Europe opens pretty soon. That's going to be ugly.
Absolutely insane. We had an economy that was highly stratified with massive wealth inequality but was otherwise growing - pretty good job numbers, inflation was coming down at a healthy rate. We were doing better than almost any other country in the world in terms of recovering from the economic damage from COVID. a geopolitical situation that was very tense in several areas, but not much in the way of actual action except in Palestine.
All that, gone. A recession is guaranteed; businesses started shutting down factories and laying off people almost immediately. Tens of thousands of people likely lost their jobs Friday and I imagine it'll be even worse Monday now that the Orange Turd has made inflammatory comments insisting he's seeing great success.
Now realize that all the social safety net programs that would be vital during a recession? They're gone. Which means there will soon be a lot of very desperate people. And that means crime. And a lot of foreclosures. Guess what that means? Real estate market crash. That means that boomers watch their homes tank in value.
Mr. Very Stable Genius put oil production and export at the top of his list and the price of oil is plunging, too - the market likely anticipates a huge drop in global and local shipping.
To top it all off, while the market tanked, he was golfing and schmoozing with people who had paid millions to his campaign to sit at his table and get a few minutes of his time. Practically playing his violin while the country's economy burns.
He's spent the last 4-5 decades obsessing about this. It's his white whale. He will not blink. He won't surrender. If there's anything he hates more, it's looking weak. The only thing that will stop this is someone pulling him out under the 25th amendment; I think that is the sole reason he's stacked his cabinet with the imbeciles that he has - they're loyal imbeciles.
Putin is laughing his ass off right now. He's won. He's gotten his revenge for the economic damage done to Russia after much of the world slammed the door on them and I'd guess Ukraine falls within months at most.
Pooh Bear is laughing too and will probably try to invade Ukraine.
Israel is going to finish wiping out the Palestinians.
And who do we have in charge of our military? An alcoholic, wife-beating, ultra-right christian white nationalist Army captain who is more concerned about people being clean-shaven than anything else.
Did I mention that US antipiracy efforts are likely being strongly cut which means world shipping is going to get a lot more dangerous, expensive, and unreliable?