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I don't know at what point when the economy was ever straightened out. In our country, most people have to go into debt to buy a car, house, or even to get an education of any kind. Credit card debt is at an all time high. Even the country itself operates at a deficit. It seems to me the country has been in recession my whole life. I don't see how the economy is good when everyone is in debt. I guess the measuring stick is how well the wealthy are doing. I don't know. Even when times are...."good," the country is one catastrophe away from being set back several years. See the pandemic.

 

Remember the first "Rates are Crashing" thread? IIRC it was started in 2019 before being condemned to the sandbox. The rate bump caused by both the tax cuts and the eld mandate crashed through the floor and we saw a 'bloodbath' of companies closing. Without the pandemic causing radical shifts in spending, the trucking industry would have seen continued declines through 2020. With the pandemic, we saw massive rises in rates coupled with a massive influx of capacity which hasn't exited despite rates going into the toilet. All of which made people forget that 2019 was a recession year.

The most recent version of tariffs resulted in lower domestic manufacturing, farm bailouts, and a greater trade imbalance while also driving inflation. Which tracks with every other iteration of tariffs in history, and was the focus of a chapter in "Wealth of Nations". Short term gains resulting in long term losses. And that was when the Fed rate was a 1%, no surprise that interest rates rose through the first term. When he entered office in in 2017 sovereign debt to gdp was 105%, just before the pandemic it was 107%. The tax cuts were passed only due to the sunset provision - the deficit projection was slated to begin by 2027, but only if the tax cut was rescinded in 2025. If the tax cut is extended, then the deficit continues to grow until it is unsustainable per the CBO, Cato Institute, and even the Heritage Foundation.

"If you build it they will come" only works if 'they' have resources to come. We can stimulate the economy to even greater heights, but only by accumulating debts that will stymie further growth.

I'll also point out that the first version of the incoming administration got us Entry Level Driver Training, which is basically a cash grab that increases the cost of obtaining a cdl and does nothing to increase the quality of new drivers. Schneider's 'wash out' rate increased significantly after the implementation of ELDT rules, despite a desperation to hire new drivers.

 

ELDs might have been out of his hands (they weren't if he wanted to do something).

Regulating new entrants is fully within executive privilege. A 6 months moratorium from January 2018 to July 2018 would have done wonders to ease the chop caused by the eld mandate. As would requiring a 'means test' - new authority requiring a debt to service coverage of .5 or lower would have done more. Not to mention doing something to prevent guys like @BigBadBill from being part of this industry.

 

While I agree with you on everything in that post. If you own anything you will never be free, the tax man comes every year.

 

it’s always in stock somewhere, they just want to make money off the shipping

 

ABSOLUTLEY! I wish someone would sit with Trump or someone that has his ear and propose some serious changes without the fluff of the ATA.

Yes it should have happened.

Yes!

Yes that turned into a big cluster*******, he should have been on the hook for the damage he did to others, personally.

 

The problem is that the various oligarchs want us to be in debt, or otherwise not to be in control of our finances. From the Pullman in 1880s who built a town 'where capitalism helped labor equally, while labor helped capitalism' - albeit at guaranteeing Pullman a 6% return on investment while giving Pullman control over things like theaters and schools - to Ford's 'ideal communities'. Over the last 150 odd years there have been various schemes in the same vein which tie employment to basic human needs. Depending on who you want to listen to, between 10-25% of the single family homes in this country are owned by corporations. We'll gladly spend millions of tax dollars to add another lane to a congested road but balk at spending half that on building an effective mass transit system that doesn't require workers to own a car.

You want to get a job as a shipping clerk or driver manager - you need a college degree. Why? I don't know, but it's prerequisite. "Ds get degrees" means that someone who either has wealth or is willing to go into debt to obtain a degree gets a leg up on a better applicant. You want to advance, you need a Masters. Again, why? Not sure. I got my M.Ed which got me a pay raise but didn't make me a better teacher. If I wanted more than cost of living increases I would need to get a PhD, but I couldn't get it before I was in the district I wanted to retire from because once I got a PhD I became unhireable as a teacher.

If we all reduced to actual 'needs' and ignored all the 'excessories', the economy would collapse - despite what Dave Ramsey says - for at least a decade until the economy stabilized as wealth redistributed. If employees didn't NEED to work, there wouldn't be a productivity/wage gap at all. In reality we have had a growing productivity/wage gap since the late 60's. Anytime there's a push back it gets labeled as "no one wants to work anymore". In 2003 my first apartment was $600 a month and is currently renting for $2,500 a month - no utilities included. Wages haven't increased 4x in that time, nor have property taxes or generously calculated maintenance costs.

The fact is that the system is set up to generate wealth for the upper 10% while making the next 60% feel inadequate and taking a dump on the bottom 30%.

Own a company that goes under due to fraud? It's an LLC, so your personal assets are free and clear - walk away, no biggie because it doesn't impact your personal fiances. Meanwhile your employees can't pay their mortgages/make rent and get set back effectively 4 years of wealth creation. Please see Enron/Arthur Anderson et al for details. Or any of the many Venture Capital aquired trucking companies that have gone under from Falcon to today - a select few made profits while most investors lost out and the employees got told to go stand by that sapling and take their panties down. Or see the YRC pension debacle.

 

I mostly agree with this post, but I think there has come a point to where many Americans don't make enough money even to live within their means. The cost of food, housing, and health insurance is expensive. I live very modestly, and it's still difficult at times. I've got a family and kids and such and just to meet basic needs, it's very expensive. I don't have a car payment, I rent, and have insurance. Then to buy food for the house, combined with all that is thousands of dollars in itself, and I haven't even added all other expenses. I think a lot of people live within their means but things have gotten out of reach and paychecks haven't increased at the same rate. Even my pay has only increased to where the range is an increase of 54 to 60 dollars weekly over the last 4 years. What can folks do? I guess I'll continue my diet of tuna and kidney beans. Lol

 

Yet none of those happened in the first term. Should we expect any difference this time? Particularly in holding business owners responsible for their debts beyond what the LLC allows?

In point of fact, the first administration decreased the barrier of entry to new authorities and did nothing to deal with the "you're a 1099 IC but you have no control over the truck" companies. Simultaneously increasing the cost to new CDL applicants to private companies while decreasing skill requirements. Not to mention ignoring all the blatant cabotage violations. To be fair, the Biden administration didn't do squat either- but by that point it was a done deal that undoing would have cost twice what it would have gained politically.