Are you better off today, than you were 4 years ago when Trump was POTUS?

hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
lemondroptrichomes said:
Depends on who you ask. It seems people in the 30-70k income bracket are really struggling.

credit card debt and delinquencies are at extreme highs and the cost of insurance, energy, and food has increased on average between 10-30%


March-April-May of 2020 I made substantial contributions into both individual equities and several index funds. I’ve more than doubled my portfolio since then and have been dollar cost averaging long before COVID. I bought property when rates were sub 3% then another in 2022 when rates started ticking up. Years before in 2016 a few weeks before the election I moved my entire retirement port into one banks stock that was at $60 a share late october and nearly doubled just a few months into Trumps presidency. I rebalanced but looking back I wish I hadn’t as now they’re triple. 2022 I made a few mistakes as it was an anomaly in that both equities and fixed income had negative returns (fed rate hikes and a few major factors contributed to this) but I don’t sell so I’ve recovered and some since. I say all this not to boast more to encourage everyone to participate in the market and real estate investment no matter what headlines tell you.

I wish stimulus checks had never happened - especially the 2021 “American Rescue Plan” as printing all that money came back to harm a lot of lower-middle income households. Most financially stable households just put them in to savings, and because of inflation if they didn’t invest it in some way those “free” dollars are worth even less. It also incentivized many to continue to stay out of the workforce (federal unemployment benefit extension) long after enough data was available to see only certain segments of the population were truly at risk of COVID causing severe illness. Continuing to isolate people - especially children may have longstanding effects on society as a whole.

This section of the forum throws me off a bit, yet draws me in to read because it’s eye opening to see other growers so emotionally invested in things going one way or another. I do not share the same concern for either candidate holding office, and have more concern with foreign actors harming our nation and economy. I also think truly combating fentanyl and every hand (cartel or country) that is part of its distribution should be prioritized more than anything
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I have to disagree strongly about the stimulus checks (and your pandemic take) in 2021, a lot of families were struggling with the impacts of the pandemic and severe economic recession in 2020 benefitted greatly from it. To the point that it cut child poverty by over half in our country. And that money that those people making under $75k a year went mostly into their communities that were all feeling the impact of and were a huge reason why local areas were able to make it out relatively healthy.

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It would have been nice if the Democrats would not have had to once again fix a broken Republican economy. But that is what they do, they break it and troll us as saying it is the Democrats fault as they deal with having to clean their mess over the next handful of years to try to trick people into thinking it was their fault when the impacts were being felt.

The stimulus package that I would point to as being inflationary was the gargantuan grift that was passed in 2020 by Trump. The one that cut out local and states funding, which caused Biden to have to pass the one in 2021 to shore up all those jobs that would have been lost if we didn't plug a lot of the holes left in our economy thanks to Trump's half asses attempt as well as failing to help the regular working Americans who were struggling prior to Biden's vaccination rollout taking effect that stabilized our hospitals after a year of hell and finally getting people back to work safely.

https://apnews.com/article/pandemic-fraud-waste-billions-small-business-labor
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Fraudsters used the Social Security numbers of dead people and federal prisoners to get unemployment checks. Cheaters collected those benefits in multiple states. And federal loan applicants weren’t cross-checked against a Treasury Department database that would have raised red flags about sketchy borrowers.

Criminals and gangs grabbed the money. But so did a U.S. soldier in Georgia, the pastors of a defunct church in Texas, a former state lawmaker in Missouri and a roofing contractor in Montana.

All of it led to the greatest grift in U.S. history, with thieves plundering billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid intended to combat the worst pandemic in a century and to stabilize an economy in free fall.

An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.

That number is certain to grow as investigators dig deeper into thousands of potential schemes.

How could so much be stolen? Investigators and outside experts say the government, in seeking to quickly spend trillions in relief aid, conducted too little oversight during the pandemic’s early stages and instituted too few restrictions on applicants. In short, they say, the grift was just way too easy.

“Here was this sort of endless pot of money that anyone could access,” said Dan Fruchter, chief of the fraud and white-collar crime unit at the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Washington. “Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal.”

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Most of the looted money was swiped from three large pandemic-relief initiatives launched during the Trump administration and inherited by President Joe Biden. Those programs were designed to help small businesses and unemployed workers survive the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.

The pilfering was wide but not always as deep as the eye-catching headlines about cases involving many millions of dollars. But all of the theft, big and small, illustrates an epidemic of scams and swindles at a time America was grappling with overrun hospitals, school closures and shuttered businesses. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, more than 1.13 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michael Horowitz, the U.S. Justice Department inspector general who chairs the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told Congress the fraud is “clearly in the tens of billions of dollars” and may eventually exceed $100 billion.

Horowitz told the AP he was sticking with that estimate, but won’t be certain about the number until he gets more solid data.

“I’m hesitant to get too far out on how much it is,” he said. “But clearly it’s substantial and the final accounting is still at least a couple of years away.”

Mike Galdo, the U.S. Justice Department’s acting director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement, said, “It is an unprecedented amount of fraud.”

Before leaving office, former President Donald Trump approved emergency aid measures totaling $3.2 trillion, according to figures from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan authorized the spending of another $1.9 trillion. About a fifth of the $5.2 trillion has yet to be paid out, according to the committee’s most recent accounting.

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An IRS spokesman said the agency does not agree with all the figures cited by the watchdog and noted that, even if correct, the loss represented a tiny fraction of the program’s budget.

The health crisis thrust the Small Business Administration, an agency that typically gets little attention, into an unprecedented role. In the seven decades before the pandemic struck, for example, the SBA had doled out $67 billion in disaster loans.

When the pandemic struck, the agency was assigned to manage two massive relief efforts — the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs, which would swell to more than a trillion dollars. SBA’s workforce had to get money out the door, fast, to help struggling businesses and their employees. COVID-19 pushed SBA’s pace from a walk to an Olympic sprint. Between March 2020 and the end of July 2020, the agency granted 3.2 million COVID-19 economic injury disaster loans totaling $169 billion, according to an SBA inspector general’s report, while at the same time implementing the huge new Paycheck Protection Program.

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cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
DoubleAtotheRON said:
The Elite’s toilet.
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Look at the bright side. Spiders can jump on water. Just one well-placed hop and we can give the elite a bite right on their collective nutsack that they’ll remember for decades.

If we shoot these rapids without the GOP executing their coup, the whole ugly thing will have been documented six ways from Sunday. It will come apart, and the pendulum will swing the other way. The minority faction will never again have a shot at a carefully-laid plan that took decades to execute, and this travesty of a Scotus will be replaced by a proper one.

If.
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
Look at the bright side. Spiders can jump on water. Just one well-placed hop and we can give the elite a bite right on their collective nutsack that they’ll remember for decades.

If we shoot these rapids without the GOP executing their coup, the whole ugly thing will have been documented six ways from Sunday. It will come apart, and the pendulum will swing the other way. The minority faction will never again have a shot at a carefully-laid plan that took decades to execute, and this travesty of a Scotus will be replaced by a proper one.

If.
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I hope you're right. ... What are your thoughts on last nights SOTU address?
 
hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
4 years ago Today Trump declares the Covid pandemic a national emergency.



Mayor Pete is heads and shoulders better than the right wing propagandist windbags on TV. It is fun watching him roll over them time and again as they try like hell to keep their cult pissing themselves in fear.

 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
hanimmal said:
4 years ago today.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/17/coronavirus-latest-news/?tidr=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage/breaking-news-bar
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https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/stock-market-today-live.html
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stocks-down-coronavirus-dow-below-20000-first-time-in-three-years-2020-03-18/
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I was convinced the Dow drop was the start of a much-needed correction. Now look where we are! Neoliberal policies have decoupled the stock market (and the “haves” who own securities) from the general economy.

Tax the rich already!
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
I was convinced the Dow drop was the start of a much-needed correction. Now look where we are! Neoliberal policies have decoupled the stock market (and the “haves” who own securities) from the general economy.

Tax the rich already!
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It's beyond me what is propping up this economy, the Dow, S&P, etc. Auto sector is down, Pharma is just kinda meh... gimping along, Oil is stagnant, we've sent hundreds of Billions of dollars to UKR, Israeli's, left the Southern border wide open so much that Tyson is firing their high pay jobs and searching and hiring immigrants to work for less.. blah, blah, blah. Im not against taxing the rich, but when they have less taxes to pay, thier stock is worth more in thier earnings statement, which if you are an investor, your EPS is more, as well as dividends. IDK.. it's all fucked up.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
DoubleAtotheRON said:
It's beyond me what is propping up this economy, the Dow, S&P, etc. Auto sector is down, Pharma is just kinda meh... gimping along, Oil is stagnant, we've sent hundreds of Billions of dollars to UKR, Israeli's, left the Southern border wide open so much that Tyson is firing their high pay jobs and searching and hiring immigrants to work for less.. blah, blah, blah. Im not against taxing the rich, but when they have less taxes to pay, thier stock is worth more in thier earnings statement, which if you are an investor, your EPS is more, as well as dividends. IDK.. it's all fucked up.
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We need to send a lot more to Ukraine like yesterday. Dissing aid to a nation whose security we GUARANTEED in exchange for their surrender of nuclear weapon systems is pure betrayal. That God-squad Speaker needs to step out of the (word) way and let US honor its obligations.

The border thing is (that man)ed-up propaganda. The Biden administration has done much to deal with border issues. The Senate even advanced a bill with the toughest border law since Ramesses II.

But the overthrow caucus obeyed their sociopath-in-chief and scuttled a bill that gave them that for which they were asking.

So those (motherword!) fascists can go pound sand.

Disinformation is everywhere, and any negative sentiment about Ukraine is bought&paid for by Putin’s trolls.
 
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hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
DoubleAtotheRON said:
It's beyond me what is propping up this economy, the Dow, S&P, etc.
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Having the most pro-American worker president in history is my guess.

DoubleAtotheRON said:
Auto sector is down,
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DoubleAtotheRON said:
Pharma is just kinda meh... gimping along,
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DoubleAtotheRON said:
Oil is stagnant,
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When we are producing the most oil in American (world?) history and after the what 25,000 jobs they cut thanks to Trump's deal with Putin and MBS, and fleecing of our money at the gas pump with their record profits ever since?

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DoubleAtotheRON said:
we've sent hundreds of Billions of dollars to UKR, Israeli's,
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You do know that money s mostly spent here right?

And your using Fox-esque numbers I think it is around $60 billion so far. And compared to the almost $300 million per day we were spending in Afghanistan that we are no longer spending there was a lot of military spending that was freed up.


DoubleAtotheRON said:
left the Southern border wide open
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DoubleAtotheRON said:
left the Southern border wide open so much that Tyson is firing their high pay jobs and searching and hiring immigrants to work for less..
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After they raked it in too, kind of shitty of them if this is the case.

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Oh, after reading a little more I guess this is the new outrage for right wing propagandists are pushing.

https://www.newsweek.com/tyson-foods-migrants-boycott-1879615
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Tyson Foods is facing boycott calls following a report that the company planned to hire migrants to work at its factories.

Conservatives reacted with outrage to a now-retracted Scripps News article claiming that the company was hiring some of the asylum seekers who arrived in New York City. However, a spokesperson for Tyson Foods told Newsweek the figures presented in that retracted article were inaccurate.

Tyson Foods responded to boycott calls in a statement.

"In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight. Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program," the statement reads.

It continues: "Since being founded in 1935 in Arkansas, Tyson Foods has created jobs and employed millions of people in states all across America. Today, Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the U.S., all of whom are required to be legally authorized to work in this country. We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anybody who is legally able is welcome to apply to open job listings."

Tyson Foods does have a partnership with Tent Partnership for Refugees and in 2022 committed to hiring 2,500 refugees, according to the organization's website. However, this figure is much lower than the number initially reported by Scripps that sparked boycott calls.

Outrage was also fueled by Tyson announcing on Monday that it would close a plant in Perry, Iowa, that had about 1,200 employees amid a drop in demand for some products, according to Reuters. Tyson has shut down six plants in the past year.

However, a spokesperson for Tyson told Newsweek that the closure of Perry plant was completely unrelated to the Tent program.

The Biden administration has faced calls to tighten border security to lower the number of border crossings as local governments across the U.S. have struggled to grapple with the increase in migrant populations.

The two announcements sparked outrage from some conservatives. Critics took aim at Tyson Foods over their announcement to hire new migrants in posts to X, formerly Twitter.

"We need to bankrupt illegal immigrant magnet Tyson Foods! If your blood isn't boiling after watching this clip from Jesse Watters, you don't have a pulse," wrote Vince Langman, a self-described "ex-con deplorable" with nearly 150,000 followers on the platform.

"Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers. Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on," posted the popular X user @EndWokeness.

"THEY'RE FIRING AMERICANS AND OFFERING PERKS TO ILLEGALS," wrote @MJTruthUltra.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, voiced disappointment about the decision to shut down the plant in Perry, describing it as a "great big punch to the gut" in remarks to the Des Moines Register. The plant is expected to close on July 28.

According to Reuters, Tyson's pork segment had an adjusted operating loss of $128 million for the 2023 fiscal year.

Immigration remains a key political issue ahead of the November presidential election, as the United States has seen an uptick in asylum seekers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 2.4 million encounters at the border occurred in the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Correction 3/16/24 10:07 a.m. ET: This article was corrected to reflect that the numbers initially cited from Scripps News were inaccurate. The headline for this article has also been changed.
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Based on this, they should really be mad at the Republicans who killed the Border security bill.
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DoubleAtotheRON said:
blah, blah, blah.
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DoubleAtotheRON said:
Im not against taxing the rich, but when they have less taxes to pay, thier stock is worth more in thier earnings statement, which if you are an investor, your EPS is more, as well as dividends.
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I'm not sure, but I don't think I can buy shares in Warren Buffett.



DoubleAtotheRON said:
Im not against taxing the rich, but when they have less taxes to pay, thier stock is worth more in thier earnings statement, which if you are an investor, your EPS is more, as well as dividends.
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Guessing you mean corporations, which got the insane tax cuts from Trump and the Republicans that led to huge increases in our federal deficit.


I do think though that as a investor it might be easy to overlook the immense benefits of having a thriving workforce and infrastructure, but those are the people who are buying and supplying the goods those companies are trying to make money off of, and the infrastructure keeping the lights on and providing access to the market place is what keeps them in business.

DoubleAtotheRON said:
IDK.. it's all fucked up.
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My bet is on those 18-ish million Americans that are now employed that were not at the start of Biden's term not thinking that it is all fucked up being the reason we are doing far better than we were when Trump (the most anti-American worker POTUS in history) left office.

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Johnny15

Johnny15

Member
cannabineer said:
We need to send a lot more to Ukraine like yesterday. Dissing aid to a nation whose security we GUARANTEED in exchange for their surrender of nuclear weapon systems is pure betrayal. That God-squad Speaker needs to step out of the (word) way and let US honor its obligations.

The border thing is (that man)ed-up propaganda. The Biden administration has done much to deal with border issues. The Senate even advanced a bill with the toughest border law since Ramesses II.

But the overthrow caucus obeyed their sociopath-in-chief and scuttled a bill that gave them that for which they were asking.

So those (motherword!) fascists can go pound sand.

Disinformation is everywhere, and any negative sentiment about Ukraine is bought&paid for by Putin’s trolls.
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Talk about disinformation.
 
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