The international equivalent of the S&P 500 Index is the ACWI Index, which tracks large and mid-cap stocks in almost 50 developed countries and emerging markets. It usually performs similar to the S&P 500 and at times even underperforms it. This year, since Trump took over, the S&P 500 is up almost 18 percent which is respectable, especially considering that it dropped 15 percent within his first few months in office. On the other hand, since Trump took over, the ACWI World Index is up 31 percent. So, who do you think is doing better with all this tariff business? So much for the great orange deal-maker. The rest of the world is laughing at him, all the while hoping for more deals in the future.
Mark Henry
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2025.
Mark:
Would love to know how you propose to deal with 40 trillion dollars in national debt, hundreds of billions due on the debt incurred in low interest loans that rolls over in 2026 to high interest, forcing commercial real estate debtors to turn in the keys on building and strip malls they bought for 200 million now only worth 10 million AND whose companies were the very ones your pension and 401k invested in. Would love to know how you would propose reindustrializing the US, paying for our crumbling infrastructure, building housing, and fixing our broken medical system. I’ve got bad news for you, this is structural, bipartisan and DECADES in the making. Trump just stopped passing the buck. If you thought everything was just peachy prior to his administration, you have a kindergarten level of systemic analysis. Both parties did this. The Dems are just as disgusting as the Republicans.
Fly, LMAOROG
Yeah BOTH parties have gutted taxes for the richest for 44 years. Oh wait that was ONLY the GOP side, Ronnie, Dubya (twice) and Cheeto (twice)
ONE party brought US UNFUNDED WARS (Afghanistan/Iraq) , UNFUNDED Medicare expansion that cost US over $100+ billion a year
Yep, Ronnie/GOP’s NAFTA that 60% of Democrats voted against in Congress hurt US., just like labor unions and the liberals said it would. Of course Cheeto “fixed” it his first term right?
Don’t fret the GOP will step up to “help” the workers, probably after another tax cut for the richest
Jon:
Our destruction has been bipartisan in nature. Do you really want me to go down the list of all the times your party caved in or actually initiated the legislation that has strip mined the working class? You are so partisan you refuse to see it. You’re wedded to your ideology. If Democrats hadn’t sold out so much, Trump wouldn’t have won would he? His election is a direct consequence of what your party did. I mean why would anyone reelect someone with dementia? Why would someone elect a shrew like Hillary Clinton, a backwater Arkansas attorney so desperate to be accepted by the metropolitan elite she would do anything they say? I hate to personalize it, as so many do, but these were your candidates. You sold Bernie out and have no progressive ideas. People like you are simply historical artifacts. I’d bet you still watch nightly news too from one of the networks, right?
So, for people like John, America wasn’t close to 40 trillion dollars in debt, prior to the inauguration of President Trump. Nor does it incur a trillion more in debt every 100 days, nor was it deindustrialized, it was totally harmonious, everyone was upwardly mobile, the dollar was strong, most jobs paid living wages, and was all due to one party, the Democratic party. This is what is called selective memory
Fly, like most of the right wingers ONLY have false premises, distortions and lies to go with
Hint the vast majority (80%) of US debt can be traced to GOP policies the past 45 years, TAX CUTS, wars, UNFUNDED mandates.
Democrats gave US the labor laws, SS, Medicare, Medicaide, SNAP (food stamps), Obamacares, Min wage laws, the right to unionize, overtime pay, etc
THE GOP FOUGHT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE ITEMS. But don’t worry, Cheeto will “fix” health insurance where 7% of the US population health insurance cost will sky rocket Jan 1, 2026 with $1,500 per family to “negotiate” with the health insurance companies, lol
GOP POLICY NAFTA?
DEMOCRATS OPPOSED 60% IN CONGRESS. Yep BJ Bill was the best conservative Prez since Ike, Obama was second best giving US the Heritage Foundation/Romneycare “health coverage”
Cheeto “won” because of Citizen’s United AND SCOTUS
and
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” – George Carlin
JON:
Again, I’m no expert, but I am a history major. I’m well aware of what FDR gave us with the New Deal. All you are doing is cherry picking and fail to look at what Clinton and Obama did to us. From the Commodities Futures Trading Act, to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) which repealed Glass-Steagall, allowing commercial and investment banking mergers AND subsequent collapses and bailouts. Prior to removing the firewall, there were no real bank failures. All these bailouts have debased the dollar. You may be so well off that you don’t feel it, I do and millions more. I could go on, but you just keep sticking your head on the sand. It really doesn’t matter, our economy is on the verge of collapse and I have to get to bed. Going fishin’ tomorrow.
Oh, Obama was trying to push for the Tens Pacific Partnership too, with secret tribunals run by unelected judges. It has stipulations that stated corporations could sue states for what they considered lost profits because a state enacted certain laws that protected it from corporate scavengers and corporate exploitation. These decisions wouldn’t be tried in a court of law but rather, private, secret tribunals. I haven’t forgot, why have you
Fly, LMAOROG.
Sure Glass/Steagal, how would’ve it stopped Dubya Banksters ponzi scheme where over 90% of mortage loans 2004-2007 were done by mortgage brokers? Hint NOT covered by it
The subprime crisis was a REGULATOR failure as Dubya gutted regulators on the beat, not a lack of laws on the books
Just like Cheeto is doing now, and Ronnie did with the S&L crisis, not “believing in Gov’t and regulators on the beat, get’s US the crap we had
“August 07, 2025
Regulatory enforcement of the U.S. financial services industry sharply declined in the first half of 2025, reflecting the Trump administration’s rapid deregulatory push, according to a study released Tuesday.
Total enforcement actions against financial services firms fell 37% from the final six months of 2024
“We’re witnessing a fundamental transformation in federal enforcement priorities,” Chuck Ross, leader of Wolters Kluwer’s compliance management program, said in a statement. “While deregulation was anticipated under the new administration, the velocity and magnitude of this enforcement pullback exceeds even the most aggressive predictions.”
The reduction in financial enforcement reflects the administration’s weakening supervision of financial institutions by rolling back parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the report stated. The administration has also streamlined enforcement activity at federal agencies, most notably at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFPB, where enforcers have focused on select high-profile misconduct cases rather than broad regulatory actions, the report added.
“This isn’t just a modest adjustment—it’s a complete recalibration of the enforcement ecosystem,” Ross said.
Financial penalties for competition violations, which include antitrust and corruption offenses, fell 97%, the report stated.
….he broad retreat from enforcement leaves the financial industry with much more discretion in its compliance programs, Duffus said. Banks and financial institutions no longer have as much guidance around regulations and best practices, leaving corporate boards to “come up with the risk appetites around everything,”-”
btw, there were no investment bank mergers, all 6 of the largest in 2006, all gone today. They changed their charters, NOT stopped by Glass/Steagal either!
Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000, Clinton
Sure REGULATOR FAILURE UNDER DUBYA. Shockingly Federal Reserve could’ve stopped the ponzi scheme
Dubya, who gutted the FBI white collar division between 2001 and 2004 by 60%, you know he hadto watch out for “terrorists”, not Banksters
US in 2008 had ONE FBI agent on mortgage fraud in the entire USA
September 17, 2004
FBI warns of mortgage fraud ‘epidemic’
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Rampant fraud in the mortgage industry has Increased so sharply that the FBI warned Friday of an “epidemic” of financial crimes which, if not curtailed, could become “the next S&L crisis.”
OOPS
The FBI identified the epidemic of mortgage control fraud at such an early point that the financial crisis could have been averted had the Bush administration acted with even minimal competence.
The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis
etence. By William K. Black
How can the Architects of the Crisis Investigate it?
January 29, 2011
By William K. Black
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) issued its report today on the causes of the crisis.
The Commissioners were chosen along partisan lines and the Republicans, one-upping the Republicans’ dual responses to President Obama’s State of the Union address, have issued three rebuttals.
The rebuttals follow a failed preemptive effort by the Republicans to censor the report – they insisted on banning the use of the terms “shadow banking system” (the virtually unregulated financial sector that conducts most financial transactions), “Wall Street,” and “deregulation.”
The Republicans then issued their first rebuttal last month, their “primer.”
The primer, following the lead of the censorship effort, ignored the contributions that the shadow banking system, Wall Street, and deregulation made to the crisis.
The combination of the demand that the report be censored and the primer’s crude apologia critical role that the unmentionable Wall Street, particularly its back alleys (the unmentionable “shadow banking system”), and the unmentionable deregulators played in causing the crisis was derided by neutrals.
The failure of their preemptive primer has now led the Republican commissioners to release two additional rebuttals to the Commission report. Again, they issued their rebuttals before the Commission issued its report in an attempt to discredit it.
YEAH, THE GOP/CHEETO WILL FIX EVERYTHING THE “DEMOCRATS” MESSED UP ON, LOL
CLINYON 2000 HUH?
From Bush’s President’s Working Group on Financial Markets MARCH 2008
The Presidents Working Group’s March policy statement acknowledged that turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007
“Another form of easing facilitated the rapid rise of mortgages that didn’t require borrowers to fully document their incomes. In 2006, these low- or no-doc loans comprised 81 percent of near-prime, 55 percent of jumbo, 50 percent of subprime and 36 percent of prime securitized mortgages.”
Q HOLY JESUS! DID YOU JUST PROVE THAT OVER 50 % OF ALL MORTGAGES IN 2006 DIDN’T REQUIRE BORROWERS TO DOCUMENT THEIR INCOME?!?!?!?
A Yes.
Q WHO THE HELL LOANS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO PEOPLE WITHOUT CHECKING THEIR INCOMES?!?!?
A Banks.
Q WHY??!?!!!?!
A Two reasons, greed and Bush’s regulators let them.
Do you really want to o back and forth on this, I can. What you want is a simple answer: our side, other side bad. Further, you simplify everything by blaming one person, Trump.
When will ideologues like and people on the other side admit it, neither party resembles anything like what they were say..50 years ago. Both are corrupt, but if memory serves, yours is the only party holding the world hostage and threatening human extinction last Fall through providing the corrupt Zylenski regime (the one whose flag you probably have in your front yard and have tattooed on your chest even though you’ve probably never wore a military uniform in your entire life) American made MLRS and THAAD missiles and the requisite targeting packages to literally bomb the deep into the interior of a nuclear power (Russia). My only question is what’s in it for you? What drives to be so wedded to your ideology you are unable to see straight? Do even you love anybody? If so, why would you vote for a party that threatened your loved one with nuclear retaliation? You must be old enough to appreciate what nuclear war really means, right? The Democratic party is rotten to its core.
Got it Fly, you’ll stick with Russian/Putin/Cheeto talking points, lol
HINT RUSSIA ATTACKED A FREE NATION, LIKE CHEETO IS DOING NOW, AND ALLOWED ISRAEL TO DO,
Sure Cheeto/GOP will fix everything, lol
BTW, Dad retired military, grew up in the VFW/American Legion, probably know more vets and visited VA hospitals than you ever did. Early 1970’s SF bay area hospitals Cupcake
But you support Corp. Bonespurs whose attacking Syria and Venezuela
“Democrats gave US the labor laws, SS, Medicare, Medicaide, SNAP (food stamps), Obamacares, Min wage laws, the right to unionize, overtime pay, etc”
Your party may have done all that, but that was created during the administration of FDR (generally). What do we have now, decades later and after numerous Democratic administration?
1. A hollowed out economy in large part to Bill Clinton (Democrat) sending our factories overseas with NAFTA and “Clintonomics.”
2. Welfare has been replaced by means tested workfare. Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
3. What does the right to unionize matter when all your factories and assembly lines were shipped to China?
4. Rather than capitalize Medicare, Medicare, and SS, both parties have chosen to fund defense contracts.
Lastly, the dollar is about to collapse thanks to a loss in faith in it. I believe your president , Joe Biden, provided the coup de grace for the dollar by seizing 350 billion dollars of Russian assets.
We could do this all day, but what does it matter? Why you lick the boots of the Democratic party, we’re going down.
I’m still curious why you are so attached to your party? Again, what’s in it for you? I’d be willing to bet you have a lot to lose if things change. Basically, Jon, you are scared sh_tless.
The US is in a debt spiral the government is attempting to solve with money printing. Our dollar is being debased and it won’t be soon before we need a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread.
By physical gold and silver before it’s too late, ladies and gentlemen. The dollar is going to zero.
LMAOROG, Yep if you support the GOP and Cheeto who are TRYING to mess up EVERYTHING for the benefit of the oligarchs
Clinton/Democrats did that huh, even though it was a plan Ronnie announced the day he ran for Prez? The one Poppy Bush negotiated? You know the one SIXTY PERCENT OF THE DEMS IN CONGRESS VOTED AGAINST?
I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. Grover Norquist
Our goal is to inflict pain. It is not good enough to win; it has to be a painful and devastating defeat. We’re sending a message here. It is like when the king would take his opponent’s head and spike it on a pole for everyone to see. Grover Norquist
The Grover Norquist Pledge, or “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” is a promise by politicians, primarily Republicans, to oppose any increase in income tax rates and any net reduction or elimination of deductions/credits unless matched by further rate cuts, championed by Grover Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), aiming to institutionalize small government through low taxes, becoming a litmus test for candidates and influencing GOP fiscal policy for decades.
80% OF CURRENT DEBT CAN BE TRACED TO THE UNFUNDED POLICIES OF THE GOP THE PAST 45 YEARS. Get honest
Ronnie, Dubya and Cheeto, tax cuts for the richest AS all three ramped up spending and UNFUNDED policies
But hey, worry about the “debt” as the GOP refused to even raise taxes on anyone making a billion dollars a year!
I suggest “Fly” & Jon have their own discussions on a separate platform and stop high jacking the New Times Op-Eds. Mark Henry’s opinion is spot on, assuming the ACWI World Index is up 31 percent. One would hope that the reply’s would focus on this issue, not on decades of American political conflicts that have nothing to do with who benefits from the tariffs.
I suggest “Fly” & Jon have their own discussions on a separate platform and stop high jacking the New Times Op-Eds. Mark Henry’s opinion is spot on, assuming the ACWI World Index is up 31 percent. One would hope that the reply’s would focus on this issue, not on decades of American political conflicts that have nothing to do with who benefits from the tariffs.
I suggest “Fly” & Jon have their own discussions on a separate platform and stop high jacking the New Times Op-Eds. Mark Henry’s opinion is spot on, assuming the ACWI World Index is up 31 percent. One would hope that the reply’s would focus on this issue, not on decades of American political conflicts that have nothing to do with who benefits from the tariffs.