My take is that it is too early to tell if Trump has betrayed us. My belief is that he eventually will, not because of his character or anything like that. Rather, because he will have no choice. That is, once someone realizes the situation the worlds, and specifically, the U.S.’s economy is in, they do what they have to to keep it afloat another day or two. It happened “bigly” in 2008. I posted a thread about it. We almost went down way back then. It’s why we got QE.
You can not use fiat money forever. There is always a day of reckoning. It always takes longer for the “big unwind” to happen than the doomsayer think it will, but once it starts, it will happen faster than anyone can predict.
This is why I was VERY glad Trump won, but I saw it more as a moral victory. Our situation is beyond a human solution. When I post on this and other sites regarding what Trump will do or not do and how it may affect us, I’m doing it mostly for entertainment value. It is my way of fiddling while Rome burns.
There is a reason I moved from Seattle to a farm in central KY. The only solution to our problem is draconian austerity, and it won’t be voluntary. Sadly, when it gets that bad, countries tend to start attacking each other. Desperate times call for desperate actions, and all that. It’s why I have so many chickens and am picking up some cattle. They are pretty easy to raise and I now have the property and fencing for it.
Trump was never the answer, no matter what fence he builds or doesn’t build. He was a solution to a specific blister on our nation. He was not its cancer cure.
And this is not just about the U.S. The whole world is in the same predicament.
We have consumed our seed corn under both political parties for the last three decades, and it would take at least another three decades of what a great man called "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" to get back to where we need to be.
But we'll never get that. We get Clintons and Sanders and Trumps who promise their bases that the fix is easy and quick and it will all be paid for by someone who is definitely Not Them.
Trump's win is like slapping a field dressing on a critical wound. It'll keep you alive a little longer, but it is no substitute for the major reconstructive surgery that is needed.
Something Glenn Beck said back when Obama got elected. Glenn had a meeting with GW to lament the coming disaster and GW told him not to worry Obama would get in and soon things would just continue along like before. The point was the President is the ruler in name only.