Remember January 1.
You woke with a crushing hangover. And you thought, “How did I get HERE! Oh well, I'll feel better later". And then…
"After all it's a new year!"
You made some coffee and said to yourself – "It's 2025 and we have a new president Donald Trump. And he has Elon Musk. Things will be better."
How wrong you were. Go back to your crib,
Sorry to tell you, is not a “new” year it's an old year – it's 1929. The new president is Herbert Hoover reborn and his right-hand man the reincarnation of Andrew Mellon, the architect of the Smoot-Hawley Act.
Like Trump and Musk, Herbert and Mellon didn't like taxes, especially income taxes. So they promised to solve America's economic problems with tariffs. Get them damn foreigners to pay.
It didn't work in 1929. But the past became our future,
Don’t let anyone tell you that history doesn’t repeat itself — it does. Be careful — that woman you wake up beside in the morning, might be your wife!
What you see today is just the past recycled— and the things that didn't work before – and won't work now.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Albert Einstein.
Hoover wasn't very bright. Like Trump who can barely read and relies on Musk, Hoover relied on Mellon, who was infatuated with the wealthy, from whom, he thought all good things “trickled down”.
Give tax breaks to large corporations, so that money can trickle down to the general public, in the form of extra jobs. A nation is not in danger of financial disaster merely because it owes itself money. The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid. Andrew Mellon
Mellon and Hoover lived in La-La Land, now known as Mar a Lago, In 1928, Mellon said:
But prosperity didn’t continue, 1929 was financial chaos. The high flyers forgot to invest in parachutes.
Mellon was not fazed. He, like Trump and Musk, saw chaos as opportunity to get rid of a lot of things in the way of “enterprising people”, like himself I gueess,
Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people. Andrew Mellon
Got that— poverty is good for you, If you are lucky, maybe they will deport you to Mexico,
Simply put: if you’re rich — tear it all down. Rather like what Musk is doing with Doge. Create chaos .Purge and new order will emerge. Doge is a socio-political laxative.
Hoover, Mellon, Trump, and Musk all believe that you just have to get out of the way and let a few smart rich people do their thing.
Get rid of taxes on the rich, put tariffs in place, gut government and the public sector, make homelessness a crime — and all will be well, “Values will be adjusted” .
The Great Depression proved Hoover and Mellon wrong, It also proved what Trump and Musk are doing today wrong.
Now, of course, GDP is not everything - it’s just an indicator.
But:
People weren’t too happy in 1929 Part 1.
Now with Part 2, Trump has just addressed Congress, promising “prosperity” just as Mellon did through lower taxes, tariff wars, and liquidating the public sector.
Have you noticed all the old movies resurrected recently? It’s a trend—your economy is just another rerun.
Public response to Trump’s speech was very positive, although the majority of the those surveyed were Republicans. Still….
Economists, however, are horrified. Not just Wolff, a neo-Marxist — but economists in general.
Let us also remember one consequence of the Great Depression was war. Europe and especially Germany were hit hard, which gave rise to fascism, which Wolff and Hudson think the terminal stage of financialization.
About the only country largely unaffected by the Great Depression in the US and Europe —and maybe even benefiting from it was the USSR—which was autarkic,
Russia too will likely benefit from a US Depression . Not debt to speak of and autarkic.
China will do just fine,
To butcher Mellon’s adage a little, “Enterprising countries will pick up from less competent ones?
For Russia and China it’s 2025, For us, 1929.
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My analysis of the effects of tariffs is based on an historical analysis of the effects of tariffs with extensive documentation . This study covers tariffs in the 20th Century- all aspects globally .
https://scholar.harvard.edu/sites/scholar.harvard.edu/files/jwilliamson/files/tariffs_dublin.pdf
"Hoover, Mellon, Trump, and Musk all believe that you just have to get out of the way and let a few smart rich people do their thing."
Let's not leave the rest of our Keepers out of this, the ones immediately preceding Trump in office and the ones that ushered in 80 straight years of fascism hegemony, and continuing, after WWII. Our fascist West is far bigger, more systematic, more intentionally designed, and more dangerous than a couple of presidential terms.