You do know that the US is now the world's leading producer of crude oil, right? We can step it up even more since the enviromental protections are being dismantled and oil companies won't be financially liable for the damage they cause.

[eia.gov]

@JimG Well fuck me with penzoil I didn’t know that!?
But still we should dissolve the federal reserve I do know that.

@John_Tyrrell Well then it will dissolve us

I was with you right up to the conspiracy theory about borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund, since we're actually its chief investor...

@Paul4747 On the surface it appears as though you’re right but there’s a lot on the surface when it comes to The United States. But that’s where I’ll leave that

@48thRonin Probably just as well. I think we've had this conversation before, anyway.

So you're saying the tax cut for the wealthy that added $1.5 trillion to the national debt is all Powell's fault?

@david75090 No I'm saying a corporate tax cut, and a tax cut to most taxpayers, and continued loose monetary policy would have increased the GDP growth rate up close to the rate that our debt is growing, and it would have given us a chance to have our economy grow as fast as our debt and to avoid bankruptcy. That's pretty much what every other Westernd Developed market country is doing. Jerome Powell instead is operating from a playbook that was put in place back in 1913 when the Fed was created, and when our national debt was close to $0 rather than close to $21,700,000,000,000.

@BD66 Can I get some of whatever you're smoking?

@david75090 is absolutely right calling you out. Trump's is the latest in a long string of Republican tax cuts that do nothing for the economy but do a great deal for the pocketbooks of the super-rich. Trump's tax cuts increased the deficit by $2 TRILLION over the next ten years, all while he claimed they would not only "pay for themselves" but also somehow shrink the deficit.

Rates for those earning more than $200,000 a year went down, while over the next 6 years many middle-income Americans will actually pay MORE in taxes. This is the exact opposite of what you want to do to stimulate the economy. The super-rich don't spend money in chain stores; they put their money in T-bills, where it's safe. If you want to keep the money circulating and the economy revving, cut taxes to the bottom 70 percent.

But Trump, like most Republicans, is a supply-sider and a Social Darwinist. He thinks that rich people actually deserve that money because they worked super-hard for it. (Because having a successful father to give you a start in business, then knowing when to declare bankruptcy and screw your investors, is super hard work.) So the idea of tax cuts for the wealthy (himself) just comes naturally to him.

But they don't do anything to cut the deficit. They grow it beyond belief.