This is an short assortment of some possible important developments we could see in 2018. I've tried to provide some simple choices, and you are of course, welcome to elaborate in a post. Multiple-choice is activated, because the selections are quite different from each other, and there is no single response to cover the three main topics.
I see the rich getting a lot richer. Everybody else just treads water and then inflation takes off. That will jack up costs but I don't see many people getting any big pay raises. No war with North Korea. Democrats will swamp the November elections and Trump will be chained up in the dog house for his last two years. Ho hum.
If you have a lot of children then the increase in that child tax credit is a nice plus, but the cost of raising extra children will probably eat all the benefits as prices rise. Bottom line, this tax reform is all about lowering corporate taxes. Everything else is window dressing, and not much of that. No war anywhere. Nobody wants to lose, but nobody can win a new war. NK will continue to develop nukes and missiles but they won't be as much in our face about it. Democrats are going to swarm to the polls next November and take over Congress. Whatever Trump is going to do he had better get it done before the new Congress is sworn in in January 2019. After that he won't be able to do anything unless Democrats like it, but they won't no matter what it is.
-War with North Korea. -Stock Market drops 10% due to war with North Korea. -Jared Kushner indicted by Mueller.
The tax reform won't really benefit anybody very much except for rich people and large companies. I see conflict breaking out between the US and North Korea but it won't be an all out full scale war. It will be like giving them a bloody nose, like Trump was talking about doing to Kim last week. Democrats will come running out from everywhere to vote in November. They will take over Congress leaving Trump unable to do anything. He will end up running the country with a pen and phone just like Obama did. But Democrats won't try to impeach him.
if all things stay the same, and no sudden major victories for Trump, Democrats retake the House. but if things suddenly go very BAD for Trump, Democrats may also take the Senate.
'Greater prosperity' for the middle-class will prove illusory and disappointing. Why? Not everybody has kids and so no 'child tax credit' for them. The other tax savings won't amount to that much (how many people in the middle-class have $10,000 property tax bills?). Whatever financial improvement the middle-class enjoys will probably be eaten up by two things: 1. inflation 2; a person's inability to keep from plunging into debt because they "feel wealthy". Hint: companies aren't going to be giving big raises to people who don't have sharp skill-sets and plenty of valuable current experience in how to actually do things that make money and/or cut company expenses. Companies don't care that you want to "feel wealthy"! Another hint: corporations are going to plow most of their big tax-windfall into robotics, artificial intelligence, and other NON-PAYROLL platforms in order to make and save money. OK, next, No war with North Korea. Trump has already made it clear that he will do nothing but use "sanctions" (useless, worthless). Also, note that to this moment we have not pulled any American non-combatants out of either South Korea or Japan. We would get those people out of there before we engaged in any hostilities. Lastly, Democrats will come boiling up out of every crack and crevice to vote for anybody who promises to GIVE them more and more free-stuff. That means, of course, they will vote (savagely!) for more liberal Democrats in both the House and Senate. All this bullshit about sex abuse, Russia hacking the election for Trump, global warming, racism, etc., is just propaganda and typical liberal window dressing. Reality: Half the country is on welfare-suck, and has been for most of the past ten years! And that half of the population wants to STAY on welfare-suck.... They'll have to... Corporate America doesn't want them, not even at minimum wage.
I'm still betting the big story will be 'the dumping' of trump. Because he's rolled around in the gutter most of his life there's no way he's coming out of Mueller's investigation with a pass.
The main reason I don't believe that the Democrat Machine will really try hard to actually get totally rid of Trump is because then they'd have to deal with Mike Pence. They don't want that! They'd much rather deal with a permanently crippled Trump than a "Mr. Clean" Mike Pence! Trump is an easy target for Libocrats and their little friends in the hyperliberal "news" media, but they'd have to work much harder to push an agenda that trashes Mike Pence! Plus, Pence could rally Republicans in Congress in ways that Trump will never be able to! No, most Democrats think that they have Trump "tied to a whipping post" -- and that's how they want to keep things until they can get another piece of socialist-lite, American-hating trash, similar to Obama, back in the White House.... Link: https://morningconsult.com/2017/08/23/voters-want-pence-president-trump-poll-shows/
You're mostly right... which is exactly why the Democrat Machine will toy with Trump, torture him when they can, and belittle him with every kind of charge, real or imagined. BUT, they don't want to get rid of him. He's their rallying-point! He's their 'punching-bag'.... How I wish somebody could convince Trump to get the hell off of all these idiotic 'social media' crack-pipes and behave like a President of the United States! What's that old line about wrestling pigs in the mud? That's all that Trump accomplishes by thrashing around with Democrats on half-witted venues like 'Twitter'....
I disagree. Demos would love to send Trump out in disgrace, take over Congress, and they would still control everything. Pence would be helpless in front of a Democrat controlled Congress. Republicans would be stinging forever over the humiliation of having one of theirs impeached and removed from office. One year from now Demos will probably be able to set the wheels in motion because you can bet they will take over Congress.
No war with North Korea, no impeachment for Trump. But Democrats will continue to fight him no matter what he proposes, just because he is Trump. That wall on the Mexico border will never be built but Trump will continue the fight to get more criminal illegals out of here and keep them out. The tax cuts will probably help more people in 2018 than it will in years that follow. And I agree that companies will use their tax savings to invest in newer technologies that do not involve having to hire more people. Why pay more people to run your business profitably than you have to?
US economy will improve for the Middle Class and the Democrat Party will win the majority in the Congress ... simply because the Democrat Party is a Middle Class party ...
Over here, the Democrats draw a LOT of their support from über-Left liberals and those on welfare handouts from the government. Our American middle-class is a mixture of so-called "moderate" Republicans and whatever portion of the Democrat Party hasn't become 'socialist-lite'. Interestingly enough, many rich people over here are liberal Democrats -- but you can bet they'll be raking in the cash they get from this bogus 'tax reform', just as fast as they can. "Limousine-Liberals" are some of the worst hypocrites in the American political scene. Is it that way in Italy, too...?
In Italy we've got former Communists [now Democrats] wearing Rolex watches ... The most curious aspect of Italian left is that it started in the working class [you know Communists and Socialists ...] and ended to make the interests of the great corporations, of banks, of the Church [the Socialists begun when they made a government with the Christian Democrats in the 80's ... the Communist followed after the fall of the wall of Berlin, when they changed name to the party ... but they didn't change their mind ...].
I always enjoy your posts, Luke, this Forum's "sane voice" in Northern Italy! In many ways I have felt for a long time that we Americans are still in a kind of naive, political 'adolescence'. More mature societies, like we see in many parts of Europe, have many more political parties which represent more 'developed', politically-sophisticated interests. Here in America, we've essentially been herded into two political camps, for about 100 years. That's why my European friends think it's so funny and stupid that we call Republicans "fascists", or that we call Democrats "socialists"... because in our nascent political development, we don't even yet fully realize what American versions of these things are yet. But, we're becoming even more divided across two distinctly different political lines -- Left, and Right. I don't know where we go from here, but I suspect that the Left will surge back into power in our Congress. It would be hard to describe to you just how much both our Left and our Right genuinely HATE each other! So, it will continue to be "trench-warfare" in our society. In Europe, you may do well to avoid getting sucked into our troubles and start finding your way toward a more unified "Pan-Europa" -- led by Germany in a more mutually-beneficial relationship with the Russian Federation and (*gulp!*), China! That wouldn't be particularly good for us in America, but it may be very good for you in Western Europe. Happy New Year!
I suspect that Mr. George Soros and Warren Buffet will...... probably attempt to devalue the USA Petro - dollar...... my guess would be that June 6, 2018..... 6/6/6+6+6........ will be significant somehow??? But there are options on this.... .and perhaps Soros and Buffet will become actors playing the role of themselves...... and President Trump and his team will tell them to say this.... .write this...... jump that way..... jump this high...... do it now.......OR ELSE!!!!!! ..... https://totalwealthresearch.com/ric...-gamble-bet-u-s-collapse-warns-cia-economist/ Buffett’s $55 Billion Gamble is a Bet on U.S. Collapse, Warns CIA Economist I am convinced that the Soros / Buffet plan will fail....... and the Mark Taylor semi - reality science fiction film concept will come to pass......... here in linear time...... Mark Taylor:
The stupidity of Western politicians and the various ruling classes will lead us into widespread civil unrest if we're lucky, and outright war if we're not.
If Trump and Little Kim could stay peaceful for a year, they'll be fine for seven more. The economy will improve, without Obama to hold it back, there is plenty of room for growth. Republicans will retain the House and Senate because Democrats have no platform, no leaders, and can't possibly character assassinate everyone in every race...
