President Trump accused the media on Aug. 15, 2019, of falsifying an economic downturn in an attempt to dodge being perceived as ineffective in his role as president.
Trump tweeted on Aug. 21, 2019, that “The Fake News LameStream Media is doing everything possible the “create” a U.S. recession, even though the numbers & facts are working totally in the opposite direction. They would be willing to hurt many people, but that doesn’t matter to them. Our Economy is sooo strong, sorry!”
Meanwhile, the Dow fell 800 points the previous day when the US Treasury bonds reported an inverted curve, which means that long-term bonds have fewer returns as a short-term bond would.
This inverted curve has preceded recessions in America since the 1950s with 38% of economists predicting a 2020 recession and 34% predicting a 2021 recession.
Trump moved from lashing out at the media to his appointed Federal Reserve Chairmen, Jay Powell, saying:
Two days later Trump expressed his frustrations with the state of the trade war and slowing US economy when he tweeted comparing Powell and the Chinese Chairmen Xi Jinping to enemies of the United States.
This economic uncertainty may come from the current trade war that the United States is embroiled in with China which began after Trump made good on his 2016 campaign promise.
On March 1, 2018, the first tariff on steel and aluminum imports from China were imposed by Trump to “build our steel industry back and our aluminum industry back.”
The Chinese government responded by announcing a retaliatory tariff on US goods worth $50 billion. This was only the beginning of an ongoing trade war between the US and China. Currently, the United States is taxing 25% on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports and they are adding up to an additional 10% on existing tariffs.
The United Nations also is predicting a global economic slowdown this year with China’s predicted growth to slip to 6.3%, the United State’s predicted growth to 2.5% and Russia’s predicted growth to fall to 1.4%.
An ongoing trade war between two of the largest economies in the world in combination with the slowing of global economies and the Federal Reserve observing a common predecessor of a recession is newsworthy. The media reports on such news to keep the people aware of the state of the economy and what may be on the horizon for the citizens of the United States.
Fake News & the Scapegoat of Responsibility 