Making America broke again: Trump & the inevitable financial crisis

Trump can either ‘bite the bullet’ now if he really wants to improve the American economy or he can ‘kick the can down the road’ like his predecessors have, noted financial commentator Peter Schiff tells MintPress.

by Whitney Webb

Part 1

Barack Obama insisted throughout his time in office that the financial crisis that began in 2008 and fundamentally altered the U.S. economic landscape was a thing of the past. Despite Obama’s insistence that his economic “recovery” was successful and that critics of his economic policy were “peddling fiction,” many Americans were not convinced.

Donald Trump recognized this, and was ultimately propelled to the nation’s highest office due to his oft-repeated promise to “Make America Great Again” with a special emphasis on bolstering the American economy.

In the weeks since Trump took office, media attention has largely focused on the so-called “Muslim ban” as well as other executive actions targeting immigrants, limiting the actions of certain federal agencies, and escalating certain geopolitical tensions.

The media’s focus on these and other issues has allowed key developments in the implementation of the president’s economic policy to go largely unnoticed. In particular, there’s been relatively scant attention paid to the Trump administration’s decision to order a thorough review of banking regulations with the express intention of loosening them.

This decision, widely criticized by powerful central banks and proponents of Obama-era financial reform, represents the latest iteration of a growing spat between the financial establishment and the Trump administration. Each side accuses the other of depressing economic growth and increasing the likelihood of a major economic event or “correction” that would dwarf that of 2008.

Yet, as is often the case in such disputes, the truth of the matter lies somewhere in the middle and ultimately has relatively little to do with Trump.

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital and one of the few financial commentators to accurately predict the 2008 crisis, noted in an interview with MintPress News, “The crisis is going to come regardless of the actions Trump or Congress may take. I think [Trump’s potential loosening of regulations] is going to be irrelevant. It could accelerate the crisis or it could delay it.”

Regardless of who is to blame, however, there is no denying that a major economic crisis is once again on the horizon, one that will fundamentally change the economic landscape of the nation and trigger a series of wide-reaching consequences.

“The crisis is inevitable,” Schiff said.

Source, links, videos:

http://www.mintpressnews.com/making-america-broke-again-trump-the-inevitable-financial-crisis/224950/

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