Thom Hartmann: Trump and Mnuchin Likely to Drive Unemployment to Highest Levels Since Last Seen in Great Depression and Record Drops in the Stock Market
March 18, 2020
Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin (DonkeyHotey
By Thom Hartmann
On my radio/TV show last Friday, I said words to the effect of, “Get ready for unemployment levels that are worse than the Republican Great Depression. Get ready for a stock market failure that will be worse than the Republican Great Depression. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.“ Several people admonished me for talking “fearfully.“ During the first two years of the Republican Great Depression, unemployment rose up to and through 20%, and had hit about a third of Americans by 1933, in its third year.
If we are not already at 20%, we will be soon – as Steve Mnuchin, The former California “foreclosure king“ who is now our treasury secretary, admitted on Monday. Because we are looking at a crisis of Republican Great Depression proportions, and what got us out of that were FDR‘s programs and the massive stimulus of government spending in World War II, which took us to a national debt of 124% of GDP, it’s going to take that kind of stimulus now to prevent this from becoming 30% or higher unemployment.
That means instead of talking about a $1 trillion stimulus where every American gets $1000 and a bunch of big corporations get billions, we need to be talking about a $15 or $20 trillion stimulus focused on unemployed workers that extends over the next 18 to 24 months. Meanwhile, Louie Gohmert in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate tried to block even the feeble stimulus plans being put forward right now by Democrats and agreed to by most Republicans. Congress needs to take this seriously or we’re going to see a repeat of the Herbert Hoover presidency in short order.
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