Bank Lending Stalls on Doubts About Trumps Pro-Growth Agenda.

[elleng]

'Many business owners and corporate executives have expressed unbridled optimism that President Trump can fuel economic growth and increase their profits.

Their borrowing habits, however, may tell a different story.

Some of the nation’s top bankers said on Thursday that businesses were feeling less certain that Mr. Trump can pull off his ambitious agenda to deregulate and cut taxes.

Many industries, the bank executives said, are increasingly cautious about taking on too much new debt, particularly after efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act failed last month, raising doubts about whether the president can get pro-business measures like tax cuts through Congress. And such political uncertainty comes at a time when the Federal Reserve has embarked on raising interest rates, which will make borrowing costlier.

“They all want to believe that there is more growth ahead, but they need to see something out there before they act,” John Shrewsberry, the chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, said in an interview. . .

Earnings reports on Thursday from three of the nation’s biggest banks — Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase — offered the latest indications that corporate America and Wall Street were giving a more sober assessment to the feasibility of the growth-focused Trump agenda.

The results followed recent signs that lending has been slowing, and in some cases declining more broadly in the banking industry. Data from the Federal Reserve showed that lending in February was flat, while lending to manufacturers and energy companies was in decline, after many months of growth.

“If this continues, it is definitely concerning,” said Leo Mourelatos, a United States country risk analyst with BMI Research. “It would signal that the U.S. economy is much weaker than the current consensus.”

Yet the banking data may be sending out some mixed signals.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/business/dealbook/bank-lending-stalls-on-doubts-about-trumps-pro-growth-agenda.html?

Well HERE we go.

[Warpy]

1. Oh, please! Even they know that lowering taxes on the 1%

while raising them on everybody else and cutting out every service except the military is going to be disastrous. This shithead will throw us into a full blown depression and stand around with his thumbs up his ass and wonder why his plan to MAGA didn't fucking work.

(I just finished all my tax prep work, lost one of the labels, and I'm feeling very uncharitable)

[PatrickforO]

2. Well, the problem with Trump is that he is like a loose cannon.

I speak to many economic development and business groups, and also many business owners. In public the Rs aren't saying much, or maybe being a bit more quiet, but in private I'm being told, "The worst thing I can face as a businessperson is uncertainty, and that is Trump's middle name."

It is good though, that Trump and his evil, inept, incompetent and corrupt group of Russian puppets are so obvious, so overt about their immoral and economically stupid agenda, because it is destroying the Republican party, pretty much.

We have a real chance here, and like Bernie and Tom Perez, we need to learn to articulate our message of social and economic justice more strongly and yet in language people who have been brainwashed by Fox and hate-talk radio can understand. We appeal to patriotism when we say we need Medicare for all Americans, because what makes this country exceptional and great is that we take care of each other.

And when we talk about free postsecondary education at state schools, we need to say that instead of thinking that we are 'giving someone something they didn't work for,' we need to talk about how it is the moral and patriotic thing to invest in our labor force! See what I mean?

I try to take pages from Haidt's 'Righteous Mind,' and Lerner's 'Left Hand of God,' both brilliant. Good luck to all of you because this isn't just MY message. It can't be, because then it is really nothing.

It must be OUR message, and it must be strong, visible and loud, repeated from hundreds of mouths thousands of times.

[democratisphere]

3. Look around. Long standing large stores and chains are going out of business or going bankrupt.

The 70% consumer based economy is running out of steam with stagnant wages, higher prices and price gouging healthcare to mention a few. Wall Street is not the indicator of the health of our economy. All of drumpf's promises about jobs and higher wages were just more of his lies. Make sure you keep your parachute close, you're probably going to need it.

[elleng]

4. Right.