Hartmann Report

Americans can hold the same idea in two different contexts at the same time: While embracing interdependence at home, we must also embrace self-reliance on the international stage. We can’t build enough cars because the chips, invented here in America, are all manufactured overseas. 30% of America’s oil is now being exported by giant oil corporations that are jacking up our gasoline prices because of a “shortage.” This is insane! How did the Reagan administration and neoliberals ever since get away with making our nation almost totally reliant on China and a handful of other low-wage countries for everything from the chips in our cars to our cellphones to the tech necessary to build a battleship or missile? And who turned our energy fate over to the Saudis? Of all the concepts that ground most Americans’ idea of our country, self-reliance ranks among the top.

The Republican Party has, in fact, reinvented the old Confederacy, including treasonous iconography & fighting to preserve statues and place names of traitor Confederate generals. Hershel Walker’s abortion hypocrisy is a hot mess, but that’s only the smallest part of the story: the GOP actually has a template for what they’re attempting to pull off in the election this fall and “morality” has nothing to do with it. Instead, it’s all about white power and wealth, in a context that once ruled the southern states.

Decisions made by Powell, Putin, MBS, and OPEC+ are going to impact the midterms and the economics of the entire planet. Jerome Powell, Vladimir Putin, and Mohammad Bin Salman are on the verge of throwing the entire world into a massive depression. Powell’s interest rate increases are compounded by the action taken this morning by Russia and Saudi Arabia, leading the OPEC+ meeting in Vienna, to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day.

Democrats are hoping that national social issues like abortion & gay marriage will help this November but most voters — particularly independents & Latinos — put the economy as their #1 issue. Nothing is more powerful than economics. Economics seems like an erudite science, or a boring classroom topic, but it is the most powerful force in all of politics. Every single one of us, every single day is affected in one way or another by economics. It determines our ability to feed and house and clothe ourselves, to live with dignity, to support and help those around us and those dependent upon us. It’s so powerful that it blinds us to everything else. When economics are out of whack, we cease to care about pretty much anything else that doesn’t impinge on our survival.

The Babcock Ranch community near Ft Meyers shows building a resilient and low-carbon America will save both money and lives. We need to start now. The media is all over the story that Governor DeSantis was notified that the danger threshold for evacuation was hit on Sunday, but he waited until Tuesday to order one (leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake). But there’s another story out of Florida — a good news story — that’s not getting anything close to the coverage it deserves. Just 12 miles northeast of Fort Meyers — a community devastated by the hurricane with total loss of power, water, and massive loss of life — another community not only came through the hurricane just fine but never even lost power.

Although the increasingly unrestrained marketplace that Teddy Roosevelt and Louis Brandeis warn of makes it hard for many companies to emphasize community values, some still do. Others are recognizing the need to respond to human demands for a cleaner, safer, less toxic world. Additionally, many people are fortunate enough to work in an industry they love, and the love of railroads or automobiles or flying or medicine has motivated the start-up and the ongoing operation of many of what are now the world’s best companies. In my experience in business, it’s the people who care about their industry or area of expertise who are the most likely to be successful.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — DeSantis, after rejecting "socialism" to help out Hurricane Sandy victims in 2013, is suddenly a socialist. — Is Putin trying to start WWIII or is this all just an elaborate strategy to "declare victory and go home"? — Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell's favorite Russian oligarch/criminal Oleg Deripaska — who helped him get re-elected in 2020 — was just indicted by the Department of Justice. — I'm the first to admit this may be a loony conspiracy theory, but I'm wondering if Jerome Powell and the Oil Companies are both working to kneecap the economy just in time for the November 8th election? — Our federal judiciary is now at "peak corruption" and we can thank Trump and McConnell for most of it. — In an estraordinary show of bad faith and corruption, the three Republican members of the Federal Election Commission have spent the past 5 years blocking any serious investigations of Republican and Trump criminality. — Yes, Trump was just as childish and emotionally dysfunctional as we all thought. — Geeky Science: Can cardamom save your life? — Crazy Alert! Fox "News" channel tells us that, just like with guns, the time after a disaster should not entertain discussions of actual science and solutions.

Returning manufacturing to our nation is the most important step we can take to balance China’s growing influence and power, both economic, military and political. Asia and American industrial policy are in the news: this week Vice President Harris visited Japan with this very topic at the top of her agenda. Last weekend there was a one-day-panic story about Chinese President Xi being arrested by his own government. While it was anti-China propaganda promoted by partisans in India and Hong Kong, in two weeks (October 16th) President Xi will stand for re-election by the Chinese Communist Party. Between that, his aggressive rhetoric around Taiwan, and Congress’ concern that China may be spying on Americans through TikTok and some of the devices manufactured there and shipped here, China is also big news right now in the US and around the world.

If we want to get crime under control and restore social cohesion to our society, we must also tackle inequality - and that means taxing the morbidly rich. Monday I wrote to you about how Democrats must engage with the topic of crime; that same day the Washington Post documented how the GOP intends to use crime as their major wedge issue in this November’s election. But the conversation does us a disservice if it’s limited to crime and punishment: we must consider what is driving crime and the social breakdown of which it’s a symptom.

It’s time to re-normalize taxes on the morbidly rich (and leave them where they are on working class people) so we can again have a growing economy and a prosperous middle class. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he’s going to cut taxes for Floridians. The Florida legislature isn’t meeting again until March of next year, which is when governors typically roll out new proposals, but, hey, he’s heading into a make-it-or-break-it election against former Florida Governor Charlie Crist in six weeks. In West Virginia, Republican Governor Jim Justice proposed a 10% cut in income taxes, and in Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parsons is pushing an end altogether to progressive taxation, replacing the sliding scale with a flat tax that will hit middle-income people hardest.