Popular Economics Weekly
“Twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian, and they are increasingly blaming the White House.” The Guardian
President Trump gave himself “A plus plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” grade on the U.S. economy in a recent interview with Politico cited by The Guardian. That Trump can perpetuate such an obvious lie that contradicts what most Americans feel is an example of bully capitalism at large, my term for what economists have termed is ‘late-stage’ capitalism that has been adopted by the Republican Party, a phase of capitalism marked by extreme wealth inequality and corporate dominance in nearly all aspects of life.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson in her Substack blog Letters From an American states that such corporate dominance is the result of at least $50 trillion in income and assets that has been transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1% of Americans between 1975 and 2020.
It was done via a succession of Republican administration tax cuts and recessions that grew U.S. federal debt to its current record $39 trillion.
Americans now have the worst income inequality in the developed world as measured by various sources, especially the CIA’s World Factbook. In fact, our income inequality is at the level of developing countries like Mozambique.
The recent Guardian/Harris poll makes clear Trump’s big lie attempts to deny what has really happened since the 1970s that most Americans are seeing with their own eyes.
Democrats are almost twice as likely as Republicans to say their financial security is getting worse – 52% versus 27%. Add in 54 percent of Independents believe the same, who are usually the swing voters that determine elections, said the poll.
And 69 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Independents believe we are already in a recession.
Why when the stock indexes are at record highs? One hint is that bully capitalism has hit women particularly hard. Nearly two-thirds of women (62%) believe the U.S. is in a recession, +12% from February, says the Harris poll, and women, the primary caretakers of children, are the first to see their suffering from the cuts in social welfare benefits such as SNAP and childcare programs by Republicans.
Trump and Republicans have boosted bully capitalism to a new high by showing their blatant lawlessness and cruelty, such as the ICE agents shooting citizens and non-citizens alike. The good news is that Americans can now see with their own eyes the blatant disregard for human suffering, and it has begun to sway the American public in recent elections.
The biggest lie of all perpetuated by Republicans is that “Government is the problem”, that bully capitalism made things better for everyone. No, the American government was formed to protect all Americans, not just the privileged few.
Harlan Green © 2026
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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