Come for the Train Wreck. Stay for the Economic Analysis.

My beauties send me fabulous pix of the Berkeley Kite Festival.

That’s all it takes to stop my heart.

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Meanwhile, Trump had his Hillary moment yesterday. According to Trump, Baltimore is a “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

Well, hey! I’m a fan of The Wire! So, I know he’s right!

But I also know that half of Trump’s supporters are a basket of deplorables—racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you-name-it-phobic.

Probably way more than half.

It’s the funniest thing! People don’t actually like being categorized by their most negative general characteristics! Who woulda thought it?

Anyway, I think this just lost Trump a whole lotta votes.

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Meanwhile, I got so bored with the pound, pound, pound routine yesterday that I stopped and did some economic analysis. This is something I excelled in back in the day.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its second-quarter figures Friday. Between April 1 and June 30, the gross domestic product only grew 2.1%. Given that we’re supposed to believe that unemployment is at a historic low—it’s been below 4% for well over a year—this is a very weird figure. It implies that the economy is merely spinning its wheels; like the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass, running very fast to stay in the same place.

The BEA also revised Q4 analyses from 2018. That growth is now calculated to have been 1.1%, which means that the growth of the GDP throughout 2018 was well under 3%.

The economy isn’t shrinking! But it’s hardly the miracle of economic prosperity that the sustained rocket flight of the Dow—the only economic indicator most people notice—might make you believe is happening.

If you delve down deeper into those numbers, they become even more interesting. The GDP is made up of a bunch of calculations: net exports, government spending, domestic investment, and personal consumption. Personal consumption is the most important, accounting for approximately 70% of the GDP calculation.

Personal consumption is up, and this is kind of interesting. Where is the money that fuels personal consumption coming from?

Republicans would argue wages and tax cuts.

Personally, I think it’s unsecured credit card debt.

If I’m right, we should start to see a rise in Chapter 7 bankruptcies in another year or so.

Government spending accounts for approximately 18% of the GDP equation. And guess what? Government spending is way up, like 5% up. Furthermore, it’s the non-military spending that’s really up.

Trump’s illusion of prosperity is being propped up by government spending, folks!

Somewhere, the ghosts of John Maynard Keynes and Franklin Delano Roosevelt are enjoying a hearty laugh and a good cigar together.

Net exports, of course, were way down—hello, China tariffs!—as was domestic investment by corporate and other business entities.

What does that tell you about supply side economics, my friends?

Arthur Laffer, I believe there’s room right between the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus if you’d like to sit down.

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See invisible reading audience? All three of you?

You come to Mallory’s Camera for the emotional train wrecks, but you leave with a valuable economic education!

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In other news, I lost my wallet yesterday and amazed myself by how calmly I took it. I did not panic! I did not castigate myself as the stupidest human being who’s ever lived! Instead, I made a list of all the cards in the wallet—I never, ever carry cash—but before I got on the phone with various credit dispensers, motor vehicle departments, and health insurance providers, I thought, Maybe it fell out of your purse at the movies.

And indeed it had.

And I got it back.

And last night we had an impromptu dinner party whereat we discussed Presidential libraries at great length and speculated about why FDR is an American demigod.

To the great derision of the assembled company, I also revealed my secret sympathy for Richard Nixon.

Whose various miscreances are merely standard operating procedures 40 years after the fact.

I see Nixon as a Shakespearian figure who was driven mad by his lack of cool. That five o’clock shadow! You know, he supported himself through college by playing poker! And is the only POTUS ever to have had sessions with a real live therapist while in the White House. He knew he was going down! But was powerless to stop it, could only self-medicate by getting very, very drunk.