What do you expect when the Supreme Ciurt gave you virtually total immunity from prosecution fir anything you did while President snd couldn't be prosecuted for other earlier crimes because if a lame Justice Department ruling that a president can't be prosecuted while in office. Bottomline Trump will get away with it but we should hold all his compatriots accountable.
If you follow ups and downs in oil prices, I think it’s pretty clear that selling oil stocks and purchasing oil stocks is strangely close to Trump’s announcements of Trump’s shifts in what he says about progress in peace negotiations and the then more pessimistic statements about the war. Pessimism = sell oil stocks and and optimism =buy oil stocks and cycling back and forth. If one has the slightest edge in information about which way the price of a barrel of oil fluctuates, or do I have this backwards. Selling media outlets to overseas markets is fraud or treason or some other negative consequence of these sales. Whichever, Trump is manipulating the stock market.
Trump and how his family have also increased their wealth by several hundred dollars as “investors” purchase their cryptocurrency. Many of those purchases are effectively political donations to Trump, made by people seeking to curry favor with him …or get a pardon.
At 84, it is difficult to get excited about more bad news bears. I am an AF vet on SS, in CA where property taxes are half of my SS annual, which gets gnawed at by Medicare every year - it went up by $18 this year and went down $5 in 2024. Gas is now $7 for premium. I mix ethanol with regular gas, because it sells for $3 less. But I am probably burning up my valves in my 2002 Nissan Altima to save a few shekels. But I will be out there Saturday for NK V or VI...
Disgusting! We all knew during the first term that it was a massive grift. Ha! It pales in comparison to the out-and-out corruption of this one. I've said before, how do these people look at themselves in the mirror? Step right up! Get your goodies! And the rest of us are left to struggle.
Catherine - I think Hassett 4-5% GDP predictions is actually a no-brainer, as long as its in *nominal* terms! (Want to bet me that's not how they defend it ex-post?) If we get inflation up to 3.5 to 4% in the H2, it won't be any trouble at all.
As for the benefits of the administration's largess, I have to imagine that if we dug into how all that ICE money was being spent, we'd find a lot more than former Secretary Noem's $220 million add campaign benefiting friends of the administration. I look forward to all the future DOGE enquiries into that spending! (Side note - I was sad to learn this week that the CIA Factbook was a DOGE casualty --- I had been using that resource for decades and will sorely miss it).
It is hard realizing how corrupted our Congress has become. No other President during my lifetime would ever have been allowed Trump's corrupted latitude, yet we are watching it happen in plain sight.
The "bigger story" here isn't just one man; it is the total compliance of a Congress that has traded its constitutional oversight for partisan loyalty and personal profit. We are seeing the "Power of the Purse" used as a weapon against the public while the well-connected thrive.
Take the news from this evening regarding the U.S. Postal Service. The agency has announced it is suspending its $2.5 billion employer pension contributions to stay afloat. While some might mistake this for a 401(k) match, the impact is the same: the retirement security of middle-class workers is being hollowed out.
Instead of stepping in to save this essential service, Congress just sits. Representative James Comer and the House Oversight Committee have already signaled a "no more bailouts" stance, effectively starving the USPS. This feels like a manufactured crisis designed to pave the way for privatization, allowing Trump’s corporate allies to swoop in and profit from what used to be a public good.
While postal workers lose their security and monopolies develop left and right, obvious insider trading is going on with the very people meant to regulate these industries. Just this past quarter, nearly 30 members of Congress significantly outperformed the S&P 500. We’ve seen reports of massive trades—totaling over a billion dollars—placed just minutes before major White House announcements.
It’s obscene. The people meant to guard the vault are helping to empty it. When the referees are also the players, and the "checks and balances" have been replaced by a "pay-to-play" system, the corruption isn't just a side story—it’s the entire system.
I personally would like to see one of the following bills in congress come to fruition. It might go a long distance for us to be able to trust our Congress.
1. The ETHICS Act (Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks): This bipartisan bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks.
2. The TRUST in Congress Act: This would require all members to put their assets into a Qualified Blind Trust while in office, meaning they would have no idea how their money is being invested.
Congress literally has too much (insider) information that the rest of the population does not have access to. Currently we're paying them not to do their jobs while they pad their own portfolios.
Thanks for the New Yorker article, very sad and just confirms he’s a sick dude, a total ideologue actually. He could care less about the average American.
I wonder how much of the $1.5 trillion defense department request will find its way into the pockets of the drone-manufacturing trump boys, Jr. and Eric? War profiteering is the next big grift of the trump well connected.
Wow! What a great and insightful article. Thank you. Very depressing too. Today I heard he's proposing that he and Iran make a deal to charge for passage through the straights of Hormuz. Outrageous!
I can't even read this. I've said for months, there won't be a penny left in the Treasury when this is over...Americans are shopping at Target and not paying a bit of attention while that criminal enterprise robs us blind. Sooo depressing...
One of the biggest insiders in “Drumpf’s Economy” has flown so low under the radar it is mind boggling - I present you one Donald Trump, Jr. The one we called Fredo in the quaint days of Trump 1.0.
As belligerently dumb as he is, Jr was smart enough this go-round to put 0% of his time into politics. His personal enrichment since January 2025 must rival that of his dear old (old, old) dad.
My blood boils knowing that even when everything hopefully comes crumbling down for Pops (or Pop’s estate), Jr will get to keep every. damn. penny.
There is something about Catherine Rampell's excellent economic analysis that reminds me of Richard Feynman's explanations of physical phenomena - insightful, understandable and totally accessible. She's the gem in 'The Bulwark' crown.
Catherine, I love your work, but I have a suggestion. I’m wondering if you could possibly publish your terrific columns a bit earlier in the day. Today was Bombing, Melania, Trump, the Pope threatened at the pentagon, and Vance in Hungary insulting Ukraine and Zelensky YET AGAIN. I started to read your column and it was Just. Too. Much.
It is true that I could just put it aside until tomorrow and start the day with it. But by then we might have bombed Cuba. Or be back to threatening to end civilization in Iran. Or having social security cancelled to pay off these corrupt windfalls.
I am absolutely certain that you understand. Don’t let the boys bully you out of an earlier spot. Go for it. ❤️
Trump told us over and over he knew more about waste, fraud, and abuse than almost anyone else. His intimate knowledge would stop it. Only he could fix it. Who believed him? The same people drawn into the illusory world of The Apprentice, people who know a crime boss when they see and hear one, friends and relatives of Trump, business executives and politicians lining their pockets, influencers thinking they can have a piece of the best chocolate cake ever made with a double scoop of ice cream (but we all know, just for one person at the table). It is all projection.
Waste. Fraud. Abuse. Corruption. The center of it all….Trump. Recently, I have been drawn into reading Biblical Beatitudes, to be versed enough to have discussions with relatives who claim to be Christian. It is my sincere hope that “the meek will inherit the Earth”.
What do you expect when the Supreme Ciurt gave you virtually total immunity from prosecution fir anything you did while President snd couldn't be prosecuted for other earlier crimes because if a lame Justice Department ruling that a president can't be prosecuted while in office. Bottomline Trump will get away with it but we should hold all his compatriots accountable.
If you follow ups and downs in oil prices, I think it’s pretty clear that selling oil stocks and purchasing oil stocks is strangely close to Trump’s announcements of Trump’s shifts in what he says about progress in peace negotiations and the then more pessimistic statements about the war. Pessimism = sell oil stocks and and optimism =buy oil stocks and cycling back and forth. If one has the slightest edge in information about which way the price of a barrel of oil fluctuates, or do I have this backwards. Selling media outlets to overseas markets is fraud or treason or some other negative consequence of these sales. Whichever, Trump is manipulating the stock market.
Trump and how his family have also increased their wealth by several hundred dollars as “investors” purchase their cryptocurrency. Many of those purchases are effectively political donations to Trump, made by people seeking to curry favor with him …or get a pardon.
Thanks for the clear but unfortunately depressing economic perspective, not your fault! Good to know what we are dealing with.
At 84, it is difficult to get excited about more bad news bears. I am an AF vet on SS, in CA where property taxes are half of my SS annual, which gets gnawed at by Medicare every year - it went up by $18 this year and went down $5 in 2024. Gas is now $7 for premium. I mix ethanol with regular gas, because it sells for $3 less. But I am probably burning up my valves in my 2002 Nissan Altima to save a few shekels. But I will be out there Saturday for NK V or VI...
Disgusting! We all knew during the first term that it was a massive grift. Ha! It pales in comparison to the out-and-out corruption of this one. I've said before, how do these people look at themselves in the mirror? Step right up! Get your goodies! And the rest of us are left to struggle.
Catherine - I think Hassett 4-5% GDP predictions is actually a no-brainer, as long as its in *nominal* terms! (Want to bet me that's not how they defend it ex-post?) If we get inflation up to 3.5 to 4% in the H2, it won't be any trouble at all.
As for the benefits of the administration's largess, I have to imagine that if we dug into how all that ICE money was being spent, we'd find a lot more than former Secretary Noem's $220 million add campaign benefiting friends of the administration. I look forward to all the future DOGE enquiries into that spending! (Side note - I was sad to learn this week that the CIA Factbook was a DOGE casualty --- I had been using that resource for decades and will sorely miss it).
It is hard realizing how corrupted our Congress has become. No other President during my lifetime would ever have been allowed Trump's corrupted latitude, yet we are watching it happen in plain sight.
The "bigger story" here isn't just one man; it is the total compliance of a Congress that has traded its constitutional oversight for partisan loyalty and personal profit. We are seeing the "Power of the Purse" used as a weapon against the public while the well-connected thrive.
Take the news from this evening regarding the U.S. Postal Service. The agency has announced it is suspending its $2.5 billion employer pension contributions to stay afloat. While some might mistake this for a 401(k) match, the impact is the same: the retirement security of middle-class workers is being hollowed out.
Instead of stepping in to save this essential service, Congress just sits. Representative James Comer and the House Oversight Committee have already signaled a "no more bailouts" stance, effectively starving the USPS. This feels like a manufactured crisis designed to pave the way for privatization, allowing Trump’s corporate allies to swoop in and profit from what used to be a public good.
While postal workers lose their security and monopolies develop left and right, obvious insider trading is going on with the very people meant to regulate these industries. Just this past quarter, nearly 30 members of Congress significantly outperformed the S&P 500. We’ve seen reports of massive trades—totaling over a billion dollars—placed just minutes before major White House announcements.
It’s obscene. The people meant to guard the vault are helping to empty it. When the referees are also the players, and the "checks and balances" have been replaced by a "pay-to-play" system, the corruption isn't just a side story—it’s the entire system.
I personally would like to see one of the following bills in congress come to fruition. It might go a long distance for us to be able to trust our Congress.
1. The ETHICS Act (Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks): This bipartisan bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks.
2. The TRUST in Congress Act: This would require all members to put their assets into a Qualified Blind Trust while in office, meaning they would have no idea how their money is being invested.
Congress literally has too much (insider) information that the rest of the population does not have access to. Currently we're paying them not to do their jobs while they pad their own portfolios.
Who is going to bell the cat now?
"Obscene" is the correct descriptive word for the Trump regime's corruption.
Russell Vought believes that Jesus hates the CFPB: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/03/16/the-zombie-regulator
Thanks for the New Yorker article, very sad and just confirms he’s a sick dude, a total ideologue actually. He could care less about the average American.
He is a sick dude.
I wonder how much of the $1.5 trillion defense department request will find its way into the pockets of the drone-manufacturing trump boys, Jr. and Eric? War profiteering is the next big grift of the trump well connected.
Wow! What a great and insightful article. Thank you. Very depressing too. Today I heard he's proposing that he and Iran make a deal to charge for passage through the straights of Hormuz. Outrageous!
He wants a cut of the "tolls". Anyone surprised? Anyone?
I can't even read this. I've said for months, there won't be a penny left in the Treasury when this is over...Americans are shopping at Target and not paying a bit of attention while that criminal enterprise robs us blind. Sooo depressing...
One of the biggest insiders in “Drumpf’s Economy” has flown so low under the radar it is mind boggling - I present you one Donald Trump, Jr. The one we called Fredo in the quaint days of Trump 1.0.
As belligerently dumb as he is, Jr was smart enough this go-round to put 0% of his time into politics. His personal enrichment since January 2025 must rival that of his dear old (old, old) dad.
My blood boils knowing that even when everything hopefully comes crumbling down for Pops (or Pop’s estate), Jr will get to keep every. damn. penny.
There is something about Catherine Rampell's excellent economic analysis that reminds me of Richard Feynman's explanations of physical phenomena - insightful, understandable and totally accessible. She's the gem in 'The Bulwark' crown.
Catherine, I love your work, but I have a suggestion. I’m wondering if you could possibly publish your terrific columns a bit earlier in the day. Today was Bombing, Melania, Trump, the Pope threatened at the pentagon, and Vance in Hungary insulting Ukraine and Zelensky YET AGAIN. I started to read your column and it was Just. Too. Much.
It is true that I could just put it aside until tomorrow and start the day with it. But by then we might have bombed Cuba. Or be back to threatening to end civilization in Iran. Or having social security cancelled to pay off these corrupt windfalls.
I am absolutely certain that you understand. Don’t let the boys bully you out of an earlier spot. Go for it. ❤️
Trump told us over and over he knew more about waste, fraud, and abuse than almost anyone else. His intimate knowledge would stop it. Only he could fix it. Who believed him? The same people drawn into the illusory world of The Apprentice, people who know a crime boss when they see and hear one, friends and relatives of Trump, business executives and politicians lining their pockets, influencers thinking they can have a piece of the best chocolate cake ever made with a double scoop of ice cream (but we all know, just for one person at the table). It is all projection.
Waste. Fraud. Abuse. Corruption. The center of it all….Trump. Recently, I have been drawn into reading Biblical Beatitudes, to be versed enough to have discussions with relatives who claim to be Christian. It is my sincere hope that “the meek will inherit the Earth”.