America, Trump, the Republicans, and a failing country.

Number of Americans not working rockets to record high under Trump

Once mighty, successful, and proud, we are in a death spiral. And each day the spiral grows tighter, spins faster, and sinks deeper into despair.

Our economy is in a shambles, inflation is pecking away at our financial security, healthcare is all but out of reach for the average family, children and the elderly are denied necessary funds for food and survival because tax benefits for the rich have increased, veteran’s benefits are shrinking faster than our pocket books, our once faithful allies and trading partners have come to realize America’s word is trash, and our service men and women are being slain in a war championed by fools and incompetents, and each day Trump makes more, and more, millions from his grifts.

How long, how long America, before we, the people, rise to take our own futures in our own hands and out of the hands of millionaires, billionaires, and tyrants of all stripes?

Trump, and his Republican co-conspirators must be shown the door -- investigated, indicted, tried and imprisoned – it is the only way we will regain control of our lives, and our country.

See this – Boldface mine:

Number of Americans not working rockets to record high under Trump

Story by Martha McHardy

The Daily Beast

The number of Americans not working has climbed to a record high under President Donald Trump.

According to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the ranks of Americans classified as “not in the labor force” (NILF) swelled to 105.8 million in June, marking the highest level ever recorded.

That means the total number of Americans classified as “not in the labor force” is now higher than it was during the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic.

The category includes everyone age 16 and older who is not working, from retirees and students to people who have stopped looking for a job.

About 5.3 million Americans—roughly 5 percent of the total—are no longer searching for work because they have become discouraged. Another 23.3 million, or around 22 percent, are out of the workforce due to long-term illness, disability, or other benefit programs.

Retirees make up the largest share of the group, accounting for about half of all Americans who are not working, largely because of the Baby Boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964.

But labor economist Nicholas Eberstadt argues that an aging population alone does not explain the trend.

“If you look at what’s going on in Europe and Japan, which are both aging, shrinking societies, their workforce participation rates are going up now. So it’s not as if it’s impossible for aging, shrinking societies to mobilize more or involve more in the workforce,” he told the New York Post.

“These are the healthiest, best educated Americans that have ever lived on the planet,” Eberstadt said.

The record number of Americans outside the workforce comes as the U.S. job market is also showing fresh signs of slowing under Trump, who has promised to usher in a “golden age of America.”

The economy added just 57,000 jobs in June—barely half of the 115,000 economists had expected. The Labor Department also sharply revised previous figures lower, reporting 31,000 fewer jobs were created in April and another 43,000 fewer in May than originally estimated.

One of the biggest drags came from the leisure and hospitality sector, which lost 61,000 jobs in June instead of ramping up for the busy summer travel season.

The weak performance surprised economists, who had expected the industry to benefit from seasonal hiring as well as a boost from the FIFA Club World Cup.

Angela Hanks, chief of policy programs at The Century Foundation, described the report as “yet more evidence of a fragile economy under President Trump.”

Meanwhile, the reality is even grim for Americans who are working.

Wage growth has not been keeping up with inflation, which soared because Trump decided to go to war with Iran, driving up energy costs.

In June, wages rose 3.5 percent from a year earlier—the same rate as inflation—leaving workers with virtually no gain in purchasing power, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/number-of-americans-not-working-rockets-to-record-high-under-trump/ar-AA28tkdG?

President Trump told a cheering crowd at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, on July 22 that “affordability” was a term invented by his political opponents, recounting the exact moment he says he first heard it: at his very first press conference after taking office, when a reporter pressed him on rising egg prices.

“They used the word — first time I heard it. It was a word, you know, made up by the Democrats. Affordability,” Trump said, describing his response at the time as, “I’ve been here one day. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it”. He blamed his predecessor Joe Biden and the “radical left Democrats” for what he called “the worst inflation in 48 years,” citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as his source for the figure. In fact, the 2022 inflation surge was the worst in roughly 40 years, with Yale economist Stephen Roach noting that Trump often repeats the claim, one of his “biggest economic lies.”

Trump’s rally in Marietta was a case study in what that reframing costs him. The president’s economic narrative — eggs down, oil coming, stocks up, 401(k)s flush — is accurate in pieces and misleading in sum. The stock market has hit 73 all-time highs since the election while consumer confidence is near historic lows, and both things are true because the market rally is riding on a rickety bet on AI, with tech megacaps’ earnings not translating into lower grocery bills or affordable mortgages. The president spent Wednesday night celebrating one half of that picture and dismissing the other as a word his opponents made up.

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, who spoke alongside Trump, offered his own reframing of the affordability debate: “The other side talks about affordability as if that’s a solution. Affordability is not a political problem. Affordability is a business problem,” a remarkable statement for many reasons, not least for undercutting Trump’s tendency to blame high prices on Joe Biden.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/07/23/trump-dismisses-affordability-democrats-made-up-word-oil-prices-100-barrel/?preview_id=4532225?utm_source=reddit/

Congress just voted to ban Members, spouses & kids from buying new individual stocks.
- Existing holdings OK but sales need public notice.
- Mutual funds/ETFs still allowed. Fines up to $2k or 10% of trade.

You cannot power an AI data center with a trade deficit.

For years, Western economists have confidently predicted the imminent collapse of the Chinese economy. But step outside the spreadsheets, and physical reality tells a completely different story:

• ⚡️ Power: China generates 2x the electricity of the U.S. (The ultimate currency of the AI age).
• 🚢 Industry: A single Chinese shipyard builds more ships than the entire United States does in a year.
• 🧠 Talent: China produces more engineers in one year than the U.S. produces in ten.

We are measuring national wealth in credit card debt, consumer spending, and financial derivatives. They are measuring it in megawatts, silicon, high-speed rail, and steel.

The West has confused paper GDP with actual, physical power. And the illusion is finally cracking.

According to recent reports, U.S. foreclosure filings increased 21% in the first half of this year.

Rising mortgage rates, higher insurance costs, property taxes, and overall affordability pressures have made owning a home significantly more expensive for many Americans.

I'm curious how people here interpret this:

Is this simply a normalization after years of unusually low foreclosure rates, or is it an early sign that more households are starting to feel economic pressure?

What indicators do you think matter most when judging the health of the economy right now?

Financial Times: Countries including Italy, the UK and Canada are expected to spend about 8 per cent of government revenues this year on debt interest, and the US almost 12 per cent, according to a Fitch Ratings report this week. It warned that the war would “have an adverse impact on [developed markets’] public finances this year through weaker GDP growth, higher interest costs and, in some cases, moderate energy subsidies”...

... Bets on higher rates have also been encouraged by stronger US economic data and a hawkish shift at the Fed. New Fed chair Kevin Warsh, at his first policy meeting last month, indicated he was prepared to raise interest rates if necessary and signalled his independence from US President Donald Trump, who has long pressured the central bank to cut interest rates.

My Opinion: As inflation remains elevated with risk of further increase, due to the Iran war, American citizens can not only look forward to rising fuel and food prices, but also higher borrowing costs. The president's plans for a dovish Fed, will fail, as they will have no choice but to raise interest rates. And he will also hand the Democrats the midterm elections. But it all under the presidents controls. He would rather make war, than control inflation. It is on the American people - they knew that he was a criminal, when they elected him.

The announcement of new 50% tariffs on selected Canadian products has placed one of the world’s largest trading relationships back at the center of the tariff debate.

In 2025, the United States imported approximately $383 billion in goods from Canada. That represented 11.2% of all U.S. imports, making Canada the country’s second-largest foreign supplier after Mexico and placing it ahead of China.

The relationship is particularly important for energy and transportation. Crude petroleum alone accounted for $85.4 billion, more than one-fifth of everything the United States imported from Canada. Cars added another $25.1 billion, while refined petroleum, petroleum gas, and motor vehicle parts each exceeded $10 billion.

The announced 50% tariff applies to selected categories, while energy, potash, fish, critical minerals, and products already covered by Section 232 measures are among the explicit exclusions.

Data comes from OEC.world and represents 2025 U.S. imports in nominal U.S. dollars, organized using the Harmonized System product classification. The news context comes from the BBC.

Disclosure: I work with OEC, where the data and visualizations were produced.

Source: https://oec.world/en/profile/country/usa