The Trump Card

Threat Against Democracy (TAD).  I watched the inaugural speech on January 20^th.  I was prepared to be disappointed, but it was much more disappointing than I had even expected.  Of course, what I took away are my perceptions and I could be wrong.  His statements about America first and protectionism sounded to me like he wants us to step away from our role as the leaders of the free world. 

He said protectionism will lead to prosperity.  That seems counter-intuitive to me.  Also, I’m not sure what it means to recognize the right of all nations to put their interests first.  If Russia thinks it’s in their interest to retake Ukraine, is that all right?  What about China and Taiwan?  

Whether you believe America is great or not, we’d probably all like it to be even greater, right?  But what does that mean?  Well, from his speech and prior statements, I think it might mean less unemployment, job growth, economic growth, reduction in trade deficits and low inflation.  So, to try track whether America is getting greater, I’m developing what I call the Trump Card.  It will probably change over time, but for now I’m going to compare the following statistics from the last 8 years (where available) with how they perform under Trump.

Unemployment: It went from 9.1% in January 2009 to 4.9% (Estimated) in November of 2016 (the most recent I could find).

Years of GDP Growth 2009-2015: 6 out of 7 (2016 isn’t available yet)

Average Rate of Inflation: 1.375

Average Annual Trade Deficit: (2009-2015) $488M

Monthly Jobs Growth: Positive 79 out of 96 months (including the last 74)

Are there other stats you think I should include?

As for the rest of the speech, did I find it concerning?  Oh yes, a TAD.