This commentary is emphatically not an endorsement of Trump as President. I have not voted since 1992 because, when the system gives the public a Hobson’s Choice, voting is pointless.
An age-old adage states that “people vote with their wallets.” The chart below suggests that this adage held true in 2016:
The graphic above (sourced from Northman Trader) was prepared by Deutsche Bank and the data is from the Fed. It shows that, since 2007 through 2016, U.S. median household net worth declined between 2007 and 2016 for all income groups except the top 10%.
Given that a Democrat occupied the Oval Office between 2008-2016, and given that the economic condition of 90% of all households declined during that period, it follows logically that empty promises of a Republican sounded better to the general population of voters than the empty promises of a Democrat.
In other words, the “deplorables” didn’t vote for Trump because they wanted a wall between the U.S. and Mexico or they wanted to nuke North Korea off the map, they voted for a Republican because the previous Democrat took money from their savings account.
The rest of the propaganda and rhetoric connected to the 2016 election, which was elevated to previously unforeseen levels of absurdity, was little more than unholy entertainment that served to agitate the masses. These two graphs explain a lot about the outcome of the 2016 “election.”
I have always want the affirmative “none of the above” choice in elections so we could tally how bad the choices are.
I guess they could do it not withstanding the govt would find out the truth and would subpress that.
Trump won because the Russians meddled in our elections.
LOL!
You might even believe that.
good god does anyone REALLY believe the phony Russian rig narrative? I hope there’s not any humans who are that stupid.
Dear Dave,
Thank you very much for this important article. It alllows far more interpretations. Why did the wealth of the top 10 percent go up? Because of asset price inflation. Asset price inflation is caused by money printing and is no increase in wealth. It is essentially fools gold. The decrease in wealth for the average American despite high real inflation (see the Chapwood index for example http://www.chapwoodindex.com/), suggest to me that the US economy is in recession since 2008.
Kind regards,
Edward
Dave, personally I do not believe that the Russians had any effect on the election. I teach at a university. Most of my colleagues do believe that Russia prevented Hillary from winning the election. Yet, it is impossible to call all these people “stupid”. It takes lots of time to digest the news and realize what the truth is. Few people spend much time on pursuing politics. That is the reason why propaganda always succeeds.
In my view, it’s inexcusable for highly educated people – supposedly informed, well-read and well-researched – to bite on the propaganda dished out by the MSM. It just means they’re too lazy to search for the truth. But even if the Russians did try to influence the U.S. elections, the effort pales in comparison to the resources and energy exerted by the U.S. Government to control elections all over the world. There’s a comprehensive “5th column” infrastructure that has been implemented and nurtured by the U.S. inside Russia. Paul Craig Roberts has written extensively on it.
Robert,
A lot of people may score well on a raw intelligence test, but have little in the way of the ability to critically discern the truth from the noise, fake news narratives, propaganda, misinformation, etc. Then they form little cliques that pat themselves on the back for being so smart and so right.
In this case I am referring to the educated [like university cliques] that voted for Hillary, refuse to understand she was a criminal, and swallow the MSM B.S. about Trump with no critical examination, because it backs their already accepted meme/theme. It is pathetic & pathological.
This from someone who does not like Trump.
David, I frequently talk about these issues at lunch with colleagues. A good friend of mine advised me to stop doing this and restrict myself to harmless topics otherwise colleagues would get the impression that I am a “nutcase”. The problem with universities is that much of the money funding these institutions comes from state and federal sources. Nobody wants to put that funding at risk. For that reason, universities are very eager to keep a low profile in matters of politics.