But apart from North Korea, GEOTUS Trump is about where I thought he would be: sold out to the Saudis; provoking Iran with patrols and decertifying the nuclear deal; more patrols in the South China Sea; Nazis marching in the streets and killing anti-Nazis; a few more jobs; empowering NATO; massive increase in the Pentagon's budget; Hillary Clinton still at large; loving and defending Israel; Murdoch press loving Trump; administration packed with Bilderberg/CFR/Skull & Bones/Goldman Sachs, and advised by Kissinger.
It's all there.
But there is one policy which he could get passed next week if he really tried.
Can you recall any policy that both the Democrats and Republicans placed in their platforms?
I think there was only one: enacting Glass-Steagall.
Trump said he wants it.
The Republicans want it.
So do the Democrats.
Virtually everyone wants Glass-Steagall.
So why don't we have it?
After nine months of Trump's presidency there is no Glass-Steagall, which considering there is bi-partisan support for Glass-Steagall (as opposed to repealing Obamacare etc), and considering the potential catastrophic consequences of another financial crisis, is very disappointing and even more worrying.
And it doesn't look like it's going to happen too.
Here's Gary Cohn, Trump's chief economic advisor and Director of the National Economic Council:
Oct. 16, 2017 (EIRNS)—Speaking to the Group of 30 consultative group on banking after the International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump’s chief economic advisor Gary Cohn gave some warnings about the derivatives markets and too-big financial institutions, according to the Financial Times. Cohn said, as had the U.S. Treasury in a recent report, that the clearinghouses which are supposed to reduce counterparty risk in the hundreds of trillions in unregulated derivatives bets, were themselves becoming, instead, concentrations of systemic risk.
One of Cohn’s emphases, according to the Financial Times, was that
"The post-crisis regulatory system is fostering increasing complexity and growth of massive financial firms, ignoring the lessons of the meltdown."
He stressed that the regulations enacted after the 2008 crash, including the Dodd-Frank Act in the United States, which were supposed to remove the "too-big-to-fail" threat, were in fact "leading to the consolidation of more activity in a handful of vast companies." He called these "perverse effects," including the inability of any new banks to enter the system.
While this statement of the problem clearly begged the known solution—reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act to break the megabanks of Wall Street up—Cohn did not propose that this time, but claimed that the Treasury’s elimination of some regulations on Wall Street, would enable newer, smaller banks to establish themselves.
[source : Trump Advisor Warns of Derivatives/Brexit Threat, Begs Glass-Steagall Question, EIRNS, http://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2017/171016_derivatives_warning.html, 16th October 2017]
So even though Cohn is getting concerned about Wall Street, he doesn't propose Glass-Steagall as the obvious solution, and instead proposes even less regulation!
Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, Skull & Bones Steve Mnuchin, doesn't want Glass-Steagall.
Mnuchin is flogging Jerome Powell as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve to Trump. Powell is sceptical of Glass-Steagall, as he stated in a speech to the Institute of International Bankers in March 2013.
So we have potential wars on North Korea and a massive military build-up around the Korean peninsula, and deteriorating relations with Iran AND Russia as a prelude to war, but no Glass-Steagall which virtually everyone wants.
This first nine months of Trump have been predictably disappointing and disappointingly predictable.
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