[Mick1]

Something here for everyone to dislike. I don’t like the idea of bringing consumer finance onto the government balance sheet any more than I liked bringing student loans into it. Student loans became the next political patronage lever, imagine if every single consumer had government debt that politicians can play “vote buying” with I want far fewer people dependent on the government for their financial well being, not far more!

Oh, I agree. All I’m saying is that it would immediately put a lot of money back into consumer’s pockets, turn into a revenue source for a government that desperately needs it and completely screw Wall Street which has been preying upon consumers for…a very long time. And the fact is, no entity can force you to pay like the government can. They track you the entire way.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mick1.

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[Mick1]

BTW, Trump’s trade war is crushing Russia economically. Their signature export is oil (almost 30% of their revenue), and Trump’s administration is forcing the price of oil downwards. Russian Urals grade (their best) slumped to $52.76 per barrel. Russia’s 2025 govt budget assumed an average oil price of $69.70 per barrel. This is going to hurt Russia’s ability to borrow money to finance the war. At least the USA pays back its debt on time, Russia has already defaulted on some of its foreign debt as of June 2022. And Trump’s tariffs means other countries slow down their purchases of oil and gas from Moscow.

Russia’s Central Bank already has interest rates at 21%. Their housing market is grappling with soaring interest rates and curtailed state subsidies for first time buyers. New car sales are at their lowest in a decade. Rail freight traffic is down 20%. Everyone who can afford to leave has made for the border.

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[Mick1]

Great question. American economic might is the answer. Build our own businesses right on our shores. Prevent the mercantilist notions of other countries (I’m looking at you, China). If it’s bought here, it’s built here.

I didn’t even mention the encroachment of artificial intelligence and ensuing loss of jobs.

But how, how to require that we shrink the trade deficit and build more private employment, while shrinking inefficient government? If only there were a way to eliminate government payrolls, make government more efficient, discourage foreign suppliers and encourage Americans to buy American.

It’s a conundrum.

Not really. Trump is doing it. Man does the Left hate that he’s succeeding.

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[Mick1]

Trump is trying to reverse generations of economic, political, international and military mismanagement. He needs to address a skyrocketing Federal deficit that is by far the highest in history relative to GDP, a jaw-dropping trade deficit that nearly doubled under Biden’s watch, two generations’ worth of manufacturing jobs that left our shores for that of our enemies, a demographic time bomb of social security, a debt-laden consumer that can’t afford to spend any more, the highest inflation (self-inflicted, BTW) in two generations, a vastly-overextended military and warlike predecessors, and to top it all off, an absolute, total and complete immigration disaster.

There is not a single area of American life that isn’t screaming out to be improved.

I can’t wait for BYT’s solution as to How Trump Should Have Fixed All The Crap Left Behind By Biden And Generations Of Democrat-Controlled Administrations.

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[Mick1]

Here’s the updated list. Please note, although Rolex and Richemont have closed in the mall, they’ve invested in nearby Union Square. Rolex recently opened a showroom with Kerns Fine Jewelry at 255 Post St., and Richemont’s A. Lange & Söhne division opened at 140 Geary St. Separately, Breitling opened its own watch store last year at 299 Post St.

Please note, Zara did close its 20k space, but is reopening as a 40k space.

New closings in bold:

1. 24-Hour Fitness
2. A Miner Miracle Shop
3. Abercrombie & Fitch
4. Adidas
5. Agent Provocateur
6. Aldo
7. Alessi
8. Alexander McQueen
9. AllSaints
10. Amazon Go
11. American Eagle Outfitters
12. Amy Kuschel Bride
13. Anthropologie
14. Archive
15. Arc’teryx
16. AT&T
17. Athleta
18. Babette
19. Banana Republic
20. Bank of America (brand on 1 Market Street)
21. Barneys New York
22. Bed Bath & Beyond
23. Benefit
24. Bloom Room, The
25. Bloomingdale’s
26. Brooks Brothers
27. Bucherer / Rolex
28. Burke Williams Spa
29. California Girl Jewelry
30. Camper Shoes
31. CB2
32. Christian Louboutin
33. Cinemark Multiplex
34. Coach
35. Coco Republic Furniture
36. Cole Haan
37. Container Store, The
38. Crate & Barrel
39. Crunch Gym
40. Cuyana
41. CVS Pharmacy
42. Denny’s
43. Diana Slavin
44. Diesel
45. Disney Store
46. DSW/Designer Shoe Warehouse
47. eDressit
48. Ethos
49. Express
50. Façonnable
51. Farinelli Decorative Arts
52. First Republic Bank
53. Forever 21
54. Forum
55. Gallery of Jewels
56. GameStop
57. Gap, The
58. Goorin Brothers
59. Green Arcade Bookstore
60. G-Star
61. H&M
62. Harputs
63. Hilton Union Square
64. Hollister
65. Huntington
66. Icebreaker
67. In-N-Out Burger
68. IWC Schaffhausen
69. J. Crew
70. Jamba Juice
71. Jeffrey’s Toys
72. Jimmy Choo
73. Jimmy Choo Men’s
74. Jin Wang Bridal
75. Jins Eyewear
76. John Varvatos
77. Johnny Was
78. Jos. A. Bank Clothier
79. Journeys
80. Kate Spade
81. Klaus Murer Swiss Jeweler
82. Kohl’s (27 closings nationwide)
83. KPMG – Leaving their $400 million name building
84. L’Occitane
85. La Cocina
86. La Perla
87. Lego Stores
88. Lily Samii Collection
89. Longchamp
90. Lucky Brand
91. Lululemon
92. Lush
93. Macy’s
94. Madewell
95. Makeshop by Brit + Co.
96. Margaret O’Leary
97. Marlowe
98. Marmot
99. Marni
100. Marshall’s
101. MCM Worldwide
102. Mephisto
103. Merrell
104. Michael Kors
105. New Balance
106. Nordstrom – Closing all San Francisco stores, not just Union Square
107. Nordstrom Rack
108. North Face
109. Oakley
110. Office Depot
111. Old Navy
112. Omega
113. Ordinary, The | DECIEM
114. Panerai
115. Paper Source
116. Parc 55
117. Psycho Bunny
118. Rae | Costumes
119. Ray Ban
120. Razer
121. RealReal, The
122. Richemont
123. Ria’s Shoes
124. Rims & Goggles
125. Rolex
126. Saks Off Fifth
127. Scotch & Soda
128. See’s Candies
129. Sentiero
130. Sephora
131. Seven Eleven
132. Shreve & Company Jewelers
133. Starbuck’s (Two closings three more by 2025)
134. Steve Madden
135. Subway
136. Sunglass Hut
137. Taco Bell
138. Target
139. Ted Baker
140. The Body Shop
141. Theory
142. Thomas Pink
143. Tina’s Jewelry
144. T-Mobile
145. Tourbillon Boutique
146. TSE
147. TUMI
148. Uniglo
149. V Boutique
150. Vans
151. Veo Optics
152. Vilebrequin
153. Walgreen’s (closed five SF stores in late 2021, twelve by 2025)
154. Warby Parker
155. Westfield Mall
156. Whole Foods
157. Williams Sonoma
158. Wolford
159. World of Charms
160. Yotel
161. Zadig & Voltaire
162. Zara
163. Zumiez

 

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[Mick1]

Here’s a partial solution, one that’s been supported by two politicians as different as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump:

1. Have the Federal Government buy the consumer’s debt and turn it into a term loan with fixed repayment terms.
2. Charge the consumer LIBOR + 1% instead of the usurious rates charged by Wall Street.
3. Presto: the consumer saves money, s/he develops better spending habits, the Federal Government gets another source of revenue valued at $1.5 trillion (the difference between consumer credit card/personal loan/payday loan interest rates and LIBOR+1%).

The only negative is that it sticks it to the part of Wall Street that soaks Main Street.

Sounds like a win-win-win-win to me…

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[Mick1]

This is what I love, love, love about Lefties. Hoover was in office, so he created The Great Depression.

No, they don’t mention the financial speculation that happened throughout the 1920s (Hoover didn’t take office until 1929). They don’t mention the buying of consumer goods en masse  on credit, which happened throughout the 1920s. They don’t mention the 67% increase in the money supply between 1921 and 1929 which led to overinvestment.

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[Mick1]

I remember when the Democratic Party nominated Joe Biden, the only moderate among Warren / Sanders / Kamala / Beto / Buttigieg / Bloomberg / Marianne / Klobuchar / Tulsi / Yang / Patrick / Kraus / De La Fuente / Steyer / Booker and about a dozen others. The Democrats knew and understood that America was a centrist country, and only Biden could beat Trump, and only under circumstances where, say, a once-in-a-century global pandemic that originated halfway around the world could be blamed on Trump and a visibly failing Joe Biden could run for President under tightly controlled circumstances, let’s say, from a basement.

And then, the rest of the Democratic world pretended, post-election, that Joe Biden was not non compos mentis. And the talking heads/ Big Media / Big Academia / Silicon Valley / Hollywood / BigLaw / BigLabor all lauuuuughed and laaaaaaaaughed as their long-past-his-prime, doddering old fool of a President, easily led by Progressives enacted their radical agenda to the detriment of America. They printed money, they closed America for business, they kept children out of school and with a collective straight face, they and Lady MacBiden looked into the camera and promised that Joe Biden was of sound mind and body, knowing the entire time that the ol’ brain synapses just weren’t firing, but they didn’t care because without a working, functioning President, they could let slip the dogs of Democratic war and completely undermine the country with funding for the most ridiculous, stupidest, out-of-left-field causes that you literally couldn’t make that shit up.

And then, with four months to go, and Biden literally unable to form a cogent thought, the Democrats needed another President who was as broadly, ridiculously FAR FAR LEFT as the people pulling Biden’s puppet strings, so they nominated an SF/Berkeley far Left Progressive who was considered the most Left Senator by GovTrack, even more left than Bernie Sanders. This candidate ended up repudiating all of her prior positions, including:

1. Defund the police
2. Donate for bail for the MN rioters
3. Against plastic straws
4. Against fracking (she claims she’s been for fracking since 2020…but she lied, she didn’t support it, she only said at the time that Joe Biden was for it).
5. Against off-shore drilling
6. Against the American pipeline.
7. For decriminalization of illegal border crossings.
8. Called for getting rid of ICE.
9. Against private health insurance/medicare for all (she sponsored the darn bill, even the left-wing Urban Institute claimed it would cost $34 trillion over a decade, and would have kicked 180 million people off of private insurance)/Single Payer
10. Green New Deal (she supported AOC’s version in the Senate)
11. Mandatory gun buy-back programs, banning of AR-15s.
12. Supporting packing the Supreme Court
13. Federal jobs guarantee

The panicking Dems realized that they needed this half-wit in the White House, otherwise, the country would find out the perfidy that had been going on in Biden’s name. You know, Joe Biden, about whom Obama once said “Never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck it up.” So they raised over a billion dollars and outspent Trump 5:1…and the American people caught on to the fact that Kamala Harris was an incipient disaster.

And so they voted in Orange Man Bad.

And now you get articles from Big Media who claim they knew it all along that Joe Biden had lost it.

We were right: New books expose truth about Biden’s failing health

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[Mick1]

You have a curious definition of “not standing up to” and “continues bending over backwards for…”

Where do I begin? I will have to post more another time, but just look at the latest economic “plan”. He put tariffs on most of the world, but (surprise) he left off Russia and it’s pet — Belarus. But sure enough, he put tariffs on Ukraine. Because of course he did. Of course, you could say he didn’t need to put tariffs on Russia or Belarus because we hardly trade with them. But that explanation flies out the window when you see that he put tariffs on Nauru — that tiny island of a few thousand poor people that have almost zero GDP and no trade. He even imposed tariffs on an island inhabited mostly by American soldiers.

I’ve been watching Democrats complain about the tariffs for a few weeks now. Tell me, who said this:

“It’s proper for advanced economies like the United States to introduce reciprocity with countries that are no longer poor countries, like China to make sure they’re providing access to their markets” and “the average tariff on Chinese goods is 2% whereas the average tariff on American goods coming into China is 35%. Chinese trade is a job loser (for Americans).”

If you guessed Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, you’d be correct.

Democrats condemn Trump on many things, but internally, they agree on his trade policy. Trump has always been more aligned with Democrats than Republicans on trade. Lefty Dems criticized NAFTA for years for the same arguments that Trump made.

Fundamentally…and this is something that lawyers and Democrats don’t understand…it’s a negotiating tactic. That’s it. You have to put meaning and substance behind it, which Trump is doing. Some countries (Switzerland and Vietnam) are already caving. We’ve always treated the huge American market as a gift for the rest of the world, while the rest of the world screws us. Finally, a businessman who knows how to negotiate.

Democrats align with Trump on trade policy

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[Mick1]

And in the category of “All-time, all-clueless” we can position Governor Newsom’s portrait, who announced that “California is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!”

Interesting approach. He is directing California companies to pursue strategic partnerships with foreign trading partners, and asking that California companies be exempted from retaliatory tariffs.

That, and the prick says that agriculture is the engine of the state economy, after he and the Democrats have done everything possible to ruin agriculture. Drive down highway 5, Mr. Governor. Yeah, we’re open for business. Especially with the country’s second highest unemployment rate (after Nevada), tied with other Democratic strongholds Michigan, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai offered Newsom some excellent advice, stating that Gov. Newsom should focus on “out-of-control homelessness, crime, regulations, and unaffordability in California instead of trying his hand at international dealmaking.”

Newsom to world: California open for business

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[Mick1]

AOC is in the lead over Chuck Schumer. 55% of NY stone idiot voters back AOC, 36% back Schumer. This for the 2028 primary.

Poll: AOC leads Schumer in head-to-head New York primary matchup by double digits

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[Mick1]

Kamala Harris will make her decision to run for California Governor by end of the summer. Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra (former BIden official) announced his CA gubernatorial run on Wednesday.

Kamala Harris: ‘I’m not going anywhere’

Early polls show that 57% of California stone idiot voters support Harris. Former Rep. Katie Porter has 9%. Speaker of the CA Assembly show Villaraigosa and the current Lt. Gov. Kounalaki at 4% each.

Kamala Harris is Democratic front-runner for California governor in 2026: Poll

Here’s the really fun part. Nearly half of all Californians are considering voting for a Republican. In fact, Californians are trending toward more conservative viewpoints:

• 73% in favor of Prop 36 and tougher drug and theft laws.
• 72% see homelessness as a huge problem
• 71% say Democratic leadership haven’t addressed cost of living issues
• 60% oppose free healthcare for undocumented immigrants
• only 24% think transgender males should compete in female sports.

New Poll Finds Half of All Californians Now Considering a GOP Candidate For Governor 2026 – California Globe

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[Mick1]

Jobs report just came out. Expected jobs was 120,000, actual new jobs in March were 155,000, significant increase from 84,000 jobs added in February. Wage growth for those staying in their positions increased 4.6%, those who changed jobs experienced a 6.5% increase.

Currently, the number of open positions matches the number of available workers, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

U.S. private sector adds 155,000 jobs

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[Mick1]

Trump is an economic arsonist and you’re just casually trying to explain it away as if he has some rational economic approach. I mean, I don’t even know how to respond. It’s like trying to debate with someone who is defending a terrorist and expecting to have a reasonable conversation. I simply cannot fathom how you and others on the right don’t see how absolutely fucking insane this administration’s policies are — economic and otherwise.

Not being casual, just using first-week-of-Econ-101 Economics. I already know you lost, given the names/epithets you’re using. You don’t want a normal, reasoned argument…because you can’t have one.

I’m not saying it will work, I’m saying that’s the reasoning behind his approach. And no…the economy wasn’t humming. We were spending via credit card, both consumers AND the government…and Biden turned a $527 Bils. trade deficit into a $978 bils. trade deficit in just four years, in part because he shut down the economy for two years.

BTW, Clinton lost us millions of manufacturing jobs. MILLIONS. Never heard you complain about Clinton.

Jobs reshored since 2010 are 1.6 million.

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[Mick1]

You have a curious definition of “not standing up to” and “continues bending over backwards for…”

Where do I begin? I will have to post more another time, but just look at the latest economic “plan”. He put tariffs on most of the world, but (surprise) he left off Russia and it’s pet — Belarus. But sure enough, he put tariffs on Ukraine. Because of course he did. Of course, you could say he didn’t need to put tariffs on Russia or Belarus because we hardly trade with them. But that explanation flies out the window when you see that he put tariffs on Nauru — that tiny island of a few thousand poor people that have almost zero GDP and no trade. He even imposed tariffs on an island inhabited mostly by American soldiers.

 

But…you didn’t know this when I posted. Wondered why it took you so long to respond…

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[Author]

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