When Bank of Mom and Dad Goes Broke

Posted on April 4, 2025 by MN Gordon

Rising consumer prices, rising unemployment, and a slowing economy are telltale signs of stagflation. This is the ugly scenario that is unfolding before our very eyes. Where a person must work more to get less. And that’s if they don’t lose their job.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, recently showed consumer prices increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in February. If you exclude food and energy, the PCE price index increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent.

Of note, the latest PCE price index does not include price hikes from Trump tariffs. Those price hikes are forthcoming. Moreover, the additional costs of Liberation Day tariffs will most definitely compel consumer price inflation higher.

For example, all goods made in China will now be subject to a 54 percent tariff. So, if you shop at Walmart, Target, or any other store that stocks its shelves with goods from China, you will be paying much, much more.

Of course, rising consumer prices always come at the worst possible time. And this time is no exception. Right now, consumers are tapped out. Continue reading →

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Trump Tariffs Gone Wild

Posted on March 28, 2025 by MN Gordon

The U.S. stock market’s recent zigs and zags have triggered considerable excitement. Wall Street pros, private money managers, and Millennial index fund enthusiasts have all been whipsawed by the market’s swift up and down movements. No one can seem to stay ahead of President Trump’s ‘make it up as you go’ tariff games.

Trump clarified the rules of the game to reporters in the Oval Office on March 21. Specifically, he intends to be flexible on tariffs when it is to the advantage of American companies. Trump stated:

“I gave the American car companies a break, because it would have been unfair if I didn’t, and everybody said, ‘Oh, he changed his mind on tariffs.’ I didn’t change my mind. I helped our sort of Big Three, Big Four [automakers].”

“Instead of taking it properly, they said, ‘Oh, he changed.’ I don’t change. But the word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes it’s flexibility, so there’ll be flexibility, but basically it’s reciprocal.”

What does this mean? Continue reading →

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Trump’s MAGA Policies of Wealth Destruction

Posted on March 21, 2025 by MN Gordon

“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”

– John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)

Practical Objectives

Is President Donald J. Trump a practical man? Is he a madman?

Does he hear voices in the air?

We’ll leave the answers to these questions to you. Certainly, Trump’s the slave of destructive decisions from the past. Many of these decisions were guided by dead economists.

For example, decisions made a century ago, such as the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and FDR’s seizure of the private gold holdings of American citizens in 1933, are forcing Trump’s plans. Today, for fun and for free, we seek to better understand the great calamity he’s dealing with.

To begin, Trump’s tariff policies are intended to reroute the origins of production and the flows of global trade. Specifically, he wants to relocate the production of imported goods from foreign factories to domestic factories. The purpose is to revitalize American manufacturing and create new blue-collar jobs. Continue reading →

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Truth Shall Prevail

Posted on March 14, 2025 by MN Gordon

Economic Prism Articles | Insights on Gold, Stocks, Inflation & FOMCYear-to-date the S&P 500 is down 5.9 percent. Over this same time, the NASDAQ is down over 10 percent.

Should you buy the dip? Should you sell the bounce?

The answers to these questions are dependent on whether you trust the stock market’s technical indicators or its fundamentals. Regardless, panic and uncertainty are spreading across America.

There’s the recognition that economic growth is retreating, consumer prices are rising, and jobs are disappearing. There’s also the observation that President Trump’s policies are making things worse.

Most people agree that the federal government is too big and too controlling. They are well aware that there’s rampant fraud and waste. They understand that $2 trillion annual deficits are not sustainable. And that the runaway growth of government debt is a complete disaster.

They also want these failings corrected without any trouble. On the day Trump took office, there was an unwarranted belief that he could magically clean up all the waste, reduce the size of government, and balance the budget without painful consequences. That perception is being shattered. Continue reading →

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