Reversing three decades of middle-class economic erosion

At The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance spends a lot of time examining what Trump and his team are doing economically.

In order to reverse three decades of middle-class economic erosion, there were indicators that Trump’s strategy was a radical change in approach. In essence the strategy was to split the economic policy into two areas and sequence the policy: highly-consumable goods (first) and durable goods (second).

Both product sectors have historically been viewed and approached by economic policy makers using a single financial strategy. That singular approach gave rise to Wall Street benefiting and Main Street suffering. Investment-class gained; middle-class suffered.

…His policy would first target multinational corporations, using the U.S. Treasury (Mnuchin) to weaken their grip and influence; simultaneously, he would use energy policy to drive down domestic prices in highly-consumable products (fuel, food, energy sector). These sectors are not measured in fed inflation indexes; however, if lowered, these facets of consumer spending can also increase the amount of disposable income available for workers.

In essence, expand the economy by lowering the aggregate cost of living for the middle-class who live paycheck-to-paycheck. Use monetary policy, fiscal policy and trade policy), to entice domestic investment and create jobs; and ultimately put upward pressure on wages.

The second aspect of Trump economic policy is geared toward ‘durable goods’. That’s where the trade imbalance plays a larger role in the strategy.

…The trade policy, tightly executed by Trump, Mnuchin, Ross and Lighthizer, will put increased pressure on manufacturers to make products in the U.S. In turn this puts further demand on U.S. workers; which, in turn, drives up the wages – to afford the prices of durable goods as they increase.

Simultaneously, it must be remembered that every dollar removed from imports actually increases the GDP. The value of all imported goods is deducted from the combined value of all goods and services we produce. If we drop $1 billion in imports on Washing Machines, and simultaneously manufacture $1 billion on Washing Machines in the U.S., the U.S. GDP gains $2 billion in value. The U.S. economy actually expands by more than $2 billion because the attached manufacturing wages are also inside the U.S.