Elizabeth Warren warns that Trump may trigger economic meltdown
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm on what she says may be a coming economic meltdown. "Warning lights are flashing," she wrote in a blog post Monday.
Warren, who founded the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, warned of the housing market's volatility years before the country's latest financial crisis. But despite her clout in the field, it could prove difficult for her to sell voters on the idea that the economy is on the brink of disaster when most Americans feel confident about it.
Warren largely blames President Trump's economic and foreign policy decisions — like waging a trade war with China — and, citing top economists, she warns that if the administration breaches the debt ceiling in September, it could be more devastating to the economy than the collapse of Lehman Brothers was in 2008. Its failure resulted in what remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and was seen as one of the landmark moments in the global financial crisis.
Critics will note jobs reports have been strong during the Trump administration, but Warren is concerned with skyrocketing household debt, corporate debt and a Fed-designated manufacturing "recession."
Warren lawn signs read, "She's got a plan," and now, she says she has one to prevent her forecast of economic calamity from coming to pass. In the plan she released Monday, she says that as president, she would never breach the debt ceiling.
"Trade-war-by-tweet" with China would also not be a part of Warren's foreign policy, she wrote, with an oft-used jab at President Trump. She also promised to monitor and reduce leveraged corporate spending.
The remainder of Warren's plan amounts to a compilation of other policy proposals meant to help "working people" — including largely eliminating student debt, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, strengthening unions and a handful of other initiatives — that the Massachusetts senator has released since announcing her candidacy.
It illustrates the extent to which nearly every proposal or claim the Warren campaign makes is intertwined. But some may question why she didn't fully explain what she's portraying as a ticking time bomb before offering so many of its solutions.
"Whether it's this year or next year, the odds of another economic downturn are high — and growing," Warren wrote.
