Juggling Dynamite

Established by Republican President Nixon in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was cutting edge from inception. Far from anti-business or green idealism, the agency was a calculated economic and public health decision that proved the catalyst for great technological innovation, job growth, improved health and prosperity since. True strength and progress don’t come from one side oppressing and silencing competing interests, but rather from finding balance between all stakeholders. This is as true today as ever.  Those seeking to gut or nullify this important agency should be opposed, not lauded.  See Why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reflects Patriotism:

“…the potential for job creation in green technologies is immense and is already much larger than generally recognized. Solar already accounts for the largest share of employment in the US power generation sector and the wind industry, which is heavily reliant on manufacturing, employs more than 100,000 Americans. The United States’ manufacturing renaissance that President Trump envisages can come on the heels of what Americans have already accomplished in environmental protection, pollution reduction, and clean energy transition.

The confirmation hearings for Scott Pruitt, the nominated administrator of the EPA, have raised serious concerns that the positive dividends of green investment might be ignored by the new administration. Mr. Pruitt has argued that his past lawsuits against the EPA were focused on letting States have more devolved control over pollution control. Yet, his reluctance to engage on the remarkably positive record of the EPA in spurring innovation should be a matter for concern to President Trump. Air and water pollution are inherently trans-boundary and state regulation of these sectors has its limits. Ultimately, having a clean environment should be a unifying element in our polity as Americans – protecting our land, water, and air should be a mark of truest patriotism.”

According to the Bank of Canada, Canadian household debt rose to $2.005 trillion dollars in December 2016, a year over year increase of 5.2%; accelerating even faster in December, at a rate of 5.8% annualized.

Consumer debt is now 9% higher than the total debt of all businesses in Canada. 18% higher than the national GDP, and 30% higher per capita than in the US. See:  Canadian consumers set a new debt record, over $2 trillion in December 2016. Here is the chart.

“…if someone says it’s not all that bad, make sure you don’t let them give you any investment advice.

The growing levels of debt is worrisome on its own, but the acceleration is terrifying. One of the slowest months for real estate sales resulted in an acceleration of consumer debt. Canadians are borrowing record amounts of debt to pay for shelter, diverting financial resources from the rest of the economy. No one’s sure when Canada’s real estate addiction is going to end, but it won’t be pretty when it does.”

Trump’s cast of self-absorbed billionaires as policy heads will not right the extreme imbalances needed to revitalize the nation.  It’s not their wealth that is the problem, it’s their obtuse, willfully blind approach which overlooks how grossly enriched they have been at the expense of the public purse through subsidies, access to public resources, social benefits and tax breaks.  To “Make America Great Again”, executives and investors need to extract less for themselves, so that corporations can share more with their work force and invest more in productive pursuits that will protect and sustain the world around them.  In addition, our legal and regulatory system needs to hold directing minds personally accountable for corporate offenses.  Trump’s proposal for labor secretary appears to be another example of a disastrous public representative for our times.  See Andrew Puzder will be a disaster for workers. I know:  He was for me:

Andrew Puzder, the chief executive since 2000 of CKE — which owns Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., and other fast-food companies — is now in line to become the country’s next labor secretary. The headlines ponder what this may mean for working people in America, but I already know.

I already know what Trump/Puzder economics look like because I’m living it every day. Despite giving everything I had to Puzder’s company for 21 years, I left without a penny of savings, with no health care and no pension. Now, while I live in poverty, Trump, who promised to fix the rigged economy, has chosen for labor secretary someone who wants to rig it up even more. He’s chosen the chief executive of a company who recently made more than $10 million in a year, while I’m scraping by on Supplemental Security payments…

The cooks and cashiers at Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. are the reason Puzder can take home more than $10 million in a single year and live in a plush mansion with movie star neighbors — while his workers like me skip meals to pay our rent and are forced to live in homeless shelters.

We are their corporate strategy: Pay us as little as legally allowed, steal from our meager paychecks as needed and force us onto public assistance to get by. Sadly, that’s the America Trump and Puzder believe in: an America where workers give everything to an employer, and in return, receive nothing. Their America means that an older woman in retirement fighting a chronic illness has to rely on Supplemental Security Income to survive.