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appalachiablue

(41,053 posts)
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 05:31 PM Aug 2020

'Recovery Has Been Very Strong,' T. Last Week, 'T's Twisted LIES About The Covid Economy' R. Reich

'Trump's Dangerous Lies About the Covid Economy.' Lies about the economy are harder to spot than lies about the coronavirus because the virus's grim death count is painfully apparent while the economy is complicated. But Trump's economic lies are no less egregious. By Robert Reich, Aug. 8, 2020, Common Dreams.

"The recovery has been very strong," Donald Trump said last week. Then the Commerce Department reported the U.S. economy contracted between April and June at the fastest pace in nearly three-quarters of a century, which is as long as economists have been keeping track.

** The drop wiped out 5 years of economic growth. **



- Demonstrators rally outside the White House May 10, 2017 in Wash., DC. (Photo: C. Somodevilla/Getty)

But pesky facts have never stopped Trump. Having lied for five months about the coronavirus, he's now filling social media and the airwaves with untruths about the economy so he can dupe his way to election day. The comeback "won't take very long," he reassured Americans on Thursday. But every indicator shows that after a small uptick in June, the US economy is tanking again. Restaurant reservations are down, traffic at retail stores is dwindling, more small businesses are closing, the small rebound in air travel is reversing. What's Trump's plan to revive the economy?.. just "reopen" it. He wants the public to believe the shutdown orders that began in March caused the economy to tank in the first place, so reversing them will bring the economy back. Rubbish.

It was the virus that caused the downturn, and resurgence is taking the economy down again. The virus is surging back because governors reopened prematurely, before the virus was under control – at Trump's repeated insistence.

The sequence of cause-and-effect is clear. The virus has surged most in states that were among the first to reopen, such as Florida, South Carolina, Texas and much of the rest of the Sun Belt. Because of this resurgence, many states are pausing plans to reopen and some are reimposing restrictions. But these restrictions are not the reason the economy is slowing. They are the necessary consequence of allowing the pandemic to get out of control. Even the White House's own coronavirus taskforce concludes that 21 states have outbreaks serious enough to justify more restrictions. Notably, the economy is sliding again even though the government has pumped trillions of dollars into it.

What happens when the money stops? We're about to find out. Senate Republicans can't agree among themselves, let alone with House Democrats, about more funding, while Trump says "we really don't care" about reaching a spending agreement.

> That means starting this week more than 30 million Americans will no longer receive $600 in extra weekly employment benefits. As a result, tens of millions will not be able to make rent or mortgage payments. More will go hungry, including children. The economy is likely to slide even further. The White House argues that the extra unemployment payments have discouraged workers from seeking jobs because some are receiving more money in benefits than they would earn by working. "We don't want to create disincentives to work," says Trump adviser Larry Kudlow. Rubbish.

A study by Yale economists finds "no evidence" that people who have lost their jobs are choosing to stay unemployed...

Read More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/08/trumps-dangerous-lies-about-covid-economy

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'Recovery Has Been Very Strong,' T. Last Week, 'T's Twisted LIES About The Covid Economy' R. Reich (Original Post) appalachiablue Aug 2020 OP
The foreclosures and evictions are going to further hammer Donnie's support Vogon_Glory Aug 2020 #1
It will be devastating, experts are warning, some quietly. appalachiablue Aug 2020 #2

Vogon_Glory

(9,085 posts)
1. The foreclosures and evictions are going to further hammer Donnie's support
Sun Aug 9, 2020, 06:31 PM
Aug 2020

It’s not going to be pretty.

For all that people were fed up with the Republican brand in 2008, John McCaine had an advantage Donnie will lack: a personal connection to the tidal wave of evictions and foreclosures likely to rise over the next nine weeks.

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