right side
‘Roaring economy,’ Trump policies, Bredesen senate bid examined
Unemployment drops. The dollar rises. The ruble collapses, as does the Russian stock market. Same in China. The yuan declines and the Shanghai index is down 20 percent since the first of the year, putting Chinese stocks in or near bear market territory.
Last week, the American president smacked Recep Erdogan, president of Turkey, with sanctions and tariffs after Erdogan played to his Islamist base by refusing to release an American pastor on trumped-up espionage charges. The Turkish lira imploded, interest rates rose to more than 20 percent and Turkey’s stock market accelerated a decline that has cut market capitalization in half over the past year.
America! Forgive my momentary jingoism but money talks and right now, at this moment, the U.S. economy is roaring and the world knows it. Hence, global funds are flowing into assets denominated in U.S. dollars. Is it sustainable? Who knows. But it is real-time reality.
President Donald J. Trump came to office promising to make America great again and for his avid acolytes that is exactly what he is doing. His methods of bullying from his bully pulpit are causing conniptions in foreign capitals as evidenced by the flow of foreign capital.
Never-Trumpers and Trump skeptics (like me) warned Trump’s brusque trade tantrums and blustery foreign policy endangered the post-war world order and thousands of American jobs. Clearly, tariffs are terrible. But we globalists must not delude ourselves: Trump’s sanctions – aided and abetted by GOP majorities in Congress – weaken China and rattle bad actors in Moscow, Ankara and even Tehran.
Trump acts from a position of strength. Our economy roars. Black unemployment is the lowest in history. Employment for lesser-educated Americans is the highest on record. Republican tax reform helps. Deregulation pays benefits.
Things are so good the New York Times noticed. “By nearly every standard measure, the American economy is doing well,” the Times grudgingly wrote, then explained, “following the upward trajectory begun under President Barack Obama.”
But the economic vibe is different. Obama was a community organizer who saw certain capitalists as enemies and simply sources for redistribution schemes. Then came Trump with a business-friendly Republican Congress. Success was not vilified. Job creators were celebrated. Consumer confidence rose. Business confidence rose. Animal spirits were unleashed. The economy roared.
Which brings me to Tennessee.
It is official: former Gov. Phil Bedesen will represent the Democrats in November for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Bob Corker. Rep. Marsha Blackburn carries the GOP standard. Polling shows it close.
Bredesen touts his fiscal pragmatism. He highlights his business-friendly mien. He talks conservative and rightly claims credit for some great things accomplished while chief executive of the state of Tennessee.
As your humble columnist has said before and will say again and again between now and November, absolutely none of that matters. Bredesen touts his executive credentials but he is “applying for the job” of United States senator.
If elected, he would be a 70-something freshman senator with no seniority, no national platform, no power in a Democratic caucus controlled by Sen. Chuck Schumer and influenced by far-left ideologues like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Bredesen is a good man, but his election could tip the balance of the Senate, empower enemies of capitalism and cage the animal spirits that create jobs and send the dollar and our economy soaring.
Greg Johnson writes from the Right, with a world view rooted in Appalachia, informed by international travel and inspired by a career in capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @jgregjohnson. Visit his Greg Johnson Opinions Page on Facebook. E-mail him at jgregjohnson@hotmail.com.
