Visual Thinking and Occasional Odds and Ends

I had the chance to watch President Trump's address live.  Perhaps you did too, or maybe you saw a clip on the evening new.  If you watched Trump, surely you must have wondered how much was true, since usually little is.  Trump claims practically unparalleled growth, and predicts that it will continue into the future.  But  we had higher growth in 2012 and 2014.   Nor does anyone think we will continue to grow at 4%.  We have had a one time repatriation of cash because of the tax cuts.  And the money is not going toward now production, but toward the buy back of outstanding stock - so the spending is considered capital spending, but not productive spending.   Manufacturing growth is nothing new either.  Yes it is growing, but it has been growing all since the collapse and employment is still below that of 2008.   In fact, even if capital spending went towards real work, much of it goes to reduce the need for people.   Presidents usually speak with pride about economic grow

The following is from the song  Where or When , originally in the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms .  It has been sung by many great pop singers as well as by Rock and Roll groups like Dion and the Belmonts.   A portion of is goes:  It seems we stood and talked like this, before We looked at each other in the same way then But I can't remember where or when The clothes you are wearing are the clothes you wore The smile you are smiling you were smiling then But I can't remember where or when The song captures the well known feeling that we have done this all before.  Thus it is with Trump's angry tweets against Iran.  This time the feeling covers two separate disasters.   The first disaster was the Bush II era war against Iraq - yes we won the early rounds, but got outpointed and lost the fight (the fight may still go on, but trust me, there will be no victory parades. The second disaster is the Trump presidency itself with its cavalcade of angry tweets