Look at the flowers, US economy, just look at the flowers.

Remember that time? When GWB paid for a war by printing trillions of dollars in newly-minted cash? And crude oil prices, which were strongly balanced against the strength of the watered-down dollar skyrocketed? And the gas crunch lit the fuse of the biggest recession since the Great Depression? Because the strain on the system was too great and the artificially-inflated housing bubble popped?

Good times, right?

Today, we have a brand new bubble a la the Trump tax plan, which I like to call FearlessOrangeLeader(tm)’s Blood-From-A-Stone Tax Plan.

This tax plan redistributed trillions of dollars into corporations and the upper class, where the lions’ share of it was used by corporations to buy their own stocks, artificially inflating their values and, by extension, the US economy’s value. A lot.

Meanwhile, everyone else was squeezed a little bit harder, and while record-breaking Wall Street numbers flash across the surface of that bubble to the oohs and aahs of the easily-impressed, and teeny tiny orange hands raise themselves in fists of victory before every camera pointed their way so cheering mobs can share the celebration of a new high score, some of the largest economies in the world are being poked in the eye, too. Including our closest allies.

Meanwhile, how’s the strength of the economy actually *doing*? Well, I’m glad you asked that. Because it’s important.

Real wages (and note the use of the word “real”, there) have actually declined slightly at the same time.

Just for laughs, how are gas prices doing these days? *cringes* ooo, that’s not pretty.

So anyway. Remember the last recession, how happy all the unemployed were, how many millions of people were just thrilled to see their savings and retirement plans and homes just gone in a flash?

Yeah. Imagine that in the midst of a series of ill-advised trade wars.

Actually… Don’t.

Look at the flowers, US economy. Just look at the flowers.