Thursday, September 13, 2018

SAD! Trump Economic Adviser Gary Cohn Trying to Explain Basic Economics to Trump

President Trump and economic adviser Gary Cohn

Still more from Bob Woodward's book,  Fear: Trump in the White House.

When he was Trump's top economic adviser Gary Cohn tried to explain to Trump that America is now a service economy – and that that’s okay.

“Think about it sir,” he says, “when you walk down a street in Manhattan today versus 20 or 30 years
ago…. It’s food, it’s restaurants, it’s Starbucks and it’s nail salons. We no longer have mom and pop hardware stores. We don’t have ma and pa clothing stores.”

Trump makes the point he went to “parts of Pennsylvania that used to be big steel towns and now they’re desolate.”

“That may be true,” responds Cohn, “But remember there were towns 100 years ago that made horse carriages and buggy whips. They had to reinvent themselves.”

“It has nothing to do with it,” Trump replies.

Cohn continues on. “I can sit in a nice office with air conditioning and a desk, or I can stand on my feet eight hours a day. Which one would you rather do for the same pay?”

Trump still wasn’t buying it. Eventually, exasperated, Cohn simply asks Trump: “Why do you have these views?”

“I just do,” Trump replies. “I’ve had these views for 30 years.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re right,” says Cohn. “I had the view for 15 years I could play professional football.”

-RW  

2 comments:

  1. In modern steel factories conditions for workers have improved enormously. Without government intervention I can't really see why the steel industry should have declined in America. Mills producing steel billets/bars should have benefited from efficiency gains that come naturally when costs are chased lower. Workers displaced from mills due to productivity gains would have moved on to more specialized steel shops. All of this should have led to declining costs for builders. Trump is obviously an ignoramus when it comes to economics like you've said many times, but this horse carriages and buggy whips analogy to explain away the steel industry doesn't make sense. Steel mills did not go the way of horse buggies, margins were simply chipped away at by regulations. Next I'll hear Venezuela's economic advisers telling Maduro that oil is no longer produced in country because Venezuelans have opted to provide blow jobs to foreigners in air conditioned hotel rooms in exchange for a gallon of gasoline.

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  2. Trump's really forced the hands of libertarians. Now they play suck ass with Goldman types. Guess the lefties who said libertarians were water-carrying toadies for corporate neoliberalism weren't kidding after all!

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