Mike McCready

Tag: economy

  • My Struggle with Stupid People

    My Struggle with Stupid People

    Let’s get something straight right off the bat—I’m not talking about people with below-average IQs. Intelligence isn’t the issue here. Some of the smartest people I’ve met couldn’t change a tire or balance a checkbook to save their lives, and some of the most practical, insightful people I know wouldn’t do well on an IQ test.

    And I don’t hold myself up as some kind of genius. Believe me, I’ve made my share—and probably some of your share—of dumb decisions. Decisions that would make the Three Stooges look like Nobel Prize winners. But here’s the thing: I am not stupid.

    Because stupid isn’t about IQ—it’s about refusing to think critically.

    So, let’s run a quick litmus test for critical thinking:

    When was the last time you heard a better argument than the one you had and thought, ‘Damn… I might be wrong’? If you can’t think of a single time, that’s a red flag.

    Do you ever get new information and just… ignore it? If your instinct is to double down instead of reconsider, congratulations—you’re human. But critical thinkers push past that reflex.

    Here’s where I struggle: I have to work hard to feel empathy for people who have all the information they need to make good voting decisions but still choose to vote against their own interests.

    It’s one thing to be misled. It’s another to be willfully ignorant. And when people keep making choices that actively harm themselves—and the rest of us—it’s hard not to be frustrated.

    The truth is, democracy depends on people actually thinking. And if we can’t do that, we’re in real trouble.

  • The Great Wealth Transfer Is Finally Here, But With A Plot Twist

    The Great Wealth Transfer Is Finally Here, But With A Plot Twist

    Remember when everyone was hyping the “Great Wealth Transfer,” where aging baby boomers were set to pass down $84 trillion to younger generations? Well, surprise! Plot twist. Instead of money trickling down from Grandma and Grandpa, we’re watching it rocket up from the pockets of the middle and working class straight into the bank accounts of the already-rich.

    This is all thanks to the infinite wisdom of the American voter.

    Exhibit A: Trump’s latest move, rolling back the minimum wage for federal contractors. Biden had bumped it up to $15/hour (adjusted recently to $17.75/hour), trying to give working folks a chance at affording something wild—like rent or food. But Trump swung the pendulum back down to $13.30 an hour—or potentially as low as the $7.25 federal minimum. Because apparently, “Making America Great” involves making sure the billionaire class can afford that extra yacht.

    Here’s how the rich-get-richer machine works: cut wages for workers, boost corporate profits, and voila! The wealth gap grows faster than your credit card debt after a Taylor Swift concert. The rich buy more assets—real estate, stocks, private islands—and the rest of us keep renting our dreams from them.

    It’s the Great Wealth Transfer, alright—but in reverse gear, accelerating uphill.

    We’ve gotta stop fueling a system rigged against regular folks. Investing in working people isn’t charity—it’s smart economics. Time to shift gears and actually build a future that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. It may have sounded like buzz words but “building from the middle out” really meant something .

  • An Easy Way To Understand Trade Deficits (I promise)

    An Easy Way To Understand Trade Deficits (I promise)

    Okay, I know “trade deficit” doesn’t exactly scream edge-of-your-seat excitement, and I don’t want to presume you don’t already know this stuff. But I’ll keep it short. This matters. You’ll see why.

    Running a trade deficit just means we’re buying more from other countries than we’re selling to them. And why do we do that? Because they can make the products there and sell them to us more cheaply than we can make them here. We buy from them using our dollars, which they can’t really spend in their own countries so (for the most part) they reinvest those dollars in the US, putting them right back into our economy—buying our bonds, our real estate, funding our companies. That’s not a weakness on our part, that’s a power move. As an example, just think about how the cost of big flat screen TVs has dropped over the years.

    Think of it like this: we’re the house in the global casino. Everyone wants to play at our table, and they’re more than happy to leave their chips with us. That’s what being the world’s reserve currency gets you. For other countries trade deficits might not be a good thing. but for us? Hell yeah!

    Now about tariffs. Trump loves tariffs like they’re the Swiss Army knife of trade policy. But really, they’re just a tax hike dressed up as patriotism. When we slap tariffs on imported goods, prices go up—and we’re the ones paying. It’s like punching yourself in the face and calling it tough love. Trump says these tariffs willl generate $800 billion in new revenueue for the IRS, coming right out of the pockets of consumers. It’s a tax hike under another name.

    That said, not all tariffs are evil. Sometimes they make sense—like when they’re used to protect critical industries or level the playing field against countries that don’t play fair. And hey, bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S.? Totally smart. Especially if tensions with China get worse. We don’t want to be stuck relying on overseas factories if shit hits the fan.

    But going full throttle with broad tariffs? That’s not strategy, that’s just chaos. It invites retaliation, screws with supply chains, and freaks out investors.

    Side note: CEO’s of US companies that inport foreign parts are paying between $1m for a group and $5m to have a one on one dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago; likely to have their imports exempted or to lobby to have their competitors targeted but not them. Historicallly, tariffs have been the source of massive government corruption.

    So yeah, let’s have real conversations about trade and competitiveness. Let’s rebuild the parts of our economy that actually need shoring up. But let’s stop pretending a trade deficit means we’re losing. Most of the world would love to have our “problems.”

    We’ve got the leverage. Let’s not fumble it because ‘someone’ doesn’t understand how the system works – or understands it all too well.