Running Against Trump-Biden-Harris

There are 335 million Americans and counting.

Is the rematch-that-virtually-nobody wants (Donald vs. Joe-Kamala), the best we can do as an exceptional civilized society?

Almost DailyBrett has less-than-zero interest in relitigating the torturous 2020 election between these has-beens. Instead of refighting the past war, let’s concentrate on the future with a fresh new optimistic voice leading the way.

Remember the first 2020 debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump? Hide the women and children. Your author is trying to forget that shameful display, and does not want a redux next year.

It’s time — no it’s past time — for an adult in the room.

In the last seven years, it’s only been Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The United States is the No. 1 economy ($27 trillion) on the planet. Are these hombres and mujeres, the best an exemplary nation can do?

The elitist legacy-and-digital media may clamor for more-and-more of Donald Trump for ratings, power and legal tender. Is this cat-nip infatuation with a race to the rhetorical bottom consistent with our best hopes and dreams?

The RealClear Politics favorability scores for Biden (40.4 percent) and Trump (40.1 percent) are dreadful. The good news is both of these gents are running in front of always charming and articulate Kamala Harris (36.5 percent).

Employing every quantitative metric (RCP average of surveys), Joe Biden is below the Mendoza line: Economy, 36.6 percent, Foreign policy, 39.6 percent, Immigration, 33.6 percent; Inflation, 32.7 percent; Crime, 35.7 percent, Russia-Ukraine, 43.8 percent.

Wasn’t the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) supposed to tame pesky rising prices? Keep in mind, the country spends $794 billion on national defense as a point of comparison.

Americans instinctively know there is something wrong with the affairs of state as 22 percent contend we are on the right course, and 67 percent believe we are on the wrong track.

Take a gander at the US Debt Clock: $33.1 trillion national debt, the equivalent of 122 percent of the nation’s $27 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). The nation’s No. 4 expenditure are $709 billion in debt payments with interest rates rising.

It’s time for a change, but Donald Trump is not what the doctor ordered. We’ve been there. We’ve done that.

The Sinister Spectre of Kamala

“So, during Women’s History Month, we celebrate and we honor the women who made history throughout history, who saw what could be unburdened by what had been.” — Kamala Harris word salad, March 22, 2023

“There are bad vice-presidential picks, and then there’s Kamala Harris.” — Rich Lowry, National Review, September 25, 2023

Lurking behind the plethora of candles on Joe Biden’s 81st birthday cake (Nov. 20), is the scorching prospect of Kamala Harris as the 47th president sometime, anytime between 2023 and 2029.

We know from painful experience Donald Trump is not the answer. There has to be a Tony Blair Third Way. There has to be someone new.

Almost DailyBrett tuned into the Fox News Channel debate Wednesday at the Reagan Presidential Library in search of a candidate breaking away from the pack and offering an alternative to Trump-Biden-Kamala.

Not yet, not at this time.

Keep in mind the talking heads political proctologists in 2023 (thank you Mike Royko) will not decide the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the caucuses, primary and general election voters in 2024.

Some one could break out of the pack and capture the imagination of the nation. There is still time. There is still hope.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/general-election-trump-vs-biden-7383.html

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Trump Is The Anti-Reagan

Can Kamala Be Helped?

Ron DeSantis in California; Gavin Newsom in Baja

Trump + News = Republicans Lose

An Intelligent Approach To Abortion Axis

“Economically Illiterate Silver-Tongued Demagogues”?

“When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).” — Warren Buffett, The Oracle of Omaha, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Investor Letter, February 25, 2023

“Corporations ought to do the right thing. That’s why I propose we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks and encourage long-term investments. They’ll still make considerable profit.” — President Joe Biden, State of the Union Address, February 7, 2023

Silver-tongued demagogue? Nope. Economically illiterate? If the shoe fits …

How does POTUS know that publicly traded American corporations will make a “considerable profit?”

He has proudly proclaimed he doesn’t own stocks in US companies. He doesn’t even maintain a savings account. Can he read an income statement or a balance sheet? Can he forecast the future when it comes to the bottom line? Does Mr. President know where to find the bottom line on an income statement?

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act imposes a precedent setting 1 percent excise tax on stock repurchases. How applying new taxes on corporate share buybacks fights inflation is way beyond the pay grade of Almost DailyBrett.

If the increased revenues from these taxes were directed to reduce the nation’s unsustainable and untenable $31.58 trillion debt (120 percent of the nation’s annual productivity), financed by spending $537 billion in debt service, the leader of the free world would have an argument about inflation reduction.

Alas, all the money will be spent. All the money is always spent, and then some.

Maybe Corporations Should Apply For Student Loan Relief?

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” — President Ronald Reagan

Why do the economically illiterate/silver-tongued demagogues have a collective hard-on, when it comes to corporate buybacks?

Is it because it leads to profiteering (new Beltway verb)?

When somethings seems to be too good to be true, don’t you know that is indeed the case?

As a way to stimulate American semiconductor innovation and manufacturing, Congress passed the $52 billion bill (CHIPS Act) as an incentive for US microcircuits innovators.

Alas, Senator Elizabeth Warren and others of her ilk want to prevent microchip companies from using federal monies for capital expenditure and research and development (R&D), so they can in turn can free up corporate capital for — you guessed it — corporate buybacks.

As a former director of corporate public relations for a Silicon Valley based publicly traded semiconductor innovator (LSI Logic) for a decade, Almost DailyBrett understands why companies periodically buy back their own shares for the benefit of their employees and their shareholders.

When markets and stock prices are lower, a company can reduce the float, thus increasing the value of each remaining share. This practice does not come at the expense of employee compensation, capital expansion and/or research and development.

In fact, a large percentage of employees participate in Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP) and/or stock options. Senator Warren and her flock somehow doesn’t think increasing the value of each share doesn’t help these workers fight inflation?

How about public employees in STRS (State Teachers Retirement System and PERS (Public Employees Retirement System)? Don’t these daddies and mommies benefit when their pension or 401k retirement systems increase in value? What about America’s Investor Class, the 56 percent of Americans who own company shares or stock-based mutual funds?

Think of it this way: Warren Buffett — even the pseudo-Andy Warhol version — has forgotten more about economics than Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren will ever know.

The real question is what the hell is wrong with corporate buybacks? American publicly traded companies have been floating shares ever since the founding of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1792. Investors bought pieces of companies, providing valuable seed money to hire, build and research.

It’s a beautiful thing. Government intervention is not required. Really.

Warren Buffett, 92, knows a thing-or-two about the vagaries of public markets. He also can identify “economic illiterate silver-tongued demagogues,” when he sees them.

Does the shoe fit?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/25/warren-buffett-annual-letter-berkshire-hathaway-stock-buybacks.html

https://news.yahoo.com/president-biden-calls-out-stock-buybacks-in-state-of-the-union-address-104810205.html?

https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-lawmakers-to-commerce-dept-prevent-stock-buybacks-by-corporations-that-receive-chips-act-funds

https://www.nyse.com/history-of-nyse

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Killing America’s Investor Class?

Throwing Even More Money At Inflation?

Stop Dissing America’s Investor Class

Fiduciary Responsibility vs. Corporate Social Responsibility

Killing America’s Investor Class?

“It’s the economy, stupid.” — Former Democratic presidential campaign manager James Carville, 1992

“We better pay heed to history. When you have a bad economy, that’s what people vote on. They don’t vote on anything else. That’s what affects them and their families every day.” — Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”

America’s cumulative family wealth declined $6.2 trillion — greater than Japan’s entire industrial output — since the beginning of the year.

Almost DailyBrett and millions of other Americans recoil in horror virtually each and every time they open their investment portfolios. How low can it go?

More importantly: Does the White House and the majority in Congress really care about the 56 percent of higher-and-middle income Americans, who comprise the nation’s Investor Class?

Do you suspect deep down inside they sadistically relish in the suffering of those who work hard and attempt to invest their after-tax dollars for their retirement, a dream vacation or their children’s education?

Isn’t this bi-coastal elite Schadenfreude contrary to the best interests of public employees (PERS) and teachers’ unions (STRS), buying low and hoping to sell high in highly regulated — SEC, FTC, DOJ — public markets?

There is the also matter of law that is directly applicable when it comes to striving for profitability. Congress passed the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 to protect the retirement assets of Americans.

Specifically, the law defines a “fiduciary as anyone who exercises discretionary authority or control over a plan’s management or assets, including anyone who provides investment advice. Fiduciaries who do not follow the principles of conduct may be held responsible for restoring losses to the plan.”

Did a young Senator from Delaware vote for this law?

As the nation’s chief executive, is President Joe Biden doing anything on behalf of fiduciary responsibility to protect investing Americans? Would he understand fiduciary even if it bit him on the backside?

Couldn’t help noting that old fogey James Taylor was asked to play his guitar at the White House as part of a horrifically mistimed event celebrating the $740 billion catastrophically misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.

Who is the audience? Barbra Streisand?

Inflation, The Gift That Keeps Giving Giving

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.” — President Ronald Reagan

Compounding the plight for middle-class investors — and particularly those on fixed income — is the daily reminders of surging prices. Gasoline maybe seasonally lower, but the costs for food, housing, energy just keep on rolling.

Thinking back to Jim Carville’s “It’s the economy, stupid,” Almost DailyBrett believes the mid-terms will turn on the mismanagement of inflation and the deepening recession. A close second goes to dramatic increase in crime.

There are some, who are hoping against hope, the election will be decided on the touchy abortion issue. Your author believes the bitterly entrenched one-issue pro-abortion and anti-abortion forces already know how they are going to vote. The overturning of Roe v. Wade does not change the equation.

Which brings us back to America’s investor class and inflation. No one seems to care about investors. They matter.

Their 401k are down. Their pensions are down. Their IRAs are down.

They’re pissed. They’re going to vote.

They’ve seen fire and they’ve seen rain.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-household-wealth-falls-again-second-quarter-fed-says-2022-09-09/

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-abc-nbc-panels-warn-democrats-midterm-messaging-as-bidens-approval-remains-underwater

Fiduciary Responsibility vs. Corporate Social Responsibility

The America That Can’t Anymore

Better Off Four Years Ago?

Paying For The Government You Vote For

Throwing Even More Money At Inflation?

“Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”  — President Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

“Ever since you came into office, things are already looking up. Gas is up. Rent is up. Food is up. Everything.” — Comedian Trevor Noah roasting President Joe Biden at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, April 30, 2022

How’s the $740 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” working out?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported that red-hot inflation remains en-fuego at 8.3 percent on an annual basis. Wasn’t the Inflation Reduction Act supposed to reduce inflation?

Been to the grocery store?

Are mortgage rates and rents going up or down?

Checked out your investment portfolio lately? Be afraid, be very afraid.

We know with certainty that sticker shock and depressed household wealth will not change between now and November 8. Will they become the new norm in America?

Think of it this way: the nation allocates $758 billion for national defense. And now the government is now spending just as much to supposedly tackle inflation?

Almost DailyBrett must ask: Isn’t adding $740 billion in even more spending to our record $30.8 trillion national debt, the equivalent of throwing kerosine on a roaring fire or giving yet another drink to an overserved drunk?

What other metaphors apply to this growing crisis.

Wouldn’t the administration’s decision to forgive $400 billion in student debt, adding that amount to the deficit and the debt just more of the same when it comes to the government just accepting inflation? Do the drunken sailors at the White House and Congress really care?

Why is it the solution to every national problem (e.g., systemic homelessness) the same: spend more money? The growth of the money supply (M1) is the cause of inflation. How is it cured?

Jerome Powell and other adults at the Federal Reserve will undoubtedly approve next week an unprecedented third-in-a-row three-quarters-of-1 percent rate increase. There will not be a soft landing, but a deepening of the nation’s recession into 2023.

Some may not care if the 55 percent of America’s Investor Class is getting pounded, but they should. These investors have less money to spend, and that means fewer dollars for our consumer-oriented economy.

Who Get’s Hurt?

“Inflation is the cancer of modern civilization. It is a disease of money, and when money goes, order goes with it. Inflation comes when a government has made too many promises it cannot keep and papers over the shortfall with currency which ultimately becomes confetti – and faith is lost.” – American political journalist and historian Theodore H. White, ‘America in Search of Itself,’ 1982

“Defying periodic predictions of economic downturn, the recovery that began in 1983 continued through Reagan’s second term and carried over into the Bush administration, providing by far the longest peacetime expansion in United States history. Eighteen million new jobs were created. The annual inflation rate, which averaged 12.5 percent in the final year of the Carter presidency, averaged 4.4 percent in 1988.” — Washington Post political reporter Lou Cannon, President Reagan, The Role of a Lifetime

High interest rates impact those trying to buy a house or car.

Unemployment particularly hits those, who just lost a job.

Inflation hurts everyone, particularly those who can least afford it (those living on fixed income).

Richard Nixon tried foolish wage-and-price controls. Gerald Ford wore a goofy WIN button (Whip Inflation Now). Jimmy Carter was seemingly helpless in the face of systemic inflation, unceremoniously leaving office with a staggering 12.5 percent inflation rate.

Reagan teamed with former Fed chair Paul Volcker to raise interest rates, reducing the size of the money supply. Reaganomics focused on growth of the private sector, producing jobs and resulting in the greatest peacetime economic boom in America’s history.

Does Joe Biden understand this plan has been empirically proven to work? Or will he instinctively just throw more taxpayer money at inflation?

When will the government learn that spending is the root cause of inflation, not the solution?

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/09/13/despite-rosier-figures-america-still-has-an-inflation-problem

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/inaugural-address-1981

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/08/25/biden-spends-hundreds-of-billions-on-reducing-student-loan-debt

Better Off Four Years Ago?

How The Gipper Beat Inflation

Learning Inflation For The First Time?

Trump + News = Republicans Lose

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.” – English statesman Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

After a lengthy career in public affairs going back to 1978 tax revolt, Almost DailyBrett readily concurs with those who contend politics is not an exact science.

From former boss California Governor George Deukmejian, your author learned: Never take anything for granted. Campaign as if you are running behind.

Now, we have a new political equation: Take divisive Donald Trump’s drama. Put him into the news on a never-ending basis (e.g., Mar-a-Lago Raid). And the result? Republicans lose.

Remember the prospects of a mid-term Red Wave going to sweep Democrats out of office this fall because of Joe Biden’s raging inflation and deepening recession?

Gasoline prices are still way too high. Stubborn inflation hangs in at a 8.5 percent annual rate. The Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates even higher. The Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t reduce inflation. Cumulatively, the administration has added $4.1 trillion to the obscene $30.7 trillion national debt.

And yet despite all that well-documented national misery, Republicans are scrambling. Republicans are in trouble. Why? The sinister shadow of The Donald.

Trump is synonymous with the GOP. The more Donald Trump is in the news, the more Republicans lose. It’s just that simple.

Do you think the rocket scientists at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) haven’t figured that out? Keep Joe Biden away from the teleprompter, and let Donald Trump dominate the national discourse.

Just as water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees, the more Donald Trump is in the news, the worse the prospects for Republicans. Tedious Trump literally sucks the air out of any room.

For Republicans there has to be a (former UK prime minister) Tony Blair Third Way.

Real Republicans are already frightened by the present-day horror of Kamala Harris being one heart-beat away from the presidency. The prospect of re-electing Biden (assuming he runs) means he would start his second term at 83-years-old with conniving Kamala.

What are the chances of him finishing that term?

Is the only alternative, putting Trump back in office?

There Has To Be An Alternative To Drowning Or Burning At The Stake

“It is easy to forget that Mr Trump loses elections. In the four years of his presidency he lost his party both houses of Congress as well as the White House. Many voters understand that he is dangerous and undemocratic and most do not want him back in office. The reason Mr Trump campaigns so hard against the trustworthiness of the ballot box is that he knows the ballot box can defeat him.” — The Economist, ‘Will Donald Trump run again?’ August 18, 2022

“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” — Humorist Will Rogers

There was once a political axiom stating: If the Democrats were as organized as the Republicans, the Democrats would never lose an election.

Sure wish it was that simple.

Almost DailyBrett last voted for the Republican nominee for president in 2012 (Mitt Romney). Your author did not pull the lever neither for the Clinton Restoration in 2016 nor the Harris-Biden ticket four years later. More to the point, yours truly wrote-in Paul Ryan in 2016 and favored Mike Pence in 2020.

There were no votes cast for Donald Trump, and there never will be. More than 74 million voted for his re-election in 2020. How can that energy be harnessed for the good of the nation?

When people discover your author is a registered Republican (Almost DailyBrett fondly remembers Ronald Reagan), everyone else instinctively and immediately thinks about Donald Trump.

What is the Third Way for long-time Republicans, who do not want for even another nanosecond of Trump baggage (i.e., January 6, Mar-a-Lago Raid, The Big Lie … )?

Is Lynn Cheney, the answer? Has a sitting member of the House of Representatives without serving as vice president, a governor or senator ever been elected president?

How about the model of upset winning Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin? The Harvard MBA, former CEO of The Carlyle Group did not campaign with the Donald. Youngkin, 55, was respectful of Virginians, who voted for Trump. He focused on issues of concern to millions of parents, what are children being taught in school. He won.

As Winston Churchill once said: “If the present tries to sit in judgment of the past, it will lose the future.”

Donald Trump is the immediate past of the Republican Party. Their is zero upside with litigating The Big Lie, January 6, Mar-a-Lago Raid or other pieces of Trumpian baggage.

A great leader needs to slay the New York street fighter in the coming Republican primaries, pointing to the future with Reaganesque optimism.

Republicans can win again.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/08/18/will-donald-trump-run-again

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2022/08/18/donald-trumps-hold-on-the-republican-party-is-unquestionable

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/third-way

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/will_rogers_122697

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-good-chance-winning-mar-a-lago-midterms

Let Trump “Own” January 6

Parents vs Teachers