A Pack of Wolves

First…the economy is slowing. Bloomberg:

US Initial Jobless Claims Jump to Highest in Almost Four Years…

Layoff activity may be on the rise amid a sharp slowdown in hiring.

Initial claims rose by 27,000 to 263,000 in the week ended Sept. 6, the highest since October 2021, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 235,000 applications.

The debt is growing, CNBC:

U.S. government reports $345 billion deficit for August, larger than expected

And prices are rising. Business Insider:

Inflation heated up as expected in August to the highest rate since January

Stagflation is here. We wait to find out how long it will last and how deep it will go.

The worse it gets the greater the pressure for radical change. But in what direction?

Communism? Socialism? Capitalism? Fascism?

Yahoo! Finance:

Americans’ support for capitalism drops to new low, poll finds

According to the poll, only 54% of people support capitalism, which is down from 60% in 2021. When asked about their attitudes toward socialism, Americans feel more negative (57%) than positive (39%) about it.

Maybe this explains it; the Wall Street Journal reports:

American high-school seniors’ scores on major math and reading tests fell to their lowest levels on record, according to results released Tuesday by the U.S. Education Department. Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992. The share of 12th-graders who were proficient slid by 2 percentage points between 2019 and 2024—to 35% in reading and 22% in math.

Wherever we’re going, for better or worse, Donald Trump leads the way. And it’s not toward capitalism. Our old friend, Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune:

Donald Trump pioneers a strange policy: Republican socialism

Socialism used to be the antithesis of Republican principles. But Donald Trump has begun a government invasion of the private sector.

The Hill elaborates:

In June, the Trump administration approved Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel on the condition that it give the White House a “golden share” of the Japanese company. Although it is not an equity stake, Trump declared, “We have a golden share, which I control, or the president controls.”

On Aug. 22, Intel announced an agreement with the administration to take $8.9 billion in the company’s common stock, approximately a 10 percent stake, making the U.S. the largest investor in the tech giant that builds the semiconductor chips that power smartphones, computers and data centers.

This deal is no freebie for the American taxpayer. It is in lieu of Intel repaying the federal grants it received under the bipartisan U.S. Chips and Science Act, which Biden signed into law in 2022.

Earlier last month, Trump also made a deal with two of Intel’s rivals, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, requiring them to pay 15 percent of the revenues made from sales to China to the U.S.

It’s one thing to skim the profits. It’s another to own the business. Typically, the feds don’t know, and don’t care, how to manage an enterprise. They are parasites, not producers; wolves, not shepherds. Let them take a lamb now and then, and the flock survives. Put them in charge, on the other hand, and pretty soon you have no lambs at all.

Team Trump also seeks more control over the most important number in American capitalism — interest rates. Trump wants the Fed’s key rate more than 300 basis points lower.

And he wants to determine with whom and at what prices Americans do business. Tariffs have been coming down for more than half a century. Now they’re going back up.

Liberal? Conservative? Or WTF?

More to come…including our latest encounter with a government-owned business…