Moody’s Blues
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By Bill Maher
Add another group who think businessman Donald Trump’s presidency would be a disaster: People who understand business.
Moody’s Analytics just released their analysis of Trump’s proposed economic policies and found that a Trump presidency would weaken the country “significantly,” put us into an “unusually lengthy recession,” and cost us 3.5 million jobs, raising the unemployment rate to 7 percent. All while increasing the deficit and the debt. Oh well, at least we won’t have to get tired of winning!
Of course, Moody’s had to note that, “Quantifying Mr. Trump’s economic policies is complicated by their lack of specificity.” But that, “Broadly, Mr. Trump’s economic proposals will result in a more isolated U.S. economy. Cross-border trade and immigration will be significantly diminished, and with less trade and immigration, foreign direct investment will also be reduced.”
The Trump team responded by attacking the credibility of one of the study’s authors and claiming that, “One could equally conclude from the report that the Trump policies would do no harm rather than the great harm portrayed by Hillary Clinton.” But this is a hard one to whine and cry foul over. Moody’s Analytics is an offshoot of the ratings agency – they don’t pick political horses. They try to offer financial guidance.
This shouldn’t be surprising, but it highlights something people don’t point out a lot: Donald Trump is not a businessman in the way Mitt Romney was. Mitt’s an analytics guy, doing consultancy and analysis for all aspects of big businesses.
Trump’s businesses are almost laughably simple: Buy a property. Hire a contractor (and then stiff him). Put your name on some steaks or a school and induce people to buy. Tell someone they’re fired. Borrow money, and declare bankruptcy when things go wrong. Everything Trump has done in business could’ve been done 100 years ago, and requires little economic knowledge. That’s why he doesn’t understand basic concepts like trade imbalances and bonds.
As I’ve said, the idea that you can run America like a business has always been a troublesome proposition. But to run it like a Trump business is just plain stupid.
