Thursday, May 11, 2017

King Canute Knew He Didn't Control the Tides


Trump, on the other hand:

But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit?
It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the pump”?

Yes.
We have to prime the pump.

It’s very Keynesian.
We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?

Priming the pump?
Yeah, have you heard it?

Yes.
Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.

It’s…
Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something in before you can get something out.

Mr Mnuchin: And as we talked about, economic growth under the Trump administration could increase revenues as much as $2trn over the ten-year period of time. So priming the pump in the short term leads to growth.

So, to recap:  in an interview, Trump uses the metaphor "prime the pump," and his interviewer immediately responds that such an action is "very Keynsian."   Which causes Trump to ask if the interviewer has ever heard the expression before, and then he claims to have come up with it "a couple of days ago."  And immediately after that Mnuchin uses it as if it were (as it is) common parlance.

I don't think even crazy foxes are quite this delusional and narcissistic.

2 comments:

  1. I don't think my mouth has spent so much time open since I was a baby. This must be what it's like to live in a strong man dictatorship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's getting hard to keep up.

    ReplyDelete