Three News Topics We Want Our Friends and Clients to Know

25 Jun

Three News Topics We Want Our Friends and Clients to Know

The Writing on the Wall?

Trump administration economist are bailing out right and left.  Some of that is the normal ebb and flow of politics as many try to burnish their credentials a bit by serving in the administration and then wish to return to private life.  

But economist Bob Wenzel at Economic Policy Journal looks at the numbers and suspects something else is going on.  Kevin Hassett, a top Trump advisor has announced his departure.  Wenzel says Trump has counted on Hassett and that “it is an odd time for him to leave with the economy a mess as a result of the lockdowns.”

Thomas Philipson, acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, is leaving at the end of the month.  Others leaving include “Andrew Olmem, special assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the White House National Economic Council; Eric Ueland, who served as the White House director of legislative affairs and played a key role in negotiations with Congress over the stimulus; and Joe Grogan, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.”  

Wenzel says, “I will allow readers to make their own guess as to what is going on but it doesn’t look good.

“Hug your gold coins.”

Point made, Bob.  

Thanks.

IMF Downgrades Its Ridiculous Growth Forecast

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecasts for GDP growth for both the US and the global economy.

In April, the IMF was forecasting US GDP to shrink by 5.9 percent this year.  It is now calling for an 8 percent contraction in 2020.

In April the IMF forecast the global economy would contract by 3 percent.  It now expects global GDP to fall by 4.9 percent.

That would be the worst collapse since the Great Depression.

We thought the earlier IMF forecasts were way off base.  30 million Americans lost their paychecks in April.   That’s an awfully big hit for a workforce of 165 million people.  By the time its all added up total US job losses may have reached 40 million.

Dead People Cash In

Did you get your $1,200 check from the government?  Well, you are not alone. 

1.1 million “economic stimulus” checks amounting to $1.4 billion were sent to recently deceased people.  

The government couldn’t be expected to exercise too much care.  After all, it was in a big hurry to get the economy moving again.

And that’s a line we’ve heard before.  

You may remember that the US Federal Reserve sent $12 billion in cash to Iraq in 2007. Shrink-wrapped, washing machine-sized palettes of freshly printed $100 bills.

And it all disappeared.  Without records.  Without accounting.  It went into gym bags and hidey holes.  It went into the trunks of cars and into the private safes of Iraqi officials.  

It just went.  

$12 billion.

Said Paul Bremer, the American in charge of stuff in Iraq, “Our top priority was to get the economy moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible.”