Dave Stockman released his latest book “Trumped! A Nation on Brink of a Ruin” on Monday.
I read an advance copy last weekend.
I could not put the book down. It’s the book I wish I had written if only I had time.
Chapter 1 starts off with Stockman’s take on the revolt of Flyover America kindled by the Trump campaign. He mildly praises Trump with a bit of damnation thrown in, pretty much my position given the alternatives.
“Trumped!” is not really about Donald Trump, the man. Rather it’s about broken contracts and the conditions that led to the rise of Trump in the US, Brexit in the UK, and deteriorating economic conditions globally.
Politically speaking the book is anything but one-sided. Stockman goes after “feckless John Boehner” and his “equally spineless” replacement, Congressman Paul Ryan.
Stockman takes on the Fed and the ECB. The “Fed doesn’t serve the Main Street economy: It lives to pleasure Wall Street,” says Stockman, quite accurately.
In regards to Europe, Stockman states the “EU-18” owes Germany so much that permitting any country to leave is unthinkable in Berlin. The call for ‘more Europe,’ it is a desperate gambit to keep alive an utterly flawed and contradiction-ridden monetary, fiscal and political union that never should have been concocted in the first place.”
Stockman is a former Congressman and Ronald Reagan’s budget director.
In regards to defense spending, Stockman says “The one thing that I learned during my time on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is that the defense budget, and the military-industrial complex that perpetuates it, is the mother’s milk of fiscal irresponsibility.”
Better Way Forward
The way to stop ISIS is to ground the bombers and drones; send home the spotters, trainers and other infrastructure of intervention; forget about who controls the oil—it will be produced by someone; and recognize that American has no dog in the 1,300-year-old fight between Sunnis and Shiites.
I hear the voice of General William C. Westmoreland echoing over the decades. We are winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people, he intoned; we are Vietnamizing the conflict; the strategic hamlet program has become a swell success; we are building schools and clinics in the rice paddies; the body count of dead Viet Cong is swelling by the day.
It was all one giant tapestry of BS, of course, which temporarily camouflaged the catastrophe of LBJ’s war and the genocidal destruction that it inflicted on an innocent people.
Morning Joe
Stockman was on MSNBC this morning. discussing his book.
Give the video a play. Stockman says ….
I start with an indictment of the status quo. I start with an indictment of Hilllary’s 30-year old bag of deplorables. I am talking about ideas, policies, not her supporters. She has been a warmonger for the last 30 years….
My book lays out very clearly that Trump doesn’t have a program, that half of his ideas are wrong, that Social Security has to be addressed.
On the other hand the heart of the problem is the Federal Reserve. It’s destroying capitalism. It’s turned Wall Street into a casino.
Get “Trumped!”
If you want to know where we have been, why people are really angry, and what we should do about it, then do yourself a favor, set aside whatever political beliefs you have, and read “Trumped! A Nation on Brink of a Ruin“.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Islam means to conquer the world by the sword.
At one time they owned Spain and were 70 miles west of Paris.
At one time they were at the gates of Vienna and owned all of SE Europe.
At one time they sacked Rome and took 3 million European slaves – as far north as Ireland.
At one time Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and large parts of Saudi Arabia were Christian countries.
And one time Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh were Hindu.
At one time Iran was Zoroastrianism.
All conquered by islamic armies.
—-
it will be produced by someone; and recognize that American has no dog in the 1,300-year-old fight between Sunnis and Shiites.
The only way child gunmen in basketball sneakers could possibly threaten any Western European nation today is by tricking its leadership into opening the borders and inviting thousands of them in with little scrutiny. Not going to happen 2banana.
Is that you Donald?
No worries. People driven by religion instead of science don’t stand a chance. Like fleas on an elephant.
People who win wars do so with determination, and religion can provide a significant bolstering of that, especially when it is a religion that is fueled by death such as Islam, where one’s greatest honor is to die for Islam. Granted not all Muslims are radicalized….yet, but all they lack is encouragement. This has been the major misunderstanding of ISIS. Not that it would win in a head to head conflict with a western military, but the simple fact that they were allowed to represent a rare case of actually WINNING, and that is the ultimate encouragement.
On the other hand, we have western societies fully immersed in science and technology and all it has done is breed sloth and contempt for any nationalism or other action that might provide defense against an attack….and many of them happily welcoming those to our country who would readily cut our throats.
If one looks at the wars we have WON, they were wall to wall nationalism fully embracing denigrating terms for our enemies and rallying our people to great sacrifice to defeat them. That most definitely is NOT happening today and those that do are now the “deplorables” that are not to even utter the term “radical Islam”.
Please explain HOW science will save us. I contend it is being used to defeat us.
Yes, most certainly.
By the looks of it, this is one thing that David Stockman do not fully understand: Islam is about world domination. It’s not about the fight between Sunnis and Shiites (that’s just a side-story); it’s about western civilization against Islam. We can ignore Islam, but if we don’t as much as protect ourselves from this ideology, the silent majority of Muslims will finally be convinced that it is their “destiny” to rule the world. Ignoring Islam now is very much akin to sensible Germans ignoring Mein Kampf and the small band of dedicated Nazis that followed Hitler.
“Please explain HOW science will save us. I contend it is being used to defeat us.”
Man is probably in a terminal state because unfortunately he is combining the powers of science and technology – thank you Greeks – with the behaviors of the animal world. Animals have my property and our property behaviors, but are lacking a YOUR property behavior. Man is the same except for maybe 1% of the population, so the fall back behavior is going to be might makes right.
So he is an animal with an immense power to destroy.
There is no battle between “science and technology” on one side, and “religion” on the other.
Rather, the conflict is between two religious strands. A brand of Islam that is a cross between traditional Abrahamic traditions and Central Asian warrior/barbaric cultures on one side; and Progressivism on the other.
One has survived, and generally thrived, for millennia. Knocking down all challengers to supremacy, aside from the now dead Western strain of the Abrahamic tribe.
The other has lasted for about a century. In which it’s chief accomplishment is to turn the formerly world conquering, Shining City on the Hill, Western strain mentioned above, into nothing more than a decaying carcass. A ghetto filled with slaves not only toiling at gunpoint for the benefit of a few Goldman Sachs higher ups, but indeed being sufficiently indoctrinated to believe they are somehow better for the experience.
One cranks out 8 kids per woman, and raises them to be aggressive, expansionist and repeat the process. The other aborts most of it’s kids. And the few who slip through the cracks, are being taught to live their meager lives on their knees. Bent over for the pleasure of their Goldman overlords. After all, they are less threatening to the status quo that way.
Now, which group would most likely come out of such a conflict victorious?
Gotta sadly disagree with you Jon. All those religious nut jobs reproduce. Scientists and libertarians don’t. It’s that simple. Religious nut jobs will always be with us and they get their teaching/indoctrination from mom and dad beginning at the cradle. Libertarians and other freedom lovers have to start new each generation and try their best against all odds to bring a few of the sheep to their senses. We’ll never win the battle, demographics is totally against us.
Sorry 2banana your non logical progression has taken me nowhere.
I’m guessing you are cutely suggesting that we could have prevented WW2 by stopping Hitler in 1938 (or whenever) – hence we must stop these ISIS Nazis sooner? All you meddlers like to pick and choose your meddle points.
We non-meddlers do too. How about if the US never meddled in WW1? Then Britain – France and Germany would have gotten tired and gone home. We would have stopped Hitler even more cheaply that way – in dollars, in lost lives and lost liberty.
Know any history? Without the USA entering WW1 the Germans would never have gambled on ‘injecting’ the Communism virus into Russia. They did, by train – look it up.
No WW2 no Cold War!. That non-meddling would have garnered a twofer!
So enough with the junior MIC debating club nonsense about never meeting a war you didnt like. I could ramble on about all the other meddling but better historians, comedians and thinkers have done it many times before much better than I can
Proverbs 26:17King James Version (KJV)
17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
Meanwhile, they rebuild coties like New Orleans and detroit… the ground level scam continues with the fundamentals all unchanged. Build, decay cycles with no income stream.
“The way to stop ISIS is to ground the bombers and drones; send home the spotters, trainers and other infrastructure of intervention; forget about who controls the oil—it will be produced by someone”
For this, I would vote for him over either candidate in the last four presidential elections.
That would have probably worked well with Hitler too! We should have just ignored them and they would have just faded away.
ISIS is here to stay unless someone destroys them. They are a cancer on the Islamic world that left to their own devices will infect the entirety of the Muslim faithful….by force if necessary.
We have done much to make this disaster and it would be the ultimate crime to simply walk away and pretend we had no responsibility for it. We broke,,,and we own it, no matter what Obama thinks he can ignore.
JV team my ass.
Are US bombers, drones, spotters, trainers, and other infrastructure of intervention destroying ISIS right now?
As leader, how would you destroy ISIS?
I have not read the book – but it appears that Stockman took jabs at both Hillary and Trump – but seemed to attack Hillary more based on her political track record.
So I’m glad that he’s not totally partisan politically. That gives him more credibility.
But Hillary is a joke. If Stockman had to choose between the 2 I assume he would choose Trump. Is that the message you got from your reading, Mish?
Stockman has turned into somewhat of a maverick. Under Reagan he was no maverick at all. He was pure establishment. So quite a transition. I wonder if he truly had a change of heart or whether he sensed a niche in the marketplace that he could fill which would be a profitable venture?
I don’t believe in all his current views – but some of what he says is refreshing. I must admit.
He is quite a bit for Trump. And not wishy-washy about it. He simply points out Trump’s flaws as well. And Trump has a lot of them.
To be fair you need to qualify “a lot of them” for us, Mish.
IOW, if Trump has a pound of them – Hillary has a ton of them.
Otherwise your statement could be viewed as arbitrary and capricious.
However, if you ran for the Atlanta Fed President and it was up to me I would still vote for you.
Trump wants to audit the Fed, did you notice that? “Faint praise” for a candidate who takes on the Fed, the Military-Industrial complex, and our catastrophic immigration policies is really pretty stupid of Stockman, and I like the guy.
Stockman, a generally sound writer, seems to be doing some virtue signaling, which nauseates me. This election is absolutely crucial, no place for cowards in leadership.
Many people are very careful about aligning to closely with Trump, as they professionally can’t afford to be one of the “deplorables”. People (some people) perceive that remaining neutral gives them credibility, and for most rational people I don’t believe ANY single person could absolutely frame their every position on topics. Stockman has been biting at their heals for years but struggles for that credibility of neutrality from those too dense to comprehend facts.
Mish, do you think the book is just a compendium of Stockman’s daily blogs? If so, there will be little new information for most of us.
There probably will not be much that is new. But it is extremely well written. The best of his books by far. I thought the last one was downright boring. This one isn’t.
“It’s the book I wish I had written if only I had time.”
well, yeah, “the time”….that, and the talent and experience to craft such a masterpeice
I have been approached many times to write a book. Got to the outline stage. Just never had the time.
Yeah…me too
Stockman is a master of the craft….the guy slams out multi-page detailed blog posts like it’s effortless
Granted he does a repeat a bit sometimes…but that’s cool…his stuff is largely unasailable
I have never been asked to write anything except my signature on a check….go figure…
I will read it, but I get the feeling that the bulk of the blame is directed at the Fed, instead of all three branches of govt. Yes, the Fed got politicized, instead of helping regionally week economies by buying corp bonds vs treasuries as was the original intent. It was CONgress that co-opted the Fed to fund the great war, just like they have co-opted everything else in this country to protect their jobs, perks, and power.
Any solution proposed by Mr. Stockman that does not start with short term-limts is a pipe dream. After term-limts, the next step is restructuring and swapping the debt, eliminating at least 6 federal depts, and equally enforcing the rule of law, which would cut health care cost by a factor of 10, and provide the intended deterrents for banksters and other would-be fraudsters when they see their buddies getting pounded by bubba.
Stockman stood by as a cheerleader for Reagan’s massive increase in defense and deficit spending. He was there when Reagan crushed the unions, started the off-shoring and devastation of the middle-class. We are the country Reagan created, with Stockman’s help. Until Stockman atones for that sin, I can’t take him seriously on economic matters.
Isn’t Stockman a Neo-Con Globalist…….
I’m asking you……
Are you F*ing crazy? You seriously need to read the book.
To know, I didn’t have to.
‘Com on man…he was young and naive back then…he’s really come around since then.
You may not like Reagan’s debt and spending but at least HIS accomplished something…like ending the cold war and getting our economy rolling. I do not necessarily agree with all of his methods, but how can anyone look at Reagan as compared to Obama and not see anything but day and night?
Unions destroyed themselves as can be easily seen today, and Reagan went after primarily unions in the public sector…something that should have never been allowed in the first place.
And unless you didn’t realize, we were offshoring long before Reagan….Japanese cars were flooding into America long before he arrived. Further, while there can be no doubt that government programs like NAFTA and GAAT (which Reagan had nothing to do with) went far in enabling our industrial destruction, it STILL required AMERICANS to actually buy the imported stuff that ended up evaporating our jobs. You can blame who you wish of our losses, but I will NEVER see a larger culprit in all of this that the American people themselves.
Yeah, only six minutes of David on MSNBC and the rest of the day filled with their usual BS. That should fix things…
Fuggedaboutit…
That interview was a joke. No, worse than a joke. It was grating, noisy, and abrasive. These folks had no interest in Stockman’s view. They were only interested in their own views and interrupted Stockman constantly. I couldn’t wade through it, much as I like Stockman and think he has important insights to offer.
Sadly, this interview wasn’t about Stockman. It was about Scarborough and his coterie of co-interviewers. Mish, next time please warn me that these guys are going to be doing the interviewing. I just don’t have that kind of time to waste.
Reblogged this on John Barleycorn and commented:
Sounds like I will be getting a copy.
i think mankind is due for a dark age and either trump or Hillary are capable of ushering one in.it’s the mind set of the people , not one person. yeah different path but end result the same. i’m heading over to amazon to get a copy. thanks mish. the path to publishing a book is too slow for your info mish, thanks for staying day to day with us.
Ok, all you Stockman fans.
Why did Stockman turn from an establishment company man for Uncle Sam under Reagan into an anti-establishment maverick?
Very strange to make such a transition.
Did it come from the heart or what it all about the money?
Mish? What say you?
“Very strange to make such a transition”
Not at all – people do it all the time, people can change for the better. It is all part of the learning process and often as we get older and wiser we cast off our former beliefs as we realize the errors of our previous ways.
Or are you a conspiracy theorist nutter ?
“The call for ‘more Europe,’ it is a desperate gambit to keep alive an utterly flawed and contradiction-ridden monetary, fiscal and political union that never should have been concocted in the first place.”
Actually it’s a means to add more slaves to the plantation.
Stockman was the one was the who coined the “voodoo economics” term while in the Reagan administration and caught a lot of flack for as best i can remember.
I enjoyed reading Dave’s book, “The Great Deformation”. The new one seems like it will be similarly informing. Keep up the good work.
Business and politicians crush average Americans with laws and taxes. We think a president is good if we perceive the burden is slowing somewhat but never stopping. Thus Reagan and Bill Clinton was ok since good times rolled and bush and Obama suck because of war and strife at home and abroad. Step back. It is one continuum of gradual control. The noose tightens, the water heats and we sit oblivious
How do businesses make laws and taxes?
Also:
Dig Reagan pass up an excuse to meddle during the turmoil of the 1979 Iranian revolution?
Did Clinton pass up an excuse to meddle during the turmoil of the 1996 Afghan civil war?
Luck or decision making?
Business runs government through influence peddling. What’s good for business is good for politics. We argue about which side of the road to drive on, left or right without ever bother looking at where the road is headed. If not collapse then a controlled police state.