DOGE dividends are daft

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February 22, 2025 — The “DOGE dividends” that Elon Musk is promoting are beyond absurd.  I’m not even completely sure that the Musk-Trump team will succeed in cutting government spending on net.  But assuming it does,

  • the savings will not be enough to fund the renewal of the 2017 tax cuts, which Trump has pledged to do,
  • let alone also finance the new tax cuts he promised in the campaign (e.g., exempting tips),
  • let alone eliminate the budget deficit,
  • let alone pay down the debt.
    Even if he does just some of the tax cuts he has promised, he won’t have any money left over for a DOGE rebate.
    “Economists Reveal the Truth Behind Musk and Trump’s ‘DOGE Dividends’,” The Daily Beast, Feb. 20, 2025.
    “Trump’s tax cuts and Musk’s Doge show they have no idea about US debt,” the Guardian, Nov. 21, 2024.
    • read more

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    Retrospective on the First Year of Trump’s Second Term

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    Washington DC, January 11, 2026 — What a difference a year makes.  When Donald Trump took the oath of office for the second time, almost 12 months ago, his supporters and opponents alike were expecting a set of policies very different from what actually unfolded.

    After the November 2024 election, the mood of the American business community began to shift.  Some businesspeople had all along harbored doubts about Trump’s anti-globalization campaign.  But overall confidence began to fall early in the new year when they came face to face with some of the possible consequences of cutting the US economy off from international trade and migration — the prospects of sharply increased prices of imported products and worker shortages in some sectors. read more

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    Trump threatens tariffs against a BRICs chimera

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    December 20, 2024 — In 2023, the leaders of Brazil and other BRICS countries – Russia, India, China, and South Africa – began to discuss the creation of a new common currency.   At a BRICS summit meeting two months ago, they continued to talk up the currency proposal.  New members as of this year, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates would presumably also be included.

    The idea is to encourage a shift in the global monetary system away from dominance of the dollar, which has held sway the last 75 years.  This has provoked President-elect Donald Trump.  On November 30, 2024, he reiterated a warning to the BRICS that he required “a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty US Dollar, or they will face 100% Tariffs.” read more

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