President Donald Trump has a marvelous ability to bring attention to issues that affect us all, but would normally either receive little attention, or be buried by the mainstream media. By involving himself, the President makes everyone talk about the problem, and inevitably divides people into two camps, but also unearths carefully hidden hypocrisies, crimes and cover ups.

Big Tech Censoring Conservatives

It did not happen any differently with the Twitter debacle that has given attention to a much larger matter – big tech censoring conservatives. Being the biggest and strongest democratic country, and the leader of the free world, the US unavoidably – and perhaps unwittingly – makes some of its own problems our own, independently of where we may live. It is in the United States where the examples of freedom of expression, technological innovation, the idea of protesting freely, of democracy and fairness, lady justice and meritocracy come from. Naturally, seeing any of these under attack unsettles even the most indifferent among us.

Twitter is the US President’s medium of choice, in which he communicates with his voters, sympathizers and everyone else. Donald Trump found, perhaps the hard way, that the usual channels of communication were not transmitting his message as intended by the President. The media was distorting what he was saying for its own political agenda. CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC, the Washington Post and many others were clearly rooting for Hillary Clinton to win. They never forgave Trump for winning the Presidency fairly from their chosen candidate. So, they decided that open war against him would be the next step. Fairly enough, the President decided to bypass the distorted mediums, in pursuit of a more direct communication – one in which his message would not be altered.

Twitter Decides to Clamp Down on POTUS

After four years of using Twitter, the social media decided to fact check one specific twit of the President, regarding mail-in voting. Trump had been advocating against the use of such practice for voting believing it to increase the chances for fraud and thus distorting the real verdict of the American people, come November. Democrats are instead in favor of mail-in voting, just as they are in favor of voting without an ID and also including non-American citizens to vote in American elections. Suspiciously, Twitter, using CNN as a fact checking source, decided the President’s message was false. So, the social media is taking a side. It is deciding what is right or wrong based on what one party in the discussion believes.

Twitter has created a commission of sorts inside the company to investigate and decide what twit is false and what is allowed. The head of this committee is a known far-left activist who has in his twitter account posts deeming President Trump a Nazi, attacking members of his administration and so on. Can anybody believe that this man will decide in an unbiased manner what truly is a fake twit? CNN, through its declared far left pundits, is urging the CEO of Twitter to go against the President and shut down his account. How peculiar is it that a terribly biased media is urging a social media claiming to act without bias to stop being a forum where opinions can be shared freely? Just as odd that the social media claiming to be fair and just is using the terribly biased news channel as a fact checker.

Fall in Line … Or Else …

CNN’s actions, however, are a symptom of a much greater plague. Follow the party line because if you diverge from the one ideology the media and the left dictate, you will be the next target. That was the underlying message the left has given to social media executives. Progressives, with their totalitarian mentality, have bullied Silicon Valley into defending them and attacking their opponents. It does not matter that conservatives advocate for a free market, low taxes, deregulation and incentives to innovate. The bullying and shaming from the left is a stronger incentive that anything the conservatives in the US or Europe can offer.

It is not the first time that this has happened. Many conservative journalists, activists or pundits have been censored and even had their accounts suspended. This has been going on for years and strangely enough only those that hold right wing views get censored. It simply got a higher attention now as an issue because the most powerful man in the world is involved and receiving the same unfair treatment as thousand of conservatives.

Mainstream Media Censorship on Steroids

This is a continuation of what the mainstream media has been doing for decades in the US and in America. Throughout the years there has been a concentration of the media in the hands of a few companies who own the major news channels in the US. Corporate media is used to tip the scale in elections. The Board of Directors of these companies decides that they do not want a candidate. This message is transmitted to the news managers and so on down the corporate ladder. In 2016 they wanted to do the same thing. They focused on Trump, giving him countless hours of free publicity because they thought he was the weakest of the Republican candidates. When they saw he was a risk for Hillary Clinton, they switched to attacking him relentlessly.

The mainstream media has become so one sided and bitterly ideological that their only goal now is destroying President Trump and denigrating his supporters and whoever gives him a fair shot. Organizations such as Media Matters threaten with boycotts and violence individuals who advocate freedom of expressions. As Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, two pillars of American journalism, report, they were threatened by Media Matters several times. There is big money going through the mainstream media to attack everyone who is a conservative. The same is happening to the conservative Vox in Spain, Fratelli d’Italia and Lega in Italy, Orban in Hungary and every conservative elsewhere. This is one of the greatest threats we face today, because a media with a political agenda helps brainwash the masses. However, many are seeing through this. That is why CNN, the New York Times and many other once respected media, now are failing. CNN and MSNBC’s viewers combined are consistently far less than Fox News’. So, the left has turned to social media to help in its mission. In America, the mainstream media has very little chance of recovering from the abyss it has thrown itself.

Progressive Tech Bros

It is no secret that the majority of Silicon Valley is progressive, and they contribute to progressive causes and individuals. It is also a fact that the 2016 Presidential election proved that social media are a powerful weapon that can make the difference in the outcome. The issue is whether we can hold all this power accountable. Silicon Valley billionaires have made tremendous technological breakthroughs. There is no doubt about that. However, they can change the course of an election with a few lines of programming. Are they held accountable for that? How far-reaching is their influence, their ability to distort free speech and messaging? Twitter is proving that it has been purging the views of those people who are disliked by its executives. These companies enjoy exemptions that Congress has carved out for them. It is logical to think that these exemptions need to be looked at and adapted for our current reality.

It is not only the unfairness of social media being biased. There is a blatant hypocrisy discovered here. Why did nobody at Twitter fact check the Russia collusion hoax, the slanders against conservatives and President Trump, the accounts of the Chinese communist party or the propaganda of the Ayatollah of Iran? For this last one, Senator Ted Cruz is calling for a criminal investigation into Twitter for “willfully and blatantly violating U.S. sanctions on Iran”.

What About Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg?

On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg has chosen a smarter path. Many times, he has repeated that Facebook, and private companies, should not be the arbiters of truth. And Zuckerberg is a liberal, who attracted the ire of the left when he instituted this policy. Nevertheless, he is right precisely because of a law that social media executives use to shield themselves – the famous Section 230 that conservatives in the American Congress and President Trump are putting under review. The law considers social media such as Facebook and Twitter as distributors of news and not publishers. The media are publishers and as such are also fact checkers. However, by getting into fact checking, Twitter is considering itself to be a publisher. And with this change, come other responsibilities, which social media do not want. So, by going against the President of the United States, Twitter is working against its own best interests.

The President and Congress should not get into the business of regulating and overseeing content because it may prove even more damaging. If some bureaucrat in Washington examines the even-handedness of social media every certain amount of years, how is that any different from what Twitter’s politically motivated executives are doing? How can any person, who by nature is opinionated and maybe politically appointed decide what type of speech is allowed and what not? More government interference into private companies should not be an option, because it would mean legalizing what is currently going on with the left using social media for their purposes. Politics is not simply a clash of facts, rather of morals and principles. So, we cannot allow Twitter or government bureaucrats to decide what is allowed to be said and written. It is up to the voters to decide what information to believe by having decentralization of the distributors of information.

Finding Solutions

There are two solutions to the issue of conservative censorship and the threat of social media. The first is to leave it. If the President and conservatives feel their free speech is under attack, they can close their accounts and move to other platforms. Twitter is a business and it makes profits based on the amount of people who choose it. If the President of the US, who has around 80 million followers, decides to leave and his fans follow, how will Twitter react? It is how a free market works. If you do not get the service you want, in exchange for the data you give and the marketing revenue generated because of your presence in the social media, you can simply leave. Even better, conservatives are free to create their own platforms to compete. In a society, competition leads to the best products, without the interference of the government.

The second solution comes from the lawmakers. One example to be followed could be the law in Australia which prohibits publications related to murder, terrorism, pornography, violence. For example, the far-left American comedian, Kathy Griffin posting a picture of a decapitated Trump would not have been allowed to do it, had that law been passed in the US. Twitter, at the time, did not censor the so-called comedian. Nor did it shut her account. In this case, the law would be a fair referee. Therefore, there are legal ways that ensure freedom of speech and limit the possibility for abuse.

By now, conservatives should not be surprised at the attempts of the left to censor them. Instead, they should focus on the pillars of their ideology – freedom of expression, innovations, free and fair markets, deregulation and fair laws.

With these pillars, it is possible to find the solution to censorship and ensure the truth reaches the public without interference and distortions.

L'articolo Conservatives, the Media and Big Tech Censorship proviene da InsideOver.

March 11, 2020 marked the official end of the longest bull market in history. The Dow Jones went down 20.3% from the record high of 29,568 points it had reached exactly a month ago. Panic and uncertainty engulfed the markets as the coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc in Europe and begin its rapid approach to America’s coasts. Governments across most continents moved at varying paces to intervene in terms of public health and the economy.

The US Economic Situation

One month ago there was an unemployment rate of only 3.5% in the United States and comparatively good economic growth of 2.3% according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. The stock market was at record highs. Currently, full employment has ended, with predictions of the unemployment rate more than doubling in the coming weeks and reaching up to 30% in the coming months. Just last week, there was a record number of 3 million new jobless claims. As the Federal Reserve and the US government tried to calm things down with their announcements of economic measures, the stock market appeared to somewhat settle and managed to stop its declining streak, thus ending the shortest bear market in history.

The Federal Reserve moved aggressively and — perhaps in its haste to do good — proceeded incautiously with its announcement of a 50-basis point rate cut on March 3. One week later it dropped it effectively to zero. The message to the markets was that the worst is yet to come.

Congress’ Massive Stimulus Package

Nevertheless, after the stimulus package from Congress began to take shape, markets slowed down their downwards trend. The bill that made its way from Congress to the US President’s desk was worth $2 trillion, the largest ever in the world. And if the word of the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is any indication, another, even larger package is to follow. The President himself recently announced his intention to put forward a $2-trillion infrastructure bill.

According to the stimulus bill, individuals earning less than $75,000 per year are expected to receive $1,200 in cash payments, for a total of $300 billion. Families will also receive $500 per child. For those filing for unemployment, the government will provide $600 per week on top of whatever these individuals receive from the states. This is expected to last for four months. Moreover, 13 weeks of unemployment insurance are foreseen under the bill, with the possibility to request extensions. Freelancers, who normally cannot apply for unemployment, now can, thanks to a new government program.

Covid-19 Expenses Will Now All Be Covered

The legislation also makes all Covid-19 related medical expenses covered under private insurance. Furthermore, $10 million is the total sum of grants for small businesses, which can request up to $10,000. The small business administration can provide up to $10 million in forgivable loans per business, for a total of $350 billion. There are loans for big corporations as well, valued at $500 billion. $58 billion are reserved for airlines, whereas $100 billion for hospitals, $98 billion for drugs and vaccines and $1.32 billion for community centers. Worth 10% of GDP, there is no doubt that it is a comprehensive package. As the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out though, it is actually a relief package, not a stimulus package. This is a very important difference.

In addition to the fiscal, demand-side policies, the Fed has restarted its quantitative easing (QE) program and promised unlimited monetary stimulus. As the Spanish economist Daniel Lacalle explains, it is obvious that this stimulus is not unlimited. It is, in fact, limited by the $13 trillion dollar shortage that exists currently in the world. It has increased due to other countries, especially emerging ones, having dollar-denominated debt, and soon these countries will need dollars to pay those debts. This has been a long advantage of the US dollar’s status as the world currency reserve and a safe haven.

The Economic Situation in Europe

On March 18, the European Central Bank announced an $820 billion (EUR 750 billion) asset purchase program, named the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program, that will last until the end of the year. This came after the new ECB Chief Christine Lagarde caused the biggest fall in the Italian stock market history with her declarations that it was not the ECB’s job to close the spread between bonds’ rates. Having realized her gaffe’s devastating consequences — not only on the stock market and bond yields but also on the ECB’s credibility — she apologized. Market participants reacted positively to the new program announced, maybe because it was the only concrete package from the EU. The member states of the Union still today, as April begins, have not reached an agreement as to how best proceed. The debates on establishing the so-called corona-bonds or finding other ways to help European individuals and companies still continue without any success. Chaos is the message that comes from Brussels. The threat of incompetence from the ECB‘s current leader is what makes market participants anxious.

Europe’s Lose-Lose Economic Dilemma

To make matters worse, in addition to a lack of a proper response, the economic situation in Europe is far worse than in the US. Whereas, the American labor market was strong and the economy growing steadily when the pandemic hit, the Eurozone has been plagued with high unemployment, weak economic growth and high debt levels. This has to do not only with the lack of a common response, but also with the actual implementation of the wrong type of measures to the crisis of 2012. And that is an important lesson to learn for the current situation. If we do not identify the problem correctly, it will be impossible to implement the right solution. This is precisely what is happening around the world.

While it is true that the United States has been much quicker than Europe in preparing for a coming recession, their measures are also not enough. The US is stronger than the Eurozone, there is no doubt about it. The economic measures implemented by Donald Trump, like cutting taxes and deregulation, have helped strengthen the economy further. Consumer confidence and business sentiment have been in their highest points. Nevertheless, this does not mean the US will not be hit by a recession. The way it behaves now will be crucial to how it weathers the storm. Even in its weak state, the EU has the possibility to reverse the course it is currently in by adopting measures that work. There is no doubt that it will be hit much harder than the United States.

If the US can afford to provide helicopter money and trillion-dollar relief bills, Europe does not have the same luxury. It is highly indebted, badly managed with inefficient markets. Its labor market is highly inflexible compared to the American one. Government interventionism is high and frequent. This has done more harm than good to the economies of the Eurozone. Decades of Keynesian economics have failed in bringing more prosperity, leaving Europe with deep economic scars. In 2019, many of the major economies in Europe were already close to a recession.  What the US and especially Europe need is to produce. This cannot be achieved through demand-side policies, especially when the blow is not from the demand side.

The Coming Storm Isn’t About Demand-Side Shock

Currently, the crisis that is about to hit most countries has been misidentified as being caused by demand side shock. In reality, however, it is a supply-side shock that is hitting economies everywhere. Companies are being forced to close due to government mandates. It isn’t generally because they are in bad financial health, nor is it primarily due to consumers fearing to spend. This is the starting point of the crisis. Obviously, shutting whole sectors of the economy down will inevitably lead to a recession. Supply chains will also probably shift, because both emerging and developed countries are shutting down. Fiscal packages passed by governments are not effective and cannot serve as a stimulus. Why a company that is being forced to shut down, but is in good financial health, should take loans and inflate its debt?

On the other hand, can companies with high leverage ratios afford to increase their debt? How will they repay this debt when they do not know when they will resume normal activity? These companies do not suffer because they lack access to credit, which has been accessible at very low cost for some time now. They suffer due to forcibly closing their activity. So, the problem in its origin is not on the demand side. Nevertheless, due to consumers being forced to stay at home, and because of bars, restaurants, hotels, some shops etc. being closed, this may turn also into a demand side problem.

Printing More Money Isn’t Going to Fix This

Only once the problem is appropriately assessed, can the right solutions be implemented. Printing money and giving it to people will not stimulate the economy, while the relief will be only temporary. Nor will it ensure that the private sector is ready to start the engines of the economy once the pandemic is over. In the current situation, finding ways to increase consumer spending is not going to be enough to push the GDP up. Sure enough, government spending can. However, with the condition that Europe is currently in, it cannot afford to increase its debt by incredibly high values, because the consequences after the pandemic will be catastrophic. Many companies and banks in Europe are in the same boat as the governments when it comes to debt. In Europe there are banks with high NPLs that cannot afford to risk increasing it any further.

Governments have overspent during expansionary times, and central banks have dropped rates to negative levels, limiting the effectiveness of these tools immensely. So, what should be done? First, the governments should eliminate all unnecessary spending. They should revise their budgets and drop all expenses for the year that are not essential. Secondly, they should immediately open companies that produce in the industry sector. In many countries, most firms in the services sector can do smart working. A suggestion that economists like Lacalle have made is that governments can provide lines of credit to companies that need to finance their working capital. If the governments are going to spend money at low costs, they can do so in a way that produces results. It must be paramount that economic activity be steadily reawakened.

Thirdly, governments should decrease taxes at least by half for all companies. For those companies that are not working, corporate taxes should be zero for the whole FY 2020. Moreover, payroll taxes should also be eliminated, as well as local taxes. It is paramount that the cost of hiring is reduced so that the recovery can start.

Follow the South Korean Model

Many people may argue that health is more important and being locked in our houses is necessary even at the risk of burning down our economies. The reply to that is the South Korean model should be followed not the Italian one. They performed massive tests to most of the population and it worked. If the government wants to spend money, let them spend it on tests for the virus. Then they can isolate the infected without risking the whole world economy. People need to go back to work, because they cannot live otherwise. Death by recession is as awful as death by corona. We are still in time to stop a health crisis from turning into a recession of Biblical proportions.

As the US President said, we cannot risk the cure being worse than the virus itself.

L'articolo Erroneous Response to Economic Crisis Could be Devastating proviene da InsideOver.