“So we said to him that we will meet his targets. But by a date that will be after he’s dead. And yes, he bought it”

As we struggle against the far right “small government” agenda and rising inequality it is worth considering the relationship between bigger government and happiness.

I asked this question elsewhere a couple of weeks ago. “Will Trump and Musk prove Marx right?” It does seem that the increasing share of income going to profits, the driving up of the unemployed and the attempt to revert to ‘raw capitalism’ will create the conditions necessary. Thoughts?

In a nutshell. The complexities of the impact of these tariffs are so great it’s not possible to predict the exact outcome. We just know it will be very bad.

Let’s ask Jeff Bezos what a free market is. I believe a condition is that there is strong competition between firms, not an oligopoly in most markets, to achieve the results that benefit society overall. After that let’s ask how markets provide for people who can’t work because they are too old.

''The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.''

-John Maynard Keynes

My diagram shows how a tariff actually works (exporters could cut margins, but studies show it’s very rare). Exporters sell less but the pain is mainly on American citizens. So don’t place counter-tariffs, just say ‘your loss’ and start buying the goods of the countries Trump is trying to bully.

Trump keeps threatening tariffs. He’s either too stupid to understand how they work or thinks he can fool Americans into believing the exporters pay, not the importers. The best response is not to put on counter-tariffs, then our consumers pay. Then buy more Canadian and less US goods. #trumptariffs

A lot of people claiming the move to renewables will raise domestic energy costs. The data simply does not support that.

Jimmy Carter is a model for how politics should be practiced. It’s about caring for people, working in their best interests, not protecting and enriching vested interests. Perhaps his death will lead to a widespread exposure to his example. #jimmycarter

www.oxfam.org/en/press-rel...

This is so important and not given anything like the priority it deserves in politics. Governments hide behind economists who profess the economy is self-regulating and we must accept a ‘natural rate of unemployment’. It’s rubbish, we can choose a decent income for all

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
The greatest failing of the economics profession is to convince the general public that trade isn’t a zero-sum game, but a win-win situation where both buyer and seller leave better off than before the trade. That’s why we have Brexit and Trump.

Just realised that it is 21 years ago today that this great moment occurred.

#Rugby #England #2003RWC #JonnyWilkinson

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XmL...