"AC, you're always talking about what WILL happen based upon the claims of people with a vested interest in predicting a grim future."

Many of the people I listen to don't get a single cent from the content they produce.
You think the guests on Judge Napolitano and Dialogue Works get paid for their time?

"If you want to see the effect of Trump's MAGA policies go back and look at what DID happen 2017-2020.
- He added 8 trillion to the national debt in 4 years and couldn't even get his wall built, surrounded himself with idiots.

I'm not saying he didn't do some good things, but did the gains outweigh the costs?
- and that question also lingers over his coming term.

US Credit Card Crisis Hits HIGHEST DEFAULT In 14 Years
http://youtu.be/DCk1QbYwEOU

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

True that $7T (not 8) was added to the national debt during the Trump years. But over half of that occurred in the 3 quarters when the country was closed down due to the anti-Covid policies. The fact is that the debt had stabilised before then and was in fact steady for the 2 quarters prior to Covid.

Its interesting that you focus on this one thing but when I point out that China's debt is higher as a percentage of GDP, you rapidly look the other way.

" but did the gains outweigh the costs?"

Well if you're a black worker who suddenly found work.... yes.
If you're a miner who suddenly found his mine save....yes.
If you're a factory worker who saw jobs returning.... yes.

But it seems the numbers on Wall St or in the Federal Reserve are more important than the welfare of the workers. That's not how MAGA works. Its going to take a generation for that to sink in.

Armchair Critic said-

"Yes he hopes to create more jobs, but not much point in doing so if a pointless U.S. toaster factory produces a base level toaster for $40 when the Chinese import is $10. Yes you can create more jobs, but can you be competitive? Trumps deportation plans will hit the US businesses pretty hard as many rely on cheap foreign labour."

A- If the US toaster lasts more than four times as long as the Chinese one then you get the same value and you need less foreign workers. Probably help Credit Card Debt. There is an ex-South African ex-Chinese resident "Serpentza" that criticises the quality of Chinese goods and CCP.

http://www.youtube.com/@serpentza

Armchair Critic- You seem to be a bit of a fan of Napolitano....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Napolitano

"He is a libertarian and has gained prominence in part due to his criticism of the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.[2] Beginning in 1997, he became an analyst for Fox News, commenting on legal news and trials. He has written nine books on legal and political subjects... He hosted a daily libertarian talk show called Freedom Watch that aired on Fox Business Channel. Frequent guests on Freedom Watch were Congressman Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell and Peter Schiff. He promoted the works of Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises in his program."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek#The_Road_to_Serfdom

"Hayek was concerned about the general view in Britain's academia that fascism was a capitalist reaction to socialism and The Road to Serfdom arose from those concerns.[80] In the book, Hayek "[warns] of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning."[81] He further argues that the abandonment of individualism and classical liberalism inevitably leads to a loss of freedom, the creation of an oppressive society, the tyranny of a dictator, and the serfdom of the individual. He argued that fascism, Nazism, and state-socialism had common roots in central economic planning and empowering the state over the individual... The title was inspired by the French classical liberal thinker Alexis de Tocqueville

During the Nobel ceremony in December 1974, Hayek met the Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn... Besides Thatcher, Hayek also had a significant influence on Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, Nigel Lawson, Geoffrey Howe and John Biffen... Hayek gained some controversy in 1978 by praising Thatcher's anti-immigration policy proposal in an article which ignited numerous accusations of anti-Semitism and racism because of his reflections on the inability of assimilation of Eastern European Jews in the Vienna of his youth... n 1977, Hayek was critical of the Lib–Lab pact in which the British Liberal Party agreed to keep the British Labour government in office. Writing to The Times, Hayek said: "May one who has devoted a large part of his life to the study of the history and the principles of liberalism point out that a party that keeps a socialist government in power has lost all title to the name 'Liberal'... Hayek argued that a limited democracy might be better than other forms of limited government at protecting liberty, but that an unlimited democracy was worse... "

"President Reagan listed Hayek as among the two or three people who most influenced his philosophy... In 1980, Hayek was one of twelve Nobel laureates to meet with Pope John Paul II... Hayek was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 1984 Birthday Honours by Elizabeth II on the advice of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher... In 1991, President George H. W. Bush awarded Hayek the Presidential Medal of Freedom..."

"A- If the US toaster lasts more than four times as long as the Chinese one then you get the same value and you need less foreign workers."

Yes that's true for the consumer, but you might only need a quarter of the jobs as well, because toasters last 4 times as long.

Napolitano is mainly just the host of the show, he asks a few questions and his guests do all the talking.

Can I point out that the $40/$10 toasters aren't an actual thing. AC just conjured them out of thin air.

Why not do the comparison with something real....oh I know, talk about high tech space flights.

One company in the US, SpaceX, sent more craft into orbit in 2024 than the whole of China. SpaceX is so far ahead of the Chinese industry that its not funny. And with Starship they're about to move even further ahead.

Why? Because SpaceX is about innovation and experimentation. China is about taking western expertise and making cheap knock-offs. China can't compete in any realm that requires innovation and experimentation.

As per standard, China also plans to build their own reusable rocket, which was SpaceX's big breakthrough. They've even published drawings for what it'll look like. Its an exact copy of SpaceX's Falcon 9. And when will China first fly this 'new' rocket? 2034!! By then SpaceX will already be two generations further advanced.

China can copy and manufacture most western goods at a lower price . They do it by essentially using slave labour. But other aspirant countries like Vietnam India Nigeria can also do that. As they move into the global realm, the China manufacturing advantage dissipates. We can already see it happening.

And all that's before we even consider China's diabolical demographic problems with a declining population that is also rapidly aging