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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReceived this from Occupy Democrats:
Well-stated and succinct. I particularly like the term blackout drunk and the description of the volume of loss of Apple Stock value.
BREAKING: Renowned business expert Scott Galloway hammers Donald Trump as "stupid" and says that he's "blackout drunk" at the "wheel of the global economy" as his tariffs destabilize the entire world.
He also alleged that Trump's sudden tariff reversal enriched his MAGA cronies in the "greatest day of insider trading and grift in history."
This is one rant that every American needs to hear...
During an appearance on The View, Galloway who is a successful entrepreneur and a professor at the New York University Stern School of Business was asked by co-host Whoopi Goldberg about Trump's recent behavior.
She slammed him for having "wreaked havoc on the global economy since his so-called liberation day last week with massive tariffs" and pointed out that he backtracked and lowered his tariffs on most countries to 10% while imposing an effective tariff rate of 145% on China.
"It would be hard to think of a more elegant way to reduce prosperity this fast," said Galloway.
"Let's talk about Apple," he continued. "The notion was we're going to bring back all of those great jobs? The average Apple assembly person in China makes $500 a month. The average Apple employee focusing on more high-value things like design, store management, makes $200,000 a year here."
"We want to wear Nikes. We don't want to make them," he went on. "We have outsourced low-wage jobs overseas such that we can create more profits, more investments, and create higher wage jobs."
"If these tariffs hold, your iPhone's going to go from $1000 bucks to $2,300," he explained. "To make an iPhone in the U.S. it would cost $3,500. As a result, the threats of these tariffs take Apple's stock down the value of Walmart in three days."
"If these tariffs hold... 80% of toys under the Christmas tree are from China," Galloway continued. "So 90% of U.S. households are budget-constrained. So we're talking about half the number of toys."
"We're talking about a destruction in shareholder value such that your parents can't retire as quickly and we're talking about the entire world rerouting their supply chain around 'brand America,' which, quite frankly, right now is toxic uncertainty so they can bypass a series of unpredictable, epileptic, sclerotic decisions," he stated.
"What we finally need to acknowledge: We have someone at the wheel of the global economy that is blackout drunk right now," he continued.
Later in the segment, Galloway dismissed the idea that Trump's policy is setting the stage for the "economy of the future" by bringing jobs back.
"First off, America is the second largest manufacturer in the world," he said. "And the Cato Institute we romanticize manufacturing the Cato Institute did a survey, 80% of us believe that we should have more manufacturing but only 20% of us want to work in manufacturing."
"There is no line to get in and have work at an assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan," he continued. "What we want is high-paying jobs. Quite frankly, if this president cared about young men and trying to up-level people we'd go to a minimum wage of $25 a hour."
"And by the way, if minimum wage had kept pace with productivity and inflation it'd be somewhere between $23 and $27 an hour," he explained. "This is nothing but in my view"
"Do you realize that yesterday about ten minutes before he put a pause on the tariffs and Apple skyrocketed, the market went up 2000 points, there was huge activity in the options market," he went on.
"Yesterday will go down as the greatest day of insider trading and grift in history," said Galloway. "Someone knew what was going on and made a lot of money and it wasn't us and we're going to find out about this."
"If you want to go back he talks about the great era of the late 19th century guess what? When we didn't have indoor plumbing? Where we had child labor? I'll take Netflix and novocaine," he said.
"We have a habit because of social media to talk about how terrible America is," he went on. "There are [one hundred and ninety-five] nations, they would all trade places with us."
"Do we have income inequality, we have polarization, do we have struggling young people? A hundred percent," he said. "But guess what? This nation is less bad than any other nation except if you want to take us back to the past. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."
Galloway was then asked about America's image around the world under Trump.
"We have the greatest inflow of capital which drives our stock up which lets us borrow money at a lower cost," he explained. "We have the greatest inflow of human capital. What do the best and the brightest in the world have in common? They want to come to our universities, they want to live in America."
"And part of that is that the American brand is risk aggressiveness, it's rule of law, it's consistency," said Galloway. "Rule of law has gone out the window. Right? We've now decided to defy court orders. We're having used car sales on the White House lawn."
"We are rounding people up with the wrong tattoo and shipping them off without due process to essentially hellscape prisons," he continued. "Rule of law is gone. Consistency? The tariffs are on, they're off, the tariffs are on, the tariffs are off."
"We're alienating nations that love us and we love. When did we decide to go to war against Canada!?" he asked. "Canada!? You know what Canada did?"
"There's this great line that the Holocaust survivor talking to Warren Buffet said, how do you judge friends? V'ery simply, I ask a question would they hide me?'" he said.
"Canadians hid us in the [Iran] hostage crisis," he went on. "The Canadian embassy hid six Americans and if they'd been found out they would have been hung by cranes. We're going to war against Canada!? They are our true friends. We can't even articulate why we're angry with them. We are going to war with everyone at the same time."
"The big winner here, if there is a winner, is China over the medium and long-term, who says 'You may not like us, but you can count us,'" said Galloway.
"The damage here... When he paused the tariffs yesterday, he took the knife halfway out of the economy's back, but the injury will take years, if not decades, to heal," he predicted. "The definition of stupid is doing something that hurts yourself while hurting others. This could not be more stupid."
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Timeflyer
(3,097 posts)sop
(13,735 posts)"A series of unpredictable, epileptic, sclerotic decisions" describes Trump's governing process quite well.
JohnnyRingo
(19,844 posts)Though I shouldn't read such a missive this early in the day. It could set a mood.
Karadeniz
(24,191 posts)Bumbles
(369 posts)But then we'd sound like an autocratic regime. Except, this IS the truth and it does need to be broadcast far and wide.
SunSeeker
(55,464 posts)And this is how we treat our friends! The US will never be trusted again.
IrishBubbaLiberal
(1,367 posts)During 1960s and 1970s My father was a US business executive,
whos firm did extensive BIG $$$$$$ projects in Iran for decades
Under The Shah.
Lots of US companies were there in Iran then
About 2,000 US companies.
The Shah had money, AND so US companies WANTED it too.
slightlv
(5,393 posts)so many countries; so many governments. (sigh) We put in people who'll do what we *want* and when they stop, they're demonized. And not just other nations; when America started trying to right the wrongs done to its people, that's when the Repugs decided to get serious and demonize not just us... but the words and entire language we use. To the point, where a few years ago, they were demonizing the word "empathy." Then, it was a shock; now, it's ordinary to not only hear it done, but see it done on a national level. I am so ashamed, so enraged. And there's no place to expend this growing energy. A peaceful protest is not exactly what soothes this beast, tho I'll take part in them every chance I get. But there's a hugely growing number of people like me. When it finally reaches that tipping point, I'm fearful of what it'll look like.
LittleGirl
(8,656 posts)He makes such easy statements of facts that it's hard to dispute anything he says.
I have been watching the view for the past 9 months and it's must see tv daily.
SalviaBlue
(3,067 posts)gulliver
(13,412 posts)I think we did. We allowed the important, meat-and-potatoes issues (so eloquently outlined by Galloway) to be "de-centered." We allowed a gender gap to be created for no good reason. It's not that we Dems did these things deliberately. We were just too kind, too agreeable, too indulgent of emotion and fringe issues. We lost some trust as a result. And grave injustices and massive economic suffering in the working and middle classes result from that loss of trust.
We've got to grab the Dem mic back from the sweety pies and self-canonized pseudo-saints (who are really just run-of-the-mill resentful misanthropists and paranoids about half the time). If you can't talk health care, Social Security, prosperity, safety, and good wages for average people, etc., you need to be decentered and replaced with someone who can.
azureblue
(2,394 posts)It's all on the GOP. They created him, they supported him, they cover for him. Democrats were, and are, trying to be the party of (duh) democracy, the Constitution, for the people, etc.
EVERY TIME the GOP takes power, all they do is made themselves rich and give tax breaks to their rich friends, then drive the country deeper into debt. And, when Demcrats take command, we reduce the debt, fix everything the GOP messed up and put the power back into the hands of the people.
So, DO NOT try to blame the democrats. WE have been battling a part of greed and lawlessness for decades.
gulliver
(13,412 posts)All of the good things you mentioned that we as Dems do are true. But we failed to win in this last election, and we have to own that.
We lost a lot of minorities and men, and essentially none of them can be called toxically masculine, self-hating, bigoted Nazis. We lost standard issue human beings who just want to live their lives, have meaning, and not have the goal posts and foul lines of the game moved around all the time.
love_katz
(2,994 posts)Are you trying to say that it's WOMEN'S fault that tRump was elected?!?
Arrgh!!
A "gender gap"? Seriously?!?
Women are under very serious threats to having our rights and freedom taken away! The ERA was never ratified and the bilious and bogus SAVE Act is a blatant attempt to disenfranchise women and the poor.
How many times do we need to say it: the DEMOCRATS are NOT at fault for the fake election of tRump!
Who is at fault? Republicans! And men who listen to jerk wads like Joe Rogan. We can add propaganda from Faux Spews, Pooty Poot, gerrymandering of voting precincts, throwing voters off the rolls through reich wing challenges to someone's right to vote, Citizens United and reich wing think tanks throwing train loads of cash at R candidates, bomb threats to Democratic leaning precincts, long lines due to not enough voting machines at Democratic precincts, etc, ad nauseam.
But, you want to blame it on the Democrats creating a gender gap?!? Seriously? You need to show your homework on this accusation.
Yeah, blame it all on us uppity women.
Kid Berwyn
(19,971 posts)In 2015-16, the consensus of the partys wisest thought trumpf would be easiest to defeat. They were wrong, thanks in no small measure to Putin, the FBI and Rupert Murdoch.
And from 2021-2025 we tried hard, but for some reason listened to the SCrOTUS who insisted Democrats couldnt do much to end his career in politics, crime and espionage, which for dimdonnie j trumpf are all the same.
Im not giving up, but apart from using text messaging as a tool for raising money, the people in the party making decisions about policy and messaging have not given me much confidence for the near-term and none for the long-term.
azureblue
(2,394 posts)Look at all his failed businesses and you will see the same pattern: He hypes up a project and gets himself at the helm. Then he creates confusion with countermanding directions and unworkable demands. Then, he sets up a way to skim some cash, (like manipulating the stock market), and he profits. After that, he's done with the project. It was only there for him to make money, and once it has, he's gone to let the project crumble to the ground. Which happens to be America..
DinahMoeHum
(22,847 posts)They ain't gonna work there unless unions are involved, and living wages exist.
Good luck with that. The jobs ain't gonna happen.

Rebl2
(16,152 posts)IrishBubbaLiberal
(1,367 posts)ShazzieB
(20,218 posts)"...unpredictable, epileptic, sclerotic decisions"
Epileptic? Really?? Likening Schlump's erratic behavior to an actual medical condition that affects millions of people in this country alone is problematic, to say the least. And sclerotic could be considered both ableist and ageist, as it sounds like a reference to atherosclerosis, a condition associated with aging. Ouch.
PCIntern
(27,268 posts)which has connotations in medical contexts because its somehow denigrates those with the unfortunate condition or disease?
So when John Dean said that there was a cancer on the Presidency, then all folks who endured cancer, were members of the family or friends, should have been outraged? I think not. Absolutely not.
ShazzieB
(20,218 posts)Using "epileptic" the way it was used in this piece sounds jarring to me, because that condition has been so stigmatized in the past. I'll admit "sclerotic" is a lot less problematic. (I think it sounds a little weird, but that's a whole separate issue.)
Ableist language can be problematic in general for a number of reasons. Defferent people will have different takes on what's truly offensive and what isn't, but I think it behooves us all to be aware of the issue and sensitize ourselves to how certain things sound.
kimbutgar
(24,844 posts)He then came up and told me hes going to buy his book! He was so spot on about the economic damage the orange Hitler is causing and how young men are demoralized. The 3 things he said about men was so right on. Im lucky to be married to a guy who has those three qualities!
Tariffs and economic damage
Masculinity crisis
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FadedMullet
(32 posts)CitizenZero
(748 posts)Very good post.
wendyb-NC
(4,196 posts)This is exactly what is happening to us, to our nation. This is an emergency.
MichMan
(14,887 posts)First off the author celebrates jobs being outsourced to China where workers make $500 per month because it makes things cheaper for US consumers.
He glosses right over the fact that many of those jobs were once done by American workers in manufacturing plants located in small towns all over the country. Manufacturing plants that were shut down and closed because the workers couldn't compete with someone making $500 a month. Many of those plants are still sitting abandoned while the small towns they were located in had to deal with a destroyed tax base.
When plants were closed and production was moved to countries like Mexico and China, there was universal condemnation here with people blaming corporate greed. So now, the message is that this was actually a good thing?
Then later, he states that the US minimum wage needs to be $25 per hour. Won't that make products more expensive for consumers compared to competitors in China paying their workers $3 per hour?