Trump BLOWS UP Economy and RUNS SCARED!!!

So, what do con artists do after. promising riches that they're going to. make you so damn rich and then they. destroy you and take your money? Well, they just up the ante and they escalate. their con. What does Donald Trump, a. lifelong con artist do when he promised. a golden age on day one and here we are. essentially two years into this massive. economic Ponzi scheme that he's now run. on our country and people are suffering. You have a horrible uh jobs report. you. have inflation up. What do you do? What.

do you do? Well, again, you up the. Annie. You say, "Not only would I give. myself a grade of 100%. I think I'd give. myself 150%, folks, because the golden. age is here right now. Listen to what he. says on an interview from Friday." Let's. play it. >> But our country right now is doing. better than it's ever done. You know, when I see polls on the economy, I. should have I should have 150%, not. 100%. >> Oh, yeah. >> Because we have the greatest, this is.

the golden age of America. What's being. built now in this country has never ever. been built. And we're really, we are. literally in the golden age of America. And I think people are starting I. actually think people are starting. >> We'll see 89 days. We'll see if they. >> It's going to be very exciting. A very. tough interview there brought to you by. Punch Bowl and Boeing. I don't know if. you saw that. Brought to you by Boeing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you have. I guess I. guess you have. I don't know. I could. think of one or two follow-up questions. I I might want to ask. But from a Boeing.

sponsored. interview with Donald Trump to uh CNBC, Treasury Secretary Bessant declares, "The K-shaped economy is hereby over. because I say so." Just to remind you, the K-shaped economy is meaning K like a. K where the rich get richer and. everybody else is getting screwed. But. that's gone. We've solved the equality. gap. Everybody here, let's play this. clip.

>> So, we are starting to see I I got sick. of hearing about this K-shaped economy. I I can say here definitively the. K-shaped economy is over. >> Oh, good gosh. I got sick of it, too. I. [laughter] I got sick of it. Really, it's you could say to guys, everybody. Bessant says definitively it's over. We're good. So, uh Okay. So, what were. what were the job numbers uh on Friday? Is it reflective of this K-shaped. economy being over? No. A really bad.

jobs report. One of the worst ever. Uh. didn't you promise we're going to have. so much jobs? You weren't we're not even. going to know what to do with it. Well, the US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July. May and June were revised down by a. combined 103,000 jobs. Yes, the. unemployment rate ticked down ever so. slightly, but it's still at 4.1% which. isn't great, but it went down for the. wrong reasons because over 260,000. people left the labor force and said we. ain't coming back. So, I guess they just. don't get counted anymore. Wage growth.

3.2%. Inflation year-over-year 3.5% or. so. But that number is going to go back. up. It only went down in my opinion. because the memorandum of understanding. brought it down temporarily. But I think. that's going to go up. And so clearly. the wage growth is not growing. It's. being squashed by what the inflation is. But folks, he says the K-shaped economy. is gone. So clearly the stock market's. going to react negatively to those. numbers, right? Because everybody's.

going to share in the pain. Huh? No. It. actually looks like the market was. ripping. the market was ripping imme. immediately on that news because when. you have uh bad job numbers like that, that may mean the Fed may not raise. interest rates. They may have to lower. it or keep it the same because in. theory, if you lower it or you keep it. the same or you don't raise it, that. means you're going to spur on some. hiring by, you know, not um by not. raising the interest rates on companies. to make it more difficult to borrow. We'll get some more expert opinion on.

that in a moment. But how are they. covering this on state regime media Fox? Dun dun dun. A really bad jobs report. Surely they're going to handle it with. some tact. Here's what they say. Let's. play it. >> Again, a disappointing jobs report. Dow. futures way up, doubling where they were. before. I'm going to continue to dig. through to tell you where the jobs are. and are not. Maria. >> All right. Thank you, Lauren. 23,000. jobs lost in the month of July. Hey. Louie, you wanted a week report. You got.

it. Was this too weak? >> No, not at all. You know, um, when. Palunteer announced their earnings, they. uh basically had record earnings by. decreasing their sales force. So, there's this AI productivity boom. underway and uh it's obvious what's. happening. But no, this is great news. That's why the market's up and and now. the Fed has an unemployment mandate and. um so this is great news and obviously a. lot of people disappeared from the. workforce of the unemployment uh rate.

dropped. They said disappointing for. about two seconds then they went into. this is great news. I want to bring in. Justin Wolfers of Platypus Economics. Make sure you all subscribe to his. YouTube channel by searching Platypus. Economics. Justin Woler is also chief. economist here at the Midas Touch. Network. Justin, I'm just going to let. you take it from here. What do you What. do you make What do you make of that all. Ben? That was just a truly brilliant. comedic setup. I mean, I honestly. couldn't have even imagined a a world in.

which anyone thought any of that was. real. Um, I laugh so I don't cry. Um, so. look, let me just tell the most. important story of the day. you're much. better than I am at putting it in the. context of the political story, but I. think I I can get the economics right. here, which is um if you're a person who. likes it when people find work, when. they find dignity, when they can put. food on the table, then you'd think it's. a bad day when the US sheds jobs. We.

were expected to gain 80,000 jobs today. We lost 23,000. I always try to be a measured economist. So typically if we miss expectations by. a small amount, I'll kind of shrug my. shoulders and say not a big deal, but. this isn't a small miss. This is a big. deal. So we lost 23,000 jobs, which puts. us roughly 100,000 below what Wall. Street had been expecting. And in the. previous two months, data revisions, which are a normal. natural part of the statistical process, suggest that the economy hadn't been.

sort of in that B+ territory we'd been. hoping for. maybe even a minus. It had. been substantially worse. So, we revised. down recent history, another 100,000. jobs. So, what we've moved to is, you. know, the the tight rope. We're worried. it's not doing that well. The good news. of the past few months, some of it. turned out to be something of a. statistical illusion. And then there are. a range of other things to be worried. about. Um, there are some other. indicators of how the economy is doing. that suggest the job market may even be.

weaker. just to deal people in on the. nerdy wonkiness of it all. The. government measures employment growth. using a survey of firms. That's usually. what we emphasize because that's more. signal than noise. There's a separate. survey where they ask Americans did they. find a job? That's what we get the. unemployment rate from. That one. suggests things are even weaker and it's. suggested that now for enough months. that it really is time to be a little. bit concerned that yesterday was bad. news but perhaps we need to put an.

asterisk next to it which is it's it it. may actually be worse than it looks. So. mate um I think that we should think. about this in very personal terms. I. think that today what happened was one. Michigan stadium full of people. fewer have jobs than we've hoped and. another Michigan stadium it's a big. house it's a big stadium we thought had. jobs from previous statistics it turns. out that they didn't and each of those. folks are doing a little tougher and. folks at home even who didn't lose their. jobs they're a little more on edge.

they're a little more worried about how. their kids are going to get into the. labor market and they're a little more. uh worried about how they're going to. get a pay rise to keep up with the. rising cost of. cuz then they are looking for okay well. this is a bad news story right this is. you know most empathetic human beings. who look at this common sense say we. want Americans to be gaining jobs. working with dignity we want all of that.

but then you see you know on a network. like Fox you know and in certain circles. when we talk about the Kshape those who. are thriving ing versus those who are. struggling to even survive. They're. spiking the football as though this was. a great day. And so it almost adds an. additional punch in the face to the bad. news and the bad trend that there are. the people when we talk about Kshape, a. lot of these rich oligarchs, there's a.

trillionaire and the billionaires and. all of them who say, "Aha, this shows. AI. we can now replace our workforce. In. addition, this may mean the Fed will not. raise interest rates at least yet. Or. this could stall that a little bit. longer and perhaps we could ek out a. little more uh stock gain for the. remainder of this year. and maybe even, you know, uh, Kevin Walsh, who we know. is having daily conversations with Trump.

evidently from the least the recent. reportings as you have Treasury. Secretary Bessant attacking the Wall. Street Journal and Financial Times and. other writers who write about the Fed. Um maybe behind the scenes they're using. this as a way to lower interest rates. which I believe Bank of America and. others have basically said even the. short period of time some of this. behavior reminds us of developing. nations um based on some of the posture.

visav interest rates relative to the. inflation data that we see. Ben talking. with you is like having lunch at a. buffet. There's just too many things on. the uh on the buffet to stuff on my. plate and get into. So. >> that's why, by the way, you can't take. me to a Vegas buffet. I start making. pizza, egg, salad, sandwiches, and it. gets really gross. Really. >> That sounds amazing. [laughter]. Count me in for one of those. So, let me. bite off the K-shaped economy and then. after that, if you want to go back to. the buffet, we can talk about the Fed.

Um I'm a one thing at a time guy. I'm. just a little simpler, Ben. Sorry, mate. Um okay, K-shaped economy. Um, I don't. think we have this asset ready, but we. might be able to get it up, which is uh, Treasury Secretary Basant tweeted. actually that the K-shaped economy was. definitively over. And the evidence that. he gave was very interesting evidence. and it's true and it's worth paying. attention to and it shows that he. doesn't understand anything. The. evidence that he gave was he said if you. look at the workers at the 25th. percentile of the wage distribution. So.

lowwage workers their rate of wage. growth over the past year has been. higher than median. And the higher wage. workers those at the 75th percentile. their rate of wage growth was a little. bit lower. So that's true. Good job. secretary. You found facts and you found. facts that were true. But what he's. failed to understand, there's some part of this that's. understandable if he weren't a Treasury. Secretary. Wages are just one part of. income, right? For working-class. families, wages are the most important.

part of income. For the folks at the. very top end, wages are only one part of. it because they get investment income. We'd often call that capital income. And. so what he's done is he said, "Let's. just look at one part of income." And. he's shown that's become slightly more. equal over the past year. Okay? But. here's the other important part. You can. think about the total economy, how much. pi we make. Pi is a metaphor here. I. mean GDP, I mean income, I mean money, I. mean stuff. Think about the size of the. pie. And then you can just think about. one part of it gets sliced off and goes.

to capital. So it goes to the owners of. businesses as profits and the like. The. other part goes off to feed the workers. Historically nearly roughly about. 3-fifths of that pie went to workers. That's fallen dramatically. And right. now it's at the lowest level it's ever. been. We call this the labor share of. income. So what this means is within the. labor share income has become somewhat. more equal, but more income is going to.

capital. Guess what? Capital is. overwhelmingly held by the rich. And so. that is really what the K-shaped economy. was all about all along. We've seen the. the the headlines. The stock market's. doing well. The AI boom is generating. enormous gains and we have these. incredibly rich and successful. companies. And I don't resent success at. all. But who holds stock in those. companies? Workingass folks might have a. couple of dollars in their 401k. Richer. folks hold a whole lot of money. They're. more likely to be aggressively invested.

in stocks. And so that chunk of our. national pie that we send off to. capital, very little of it is getting. through to working and middle-ass. Americans. And so the point here is the. K-shaped recovery is quite real, but. it's not about rich workers versus poor. workers. It's actually much more about. labor versus capital. And again, the the. key point here that hasn't been. discussed enough, and I I think it's. really worth emphasizing some more. Labour's share of the national pie is. the lowest it's ever been in recorded.

history. And that goes back to 1929. This is a big deal. You can measure it a. million different ways. Lots of. economists have looked at it and you. know it's something that really matters. >> which is why our definitions of. recession or great recession may not. even make all that much sense because if. you look at labor going back to 1929. and how labor feels about their economic. circumstance you ask them look at the.

consumer confidence report from a great. university of Michigan the lowest in. history. Um people are feeling that. they're in not just a recession but a. great recession right now. But when we. get GDP numbers and other things, you go. ah you know it's it's ekking out a. little bit slow gain 1.5% 1 point you. know the latest 1.5. So it it does. appear though the inongruity is the.

K-shaped explanation that you just gave. in the sense that capital is kind of. hoisting this up but labor is being uh. kind of pushed down and that it's not a. shared pain. It is a pain on the backs. of labor while capital still remains in. that K trajectory. And then you have. that slight you're not you don't have. two consecutive quarters which is I. guess the technical definition of like. recession territory because of that.

dynamic. Is that is that a way to think. about this or is that overly simplistic? So I think you're abs so let me start at. the beginning. Um macroeconomics is. about the economy as a whole. So when we. talk about recessions we talk about. what's happening on average in America. Typically a recession is on average. across a bunch of sectors the economy is. shrinking rather than growing. That's. not happening right now. So to be. crystal clear, the US is not in a. recession. Now you'll notice I said it's. when what's happening across everyone. Now you know the truth is there are many.

different ways of describing the. economy. One is what's happening to the. average. Another would be go and have. coffee with 340 million different. Americans and understand that each of us. lives a different story. There are vast. parts of the country. There are vast. sectors. There's workers rather than. capitalists and so on where things are a. whole lot grimmer. That's not our. definition of recession, but it's also a. reality of not only their lived. experience. I'm not trying to be soft. here. It's also very very clear in the. data. Most of the gains have gone to.

capital. So therefore, if you rely on. labor income for, you know, to put food. on the table, you haven't gotten your. fair share out of all of this. You. haven't gotten your slice has gotten a. bit bigger, even if the pie has got your. slice has gotten smaller, even if the. pie um has gotten bigger. I want to. connect that to, as you did, consumer. confidence. So, you ask people how they. feel about the economy and they feel. utterly miserable. In fact, consumer. confidence is is at its lowest level. I'm going to argue with you a little,

Ben. Um, I don't think that quite makes. sense. Things are not as good as we'd. like them to be, but I also remember how. dark things were during the financial. crisis of 2008, 2009. That was a. terrifying time. I remember how dark. things were during the COVID recession. That was a terrifying time. There's no. way. I just find it implausible. And and. folks at home, if I'm wrong, just tell. us all in the comments. But it's hard to. believe the level of fear and misery is. quite at the levels it was back then.

So, what's going on? I you know, that's. I don't want to take the doom and gloom. story too seriously. Ben, you know me. I. like to be an optimistic bloke. Um, I. think that people are really upset about. the fact that we do have some forces. that are making life harder for people. That happens sometimes when there's a a. small virus that locks us in our homes. or a financial crisis. But what's the. kick in the teeth here? It's the cause. of all of this is the White House. That. this is a tariff driven agenda. That.

this we have a war in Iran. That the. Stratam wars is closed. All of this is. utterly pointless. that we've just had a. budget that's blowing out the deficit. that that budget uh takes from the poor. and gives to the rich. It just feels so. stacked against every one of us. The. small stories through the day that you. often tell Ben and you tell them. eloquently, you could ask me as an. economist, is this a big deal? And I. would say no Ben, if it's millions of. dollars rather than billions, it's a. small deal. But that relentless drip.

drip drip drip, that sense that. someone's out there trying to screw you, geez, mate, it even gets me down. sometimes. Yeah. And perhaps when someone in the. past when you would see a crisis, you. would say, you know what, this is a. crisis, but we've got people working to. fix it. And now it's to your to the. point that you're making, I believe, wait a minute, the people who are. supposed to fix it are creating it and. they're creating it and they're creating. it again. And so it is you're burning.

it. You're burning the building. You're. not, you know, at least in a crisis in. the past, it's like, okay, the. firefighters are here. they're they're. doing their best to put it out. Um, and. so to me that is, you know, encapsulated. in what you said. We're going to do. other videos this weekend and so we'll. it will incorporate some of the backend. into into that where I really want to go. into some currency issues and the. overall credibility of the United States. market, Visav, other central banks. We're going to geek out, but everybody, more importantly, if you really want to. geek out, subscribe to Platypus. Economics on YouTube. Make sure you all.

go there. And do me a favor. when you. watch a Justin Wolfers video um put in. the comments that Ben says hello so he. can see that we sent you uh directly. >> It's been great. Ben, I have had so many. of our mutual friends say Ben says. goodday and I'm like all Ben does is say. goodday these days. I love it. That's my. goal. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get. to 7 million subscribers. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for. pre-order now. It's the story of how we. got here and how we fight our way back.

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