Showing up the utter failure and banalities of the Mandarin Class is a good first step

It is the most backhanded of compliments to President Trump but it is almost certainly the best he can expect from the experts of the Mandarin Class who are almost stunningly wrong about almost everything. From Welcome to the World’s Least Ugly Economy by Michael Hirsch.

I grant that Trump is taking risks which I worry might be more cumulative than people are acknowledging. I am especially concerned by the continuing ratcheting up of the national debt. But other than a couple year hiatus in the 1990s, I have been worrying about national debt the entirety of my adult life. It is not a concern I can expect to be shared by our Mandarin Class who drive the excess public spending. Not only is it a fiscal and economic problem, but in my opinion it is a moral problem as we load debt onto our children and grandchildren so that we can enjoy excess consumption today. If we take on debt as a means of increasing future productivity, that at least is a good argument. But taking on debt to binge consume? Uh uh!

Other than that, as the largest economy (22%) in the world and one of the largest, most disparate, most complex countries by population in the world (number three), we are doing astonishingly well. Especially after nearly a decade in which the carefully crafted public policies of the best and the brightest of the Mandarin Class saw each summer successively harkened as "Recovery summer" whose hope for recovery and good times faded with autumn's leaves.

Rising domestic divisions, a new normal moribund economy, and pointless adventures internationally all led to a pretty dreadful decade. And here we are after only two years. Economic growth faster than any other major OECD country. The president's popularity is higher than that for nearly all other major OECD leaders. Unemployment rate historically low. Wages rising. Optimism higher. Domestic safety improving. Declining low skill emigration. Most our major rivals are seeing aging populations if not shrinking. Their national debts are even worse. Domestic riots are frequent across the OECD as are terrorist attacks. China is on its back foot in the trade war. North Korea has changed direction and is at the negotiating table. We see the first signs of exiting from pointless and unnecessary foreign entanglements. Wars are winding down. Trade deals are being rewritten with more beneficial terms. Capital has been repatriated. Foreign allies are picking up their defense spending. We have achieved energy independence despite all the expert opinions otherwise. Iran is still venturing in its region but internally the sanctions are biting and unrest is brewing. CO2 emissions keep falling.

On and on. So much good news. And the best Hirsch can come up with is "the least ugly economy?" That's nonsense. 2.5-3.5% growth for any major economy is pretty wonderful. Inequality will continue to widen in the US as it always does during good economic times. The only known antidote to increasing inequality is war, famine, pestilence, and economic depression. No one has found an alternate. It is not that we are choosing to increase inequality. We are simply accepting the ineluctable corollary to good economic times - increased inequality.

There are hundreds of nits to pick among all that good news. Inevitably there are problems and tragedies and setbacks. But the overall picture is far brighter than any of the experts granted as possible.

Someone, probably Scott Adams, made some sort of forecast about the horror and hysteria of the Mandarin Class. He said something along the lines that they would continue to deride Trump as an ignorant buffoon. Then, when his policies began to work, they would say he was simply lucky. Then, when his policies continued to work, they would reluctantly acknowledge they were working but denigrate the putative sophistication. Ultimately the implication was that the Mandarin Class would be proven wrong and that they would never accept that judgment.

Trump might be a rough man with brass knuckles but however much anyone might lament the lack of polish, he has delivered a long string of good news for most Americans while simultaneously exposing the pusillanimous Mandarin Class, their vaporousness, their vapidity, the complete failure of their expert forecasts and their profound and utter indifference to the hardships of those less prosperous, sheltered or privileged than themselves.

And as far as I am concerned, that is all to the good. Americans need to recapture their derring-do, self-reliance and optimism of yore. Showing up the utter failure and banalities of the Mandarin Class is a good first step.