Why the GOP May Actually Want a Second Great Depression

[Joinfortmill]

https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-the-gop-may-actually-want-a-second?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

Heads up, people and calling on all financial wizards to offer opinions.

'“Why would the Republicans...who generally represent the interests of corporations and the rich above all else, risk crashing the stock market and economy where those very same wealthy people have their money invested?”...This is a story as old as capitalism. During the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s...some of America’s greatest fortunes were made or massively expanded...Joe Kennedy, who’d made a pile of money manipulating the stock market, bailed out as the market began its slide and even shorted the market, increasing his wealth. But once it had crashed, when everybody was broke, he bought stock with a vengeance. “Cash is king” was the phrase of the day, and Kennedy was well stocked in cash (he even bought a movie studio). By the end of the Depression, he was one of the richest men in the nation.

When Wall Street banks...crashed the American economy in 2007, home prices...collapsed by 21%. Over 10 million Americans lost their homes to banking predators like “Foreclosure King” Steve Mnuchin, and tens of millions of others were underwater..(On) March 16, 2020 — just after Trump declared a pandemic and lockdown — the Dow sustained the largest single-day crash in its entire history. For the investor class, Trump and his billionaire buddies, this was an even better opportunity than the Bush crash of 2007! during that one single terrible pandemic year of 2020...the world's 2,365 billionaires saw their wealth increase by a full 54%...Billionaire’s taxes have fallen by a full 79 percent since Reagan’s election in 1980, and a 2012 analysis found that as much as $32 trillion was safely squirreled away in tax-fraud offshore shelters...This is why Kevin McCarthy’s proposed legislation to raise the debt ceiling would strip $80 billion from the IRS: the morbidly rich tax cheats who own him (with the Supreme Court’s blessing in Citizens United) don’t want to get caught.'

But the average American can be forgiven for thinking that Republicans would be reluctant to crash the economy. Their lived experience is very different from that of Elon Musk (532% increase in wealth during the single year of 2020), Mark Zuckerberg (86% increase), or Jeff Bezos (65% increase).

[orthoclad]

1. Depressions are buying opportunities,

with the added benefit of a desperate labor pool willing to work for any old wage under bad conditions.

One of the financial mags ran an article crowing about the record number of new billionaires in the Great Recession. It soon got pulled from the net. I started saving articles after that.

In the Great Recession, corporations and Wall Street funds started buying up all the foreclosed properties for rental untis. This is why rent is so high now. Vast fortunes were made.

Capitalism does not create wealth - it steals it.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. For the most part, so true what you say here...

Capitalism does not create wealth - it steals it.

[Joinfortmill]

3. It certainly is depressing.

[617Blue]

7. Also a breeding ground for fascism nt

[dutch777]

4. Someone will always make money but not sure that mean Repugs will be resurgent. Roosevelt and...

...the Dems won big after the Depression, not the Repugs. The ardent capitalists of today that win (and remember many didn't in the 1930s) and the Repug politicians, while linked, may not enjoy the same fate.

[usonian]

5. Under the current devolution of the Religion of Crony Capitalism, we are in a cycle of bubbles.

• Go to extremes, because regulation has been weakened or nullified
• Crash and get a government bailout
• Run up another bubble (and cash out before it bursts, leaving the suckers holding the bag)
Repeat.
WTF happened to regulation?

Oh, this

[mopinko]

6. i've bought properties out of foreclosure. ppl always say- banks dont want to own your house.

au contraire. they dont want to own it if you owe more than it’s worth. owe less? the cronies will be lined up at the auction. i’ve been to those auctions. been a little fish in a big pond. lost an auction on a property in a crooked deal.
most small banks have good customers that are always willing to snatch up something they foreclose on. they make so much of their money in the 1st 5 yrs of a loan, that it pays for them to churn the property. those customers then take out a new loan, plus.
gets more defuse w bigger banks, but…
you cant separate the lenders from the developers. as my 1st hubs liked to say- they all sleep in the same bed.

also, i have a friend who was a liquidator for the s&l debacle. we made a lot of money in the end. i want to say $3b, dont recall. anyone who thinks this kind of churn doesnt generate a lot of opportunities is nuts. in fact, that’s exactly what it’s meant to do.