Yeah, I have been listening to this since I heard people hawking gold. I think you are confusing money printing with credit. When the USA government gives people a dollar, it is as a loan via treasury bills and notes. If the USA prints up too many dollars, people demand a higher interest rate, and the government has to pay. It is not a free lunch as the gold bugs promote.
And the creation of money is not just at the hands of the government. Anyone who gives someone else credit is creating money. The worse the risk, the higher the rate is. In short, money creation is limited by the faith of the lender. If the lender does not have faith he will be paid back, money creation dries up.
When I went to a shareholder meeting of a Venezuelan telephone company, I heard Venezuelan after Venezuelan talk about fucking over Verizon which owned 25% of the company by breaking their own laws. Verizon (which was GTE) literally laid down all the phone lines in that country. When I heard that, I knew that Venezuela, which at the time had the largest proven oil reserves in the world, was done for a generation. Until Venezuelans respect lenders, they will be poor.
When I went to American banks to get a mortgage to buy land in Latin America, they would not lend me the money. They would do a personal loan but not a mortgage. Yet real estate prices in Latin countries went through the roof. I was in Paraguay and a decent house was $300,000. I was like who in Paraguay has that kind of cash? That is a price to income ratio of 50! What was happening is European banks particularly French ones were doing the lending and unlike American banks, they have not taken their haircuts. A lot of the reason the USA gets flak is our honesty with the numbers (well, before Biden anyway).
Right now, Greece, remember them, has lower interest rates than the USA. Now do you think that is because they are a better credit risk or they are hiding their debt? A free market is based on honesty, and the Greeks have never been honest.
When I went to Latin countries and asked why they were so poor, the reason I was given was corruption. That implies it is government and not the fault of the people though. What I saw by going to Venezuela is Hugo Chavez and his stealing was a symptom and not the cause of the issue. The problem was and is the Venezuelan citizens absolutely disdain for the rights of lenders and so no one wants to extend them credit. The corruption part is the government not sticking up for lenders.
So when you talk about the "free market" and China, what are you talking about? What is the credit system in China? Is it open? Is there transparency? Would you loan money to China and if so, how would you assess the risk and the interest rate you should be paid? And with what would you want to be paid back your interest?
One of Warren Buffett's sayings is "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked". What that means is if the French banks keep on their books that the homes in their Paraguayan real estate portfolio are valued at $300,000 apiece, everything is fine. Only when they are forced to liquidate the asset or the government demands a realistic valuation is when the tide goes out.
And banks are not like other businesses. If they lever up 10:1, then a 10% reduction in asset prices renders them insolvent. So for all your disdain for the American system and how flawed it is, be honest. You have no clue how the Chinese credit system operates. And you know how I know? Because if you did, there is no way in hell you would be pushing China over the USA.
Yes, I admit that the Chinese credit system is opaque but seriously Elvis to make the claim that the American is in a better position than China on debt is laughable. Have you completely forgotten the financial crisis of 2008? America is still reeling from that and as I explained to you earlier this, the money printing here (QE), during COVID and your multiple wars constitute a substantial portion of the national debt (or at least when QT occurs). There are no free lunches.
We can debate who's debt is a bigger issue. Let's resort to some facts. https://www.fidelityinternational.co...r-e1feea-en5/. So it is in a bad place, as I already acknowledged. Meanwhile, the US national debt alone is 125% of GDP. Add on household debt and that's another 60%+ of GDP https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicato...of-nominal-gdp#text=United%20 States%20 Household%20 Debt%3 A%20%25%20 of%20 GDP,-1999%20%2 D%202024%20%7 C%20 Quarterly&text=United%20 States%20 household%20 debt%20 accounted, Mar%201999%20 to%20 Dec%202024.
They comprised around 28% of the entire world's savings last year. Please look back to my conversation with Tiny to see the relevance of this, and let me summarise it simply. The difference between a country's production and its consumption is its savings. The difference between the country's savings rates and its investments is its current account (and this is not synonymous with its trade balance as many people mistakenly believe). So these 4 concepts underpin the American issue: Production, consumption, savings, investment. The savings. Investment deficit needs to be financed and that is through a current account deficit. That's it. So your solution is straightforward. You either increase your savings, or reduce your investment (latter not ideal). But you can't increase your savings unless you reduce your consumption or increase your production. Trump's batshit idea is that somehow you're going to get all these companies producing your Iphones and laptops and consumer goods to somehow onshore and increase capacity when you have neither the manpower or skills or capacity or resources and even if you did it would result in a much higher cost or a much lower wage. As for you're going to "automate it"- right LOL, the Chinese don't know about automation already right? They make the west look so 20th century.
So production cannot increase massively, meaning your consumption has to go down. I don't know why you would argue with me here as it seems to be what you're endorsing with regards to the public sector. I however think you're a little too fixated on sweating the small stuff and not enough on the big picture which as I said is healthcare and defence. Maybe being Israel's lapdog is not in your interest?
Anyway, the bottom line remains- you are seriously underestimating China. I have explained before their psyche- they will not let them be humiliated again. They will play the long game, and it may not be 5 years but 10 before they get military supremacy over America where it matters. America cannot afford to continue to outspend them. And even if it does, they'll make a better product. Be it a plane or a train- at half the cost, as they showed the world recently in destroying the French Rafael's with their J-10's. The best days of America are behind it.
Having embarrassed themselves with their TDS-driven cognitive dissonance over the past few months, Democrat-voting UMich respondents (and women, and low income Americans) in the preliminary May survey (a month after Liberation Day and also post-Pause and the massive meltup in stocks) turned the TDS-terror dial to '11'.
Consumer Expectations are now at their lowest since. Drum roll please. May 1980.
Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers' thinking about the economy.
(I bet most consumers have no fucking clue what % the tariffs even are).
Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 6. 7% last month to 7. 3% this month, the highest reading since 1981 and marking five consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0. 5 percentage points or more.
Long-run inflation expectations climbed from 4. 4% in April to 4. 6% in May, reflecting a particularly large jump among Democrats to a ridiculous 9. 6% over the next year!!
Finally, given their historic track record (completely refusing to acknowledge the surge in inflation under Biden), should we simply be ignoring the manic Democrats screaming about inflation now?
Sorry, one more that made us fucking laugh. One-third of women surveyed believe inflation over the next year will be 15% or higher.
So someone is lying: actual spending all time high while reported sentiment (based on 250 polled UMich respondents) is all time low.
Perhaps that explains why soft survey data has started to turn back up to hard data reality in the last week as it's hard to hate and keep pushing out your depression-era forecasts when stocks are at record highs and jobless claims remain near record lows.
End of link.
PPI which front runs the consumer price index was down 0. 4% in March and 0. 5% in April, and yet we have these crazy Democratic douche female loons predicting 15% inflation. Jesus, you cannot make this shit up. At least Wall Street has figured it out and the market has rallied.
The lies being told are just unfucking believable.
Oh lookie here! Trump is now recommending that Walmart "eat" all those 100's of Billions of dollars China is GIVING America with his Trump Tariffs Taxes on the American Consumer.
Trump tells Walmart to 'eat the tariffs' after retailer warned of higher prices.
But but but how then will ordinary Americans get ALL of their needs and wants paid for by China "paying" those Trump Tariffs if Walmart eats them?
See, once "eaten" there will not be any of that Chinese money to pay for Childcare because Childcare is Childcare and groceries, god I'm glad Trump invented that word.
LOL. Now, seriously, how hilarious is it that The Worst Economic Results Since Herbert Hoover so-called president Donald Trump's months and months if not years and years long blitheringly incoherent blather about Who Pays Tariffs is shrugged off as perfectly acceptable while One Of The Greatest Economic Records Of All Time President Joe Biden not immediately remembering the year one of his sons died is triggering nation-wide pearl clutching?
Less that 10 years after the fact I could not have told you which year my mother or father died. As important as events like that are in our lives I doubt many of us mark the exact year in our memory banks in order to recall and commemorate each of them year after year. We move on. And a president typically commemorates a thousand mortal events every year anyway.
Trump has already forgotten he took the Oath of Office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And that was barely 115 days ago.
115 days of a "honeymoon" with this historically disastrous Trump's Pandemic Part 2 term is more than enough for the overwhelming majority of Americans to stomach.
As someone who lives the lifestyle discussed on this board, embracing Donald trump, project 2025, and Christian nationalists is certainly not in your best interest. A bill was just introduced to outlaw all pornography Nationwide. Christian nationalists are not your friend dude. Just waiting for the bill to make it a criminal act for Americans to engage in paid sex overseas. Look what both sides have done did the hobby in the United States. You can say what you want about gay and trans people, but they tend to be far more libertine September then work feminists or Christian Nationals. And I think the Christian nationalists have much more pull when it comes to legislation.
Absolutely Correct!
Don't forget, these would be the same MAGA/Repubs knuckleheads, that thought their American Fuhrer, wouldn't be stupid enough to touch Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. It's not the first time or the last, these suckers have voted or acted against their best interest and then regretted it.
Time and time again, they have been duped, hoodwinked and suckered into thinking the Fuhrer, had nothing to do with evils and authoritarian fascist right-wing policies outlined in Project 2025.
This clueless Repub/GOP Senator from Pennsylvania, is about as clueless as those here, that think because their American Fuhrer sleeps with hookers, prostitutes and porn-stars, won't adopt yet another one of his many hypocritical "Law and Order for Thee, Not for Me" policies.
Where naturally MAGA sycophants are exempt from the law and rule of law, providing of course, they bend the knee, grovel enough, pay ($$$$) enough, or simply willing to commit heinous crimes in his name, like Jan 6th!
You really hate white people and then turn around and have the temerity to project and insinuate I'm a Nazi wow so bold and original LMFAO.
(...kkkk!) Hey let's not forget our VP JD "the Couch Creamer" Vance, certainly called out his boss as a Nazi aka. America's Hitler, and aka. "the American Fuhrer!" And your Fuhrer, being the narcissist he is, for the most part, took it as a compliment and loved the comparison! (...kkkk!)
But back to more Dems winning, as Nebraska's first Black mayor...crushes Repub incumbent!
John Ewing set to become Omaha's first Black mayor and flip the office as Omaha elects first Black mayor (with 56.3%), crushing and ousting Republican leadership of Nebraska's largest city (by margin of 12.6% points), a race she'd previously won with 63%. Ewing will also be the first Democrat to serve as Omaha mayor since 2013.
You would have fit in incredibly well in 1930's Germany No doubt. Constitution extends the right of due process to non-citizens as well.
Amazing you swallowed the nonsense about savages coming into the United States. You do realize that without the labor of illegal aliens or their numbers the United States population will start to fall quite rapidly leaving it in the same situation as Europe in Japan.
Destroying the rule of law? That's exactly what maga is bent on doing.
It's comical you mentioned the rule of law but you think it should be used to selectively and only for certain people.
You really hate white people and then turn around and have the temerity to project and insinuate I'm a Nazi wow so bold and original LMFAO.
I'm sure you're another lesbo Madcow sycophant, do you jerk off to him like ET and Spidy too?
I'm sure glad your hypocritical ass lives in the land of sex slaves and slave labor and aren't my neighbor.
115 days of a "honeymoon" with this historically disastrous Trump's Pandemic Part 2 term is more than enough for the overwhelming majority of Americans to stomach. Since then several polls have shown that voters don't trust Trump on the economy. That includes the Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll which shows that Trump's net approval on the economy stands at -17 points, with 38 approving and 58 disapproving.
Trump fares even worse on the issue of prices and inflation, with his net approval at -32 points, with 31 percent approving and 63 percent disapproving..
Yeah, no shit. That is because you Democratic douches and the lame stream media keep going on and on about tariffs and inflation lying your asses off.
Having embarrassed themselves with their TDS-driven cognitive dissonance over the past few months, Democrat-voting UMich respondents (and women, and low income Americans) in the preliminary May survey (a month after Liberation Day and also post-Pause and the massive meltup in stocks) turned the TDS-terror dial to '11'.
Consumer Expectations are now at their lowest since. Drum roll please. May 1980.
Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers' thinking about the economy.
(I bet most consumers have no fucking clue what % the tariffs even are).
Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 6. 7% last month to 7. 3% this month, the highest reading since 1981 and marking five consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0. 5 percentage points or more.
Long-run inflation expectations climbed from 4. 4% in April to 4. 6% in May, reflecting a particularly large jump among Democrats to a ridiculous 9. 6% over the next year!!
Finally, given their historic track record (completely refusing to acknowledge the surge in inflation under Biden), should we simply be ignoring the manic Democrats screaming about inflation now?
Sorry, one more that made us fucking laugh. One-third of women surveyed believe inflation over the next year will be 15% or higher.
So someone is lying: actual spending all time high while reported sentiment (based on 250 polled UMich respondents) is all time low.
Perhaps that explains why soft survey data has started to turn back up to hard data reality in the last week as it's hard to hate and keep pushing out your depression-era forecasts when stocks are at record highs and jobless claims remain near record lows.
End of link.
PPI which front runs the consumer price index was down 0. 4% in March and 0. 5% in April, and yet we have these crazy Democratic douche female loons predicting 15% inflation. Jesus, you cannot make this shit up. At least Wall Street has figured it out and the market has rallied.
The lies being told are just unfucking believable.
As someone who lives the lifestyle discussed on this board, embracing Donald trump, project 2025, and Christian nationalists is certainly not in your best interest. A bill was just introduced to outlaw all pornography Nationwide. Christian nationalists are not your friend dude. Just waiting for the bill to make it a criminal act for Americans to engage in paid sex overseas. Look what both sides have done did the hobby in the United States. You can say what you want about gay and trans people, but they tend to be far more libertine September then work feminists or Christian Nationals. And I think the Christian nationalists have much more pull when it comes to legislation.
Our Lord and Savior loves hookers as does Elon (I'm pretty sure he likes the FKKs) and most other real men in DC.
Democrats on the other hand see buying poosy akin to raaape.
If buying poosy overseas is made illegal it will come from NGOs thru USAID from the likes of Hillary Kamala AOC Pelosi and feminist voters like you ET and Spidy.
Infringing on the rights of citizens? WTF he isn't a citizen.
Where the fuck were you when the Scumbag Democrats were destroying the rights of its citizens with DEI and pouring in tens of millions of psychotic 3rd world savages to rape and murder its citizens.
And destroying free and fair elections and destroying the rule of law with 93 bogus kangaroo court felony charges, 2 fake impeachments etc etc etc.
"Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord", Donald J Trump (Our Lord and Savior) January 20,2025 aka the Savior of Western Civilization.
Or as I like to say "live by the sword die by the sword" aka paybacks are a motherfucker!
As someone who lives the lifestyle discussed on this board, embracing Donald trump, project 2025, and Christian nationalists is certainly not in your best interest. A bill was just introduced to outlaw all pornography Nationwide. Christian nationalists are not your friend dude. Just waiting for the bill to make it a criminal act for Americans to engage in paid sex overseas. Look what both sides have done did the hobby in the United States. You can say what you want about gay and trans people, but they tend to be far more libertine September then work feminists or Christian Nationals. And I think the Christian nationalists have much more pull when it comes to legislation.
Trump's Drug Price Order Strikes at the Heart of Foreign Free-Riding.
For decades, American consumers have been paying the world's highest drug pricesnot because we use more medicine, or demand higher quality, but because our government chose not to negotiate.
May 14, 2025.
Trump's MFN Drug Price Plan and the Trade War in Pharma Lab Coats.
For decades, American consumers have been paying the world's highest drug pricesnot because we use more medicine, or demand higher quality, but because our government chose not to negotiate. While other nations imposed hard price caps or demanded steep discounts from pharmaceutical companies, the United States allowed drugmakers to charge whatever the market would bear.
Or so we were told.
In reality, there is no true "free market" in pharmaceuticals. What we call a market-based system is in fact a heavily regulated, government-protected pricing regime built atop patents, FDA exclusivity, and mandatory insurance coverage. It is a system in which competition is deliberately suppressedfirst by intellectual property law, then by regulatory lock-in, and finally by federal restrictions that prohibit the country's largest buyer, Medicare, from bargaining directly. This is not free enterprise. This is cartelized pricing with government enforcement.
The Forgotten Tariff: Prescription Drugs.
This divergence took shape in the second half of the 20th century. As Europe and Canada built government-run or heavily regulated health systems, they created agencies to demand steep discounts or block new drugs unless prices aligned with cost-effectiveness thresholds. Meanwhile, the USA Took a more fragmented, so-called market-driven path.
But how market-driven can a system be when the federal governmentthrough Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Affairs Departmentis the largest purchaser of prescription drugs? Medicare, the nation's largest health insurer, was legally barred from negotiating prices when the Part the benefit was created in 2003. It accounts for around 30 percent of all drug purchases in the USA Medicaid's "best price" rule discouraged deeper private market discounts. And while the USA Fostered a robust generics industry, brand-name drugsespecially new, high-cost therapiesremained exempt from pricing discipline.
The consequences are staggering. Americans routinely pay two to four times more for the same brand-name drug than patients in Germany, Canada, or Australia. In many cases, the exact same pill made in the same factory costs a fraction abroad of what it does at the USA Pharmacy counter. These are not generics. These are identical products, sold cheaper everywhere else.
Why? Because every other developed country uses some form of centralized price negotiation or regulation. The USA Stands virtually alone in letting manufacturers name their pricethen requires insurance plans, public and private alike, to cover those products. That is not a market. That is a racket.
Meanwhile, American businesses have shouldered the cost. Rising prescription drug prices inflate the price of employer-sponsored health insurance, raising the cost of labor in the USA Relative to competitors abroad. Health coverage here is not a government service but an employer obligation. That means every artificially high drug price gets baked into the cost of American laborand with it, the cost of American goods and services.
By contrast, foreign firms benefit from single-payer systems that negotiate aggressively. Their workers are covered by national health plans; their products aren't priced with an implicit healthcare surcharge. The result is a quiet but powerful tilt in global competitiveness: a de facto tax on USA Employment and production.
Global Imbalance by Design.
For years, pharmaceutical executives and their lobbyists defended this imbalance by claiming that high USA Prices were necessary to fund innovation. Foreign governments, they argued, were "free-riding" on American investment. That's not wrong, but the conclusion is backwards.
If other countries are underpaying, then the solution is not to maintain our overpayment. It is to stop enabling the free ride.
This is not just a healthcare issueit's the pharmaceutical equivalent of NATO burden-sharing. For decades, the USA Has shouldered the cost of defending Europe while European nations underfunded their own militaries. Now, in medicine as in defense, America is demanding that wealthy allies pay their fair share.
President Trump's Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Executive Order, signed earlier this month, flips the system. It pegs the prices paid by Medicare and Medicaid to the lowest amount paid by comparable foreign countries. In effect, America will no longer subsidize the rest of the world's medicine cabinets. If a German patient gets a drug for $300, the American taxpayer will not pay $1,200.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patient at a press conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , on May 12,2025, in the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce and. Boghosian via Flickr).
This is not just about domestic affordability. It's about global competition. For decades, American businesses have shouldered the cost of overpriced prescription drugs through rising insurance premiums and benefit costs. Lowering drug prices isn't just a healthcare issueit's industrial policy.
This policy is also consistent with Trump's broader trade philosophy. Just as tariffs on foreign steel aimed to correct market distortions created by foreign subsidies, MFN pricing corrects the distortion created by foreign price controls. This is not price fixingit's reciprocal pricing. And like tariffs, it is a tool to reassert American sovereignty and strategic interest.
The Innovation Objection.
Critics warn that MFN pricing will reduce drug company revenue and thus slow innovation. It maymodestly. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a 5 to 10 percent decline in new drug development over the next two decades. That's real. But so is the $500 billion in projected savings for American patients and taxpayers.
More importantly, we should ask: What kind of innovation are we funding with those inflated prices? A growing share of pharmaceutical R&D goes toward "me-too" drugs, patent extensions, and market-protection strategies. The idea that every dollar taken from drugmakers is a dollar lost to scientific progress is not just inaccurateit's propaganda.
A smarter pricing system may actually sharpen incentives by rewarding genuine breakthroughs while trimming waste. And let's not forget that public research agencies like the NIH already fund much of the foundational science behind new therapies. The private sector thrives on those publicly created discoveries.
It's Time for the Rebalancing to Begin.
In truth, the MFN order is just a starting point. Its success will depend on implementation, legal resilience, and follow-through in negotiations. But the principle it asserts is clear and long overdue: Americans should not be forced to overpay for medicine so that foreign governments can underpay.
What President Trump has done is extend the logic of America First into a new economic theater: the global drug market. For the first time in modern history, a USA President has told the pharmaceutical industry and its international customers that the days of one-way pricing are over. That is not just health reformit is trade reform. It is industrial policy. And it is a long-overdue assertion of national interest in a sector that has for too long been shielded from scrutiny.
As the administration moves forward, industry backlash is inevitable. So are threats of reduced investment and foreign noncompliance. But as with tariffs, those are not reasons to back down. They are signs the policy is working.
In a global economy rigged by price disparities and state-protected sectors, fairness begins with leverage. The MFN rule is a tool of leverage. And for once, that leverage is being used on behalf of the American patient, worker, and employernot against them.
Huh? You're really buying this nonsense from Bbart? Do you know why other countries pay less for drugs? Because they don't allow big pharma and insurance companies to lobby the government in order to have a favorable climate to maximize their profits and rip off citizens. They instead have an enormous negotiating block with their systems and in many ways can dictate the prices that they will pay.
And then you have countries that say to hell with patents our citizens need this drugs and knock off the compound.
Trump's nonsense will do nothing. You're never going to play low prices for prescription drugs in the United States as long as you give pharma the upper hand. Threaten to disregard their patents and they might come in line.
Infringing on the rights of citizens? WTF he isn't a citizen.
Where the fuck were you when the Scumbag Democrats were destroying the rights of its citizens with DEI and pouring in tens of millions of psychotic 3rd world savages to rape and murder its citizens.
And destroying free and fair elections and destroying the rule of law with 93 bogus kangaroo court felony charges, 2 fake impeachments etc etc etc.
"Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord", Donald J Trump (Our Lord and Savior) January 20,2025 aka the Savior of Western Civilization.
Or as I like to say "live by the sword die by the sword" aka paybacks are a motherfucker!
You would have fit in incredibly well in 1930's Germany No doubt. Constitution extends the right of due process to non-citizens as well.
Amazing you swallowed the nonsense about savages coming into the United States. You do realize that without the labor of illegal aliens or their numbers the United States population will start to fall quite rapidly leaving it in the same situation as Europe in Japan.
Destroying the rule of law? That's exactly what maga is bent on doing.
It's comical you mentioned the rule of law but you think it should be used to selectively and only for certain people.
115 days of a "honeymoon" with this historically disastrous Trump's Pandemic Part 2 term is more than enough for the overwhelming majority of Americans to stomach.
A house cat would beat Donald Trump at the moment.
Originally Posted by Elvis2008
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