Trump 2.0

[The Triangle]

I think the big thing people need to realise is that globalism is over. US is paying for everything and losing out to everyone it doesn't serve them to not change. It was basically to bring down USSR and well that's been done a while back.
The golden period is over.

Trump is actually spot on the money with a lot of what he is trying to do. The world is about to drastically change. For many countries it will be for the worse. Our idiot politicians need a complete clean out or to grow the hell up.

We vote them in. We are the problem. We believe what they say, we trust in the media, in fauci, in science.

 

[sptrawler]

I think the big thing people need to realise is that globalism is over. US is paying for everything and losing out to everyone it doesn't serve them to not change. It was basically to bring down USSR and well that's been done a while back.
The golden period is over.

Trump is actually spot on the money with a lot of what he is trying to do. The world is about to drastically change. For many countries it will be for the worse. Our idiot politicians need a complete clean out or to grow the hell up.

Honestly the US is standing in the way of itself. I'm not confident on Trumps execution. But I do think he is making the right noises.

Very true our society is built on social and organisational structures and those who are able to contribute contributing, now we have a situation where many don't want to contribute and adding to that pool is a recipe for disaster.

Illegal immigrants become non taxpaying workers, in a diminishing pool of jobs and is one of the reasons the third world countries don't have first world living standards, their tax systems and structures are different to ours.

As you keep saying Mo, Trump might be loud and obnoxious, but he is on the money that things have to change radically.
China isn't a third world country and it does have political and bureaucratic structure, so they will keep getting stronger and western countries will continue to implode due to a non funded living standard.

Interesting times and unless globalisation is slowed the West will be owned by China, that's a given. As can be seen by the manipulation of the nickel and lithium prices.
China, as the major user of raw materials, can dictate the market.

Australia is already completely dependent on China for its income and most of its imports, so in many ways it will be hard to change our destiny, but it would crazy not to try IMO.

Which is what Trump is doing, well time will tell if that is the case, but he has to be given the benefit off the doubt IMO as no one else has shown any interest in changing the direction or speed of globalisation and with it the worlds dependence on China.

 

[IFocus]

I think the big thing people need to realise is that globalism is over. US is paying for everything and losing out to everyone it doesn't serve them to not change. It was basically to bring down USSR and well that's been done a while back.
The golden period is over.

Trump is actually spot on the money with a lot of what he is trying to do. The world is about to drastically change. For many countries it will be for the worse. Our idiot politicians need a complete clean out or to grow the hell up.

Your kidding, the US has never been wealthier ever thanks to globalism, however the wealth has never gone to so few, ever.

The issue is right wing politics running culture wars while shearing the sheep.

And it works note the endless obsessions here at ASF.

 

[moXJO]

Your kidding, the US has never been wealthier ever thanks to globalism, however the wealth has never gone to so few, ever.

The issue is right wing politics running culture wars while shearing the sheep.

And it works note the endless obsessions here at ASF.

How? The US has never been in so much debt.

 

[JohnDe]

Lets hope some of Trump's sensible changes rub off onto Australian governments and corporates.

I'm sick of being welcomed to my own country at every event I attend, and by airlines, museums, libraries, local councils, and everything in-between.

I didn't renew my membership or sponsorship to my local football club this year, me and a couple of mates told them that we would not continue if they kept welcoming us at every function.

One phrase in an executive order signed by Donald Trump last week must have caused a collective inhaling of breath from diversity divas in Australia.

That Trump wants an end to the “diversity, equity and inclusion” fad was no surprise. What’s most agitating to DEI devotees is the language he used when announcing its demise.

Trump said DEI policies “not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding federal civil rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence and individual achievement in favour of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatised, demeaned or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex”.

In that terrific denunciation of DEI is one short phrase – identity-based spoils system – that exposes the racket. That kind of cut-through is enough to make Australian beneficiaries of DEI gird their loins for battle. Having secured the spoils from DEI, don’t count on DEI benefactors giving them up. Many are already circling the wagons in a highly public effort to hold on to the identity-based spoils system that secures them money and prestige. In their corner is Australia’s superannuation system, where huge investment funds dominating Australia’s corporate landscape have entrenched left-wing fads.

Industry funds, controlled by unions and beloved by Labor, hold the levers of corporate power and have no compunction in using them for ideological ends. Aided and abetted by proxy advisers, these funds are playing social engineers in the ASX-listed companies, DEI being just one of their engineering feats.

There is a confluence of interests between DEI beneficiaries and industry funds. The latter know they can rely on the former to help implement policies within corporations, far beyond DEI. To put it bluntly, many beneficiaries of DEI are unofficial loyal lieutenants of super funds. The claim that DEI helps rid boards of group think is, frankly, a joke. The opposite is true. DEI appointees tend to swing one way having come from the same political, social and cultural milieu.

That’s why super funds have used their voting power to install a cadre of DEI advocates on listed company boards and inside influential governance bodies such as the ASX Corporate Governance Council. Given these stubborn homegrown forces, some horsepower is needed to defeat DEI in Australia: reasoned arguments, an injection of common sense, long overdue legal changes, and, let’s face it, a dose of public shaming.

DEI divas have never been shy about naming and shaming companies that haven’t drunk the DEI Kool-Aid fast enough or in sufficient quantities. They shouldn’t be surprised to have their names out there when counter arguments are put.

So, let’s get to work. First, there is no evidentiary foundation to DEI. From the get-go, it was built on sand, piled especially high in a 2015 report by McKinsey that claimed a connection between corporate profits and diversity in executive ranks. When its results were exposed as untrue by a number of academic observers, McKinsey tweaked its modelling and said: “We have also been clear and consistent that our research identifies correlation, not causation, and that those two things are not the same.”

Alas, zealots paid no attention to this. The McKinsey report was their corporate bible and its untrue claims about the benefits of diversity became religious dogma.

Despite the lack of evidence to support diversity as a profit-boosting policy, the McKinsey report turbocharged DEI: in 2015 the Australian Institute of Company Directors set a 30 per cent gender target for ASX 200 board seats by 2018. Likewise, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors said it would be voting against directors on boards with poor gender diversity. AICD chair Elizabeth Proust called that a “game changer”. The DEI divas were in clover.

When Trump signed executive orders to dismantle DEI across government agencies, pointing out the pernicious nature of this spoils-based system, DEI divas in Australia went full throttle. Gone, however, is any mention of DEI boosting profits – because not even the original McKinsey said that. Now advocates have tweaked their language to talk nebulously, but still without supporting evidence, about “financial risks”.

Australian Council of Superannuation Investors chief executive Louise Davidson said: “Diversity – or lack thereof – is a financially material risk, so we do not anticipate that there will be a reduction in investor focus on how companies are planning for and managing diversity.” HESTA boss Debby Blakey said corporate cultures that don’t encourage diversity “pose a significant material risk to investors”.

Despite no evidence showing that DEI leads to higher profits, it’s time to call bulldust on DEI activists protecting their spoils-based system. ACSI and the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, representing some of the nation’s largest super funds and institutional investors, have thrown their weight behind the ASX Corporate Governance Council changes demanding ever higher quotas for female board members, along with tougher corporate reporting of diversity efforts beyond gender.

Alas, reasoning and logic are not part of the DEI ideology. The giant hole in the push for higher gender targets and tougher reporting about diversity is this: If the benefits of DEI for business are so blindingly obvious, why do we need to mandate quotas? If any halfway competent director should know that diversity increases shareholder value, why do we need prescriptive quotas, targets and reporting measures? If it is so demonstrably good for business, then a board that doesn’t ensure sufficient diversity is breaching its fiduciary duties to shareholders.

Why can’t diversity be left to the common sense of directors or, if that fails, their fear of litigation? After all, there is a whole universe of feral litigation funders looking for opportunities to sue boards that don’t take obvious steps to enhance shareholder value.

Could it be that if diversity wasn’t mandated with a blizzard of quotas, targets and reporting demands, together with bullying from activists, some of those currently enjoying the spoils of quotas – and those hoping to do so in the future – fear their personal cash registers might stop ringing?

The spoils-based DEI system in Australia is almost exclusively for the benefit of women, and works heavily in favour of affluent, well-educated women. Are these middle-class women fighting so hard to hang on to quotas because, if they are abandoned and diversity left to the good sense of boards, they might have to share the spoils with say, bright but poor males of immigrant extraction? God forbid that blokes should benefit from DEI.

Indeed, the fact the defenders of quotas fight so hard to keep them might reveal, not only their motivations, but whether they believe their own story. Maybe they know that if logic won’t secure wealth generating quotas, then they need regulators to do it for them.

The other reason DEI is on borrowed time is the flow of capital. A revitalised US economy and regulatory system will expose corporate Australia’s fetish for increasingly stale corporate fads. There are already promises from Australian businesses to send investment capital to the US.

How long before we are forced to drain our corporate and regulatory swamps?

Donald Trump’s war on DEI puts the wind up our diversity divas​

 

[JohnDe]

How? The US has never been in so much debt.

America is facing a critical moment as it navigates a turbulent economic time. With government spending at an all-time high, drastic cuts are almost essential to avoid financial collapse. The recent election of Donald Trump has brought Elon Musk into the spotlight, especially with his significant $100 million support for Trump's campaign and anticipated role in the administration.​

 

[moXJO]

America is facing a critical moment as it navigates a turbulent economic time. With government spending at an all-time high, drastic cuts are almost essential to avoid financial collapse. The recent election of Donald Trump has brought Elon Musk into the spotlight, especially with his significant $100 million support for Trump's campaign and anticipated role in the administration.​

Everyone always complains that they are always the same and nothing ever changes. This is what change looks like.
it's most likely going to get worse before it gets better but thank God someone is tackling it.

 

[investor13]

Your kidding, the US has never been wealthier ever thanks to globalism, however the wealth has never gone to so few, ever.

The issue is right wing politics running culture wars while shearing the sheep.

And it works note the endless obsessions here at ASF.

Keep the champagne socialist economics going

 

[sptrawler]

Everyone always complains that they are always the same and nothing ever changes. This is what change looks like.
it's most likely going to get worse before it gets better but thank God someone is tackling it.

Well Germany is certainly finding that going the green dream is hurting, while China eats Germany's lunch.

The below articles, is exactly what Trump is trying to avoid.

Volkswagen Considers Selling Factories to Chinese Automakers

Chinese car brands have struggled to gain a foothold in Europe.

www.dagens.com

The company’s factories have produced millions of vehicles, fueling both the domestic economy and exports worldwide.

But now, the automotive giant is facing major financial pressures and is looking for ways to cut costs.

Volkswagen has confirmed that some of its German factories, which are scheduled for closure, could be sold to Chinese car brands.

Another German mill pauses due to power-cost spike - EUROMETAL

A sudden surge of power prices in Germany has caused special bar quality mill Georgsmarienhütte to suspend production, Kallanish understands. In a post on LinkedIn, managing director Anne-Marie Grossmann writes that production had to be stopped Monday morning. The day-ahead electricity price...

eurometal.net

Germany Gets Dunkelf**ked Again, Norway To Dismantle Power Cables To Europe, Last Day For 30% Off

Another wind drought has led to soaring electricity prices across Europe. Norway, which exports power to its European neighbors, has seen enough.

robertbryce.substack.com

 

[sptrawler]

Everyone always complains that they are always the same and nothing ever changes. This is what change looks like.
it's most likely going to get worse before it gets better but thank God someone is tackling it.

More on the same issue @moXJO , this is why the middle class is saying enough is enough, Germany is a great bellweather because it is the engine room of the EU.

They were at the forefront of the strong swing left and now the results are beginning to be felt, intelligent middle class people can realise that the scenario unfolding there is a precursor to what may happen in most western countries.

As we say Trump is a weird person, but he has skin in the game and he is at least trying to tackle the issue of curbing China's ascendency before it becomes too late.
As China's manufacturing grows exponentially, it becomes increasing difficult to compete and it is growing exponentially because the West is consuming their products at ever increasing rates.

It certainly is an interesting period of time, the longer it isn't addressed the harder it will be to address it.
That's for sure.

This from Vanguard:

Germany’s economic woes go beyond the energy crisis

Unpacking Germany’s economic challenges: overreliance on exports, an aging workforce, and stifling bureaucracy.

corporate.vanguard.com

As the world’s third-largest economy and constituting about a quarter of the European Union’s collective GDP, Germany has an outsized impact on Europe’s economic health. The spillover effect from lackluster growth in Germany will act as a drag even if other European economies continue to grow.

The energy crisis is not the main culprit anymore

A common narrative is that the energy crisis precipitated by the war in Ukraine is the source of Germany’s woes. Although this was true for most of 2022 and 2023, the evidence points to a different narrative in 2024.
The German economy is highly dependent on exports. And although energy prices remain high relative to pre-war levels, Germany’s trade balance and measures of international competitiveness have now returned close to levels last seen before the energy crisis. The economy has shown remarkable adaptability in finding alternatives to Russian oil and gas and in doing more with less.

The energy crisis is no longer the cause of German malaise. Instead, Germany’s economic weakness in the second half of 2024 can largely be attributed to a significant drop in external demand, particularly from China.

Overreliance on exports, unfavorable demographics, and weak productivity growth

For growth, Germany is overly reliant on exports, mainly to China. But this dependency also extends to imports that go into making German goods. Indeed, about 43% of German industrial sectors depend on Chinese imports. Although 81% percent of German manufacturers acknowledge that replacing critical inputs from China would be “difficult” or “very difficult,” the majority (60%) say they have taken no measure to reduce their dependency on China.1
That leaves Germany vulnerable to growing global trade restrictions, on both the import and export sides.
As in other developed countries, aging demographics are also not in Germany’s favor. Over the past decade, immigration has offset a shrinking native labor pool. But this supplemental labor supply could diminish in coming years with potential policy changes.
And weak productivity growth is holding the economy back. A lack of investment in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), an inflexible labor market, and red tape are all inhibiting innovation and the efficient allocation of resources.

It's not all doom and gloom

It’s tempting to draw a comparison to Japan in the early 1990s—that Germany could be on the cusp of its own Lost Decade. But there are mitigating factors.
First, the government’s recent move to relax its fiscal constraint—the so-called debt brake, the law mandating a balanced budget—is a welcome one, especially if it allows greater investment in new technologies such as AI to support productivity growth. Second, structural reforms, particularly those targeted to improve business and labor market dynamics, hold the key to a more vibrant economy.
It might not be wise to count Germany out, given its history and resilience during the energy crisis. A December 16, 2024, no-confidence vote in the current government, setting up early parliamentary elections in February, underscores a desire for change. Whatever the outcome of the elections, the obstacles remain formidable, and success will require cooperation in Germany and more broadly across the euro area.

 

[moXJO]

Well Germany is certainly finding that going the green dream is hurting, while China eats Germany's lunch.

The below article, is exactly what the U.S is trying to avoid.

Volkswagen Considers Selling Factories to Chinese Automakers

Chinese car brands have struggled to gain a foothold in Europe.

www.dagens.com

The company’s factories have produced millions of vehicles, fueling both the domestic economy and exports worldwide.

But now, the automotive giant is facing major financial pressures and is looking for ways to cut costs.

Volkswagen has confirmed that some of its German factories, which are scheduled for closure, could be sold to Chinese car brands.

Probably end up doing what the Japanese did. Build brands offshore.

Capitalism can be brutal but something is always reborn from the ashes as someone will still have money. Plenty suffer though.

Socialism is probably the worst.

Communism can actually pivot pretty fast but sucks overall.

Once you start mixing with socialism you get varying degrees of results. Fine if you have national unity. Disaster if you don't. It's always a long road to ruin as you get a bunch of brainless public service leeches thinking they have a magic pudding.

We have hit the point that it's becoming untenable. For some reason everyone thinks we can just keep racking up debt.

 

[sptrawler]

We have hit the point that it's becoming untenable. For some reason everyone thinks we can just keep racking up debt.

Yep just keep printing money to support a failing economy, until your trading partner isn't happy with what they are having to pay and they can hold you to ransom. (Sounds familiar) oh that's right they are buying our crayfish again, but they have screwed our nickel and lithium.

Interesting times, when Trump is the only hope you have.

 

[sptrawler]

Probably end up doing what the Japanese did. Build brands offshore.

Japan still the third largest manufacturing country in the world.



THIS IS WELL WORTH A LOOK IMO:

Manufacturing by Country 2024

worldpopulationreview.com

 

[Smurf1976]

the US has never been wealthier ever thanks to globalism

The problem is the unsustainability of it.

Manufacturing brought modest but widely distributed wealth. It was mostly sustainable since it trained workers, it didn't rely on constantly increasing debt or asset bubbles, it didn't rely on simply digging and shipping natural capital, etc. It also gave purpose and the opportunity to live a decent life to the many who aren't naturally suited to academic occupations and the like.

In contrast globalism brings highly concentrated wealth and a huge underclass. Some get rich, others do OK in occupations with a reasonable barrier to entry, the rest eek out a living in inherently low value work that can never pay well. That being a key point - by its very nature low value service work cannot pay well since little value is created.

Manufacturing of all types is also the breeding ground for technical and entrepreneurial leadership. Find anyone who ended up doing something clever technically or who went onto success in business and an awful lot will tell you they once spent their days in a workshop or operating machinery. Because technical people are drawn to that sort of thing, and once they get exposed to it that's what opens the doors with access to knowledgeable people, apprenticeships, a STEM degree even but it's walking through the gates of some big factory for the first time that opens those doors, it's never going to happen working in retail or hospitality.

There's a lot of potential we're wasting there especially in men. Then there's the foreign debt, asset inflation and all the rest.

There's a role for global trade, I wouldn't suggest it ought be zero, but there's a fatal flaw in the idea of the West just sitting back and letting someone else do all the work. In any situation that approach is easy in the short term but leads to long term decline as others slowly but surely gain the wealth and means of creating it along with strategic dominance.

The great inconsistency of globalists is they tend to advocate tertiary education. And yet that very same concept of up front investment, value adding to resources and taking a long term view is the exact opposite of the approach they advocate for society at the macro level. Hmm.....

 

[IFocus]

How? The US has never been in so much debt.

You mean the punters / sheeple debt, again the US has never been wealthier there is pretty much no upward mobility in wealth its currently being accumulated by the wealthy elite.

Trump is doing 0 about this, you recon another round of unfunded tax breaks will solve the issues?

 

[sptrawler]

Trump is doing 0 about this, you recon another round of unfunded tax breaks will solve the issues?

Don't you think maybe your political bias, may be clouding your objectivity?

From an American perspective, he was the only one offering an alternative, the Democrats were offering nothing other than an escalation in arms sales.
Take Germany for example their car industry and manufacturing is collapsing, mainly due to poor productivity and excessively high energy costs, the U.S is Germanies car manufacturers major market and Trump has offered them a lifeline.

Obviously the majority of American voters thought that the route the U.S was going, they would end up the same as most other Western countries, completely at the mercy of China, and Trump was the only candidate that voiced their concerns.
As we keep saying, it ain't rocket science, if China keeps on its current trajectory, the first world will become the third world.

You never know, it might encourage China to increase it workers conditions and pay similar to first world countries, on the condition tariffs are reduced, win/win.

Trump: "I Want German Car Companies To Become American Car Companies" | Carscoops

The Republican presidential candidate announced an aggressive strategy to boost automotive production on U.S. soil.

www.carscoops.com

The former president laid out his offer for every major foreign automaker if he finds himself back in the Oval Office:



“Here is the deal that I will be offering to every major company and manufacturer on Earth — I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden. And free access to the best and biggest market on the planet,” Trump said.

“But only if you make your product here in America. It all goes away if you don’t make your product here. And hire American workers for the job. If you don’t make your product here, then you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff,” he added.

Interestingly, the former president also expressed a willingness to welcome Chinese automakers into the U.S. market—on one condition: they build their vehicles locally. “We’re going to give incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell the cars, they’re going to build plants here, and they’re going to hire our workers.”

Trump to global businesses: Make products in US or pay tariffs

'America is back and open for business,' new US president tells leaders gathered for the Davos World Economic Forum

www.voanews.com

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invited global businesses to manufacture their products in the U.S. and promised them lower taxes but warned if they chose to produce their goods elsewhere, they would have to pay tariffs to export them to the United States.

"America is back and open for business," Trump, in a video linkup from Washington, told corporate leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth," Trump said. "But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff."

Trump said that in the global economy, the U.S. "just wants to be treated fairly by other countries."

He said the U.S. wants to have a "fair relationship" with China, the world's second-biggest economy.

"We don't want to take advantage," he said of Washington-Beijing relations. "We just want to have a level playing field."

 

[JohnDe]

“Here is the deal that I will be offering to every major company and manufacturer on Earth — I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden. And free access to the best and biggest market on the planet,” Trump said.

“But only if you make your product here in America. It all goes away if you don’t make your product here. And hire American workers for the job. If you don’t make your product here, then you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff,” he added.

Interestingly, the former president also expressed a willingness to welcome Chinese automakers into the U.S. market—on one condition: they build their vehicles locally. “We’re going to give incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell the cars, they’re going to build plants here, and they’re going to hire our workers.”

"My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth," Trump said. "But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff."

Pretty much what China has been offering for the last 40+ years.

 

[sptrawler]

Pretty much what China has been offering for the last 40+ years.

Absolutely and the very reason the multinationals didn't want Trump in office, continuing making their product in China to maximise their profits, is far more attractive.
Well now they have an option, GE etc can get their junk made in China and pay an import tax on it, or they can rebuild the factory they shutdown when they relocated their manufacturing to China.

At the end of the day the U.S is still the biggest market, but it wont be unless they can halt the slide down the industrialisation scale and slow China's rise up the scale, like Trump says "all we want is a level playing field".
Which IMO is the only way the western world will maintain its standard of living IMO, if we can't our welfare system will go the way of the Dodo and we will be selling Bintang tee shirts to Chinese tourists.

By the way, apologies for the spelling of 'Germany's' in the last post.

 

[IFocus]

Don't you think maybe your political bias, may be clouding your objectivity?

Nope don't like the Democrats either both have done 0 about the distribution of wealth to .5% of the population and little to everyone else.

Middle income is shrinking lower income expanding a beautiful thing for cheap labor.

Trump is not changing that.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico wont help.

 

[IFocus]

This is brutal