Book Review — Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp and the Fantasy of MAGA
By David Stockman.
David Stockman was Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan and became known as the “Father of Reaganomics.”
A timely and excellent book highly critical of Trump’s Presidency from an independent and knowledgeable mind. He denounces the illusion of Trump-a-nomics — on taxes, trade, protectionism, defense, government expenditures , monetary policy (pressures on the FED) and debt. Also, he refers to some positive measures Trump took, sometimes for the wrong reason.
The book is not specifically about Trump who just happens to be the man at the moment. But he pulls no punches on “the Donald”, the self proclaimed “King of Debt”.
The book analyses the economic and monetary policy over the last decades and warns about the disaster waiting to happen. Stockman says in another interview “We are where we are because of decades of Congressional and monetary mismanagement.”
Some punchlines:
… the Donald had no time left, no plan, no economic comprehension and no humility whatsoever. Within months of the inauguration, he pivoted from running against Obama’s failed economy to celebrating an ostensible Trumpian boom that was nothing of the kind, and still isn’t…
…
Owing to his impulsive, immense and incorrigible ego, he has remained utterly blind to the fact that the unemployment rate always falls below 4% during the final months of a long economic expansion cycle.
…has actually made matters inestimably worse with his misbegotten Trade Wars, Border Wars, Fed-bashing and Fiscal Debauch. Even his much welcome but furtive tilt toward a primitive version of “America First” foreign policy has mostly been been stymied, smothered and sabotaged by the Deep State incumbents who continue to run the government. And that’s been abetted in no small measure by the phalanx of failed generals and neocon interventionists that Trump has unaccountably installed in key offices.
Donald’s mindless $100 billion per year boost of an already vastly excessive and waste-ridden national defense budget…
Moreover, by feeding the massive Warfare State budget, which already totals over $1 trillion per year… Trump has precluded any possibility of fiscal discipline.
Some scary figures:
… All told, the result was a guaranteed $20 trillion explosion of the Federal debt over he coming decade….
…Combined household and nonfinancial business debt today stands at $30.5 trillion compared to $24.3 trillion at the 2007 pre-crisis peak…
… the King of Debt has no clue about the $21 trillion powder keg of public debt he inherited and how it was financed on the cheap owing to the monetary madness of the Fed and other central banks.
During the past 15 years, in fact, the central banks of the world have undertaken a collective money printing spree that has not even a remote historical precedent — with their balance sheets rising from $4 trillion to $25 trillion over that span.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43745460-peak-trump
Stockman’s article on Lew Rockwell’s (founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute) site where he summarises some of the ideas of the book:
Chapters of the book
Table of Contents
Prologue 3
PART 1
The Fed’s Rotten Regime of Bubble Finance – Mortal Enemy of MAGA 29
The Delusions Of MAGA 31
The Trump Boom – A Mirage By Any Other Name 53
Peak Trump: Hapless Legatee Of The Financial Crisis That Never Ended 80
Main Street’s Failed Economy: 11 Years Of Fed Fostered Flatlining 101
Inside The Canyons Of Wall Street: The Everything Bubble 128
PART 2
The Folly of Trump-O-Nomics 156
The Donald’s Real Bleep-Hole Moment — $41 Trillion And Counting 159
The Worst Tax Bill In A Century 183
The Lost Decade of 2010–2020: How Washington Squandered The Last Chance For Fiscal Redemption 205
Bombs Away Over Quebec 221
Bad Money, Not Bad Trade Deals Is The Cause Of America’s Trade Disaster 232
Smoot-Hawley Redux 251
Trump’s Trade War Folly And The Red Ponzi 270
PART 3
America First: Existential Threat To The Empire 289
America First And The Failed Promise Of Helsinki 290
Why The Empire Never Sleeps — The Indispensable Nation Folly 306
Woodrow Wilson And The Myth Of The Indispensable Nation 318
Imperial Washington — Global Menace 335
You Can See “Russia” From Here 361
How To Drain The Swamp — Homeland Defense, Not Empire 373
The Iranian File: The Donald Undone, America First Crushed 386
Singapore! It Didn’t Take A Village Of Deep Staters 402
The Vlad And Donald Show — A Fleeting Blow For Peace 414
PART 4
Deep State Debunked: Why RussiaGate Is Even Worse Than A Hoax 428
Deep State Classified: Hey, Donald, Tear Down That Wall Of Secrecy 433
The Donald Undone: Tilting At The Swamp, Succumbing To The Empire 452
The Actual 2016 Election Meddling Plot — The Deep State’s Assault On Donald Trump 464
Mueller’s Comic Book Indictment: How To Prosecute A Great Big Nothingburger 495
Mueller Mugs America: The Case Of Baby George Papadopoulos 516
The Trump Tower Meeting 524
PART 5
Border War Follies And Bannonist Bile 539
Why The Donald Is Lost — Protectionism, Nationalism And Bannonist Bile 541
The Statist Roots Of Trump’s Border Walls — The Failed War On Drugs 557
Why The Donald’s Border Wars Are The Enemy Of MAGA 576
The Donald’s Paris Climate Accord Haymaker — A Glorious Blow Against Statism 606
Leviathan, Gun Control And The Baleful Legacy Of The Second Amendment 624
Stockman, David A.. Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp And The Fantasy of MAGA . Contra Corner Press w/Charles Street Research. Kindle Edition.