control Democratic cities and 'migrant crime.'

Former President Donald Trump regularly cites all three at his campaign rallies, in news releases and on Truth Social, often saying President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame.

But the crime picture Trump paints contrasts sharply with years of police and government data at both the local and national levels.

FBI statistics released this year suggested a steep drop in crime across the country last year. It's a similar story across major cities, with violent crime down year over year in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

NBC News analyzed crime data to evaluate Trump's assertions about the topic.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-claims-crime-rates-clash-police-data-rcna145353


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Democratic Administrations Have Economic Advantage Since 1949

Since 1949, there has been a Democratic advantage in the average performance of key macroeconomic indicators measuring economic health, including: 

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth
Job growth
Unemployment rate
Growth in inflation-adjusted wages
Growth of market-based incomes per capita
Inflation
Interest rates

This Democratic advantage is across the board in all variables we measure but strongest in private-sector outcomes—notably, business investment, job growth, and the growth of market-based incomes.

Household income growth (adjusted for inflation) was faster on average and far more equal during Democratic administrations, and the Democratic advantage shows up for every group.

https://www.epi.org/publication/econ-performance-pres-admin/

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Government CREATES The Free Market

"Between the 1930s and 1970s, America’s middle and lower-middle class offset the power of big corporations and the wealthy through labor unions, small businesses, small investors, and local political parties.

"Since then, though, all such centers of countervailing power have withered."

Click on this link for a debunking of the myth that the government gets in the way of the free market.