Exorbitant Tyranny
President Donald Trump said Jerome Powell should follow in the footsteps of Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler and resign from the central bank, ratcheting up his feud with the central bank chair.
“‘Too Late’ Powell should resign, just like Adriana Kugler, a Biden Appointee, resigned. She knew he was doing the wrong thing on Interest Rates. He should resign, also,” Trump said on social media.
- Trump Says Powell ‘Should Resign’ Like Fed Governor Kugler, Bloomberg
Gregg Wall (8-2-2025)
America’s long-standing allies, in Canada, Europe, and throughout the world, must be looking at Trump and the United States in an entirely new light. Trump, unable to shake his Epstein problem, has been on tear, attempting every maneuver to demonstrate he’s still in command, powerful, and remains unphased by reality and the growing concerns about his erratic behavior and governance. Just this week Trump slammed the EU with 15% tariffs, India with 25%, and Canada … a nation that America actually runs a trade surplus with (sans Canadian oil & gas) … with 35% tariffs. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to any of this, other than Trump is clearly angry and wants to look authoritarian. What’s new, as noted in Bloomberg, about the recent round of tariffs is Trump is calling out governments on their domestic, foreign, and internal affairs. Trump continues to attack Canada on the fiction that is fentanyl flowing through America’s northern border; Trump is upset with India over its oil trade with Russia; and Brazil and BRICS are receiving special attention for being… well, BRICS. Trump has gone into full megalomaniacal mode and is angry at the entire world, apparently for failing to recognize his greatness. Clearly, none of this is good for the United States, its economy, the American dollar, the nation’s relationships, and certainly not good for the American people, who will be paying for Trump’s glorious tariffs. The very same Americans that have been slammed by corporate greed, Wall St and monopoly price gouging, since Trump’s first term (starting late Winter/Spring 2020, as COVID hit).
America’s allies, many dependent upon the United States for defense and many with US troops… ahem, occupying their countries (see the EU, Germany, South Korea, and yes, the UK)… stare at their shoes, navel gaze, and go along with whatever Dictator Trump commands, no matter how deranged and harmful to international trade, their own nations, and the American economy. Given Trump’s highly erratic behavior, the stated goal of returning businesses and factories to US shores -- for Trump’s, Amerika’s Golden Age -- remains ever more remote. Businesses don’t want to deal with insanity. Why would they? It’s not healthy for profits. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are tapped out, unable to afford the basics, and the BLS reported & revised job creation numbers down significantly.
Trump is so over the top that Congress has fled for the summer – before they did something wild, like actually govern, and American courts are ignored by the Administration in one of three rulings. And what I like to call the fourth branch of government, the Federal Reserve, has come under a never-ending stream of Trump vitriol and personal attacks. Which brings us to exorbitant privilege. Many may wonder why the nations of the world would cower, eyes cast down, quiver like beaten dogs, praying - perhaps - the humiliation of Dictator Trump’s global reign of terror will soon end… which brings us to the source of Trump’s and America’s power. No, sorry… it’s not Trump’s brains, divine intellect, masterful powers of negotiation, or his elevated emotional intelligence. No Trump’s power comes from what has been referred to by many as exorbitant privilege and the role the U.S. dollar plays in global trade. Exorbitant privilege translates into the ability of the U.S. government to print money, seemingly endlessly, to pay a trillion plus per annum for a DOD & MIC that can’t be audited, to fund and finance the U.S. empire and place approximately 22,000 troops in South Korea, 55,000 in Japan, and 35,000 on German soil. Exorbitant privilege means endless war waged against the world on behalf of banks, defense contractors, multinationals, Big Oil & Gas, and Wall St. profits… it means the power to dictate and enforce economic sanctions, often as deadly as any standing army. Exorbitant privilege (EP)… being the global international currency … means America can throw its weight around the globe, seemingly with impunity and w/out repercussion.
Domestically, EP translates into a Congress that never has to budget (see Omnibus spending measures and CRs), it means seemingly endless Wall St bailouts, financed tax cuts for the rich… EP means a currency that props up and supports the failed libertarian economy, the deregulated, monopoly economy and the resulting fallout with greater and greater government spending. Whether or not the dollar will continue to support the ever-growing ranks of indigent Americans with Medicare and SNAP remains to be seen. EP, the stock market, and Wall St, along with deep pools of liquidity, have minted the world’s largest number of billionaires and the curse that comes with oligarchy. EP means hyper-financialization, private equity, zombie enterprises. EP papers over crisis after crisis without a spoiled American elite ever being held accountable for serial mismanagement or gross incompetence. Just have the Federal Reserve print up a couple of trillion… better make it four trillion… and it’s all good. EP means there’s no regrets, except from the American people, who have seen EP help ensure that the entire mirage of neoliberalism, supply-side, trickle-down, and the obscene transfer of taxpayer wealth continues on. Seemingly, without end. No other nation could get away with this, not for this length of time. EP funds the mafia state, all manner of corruption, and limitless lies. And what do Americans receive… the bill, the IOU, the national debt, some $41 trillion, including Trump’s first term bailout of Wall St. We get a dollar that has fallen 11% in value, during Trump's first six months in office.
EP guarantees endless socialism and state welfare for the 1%, and limitless bootstraps and poverty for the majority of Americans. The wealth transferred to billionaires and Wall St. by EP helps ensure that congress and the duopoly remain purchased and owned. It guarantees the oligarchy’s mandate, after every election, no matter which party wins. The American voter reduced to little more than a rubber stamp every other November.
EP has been very, very good for America’s friends and allies, until it’s not. EP means free defense; it means a juiced stock market for foreign heads of state and the global oligarchy to invest in. And as the BOC, BOE, ECB, and BOJ have adopted & maintained ultra-accommodative monetary policy, it means financialized economies throughout the West, it means money printing and financial engineering throughout the developed world, phony duopolies, rotted out deregulation, globalization, and neoliberalism reigns. EP means Uncle Sam is sitting by our allies’ side… forever the paternal partner, kind, and generous… until an ogre like Trump comes along and EP is no longer the world’s friend.
That’s when exorbitant privilege becomes a big, big problem. In the hands of a Trump exorbitant privilege becomes Exorbitant Tyranny. All the sudden those U.S. troops sitting in your country, the fact that the EU has no or limited military, and a maniacal Trump comes to power… and exorbitant privilege, more appropriately Exorbitant Tyranny, takes on a whole new meaning. Out of control Trump isn’t just America’s or the American people’s problem, he’s the world’s problem. So compromised and criminal, he’s capable of just about anything.
Perhaps it’s not such a good idea for one nation, one individual, particularly one so unhinged, to possess that kind of power??? Absolute power might go to one’s head, hence the demand for Jerome Powell's head. And trust me, I understand… who knew something seemingly so harmless, like fiat currency, in the hands of a madman… could be so dangerous? As an increasing number of Americans, at least the bottom 60%, suffer continuously under America’s political duopoly, who knew Exorbitant Tyranny could fund a genocide, where women and children are slaughtered daily with American bombs and technology, indeed – American dollars? Who knew Medicaid in America and USAID globally could be cut back significantly, in some cases shut off, by the whims of one individual and the oligarchy that supports the president? Ah yes, the oligarchy, what does all this say about the billionaire class that brought Trump to power? America’s friends and allies however, never seemed to care about any of this, as long as Dems and GOP leadership offered them a free ride on defense and were kind.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025
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