After trailing behind Hillary Clinton by 10 percent about three weeks before the elections, Donald Trump suddenly surged to a statistical tie at 1 percent behind only a week before the elections, but finally swept the US polls, owing partly to his last-minute controversial, but substantive, October 27 statement that is threatening Wall Street and the “too-big-to-fail banks.”
Dis-United States, a polls’ alarm? As of November 11, at 47.8 percent of votes counted, CNN reported that Clinton had higher popular votes at 61.03 million against Trump’s 60.37 million, although at this tally, Trump already won the presidency after exceeding the winning 270 electoral college votes when he got 290.
Clinton’s higher popular votes at early count triggered protests against Trump in about eight cities, with media networks allegedly fueling the division.
The protests, however, are expected to simmer down, as Clinton has conceded and called for unity, but more so because final election results show Trump has won not only the electoral colleges at 306, against Clinton’s two-thirds at 232; but he also won the popular votes as of November 13, at 62.97 million votes against Clinton’s 62.27 million votes.
Results defy Clinton’s expectations. Comparing performances of different sectors supporting Republican’s Mitt Romney in 2012 and Trump in 2016, as well as those of Barack Obama in 2012 and Clinton’s 2016, Telegraph of United Kingdom reports that, contrary to expectations, Clinton lost as she failed to win over the blacks, Hispanics and female voters, despite Trump’s misogynist comments, sweeping snide remarks against Muslims and blacks, and the allusions of criminal involvement among 3 million Mexican immigrants.
Among women voters, Trump’s sexist comments caused a slight slip from Romney’s 44-percent support in 2012 to only 42 percent, while Clinton’s support even dipped surprisingly from 55 percent to 54 percent. Among Hispanics, Clinton’s support dropped from Obama’s peak of 71 percent in 2012 to only 65 percent, while Trump even inched upward from 27 percent to 29 percent. Among voters in small cities and rural areas, Trump surged from 50 percent to 62 percent, while Clinton plummeted from 48 percent to 34 percent, thus explaining why inner mid-west states turned Republican.
For those earning less than $50,000 a year, many of whom are blacks, support for Clinton dropped from Obama’s 60 percent in 2012 to only 52 percent, while Trump’s increased from 38 percent to 41 percent. For those from 18 to 29 years old, although they did remain the same from Romney to Trump at 37 percent, they were disappointed over Clinton and reduced their support from Obama’s 60 percent to only 54 percent.
From build a wall to break a wall? So why the sudden shift? Although millions of intelligent and influential Americans detest Trump’s obnoxious ways, many shifted support when he announced boldly on October 27 that he will revive the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act of President Franklin Roosevelt.
Glass Steagall regulated and separated commercial and universal banking, bringing financial stability for 65 years. But since its repeal in 1999, even
pension plans of employees are securitized and traded as bonds, derivatives and hedge funds in a financial free market that has led to Wall Street’s casino-like operations of booms and busts, like the 2008 financial crisis.
It can be recalled former President Bill Clinton, who wanted to overhaul the financial architecture, faced resistance and was forced instead to repeal Glass Steagall under threat of losing the presidency over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Since then, the Clintons have been beholden to Wall Street, with Clinton getting campaign contributions through $250,000 per dinner speeches.
With Trump’s pronouncements to bring back Steagall, while softening his stance on building a wall between Mexico, it appears he is now bent on breaking down another “wall”—Wall Street. This triggered jitters and ripples in global markets, but is welcomed by many Americans who feel displaced by globalization, Wall Street financial bubbles and the slumping real economy.
Surging financials as economy collapses. It is ironic that, while Wall Street’s “too-big-to-fail” banks failed several times, they were rescued often through bailouts, quantitative easings (QEs), almost zero interest rates, lower reserves, buyouts of their mortgage-backed securities, etc., like shots of adrenaline, or financial morphine, making them only more addicted
and voracious.
Wall Street’s derivatives or fictitious debts have ballooned to over $708 trillion, way above the US GDP of about $15 trillion a year, or even bigger than the total global GDP of about $70 trillion a year. While the bailouts and other measures simmered down the markets, they are building up another financial bubble, while the real economy collapses from neglect. It’s ironic again while the big banks are rescued, many small banks lending to small businesses that create real physical wealth, were forced into bankruptcy. From 2007 to 2012 alone, scores of these small American banks closed shop.
Over the last 10 years, infrastructure spending by states and cities in the US have stagnated, says the Commerce
Department as reported by the Wall Street Journal on October 27. In fact, it is lower than in 2009.
Build peace, not war. Trump’s development plans are not yet clear, but by distancing from Obama’s and Clinton’s war mongering, costly military intervention in Syria, Iraq, Libya and the Middle East, the drone killings in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and dangerous provocations against Russia and China, he can find the right track being a pragmatic businessman.
Very likely, he may get America to join the win-win massive infrastructure thrusts of the coalition of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), China’s “New Silk Road”, “Maritime Silk Road” and “One Belt, One Road” initiatives of linking Asia to Europe and Africa through massive mag-lev railways, road networks and power systems, even rebuilding Middle East, starting with Egypt’s new Suez canal last year.
BRICS is helping build the World Land bridge across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska and the projects all the way to South America, including railways and building a new canal across Nicaragua, similar to Panama canal. BRICS set up the New Development Bank, while China initiated the Asian Infrastructure & Investment Bank, in contrast to Obama’s posturing discouraging allies to join AIIB and excluding China from its Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump is scrapping.
While people abhor Trump, they find him now more acceptable with his developmental thrusts as they hate more the establishment represented by Obama and Clinton, who are more geared toward creating war and conflicts all over the world. But let’s see if he makes good with his words, because right after meeting with Obama, he reverses positions saying he will keep much of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, that has been building up tension with Russia being a remnant of the Cold War.
Let’s see if Trump can be America’s Trump Card to revive its faltering economy, which is, ironically, breaking down Wall Street through Steagall.
E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com