Unpacking Trumpland: The Economic Storm Ahead

“And now Yellen raised the rates.”

I’ll get back to the importance of Yellen in a moment.

There’s so much to unpack with this blog, given the panic of fake news, the Trumpocalypse and Evil Muva Russia 2.0 — I’ll need a series of posts to cover everything.

But I want to start by explaining two things which may help to frame what you’ll see from me in the coming days: [1] a summary of mentalunrest’s editorial policy, and [2] how this policy created a first-ever conflict with my voice in the weeks leading up to the November 8 Presidential election.

The last thing I’ll do is bring back Yellen and make a prediction about Trump that others may not make.

But first, I’ll summarize the editorial policy of this blog — to present an unfiltered voice and spotlight on events, ideas and people which are typically ignored by the mainstream. I’ll never take on a contrarian position just for the hell of it, though. For example, Punk music can still be rebellious but I refuse to write about any random, lame-azz group of unsexed guys waving guitars. Force-fitting an against-the-grain narrative is not how I travel.

My discussion of politics will always leverage a social justice lens with the keen understanding that some of you hate Black, Brown, Red, Yellow or Gay lives, even though you may publicly insist that those lives matter. Don’t expect mentalunrest to support your B.S.

And this is where my pre-election conflict came in. I went on record making a pledge to vote (of course), but refusing to endorse Secretary Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the process.

I also added that your choice of candidate would depend on where you want to count the dead bodies …

After making this declaration and dropping hints that Trump had a chance to win this election — albeit against the Deep State’s wish for Clinton to be the victor — I thought that writing more anti-Clinton pieces would offer the false impression that I’m down with Trump.

I also felt that publishing more anti-Trump posts would be misinterpreted as pro-Clinton gestures.

I contemplated planning an equal number of posts about each candidate but ultimately felt the exercise would be unproductive, given my refusal to endorse anyone.

Therefore, I chilled.

Well, almost. I hinted on social media that the Deep State may be okay with having Trump in office:

The Deep State knows how to handle elections, y’all.

It always has a preference, but will also keep a hedge card.

Subtle signs show that Deep State could be willing to deal with a Trump presidency, and has a plan for that — assuming their top choice doesn’t get in.

Deep State cares very little about nooses, fetuses, hoods, Dukes and DeRays as long as none a dat is connected to a financial market, oil well or the next overseas resource macking project.

Yeah, I still intend to vote next week …

I explained further on election night, before Trump was declared the winner:

I’ll continue the thought I raised yesterday. There’s reason to believe the economy is headed over a cliff within the next few months. Should that happen, the question becomes which president would the Deep State want to see in office — Trump or Clinton?

An economic crash with Hillary running things would vindicate every left-wing conspiracy theorist’s warnings about banking cartels and 2008 remixes. Putting Trump in the big chair would be a diversion, should things go south, since you can always blame Republicans for the crash. In other words, the Deep State remains invisible. Something to consider …

And that was the point of my post two weeks ago where I wrote that Trump is being set up to fail.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen raising a key lending rate this week says plenty about what’s ahead for Trump.

The Fed hadn’t raised rates since 2006. TEN YEARS. And for good reason.

With all the chest-beating Presidents Bush the Second and Obama made about a strong or improved economy, there was a general consensus that the economy and financial markets were too fragile to handle a rate hike during the past decade.

And now Yellen raised the rates.

While corporate profits have done generally well since the 2008 financial crash, middle class household budgets are still under siege and small business creation — one of two major paths regular people take to enable social mobility or build wealth — is in a near-death state. 

And Yellen not only raised rates, but she also said rates will rise three more times.

The rate problem explains the storm on the horizon, as well as the US economy’s virtual state of animation for everyone who’s not super-rich.

More about that in a future post very soon …

song currently stuck in my head: “higher ground” – johnny hammond