Who Will Inherit “The Carter Curse”: Trump or Harris?

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Who Will Inherit “The Carter Curse”: Trump or Harris?

October 9, 2024

Will it be Trump or Harris who Inherits “The Carter Curse?”

Greetings Investors! Putting together an especially meaty podcast (LISTEN HERE) late this past week, The Prospector News’ Mike Fox and I mused over why either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris would even want the job of being president the next four years. Who inherits “The Carter Curse?”

In THAT DISCUSSION, I pointed out that not since Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976 has a new president already had the deck so stacked against him (or her). You know how the “history” goes: it was the hapless peanut farmer, in over his head, who gave us the inflation, eventual stagflation and then-record interest rates we all experienced during his term.

WRONG!

It was these two guys below who were the cause of the all that…

…President Nixon who infamously turned the U.S. dollar into a totally fiat currency in 1971; and then his Fed Chairman Arthur Burns who unleashed two separate waves of soaring inflation, the second of which was among the issues welcoming Carter into office.

So, today, does the next president face a continued evolution of a new era of “sticky” inflation, already-existing MASSIVE debt issues, looming economic weakness and everything that goes with them.

To be sure, both major party candidates have generously offered all manner of goodies for voters to “help” us. Yet amid all the gimmicks, there have been precious little actual, substantive proposals laid out by either that will address 1. How to pay for all these promises…

…and most important 2. How each candidate’s vision of a new mercantilism will function to “reboot” the U.S. economy, help to pay the bills via a broader output/tax base and make the U.S. less dependent on foreign sources of all manner of raw materials and finished goods alike.

Those latter are the subjects Mike and I spend the last 2/3 or so of our discussion on.

And given even the most generous assessment of each candidate’s version of mercantilism (which each has embraced, though Trump more so than Harris) both remain SORELY lacking in even understanding the magnitude of the “makeover” needed for our economy.

Indeed–as I and others have covered during their term–the Biden/Harris Administration has done as much or more to thwart what’s needed as to foster it.

I’ll be continuing to discuss the post-election (just 30 days away now!) world shaping up and how we need to respond as consumers, citizens and investors.

Meanwhile, as always, I’d LOVE to hear your questions/comments on THIS LATEST PODCAST!